Lucy was a specialist. She was one of the best. Bringing her out here was selfless because she would want to help people who didn’t have any other options.
And it was 100 percent selfish because if Lucy was in Cedar Point, saving lives and curing cancer one patient at a time, then maybe...
“It sounds like a fine idea,” his grandfather declared. “You just tell us what you need us to do.”
So Josh laid out his plans. He was committed. No matter what happened, the Calhoun Creamery was going to start making a difference. Paige began to formulate ideas to turn this philanthropic bent into a marketing campaign for the company. Trevor was friends with a doctor at the hospital and volunteered to make the first contact, and Rose suggested doing some limited-time flavors of ice cream with the proceeds going to the hospital fund or the American Cancer Society. Through it all, their grandfather sat there, beaming at Josh. At one point, while his siblings were busy arguing over flavors, their grandfather leaned over and said in a voice just for Josh, “I’m proud of you, son.”
“I may have to make another trip to Chicago,” he told his grandfather.
He clapped Josh on the back. “I think we can hold down the fort for just a little bit longer.” He stood. “There always was something between you two, you know that?”
“Yeah.” Now he just had to convince Lucy that that was the truth.
* * *
It was the kind of day that shook Lucy’s faith. Mr. Gadhavi had died. He’d gone peacefully and his family had accepted his death—at least for the time being.
But she hated it when she lost a patient. She hated it more now because everything felt more personal than it had before...
Before Josh Calhoun had come back into her life.
She was tired. Losing a patient always took a lot out of her. It felt like a failure all over again. But on top of that, she was still living at the Winchester estate. Sutton Winchester was showing signs of, if not improving, at least holding steady. But she hadn’t had a day off since the gala ball and even that hadn’t been a day off. She had been professional and gracious for most of the evening. She didn’t think that one dance with Josh and then coming home to make love with him and sleep in her own bed truly constituted a day off.
Part of her knew that she couldn’t keep doing this. She was burning all of her candles at all ends, but she couldn’t stop. People depended on her. What did being tired matter when lives were on the line?
She trudged into the Winchester mansion and stopped at her room to drop off her things before she dragged herself over to see Sutton and deal with whatever abuse he felt like dishing out today.
As she did so, Josh’s words came back to her. She wanted a life back. She missed him and that was something she hadn’t expected, either. She shouldn’t have missed him, because she was used to not having him around. But what she wouldn’t give to have dinner with him and drink a bottle of wine and make out on the couch. Or the bed.
She hadn’t heard anything from him in ten days, but she’d asked for that. What had she thought would happen when she’d told him it wasn’t going to work and she wasn’t going to make it work? Still, the radio silence hurt.
Maybe she should take some time off. She hadn’t been back to Iowa since she’d first moved into the dorms for her freshman year of college. It might be nice to go back to the one place that she considered a hometown.
And she could find Josh and...
And what? Tell him that she was tired? Tell him that she missed him? Maybe they could try to do something long-distance? It wasn’t as though Iowa was on the opposite side of the planet. It probably wasn’t more than a seven-or eight-hour drive. That was doable on the weekends, right?
She didn’t know. She had not been kind to Josh the last time they’d seen each other. He would be well within his rights to tell her that he couldn’t do long-distance and he couldn’t do weekends.
She washed her face in her private bathroom and stared in the mirror. First things first. She had to get to a point where her presence here wasn’t required at either the hospital or the Winchester estate every hour of the day. Then she had to get to the point where she wasn’t working weekends. Once she did that...
Well, it was a start.
She headed over to see Sutton. “And how are we...today?” She came to a dead halt as she realized it was not Elena or Jenelle next to Sutton’s bedside.
It was a man. And not Carson Newport, either.
Josh Calhoun was sitting next to Sutton Winchester. Even stranger, Josh had one of Sutton’s thin hands in his. He appeared to be comforting the sick man.
As Lucy stood there and gaped, both men turned to look at her. And then it just got weirder because Josh smiled at her and Sutton smiled at her, as well. “There you are,” Josh said. “We were waiting on you.”
