But when she heard a commotion down the hallway where the emergency rooms were located, she headed that way. There was no staff around to stop her.
Outside the middle room, she stood there watching in awe as Gideon worked in blood and chaos on a man in obvious distress. Blood seemed like it was everywhere, on Gideon’s gloves, the clothes he’d been wearing. All she could see was red.
The iron smell almost got to her. Riveted to the scene, she couldn’t get her feet to move. She watched him snap out orders to Sydney and Sheena and knew he was trying to restrict the blood flow and save the man’s life.
There was a moment when she wanted to run, a moment where she felt like that scared rabbit from before, but something made her stand her ground and see it through.
Watching Gideon in action—doing his best to save a man’s life—her heart simply melted. How often did patients fall for their doctors anyway? What were the statistics? She should be able to rattle them off because she’d studied such behavior. A textbook case of transference, pure and simple.
Never in a million years could she have imagined allowing such a thing to happen. But there you go. She’d fallen for the guy every bit as much as the young Shiloh had. She’d done some stupid things in her life but falling for her doctor might be the dumbest one of all.
Twelve
After he stabilized Drake Boedecker, Gideon ordered Sheena to get him prepped for surgery. “We’ve done all we can here. We’ll suction more and clean the wound once we remove the bolt in the OR and under sedation. Where the hell is Quentin?”
“He got hung up seeing Pete Alden again,” Sydney explained. “When I responded to Sheena’s urgent text, Quentin was still behind closed doors with Pete.”
The man in question appeared in the doorway, rolling up his sleeves. Quentin went to the nearest sink and scrubbed up before slapping gloves on. “Sorry I’m late, but Pete kept me later than I figured for a Saturday appointment.”
“Still complaining of headaches?” Gideon asked.
“Yeah. I’m thinking an MRI is the only way to find out why. I don’t think this is an ordinary migraine.”
“MRI would tell you more.”
By now, Quentin had turned his full attention to the crisis at hand—the man lying on the table. “Is that the end of a speargun?”
Gideon spared a glance at the other doctor. “You got it. And it just missed his heart along with other vital arteries by a millimeter.” He angled toward Sheena. “Until we get the crossmatch for blood type back, let’s make sure we have at least two units of unmatched on hand. I don’t think this man can wait four hours in his condition.”
“We have it. Got a supply in yesterday morning. It’s as current as possible,” Sheena informed him.
“I’ll take over,” Quentin offered Gideon. “You get ready for surgery.”
“The family’s still waiting in the lobby,” Sydney prompted. “I said someone would come out with an update when they got the time.”
“Not my favorite thing to do, but necessary,” Gideon grunted as he yanked off his latex gloves and tossed them in the bin.
He rounded the curtain and quickly spotted a dozen or so people clustered in front of the windows, muttering in whispers, praying. He recognized Seth Larrabee, the young minister and his wife, Ophelia, who’d both shown up to offer support.
Gideon hadn’t bothered changing out of his street clothes yet and noticed when they turned to greet him, every eye stared at the mass of blood on his shirt. “As you know by now, Mr. Boedecker suffered a serious wound from a speargun to his chest. Surgery is the only way to get the sharp bolt out. Tearing the muscle tissue is not an option.”
“Will Drake be okay?” Pam Boedecker wanted to know about her oldest son, tears streaming down her face. “He’s been going out on that boat with his dad since he was three years old. Nothing like this has ever happened before. He’s a very responsible diver.”
Harold Boedecker nodded. “Been diving since he was twelve. He knows his stuff.”
His parents’ distress was too much for ten-year-old Nicky. The boy started to cry. “I didn’t mean to do it. It just happened. Drake told me not to play with it that it wasn’t a toy. But it looked so cool I wanted to try it out for myself. I had to pick it up, and it just went off and hit Drake. I didn’t mean it.”
Pam grabbed the boy in a hug. “Oh, Nicky. Why didn’t you say something before now?”
Gideon let the scene play out before clearing his throat. “Drake is stable. But the bolt needs to come out. And soon. If you want to donate blood, that would be helpful because your son will probably need at least two units. Which means I need to go get washed up. See Sheena later to donate.”
Harold stepped closer. “Is he really gonna be okay? Drake. Will he make it? The…it looked like the bolt went straight into his heart.”
“It missed his heart.”
“That’s something, I guess.”
Nicky bobbed his head. “I…I…I’m sorry.”
Gideon laid a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Take care of your mom for the next few hours. Okay? She needs you to be strong.”
Gideon left the others to deal with the boy’s guilt and headed back down the hall to scrub up.
It couldn’t be love, Marley told herself. What she was feeling for Gideon was simply a weak point in her recovery period. Starting over in a new place, creating a new life for herself, she felt vulnerable and was transferring that vulnerability onto her doctor.
“Total bullshit,” Marley concluded as she settled back in the lawn chair that she’d picked up at the hardware store and dragged into the backyard. Along with the bag of goodies she’d hauled with her, her evening was set. Staking out Logan’s blue house, it was now or never before she lost her nerve.
