The Doctor's Undoing (Doctors in Training 3)

“A woman. Almost flattened the twerp. Of course, she was suspended. I heard he was told to be nicer to the staff, but since there was no real consequence to his behavior, he paid no attention.”

“I hate to think he’s going to be treating patients.”

“Yeah. Treating them like garbage. But there’s nothing we can do about it.”

“You should report his behavior to someone. Surely someone cares that he’s acting that way.”

“Honey, he’s probably been reported a million times. No one cares as long as he keeps doing the job. Which he does. The lousy thing is, he’s a good surgeon. Might even be great one day if no one breaks his fingers first.”

“Talent is no excuse to treat other people with so much disrespect. My resident’s a good surgeon, too, but he’s decent to people. I’ve only heard him snap a few times, usually when it was warranted, and always followed by an apology when it wasn’t justified.”

“Yeah, Singer would probably choke before he’d get an apology out. Which wouldn’t be such a bad thing, considering.” Ron dropped a kiss on top of her head, then said lightly, “Oh, well, just two more weeks on this team and then I can move on to the next block. If I get lousy evaluations, whatever. I don’t want to go into surgery, anyway.”

She frowned, still suspecting he was interested in pursuing hematology and oncology. “You’re going to just let them say whatever they want about you without even trying to defend yourself?”

“No get-in-there-and-fight lectures tonight, okay, Haley? I’m just too tired for a locker-room talk right now.”

She straightened abruptly away from him. “I’m only trying to help. What if Singer’s spitefulness somehow does cause you problems in the future?”

“Then I’ll deal with it. Don’t worry so much about it.”

“Just try to get along with him, okay?”

He lifted an eyebrow. “I’ll handle it.”

He was starting to sound annoyed, and she bit back any more expressions of concern that he seemed to be so nonchalant about the possibility that his unpleasant resident would hurt his résumé. Maybe he was right, maybe one ill-tempered resident and one uncaring attending wouldn’t cause much trouble for Ron. But that didn’t mean he should just give up and say there was nothing he could do about it.

Irked with him for not listening to her, she shrugged. “Fine. It’s your career.”

“Exactly.”

Scowling, she pushed herself off the couch and stalked toward the kitchen to pour herself a cup of coffee. She intended to spend the rest of the evening studying. If Ron wanted to join her, fine. If not—that was his business, too.

Chapter Eight

Maybe it was because Ron was having such a difficult time in his rotation, but Haley sensed a new distance between them as the long Thanksgiving weekend approached. It was a tough rotation for both of them. The hours were long and the work demanding. They didn’t even try to spend much time together during those weeks. It was simply easier when they weren’t working to go to their individual apartments and get as much rest as possible, taking every free waking moment as an opportunity to study and prepare for the following day.

Maybe Ron’s tension had nothing at all to do with her, Haley tried to reassure herself. Maybe it was due to his problems with his resident and his concerns about doing well in the challenging rotation. Maybe he was just tired.

He certainly looked exhausted on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving when they managed to grab an hour to have lunch together in the hospital cafeteria. They’d talked shop during the meal, staying away from personal issues in such a public venue. At least, the conversation didn’t get personal until Ron indirectly brought up the looming holiday, a topic they had yet to discuss.

“At least we’ll have a couple days off after tomorrow,” he muttered, wearily massaging the back of his neck with one hand as he pushed his empty soup bowl away with the other. “I plan to sleep for at least ten straight hours, if I can manage it. And after that, I won’t have to work with Singer ever again, if I’m lucky.”

She frowned. “You are going home for Thanksgiving, aren’t you?”

She had simply assumed that he would dine with his family that day, as she would with her own. It didn’t seem odd to her that neither had extended an invitation to the other; their relationship was hardly at the spend-holidays-with-the-families stage.

But he shook his head with a slight shrug. “My family never made a big deal out of Thanksgiving. Dad’s always at his deer camp that whole long weekend. He doesn’t expect me to join him. He knows I’ve never been much of a hunter—just one of many disappointments for him when it comes to me.”

“What about your mother?”

“She goes to her sister’s house for Thanksgiving. My aunt Belinda, who can’t stand my dad and isn’t too crazy about any of the rest of us. She’s been warming up to me a little since I started medical school—she likes the idea of having a doctor nephew—but let’s just say I’d prefer to keep our relationship the way it’s always been. A distant one.”

She moistened her lips. “So what are you going to do for Thanksgiving?”

His smile was probably intended to be reassuring. “I just told you. I’m going to sleep in, watch some football, maybe order a pizza. And for one entire day, I’m not even going to open a medical textbook. It’ll be great.”

She struggled internally while she gathered her dishes. And then the words tumbled out of her. “Why don’t you join my family for Thanksgiving dinner? I’m sure my parents would be delighted to have you.”