The Doctor's Undoing (Doctors in Training 3)

The others laughed again, but Haley was notably un-amused.

“I think you’re all underestimating the commitment it has taken for Ron to get as far as he has,” she said firmly, unable to keep quiet any longer.

Ron gave a slightly muffled groan, which he knew she heard, but she swept on.

“Ron had to finish college with a grade point average in the top ten percent of his entire class. He had to study for and take the six-hour-long MCAT, and earn a score high enough to get him an interview for medical school—which he did. He had to make a good enough impression on his college professors so that they would write excellent recommendation letters for him—which they did. And then he had to do well in his medical school interviews to be accepted over quite a few who were turned away.”

“He was an alternate, wasn’t he?” Deb asked with a slight shrug.

Ron saw the rare temper leap into Haley’s amber eyes, but she appeared to make an effort to bank it.

“He was still one of the select students chosen to start medical school immediately after earning his bachelor’s degree. Since then, he’s made it through two and a half grueling, relentless, horribly difficult years of lectures and memorization and exams and evaluations. He did well in his classes, he passed Step 1 of the licensure process on his first attempt, and he has excelled in clinical rotations. He even saved another child from choking at the ballpark a few months ago. I don’t know how close your little Kenny was to choking, but that other little boy was already turning blue by the time Ron took over.”

“Kenny was turning blue, too, remember, Deb?” Carolyn looked at her youngest son as if seeing him in a slightly different light. He didn’t delude himself that Haley was actually changing the way his family viewed him, but he appreciated her words, anyway.

“He was, a little,” Deb conceded. “I thanked you at the time for what you did for him, if you’ll remember, Ron.”

Ron shrugged self-consciously. “He’s my nephew, Deb. Of course I was going to do whatever I could to help him.”

Grinning behind his scruffy five-o’clock shadow, Mick nodded toward Haley. “This one’s got your back, bro. Better hang on to her.”

“I’m doing my best,” Ron replied as Haley fell quiet beside him again.

He didn’t add that hanging on to Haley was probably another challenge that would prove to be too much for him.

A few minutes later, Ron stood and walked to the window, looking out at the sky. The rain had subsided some, and the winds were calmer. A low rumble of thunder sounded occasionally, following distant flashes of lightning, but he thought maybe the storm was easing. There were still tornado watches between here and Little Rock, but most of the really bad weather seemed to be west of them. TV forecasters predicted another round of storms to hit central Arkansas during the night, but Ron thought they had just enough time to get home before it all began again.

“We’d better leave while we’ve got a break in the weather,” he said, glancing toward the moving radar on the television screen. Green bands of rain striped the western half of the state, all moving this way, but there were no active tornado warnings at the moment. They were probably going to hit some downpours on the way home, but his all-wheel-drive car was dependable on wet roads, despite his dad’s derision of the model.

His mother protested, of course.

“Let ’em go, Carolyn,” her husband ordered. “They don’t need to be out too late in this weather.”

Conceding the point, she bit back any further arguments.

Mick helped Ron carry his gifts out to the car. They came back in shaking off water droplets and earning another reprimand from their mother.

“Thanks, Mick.”

His brother nodded. “I’ll see you when I see you, bro. Good luck with your cabinet exam.”

“Shelf exam.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

Ron shook his brother’s hand. “Take care of yourself.”

He turned to hug his sister. “Kiss the boys for me when they wake up. Sorry I can’t stay to visit them longer, but I’d like to get Haley home before those storms fire up again, if I can.”

While his brother and sister told Haley how much they’d enjoyed meeting her, and bade her to join them again sometime, Ron shook Luis’s hand. “Hope you know what you’re getting yourself into, Luis.”

The older man smiled. “I’ve got a pretty good idea. Deb’s worth it.”

“Take care of her and my nephews.”

“I will.”

Ron felt the familiar tension in the back of his neck when he turned to his father. He’d spent his entire life trying to please his dad, and always feeling as if he fell short. “See you, Dad. Thanks for the gifts.”