Tempting Nashville's Celebrity Doc

CHAPTER TWO

“WELL, I NEVER thought I’d see your face here again.”

Startled, Vivian glanced up to see Reece standing in the door of her office, his arms crossed and leaning casually against the doorjamb. Those dark eyes were trained on her, but the sparkle he once shared with her was gone. Still, he was just as handsome as ever. Something about him made her heart beat just a bit faster. She’d thought that being apart from him would dissipate the attraction she’d always had for him. She was wrong.

So wrong.

Which was probably why any relationship she’d had since had been fleeting and not worth a second glance because now, staring at Reece, she knew no man could ever affect her the way Reece had.

She hadn’t heard him come into her office but, then again, he always had a way of sneaking up on her, or nurses, or doctors. As if he moved at the edge of the shadows, unnoticed until he wanted to be seen.

When she’d asked him about it once he’d said offhandedly he’d learned to do that as a child, but never really elaborated further on that. Of course, Reece never did elaborate much on his past. She only knew he was from Nashville. That was it. And she never went on about her past. All he knew was she grew up on the wrong side of the tracks and he didn’t. Though he’d never specified and that was the way they wanted it.

“Past is past, Vivian. Let’s focus on the now.”

“Neither did I,” she answered, folding her hands on the desk in front of her as if that would help protect her from him. “I am surprised to see you’re still here...”

“Well, I wasn’t offered a chance to study under Dr. Mannheim.” There was a hint of bitterness to his voice, but really she wasn’t surprised. Over the years working as Dr. Mannheim’s protégée she’d dealt with a lot of people who were envious of her position.

People who also voiced their opinions that she didn’t deserve it.

That she didn’t earn it.

That she’d slept her way in, but none of that was true. They would know it wasn’t true if they met Dr. Mannheim’s life partner.

Still, there was always an undercurrent of jealousy. Working with Dr. Mannheim had been a huge honor and she wasn’t sorry for taking it. She’d needed to get away from Nashville. She had to protect her heart.

“You could’ve had a similar opportunity, but you never pursued anything. In fact I’m surprised to see you still here. I thought you would’ve moved away. Find a greener pasture for your surgical skill to flourish.”

Reece’s eyes narrowed. “I was needed here. I never wanted to leave Nashville. As I recall, you were the one who was ready to leave this place at a moment’s notice. Greener pastures never impressed me much.”

“I didn’t come back here to argue with you,” Vivian said. “I don’t regret leaving. I came here to work.”

His expression was like thunder and she instantly regretted her words. Reece shut the door and then took a seat in the one and only chair that didn’t have a ton of papers or a box on it.

“Of course. You’re right, Vivian. Whether we like it or not, we’re working together on this. Past is past. Let’s focus on the now and our patient.”

She nodded, relieved but also disappointed...

What was that about?

She was here to work, not dredge up the past. Coming back home to Nashville was bad enough; she didn’t need old feelings getting in the way.

“So why don’t we get to work, then?” she asked.

“Sure,” he said, leaning back in the chair. “What would you like to talk about?”

“Why don’t you fill me in on Mr. Trainer’s case?”

“Signs and symptoms point to Parkinson’s, but...”

“His test came back negative, I take it?”

Reece nodded. “Yes, even though really it’s too soon to tell and hard to diagnose Parkinson’s in the early stages.”

“Do you know when the symptoms first started? Has he given you a history?”

Reece nodded. “He did and the symptoms only started out of the blue the other day when he collapsed on stage. That was two days ago.”

“Sudden onset?” she asked, confused, as the thousands of possibilities swirled in her brain.

“Yes. He collapsed during a performance with what looked like an epileptic seizure. As you can tell from his MRI.” Reece handed her a computer pad, an MRI on the screen. “It’s clear of epileptic seizure activity.”

Vivian stared at the MRI, instantly assessing the images in front of her, like she’d done a thousand times before. Like she’d done about three months ago when her mother’s MRI showed up in her inbox and she could see the clear markers for early onset Alzheimer’s.

