Chapter 96

Amber’s POV

Everyone in the room froze, including – and maybe especially – me.

After that kiss yesterday, I hadn’t expected Chase to show his face again so soon. Though these appointments had been made in advance, I thought he might have postponed or canceled out of shame.

Truly, though, these appointments were more about his health than our personal discourse. He had every right to be here, and I had every obligation to continue treating him, regardless of my present personal feelings.

“You could turn him away,” Julian said. Carla gave him a look.

“No, I can’t,” I said. “Above all, he is my patient.”

Rising from my seat, Julian moved out of the way as I came to the door. Soon I was standing with Carla in the hallway.

“Trouble in paradise?” she asked me.

“No paradise,” I told her. “That kiss was not something I wanted.”

“Oh.” She seemed thoughtful for a moment, and then slightly apologetic as her shoulders wilted somewhat. “Healer Amber…”

“Don’t worry about it,” I told her. Though I valued her as a friend and coworker, I was far too tired to start delving into apologies and forgiveness. It was much easier for both of us just to wave it all away. “Forget it ever happened.”

She smiled at me again, the first I’d seen from her today. “Okay. He’s in exam room 2.”

“Thank you, Carla.”

As Carla and I parted, I moved toward exam room 2 with even footsteps. Internally, I was preparing myself for what was about to occur, while reminding myself to maintain the level of professionalism that I had always strived for as a Healer.

Regardless of what happened between Chase and me, I was still his Healer, and he was still a patient with a serious heart condition. He needed my aid, at least for a few more days as the treatments took hold, and then a few more days after that, in case there was any side effects from the treatments.

Too soon, I reach the door. After pausing to deeply breathe in and out, I opened the door and stepped inside.

Chase was leaning against the examination table at the far end of the room. His arms were crossed, his hands grabbing his elbows. His eyes were on the floor, even as I entered the room and closed the door behind me.

“Good morning, Chase,” I said, and he startled somewhat, like he hadn’t expected me to enter… even though he was here for an appointment to see me. “How have you been feeling?” I said, to both breath the ice and set the tone for this appointment.

I had no intention of being anything other than his Healer in this moment. Not a friend. Not whatever else he had in mind.

Just his Healer.

“The heart’s good,” he said, which was a dodgy answer for sure, but at its heart, was what I wanted to know.

“Good,” I replied. I moved to the counter, where one of the nurses had already set up the day’s treatment for Chase. It was just a couple of injections to be given in sequence. Truly, the nurse could have handled this encounter entirely, but I didn’t want to flake out on my role to inspect patients, even if I was personally upset with them.

We were quiet a moment, as I prepared the injections, and then moved closer to Chase.

Finally, he lifted his head and looked at me. Something in his eyes made me pause in my step. It was a kind of remorse, darkening his gaze.

“I am sorry about… everything,” he said carefully. “All I’ve done since I got here was overstep. Really, I’m very appreciative for everything you are doing for me.”

“You don’t have to worry,” I told him. “I will still treat you as your doctor.”

“Yeah, I figured he would,” Chase said. “But what I’m hoping is that you would still want to be friends.”

That was a much more difficult question to answer. Chase and I had been moving toward something like friendship before the kiss ruined everything. Now, I wasn’t so such what I wanted, especially if he was going to try something like that again.

“Let’s just focus on getting you well,” I said.

He turned toward me. “What if I promise not to try to kiss you again?” he said, then flashed me a grin I was slowly growing more accustomed to. “Unless you want me to, of course.”

I gave him a flat look in reply. “That’s not going to happen.”

“It was a joke.” His smile started to falter.

With a sigh, I shook my head and said, “If you promise not to try to kiss me again, I’ll think about it.”

“Great,” he said, his grin returning full force. “It’s a deal then.”

Lifting the injection, I stuck him in the arm with the needle before he could make any more comments.

“Ouch!” he said, wincing.

I rolled my eyes. The man’s healing factor might have been low, but he was still a werewolf. Their pain threshold was so much higher than most. He likely didn’t even feel the prick of the needle.

He just wanted attention, like a toddler with a tummy ache. Well, I wasn’t going to kiss it better, if that was what he wanted.

Surprisingly, he didn’t tease about that.

Instead, after a moment, his expression fell again, back to that same remorseful look.

I’d thought I’d seen the last of it, given that we more or less had made up from the day before. Yet in that instant, he seemed somehow even more glum than he had before.

This made me wonder if there was something else going on with him.

After the second injection, he gave no indication that he even felt it.

“Chase,” I said, when I’d finished and the needles were safely discarded. “Is everything alright?”

He startled, looking at me sharply. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Well, it’s just… You are acting somewhat strange…”

He laughed then, too hard and too loud to be genuine.

“You’re imagining things,” he said. “We done?”

“Yeah,” I said. “You’ll need to return tomorrow…”

“I’ve got my appointment times stored in my phone,” he said. He held it up as if to show me, but then it buzzed in his hand. He quickly put it away.

To me, there definitely seemed to be something going on, but without calling him out again, I wasn’t sure how to get him to talk. And calling him out hadn’t worked the first time, why would it work again?

“Thanks, doc,” he said, on his way to the door.

Out in the hallway, he bumped into Julian. I held my breath, expecting a fight. Instead, Chase just stumbled away and kept walking toward the exit, mumbling, “Sorry,” under his breath.

Julian traded confused glances with me as we both watch Chase leave.

“What was that about?” he asked me.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “He was acting strangely from the start.”

“Because of yesterday?”

“He apologized for yesterday…” I said.

“I wonder…” Julian started.

I looked at him when he didn’t finish. “What?”

He didn’t specify. Instead, he just gave me a sad kind of look. “Honestly, I don’t know. And I kind of hope I’m wrong.”

“But…?”

He lightly shook his head. “I’ll keep it to myself for now. It’s not the kind of thing I want to be right about.”

I guessed, for now, I had to accept that. But I hope he would share what he suspected sometime soon.

Chase’s POV

Chase opened his phone, reading the message from Olivia.

Did you fix things with Amber yet?

He closed it without replying.