by Beau Brown
Table of Contents
Title Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Epilogue
THE MANNY TAMES THE COWBOY
Chapter One
OTHER BOOKS BY BEAU BROWN
Copyright (c) 2019 by Beau Brown
Doctor Perfect
By Beau Brown
Chapter One
Liam
The omega was panicking. He thrashed and cursed as his labor pains became too much for him. “I never wanted a fucking baby!” he yelled, glaring at me.
Hey, I didn’t get you pregnant.
I plastered on a patient smile and spoke calmly. “Now, Hal, is it?” I hesitated. “We need you to take a deep breath and let’s focus on the baby. What do you say?”
“I say fuck you and all alphas,” he growled, trying to get his feet out of the stirrups.
“Hal.” I grimaced. “You need to calm down.” Often omega’s lost their cool during labor, but it was rare for one to be quite so belligerent.
“Screw you, Doc. That’s easy for you to say. Your insides aren’t being ripped out.” Hal shuddered as another contraction pulsed through him, and he tried again to struggle off the bed.
The male nurse next to the bed moved quickly, grabbing the patient’s legs. “Hal, don’t be an idiot.” His voice was hard, and he leaned toward the pregnant omega. “Do you seriously think you’re going somewhere right now?”
Hal looked as shocked as me at the impatient tone of the nurse. “Excuse me?” Hal snapped, but he stopped trying to slip his feet from the stirrups.
“The baby is cresting. It’s a matter of minutes. You stand up, and your baby is liable to fall on the ground, and crack its skull wide open.” The nurse’s face mask puffed as he spoke, and his eyes were bright blue and concerned.
Hal leaned back against the bed again, his jaw tight. “Are you allowed to talk to me like that?”
The nurse let go of the patient’s ankles. “Didn’t seem like there was time to sweet talk you into listening.” He shot me a wary glance.
I’d barely noticed the nurse when I’d walked in because I’d been so consumed with trying to calm Hal. But now I gave him a quick once over, taking in his tall frame and wide shoulders. I suspected he was new to our hospital. He certainly wasn’t our typical nursing candidate; the male nurses were often very short and burly. From what I could see, this guy looked more like a male model. His light blue smock matched his eyes, fitting his lean body snuggly, and his blond hair was cropped short. His name badge said Nurse Fox. I wasn’t sure if that was his first or last name, but it seemed appropriate, considering his boyish good looks.
“Okay, everybody take a deep breath and calm down.” I needed to take control. I was the one in charge and responsible for the health of the unborn baby.
“I’m perfectly calm,” muttered Nurse Fox.
I shot him a warning look. “Hal, let’s try again, shall we?” I spoke softly as I moved between the groaning omega’s legs. “Right now we need you to focus, and push when I say so.” The baby’s head was indeed cresting, and we needed to get serious. “Think you can do that for me, Hal?”
Arching his back, Hal nodded, curling his hands into fists. “God, just get this over with!”
Once we got down to business, Nurse Fox was attentive and intuitive. He had all necessary instruments ready for me before I asked, and he even took the time to pat the sweat from my brow. Perhaps he wasn’t as patient as I’d have liked in my labor and delivery nurse, but he was obviously good at his job. It took thirty minutes of pushing from Hal for the infant to finally make its appearance. Once the baby was squealing and wiggling in my hands, all earlier anger disappeared from Hal’s expression. Nurse Fox cleaned and weighed the baby, and then he set the child in Hal’s arms.
“She’s beautiful,” Hal whispered, sniffing and wiping at his eyes.
“Yeah, she is,” I said. The sight of a first-time parent with their newborn still made my eyes sting. Even after a decade of delivering babies, watching an omega with their new baby was a beautiful thing. I cleared my throat and pulled off my gloves, turning away so no one noticed I was feeling emotional. Hal was now laughing and talking with Nurse Fox, as if there had never been any unpleasantness between them. Labor and delivery nurses spent a lot of time with the expectant omegas before delivery, and the fact that Hal seemed to bear no ill will toward Nurse Fox proved that Fox had done exactly what he was supposed to do; bond with his patient.
I moved to the door. “Congrats on your daughter. I wish you both a beautiful future.”
Hal winced, and his face tinted pink. “Hey, Doc, I’m sorry I was a handful.”
I smiled. “No problem.”
Nurse Fox didn’t speak, he just shot me a blank glance.
I left the room and went to my office to do some paperwork. As I filled out forms, my mind kept returning to Nurse Fox. His demeanor had been so different from what I was used to in the delivery room. Most omegas were more passive in their role as a delivery nurse, but Nurse Fox had definitely not been passive. I wondered how long he’d been at Sweet Water Medical Center. I’d never run into him before, but that didn’t really mean much. There were about six delivery nurses at our hospital, and I didn’t work with the same one all the time. It was luck of the draw who would be on duty when a baby decided to come into the world.
