Page 17 of Dr. Scandal Claus

"Let me rub your back and feet," he said, and I melted again.

Before he could see the weight I was carrying I crawled into bed and lay on my stomach. Nick was so perfect and I was such an idiot for being so afraid of that stupid scandal eight years ago. He deserved better than me. I was the worst human alive. And I was only making things worse for both of us when it all came out later.

Because it was going to end up coming out one way or another.

Wouldn't the town have a heyday with that?

12

NICK

Ethan sat on the exam table with his arms crossed over his chest, his hands fisted in his armpits. He was angry and I felt sad for him. Scarlett had pulled him from basketball tryouts after seeing him having a hard time breathing while running. It was the right call, though a seven-year-old would never understand that.

"So here's a new prescription…" I scrawled the medication and dosage on the prescription pad and tore the sheet off. "You can give this to the nurse at the counter out front and they'll call it in for you, or you can take that over to the pharmacy." My eyes met Scarlett's gaze. She was feeling worried and depressed and those emotions rode over her beautiful hazel eyes.

"Thank you," she said softly. Her pouty lips were glossed and looking kissable, but we remained professional for now. Though, the past three weekends had been anything but. We'd spent Fridays and Saturdays melding our lives together. I didn't know how she managed to stay up after Ethan's bedtime to spend time with me and still wake around three in the morning to start baking.

"Ethan, why don't you run out to the desk and get some candy. I need to speak to your mom for a minute." The typical ending to our weekly appointments didn't even faze him. He sat there with his legs swinging and a scowl on his face.

"I don't want candy. I want to play basketball." With his shoulders slumped he looked smaller than ever.

"I know, buddy, but you have to be healthy first, okay?" Scarlett lifted him off the table and set him on the floor and he shook his head and scowled at her, but he obediently walked to the door and left the room.

The door was scarcely shut before she leaned into me and wrapped her arms around my chest. Her head lay on my shoulder and she sighed.

"It's going to be okay, Scarlett. This is all par for the course. We dial in a medication that works for him, do more testing, and eventually we'll strike a balance. If we don't, we pursue surgical options." My arms came around her body and I held her while she relaxed against me.

"This Holter monitor thing…" She tensed as she spoke. "How long will he wear it? And what will it tell us?" Her head craned backward so she could look at my face and I was tempted to steal a kiss, but I saw the fear in her eyes.

"It's perfectly safe, and since we're spending a lot of time together, I'll be able to make sure he's wearing it correctly. It'll give us real-time data about what's happening when he's having episodes. He'll wear it at least seventy-two hours or up to a week if he has no episodes.

She seemed to relax a little as I explained but she didn't turn her face away, so I did steal a kiss. It was soft and gentle, and I could tell she wanted more. When she pulled back she said, "I'm worried about this, Nick. I know you're a heart doctor so you deal with this stuff all the time. But I'm just a baker and a mom.I'm not cut out for the level of emotion needed to get through this."

I saw the fear in her eyes and reached up and brushed some hair off her cheek with my thumb. "I'll get you through it, okay? You just have to trust me. Bring him in later this week and we'll get stuff set up." I tried my best to be encouraging to her, but there were still things niggling away at me too. She was right about one thing: I did have to deal with sick patients all the time, but I rarely dealt with pediatric patients.

My specialty typically handled older patients or those with chronic conditions. Ethan was the youngest patient I'd ever had, and with a sketchy medical history—only half presented due to Scarlett's seemingly runaway partner—I only had half the information to go on.

"Alright," she hummed, "I trust you…"

"Now, let's just think about this weekend. You and I are going to enjoy our time alone and if you don't find a sitter, I'll just come watch a movie with you and Ethan like we did two weeks ago." Even Ethan was getting more used to seeing me around the apartment. He acted comfortable around me, especially considering there was no male role model in his life. It did make me think of his father and why a man would leave his child like that, but Scarlett hadn't really opened up about it.

"Sounds perfect." She pressed a kiss to my lips again and then said, "Thank you for being so amazing and supportive. I really appreciate your heart."

The kind words felt warm as they curled around my heart. It was so good to have someone in my life speaking positivity instead of all the negative criticism and gossip that typically floated around me. I was certain it was still there, but the magic buffer of Scarlett's kindness seemed to mute the racket and separate me from it all.

I kissed her goodbye and watched her walk out, and for a moment I stood there thinking of what a fool I was for thinking Fiona's affection for me was ever real. Never once had she said kind things to me like that. I'd never been more than a pawn to her and now I knew that. Now I knew what a real relationship was supposed to feel like.

I left the exam room and walked to my office. I had no more patients today, but Scarlett had to get Ethan to the sitter and go back to the bakery. She'd told me how her right-hand woman, Nellie, was stressed and a bit frustrated by her absence at times. I wanted to ask her to play hooky and the three of us—her, Ethan and myself—could go to dinner. But I had to respect that she ran her own business.

So I sank into my chair behind my desk and woke my laptop up. The sun streaming in the windows behind me made it hard to see the screen properly so I closed the blinds, and then I dug in. Scarlett's DNA results came back negative. She wasn't a carrier of the five most common gene mutations related to this condition, which meant Ethan hadn't inherited it from her.

My eyes pored over the results. I read and reread the findings, then cross checked things in my medical books and even began researching on the internet. Without knowing the exact mutation Ethan inherited, the likelihood of us being able to definitively diagnose and treat his specific form of HCM was slimmer than it should be.

I sat back in my seat and ran a hand through my hair, imagining a young twenty-year-old Scarlett, bright and bustling in culinary school, preparing for life as a baker or chef. It would've been around the same time she and I met, around the time I'd been going through that scandal. She was a bit wild back then, and I'd eaten that frenetic energy up.

While I would never say a negative thing about her, I could easily see how she might have had more than one sexual partnerat the time. She was so young, and a lot of college students are busy exploring their sexuality. That was probably the reason we'd been so drawn to each other.

I sighed and closed my eyes, locking my fingers together on the top of my head as I leaned as far back in my chair as I could. My shoulders released tension and my mind went to a weird place. The thought that Ethan could actually be my son popped into my head, but I immediately dismissed it. If that were the case Scarlett would've brought it up. She'd have asked me for a DNA test, or told me there was a possibility. And while she hadn't been exactly forthcoming about things—only saying Ethan's dad was a one-night stand who wasn't in the picture—I knew she'd never lie to me.