Margaret was stunned, unable to comprehend how things had gone from bad to really stupid. She was sure he was about to tell her to take a hike. The way he glowered at her with those stormy blue eyes, she was sure she was the last person he’d let near his kid or horse. She was absolutely incompetent. Those were the exact words a father had screamed at her in the waiting area of Harborview Trauma Center after she’d botched what was supposed to have been a routine removal of a benign tumor on the temporal lobe of his seven-year-old boy, leaving him unable to communicate. Even worse, the boy could no longer recognize his father. The contempt showered on her by his parents had hollowed her to the point that she was filled with self-loathing.
“Are you okay?” Joe said. He clutched her keys, and
