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She stroked his face with her hand. “Thank you.”
“What for?” He pressed a kiss to her palm.
“Being there for me. I’m not good at needing anyone, or asking for help,” Gina said. “But I wanted to thank you.”
“You’re welcome. I know you’re very strong, and totally self-reliant, but sometimes we all need to lean on someone.” A stray tear escaped from her eye, and he wiped it away with his thumb. “I’m here if you need to lean on me. My shoulders can take it.”
Molly Evans has worked as a nurse from the age of nineteen. She’s worked in small rural hospitals, the Indian Health Service, and large research facilities all over the United States. After spending eight years as a Traveling Nurse, she settled down to write in her favourite place—Albuquerque, New Mexico. Within days she met her husband, and has been there ever since. With twenty-two years of nursing experience, she’s got a lot of material to use in her writing. She lives in the high desert with her family, three chameleons, two dogs, and has a passion for quilting in whatever spare time she has. Visit Molly at: www.mollyevans.com
Recent titles by the same author:
THE NURSE’S LITTLE MIRACLE
THE SURGEON’S MARRIAGE PROPOSAL
BY
MOLLY EVANS
CHAPTER ONE
Hidden Valley, Virginia, U.S.A.
NURSE GINA RIDDLES stood in the parking lot and looked up at the hospital she had hoped never to enter again. Although necessary, returning here wasn’t on her list of fun-filled things to do this summer. Being a travel nurse had been her dream, and she was living it. Over the last few years she’d been there and done it all. Trauma, open-heart surgery, research facilities and cutting-edge university hospitals. She’d worked in many cities and states, traveling as she’d never have been able to if working a permanent job. Travel nursing afforded her the opportunity to visit exotic places and still make a decent living. Coming back here brought her dreams to a screeching halt.
She had hoped she’d be in and out of her home town in a week but unfortunately settling her father’s estate hadn’t been as simple as she’d hoped. There was so much more involved than packing up his clothing and calling in a maid service.
The honk of a car horn distracted her, and she realized she was in the middle of the parking lot. She moved out of the way and took another look. A sleek, silver, late- model Porsche purred just feet away from her. The driver inched the car forward and zipped down the window.
“Hello. May I help you?”
Gina gulped and felt the thrill all the way to her toenails. Sitting there was the most fabulous-looking man she’d ever seen. Even from behind his designer sunglasses she could see the most piercing blue eyes that cut right through her. The man was gorgeous. Gina’s tongue suddenly felt heavy and dry. She doubted she could carry on a conversation and hoped he didn’t ask her anything too complicated. Wow. There had been no doctors like this when she had been here six years ago. Certainly none with wavy dark hair with tips kissed by the sun, darkly tanned and fit, like him.
“Are you lost?” he asked, and turned the car into a designated physician spot.
“No. I’m in the right place.” His soft, smoky voice almost made her want to follow him around just to hear him speak again. Making a fool of herself the second she arrived at her new job was not the impression she wanted to make. She was a professional. Really. “Unfolded himself” was the only way to describe how he exited the shiny new car. With a leather briefcase in one hand and a white lab coat in the other, he looked down at her as if waiting for something. With one glance she knew he was someone important. He had that made-from-money look about him. The way he carried himself, the cut of his suit. Everything about him, even the exotic spicy fragrance that drifted on the morning air, whispered Money. He removed his sunglasses, and she knew exactly the kind of man he was.
His family was made from money, old Virginia money, a culture very different from her own. Another reminder of her past that she didn’t need today.
“Yes. I’m heading inside, but wanted to take one last breath of fresh air before taking the plunge.” She walked alongside him, determined to get through this temporary assignment as well as possible. It was just another job like all the others, right?
“I see. And you are…?” His brows lifted with the question, and he turned those blue eyes on her again.
She held out her hand, and he gave it a brief, firm shake. “Oh, sorry. Gina Riddles, travel nurse.”
“Thomas Ferguson, medical director of the ER. Welcome aboard, Gina. This your first time in Virginia?” he asked, and led the way through the parking area to the staff entrance of the ER.