I pushed thoughts of the attractive and outspoken nurse from my mind and focused on my paperwork. I ended up delivering three more babies during my shift, but Nurse Fox wasn’t assigned to those patients. By the time my shift was over, I was exhausted and ready for sleep. I stopped by the small coffee cart before heading out, since I was in desperate need of caffeine. Even though I only lived about fifteen minutes from the hospital, I was so tired I needed the jolt of caffeine. The last thing I wanted was to end up in a ditch because I fell asleep at the wheel.
“We meet again.”
Nurse Fox’s husky voice came to me from behind my shoulder. I glanced around as I stirred cream into my coffee, and met his assessing gaze. “So we do.” I sipped my beverage, testing to see if it needed more doctoring. After how he’d been in the delivery room, I was kind of surprised he’d stopped to interact with me.
He ordered a latte from the barista, paid, and then faced me. “Sorry if I overstepped in there earlier.” Though he was saying the right thing, his expression didn’t look particularly apologetic.
I popped the lid back on my cup. “I had the situation handled.”
His gaze flickered. “It didn’t seem that way to me.”
“Excuse me?” I gave a short laugh, although I didn’t really find anything funny.
“I only stepped in because Hal was about to get off the table.”
“He wasn’t going anywhere. I wouldn’t have let him get off the table.” I frowned. Did he actually not realize I’d been more than capable of controlling the situation?
He didn’t look like he believed me, but he simply shrugged and said, “Well, it all worked out.”
“Yeah. It did.” I studied him, unsure what to make of him. “How long have you been a labor and delivery nurse?”
“Why?” Taking his drink from the barista, he dropped some change
into the tip jar.
I laughed gruffly. “Is it a secret?”
“No.” He sipped his coffee.
“I suspect not too long.”
He lifted one brow. “Oh really?”
I smirked. “Yeah.”
“Why’s that?”
I leaned toward him. “Because you don’t seem to understand that when we’re in the delivery room, I’m in charge.”
He swallowed hard. “I’m not a newb. I know my way around a delivery room.”
I raised my brows. “Yeah. Me too, and I don’t need some pipsqueak nurse telling me how to run my labor and delivery room.”
“Pipsqueak, huh?”
“I’m the doctor. You’re only in there to assist me.”
“I did what I thought was right.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes.” he said firmly. “I don’t think I did anything wrong. I stepped in, and Hal fell in line.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but then just shook my head and headed toward the parking lot before I lost my temper completely. I was way too tired to deal with this punk right now. I made a mental note to talk to Steve Grand, the hospital administrator later. He needed to know that Nurse Fox was a bit of an ass. I reached my Mercedes and was surprised when Nurse Fox appeared beside me.
I gave him an impatient glance and growled, “Look, kid, I’m tired and not in the mood to spar with you.”
He sounded breathless and he grimaced as he said, “Wait. I’m… I’m sorry.”
His apology surprised me, and I eyed him warily, wondering if he was being sincere. “You’re sorry?”
“I am.” He blew out a long, shaky breath. “You… you remind me of someone.”
“I do?”
“Yes.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I’m going to go out on a limb and say you didn’t like this other person?”
His face flushed. “You could say that.”
Grunting, I unlocked my car and opened the door. Tossing my briefcase onto the passenger seat, I faced him. “Sounds like you need to work through some things.”
He winced, but remained quiet.
“It’s unfortunate you apparently have a chip on your shoulder toward this other person, but I’m not them. If you want to succeed at your job, you’ll need to be easier to work with. I’m not going to put up with a bad attitude. I need to be able to trust the nurses I work with.”
“You can trust me. I’m good at my job.”
I studied him. “I think you probably are good. But when I’m delivering a baby, the last thing I need is to be at war with the person who’s there to help me.”
He winced. “Yes. I agree.”
I wasn’t sure what to make of him. One minute he was ornery and the next apologetic. I simply stared at him, uncertain of what to say.
“I’ll do better.”
I gave a sharp nod. “Good.”
He glanced up and gave a little smile as his blue eyes met mine. “Forgive me?”
A jolt of attraction shivered through me at his piercing gaze. I shifted uneasily, not entirely pleased with the spark of awareness that passed between us. No matter how nice he was to look at, he needed to know his place. “This isn’t about me forgiving you. Do your job, treat me with respect the next time we work together, and I won’t hold a grudge.”
His smile faltered. “Okay.”
I slid behind the wheel of my car, and looked up at him as I started the engine. “But if you piss me off again, Nurse Fox, you should update your resume and start looking for another job.”
Chapter Two
Fox
“I’m sorry… you said what to Dr. Prost?” My sister Priscilla widened her eyes. “You can’t talk like that to the doctor in charge.”
Wincing, I said, “I know. I fucked up.”
We were sitting in The Watering Hole, Sweet Water’s only dance club, sharing a plate of nachos. We’d just finished off our first pitcher of strawberry margaritas, and were starting on the second, as I told her about my run in with Dr. Prost.
“He’s like a big deal, Bro. Why would you mouth off to him?” She shook her head, shoving a cheesy chip into her mouth.
I sighed, resting my chin on my palm. “I was just worried the omega was going to get up — ” I grimaced. “It doesn’t matter. I should have kept my big mouth shut. But he looks just like Jerry, and all these feelings bubbled to the surface.”
