Playboy Surgeon, Top-Notch Dad

His hand fell away from her face. “That was an accident.”

“Exactly. Which proves my point.” She jabbed his chest with her finger. “You can’t stop accidents from happening. Taking her out in a boat is tempting fate.”

“Because of Chris?”

“Because sailing is dangerous.”

“You know this because you’ve spent a lot of time on a boat?”

“I know this because…because…” Because Chris had died during a sailing accident.

“Addy loved being out in the boat. She’s a natural-born sailor.”

Blair lifted her chin defiantly. “No, she isn’t.”

“You’re being unreasonable,” he pointed out. “If Chris had died in a car accident, you wouldn’t forbid Addy from riding in a car.”

“He didn’t die in a car accident.”

He sighed. “I’m trying to make a point, Blair. Be logical.”

“Be logical?” Was he kidding? Her whole world was turning upside down and he wanted her to be logical. Glaring, she told him where he could go and it wasn’t anyplace nice.

She hit his wrist, hard, and, catching him unawares, knocked his finger away from the door closed button. The elevator door slid open.

Head held high, Blair stormed out of the elevator, ignoring the curious onlookers who’d been impatiently waiting.

Two weeks had passed since Dr Talbot’s hospital admission. Having received timely treatment, Dr T was recovering quite nicely and was in better spirits than he’d been prior to his admission.

“What are you looking so gloomy about, boy?”

No wonder Dr T asked. Oz had been staring unseeingly out the hospital room window for Lord only knew how long.

“I’m going home today,” Dr T reminded him, pushing up on his hospital bed pillow. “That’s cause for celebration.”

Dr T was right. His going home was cause for celebration. Actually, the man looked better than he had in weeks. Oz only hoped his improved health wasn’t the calm before the storm.

Still, his friend’s smile was enough to pull one out of Oz, too.

“You’re right. Your going home is cause for celebration. Although Stephanie’s wound tight about your fund-raiser tomorrow night, she’ll still manage to pull together something to mark your coming home.”

“Figured she would.” The old man gave him an ominous look. “Blair and Addy going to be there tonight or are you two still avoiding each other?”

Blair was adamantly avoiding him. The first week, she’d taken leave from work to sit with Dr T. Canceling the surgeries on schedule could mean loss of lives. Oz hadn’t been able to reconcile that with his conscience, so he’d continued to work, another nurse filling in for Blair. At night, instead of going home, he’d slept in Dr T’s room. Which left him and Blair on alternating shifts. Scarcely speaking.

When she had returned to work this week, she’d only said the bare minimum to him.

He’d tried to talk to her, but she’d shut him down, telling him she’d made a horrible mistake thinking they could be friends and that things were better this way.

Better for who? Certainly not him.

He looked like hell. If he hadn’t already known, Kanesha had kindly pointed out the fact to him, telling him to go home and get some sleep or he wasn’t going to get a single bid at Dr T’s auction. Like he cared. He’d match whatever the highest bid was and be done with it. He’d never wanted to be auctioned off in the first place and had only agreed because of Blair.

Dr T’s hired nurse, Angie, would be at the house tonight to sit with him, but Oz doubted he’d sleep much for worrying about the older man’s first night home. For worrying about how his friend would hold up to attend his fund-raiser. Both his oncologist and his primary care provider had okayed the excursion, but Oz worried it was too soon for him to be undertaking such an outing.

“Son?” Dr T prompted. “You ready to talk about what happened between you and Blair?”

“Not really.” Oz sighed. He hadn’t told Dr T that anything had happened between him and Blair. He doubted she had. But their friend was no fool. They’d gone from cozy to barely speaking. “She’s upset with me.”