“No. I grew up here, but haven’t been back for a few years.” After this assignment was over she was gone. She wasn’t staying in this place one second longer than absolutely necessary. Thank God this job was only temporary. She’d see her mother settled and then find another assignment, on an island somewhere maybe, where she could relax and catch up on her reading. Hawaii sounded good.
“Well, welcome back. Let’s see about getting you to the charge nurse.”
Gina followed him, trying to live in the moment, not her past. A past that threatened to take her back to the place she’d struggled so hard to leave. She tried not to listen to the erratic beating of her heart. Certainly, it had nothing to do with this man’s unexpected presence and everything to do with her new job. At least that’s what she tried to convince herself of as she stuck her backpack under the desk.
Thomas frowned as he watched Gina talk with Rhonda, the charge nurse. A redheaded beauty with flawless skin. Some hesitation in her blue eyes, though. Hopefully she’d be more than eye candy. Tall and physically fit, she looked like a runner and someone who might be able to keep up with him, biking in the mountains. Certainly he was old enough and wise enough not to be smitten by a first meeting with a beautiful woman, but there was something about her. Turning away, he entered his office, puzzled at the way such a short meeting had intrigued him.
Gina glanced up just as Thomas moved away. Her gaze lingered on his back.
“I see you’ve met our Dr Thomas,” Rhonda said, a knowing smile on her face. “He’s something, isn’t he?”
“Oh, yeah,” Gina said on a breath of a sigh.
Rhonda laughed, and Gina dragged her gaze away. “I’m so sorry. That was really rude, wasn’t it?”
“No. Totally understandable. He’s very easy on the eye.”
“No kidding,” Gina said, and snorted at that major understatement. “Now, where were we?”
Hours later, assigned to bring the next patient through Triage, she entered the waiting room. An elderly man rose on trembling knees and clasped a walking cane. Gina strode over to him and offered her arm. “I’m Gina, and I’ll be your nurse for a while today.” The man took her arm and leaned heavily on it. Unprepared for the movement, Gina compensated and clasped her arm around his thin waist to help support him through the waiting room. “Do you need a wheelchair? I can go get one if it would be easier for you.”
“No. I’ve had too much sitting down as it is,” he said. “I can walk that far,” he went on, and after a slight hesitation he placed one arm over her shoulders for extra support.
After settling him in a cubicle, Gina started the obligatory history for any patient who entered. “What brings you in today?”
The man cleared his throat and looked away, clearly uncomfortable with whatever he was about to say. “I need a man doctor. Do you have one of them here?”
“A man doctor, hmm? I think we have one around, but I should tell him a little bit about what’s going on.” She tried to be as gentle as possible with her questions, but did need to get information out of him before dragging a doctor in to see him. “Is it a personal issue?”
“Very. Hasn’t been a woman other than my wife seen my privates since I was a private. World War Two, you know.”
“Gotcha. Is it OK if I check your blood pressure and pulse first so I can tell the doctor I did my job?” Gina asked, and pulled out a BP cuff.
“Sure,” he said, and held out his arm, but remained standing beside the gurney.
“You’re running a fever. Did you know that?” A temperature was a warning sign of something wrong. The flush to his cheeks didn’t look good, and his pulse was irregular. Another sign of trouble. This man definitely needed some help right away. Something in her, some finely tuned nursing instinct, told her there was more to his story.
“Yes, ma’am. Been feeling poorly for some time now.” He shook his head in disgust. “Just thought it would go away eventually, but it hasn’t.”
“What did you think would go away?” she asked, and busied herself with her paperwork, hoping that by keeping her eyes averted he would tell her something that he couldn’t say while facing her.
“I’ve got swelling where there shouldn’t be any. My thigh and…groin are swollen something awful,” he said, shifting his weight again.
Gina removed his shirt and put a patient gown on him, but he kept his pants on. “Can you sit on the gurney, or is it too painful?” Hopefully he could at least lie down and relieve some of the pressure on the groin area. “If you can’t sit, I can help you to lie down, which probably will be more comfortable for you.”
“I’ll try,” he said. After removing his trousers while keeping his modesty, Gina assisted him into a reclining position.
