"Anything interesting?"
I nodded. "It's all interesting in the ER. Had a first seizure come in. Typical head injuries from car accidents. An accident at a school playground. A stroke that needed immediate intervention."
"Do you want to get up and have breakfast with us?"
"Sure," I said and sat up in bed. "Might as well."
Kate took Sophie to change her and then after a trip to the bathroom, I went to join Kate in the kitchen. Sophie was sitting in her high chair at the island in the kitchen while Kate squeezed juice and made some French Toast using a loaf of French bread, topping it off with real maple syrup.
While we ate, I talked to her about the studio.
"You'll never guess what I found out," Kate said, raising her eyebrows. "Which artist that we both know is on a national tour, with an exhibit coming up in San Francisco?"
I frowned and chewed on my French Toast. It had to be only one person.
"Sefton."
She nodded, her lips pressed thin. "Yep. He'll be here in two weeks for a week and will be exhibiting in the gallery across the street from my studio."
"Remind me not to visit the gallery that week," I said with a snort.
"I know," she said and stared off in the distance. "I'll have to lay low that week just in case I see him on the street. I do want to go to an opening, but maybe the week before or after he's gone."
I shook my head. "Don't let him keep you from living your life. He has nothing on us and holds no power over you so ignore him. Go to the studio. You have to do what you love and you can’t let other people derail you."
She leaned over and kissed me. "I love you, Dr. Morgan. You're always so reasonable and calm about things. I thought you'd be angry."
I frowned. "Why? You have no control over what he does."
She shrugged. "Of course, but just thinking about him brings back all these bad memories of what happened in Africa."
"Nothing happened in Africa," I said and leaned closer to her, stroking her cheek. "He wanted you and you didn’t want him. He lost. I won." I kissed her lips. "You're mine."
"I am," she said with a smile. "Thankfully. I was afraid that you might have believed what Claire said and turned to Sam for solace."
"Ha!" I said with a laugh. "Not likely. I never felt anything for Sam other than she provided a convenient place to put my dick."
"Drake!" Kate grinned at me, punching me playfully in the shoulder. I mock-grimaced although it didn’t hurt. "The poor girl was infatuated with you."
"I have no control over who finds me irresistible." I leaned over to Sophie and kissed her plump cheek. "Isn't that right, Sophie? You can't resist me either."
Sophie grinned at me, her mouth filled with Cheerios, her cheeks wet with milk.
"Speaking of who finds me irresistible, apparently, people at work are all filled in on the latest gossip about me, or so the new head of the Neurosurgery Department informed me. Roger Phillips took over as head from Vince Markham and told me last night during my supper break."
"What?" Kate frowned, her expression horrified. "People know about the case?"
"Apparently," I said and sopped up the syrup with a hunk of French Toast. "Roger told them to keep it down and not mention it to me. But everyone knows."
"I'm so sorry," she said and leaned in and kissed me tenderly. "They'll realize that you're nothing like the papers portrayed you."
"Really?" I said, only half-jokingly. "The papers portrayed me as, and I quote, a Dashing Devilish Dom, if I recall correctly..."
"You are a Dashingly Devilish Dom, but you are definitely not a Secret Sadist Surgeon," Kate replied, quoting one very notorious gossip columnist.
We laughed together, and it made me feel better to see Kate brush it off, but I still felt uneasy about the staff knowing my personal business. There was nothing I could do about it now, so I decided to just keep my head down and do my job.
We finished our breakfast while Sophie played with her food, managing to eat only half of it. The rest ended up on the floor or on top of her head. I helped clean up after breakfast, then I kissed Kate and Sophie and went back to bed, needing a couple of hours sleep if I hoped to make it through another night at work.