My Boyfriend and Friends Stole My Heart Surgery Fund for Their Trip novel · Chapter 17 of 32

Chapter 17: The Retired Attending

Lorcan's POV

The attending lived in a yellow house at the end of a gravel road, ninety minutes from the city.

I had not seen him in nine years.

That morning I had called the cardiac ICU charge nurse about Bree's flowers.

No deliveries, no vendors, and nobody past the desk without a name on my list.

It was the only part of the week I could lock.

On Wednesday afternoon I sat in my car in front of his porch for ten minutes with the engine off, and Moss lay across the back seat and watched me through the mirror.

"I know," I told him.

Then I got out.

His daughter opened the door, a nurse in a fleece vest, with her father's jaw.

"He doesn't take visitors," she said.

"I think he'll take me."

She looked at me for a moment and stepped aside.

He was in a recliner by the window with a blanket across his knees and an oxygen line under his nose.

He was seventy-six and had the best hands I ever trained under.

He looked at me without any welcome at all.

"Hartigan," he said. "You've gotten gray."

"I've gotten tired."

"Sit."

I sat on the edge of the sofa.

"I came to ask you about Vicky Merrow's mother," I said.

He didn't answer.

The oxygen machine in the corner clicked and sighed.

"You were there," he said, finally. "Why are you asking me?"

"Because I never asked you, and I should have. Because I'm about to operate on her daughter tomorrow morning, and I'm filing a statement tonight, with your name in it or without."

His daughter put a hand over her mouth in the doorway.

"The clamp," I said. "The shortcut. You took it because we were behind. I told you it wasn't right, and you told me to hold the retractor."

"I remember what I said."

"I'd like you to say it on paper."

He looked out the window for a long time.

"They offered me a year of quiet retirement if I kept my mouth shut," he said. "I took it. It was a very good year."

← Chapter 16 · All chapters · Chapter 18 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend