by Ann, Natalie
“There are too many things to stress about. I’m going to hold out hope it’s nothing, but I need to know. It’s better to know than guess,” Ashley said.
“I agree. And I’m afraid your husband might deck me if you gave me a kiss. KIS. Keep it simple. I’m sure you’ve heard it called happy juice before, but it’s Versed. It relaxes you and makes you forget anything before you go under. Most people are anxious and need it. You don’t seem so. So I’m asking if you want it. I’ll gladly administer it, but if you don’t need it, why take something?”
Many thought he was nuts to give that option, but why inject yourself with a drug if you truly didn’t need it? He’d had plenty of patients wide awake while they were wheeled down, remembering everything, and carrying on normal conversations with him and the team in the OR before they went under.
“I don’t think I need it,” she said. “But what if I do? I mean I normally get it and though I’m not an anxious person, what if I start to panic?”
“It works fast. If you ask you’ll get it immediately.”
“I’d like to try without it. I get nauseous and they already gave me stuff for that. Maybe I’ll wake up faster if I don’t get that.”
“It could help too,” he said. “I like to give patients the choice.”
“Let’s go without it,” she said. “Will you be in there talking to me? It could distract me.”
“She’s flirting with you,” Steven said. “I can’t believe she is doing that.” Ashley’s husband shook his head. “She’s always been a flirt. You aren’t going to steal her away from me, are you? Try to woo her in the OR?”
“I don’t think I could possibly compete with you.”
“Steven is the best husband there is. You might be a treat to look at, but something tells me you break a lot of ladies’ hearts.”
He forced a grin. He’d been told that a lot in life, but he always went in letting everyone know where he stood.
Fun. That was what he wanted. He didn’t take a lot in life seriously other than his job. This took all his focus and outside of the OR he stayed clear of commitments, stress, and headaches like the devil avoided Sunday mass.
When the curtain moved aside, he was thankful that his cousin Sam arrived. “How are you doing today, Ashley?”
“Ready to get this over with. I’ve been picking on your cousin. I just said I bet he breaks a lot of hearts, but the truth is, you probably do too.”
Sam grinned. “I might have broken a few in the past, but I’ve got a fiancée now that has stolen my own heart.”
Wyatt rolled his eyes. Everyone was falling like flies around him. First Sam, then Sam’s brother Bryce, then Wyatt’s brother Drake and over the weekend Drake’s twin, Noah, got engaged at Easter dinner in front of the whole family.
He was starting to feel the heat like never before.
Did he always think he’d want to settle down at some point? Sure.
Was he looking for it? Not really.
But with everyone falling like first-time skiers on the bunny slopes, he felt like all eyes were on him. They were even dropping in birth order too. What were the chances of that happening?
“So, we are all set?” he asked Ashley.
“Yes. I’ll bypass that drug and go with KIS.”
“Is Dr. Fierce trying to get you to kiss him?” Sam asked. “He does that with all the patients.”
Wyatt shook his head at Sam. “What can I tell you, the patients like me better than you. Just like the family. You may be the oldest, but I’m the favorite.”
“You keep telling yourself that,” Sam said.
But he didn’t need to. He knew his family loved him. His family loved everyone equally. It’d always been that way. Even if he did seem to get more attention than most.
Twenty minutes later, he was in the OR talking with Ashley, asking how her Easter went and listening to the stories of how her kids were too old for Easter baskets.
The circulating and scrub nurses were moving around the room preparing lights, setting out instruments, and getting everything ready.
Sam gave him the nod they were good to go, so he said to Ashley, “I’m going to put the oxygen mask on you now and you might feel a burn with this injection. It won’t last long if you do.”
She bobbed her head up and down and was still talking. She was almost babbling a little about her holiday, but he kept it up with her until her eyes started to roll back in her head. She was still awake, not quite ready to go out.
“You almost ready, old man?” Wyatt said to Sam.
Sam laughed behind his mask. “I’m not that much older than you.”
“No,” Wyatt said, “but the big old ball and chain is going on in less than two weeks. That smacks old to me.” He glanced back down at the vitals and his patient. Her eyes popped back open again.
“Don’t be jealous,” Sam said. “You wish you had someone as great as Dani.”
“She is pretty hot,” Wyatt said back. “It was just your luck of the draw you saw her first.”
“Get over yourself. Dani couldn’t stop flirting with me the first time we met. I know how to lay on the charm.”
“You learned it from me,” Wyatt said. “I’ve lost my ride or die partner. This is the final goodbye.” Ashley was fighting it, but she’d be out soon.
“There’s always Ryder,” Sam said back.
“No, thank you. His taste in women is horrendous.” Sam’s youngest brother, Ryder, ended up with all the nut jobs. Or as Sam liked to call them, “life suckers” where they just drain the life out of you.
“You think yours is much better?”
He looked down at Ashley and stopped talking because it was time to be serious. It was time for him to do his job that he was so good at. It was time to focus. And ignore the shot his cousin took at him with lethal precision.
