The Heart - Kate Stewart Page 0,3

hard time hiding my excitement.

“Good,” he said, standing and taking off his lab coat before replacing it with a pea coat. “You’re on call for the next three days. Get some R & R. Actually, my advice to you is to live a little, Dr. Whittaker. And when you return, get ready to get uncomfortable again.”

I knew what that meant. I would be a bit clueless in the operating room like I was the first day of surgery, and the day after that, and the weeks and months that followed. No matter how prepared I thought I was or how confident, the skilled surgeons had made it their mission to rattle me to the core.

As I exited Dr. McGuire’s office, I was thankful for that damned article. In its own way, it was just the pat on the shoulder I needed to keep going.

“You know, Rose, I know you feel it, too. It’s okay to be a little afraid. But this is how the good ones start.”

“The good ones?”

“The great ones. This will be a great one.” –Grant

“If a pilot can land a plane safely on the Hudson and save one hundred and fifty-five people, you can get out of bed, Rose.”

“Aunt Wose,” Grant said, tugging at my scrubs. “Aunt Wose!” He had been chasing the ducks for the better part of twenty minutes while I remained lost in thought. “Come on, Aunt Wose!” I watched Grant as he wiggled his little body onto the passenger seat of the golf cart, waving his arms. “Wet’s go, wets go!”

I grinned at him. “Okay, buddy.” This would be our fourth trip within the hour. I took one last look at the pond and jumped in the seat next to Grant as he clapped with excitement. “Okay, baby blue, let’s go,” I said, putting the golf cart into gear and making our way down the paved sidewalk and through the grounds. It was a hot August day, and I was thankful for the light breeze as we made our way from the pond back to the center. We were building one of the largest cancer treatment centers in Texas and had expanded it to the point of needing transportation from one building to the next, not to mention the one-and-a-half-mile trek back to my house, which sat at the very back of the land. Some days, especially on hot days like this, it was too far to walk.

“Faster, Aunt Wose.” Grant giggled as we took a speed bump, arms flailing in the air, his face animated. I pressed the gas and took another, launching us into the air a bit just to hear the giggle I loved so much. When we made it back to the main building, I parked the cart then grabbed Grant before he could get away, pulling him into my arms as I covered him in kisses.

“Aunt Wose, no! I big boy now.”

“Oh no you’re not! You’ll always be my baby,” I said, nuzzling his neck as he squirmed in my arms. He was only twenty months old but had assumed the role of the man in my life. Grant had a head of thick black hair and clear blue dazzling eyes like his father, Dean, but when it came to attitude, he was my sister, Dallas.

“Who told you that you were a big boy?”

“Mommy towd me. I pee peed in da potty today,” he said as he wiggled down onto the pavement.

“You pee peed in the potty!” I clapped excitedly, chasing him around the cart as he squealed and ran to get away from me. I caught him then lifted him high above me. He started to protest when I again soaked him in another set of unwanted kisses. I checked for a diaper and was relieved when I could still feel the bulge of it in his pants.

I wasn’t ready.

I looked up to find we had an admirer approaching us. My instinct had me pulling Grant tighter to me, but when I got a better view, I almost dropped my precious nephew. The stranger was tall and hellishly built. His short hair scattered perfectly around his crown in varying shades of blond. His eyes were somewhere between blue and gray and were outlined with the thickest lashes I had ever seen. His masculine features were in perfect symmetry. His only flaw, if you could even call it that, was a faint white scar on the top of his lip. He was the whole fucking package, the second