She laughed so hard she thought she’d crack a rib, especially when he surfaced and spit water out of his mouth. “Oh, that was priceless,” she gasped out. His fear of spiders always charmed her. He was big and bad and avoided nothing, except the eight-legged crawly creatures. Reminded her of Indiana Jones and snakes. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t help it.”
His gaze narrowed. “You know payback is a bitch, right?”
Gen gulped for air. “I left my groom at the altar. Surely that will be enough for the day?”
He grunted. “Maybe. Maybe not.” He dove under in one smooth move and did a few laps. She sat back and took pleasure in the view without guilt. Lean muscles cut through the water with grace and speed. A bee circled lazily, hummed, then dove for a bright purple flower. The vivid blue sky reminded her of Wolfe’s eyes. “How’s the hospital?”
“Good.” She took another swig and thought of David. Seemed all detours led to her fiancé. Ex-fiancé. Since he ran the surgical unit and she was under his direction, her career may also be in jeopardy. “Busy.”
“You haven’t liked your job in a long time, have you?”
She swiveled her head back. A flare of temper hit. “It’s more than a job. It’s my entire life. College, med school, internship. Days, nights, weekends. I never faltered, never questioned, never lost focus. I stopped asking myself if I liked it a long time ago. I just live it.”
He swam back and forth as if he didn’t have a care in the world. And he didn’t. She was the one who’d blown her life up and took off. “Why?” he asked.
She blinked. “Why? What type of question is that? Because if you want to be a recognized surgeon, you have to work yourself so hard there’s only pieces of you left. Then you get to slowly put them back together.”
He floated in seemingly utter content. “Just doesn’t make sense to me. If I didn’t like working at Purity, I’d leave. Do something else. Ever think you’ve been so obsessed with the prize you never stopped to think if you’d like doing it?”
She choked on her beer and on the bitter taste of outrage. How dare he question her motives. She’d been working to succeed in the medical field since she’d first practiced first aid on her dolls. When her brother, Lance, declared his intention to study medicine, she’d been pissed off he stole her career. Ambition, work, and achievement of goals made sense. Working to save a human life and strive for greatness made her worthy. Yet her best friend treated it like a side job, just casually picked from a litter of careers as if it meant nothing.
“My prize is saving a life. Yours is a nice experience sleeping away from home.”
She hated her bitchiness, but he never lost the smoothness of his strokes. “Ouch. We have a spa and a chapel. Surely that makes up for the shallowness.”
“Why are you trying to piss me off? This is my life’s work. You just don’t quit something because it’s too hard or you’re not enjoying it anymore.”
“Have you ever given up on something you didn’t like?”
The question threw her off. She guzzled half her beer, took another, and popped off the cap. “Yeah, gymnastics. I had no coordination. Mom had dreams of an Olympic run. I fell off the balance beam once and cried for an hour. So I quit.”
“How many lessons did you suffer through?”
Gen frowned. “Well, I finished up the term, of course. Then I never signed back up.”
“Ever stop a book halfway if you don’t like it?”
She shuddered with horror. “Are you kidding? If I start it, I finish it. I don’t know how people sleep not knowing the ending.”
“What if you order something at a restaurant and hate it? Do you send it back?”
“If it’s cooked properly and I just dislike the flavor? Of course not. I clean the plate; it’s my fault for choosing it.”
“Hmm, interesting.”
She glared at his back as he moved from a float to a steady backstroke. “What’s interesting? And what’s with the asinine questions?”
“You take your choices seriously.”
Gen tilted her chin up. “Of course. Choices mean consequences. Not following through is a type of failure.”
“Or maybe it’s just a good old-fashioned mistake you need to fix. Not every path in the road needs to be followed. Sometimes it’s smarter to quit and go home.”
His words burned through her, rising up and swallowing her whole until she shook with pent-up frustration and rage. “That means failure.”
“No. Just a wrong turn.”