Ashley was out, so he finished up what he had to do, then turned to Sam and said, “The floor is all yours.”
2
Live And Learn
Adriana Lopez watched the two doctors bantering back and forth.
She hadn’t been at Duke Cancer Center long. A little over a month. She’d moved here about two months ago and was hired almost immediately after she applied.
She’d had no intention of moving to North Carolina to be by her father even though she’d had a close relationship with him. She’d visited plenty over the years but never considered living here. She supposed she should be thankful that her father convinced her to get her license here years ago even though she lived and worked in San Diego. A moment of weakness to appease her father and give him hope back then.
Guess it worked in her favor.
Her parents had divorced when she was in high school, her father staying in California until she went to college. Then he relocated with his job to Durham and met Maggie who was an elementary school teacher. They’d gotten married five years ago and her father seemed happy.
He’d been asking her to move here for a few years, especially since her mother spent more time traveling with her wealthy boyfriend. Or whatever man she was with at the time.
That was her mother. The minute she was single, she was on the prowl like a lion in the night finding their next meal.
Or in Sofia Lopez’s case, her next meal ticket.
Adriana was surprised her father stayed married as long as he had to her mother and at times she wished she’d lived with him over her mother.
It wasn’t like she had a horrible life with her mother. It was just her mother wanted to be her best friend, not a parent. Her mother was superficial where Adriana was anything but.
But she’d graduated from college, got a job and life seemed to be going well for a few years, so she stayed where she was comfortable.
Until it wasn’t going well and comfort was lying naked on a bed of nails.
Then it was time to move, and knowing she could get a job in another state was the answer to the test of life she was flunking worse than algebra.
She’d gotten the OR ready with the scrub nurse and now was listening to some entertaining conversation between two cocky doctors.
And though it was funny, she knew enough to not smile or laugh. To keep to herself. Which was exactly what she’d be doing at this job.
Live and learn, she’d told herself.
Doctors were off limits.
To look at. To talk to.
To even think about dating.
Especially the two arrogant ones talking about their dating life and now one of them being saddled with a wife.
Talk about sexist.
Had she noticed they were both pretty damn hot? Hell yeah. Hotter than her mother’s homemade salsa loaded with jalapenos and one habanero pepper.
Now the room was relatively quiet with Dr. Fierce operating. It would be a fast procedure. She didn’t catch the name of the anesthesiologist in the room. She hadn’t worked with him yet. But she did like Dr. Fierce.
She definitely thought he was cocky, but more in an arrogant confident way. She’d heard he was engaged too because the nurses all liked to talk and fill her in on who was who.
When the procedure was done and the patient moved to recovery, she and the scrub nurse finished up and closed the room down for the next procedure.
She had a small break and that worked for her so she could get some lunch.
When she was in the cafeteria she saw the anesthesiologist that she’d just left. Must be he had a break too, but she was going in the opposite direction of him.
Had she noticed he glanced her way a few times in the OR? Yep, she had. And she looked the other way. If he was looking for his next conquest he had another thing coming.
Or she did, because after she had her salad she was looking for a place to sit and didn’t see one empty table. But there were a few empty seats at the hunky doctor’s table. She was going to take her salad and leave when she realized there was nowhere else to sit and she didn’t know anyone enough to ask if she could reside at their table.
Sometimes it felt like it was high school all over again in a new school on the first day.
“Come over here,” the sexy doctor said to her. She really didn’t want to.
“I’m good. I’ll just go sit outside and eat.”
“You can do that, but it just started to rain, which is why there aren’t any tables available. I take it you’re new since I haven’t seen you around before. Have a seat if you want.”
He was grinning at her. A smile that he most likely perfected to get any woman he wanted.
Dark hair. Dark sultry eyes with his nice white straight teeth.
Urgh. What the hell was wrong with her thinking of those things?
Unfortunately though, she didn’t know her way around that much other than places to sit outside to eat. And she didn’t have much time before she had to be back.
She moved to the table and sat down. “Thank you,” she said.
“I’m Wyatt,” he said, holding his hand out to her.
She’d been hoping to just sit and eat, not to carry on a conversation. “Adriana,” she said.
She picked her fork up and started to mix her greens and meat around. What she really wanted to do was stab it and take out her frustration, hoping he’d get the hint and let her eat her lunch in peace.
“Not much of a talker, are you?” he asked.
“No,” she said back. “I just come in and do my job. I’ve found it’s best to be that way.”
“As opposed to carrying on conversations with coworkers?”
Guess he wasn’t going to get the hint. “I can talk and be friendly if I need to.”
He laughed at her. Like he knew what she was doing but wasn’t going to let her get her way. “But you don’t want to?”
“I need to get back soon. I’m sure you do too. I take my job seriously.”
He stopped mid bite of his sandwich. “Meaning I don’t?”
“I didn’t say that,” she argued.
“No, you didn’t. Sorry.”
