The Doctor's Undoing Read Online Free PDF Page B

wasn’t as if they told each other everything.
    He’d become increasingly aware lately that there were a lot of things he didn’t understand about Haley. One would think after knowing her for two years, he’d have learned all there was to discover. And yet, it felt sometimes as if he’d barely scratched the surface of Haley Wright.
    She gave another little shake of her head, as if clearing her mind of whatever had been bothering her, and quicklychanged the subject. “I met with the rest of the class officers this morning for another planning session for the big tailgate party in September. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
    Haley was the class vice president, and an active member of several committees. The whole class had been together every day during the first two years of classes and lectures; now that rotations had started, they would rarely all be in one place again. Haley was committed to making sure the class stayed connected as much as possible during these final two years of medical school. If it were up to her, they’d probably have monthly pep rallies designed to keep up morale and increase classmate bonding, he thought with a smothered grin.
    â€œYou are planning to go, aren’t you?” she asked when he didn’t immediately respond.
    He shrugged. “Probably. I figure you’ll come after me if I don’t show up.”
    She smiled. “You could be right.”
    She had a pretty smile. It was one of the first things he’d noticed about her when they’d met. She’d sat beside him in their first class and their hands had collided when they’d both reached to plug in their computers to the same outlet. She’d smiled, and his heart had given a funny thump. He still remembered their first conversation.
    â€œAren’t you excited?” she had asked.
    â€œI guess.”
    â€œAnd a little nervous?”
    He’d had no intention of letting her see that he was scared spitless. He had shrugged and drawled, “Nah. I figure if I bomb at doctoring, I can always become a mortician.”
    Haley had blinked a couple of times, then smiled again. “We aren’t going to bomb. Not if we give it all we’ve got. Maybe we can work together sometime. We’ll find a few others who want to form a study group.”
    He had realized immediately that he was sitting next to a cheerleader. It had been no surprise to learn in comingmonths that she had, indeed, been a cheerleader throughout school—not to mention senior class president, “Most Likely to Succeed” and a homecoming princess. Far from being one of the “mean girls,” Haley had probably been popular with everyone in her school. Teachers, other students, cafeteria workers, custodians—she’d have been equally pleasant to all of them, and she would have had their vote for any position she ran for. She just had that way about her.
    There’d been times when her we-can-do-anything attitude had irked him. Especially when his own confidence and morale had been lowest. When he’d been convinced he would have to drop out of medical school and return to east Arkansas with his tail between his legs, proving his family right in their predictions that he would never make it all the way through.
    It hadn’t taken him long to find the right tone to chip through Haley’s cheery optimism. He seemed to have a knack for setting off her temper, which most people probably never even saw. Yet as much as they irritated each other at times, he wasn’t at all sure he’d have made it through those first two years without her. And the rest of the study group members, too, he amended quickly.
    They talked about the tailgate party plans for a few minutes, and then Haley set down her chopsticks. “I can’t eat any more. I’d better go home and study.”
    â€œYeah, me, too. You know, you could come over to my place. We could have