“Don’t you worry about me, baby girl. You stay in Germany. Finish your trial. Your work is important.”

It was the tone which had scared her. The shake in her mother’s voice behind the facade of happiness. The same tone she’d used that terrible night Vivian had found her mother bleeding on the kitchen floor. So even though her mother had said she was okay, Vivian knew she wasn’t.

Vivian owed it to her mother to come back home. Her mom had been her only constant in her life. She had sacrificed so much so Vivian could create a future for herself—so she didn’t have to rely on someone else. That was what her mom had always said. In other words, a life where she didn’t have to rely on a man.

“You don’t need a man, Vivian. You’re smart, talented. Don’t let anyone hold you back.”

Her mom’s words had made her decide to go to Germany in the first place. She had wavered over it and for one brief moment she’d thought about putting down roots with Reece. Her mother had changed her mind.

She was very well aware that her mother’s singing career had been held back by her father. A father who couldn’t even be bothered to stick around. Her mother gave up a huge contract because Vivian’s father had been jealous of his wife’s success and then when he was offered a gig he was gone.

And that was the last they saw of him and their savings.

She couldn’t leave her mother high and dry. She couldn’t let her mother, who had early onset Alzheimer’s, live out the rest of her life in a rundown facility while she was halfway across the world.

Vivian might be cutthroat when it came to her career, but she loved her mother. Loved her enough to come back to Nashville.

“Vivian, you okay?”

She shook her head, chasing those thoughts away. “Sorry?”

“You zoned out. I thought perhaps you saw something I might’ve missed,” Reece said, a hint of concern in his voice. She didn’t deserve him. Never had.

“No, sorry. Jet lag.” She passed the tablet back to Reece. “I think I would like another MRI done and an EEG monitor for a forty-eight hour period. Perhaps we can force a seizure in a controlled and monitored environment.”

Reece nodded. “Sounds good, but how do you propose we do that when we don’t know what triggered it?”

“You said he had a seizure on stage at the concert, right?”

“Yes, he did.”

“How about we start with flashing lights, dark room and loud music?”

A small grin crept across Reece’s face. It was good to see him smile. “Good thinking. I’ll get my team of residents on it.”

“Thanks. I’m glad you have the team of residents so readily at your disposal.” It was so easy to talk to him about medicine. She’d forgotten. It was how they’d first connected. How he’d gotten through her defenses.

“Well, all the surgeons do. It’s just I’ve been using them more often for my Alzheimer’s trial study.”

Vivian perked up. “Alzheimer’s study?”

Reece nodded. “Yes, I have a trial running now with some medication therapy and electrotherapy with EEG monitoring for brain activity. I just started it.”

“Have you found all your participants?” Vivian asked.

Reece frowned and cocked an eyebrow. “Why are you so interested?”

“Don’t get on the defensive. Alzheimer’s is not my specialty. I was merely making conversation.”

Reece stared at her in disbelief, but then relaxed. “Yes, my trial is currently full. There is a large pool of people suffering from early onset Alzheimer’s who are more than willing to participate.”

Vivian tried not to show her disappointment, but really it was to be expected. Alzheimer’s trials filled up quickly.

“So not interested in Alzheimer’s, but here to take Dr. Brigham’s job?” he asked.

The question caught her off guard. “Who told you that?”

“I’m not obtuse, Vivian. I know that’s why you’ve come back to Nashville. Why else would you leave Mannheim’s practice?”

“For your information, I outgrew Mannheim’s practice. I wanted to branch out and expand my horizons further. Start my own trial, perhaps, and I couldn’t do that in Munich.”

“Why Nashville?”

“Why does it matter?” Vivian snapped. She didn’t want him to know about her mother. No one needed to know that, but really if her mother hadn’t been so sick she wouldn’t have come back.

“It matters. So, why Nashville?”

