Home > Beyond Just Us (Remington Medical #4)(12)

Beyond Just Us (Remington Medical #4)(12)
Author: Kimberly Kincaid

So why did she still have that look of determination in her light brown stare?

“Nope,” Tess said, pulling a sandwich wrapped in clear plastic out from the bag where she’d gotten the juice and pretzels. “It’s a bribe. Eat it, and in thirty minutes, if your vitals are stable, Dr. Rosenthal will sign off on your release.”

Surprise moved through Declan on a swift path. “I didn’t think you’d let go of the trial thing so easily,” he admitted, reaching for the juice and taking a healthy swallow.

The way Tess’s shoulders crowded her spine was a dead giveaway of what she said next. “I didn’t. In fact, there’s a perfect trial for patients who have been diagnosed with diabetic nephropathy right here in Remington.”

Declan’s defenses yanked into full alert, squashing the hope that had instinctively flickered in his chest. “There is.”

It wasn’t a question, but Tess answered anyway. “Yep.” She pulled a second container of orange juice out of the bag, giving it a shake and popping it open for a sip, and in that moment, Declan would’ve given his left nut to be a straw. “The treatment requires a lot of meds and supervision, but it looks really promising.”

“And the VA will cover all that?”

“Not…exactly.”

“Not exactly?” Declan repeated. “Or not at all?”

Tess breezed right past his question, stunning him with, “The doctor running the trial—Dr. Gupta—said she’d take you starting next week. She’s a very well-regarded nephrologist.”

His pulse stuttered. “You got me in?”

“It took some doing, but—”

“I didn’t say I wanted that.”

Declan heard the gravel in his words only after he’d uttered them, the gruff harshness anyone else would shy away from.

Not Tess. “You didn’t say you didn’t.”

Ah, hell. Of course, she was right.

As if his silence said so, she continued. “Look, I know all of this must be really overwhelming, and you’ve already been through a lot in the last six months. But this trial is the best shot you have at wellness while you wait for a kidney. I wouldn’t have fought so hard to get you in if I thought anything else would work nearly as well.”

Declan processed her words. Processed them again, and…shit. He might know better than to think hope ever amounted to much, but he couldn’t deny she was right. Even Connor had said a trial was likely to be Declan’s best option, and he’d come seeking his friend’s advice. Defenses or not, he wasn’t a dolt when it came to his wellness.

Still. “Fine. That doesn’t change the fact that the VA doesn’t cover it.”

“They don’t,” Tess said, putting down her juice and looking him square in the eye. She was direct, and Christ, it was a turn-on like nothing else. “But I think I’ve found a way around that.”

“I’m listening.”

“It’s…not exactly conventional,” she warned, but Declan laughed, unsurprised.

“You did say you’re not really a protocol girl, didn’t you?”

Tess’s laugh was a direct translation of you have no idea. “Yeah. Well, your insurance might not cover this trial, but mine does.”

Declan’s brows lowered in confusion. “That’d be grand if you needed the treatment.”

“Or if my husband did.”

Declan waited a beat. Replayed her words to make sense of them. Then—

“You can’t be serious.”

Her face flushed all the way to her ears as she took a step back from his bedside. “It would be in name only, of course. I’d never expect…you wouldn’t have any obligation. Just a legality, in the strictest sense. Then, when the treatment is done, we’d part ways, no harm, no foul.”

He tried to get his head around it. He really did, but nope. “Let me get this right. You want ta marry me so I can get this treatment.”

“What, do you want me to get down on one knee?” Tess asked, clamping her lower lip between her teeth as if she hadn’t meant for the response to fly out. “It would only be a technicality, but yes. For a while, we’d be legally married.”

“Hell of a technicality,” Declan said. Not one most people took lightly.

Yet Tess remained utterly no-nonsense. “Not really. In this case, it’s entirely practical. We’re both single. I have great insurance, with coverage you need. I can even help manage your medication schedule throughout the trial, if you’d like. Rosenthal and Gupta would be your doctors, so there’s no conflict there. Most importantly, this would give you access to care that’s very likely to keep you healthy while you wait for a kidney. It’s really the only way.”

No less than a thousand thoughts ricocheted through Declan’s brain. Finally, he settled on, “You don’t think marrying someone you’re not in love with is a bit dishonest?”

And here, her stare grew certain. “I don’t, actually. Is a marriage of convenience bending the rules a little to get you the coverage you need? Maybe. But we’d really be married, so it’s not fraud. That, I wouldn’t do. It’s more like an agreement.”

“Still legal,” he pointed out. “Like you said, we’d really be married.”

“I know that carries a lot of significance for most people,” Tess said after a pause Declan couldn’t decipher. “But not for me. You don’t have to worry that I’ll look at it as anything other than a piece of paper. A legal agreement that’ll get you what you need.”

He lifted a brow. “A bit jaded, no?”

“Honey, you have no idea.” She laughed, and somewhere between the sound and his surprise, the tension in Declan’s shoulders lightened. “Anyway, marriage doesn’t mean anything to me in the traditional sense. I’m not exactly the type for all the hearts and flowers and grand gestures. I’m fine with it if you are.”

So, so much to unspool there. Declan tilted his head to look at her. “And how d’you know I’m not some crazy person you’d never want to be associated with?”

“Because Connor vouched for you.” She held up her cell phone. “That, and I Googled the crap out of you while you slept. Dual citizenship. Born in the U.S. Raised in Ireland. Moved back to the U.S. when you were fourteen. No outstanding warrants, no arrests. You’ve never even gotten a parking ticket. The Internet is a handy thing. You’re welcome to Google me, too, but I have to confess. I’ve had a couple of parking tickets. Otherwise, I’m fairly normal.”

Declan wanted to be impressed at her thoroughness. Probably, he should get over his balls-out shock, first, though. This couldn’t be regular behavior for her. “So, d’you propose to all your patients who need care they can’t get, or am I just special?”

“You’re…” Tess trailed off. For a second, Declan wasn’t sure she’d continue, but then, she did.

“Look, it’s pretty rare that I have a patient I can’t treat. Not that I have a patient who’s too sick or injured to save. I run a busy, urban ED, so unfortunately, from time to time, I lose someone.” At that, something flickered through her stare, like sadness, only deeper, but she brazened her way past it. “But you’re different. The only thing standing in the way of you getting the treatment that will help you is a technicality, and I’m a doctor. It’s my job to help you in every way I can. I know it’s highly unorthodox. But you don’t have to be one of those patients I can’t help. I don’t have to lose you.”

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