Mr Jones was sweating and breathing hard after getting onto the gurney. As a precaution she gave him oxygen. “Sometimes oxygen can help with the pain,” she said, and connected the cardiac monitor and automatic blood-pressure cuff as well. One glance at the heart monitor, and she was certain that he was as stable as she could make him for the moment.
“I’ll take anything at this point,” he said, breathed deeply and then closed his eyes. The wrinkle between his brows deepened.
“Let me see who I can find for you.” Hurrying toward the nurses’station, she almost collided with Dr Ferguson in the hallway. “Doctor? I’ve got a situation I could use your help with.”
“Sure. What’s the trouble?” Thomas asked, putting aside the chart he was reading and focusing on Gina.
“I’ve got a patient who’s requesting a male physician. He’s apparently very private and wouldn’t allow me to examine him properly, but he says his groin is swollen, red and painful. He’s also feverish, tachycardic, and in extreme pain. He can’t sit very well.” Gina hesitated as she watched him digest that information. “I think there’s something seriously wrong with him.”
“Anything else?” His blue eyes searched hers, his expression unreadable.
Gina swallowed, uncomfortable with his piercing regard. “At this point, no. That’s all I’ve got.” She knew she should have had more information to give him, but right now the patient needed the doctor’s input.
“Lead the way. Any family with him?”
“No, but he is married.” Gina led Thomas to the patient.
They entered the cubicle. “Mr Jones? This is Dr Ferguson. He’s going to do a more thorough exam.” Gina backed out of the way and pulled the curtain around them. “I’ll wait outside to give you a bit more privacy. Call me if you need something.” Gina tugged the curtain closed.
“So, what seems to be the trouble, Mr Jones? The nurse seemed to think it was of a…delicate nature.” Thomas observed the man’s flushed cheeks and glanced at the monitor, confirming Gina’s assessment of stability.
“It is,” Mr Jones said. “I have a…um…condition. It’s too painful. I held out as long as I could, but I just don’t know what to do about it anymore.”
“Oh, I see. Well, how about I take a look?”
Thomas gloved up, preparing to examine the patient. When he eased the gown away, he cringed and tried to keep all expression from his face. Good God. He took a deep breath as he assessed the man’s affected areas. The groin and upper thigh were red, the skin inflamed and hard as a rock. The left testicle was the size of a grapefruit. “What happened here?”
“I fell and a few days later this is what showed up.” Mr Jones shook his head in disgust, but even that small movement seemed to give him pain.
There had to be more to the story than that. “You fell?” That wasn’t what his gut was telling him had happened to Mr Jones. Thomas’s suspicions were more along the lines of malignancy. The man might have a trauma as well, but that wasn’t the only thing wrong with him. Thomas sighed, knowing this wasn’t going to be an easy case. But then, easy cases rarely interested him. He liked the intricacies of complicated cases. He knew he should go into hematology or infectious diseases, but his heart was in emergency medicine and the excitement it brought.
“Tripped over the damned cat. Guess I need to get my eyeglass prescription changed, too. Didn’t even see her.” He winced as Thomas continued the exam.
This was no injury from a fall. Instinct and years of experience told Thomas it was much more than that. The lymph nodes in the left groin and tissue in the upper thigh were swollen, firm, red and painful to the touch. With a sigh, he stood upright. “I’d like to run some tests to figure out what’s going on and see if we can’t make you more comfortable with a little medication.” This wasn’t going to be a simple fix or an easy diagnosis. He was certain of it.
Thomas stepped outside the curtain, but he didn’t have to look far for Gina.
“So, did you figure out what’s going on with him?” she asked, and walked along beside him to the nurses’station.
“Unfortunately, I left my X-ray glasses at home today.” He picked up the chart and started writing. “Give him some morphine.” Thomas shuddered, sympathetic to Mr Jones’s plight. “Then complete lab work-up, X-rays, CT scan, urine culture and blood cultures. We’ll also probably have to set up a referral to the hematology- oncology team as well. Have the secretary find out if they can see him today. This looks pretty urgent.” Thomas scribbled quickly in the chart as he rattled the orders off to Gina.
