He’d had a plan for how to woo Simon. It involved long, drawn-out courting, some slow-build flirting, and then, when the timing was right, he’d invite Simon into a discreet relationship that wouldn’t upset the hospital policy. Instead, here he was, making out with Simon in a closet when he should have been scrubbing in for surgery.
Had he completely lost his mind?
Apparently.
He wanted to blame it on Orth, but he had to take a great deal of the responsibility on himself. He’d lost control when he’d seen Orth holding on to Simon’s arm, and he’d handled the situation poorly. It could have gone south in so many ways. If Orth had fought back, one or both of them could have injured their hands.
The kiss, though. Hong-Wei had imagined kissing Simon a few times, but nothing had prepared him for the reality. It had been like stealing a fingerful of a luscious dessert. Now it was all he could think about, knowing there was so much more to savor.
If only he hadn’t done the sampling in the supply closet.
If only Simon hadn’t said just this once.
He shoved thoughts of kissing Simon aside and focused on the surgery instead, going over the notes one last time before entering the OR. The patient was already there, sedated, and Gagnon checked her as Hong-Wei scrubbed in.
Simon was present also.
He inspected instruments and told the techs where they should be, reminding them of the new procedures. Gagnon watched all this with mild interest, heedless of the fact that his presence seemed to unnerve every nurse and tech in the room but Simon.
Simon was only unnerved by Hong-Wei.
Gagnon waved at Hong-Wei. “Everything’s fine on my end. Though I heard you had some excitement getting in here. Sorry, Orth’s an ass. Glad you socked it to him.”
Hong-Wei felt as if he were both watching Simon and avoiding him at once. “My priority is the patient.”
The circulating tech inclined her head at Hong-Wei after an awkward glance at Gagnon. “I have the room ready per your requests, Dr. Wu. Let me know when you’d like the music to start.”
Hong-Wei nodded at her as Gagnon raised his eyebrows. “Music?”
“Yes, I find it helps me clear my mind as I operate.” Hong-Wei surveyed the patient, the instrument tables, the staff, everything but Simon’s face. “Are we in order for surgery, first assistant?”
“Yes, Dr. Wu,” Simon answered.
Did he sound subdued? Uneasy? Oh, Hong-Wei wished he’d stuck to his plan. Except he honestly couldn’t bring himself to regret the kiss.
Gagnon chuckled. “First assistant? You keep a formal room. I’d better get in line.”
Thank God for Owen Gagnon. “Something tells me there’s no power on earth that could keep you in line.” Hong-Wei rode the moment of levity and rolled his shoulders. “All right. Let’s begin.”
The surgery went smoothly, far better than Hong-Wei could have hoped for his first time with a new team in a new place, considering the rough start they’d had thanks to Orth. He and Simon made a good team, even with the elephant of the kiss between them. Simon had clearly taken his instructions about the OR to heart and set everything up better than Hong-Wei had dreamed.
Of course, there was the small problem of afterward.
He wanted to talk to Simon about the kiss, but he didn’t know how, and he wasn’t sure he should. Simon was always a bit demure, but he seemed especially so that afternoon. Hong-Wei debated asking Simon to go to lunch with him, and normally he would have, but Simon looked nervous, and Hong-Wei worried he might make him uncomfortable.
In the end he wasn’t free for lunch anyway. Andreas and Beckert commandeered him and apologized for Orth, then smoothly delivered the bomb he’d been expecting: because Hong-Wei had insisted on taking over the surgery, Orth wouldn’t be back, and now they had no other coverage.
Hong-Wei shrugged as he cut into his food. “We don’t have many surgeries this week, and they’re all fairly routine. I’ll have Simon call the patients and let them know I’ll be their surgeon. Do you anticipate any difficulties?”
Beckert exchanged an enigmatic glance with Andreas, who shook his head as he dabbed his mouth daintily with a napkin before replying to Hong-Wei. “I don’t foresee any particular problems, but sometimes people in Copper Point can be fussy about change. I’ll have letters sent out before the end of the day to everyone scheduled for surgery in the next few weeks, letting them know how excited St. Ann’s is to have you on board and how confident we are in your abilities. As for the patients themselves, I’m sure you’ve dealt with nervous grandmothers and grumpy old men before.”