“Why not?”

“Only because you were so hell-bent on leaving. You left like a thief in the night. I don’t even remember getting to say goodbye. All I got was a note.”

She saw the anger in him. The hurt. She couldn’t blame him. She knew leaving like that would hurt him. It was a burden that she had to bear to protect herself.

The one time he’d really opened up ever, just after their first time, he said words which stuck with her to this day.

“I’ve lived a life of constant change. I want permanence. I want roots. Roots here in Nashville.”

He wanted something she didn’t and couldn’t give him.

“I thought past was in the past? Focus on the now, remember?”

Reece stood up, his expression hard and cold. His jaw clenched tight. “Right. You’re right.”

“I’m sorry my coming back is hard on you, Dr. Castle, but I’m here to stay and we have to work together so I suggest we make the best of it.”

“Fine.” Only she had a feeling it wasn’t.

“Fine,” she said.

“It’s not like you’ll be here that long anyways,” he snapped.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” It was like a slap to the face. Reminding her again that she’d left him behind, making her feel the guilt more keenly than ever.

Reece shrugged. “I mean once you don’t get the job, Dr. Brigham’s job, you’ll leave.”

“Who says I won’t?”

“I wish I had your confidence, but you’re going against tough competition. Old money, connections, things you don’t have here.” It was as if Reece was using all her old fears to scare her now. To get her to leave. Well, she was stronger now.

Vivian crossed her arms. “I’ve never been one to back down from a challenge. And even if I don’t get it, who says I’ll leave?”

Reece snorted. “You will. You’ll move on to greener pastures. Isn’t that what sharks do?”

The words haunted her because that was what Dr. Brigham had taught her. That was how she’d acted for so long as she’d fought to get surgeries as a resident.

“I’m not a shark.”

Not anymore.

She cleared her throat. “I’m here to explore the potential of a trial on autism, if you must know. One I couldn’t start in Germany. Just part of my working here was working with you on this case because I am one of the best diagnostician neurosurgeons in Europe, next to Mannheim.”

He smirked. “So you’re not after Dr. Brigham’s job?”

Vivian shook her head. “Yes, I am. I have aspirations on Dr. Brigham’s job. Who wouldn’t?”

* * *

Me.

Only Reece kept that thought to himself. No one needed to know he had no desire or plans to run. He had no aspirations on Dr. Brigham’s job. He preferred being on the front line. He liked the OR too much. He didn’t like the spotlight or the PR aspects of running a surgical program. He didn’t crave the spotlight like his parents did. Most people would think so, but he didn’t. He abhorred it. That was why he didn’t use his real surname. Why he’d changed Castille to Castle when he was eighteen. He wanted to hide the fact he was the son of country music royalty. He didn’t want people to know that his father was Ray Castille, one of the biggest artists to grace the halls of the Grand Ole Opry. His mother, Edna, had been a model and preferred the jet-setting lifestyle and Hollywood over him and his father, to be honest. Wealth, fame and prestige destroyed lives.

Ruined people.

The limelight wasn’t for him.

He hated the attention, the world he’d grown up in. Wealth and glamour did not lead to a normal childhood. So he avoided attention as much as he could. Privacy was what he wanted, though if his Alzheimer’s trial was successful that could change. Bringing in money.

And maybe then he could help more people who couldn’t afford health care or specialists.

Don’t think about it.

“I’m sorry. Really, your reasons for returning aren’t my concern. I was just...I was surprised to see you,” Reece apologized.

She was going to say something more when his pager buzzed. It was a code blue on Gary. He turned on his heel and ran. He could hear Vivian following him.

“What is it?” she shouted behind him.

“Code blue,” he shouted back over his shoulder.

As soon as he came into the room the nurse began to fill him in. It was a seizure, but one that seemed to be affecting Gary’s heart as well. It was strange, both monitors showing his cardiac and neurological distress.