“You think he’s got cancer, don’t you?” she asked, her eyes wide.
“I think he has advanced cancer, and doesn’t have a clue. Tripped over his cat and believes that brought on this condition,” Thomas said, and shook his head.
“Denial is a very powerful coping mechanism,” Gina said, thinking about her own situation with her parents. “It gets people through a lot of tough situations they couldn’t deal with otherwise.”
Thomas didn’t respond for a moment, but studied her wide, expressive eyes clouded with concern for her patient. The woman was gorgeous. Tall, slender, with curly red hair pulled back into a clip that somehow managed to almost contain the mass. Yeah, he’d seen that before. Not going near that again, no matter how attractive the package. Once was enough for him. Keeping things professional was his best strategy with the budding attraction he was starting to feel for Gina. “Are you asking me not to be judgmental?”
“Yes. For just a moment.” She bit her lip, hoping she wasn’t leaping off a cliff here.
“Well, you’re right,” he said, and scribbled some more on the chart, then handed it to her. “But I still think he has cancer.”
“Thank you, Doctor.” She nodded, sending the mass of curling ringlets bobbing.
“Thomas, please.”
She gave a quick smile. “Thomas, then.” She took the chart from him. “I’ll get started on these right away.”
Travel nurses. He just didn’t get that. Uprooting their lives every three months to go somewhere else and do it all over again. Having come from a family firmly entrenched in Virginia, wanderlust wasn’t in his genes. Travelers fulfilled staffing needs, and they certainly had one now. Returning to his charting, he forced himself not to watch Gina walk away, though looking at the back of her was just as attractive as looking at the front. With a sigh of disgust at the surge of hormones racing through his system, he reached for the phone and jerked it off the hook. Now was not the time for him to be falling for a coworker, especially one he’d just met.
Gina approached Mr Jones’s cubicle. “Knock, knock. Can I come in?” She peeked through the curtain.
“Yes, ma’am,” Mr Jones responded. He lay with his eyes closed, his fingers laced and resting on his abdomen.
“The doctor’s ordered some bloodwork and other tests,” she said, and took his arm to look for a vein. “As soon as I get an IV started, I’ll give you some pain medicine, too. You look like you could use a touch of it right now.” In minutes she had the IV fluids going and injected the pain medicine. “Here comes the morphine. Just breathe slowly and let it go to work.” Easing a patient’s pain was the most important thing to her as a nurse. Sometimes the pain was physical, sometimes it was emotional. But she did whatever she could to help those in need. That’s why she’d become a nurse. She focused on helping others and found a place where she fit in.
Within minutes Mr Jones started to relax and his heart rate decreased by twenty points. “That’s better, isn’t it?” Gina asked, and patted his arm in a soothing manner. “Now that you’re a little more comfortable, I’m going to get you to Radiology for those other tests. Why don’t you tell me a little about yourself while I take you over there?”
Several hours later, after all the tests were over, Gina brought Mr Jones back to the cubicle and searched for Thomas. She knocked on his office door. “Dr Ferguson? Um, Thomas? Mr Jones’s tests are complete and ready for you to review.”
Thomas set down the chart he had been reading. “I’m sure they’re not good, but I’ll be happy to look at them.” He stood with a sigh, disturbed by the task ahead, knowing already what the results would be. Gina hesitated by the door, looking up at him, chewing on her lower lip as worry crept into her eyes. He wanted to put her at ease. He knew he could be demanding sometimes, but he just wanted what was in the patient’s best interests. Not that she knew that, being so new to working here. “Something else on your mind?” he asked, and approached her, wanting to see if his reaction to her was any different than it had been this morning.
“I know it’s not my place to tell you how to do your job, but…” Some doctors didn’t appreciate interference, especially from someone they didn’t know. But she wouldn’t be acting in her patient’s best interests if she didn’t say something.
“But what?” Thomas raised a brow and nodded, realizing he was standing very close to her. He took a step back, adding just a little distance between them. “If you have something to say, say it. I appreciate the honesty.” Especially after the games his ex had played. Honesty was a refreshing change.