She laughed. “But he’s not Jerry. Dr. Prost didn’t dump you and run off with another omega.”
“I know.”
Sipping her drink, she leaned back. “At least you apologized.”
“Yes.” Not that Dr. Prost had looked like he’d accepted it fully. Although, he had said if I behaved he wouldn’t hold a grudge. I hoped that was true because we would no doubt run into each other again.
“Well, you live and you learn, right?” She smiled brightly.
“He could be Jerry’s twin.” My stomach clenched when I thought of my ex. “He’s even bossy like Jerry.”
She frowned. “He was the doctor in charge. He’s supposed to boss everyone around.”
“Yeah.” I refilled my glass. “Shit. I thought I was over Jerry.”
“Would you take him back if he came crawling on his knees?”
I recoiled. “Hell no!”
She laughed. “Then you probably are over him. But you have a lot of repressed anger toward how he treated you. I can see how running into an alpha that reminded you of him might stir up feelings of resentment.”
I sipped my drink, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. “That’s not Dr. Prost’s problem.”
“No. It’s not. But I’m sure you can turn this around. Just be sure whenever you’re around Dr. Prost you act like an angel.”
I batted my lashes and gave a fake smile. “But I am an angel.” My smile faded. “Usually.”
“Angel might be a stretch.” She grinned. “But you’re not usually an asshole to your superiors.”
I groaned and finished off my margarita.
“Slow down. You don’t want to get drunk.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, dear sister.” I licked my lips, enjoying the buzzed sensation settling on me. “Why do you think I took an Uber here? I need to get drunk tonight.”
“You don’t work tomorrow, right?”
“Of course not. I’d never go out drinking when I work the next day.” I scoffed. “I’m very respoth — responthab—” I frowned. “That’s a hard word to say after four margaritas.”
Chuckling, she said, “Lightweight.”
“Pfft. You don’t understand what yesterday was like.”
“Hey, I work at the hospital too. I just don’t mouth off and get myself in trouble.” She took another forkful of nachos.
Slumping, I sighed. “I’ll try to remember Dr. Prost isn’t Jerry.”
“Frankly, I think he’s better looking than Jerry.” She pressed a napkin to her mouth.
I thought about Dr. Prost and nodded. “Yeah. I agree. His face and body are better.”
“I thought you said he could be Jerry’s twin?”
“He’d be the better looking twin. One is always better looking.”
She laughed. “So you had time to check him out in between pissing him off?”
My face warmed. “It was hard to ignore his nice ass. I’m only human.”
“Part human.”
“True.” I grinned. “My inner omega was mad at him, but my human side enjoyed his perfect ass.”
She snorted. “Perv.”
“We work up close and personal.” I smirked. “He smelled amazing too. He’s got expensive taste in cologne.”
“Oh yeah?” She smiled.
“Yep.” I sighed, remembering the clean, masculine scent of Dr. Prost. “Of course, I’d never let on that I think he’s hot.”
“Naturally.”
“His head is big enough.”
She shrugged. “Well, half the hospital is drooling over him. It woul
d be hard not to notice people think you’re awesome.”
I scanned the crowded room. It was stuffy with all the bodies pressed together jumping around to the music. I’d noticed a few alphas looking over, but no one really caught my eye. It was too bad too because it had been a while since I’d hooked up with anyone. I’d had a few one-night stands right after Jerry dumped me six months ago, but nothing recently. When my gaze settled on one particular alpha across the room with his back to me, my pulse picked up in recognition. Auburn hair, wide shoulders, and the most perfect ass I’d ever seen, made my mouth fall open in surprise.
“Holy shit,” I muttered.
Priscilla sat up, leaning toward me. “What?” She followed my gaze. “Whoa. Dr. Prost is here?” Her voice squeaked.
I made shushing motions, which made no sense considering how loud the music was. Yeah, that was definitely Dr. Prost. There could be no mistaking that body and red hair. “I wouldn’t think this was his kind of place.”
She laughed. “Why?”
“I don’t know. I guess I pictured him more as a martini bar kind of guy.”
“How many martini bars do you know of in Sweet Water?”
“Good point.”
She studied Dr. Prost with a funny expression. “I guess if he’s looking for a little Saturday night fun he has to go where we all go.” She laughed. “You should ask him to dance.”
I bugged my eyes. “What?”
“Sure. You know, to make up for being a dick to him. Buy him a drink and ask him to dance.”
“I’d rather gouge my eyes out with this fork,” I rasped, holding up my dining utensil.
“You’re being silly. This is a perfect opportunity to make nice with the good doctor.” She twisted her lips as she stared at me.
I wrinkled my brow. “Dear sweet Priscilla, you’re out of your fucking mind if you think I’m going anywhere near him.” I slid down in the booth, trying to appear smaller. “The last thing that guy needs is to run into me when he’s out trying to have a good time.”
She grinned and made chicken noises, flapping her arms up and down.
“Screw you. You don’t know what it’s like when he pins you with his disapproving gaze.”
“No. I don’t because I didn’t piss him off, and he didn’t threaten me with my job.” She laughed.