The Reluctant Romantics Box Set (The Fall, The Mind, The Heart)

I laughed out and Beatrice grumbled under her breath about being too far gone to listen to good advice. It had been two weeks since he’d brought me back to his house and I’d barely left. I had finally agreed to bring over a few changes of clothes and had only slept in my own bed once…and alone. The rest of the time, we made it work between our mad schedules. I was working endless hours in oncology, and when I wasn’t working with cases of my own I was studying old cases similar to the ones I was diagnosing. I was making progress and Dean had kept his promise to me by taking only the time I had to spare. He listened to my recap each day with interest, telling me about his own. I could only hope it remained another one of the reasons for the extra spring in my step. The deep gash in my chest seemed to be healing as the days passed. I knew eventually I would have questions I wanted answers to, but for now, I was happy with simply filling in the blanks.

The other half of my heart had returned it seemed, blazing a trail into the center of my universe, not suffocating any part of me, as I feared. Dean only made my world brighter and better with each step we took together, and toward each other.

Today I had lunch to look forward to. Cammie, my old college roommate—who also roomed with me my first two years of medical school—was coming to see me for the first time since she moved to Oklahoma. She had signed on with her father’s practice in Oklahoma City and we hadn’t been able to see each other much since our trip after graduation. I greeted her with a hug in the cafeteria. We had agreed to have lunch in the hospital. I wanted to talk to her before I reintroduced her to Dean. She sat with her salad, eyeing the people around us. We made small talk and she told me about her life in Oklahoma and how she was seriously thinking of joining me at Dallas Memorial. We discussed the possibility of her joining my practice in the next few years.

“So…any hotties here?”

“A few,” I answered vaguely.

“Oh shit, someone new? Since Josh?”

“Kind of,” I said on a smile. “I want you to be happy for me, okay? So promise me you will hear me out.”

“He comes with a warning? This can’t be good.” Cammie had always been a bit leery of the opposite sex. She had no problem entertaining them, but had absolutely zero tolerance for bullshit, which made her list of exes a long list. I had always admired her for it, and at the same time, it made me dread this conversation all the more. I opened my mouth to speak when I was cut off.

“Hello, ladies. Wow, is that you Cammie?” I stiffened upon hearing Dean’s voice. Cammie’s smile faded instantly as she looked up and she saw Dean giving her a shit-eating grin. I braced myself.

“What in the fuck is he doing here?” She gave me an expectant look and I shook my head. Cammie brushed her box-colored auburn hair out of her eyes and glared at Dean.

“Dean, give us a minute?” I looked up to see a stunned look on his face. He wasn’t use to this kind of reception. I hadn’t expected them to run into each other at all. Dean had told me he was on his way to an appointment when we spoke just before I met up with her.

“Is this who you are seeing?” She leaned back in her seat, crossing her arms, her face reddening with anger. I started to panic as words failed me. This wasn’t supposed to happen. I was going to talk to her at lunch to test the waters, and then possibly invite her for drinks later. I could see now it was a grave error in judgment. Waves of anger rolled off of her as she looked between Dean and I for a long minute. I saw her resolve take shape as she turned her attention to me.

“Are you out of your fucking mind? Do you not remember! Or should I remind you?”

I looked up at Dean, who was shifting his attention to me with a question in his eyes.

“Dean, I’ll see you later, okay? Just let me talk to Cammie.”

“I’m sorry. I’m not following what is going on here,” he said apologetically to Cammie, taking a seat next to us.

“Of course you aren’t,” she said dryly. “Please, Dallas, please tell me you aren’t really doing this.”

“Cammie,” I begged softly and looked back to Dean who refused to leave. “Dean, please go.”

“Do you want to tell him or should I?” I whipped my attention to Cammie and saw the inevitable confrontation on her face. She had no intention of backing down.

“Cammie, let it go,” I warned, my voice deadly. I felt the fire spread in my chest as my limbs trembled from her threat.

“No fucking way,” she seethed. “No way, Dallas. You can’t keep pretendin—”

“Let it go!” I yelled, grabbing the attention of everyone in the cafeteria. “Please,” I begged softly.

“No,” she said quietly, glaring at Dean. “He needs to know.” I watched as she turned to Dean with as much hate rolling off her as I’d ever seen from her 5’3” frame. “She miscarried your baby four months after you left for Columbia.”

Dean shot back in his seat, disbelief covering his features.

Cammie continued, not at all fazed by my threatening posture or Dean’s reaction. “The morning after her college graduation, I found her curled up on your beloved fraternity steps. She was damn near hypothermic from freezing to death, waiting for you! She still believed you would come! Oh and then there’s the Adderall freak out. Did you tell him about that?”

“Jesus Christ, Dallas!” Dean boomed. I stood quickly in an attempt to flee the scene unfolding.

“How could you do this to me?” I said hoarsely, tears streaming down my face as I glared at my friend. She had every right to hate him. Cammie exclusively had every right to not want him around me. She was all I had when he left, the only one I had let in. She had dealt with the complete mess I became when Dean left. She suffered with me the loss of the baby, the death of me when I’d returned from New York, and everything else leading up to the last straw three years later, the night I graduated college.

She kept her voice down, though the damage was done. “You wouldn’t let me call your parents or your sister. You wouldn’t even let me call him and this is the asshole responsible!”

“For what I did to myself?” I said, trying to reason with her. Dean was staring at me, but I avoided it. I couldn’t let him see me like this. I felt the anger take over in that moment. I welcomed it.

“Thanks for the visit, Cammie. Don’t be a stranger.” I didn’t bother looking at Dean as he stood up next to me and I walked quickly away from the table.