About Ivory
by J. Rocci
80 pages / 21800 words
ISBN: 978-1-61040-136-4
Ebook zipped file contains -
html, lit, Adobe and Sony optimized pdf, prc, epub
Trapped by familial obligations, engaged to a fiancée he doesn’t love,
and crippled by the regrets of his past, Dr. Bradley Durrant is miserable
and rapidly caring less about his own health as he works himself to the bone
at the family hospital. Then he meets Nashan Windham, the grandson of his
late father’s scandalous old friend, and Brad’s downward spiral is derailed,
at least for the moment.
He lets Nashan and his grandfather pull him into a world where families --
blood and the ones you choose -- support each other and understand that love
is unconditional. Nashan helps Brad get his life together again, now Brad
just needs to convince Nashan that Brad can finally accept who he is and
knows what he wants.
Sample
There was only one of the four night shift nurses sitting behind the
children’s oncology station when Bradley arrived. He waved and she blushed,
looking down at her desk.
“Oh, Dr. Durrant,” Glen said quickly, glancing up again. “Monica left a note
for you on Room 342.”
He slowed down. “Is it urgent?”
“No, her parents requested a visit in the morning, after your rounds.”
He nodded. “Let them know that I’ll stop by, please.”
She grinned at him and he gave a half-hearted smile before continuing on to
the recreation room. Visiting hours and rec time were long past, but Bradley
didn’t need more than the light of the city streets outside to navigate the
room.
His objective gripped firmly in one hand, he went to see his nightly
“problem” patient.
He popped his head into Room 355, around the privacy curtain. Sure enough
Mrs. Lewkowski was snoring in her cot, exhausted, and a pair of bored
seven-year-old eyes blinked at him from the hospital bed.
“Hey there,” Bradley whispered. “You up for company?”
Tommy peered at him and nodded eagerly. “Yeah. What do you have tonight?”
Bradley held up a pack of Uno cards. The drugs always affected kids
differently. Tommy had the worst of it in the evenings, when he’d get
restless and was prone to making a fuss, which could set off half the floor.
His parents traded off nights at the hospital so someone was always home
with Tommy’s brother and sisters. Tommy had a clip-on booklight and comic
books for when he couldn’t settle down, but even with palliative care, the
pain could be taxing on a kid.
If Bradley could be a distraction for a couple hours a night to let either
parent rest, he considered it part of maintaining his patient’s overall
health.
“How are you at Uno?” He asked conspiratorially, in tucking himself in the
visitor’s chair and ready to stay for a while.