“Seems like I hit a nerve with you,” she found herself saying and wished she didn’t. When would she learn to just shut the hell up?
“You could say it’s been told to me before and I’ve had to prove people wrong.”
All the more reason to finish her lunch and escape as fast as possible. He was probably trying to add a notch to his bedpost.
She wasn’t stupid.
She went back to her salad, him his sandwich. The silence was good for her but she had a feeling it wasn’t for him. He was almost squirming in his seat.
“Fierce. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this quiet before. Especially with a woman at your table.”
She looked up to see another doctor standing there, an older one, giving Wyatt the eye that she’d seen one too many times.
“Get lost, Roger,” he said. “I’m just enjoying my sandwich and you have to cut through my solitude like you always do.” Wyatt leaned toward her. “He thinks I’m striking out and wants to make a move on you. He doesn’t understand that people can sit at a table and eat and not talk or hit on someone.”
The doctor named Roger started to laugh and slapped Wyatt on the back, saying, “Good one coming from you,” then walked away.
“Sorry,” Wyatt said. “I guess I’ve got a reputation for talking a lot.”
“And dating,” she said. Then paused. “Fierce? Wasn’t that the name of the surgeon in the OR?”
“Yes. My cousin Sam,” he said.
“And your mother is a teacher?” she asked and tried to fight back the cringe. Dang it.
“Yes. My mother is Carolyn Fierce. Do you know her? Oh wait. Adriana Lopez?”
“She mentioned my name to you?”
“She did. A few weeks ago, I believe. Your mother works with her. You just moved here or something. She asked me to say hi and show you around if I saw you.”
“Stepmother,” she corrected. “Maggie married my father a few years ago.” She was hoping she hadn’t been too testy with Wyatt and was trying to think back on what she might have said. It wasn’t like her to be rude to someone that was a friend of the family.
This might be a six degrees of separation friend of the family, but in her culture and her family, you didn’t do that for no reason.
Why couldn’t he have another last name and she could continue to despise his cocky arrogant full-of-himself ways?
Nope. She couldn’t do it. Her father raised her better, even if her mother could care less about not liking someone on principle alone.
And wasn’t that what she was doing herself because of her past experience?
She would not turn into her mother.
Not in any way, shape, or form.
Wyatt reached his hand out to hers to shake again. Kind of redundant, but she took it anyway. “Nice to formally meet you.”
“Same,” she said, but she picked up her tray. “I need to get back now.”
He smiled. “If you need someone to show you all the prime spots to sit when there are no seats, let me know.”
“You could have told me that when I was standing here looking for a seat,” she said.
“I could have, but then I wouldn’t have had the pleasure of your company for the past twenty minutes.”
She wanted to grind her teeth knowing he was playing with her now.
“Thank you for the seat,” she said as nicely as she could and turned to walk toward the trash where she threw the rest of her salad away.
When she was leaving the cafeteria she felt eyes on her and knew darn well they were Wyatt’s, but she wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of turning around and looking at him again.
She didn’t have time for these confusing thoughts.
3
Just As Bad
“Struck out I see.”
Wyatt looked up to see Sam standing there with a sandwich and chips on a plate. He sat down in the chair Adr
iana just vacated.
Wyatt didn’t even have enough time to appreciate her fine...assets when she walked away from him.
Curves that he knew were hidden under her scrubs. He’d bet she had a nice trim waist and muscles in all the right places.
Skinny girls were nice...some of the time. But personally, he liked a woman with some curves on her. One that wasn’t afraid to eat either.
Though Adriana did have a salad for lunch, she also had it loaded with chicken, cheese, and some creamy dressing. Yeah, no dieting there. It was like him when he was forced to eat a salad as a kid, he hid it under all the good stuff.
“I wasn’t even up to bat,” he said back.
“Funny, considering your eyes were on her the entire time during the surgery,” Sam said.
“I had my eyes on my patient,” he said back. Did they flicker up to see Adriana moving around the OR doing her job? Yeah, they did. And he was smart enough to know that she was watching him just as much.
Sure, her eyes moved away if they met his, but they had to be looking at him to know enough to move away.
And when he and Sam were talking and busting on each other before the patient went out, she’d been fighting back a grin, he’d seen it a time or two. He’d seen the look in her eyes that was the only thing exposed. She wanted to smile, but it was almost like she was forcing herself not to.
“Don’t take offense to that,” Sam said. “I know you take your job seriously. Everyone here does. You need to get that shit out of your head from your residency.”
“I’m not carrying it around like you think,” he said. At least he didn’t think so.
Did Dr. Raymond get half the residents to change their disciplines before the first week? Yep, he had. And a few more dropped out before the year was done. Of that group, just he and someone else remained until the end.
There was no way he was giving that old coot the satisfaction of dropping because Wyatt knew damn well Dr. Raymond had been waiting for it. Hell, he probably had bets out on it since Wyatt had heard the guy loved to gamble.