“I possess a nervous grandmother and grumpy grandfather, so yes, I’m familiar with the drill. I’m sure there will be a few bumps as we transition, but I’ve been winning people over my whole life. I don’t anticipate I’ve lost my touch now.”
“Excellent. This is what I expected you’d say.” Andreas leaned back in his chair. “So, that’s settled—now it’s only a matter of adapting you to our quirky St. Ann’s schedule. I’m hoping with a surgeon on staff again we’ll get a regular schedule for you, but at the moment, as you’ve seen, the surgery load is light to say the least.”
Hong-Wei waved a hand. “This isn’t a problem. It will make the transition easier.”
Andreas raised an eyebrow. “Would you be open to taking some rotations in the ER in the meantime? I’ll try to keep your turns to day shifts as much as possible, but we may ask you to fill in evenings and weekends and occasionally overnights. I’ll give you plenty of advance notice for those except in emergencies. I only ask because we usually had the fill-ins take some of these positions as well. Excepting the weekends, of course.”
Hong-Wei indulged a glance at Beckert, but the man didn’t seem to mind his human resources director was completely running this meeting. Interesting. “I have no objections to any of this. I don’t mind work, and I’m not proud. I’ve moonlighted almost anywhere I can. I also understand I’m essentially on permanent call until you can restore backup coverage. I hope you’re looking to have weekend surgeons at some point? For the record, I want to be called in if there’s a weekend surgical emergency. I don’t want my patients sent on a three-hour ambulance ride for something I can come in to do.”
Beckert finally woke up at this. “Yes, we’re working on that, but it’s going to take some time. Thank you for being willing to step up in the meantime.”
“The other detail worth bringing up to you from a staffing standpoint,” Andreas continued, “is that especially given the erratic surgery schedule, your nursing team is currently a bit in flux. Technically Simon Lane is our dedicated surgical nurse, with Rita Taylor as our backup first assistant during surgery, and we’re looking for another so we have more than two trained nurses on staff because of vacations, maternity leaves, and so on. Our usual protocol would be to have Mr. Lane’s schedule mirror yours as much as possible, using him as a float nurse when you’re filling in elsewhere or having him fill in the same shifts in the ER, though that doesn’t always work with the nursing schedule. I assume this would be amenable to you?”
Of course Hong-Wei wouldn’t mind spending as much time with Simon as possible, thereby giving him even more opportunity to flirt. If only this no-dating policy weren’t in the way. “It seems the smoothest arrangement, and I have no argument with it. Simon Lane is a highly capable nurse, and I enjoy working with him.”
“Excellent. Granted, as you add surgeries, this problem will sort itself out, and Mr. Lane will largely be working as your first assistant and consulting with your patients pre- and postoperation. Sadly, I think it will take you half a year minimum to get there. Our patients have become accustomed to driving to Duluth or Ironwood or even Eau Claire for their care, and despite the hassle, some of them will continue to do so because, as I mentioned, Copper Point resists change.”
Everyone everywhere resists change, Erin Andreas. Hong-Wei suppressed a sigh. “As I said, I’m not afraid of work.”
Andreas gave Beckert a more overt glare that practically screamed down, boy, and Hong-Wei took a drink to hide his smile.
He left lunch feeling more positive not only about his direction at St. Ann’s but his prospects with Simon. He decided he’d let things simmer between them and do exactly what he’d promised: focus on building trust. How better than to work beside Simon, deepening their personal and working relationships? A few shifts where things returned to normal would make it easy to ask the man to dinner—a harmless, professional dinner. He’d woo Simon over the same way he’d woo the rest of Copper Point: with determination and constant attention.
It was a good plan, and he was ready to put all his energy into it. However, on his way back to the clinic after rounds, he discovered Dr. Gagnon and Dr. Kumpel lingering outside his office.
“There you are. We’ve been looking for you, Jack.”
Gagnon turned to Hong-Wei with a terrible smile, and too late, Hong-Wei understood why the nursing staff feared him so much.
