“No, missy, I know you. Something’s off.”
I handed her the lunch, and her eyes closed when she smelled the opened container. “You didn’t cook this.”
“No,” I admitted.
“I wasn’t asking. Iknowyoudidn’t cook this.”
I smirked. “No. Dad’s friend did. You are safe, Dr. Lopez.”
She took a bite and moaned. “You are a lifesaver, Carolina. My last surgery was ten hours long, and I have to go back in with my next patient in two hours.”
“I’ll keep this short then. I’m sure you’ll want to sleep.”
“Out with it, then.”
“I would like some personal advice.”
“Sure,” she said between bites.
“Dr. Medina is back in Kansas City,” I said.
The fork in her hand stopped mid-air on the way to her mouth. “What?”
I nodded, and she put the fork down so she could study me.
Dr. Lopez knew everything Hector had done—from my perspective. She’d caught some of the rumors when she first came to Heartland and advised me on how to handle them. She was so experienced, and she often made my head spin. I relayed all the information Hector had given me at the café.
“It’s plausible,” she said and reclaimed the fork to keep eating. “From what I hear, Dr. Stuart’sprioritiesleft the oncology department in a bit of a disarray. But your new Chief of Oncology should have more insight. Why are you talking to me and not her?”
“I respect her and value her opinion,” I said. “But she is my boss; I don’t really talk with her about personal stuff.”
“I see you still keep up unnecessary walls.”
“I’m working on it.”
“Fine, so what’s the problem now?”
“Hector wants to have dinner tonight. Says he has more to say. I was so angry at him then, I don’t know what to do.”
“And you don’t want to have dinner with him?”
“I didn’t, at first, but I still have questions. ”
Dr. Lopez chewed as she mulled over everything I had said, so I continued. “Then, there’s the fact that his wife sent me a letter.”
“What?” She almost spat out the bite she was working on.
“Yeah. It was so strange, Monica. I swear I don’t know what to make of it.”
“What did it say?”
“She wants me to give Hector a chance.”
“That is super weird,” she said, but there was a twinkle in her eye, and the corners of her mouth turned upward into a smirk. “But Ilikethis woman. She hascojones.”
I threw my head back with laughter. “Yeah. I guess she does.”
“Honestly, Carolina, I don’t know why you are here. If you could stop listening to your head for even a second, you’d know what your heart wants.”