Paul was tired. He was tired of lying down. He was tired of waiting around.
He felt no tingling in his toes. No hot and cold sensations in his legs. All the sensation was in his heart. His heart beat so fiercely, so rapidly that Paul was certain it was going to burst out of his chest. Maybe that would make Madison come back sooner.
With a glance up at the door, he saw that that wasn’t happening. Paul was done waiting. He hefted his left leg up. With a grunt, he slid it off the edge of the hospital bed. It took an effort to keep his balance, but he managed. Finally, he was able to swing his right leg over the side of the bed.
He looked down to confirm that his toes were touching the cold ground. They were. But he felt nothing.
He felt nothing in his feet. Nothing in his legs. Nothing in his chest… except an ache.
Madison hadn’t come back to his room last night. He hadn’t seen her at all this morning. He had no clue what her fate had been with her boss.
Was she kicked off his case? Was she still employed at the hospital? What if they’d forced her to leave town altogether? He had to find her.
He began a rocking motion. Pressing his fists into the uncomfortable hospital mattress, he gave a heave, but not the ho. He looked down again to make sure his feet had contact with the floor.
They did. Not that he could feel the cold of the linoleum. It was no matter. He was going to stand. He was going to find the woman he wanted to sweep into his arms. If she wasn’t welcome here any longer, then he wasn’t staying either.
Taking in a deep breath, Paul leaned back, readying himself to both heave and ho, when the door to his room creaked open. Paul’s head jerked up, readying to launch himself at Madison. Unfortunately, coming into the room was the last person in the world Paul wanted to have in his arms, or even in his vicinity.
“What are you doing?” demanded Dr. Lamb.
“About to go for my morning run,” said Paul. “What does it look like?”
“Do not get up.”
Lamb held out his hand like a stop sign. As if that would’ve stopped Paul.
“If you fall down and get a concussion, she’ll blame me.”
“She?” Paul looked over Dr. Lamb’s shoulder. But he didn’t see her. “Where is she?”
“She’s not here. It’s part of the deal.”
“Part of what deal?”
“The deal she made to get me to perform your surgery.”
“I don’t want you to perform my surgery. I want her to do it.”
“That’s against the rules. Doctors can’t operate on loved ones.”
Dr. Lamb crinkled his nose as he spat out those last two words. Paul didn’t care that he’d mangled them. The words were music to his ears.
“Loved ones?” Paul asked.
Lamb fixed his features, but irritation and disbelief shadowed his eyes. “It’s just an expression.”
“She said she loved me?”
“It’s just an expression,” Lamb insisted. “It’s a good policy because, clearly, her personal feelings are impairing her professional judgment.”
“Madison said she has personal feelings for me?”
Lamb let out a sigh of defeat. “I don’t know what she sees in you. You don’t seem very bright. For example, it’s not wise to antagonize the man who is about to cut into your back with a sharp knife.”
“Oh, I’m not worried about you.”
“You should be.” Lamb tried for menace, but he looked like a disgruntled Ewok with his mane of blond curls.
“Well, I’m not. You’re too focused on winning the game.”
“She was focused on the same thing at one point.”
“She still is. You’re just playing different games now. You’re playing at that doctor game—what’s it called? The one where you buzz the sides if you don’t have a steady hand.”
“It’s called Operation, and I never buzzed the sides in that game.”
“Madison’s not playing that. She’s playing the Game of Life. And she’s swept the whole board.”
“Yeah?” said Dr. Lamb. “Well, you just better hope I don’t buzz the edges of your insides with my scalpel.”
“You won’t. Like you said, if I get hurt, she’ll kill you. And I have every confidence she could take you.”
Lamb nodded as though Paul was right.