“You have doom and gloom written all over you even before you go in there. He deserves your best face, even if it’s not how you feel.” Gina tensed, watching Thomas, waiting for him to tear into her. A moment passed, and he said nothing. Surprised that he didn’t, Gina waited for him to answer.
“I’m not going to give him false hope if that’s what you’re asking,” Thomas said, and met her gaze squarely. “That’s not appropriate.”
“If there’s any hope at all, it’s not false,” she said, as they moved away from his office toward the cubicle. “Sometimes people need to have something to believe in, even if they know it’s only temporary.” Thomas walked along with her, contemplating her words.
“You sound pretty certain of that,” he said, and stopped outside the cubicle.
“Unfortunately, I am. Comes from personal experience.” Without elaborating further, she pushed aside the curtain. “We’re back, Mr Jones.”
“What’s the word, Doctor?” he asked.
“Mr Jones, I believe it would be prudent to have you stay in the hospital for a day or two to undergo further evaluation.” He leaned against the counter in the room and gave a mental sigh. “After the exam and looking at your preliminary test results, I’m thinking that you have cancer in your groin. It wasn’t the fall that caused your injuries, but it certainly may have aggravated them.”
“Cancer, eh?” Mr Jones said, and blinked several times as he digested the information. “That’s a tough one.” He rubbed his jaw with his work-callused hand.
“It certainly is. So if there are any treatment options, the oncologist will be able to give you a better prognosis than I can right now.” Thomas hated bearing bad news, but it was part of the job. And Gina was right. If there was any hope at all, it wasn’t false. He’d do well to remember that.
“OK. If you say so.” Mr Jones closed his eyes. “I don’t know what I’m going to tell Elizabeth. She’s always leaned on me.” The long sigh he emitted said it all.
“I’ll call Admitting, then,” Gina said quietly.
“Go ahead.” Thomas watched as she carried out his orders. Calm, efficient, firm in her beliefs, and not afraid to express her opinion. Interesting combination.
“Got a room on the fourth floor.” As Gina leaned over the counter to write, Thomas hesitated. There was something about her that made him want to stop and look. She was certainly attractive and obviously dedicated to her job, but that wasn’t enough for him to really notice her. Was it the fiery red hair that was now half out of its clip, or the impish grin that had flitted over her face momentarily? Or was it the glimpse of unmasked vulnerability he had seen in her sparkling blue eyes when they had discussed Mr Jones’s case? Maybe that was why she was a traveler, running away from something painful in her life. She’d alluded to it just moments ago. In any case, it wasn’t any of his business, and he left the cubicle.
Gina finished writing up her chart and approached Mr Jones. “Hey, handsome. After I take you upstairs, I’ll call your wife. She’s probably worried about you by now.” She knew he was probably trying to protect his wife, but now was not the time to keep this kind of information a secret. Sharing often brought people closer. Except in the case of her parents. But that was a whole different problem. “I’ll just grab the paperwork on the way,” she said, and stopped with him at the desk. “Are you through with that, Doctor?” she asked. “I’m about to take Mr Jones upstairs.”
“Thomas, remember?”
“Sorry.” She wrinkled her nose at the slip. “I’m not used to calling doctors by their first names. I’ll try,” she said, and colored lightly under his amused regard. She schooled herself not to react to that intense stare of his. She’d learned the lesson the hard way years ago that a nice pair of eyes didn’t mean anything, and she wasn’t about to step over the line again. Once was enough.
“Here you go.” He handed her the bundle of mismatched paperwork that served as a chart. “I’ve added a few new orders for tomorrow.”
“Thanks. I’ll make sure to pass it along.” Gina nodded and gave a quick glance back at Thomas, wondering what he was doing in this town. She knew about his family, and they were the kind that didn’t just attend universities, they built them. No great university or research hospitals in Hidden Valley. Just a little town with a whole lot of nobodys in it. She gave a mental shrug. His life was none of her business. Getting curious about him would only bring trouble she didn’t need. The phone rang, pulling her away from her thoughts. Thomas picked up the phone, and Gina moved off with the gurney toward the back hallway and the staff elevators.