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Taylor’s heart hurt She reached across the space between their chairs and took his hand “Oh, Jack”

He sucked in a breath “It was the first I’d ht I think he thought I was going to hurt myself and was afraid no one else would keep a constant eye on ht Not even when I went to the john”

He gave a humorless snort

“I don’t think I would have done anything, but I wasn’t in h and the light that lit one out”

He sed hard

“I didn’t knoho her family was, just her name Duffy helped track them down, but no one caone Maybe that’s why she’d left to begin with” He sighed “Soed for her to be cremated or maybe it was the State of California who did that I don’t know, just that Duffy was there and helped get her ashes for me He saved me”

Fighting tears, Taylor squeezed his hand “I’lad he was there”

“Me, too” Jack swiped at his eyes, sed hard, then exhaled “I’m not sure ould have happened to ht and taken a kid under his wing”

“You’d have found your way”

“Maybe, but I could have just as easily have slipped off that slippery slope that had clai myself”

“Instead,” she reminded him, “you became a doctor”

“Because I became a doctor,” he clarified “I watched Duffy and that doctor work on Courtney, trying to save her life, and I knew that’s what I had to do I wanted to save lives, to make a difference to someone someday, the way they’d tried to make a difference for her and did make a difference for me”

Taylor’s heart swelled at what Jack had gone through, at how so had not pulled him down but had lifted him up to become the man before her

“You’re a good person, Jack”

He snorted “I’ve done so my life”