Chapter Five
AFTER USHERING them into the office and closing the door, Gagnon threaded his fingers over his abdomen and fixed Hong-Wei with his gimlet stare as Hong-Wei took refuge behind his desk. “I couldn’t help noticing some interesting friction between you and Simon during this morning’s surgery. After Jared went to our housemate for some recon, he came back with some very interesting reports.”
Jared’s smile was less jagged, but by no means nonthreatening. “Si seems to think you might not be out, and we’re not here to cast stones on that subject. However, he is nervous about getting caught up in Andreas’s stupid new dating policy, and there is the not insignificant matter of you being, essentially, his boss.”
Owen leaned closer. “As the two guys who’ve protected him since middle school, we’re taking it upon ourselves to give you a Simon Lane orientation whether you’re interested or not. Also, if you plan on hurting him, remember I’m not a surgeon, and I don’t give a shit how much I damage my hands when I punch a guy out.”
Hong-Wei studied the pair of them for a moment, completely at a loss as to how to respond. “I take it Simon has no idea you’re here?”
Kumpel laughed. “Oh, he’d kill us. We don’t advise telling him about this visit, though.”
Gagnon added teeth to his smile.
Hong-Wei held up his hands. “I was mostly trying to make sure I understood the situation. Does he—?” He cut himself off and changed direction. “Do you do this because Simon is so… openhearted?”
Gagnon snorted. “Such a diplomatic way to put it. Yes. We do it because Simon has a history of getting stepped on, in and out of love. He’s an easy man to crush, and it happens whether or not we’re around, so we try to be around when we can.”
The corner of Kumpel’s mouth lifted. “We vowed whoever attempted to win his heart had to be worthy.”
Good Lord. “I assume no one has ever passed your test?”
Kumpel waved a dismissive hand. “Oh, don’t be silly. Several guys have been fine, but… well. Simon is gun-shy. We don’t know what he’s afraid of, but we know we’re here to make sure whatever it is doesn’t hurt him.”
Gun-shy? Hong-Wei thought back to the supply closet, his pulse quickening. Gun-shy wasn’t a word he’d use.
Gagnon checked his watch and frowned. “I have a lot more I want to interrogate you about, but I have to check in with OB. You better not have dinner plans, because you’re on my menu.”
The terrifying thing was Hong-Wei couldn’t decide how much of the statement was metaphorical. “What is it you want to know?”
“Everything.” Kumpel crossed his arms over his chest. “How serious are you? Are you taking Simon’s concerns about this no-dating policy to heart, or are you assuming they don’t apply to you? Do you have any comprehension of what it’s going to mean for the two of you to attempt to see each other, in public or in secret, in a town like Copper Point?”
“Also, what the hell is with the way you tense up every time we’ve teased you about being hot for Simon?” Gagnon narrowed his eyes at Hong-Wei. “Si thinks it’s because you’re not out, but I don’t buy it. I think it’s you being an arrogant control freak, and let me tell you, buddy, that role is taken.”
Hong-Wei had a sudden, sharp longing for Hong-Su to be there. He wanted to go home tonight, drop his bag, and tell her everything about this odd duo and their insane demands, about Gagnon and his terrifying smiles and the pissing contest over which one of them got to be the asshole. He even wanted to tell her about Simon.
Which was all both wonderful and stunning, because the complaint everyone made about Hong-Wei, especially Hong-Su, was he never told anyone anything.
He cleared his throat, brushing his hand over his lips to remove his smile before he replied. “I’m interested in dating Simon, and I want to be careful both for the sake of the dating rule and because I’m new to St. Ann’s and Copper Point. I don’t want to make him uncomfortable, and I don’t want to draw inappropriate attention to us. I’ve already regretted my hasty action today. I’d planned to move more deliberately.”
Gagnon’s gaze sharpened. “What hasty action would that be?”
Ah, so Simon hadn’t told them. “I don’t believe that’s your business.” Hong-Wei sat back in his chair. “As for my being out, it’s mostly that I haven’t ever advertised. Largely I’ve been married to my career and haven’t had time for relationships. However, one of the perks of moving to a quieter setting was having more time for such things.” Hong-Wei lifted an eyebrow at Gagnon. “I don’t concede the title of arrogant control freak to anyone. It can’t be claimed, only earned. It absolutely can be stolen, however.”
