The two of them needed to get together and talk things out. The silence between the two of them was not good for their working relationship. Okay, he could be more honest with himself than that. The truth was he missed his conversations with Sarah. He missed the way her eyes would light up when she told a story about one of the horses on the ranch or how she’d listen to him describe a surgery in detail and never get bored.
And he’d missed the feel of her in his arms every night since the one they’d shared at the hotel. He missed his friend and his lover and he didn’t like it one bit.
Making up his mind to set things right with Sarah, he left the doctors’ workroom where he had been reviewing Lindsey’s X-rays and went to look for her.
Spotting her at the end of the hallway he watched as she gowned up before entering the room. He looked down at the app on his phone and saw that the patient’s room she had entered was a readmission that Dr. Benton has asked him to check on.
Noting the isolation sign on the door and remembering that he had seen that the little boy’s wound cultures had come back positive for a resistant bacteria, he gowned and gloved as he had seen Sarah do earlier before entering the room.
Sarah looked up from where she sat beside the boy’s parents as she went over the paperwork on a clipboard in front of her, while the eight-year-old boy lay bundled in a blanket sleeping.
“Hi, I’m Dr. Wright,” David said as he hunched down beside the mother. “You might not remember me but I assisted Dr. Benton with Bailey’s last surgery.”
“Is Dr. Benton here?” the boy’s mother asked as she looked up from the paperwork she was signing. “Sarah says that Bailey is going to need to go back to surgery.”
“Dr. Benton asked me to come see Bailey this morning, but he does plan on seeing him today.”
“I’m glad you came in,” Sarah said. “I was about to text Dr. Benton, but you might want to call him yourself. I don’t think the doctor that transferred him back to us last night had looked at Bailey’s latest lab work. He’s showing signs of sepsis. Both his white count and his lactic acid are up.”
“You don’t see a lot of this in children but it happens. We need to get him back into surgery. I’ll call Dr. Benton and see when we can get an operating room, but do you have a minute?” David said as he moved to the door to pull off the disposable gown.
“Sure, just give me a minute to talk with Bailey’s parents. I’ve already discussed with them the possibility that he would need to go back to surgery,” Sarah said.
David hung up after speaking with Dr. Benton to find Sarah exiting Bailey’s room.
“Dr. Benton is on his way over from the office to talk with Bailey’s parents, then we’ll get him prepped for surgery,” David said as they both headed toward the nurses’ station.
“His mom says he hasn’t had anything to eat since yesterday so that shouldn’t be a problem,” Sarah said. There was an awkwardness in their conversation that reminded him of the reason he had gone in search of her to begin with.
“I was wondering if you’d like to have dinner with me and Davey tonight,” David said.
“Dinner? Tonight?” Sarah asked stopping in the hallway and looking up at him.
“It’s spaghetti night and I know Davey would love to see you. I know it’s a work night but I should be out of the operating room by five so it won’t be a late night.”
David caught himself about to rub at the back of his neck then stopped. He had expected a simple yes or no from Sarah, it was just spaghetti after all, but by the look on her face she was taking the invitation more seriously.
“So, is this like a date?” Sarah asked looking up at him.
“A date?” He hadn’t thought of it quite like that, but he guessed it could be considered a date. “Is it okay with you if it is a date? I mean we won’t be alone, Davey will be there, but it could be considered as a date.”
“What time?” Sarah said, though he could still see some hesitation which he could understand. Accepting that they were actually having an official date, with or without Davey as chaperone, was a step toward a change in their relationship that they might not be prepared for. The night they’d spent together had been more spontaneous where this would be an intentional agreement.
“How about six thirty? I’ll text you the address,” he said as he went to his contacts on his phone.
“Sure, six thirty would be great,” Sarah said as a nurse started toward them. “There’s Bailey’s nurse, I’ll give her an update on him. Good luck with the surgery.”
“Thanks,” he said, then turned back to see the next patient on his list. He’d have to skip lunch to get finished before surgery if he hoped to make it out on time, but with the promise of spending time with Sarah and Davey tonight he knew it would be worth it.
Sarah looked around the kitchen and couldn’t help but laugh. Among the dishes and vegetables laid out on the counter, two handsome young men, one considerably younger than the other, were busy working together as if they were chefs on the latest television cooking show.
“Do the two of you usually dress for dinner?” she asked as she took in Davey in his dress shirt and pants then turned to check out David as