Vivian didn’t ask any questions. She just dove right in, ordering medicine and keeping calm as she rapidly fired off instructions beside him. Just like the good old days.

“His pulse ox is down. He can’t breathe,” she shouted over the alarms. “Why is he not getting enough oxygen?”

I don’t know. Only he didn’t say that out loud as he pulled over the crash cart. They worked together over Gary like they’d worked together a long time ago. As if no time had passed at all.

He’d forgotten how calm and collected she was. How she grounded him. How she grounded the whole room in an emergency situation. He’d missed that.

“Charge to ten,” she said above the din as Gary flatlined.

Reece grabbed the paddles. “Clear.” Everyone stepped back and he shocked Gary’s heart back into rhythm.

The heartbeat stabilized, sinus rhythm returning and seizures ended. Reece breathed a sigh of relief as the monitors bleeped in time with a stable heart and his pulse ox rose again.

“Thanks,” he said to Vivian. They shared a smile and it made his heart skip a beat because it was as if nothing had changed.

“No problem,” she said. “That’s what I’m here for.”

He was glad she was here, but she’d left once. She’d leave again. He didn’t need her. And he had to keep reminding himself of that to reinforce the walls he’d built.

“I can take it from here,” he said, looking away quickly. Just working alongside her stirred so many memories within him. It reminded him of the hurt and pain from when she’d left. She’d been the one person he’d opened up to and she’d betrayed him. Broke his heart and just affirmed his belief that you couldn’t trust anyone.

His parents and many so-called friends had shown him that. Even his parents had always been unreliable and never really there when he’d needed them. There was only one person Reece could rely on and that was himself.

“Are you sure?” Vivian asked. “I can stay...”

“No. Go get settled. I’ll let you know when everything is set up to monitor him.”

Vivian nodded and left the room, which he was thankful for. The last thing he needed was to carry on that heated conversation out in the open. One thing was for certain. He had to keep his distance from Vivian, which was going to be impossible to do, the longer Gary was in the hospital, but it had to be done.

For his own good.

CHAPTER THREE

“MAMA?” VIVIAN SET down her briefcase on the floor in the entranceway. She’d been surprised the door had been unlocked when she tried her key. Her mother never left the door unlocked, especially since they’d grown up in a less desirable location in the city. Although her mother’s house wasn’t in a bad part of town anymore; Vivian had taken care of that when she’d gone to Germany by buying this place. Still, it was no reason to leave her door unlocked.

The door being unlocked had Vivian on alert. Especially as there was no answer to her query when she first walked in. Her mother was definitely home as Vivian had the car now. Her mother’s license had been revoked the day the diagnosis came down.

It didn’t stop her mother from walking, though.

“Mama?” Vivian called out again, a little more urgent this time. She walked toward the kitchen and memories of that horrible day when she was a young girl came rushing back...the moment she’d found her mother in a pool of blood. Painful nightmarish memories that she hadn’t thought about in a long time.

Her mother’s suicide attempt after her father left was the stuff of nightmares for Vivian.

It was something they didn’t talk about. That year, the year her mother checked out, haunted her for so long and in this moment, calling out to her mother, it was overpowering.

“Mama?”

Her mother rushed out of the kitchen, a tea towel in one hand, a dish in the other. She looked surprised. “Vivian? When did you get back?”

“Just now.” She sent up a silent prayer of relief.

Her mother embraced her. “If I had known you were coming for a visit...”

Vivian’s heart sank and she could see that faraway gaze in her mother’s eyes. Her mother wasn’t lucid. “Mama, I came home a week ago.”

“What?”

“I moved back a week ago. Don’t you remember?”

Her mother’s eyes sparked and then there was recognition and the fog lifted. “Right. Oh, right. I remember.”

“Do you?”

“Yes, yes I do.” Her mother shook her head and laughed softly, obviously embarrassed and flustered. “How was your day at work? Back to your old stomping ground.”

A nightmare.

