Free My Sweetest Sasha: Cole's Story (Meadows Shore Book 2) by Eva Charles Page A

didn’t say anything, but raw emotion contorted his face, making him appear haggard, older than his years.
    Cole suddenly saw what Alexa had seen. What he would’ve seen earlier if he hadn’t been standing so high up on his soapbox. “Tell me. I want the truth. Now.”
    Josh Landry took a few deep breaths before he spoke. “My daughter was sick,” he said, barely above a whisper. “She’d had a fever all day. At about five-thirty it began to spike, and she wasn’t keeping down liquids. When I left, I planned to come back, but by the time I got home the babysitter was vomiting and running a fever too. I couldn’t leave … little kids dehydrate so easily. She weighs thirty pounds.”
    “How old is she?”
    “Three.”
    “Where was her mother?”
    “It’s just me. Her mother is—she’s not ready to be a mother yet.”
    “What’s your daughter’s name?”
    “Hannah.”
    “You’re taking care of Hannah by yourself, no family around?”
    “I have a live-in babysitter. She’s great, but she’s young. I think we both got scared yesterday. I’m sorry. I understand what I did was wrong. Very wrong, and I made it worse by lying.”
    The silence roared while Cole waged an internal struggle, trying to figure out how to put this right. An intern raising a kid alone. When he’d been an intern, his greatest challenge outside of medicine, was trying to choose between a blonde, a brunette, and a redhead to bang after the patients were all tucked in for the night. Thinking about it right now with Landry standing there, a man who was distraught and actually had real responsibilities, made him want to crawl between the rug and the wood floor. He couldn’t begin to fathom what was running through Alexa’s mind, and he was too much of a coward to look her way.
    “Does the residency director know you’re a single dad?” he asked.
    “No. When I applied, I didn’t say anything because I worried they’d see me as a risk. They would’ve been right.”
    “You’ve got to tell them … you need the support.” He pulled a card from his drawer and scribbled something on the back before handing it to Josh. “Put it in your wallet. Hannah’s going to need you again. Next time shit happens—and it will, little kids are nothing but germballs with juice boxes—call me if you’re out of options. Call me before you compromise your future, and Hannah’s.”
    Josh gripped the card tightly in his hand.
    “I’m not letting you off the hook. You did something stupid that could’ve compromised a patient. It might still. I’m failing you for the rotation, but giving you the opportunity for a do-over. It may cause you some issues if you apply for a competitive fellowship, but if there are no more problems, I’ll be happy to serve as a reference, and you’ll land on your feet.”
    “Thank you.” Landry’s voice cracked and he sniffed loud enough that Cole looked away for a moment to give him an opportunity to compose himself.
    “Since I’m failing you anyway, stop at the residency director’s office, then go home and check on Hannah, and spend the next ten days working to figure this out. We’ve had a lot of single moms come through here. The residency program can help. Let them.”
    “Thank you for giving me another chance. I won’t let you down.”
    “Don’t thank me, thank the social worker sitting in the corner. I wrote you off. But she fought to redeem us both.”
    Josh nodded and gave her a small smile as he left the office.
    Cole’s elbows were on the desk and his chin rested on his clasped hands while he fixed his attention on Alexa. “Go ahead, say it. You’ve earned the right.”
    “Say what?”
    “That I’m an impulsive, self-righteous asshole, and if it hadn’t been for your nagging, I would’ve thrown away a kid who deserved a second chance. And probably ruined his daughter’s life too.”
    “I didn’t push you to do anything you didn’t already have in you. I just reminded you to look