Must Be Fate: (Cody and Clover) (A Jetty Beach Romance Book 3) Read Free Page A

fall down. Your mom said you were playing with your brother. Is that when it started to hurt?”
    “Yes,” she says.
    I touch her elbow and try to move her arm, but she winces, so I stop.
    “What were you playing?” I ask.
    “We were playing ninjas and I had a sword and he tried to take it away,” she says.
    “Yeah, do you like playing ninja?” I ask. I’m pretty sure I know what’s wrong, so I keep her talking and carefully touch her elbow again. Yep, it’s dislocated.
    “We always play ninja,” she says. “But he wouldn’t let me keep the sword.”
    “Did he pull it out of your hands?” I ask.
    “Yeah, and he grabbed my arm and pulled really hard,” she says.
    I meet Christie’s eyes. “Lily’s elbow is dislocated. It’s not an emergency, but I’m sure it hurts. I can pop it back in right now.”
    Lily’s eyes widen. “No, you can’t touch it. My arm hurts.”
    “I know, sweetie,” I say. “But it’s going to stop hurting if you let me fix it for you.”
    Her lower lip trembles.
    “Tell you what,” I say. I get a basket of lollipops out of the cupboard; I keep them for just this type of situation. “You take one of these and put it in your mouth, then tell me what flavor it is, okay?”
    She still looks suspicious, but nods and takes one. She unwraps the candy and sticks it in her mouth.
    I hold her wrist and elbow and quickly rotate the joint back in place. There’s a slight snap, and her eyes get big.
    “Ouch!”
    At first Lily looks at me like I betrayed her trust, but then she moves her arm back and forth, bending it at the elbow.
    “Better?” I ask.
    She nods. “It still hurts, but I can bend it!”
    “That’s normal,” I say. “It will feel much better by tomorrow.” I look at Christie. “It’s a very common childhood injury. The fact that she’s moving it now is a great sign. Go ahead and give her a dose of Tylenol before bed if she says it’s sore, and it might be tender for a couple of days. But other than that, she should be fine.”
    Christie’s shoulders slump and she lets out a long breath. “Thank you so much, Dr. J. I was so worried it was broken, but I couldn’t imagine how she did it.”
    “It’s no problem,” I say. “But, Lily, you didn’t tell me what flavor you got.”
    Lily smiles. “Bubblegum.”
    I grin back at her. “That’s my favorite. You go see Darcy at the front desk and she’ll have a sticker for you, okay?”
    “Thank you,” she says.
    “Yes, thank you so much,” Christie says.
    “Of course. You two ladies have a wonderful evening.”
    I head back to my office, well aware that I’m late. But I still have charting to catch up on. When I was in medical school, they somehow left out the part about all the paperwork. I went into medicine because I was attracted to the idea of healing, of helping people—and I admit, the prestige of earning the title Dr. Jacobsen doesn’t hurt. But this endless paperwork, whether it’s on paper or on my computer, is a drag.
    I decide I’ll just have to come in early tomorrow. I’m supposed to have dinner with Jennifer. Ostensibly, she’s my girlfriend, although it seems like we broke up again the other day. Lately, I’m never sure if we’re together or not. She’s usually mad at me for working late, and threatens on a regular basis to leave me for good.
    Although she owns her own business, too, somehow she doesn’t put in the long hours that I do at my practice, and she expects me to be around when she wants me. She calls me a workaholic, and accuses me of not caring about her. I apologize, and we have sex, only to do it all over again a week later.
    It’s pretty awful, when I think about it. The problem is, I don’t think about it. I get up early, go to work, see an endless stream of patients all day, take care of charting and business stuff, and go home late. This mess of a relationship simply isn’t a priority to me—which is exactly why Jen is mad all the time.
    She’s right. I am