Only she didn’t say that out loud. She didn’t want to upset her mother. Her mother knew about Reece and Vivian didn’t want her to get the wrong idea about her return.

“Good. It was good. How was your day?”

Her mother sighed. “I thought it was good... I’m sorry to let you down. I swear I thought I was doing good.”

“You’re not letting me down and you are doing good. You just had a blip.” Vivian ran her hand through her hair, trying to brush away the stress that was building. “How often do these blips happen, though?”

“I haven’t had one since you arrived. At least I don’t think so.”

Vivian sighed again as her mother headed back into the kitchen. She’d been with her mother since she’d come home, but this was her first day away from her and she’d had a setback. Thankfully, nothing had happened, but perhaps she should look into having a nurse or a personal support worker here when she wasn’t here. Just to help her mother with the blips. Although her mother wouldn’t go for it.

“Don’t go to all that trouble for me. I can take care of myself for now. You’re here to work, not fuss over me.”

Her mother came back and they settled in the cozy living room that was filled with overstuffed furniture, fake floral arrangements and pictures of her from her childhood. All the things that made her mother happy. Or so her mother said when she’d decorated the home. Either way, it was cozy and brought a smile to Vivian’s face.

“So was Dr. Brigham excited to see you again?” her mother asked, excited.

“Yes, I suppose so.”

Her mother smiled. “You suppose so? Well, I’m sure he was happy to see one of his students, one of his best students, back again.”

“I’m not the only former student at the hospital.”

“Oh?”

Vivian stopped herself because the last time she’d talked to her mother about Reece she’d told Vivian to break it off and never look back. Her mother had always stated Vivian had to be her own person. To put her career first and a man second.

“Don’t give up on your dreams, Vivian. Not for Reece. I don’t care if he’s a good man or if you love him. You have to go to Germany. It’s your dream. Go or you’ll regret it.”

Her mother had never approved of Reece. She’d thought he was a distraction and she’d been right. He was.

“Just some old friends. Old faces.”

Liar.

Her mother smiled again. “Well, that’s good.”

Vivian nodded. “Yes. It’s a big change from Germany, though. When I worked for Dr. Mannheim it was in a clinic. A private clinic. I’m not used to being back on rounds again.”

“I’m sure you’ll get used to it. Isn’t it good to be home?”

“It’s good to be home with you, Mama.” Vivian glanced up into her mother’s warm eyes. She did love being with her mother. She’d missed her while she was in Germany, but it had been hard growing up in Nashville. Even if they were far away from the kids who teased her, she would still wake up crying for a mother who wasn’t there. Her mother had to work day and night to keep a roof over her head.

Nashville reminded her that love wasn’t enough. Love made life harder. Everyone she loved left and she’d done her share of hurt too. Reece’s behavior today was proof of that.

Even her mother was leaving. The disease was stealing her away, piece by piece. So young. Life was robbing her mother again.

“You okay, Vivian? Was it a rough day?” Her mother squeezed her knee. The blip was minor, but it was there.

“No, Mama. It wasn’t a rough day.”

“Good. You’ll have to tell me all about it.” Her mother got up and left, heading back into the kitchen.

Hiring a nurse, or at least a companion, would be top priority tomorrow. She’d call her mother’s friend Florence to come sit with her tomorrow while she worked her shift at the hospital. It was too short notice to find a nurse now and Vivian wanted to interview people for the position.

Vivian would have taken the day off, but she’d only just started back at Cumberland Mills. She couldn’t take the time off work. Especially not when she’d been assigned a high-profile case and was trying to vie for Dr. Brigham’s position. If she took time off, it would not look good to those making the decision.

Reece had made it clear that he didn’t think she had a chance at Dr. Brigham’s job. Well, she’d prove him wrong like she’d always done.

There was a ping and she checked her phone. It was one of Reece’s residents.

Gary Trainer was stable and talking. He’d also been cleared by cardio. The resident asked if she wanted to come by and set up the testing.