Tilting her head up to take in the sky at dusk and the skinny moon that had made an appearance, she studied the surrounding grounds. The property clearly had its pluses. Less than fifty yards away, she could hear the surf slosh back and forth in a rhythm with her heart.
She sat underneath an elegant patch of cypress, tall, gorgeous elms, and a group of magnificent old maples. But it was the two-hundred-year-old grand oak that had captured her imagination.
“As long as you’ve been standing on this spot, looking out to sea, the things you must have witnessed,” Marley muttered as she got to her feet and went over to the tree’s massive trunk. She ran her hands along the rough bumps in the bark. “Were you around to see pirates? Or see the native tribes canoe onto shore foraging for food? Were there Spanish missionaries who stood right here hoping to colonize this little dot on the map?”
“Are you talking to a tree?” Gideon wondered aloud as he came up behind her. “You’re not going full-blown loopy on me, are you?”
Marley stifled a laugh. “It moved me.”
“As long as you aren’t claiming the tree moved, I’m good with that answer.”
She swatted his arm. “How’s the guy with the emergency?”
“He’s more comfortable now that I removed a bolt from his chest. Speargun incident.”
“Ouch. How awful.” She looped an arm around his waist. “He’s lucky you know what you’re doing.”
He stared at the lawn chair and the bag of groceries. “How did you get this stuff over here?”
“I’m inventive. I bought the deck chair first, then used it to hold the groceries which I had to lug with the extra weight all the way down Cape May.”
“Why didn’t you just wait for me?”
“I wasn’t sure how you’d feel after surgery. Exhilarated? Exhausted?” She let go of his waist and whirled in place. “I’ve been here almost an hour already and haven’t heard any seals. In fact, I’ve not even heard a peep from the Rescue Center. At. All. Where is all this noise I’ve been warned about?”
Gideon had an idea of his own. He captured her hand and drifted around the corner of the house to the path that led to Smuggler’s Bay. “Let’s go check for ourselves.”
“I still don’t see any reason that the house has been sitting on the market for such a long time. What am I missing?”
Gideon was about to answer when movement caught his eye onboard the boat. A striking redhead stepped out on deck. “Let’s ask Keegan. She’d know.”
Once Keegan spotted them, she smiled and waved. “Hey, guys. Out for a stroll at sunset? It was beautiful out on the water this afternoon.”
Gideon made the introductions.
Marley waited for Keegan to disembark and held out her hand. “Just the person who can help me. We might be neighbors soon. I’m thinking of buying that blue house nextdoor. Maybe you can help me understand why the place has been on the market for so long. Logan said it was because the center got noisy, especially at night. But I’ve been sitting over there for an hour, sort of testing that theory out, and I have yet to hear any barking seals.”
Keegan shook her head. “You’ve been waiting an hour? They can’t all be asleep. Maybe you should drop in, see for yourself what the seals sound like up close.”
“Sure. That’d be great.”
Behind Keegan, a sandy-haired man walked down from the boat carrying a cage with a baby sea lion in it. She pulled him closer. “This is my husband, Cord Bennett, the town vet.”
“Nice to meet you,” Cord said. “Did I hear right? You’re thinking of buying the old Patton place?”
“If that’s the same guy who built the pier and the downtown area, then yeah.”
Cord nodded. “That’s the guy. William Patton, an engineer, originally from New Jersey. Settled here after the crash in 1929. His family made their fortune in candy, saltwater taffy specifically. Luckily for him and his money, though, his family didn’t lose everything in the crash. Somehow, they managed to survive the Great Depression with their wealth intact. They did, however, pick up and move west, allowing Patton to dabble in the things he enjoyed.”
Keegan looked adoringly over at Cord. “My geeky, know-it-all loves doing research.”
“Like finding out everything about the guy who built that house,” Marley finished. “Which brings me back to the same question I asked Keegan. Any idea why it hasn’t sold since Logan renovated it?”
“Logan mentioned our noisy resident seals were most likely the problem,” Keegan supplied, catching Cord up.
“Ah. Well, pinnipeds do get loud. Come on in and take the tour, get a look at our set up. Our fall fundraiser last year netted us the cash to soundproof the enclosures where they sleep. It helps quite a bit. I mean, even Keegan and I need our beauty rest without listening to bickering seals go on half the night. But you need to know pinnipeds are still active during the day. And honestly, living so close you might not like the fuss they kick up.”
“I love animals,” Marley stated, studying the baby sea lion. “He doesn’t look so good.”
“We think he’s got a bunch of plastic in his belly.”
“Oh, no. Will you need to operate?”
Cord looked over at Gideon. “That’s the plan. But like any patient, he first needs some TLC to get him ready for the ordeal. Right, Doc?”
“I believe you’re on the right track there, Doc.”
“Yep,” Keegan began. “Que the center to the rescue. That’s my domain, getting this little guy intravenous nutrients. Come on. I’ll give you both the five-cent tour.”
The Fanning compound and everything about it blew Marley away. From the two-story Craftsman where the Bennetts lived to the glass-enclosed observation deck to the barnlike state-of-the-art onsite medical facility, Marley knew this was the real deal.
