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looking for a release. Pounding his fist into the sheet of drywall over and over again, he cursed and grunted, mincing his hand in the process.
    “Oh my God, stop it!” she cried, rushing toward him. “Are you crazy?”
    “You have no fuckin’ idea,” he muttered, leaning his head against the broken wall. Sweat dripped into his eyes, stinging. His hand throbbed, but still the only thing he could feel was his heart breaking all over again. He felt the same as he had that night on the roadside, as though his whole life had come crashing down around him and he couldn’t do a damn thing to minimize the damage. “I hated you. I still do,” he said quietly, refusing to acknowledge that there were days when he loved her more than he hated her.
    It pained him to think of all the hours he’d wasted wondering what had happened to her. Had she ever married? He glanced at her left hand. Obviously not, since she’d just fucked him as though her life depended on it. Not that he would expect her to be loyal to her husband when she wasn’t faithful to him.
    “Come in to the bathroom,” she said, taking his other hand.
    “No, I gotta get the hell out of here.” He could barely breathe. Feeling her delicate touch made him feel as though the room was closing in on him and nothing existed beyond these walls.
    “You’re not going anywhere until I see to your injuries, Briar. I took the Hippocratic Oath, and I intend to uphold it whether you like it or not.” She led him into the bathroom, pointing to the closed commode. “Sit down.”
    “So, you became a doctor after all, huh?” he asked, taking the seat as he watched her run water over a white washcloth in the small sink.
    “Yeah, I’m an ER doctor at Caledon Memorial.”
    Caledon was the main hospital that served all the neighboring counties. He was lucky not to have sustained any injuries that would land him in the hospital on her watch. “I heard your folks moved to Caledon a few years back,” he said, trying not to react when she threw a towel down and sank to her knees on the tile floor.
    “Dad was ready to retire, and they thought they could keep an eye on me if they lived nearby.” She smiled when he winced as she swiped the cloth over his battered hand. “Sorry.”
    He knew he was an idiot to take his rage out that way; he deserved to suffer the consequences. “It’s okay.” He watched her long blonde hair fall over her face like a veil as she concentrated on his wounds. Itching to tuck it gently behind her ear the way he’d done a hundred times before, he clenched his fist. Being so close to her, especially after the intimacy they’d shared earlier, was torture. “Do you see them often, your parents?”
    Biting her lip, she frowned at the deepest wound, the one that wouldn’t stop bleeding, no matter how much pressure she put on it. “Not as much as they’d like. I try to make it over there for Sunday dinner with my brother’s family.”
    “Jeez, how is Jack? I haven’t seen him since high school.” Maya’s older brother Jack was one of his best friends and football teammates growing up. “He got married?”
    She squeezed his hand to apply pressure to the open wound. “Yeah, not long after he graduated. She’s a great girl. In fact, she was his veterinary assistant; that’s how they met. They’ve got twin girls; they’re almost three.”
    He tried to imagine his old friend, Jack, all grown up with a family of his own. It wasn’t hard; he was always the mature, responsible one of their group. “I’m glad to hear things have worked out for him.”
    She looked up and their eyes locked for a brief second before she resumed her task. “You should call him sometime. I know he’d love to hear from you.”
    Jack was already away at college by the time he and Maya broke up, and when he moved to the neighboring town after graduation, they’d simply lost touch. “Yeah, I should look him up. Maybe he’d like to get together for a beer some