Putting my slice down on the napkin, I take a drink of my much-needed wine.
After my session with Leandro Silva—which was definitely enlightening and very interesting—I took a frantic call from Sarah, another one of my patients. She’s having a really tough time at the moment.
Three years ago, Sarah broke things off with her boyfriend. He stalked her for months, and one night, he broke into her home while she was sleeping and raped her in her bed.
He went to prison for his crime. But he’s now out on parole after serving only half of his sentence, and she’s struggling to cope with that fact.
I’ve been treating Sarah since the rape, and she was reaching a good place in her life and finally moving forward. So, his release, which was a shock to her, has set her back miles.
She’s afraid to leave her home, in fear of seeing him. She’s terrified that he might come get her again even though a restraining order is in place. She has that fear, and I understand it.
It took me an hour to talk her down on the phone, and I had to promise that I would go to her house first thing in the morning for a face-to-face appointment. With my appointment calendar full, I will have to come in an hour earlier. But there aren’t many things I wouldn’t do for my patients.
“How’d the new patient go today?” Kit asks me.
Besides the odd bits, like if I’m taking on a new patient, I don’t talk to Kit or Jett about my patients or tell them who they are.
“It was fine.”
“Do you think you can help him or her?” Jett asks me.
I smile at him. “Yes, I’m sure I can.”
It’s a good thing I don’t tell them who my patients are, or Jett would have a meltdown. He’s obsessed with Formula 1.
If he found out that I was treating Leandro Silva—let alone that I had been treating Andressa Ryan, the wife of Carrick Ryan—he would bug me until I let him meet them.
Leandro Silva is a whole other ballgame though.
Of course I’d known he was handsome, but seeing him in the flesh exposed me to the actual beauty of him, and it knocked me off-balance for a moment. Then, I kicked myself into professional mode. I’m nothing but professional.
But just hearing about his accident, how he’d almost died, what he was going through now…
Don’t get me wrong. I hear all manner of heartbreaking stories of what people have endured, but listening to him struck a chord with me in a way that not many people do.
“So, how was school today?” I ask Jett.
He flickers a look at Kit, who smiles at him and nods.
“Am I missing something here?” I look between the pair of them.
“I got picked for the team.” Jett gives me a shy grin.
“You did? That’s amazing news!” I wrap my arms around him, hugging him. Leaning back, I look at his face. “I thought they were going to pick the team next week?”
“They brought it forward.”
Aside from being a Formula 1 nut, my son also loves football. And he’s been picked for the school team.
“We need to celebrate!” I exclaim. “We’ll go out this weekend, do something.”
“Sounds great. Anyway, I’ve got to go finish my homework. I have to keep my grades up, or I’ll be kicked off the team before I even get started.”
I’m about to protest about him finishing his dinner when I see that he’s already eaten half of the pizza and is taking another slice with him.
Getting up, he kisses my cheek.
“I’ll come up and see you before bed.” I affectionately pat his cheek.
I eat my own slice of pizza, which has cooled considerably.
Kit gets up from the table and gets another beer from the fridge. He brings the bottle of wine, topping my glass off.
“Thanks.” I smile at him, and then it fades a little. “Why didn’t Jett call me to tell me he’d made the team?”
“He wanted to wait until he saw you.”
“Right.” I blow out a breath. “I wish I’d been home earlier to hear about it.” I feel a little deflated, hating that I’m not always here for this stuff and that Kit is.
From the day I found out I was pregnant, Kit took care of me. The day Jett was born, Kit became the father figure in his life, and he’s been here ever since.
I will forever be indebted to him for that.
When Jett was a baby, I knew I wanted to give him everything in life that Kit and I never had. So, I made the decision to go to college, then university. Being a single mother didn’t make that easy, so between Kit and me, we’ve raised him, and as the years have gone on, the daily demands of my job have meant that Kit’s around for the important school stuff, more than I am,