Keegan even took the time to explain fish school. “When any of our babies, whether sea otters or sea lions or seals are born in captivity, we have to teach them how to recognize and catch their own supper and eat what they catch. If we don’t teach them the basics, the babies don’t have a clue how to do it on their own because their mamas aren’t around to teach them the art of survival. If not for fish school, they’d never make it back to the ocean.”
“I bet you’ve gone over that same speech a couple of hundred times,” Marley cited.
“More like a thousand,” Keegan admitted. “But I love what I do.”
“I can tell. If you ever need help, I’d love to be a part of all this,” Marley said.
A little shocked at that statement, Keegan rocked back on her heels. “You mean I didn’t scare you off from living so close to all this chaos?”
Marley exchanged a coy look with Gideon. “Nope. Oddly enough, I’m finally thinking about rejoining the human race.”
“Did you mean that back there?” Gideon wanted to know as they walked through the line of trees to the blue house.
“I certainly did. There’s something about knowing those babies need a helping hand that moved me.”
“Like the tree?”
“Make fun all you want, but at least I’ve decided to start doing something. Being around animals is a first step. Canines. Pinnipeds. Maybe even felines. Who knows, someday I might even work my way up to helping people again? In another capacity, of course. After all, you’re a people. And I like you well enough. I like Gilly, the other nurses. It’s a big deal that I can admit I like spending time with you.”
“That’s because I let you get drunk on wine.”
“Speaking of which, that grocery bag I dragged over here has plenty of chianti, cheese and crackers in it.” When she saw his face fall, she added, “Appetizers. I’ll make dinner once we get back to Gilly’s.”
“How about my place instead? It’s closer. I say we order takeout, pasta maybe, from Longboard Pizza.”
“The pizza place makes pasta? Sure. Even better. When do you think I should let Logan know I’ve made my decision?”
“Do you think you could at least slow down and go back to second gear for a minute? Maybe sleep on it for twenty-four hours?”
As they got closer to the house, she stared up at the old Foursquare. “You don’t like it, do you? It’s still too big.” Without waiting for him to answer, she marched on. “But damn it, I love the location. Look at that view. Where else am I gonna find that and be able to see it every single day out my own window?”
“You’re getting worked up. And I do like this house. Logan never bothered showing it to me.”
She stopped walking. Hands on her hips, she jutted her chin out, more defiant than he’d seen her. “I’ve decided. I’m taking it. That’s all there is to it. I’ve been in the slow lane for three years. It’s time to move forward out of my rut. The day I left Wisconsin to start over, I swore I’d go a different route, do things I’d never done before. Now’s my chance to wake up in the morning and look at a new place with fresh eyes. I need to try to make this work.”
He crossed to where she stood and took her by the shoulders. “You’re up for buying a house without a job. I’d say that’s taking a significant detour from what you’ve known all your life. I’m in your corner, Marley. All the way.”
“It doesn’t sound like it.”
“I’m just trying to be a good friend, pointing out the downside of making a decision this big too quickly.”
“So that when I fall on my face, you can get in line with the rest of them and say, ‘I told you so,’ is that it?”
“You won’t fall on your face.”
Chewing the inside of her jaw, her mind raced with an excitement that hadn’t been there for a long time. “I suppose it’ll take at least two weeks to get my furniture here anyway. From New Glarus. I’ll need to gauge the time and organize it accordingly.”
Her eyes had turned that same striking green he’d first seen in the hospital. Taking her hand, he pulled her along behind him. “Come on. Let’s go get something to eat. Maybe it’ll give you time to sort out your thoughts over dinner. Then we
’ll get comfortable and just relax, sort out your options.”
“More comfortable? For what?” She saw the need come into his eyes. “Oh.” She grinned. “You’re thinking ahead. I like that.”
“You focus on the house. I’ll take care of the fun stuff.”
Thirteen
Sexual energy and tension lingered between them long after they got back to Gideon’s house. They ended up in the kitchen, sitting on barstools, shoulders touching, comfortable with each other.
While he ordered takeout, he had to keep reminding himself that she wasn’t ready for any kind of physical activity, let alone sex.
All Marley knew was that his advice about the house seemed to come from the heart. The two of them were building to something. She could feel the air charged with anticipation, bubbling just at the surface. It might’ve been her imagination, but he also seemed a little on the edgy side.
Since he’d already seen her naked—he’d pretty much undressed her in the ER—she had to believe that he found her somewhat attractive. The idea lowered the anxiety factor, reduced her inhibitions at being with someone for the first time. She felt different about him; different than those other guys she’d tried dating after her divorce.
After ending the call to Longboard’s, he deftly leaned in and planted a kiss on her lips. “I had to get that out of the way at least.”
“Just to be upfront, if you hadn’t already seen me without my clothes, I’d be self-conscious right about now overthinking this next step.”
“I’m a medical doctor…” he pointed out, sounding like an ass. He changed his tone to a lighthearted approach. “Hey, I’m used to seeing the human form every day. Course it’s usually covered in blood.”
He ran a thumb down her cheek. Her honey-smooth skin was not as pale as it had been. Her bruises were looking better. She had more color in her face. Her eyes were bright and sharp. None of that sent him into lust the way her fragrance did. She smelled like vanilla with just a hint of spice.
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