Free As You Wish by Belle Maurice

she didn’t tell you what the real problem was, you couldn’t have known.”
    “I should have known. I’ve seen patients like her before. Women who don’t want to complain and can’t afford medical bills, so they ignore it and hope it goes away,” Patricia wailed. “But it doesn’t go away. It gets worse and worse until it kills them. I should have known when she walked in carrying that dirty cloth purse and wearing worn-out tennis shoes. I should have seen there was something more going on.” She pounded her small fists against his chest. “I should have been paying attention.”
    “You’re not God.”
    “No, but I’m the doctor.”
    “And you have to go on what they tell you. If they tell you it’s just a headache, then that’s what you treat.” Ryan picked her up and kicked the door closed behind them. He set her in the decorative chair at the bottom of the stairs and knelt beside her, stroking her back.
    Patricia pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m not being very professional about this. She’s a patient, not my mother.”
    Ryan flinched, but she didn’t see it. “It’s just a headache, Ry. The doctor said it’s just a headache.” “Is she—does she have kids?”
    Patricia shook her head, moving her hands away from her eyes to wipe her cheeks. “She and her husband never had children.”
    “Did her headaches go away?”
    Patricia laughed bitterly. “I don’t know. When her husband brought her in last week, it was because she was tired. She kept saying it was nothing. She thought it was because she works on her feet all day. She works somewhere like Target or Walmart. It took me two days to get her admitted to the hospital for the exploratory surgery because of the red tape. She hasn’t got any insurance…” Her voice trailed off.
    “But you got her into the hospital.”
    Patricia nodded. “I had to promise to pay for her myself, but I couldn’t let her die because Columbus doesn’t understand that every hour counts.” She frowned as if something else floated across her mind.
    “Then you did more than you needed to.” He stood up. He couldn’t fix the patient, but he could get Patricia to stop worrying about it long enough to let her get some sleep. His own ghosts would wait until later. “Why don’t you go upstairs and get ready for bed, and I’ll have a cup of tea ready for you in the kitchen.” He took her hands to help her up.
    “How did you know I drink tea?”
    He smiled in the dim light of the foyer, still holding her hands. “Mrs. Dudley told me.”
    Patricia gave him a breathtaking smile and hurried up the stairs. At the top, she peered down at him from the balcony. “I wanted to thank you for what you did earlier.”
    “When?”
    “This evening, when David came. I had been looking for you since…since the other day, and then I didn’t know what to say.”
    Ryan smiled. She had been looking for him. A warm glow grew in his belly. “I told you your secret was safe with me.”
    “Well, I wanted to thank you anyway.” She turned and walked into the hall.
    Ryan waited until he heard her door close before going through the downstairs hall to the kitchen.
    He had to be out of his mind.
    He shouldn’t be here at all.
    He should have gotten her inside and stayed outside where he belonged. She was a big girl; she could deal with her grief alone. And if she couldn’t, then she shouldn’t have sent Davey-boy away.
    Ryan turned on the lights of the stark white kitchen. At least the lighting was more favorable in here. In the darkness of the foyer, he’d been too close to kissing away her tears and too close to the stairs leading to her bedroom. She was his boss and his client now. Two very good reasons to not get emotionally involved with her.
    But she had been looking for him. She had wanted to talk to him, and she had gotten tongue-tied when she saw him. She needed him to rescue her.
    When she came downstairs dressed in faded green