The Doctor's Undoing (Doctors in Training 3)

Carolyn took the offered basket with a light of anticipation in her blue eyes, though she shook her head with a cluck of her tongue. “Dad and I don’t need all this candy on our diets, but it was nice of you to think of us, Haley. Y’all come in.”

“They’ll eat and enjoy every piece of it,” Ron murmured into Haley’s ear as they followed his mother into the living room. “That was her idea of expressing gratitude.”

She didn’t have a chance to respond.

Two men sat in recliners facing the television in the living room, one younger, one older, both holding cans of beer. Another man sat on the worn couch next to a blonde who had to be Ron’s sister, judging from the resemblance. Two little boys—maybe five and three—played on the carpeted floor in one corner of the room beneath a colorfully decorated Christmas tree.

Only one of the men stood when Haley entered, the dark-haired, dark-eyed man from the couch. With his Hispanic coloring and features, it was obvious that he was not Ron’s brother.

Carolyn harrumphed loudly. “Don’t you guys see we have a guest? Get up and introduce yourself, Mick. You, too, T.L.”

Dutifully, the other men lowered the footrests of their recliners and rose to their feet, though Haley noticed the older man looked reluctant to tear his eyes from the football game.

“Everyone, this is Ron’s girlfriend, Haley Wright. Don’t expect Ron to introduce you to her. Haley, this is my husband, T.L., our son, Mick, our daughter, Debra and her boyfriend, Luis Rodriguz—”

“Ramirez,” Deb corrected with a sigh.

Her mother ignored her. “And Deb’s sons, Kenny and Bryce, are back there playing with their trucks.”

“It’s nice to meet everyone,” Haley assured them with a smile. “Please sit back down, I don’t want to keep you from your game.”

Nodding in approval, Ron’s father immediately took his seat again.

“I brought some gifts to put under the tree, Mom,” Ron said, hefting the bulging bag.

She nodded. “Put them under, then. We’ll open gifts after lunch, since Deb won’t be coming back for Christmas Day.”

The broad hint of accusation in the comment made her daughter sigh again.

Having arranged the gifts beneath the tree, Ron came back around to shake Luis’s hand. “Nice to meet you, Luis. I didn’t realize Deb was seeing anyone.”

“That’s why I wanted to come this weekend.” Deb flashed her left hand, revealing a sparkle of diamond. “Luis and I are getting married. Sometime next summer, probably. I’ve already told everyone else.”

“Yeah? Welcome to the family, Luis.” Ron shook his hand again, then turned to brush a kiss across his sister’s cheek. “I hope you’ll be very happy together, Deb.”

“Now that everyone’s finally here, we can go ahead and eat before the food gets cold,” Carolyn announced from the doorway. “T.L., turn off that TV and come to the dining room. You’re saying the blessing.”

“Why don’t you say the blessing this time?” T.L. argued, though he climbed to his feet again.

“Don’t start with me,” his wife told him with a shake of her finger. “This is as close as a family Christmas as we’re going to get this year, since Deb’s determined to spend the holiday in Florida. Least you can do is say the blessing.”

“Looks like we’re going to eat now,” Ron murmured to Haley, placing a hand at her back to escort her to the dining room.

Giving him a “behave yourself” look, she followed the crowd.

During the noisy, rather chaotic meal, she saw some of the issues Ron had warned her about. Carolyn was a chronic complainer, seemingly incapable of being completely satisfied with anything. Her rather taciturn husband, a thicker, more weathered version of Ron, made a habit of tuning her out except to occasionally complain back at her. Deb, a thinner, more finely honed clone of her mother, had a chip on her shoulder that Haley could almost see, as if daring anyone to offend her—which seemed to happen on a fairly regular basis.

Mick, an odd mixture of both his parents, sported a thinning ponytail and several prominent tattoos. He seemed to be an observer, sitting back and watching everyone else while he ate, his thoughts hard to read. Occasionally he made a wry observation or told an amusing anecdote about his life on the road.

Ron had implied that Mick had a temper. That wouldn’t surprise Haley. She suspected he’d have to in the rough-and-tumble life he seemed to favor. She sensed a lot of tension between Mick and his parents. Had he chosen a life on the road to get away from that tension, or was it caused by the path he’d taken? Maybe a little of both.

There was love here, she reflected, eating the excellent, country-style food and watching Ron’s family try so hard to interact with each other. But it was masked in habitual bickering and criticism, clouded by the haze of beer and smothered beneath years of hurt. No one mentioned the missing member of the family, but even Haley felt his absence, and she’d never met Tommy.

Most of the initial conversation centered around Deb’s engagement, Carolyn’s trials in her job as a middle-school secretary and the stories Mick told about his life on the road. Ron participated, as she tried to do when it seemed appropriate, but she noted that there were few questions about his life. Maybe because the others just didn’t know what to ask about medical school?

They certainly didn’t hold back on their criticism of him. He didn’t call enough, didn’t visit enough. His dad wanted to know why he’d bought the particular vehicle he was driving.

“Because I needed a new one and I got a good deal on that one from a friend’s brother,” Ron replied.