Gagnon’s grin became positively evil, but with a lilt at the edges it hadn’t had before. “You are coming to dinner, Wu.”
Hong-Wei opened a folder on his desk and pretended to read through it absently. “Fine, but I’m cooking.”
AFTER THE way Owen had eyeballed Simon postsurgery and the questions Jared had asked in the locker room, Simon had anticipated some kind of confrontation when he got home, and he’d rehearsed how he’d dismiss his housemates all afternoon. His speeches had gone out the window, however, when he’d come in the back door and found Owen and Jared hovering, arms folded, as they watched Hong-Wei chopping vegetables on the island.
“What—?” Simon couldn’t get anything else out and remained frozen in the doorway.
Brightening, Jared waved him over. “Si, welcome home. We’re watching Jack hack peppers into bits. Come join us.”
Hong-Wei nodded a greeting at Simon, gave a small, slight smile, then continued dicing his vegetables. Simon saw no evidence of hacking, and in fact, he’d never seen peppers cut finer.
Owen had his gaze fixed on Hong-Wei’s knife. “Dinner’s going to be late. Not only did I have to haul this guy to the store and watch him fuss over every vegetable in stock, but he insulted our knives and sharpened the three he planned to use before he’d even start preparing anything. He complained about our sharpener too. Made me order a new one online.”
Hong-Wei didn’t look up. “I’m not working with dull knives, and any chef worth their salt has a whetstone, not an electric sharpener.”
Simon didn’t care about dinner. He wanted to know why Hong-Wei was here at all. “I can wait to eat. Does anything else need to be done? I can—”
“No,” Jared and Owen said in unison, glaring at Hong-Wei as if they expected a challenge.
Simon gave up. “Am I supposed to stay in here and watch you stare down Hong-Wei, or can I go get changed?”
Too late he realized how he’d addressed their guest. Naturally it was Owen who picked up on his slip first. “Hong-what? What did you call him?”
“My name.” Hong-Wei still didn’t look away from his work.
“My birth name is Hong-Wei Wu. Wu Hong-Wei if you use Taiwanese order, not Western. I’ve gone by Jack since I moved to the States to everyone but my family.”
Simon kept his gaze on the floor as Jared spoke. “And yet Simon uses it. Interesting.”
Hong-Wei said nothing, simply continued to slice. Simon became incredibly interested in the peeling Formica against the cabinet near Hong-Wei’s feet.
“So do we get to call you Hong-Wei?” Owen asked.
“You call me Jack.”
Clearing his throat, Simon started for the stairs. “I’m going to get changed and maybe lie down. Call me when dinner’s ready.”
Unfortunately Simon discovered being trapped alone in his room was a torture worse than watching the three of them bicker. Sleeping was out of the question, and lying on his bed meant he had nothing else to do but imagine what Owen and Jared were telling Hong-Wei about him. In the end he went downstairs well before anyone called him, and he arrived just in time. Owen was on the computer pulling up Simon’s Spotify playlists.
“What are you doing?” When Owen moved the mouse toward the Play button, Simon yelped and slammed the laptop shut, nearly hitting Owen’s fingertips.
“Hey,” Owen complained, but Simon ignored him, aiming an angry finger at his face.
“I didn’t give you permission for that.”
Owen blinked innocently. “But I thought you’d like it if we played some of your music—”
I will kill you, Simon telegraphed. “I would not like it if you played some of my music.”
The damage, of course, had been done. In the kitchen, Hong-Wei looked up from a fragrant skillet. “Why not? I’m curious to hear what you listen to.”
Simon lifted a threatening fist briefly at Owen, then forced a smile. “A lot of things,” he replied to Hong-Wei.
“Excellent. Put one of those things on.”
Shoving Owen out of the desk chair, Simon opened the laptop and hastily cobbled together a sanitized playlist. While focusing on Owen, however, he’d forgotten about Jared.
The Doctor's Secret (Copper Point Medical Book 1) Page 9