Chapter 8 Beneath The Ruthless Don

• Melanie’s POV
• “Melanie!”
• Luke’s sharp call brought me out of my deep thought.
• Damn.
• I can’t believe I got distracted. Worse, I was in the middle of changing Luke’s surgical dressing and I came so close to hurting him.
• “Sorry, Luke. What were you saying?” I asked.
• Luke eyed me curiously. “You haven’t been listening to a word I’ve said.”
• “Sorry, I got distracted for a moment,” I answered.
• “Are you okay?” he asked. “You don’t look so good.”
• “I’m fine, I guess I’m just a little tired,” I answered.
• Luke smiled at my response. “I guess you did celebrate after all.”
• “Huh?”
• "It's your birthday. I thought you weren't going to celebrate it, but it looks like you did."
• I had totally forgotten about my birthday yesterday.
• “I just had some drinks with friends, that’s all,” I lied. I seemed to be doing a lot of that today.
• Lying through my teeth.
• “I’m glad one of us had fun,” he said.
• I smiled at him. “I know you’re tired of staying in the hospital, but all this is for your own good. Once you’re properly healed, you can spend all your time outdoors, maybe even play a sport.”
• “I’d really like tired. I’m sick and tired of hospitals,” he said.
• “I can’t say I won’t miss you but it would be nice when you finally get discharged,” I said, then I leaned in closer to him. “Don’t tell anyone this but you’re my favorite patient.”
• “You’re my favorite nurse too,” he whispered in response.
• “Well, I’m still an intern. So not fully a nurse yet,” I said.
• “It doesn’t matter. You’re still my favorite.”
• "That does wonderful things for my ego," I said. Then, I quickly changed his dressing and made quick work of my daily physical examination of him.
• “Now get some rest, Luke and I’ll see you before my shift ends,” I said when I was done.
• “See you later,” he said just as I walked out of his room.
• Something Luke said threw me in a panic.
• Yesterday had been a shit show and I've been so busy and distracted all morning that I couldn't remember the last time I checked my phone.
• I ran into the nurses' changing room and opened my locker. Taking out my phone, I realized it was turned off.
• I switched it on and just as I suspected, there were multiple missed calls and voicemails from my family.
• I immediately felt awash with guilt. My parents must have been going insane with worry from trying to reach me.
• I dialed my dad’s number without wasting time. Making sure it was a voice call. I didn’t trust myself enough not to lose my cool if I saw their faces.
• They can't know what's going on with me. There was no way I was getting them involved in this mess.
• The phone rang twice before my dad picked up. The relief in his voice was obvious through the phone.
• “Thank goodness you called. Your mom and I were considering booking a flight to New York if we didn’t hear back from you today,” Dad said.
• “Hi, Dad. I’m sorry you’ve been unable to reach me,” I said.
• Then I heard Mom’s voice. “Is that Melanie?”
• Guessing my dad already put me on speaker, I said, “Hi, Mom.”
• "Oh, sweetheart. We're so glad you called," she said. "What happened? We've been unable to reach you since yesterday."
• I internally apologized to them because the next thing that came out of my mouth was lies.
• "I'm so sorry, Mom. The hospital was swamped with a lot of trauma cases yesterday and I didn't get home till late last night I forgot to plug in my phone before I slept off. I also had an early shift today so I haven't had a chance to check my phone all day," I explained, the lie rolling off my tongue as if I'd practiced long and hard for it.
• “You work too hard, sweetheart,” Mom said. “We were so worried.”
• “Yeah, I was worried something had happened to my baby,” Dad added which caused me to smile.
• “I’m sorry for making y’all worry,” I said.
• "It's okay. We're just sad that you spent your birthday working yourself to the bone when you were supposed to be out celebrating," Mom said.
• “Happy birthday, my darling girl. You might be twenty-one now but you’ll always be my baby,” Dad added.
• “Thank you, Dad. And I wouldn’t want to have it any other way.”
• I have always been a daddy’s girl and I still am.
• “We really wanted to speak to you yesterday. Danny was also worried,” Mom said.
• “Please tell him that I’m okay and I’ll text him after my shift.”
• "We sure will, but make sure you carve out time to celebrate your birthday. I don't want to hear any nonsense like the day has already passed. You only turn twenty-one once," Mom said.
• I couldn’t help but laugh at how ridiculous she sounded. “You only turn every age once, Mom.”
• “Don’t mind your mom, you know how goofy she can be,” Dad chimed in.
• “I agree to that.”
• “But you still need to rest, okay? I don’t like that you work too hard,” Dad said.
• “I have to, Dad. You made a lot of sacrifices so I could go to nursing school and I’m not about to let your efforts be in vain. I want you to be proud of me.”
• "Oh my darling girl, I already am proud of you. There's never been a moment when I wasn't proud of you. You and your brother are the greatest gift we've ever been given and I don't want you to neglect yourself just to please me," Dad said.
• “Yes, sweetheart. We’re proud of you and we always will be. Your dad and I raised a strong, kind, and independent woman and we’re so proud of the woman you’ve become.”
• I couldn’t stop the tears that were falling from my eyes even if I wanted to.
• “I love you guys so much,” I said.
• “We love you too,” they replied.
• “And we can’t wait for you to visit. We miss you so much.”
• “I miss you guys too but I can’t get away just yet,” I said.
• “We get it darling, just do what you have to and know that we’ll always be here when you need us,” Dad said.
• I nodded even though they couldn’t see me. I had been gone for a while and had to return to work.
• “I have to go back to work guys, take care of yourself,” I said.