Only the moment I step outside, the warm sunshine raining down on my face, I regret fleeing so hastily.
“I called the hospital and they told me it was your day off,” Tony says, stepping out from the side of the building and marching determinedly in my direction. He’s dressed in a blue button-down and khaki slacks, a bouquet of roses in his hand. Him with those fucking roses. How did I spend the last three years with a man who doesn’t even know that roses aren’t my favorite flower? How did I allow myself to sacrifice so much while receiving so little in return?
“What are you doing here, Tony?”
“It was your birthday yesterday. I came by to see you. Only Carter threatened to perform a total hysterectomy on me, anatomy be damned.”
I shouldn’t be grinning at that, but I am. Carter never even mentioned it and I’m grateful for that. It likely would have ruined my birthday.
“I hand-delivered my present to you. I wanted to see your face when you opened them. You did get them, right? He didn’t throw the rings down the disposal or anything?”
“No. Carter gave me the rings.” Though I thought they were delivered by courier, not by Tony. “They’re still sitting in the box they came in.”
“And yet you have a new one on your finger,” he snarls. “Who gave you that?”
I glance down, staring at the ring Carter gave me, one meant for health and fitness but still a ring. Something that is often associated with possession even if it’s on the wrong finger. Is that why he gave this to me? No. Carter wouldn’t have even considered that angle.
Funny how this simple ring—purchased with thought and purpose—means more to me than the engagement ring and wedding band combined. Tony doesn’t know me, I realize. I’m not sure he ever did. He has no clue what makes me tick. What I love and what I don’t. What makes me smile and what makes me frown.
Somehow Carter seems to. A man who, by all accounts, shouldn’t. He’s figured me out because he pays attention. Because he… cares?
“Grace?” Tony snaps, dragging me out of my thoughts.
I look back up at him, seeing him with a clarity I wish I had had years ago. “You should go. In fact, you should have never come.”
“Grace,” he starts, softening his tone and approach, taking another step, his eyes all over me. “I got rid of those women. I told them I was in love with my fiancée. That I was ready to set a date and marry her. That losing her because I was reckless and egotistical and stupid was the worst mistake I’ve ever made. Please. Please, don’t give up on me. I swear, you’re it for me. I’ll do whatever it takes. I’ll never look at another woman again. You’re all I want. All I’ll ever want.”
“Tony, I—”
“She’s not interested,” Carter says, cutting me off.
My eyes expand to the size of Fenway Park when I feel his hand slip along my waist. Tony’s are the opposite, the thinnest of narrow slits he’s practically Voldemort hissing parseltongue at us and cursing Carter’s life. If Tony had a wand in his hand, Carter would be dead for sure.
“In fact,” Carter continues nonchalantly. “You should know Grace belongs to me now.”
What in the actual fuck does Carter Fritz think he’s doing? My first instinct is to go all She-Ra Princess of Power on his ass and say I belong to no man, but the look on Tony’s face is holding my tongue.
“No,” Tony declares assertively, shaking his head. “She can’t stand you. All she’s done for a year is shit talk you.”
Well that’s certainly not something I want my attending to hear. Especially when it’s not entirely true. Sure, I shit talked Carter—some of it to his face even. But it wasn’t him exactly as much as the whole low on the totem pole attending making their resident’s life hell dynamic thing.
Carter chuckles but it’s the sort of chuckle that promises I’ll pay for that at a later time. Awesome. Because my nightmare isn’t quite complete yet. This is what I get for throwing myself at my boss. Lines that shouldn’t get blurred get blurred.
“Be that as it may,” Carter replies coolly. “It doesn’t change the reality of our new situation. Grace is with me and you’re a cheating piece of shit who lost out because he couldn’t keep his stupid dick in his pants.” Tony opens his mouth, but Carter advances a step, raising his hand and cutting Tony off. “I’m going to make this insanely simple for you. Grace has already told you to fuck off and now I’m doing the same. But if you continue to deliver a ring she’s already returned to you, a ring she wants no part of, or even show up at our place of residence or business again, I will have no choice but to lodge a formal complaint. As an attorney, I’m sure you’re fully aware of the ramifications of what any sort of public registry of harassment could do to your chances of making partner.”
Tony looks like he was just sideswiped by a car.
“Grace?” he questions and really? How can he actually question me right now? Because Carter might be talking out of his ass about us, but he’s right that I’ve told Tony—more than once or twice now—that I’m done.
“It’s over, Tony.”
“You’re actually with him?” Tony points to Carter. “Already? How could you? We were engaged for a year and a half!”
Yep. That right there was part of our problem, but routine and comfort lead to complacency. That part is on me, I guess.
“Take care of yourself, Tony,” I say instead of anything else because I’m not all that great of a liar and he’d likely see through it. “Soon you’ll agree this was always the way it was supposed to be.”
With Carter’s hand still on my waist, he turns us around and we start walking away, up toward the main street. We’re silent and I can’t decide if I’m pissed at him or not. At the very least, I think it’s safe to say Tony is finally out of my life for good. Of course, I have to get the damn rings back to him, but that’s the easy part.
“Are you pissed?” Carter finally asks as we turn the corner by the movie theater, the sidewalk busy with Sunday Boston hustle.
“I’m trying to figure that out.”
“Want me to take you out for brunch while you decide?”
A wry smirk unerringly fixes itself to my lips as I look up at him. “I was going to go for a run.”
“But you’re hungry. We’ll run into work tomorrow.”
“Just like that?”
He smiles, his brown eyes lightening. “Just like that. You didn’t want last night to change us. So we’re not letting it. You can pick a fight with me tomorrow when you see your assignment.”
“My assignment?”
“You didn’t think I’d let that whole talking shit about me for a year thing go did you?” He winks at me, setting off in the direction of that breakfast place I liked so much. Knowing full well I’ll follow him—especially if he’s buying. But damn him. He won this round, and the smug bastard knows it.
20
“I hate Carter in the springtime,” I grumble-sing under my breath as I leave a patient room, heading down the hall toward the nurses’ station. “I hate Carter in the fall.”