“We?” She realized her mouth was hanging wide open, but she was powerless to get it closed. “What are you doing here? You hate Chicago!”
“Hold out for more,” Sutton said. He sounded weaker today, but then again he was smiling.
“Mr. Winchester and I were just reminiscing,” Josh explained patiently. He patted the top of Sutton’s hand and then stood.
“About what?” As far as Lucy knew, they’d never even met before.
“Women,” Sutton croaked. “Fight harder.”
For once, Lucy wished she didn’t know what he was talking about. “He’s right,” Josh explained. “We were discussing women we’ve loved and lost and let go. We were discussing things we wish we’d done differently.”
“Oh. That’s good. Carson will be...” Josh stepped forward as Lucy’s words trailed off. An unfamiliar emotion had her looking around. “Where’s Elena?”
“Told her to take a break. She’s been working too hard. You all have.”
Sutton leaned back against his pillow and closed his eyes. “I’m tired. You guys are bothering me. Send a pretty nurse back in.”
Josh raised his eyebrows at her. “I think the man needs his rest. Can I talk to you outside?”
“Hold out for more,” Sutton shouted at her as Josh ushered her from the room.
“Should I even ask what he’s talking about?” Josh asked as he put his hand on the small of her back. Even that small touch was enough to make her skin warm.
“Probably not. What are you doing here? And don’t tell me you just came back to make nice with Sutton because Carson asked you to.” She didn’t know why she’d said that. It was just that she was so glad to see Josh that she couldn’t think of anything else. She wanted him to be here for her. She had no right to want that, but she did.
Without even realizing it, he was directing her toward her room. They went in and he closed the door behind them. “I didn’t come back because Carson asked me to,” he said, and then he was cupping her face in his hands and kissing her.
And she was letting him. She was kissing him back because he was here again and she’d spent the last ten days thinking about him and trying to convince herself that she didn’t want or need him. What she needed was what she’d always needed—to save lives and make people better.
She still needed that. But she needed something more.
She needed Josh.
“I missed you,” she told him. “Josh, I’m so sorry. I said horrible things and I think I might’ve been wrong.”
He leaned back against the door and grinned down at her. “You missed me?”
She could feel the heat in her cheeks. “Of course, I did. And I’ve been trying to figure out how I can make this work.”
He lifted his eyebrows. “Come up with any solutions? I’ve got to tell you, I have a vested interest in the outcome.” He stroked his thumbs over her cheeks and pulled her in closer.
God, it felt so good. “Cedar Point isn’t that far away. We could t
ry to do a long-distance thing. On the weekends. You wouldn’t have to stay in Chicago very long, and I...”
“And you wouldn’t have to give up your job,” he said, tucking her head under his chin and holding her tight.
“It could work, right?” He didn’t answer right away and she heard herself keep going. “I want to fight harder for you. For us. I didn’t think I needed to. But I’ve realized that I do.”
He sighed heavily and Lucy’s heart almost stopped. “Long-distance could work, I suppose. But it wouldn’t work for long. It wouldn’t work forever. Sooner or later, we’d get tired of the drive. And I know that I would get tired of only having you in my bed once a week.”
It sounded like a no. But he was right. A long-distance relationship like that was not a long-term solution. “Oh. Okay then.”
And then he was chuckling. Actually chuckling, as if she had told a mildly amusing joke instead of admitting defeat. “I’ll have you know,” he told her, leaning down so he could whisper right into her ear, “that I’ve been trying to figure out how to make this work, too.”
She looked up at him. “How? You hate Chicago and my job is here and if it’s not a long-distance thing, then I don’t know what it could be.”
“Oh, Lucy,” he said, and that definitely was not a no. “I would never ask you to give up your job. I know how much it means to you.”
She stared at him because that also did not sound like a yes. “It’s who I am.” But even that didn’t feel entirely honest, not anymore. It’s who she had been. But now?
She felt as though she might be something more than just Dr. Lucinda Wilde. But she had no idea what that actually meant.
“I have a proposition for you,” he said, tightening his grip on her waist.
“A proposition?” That was possibly the least romantic sounding word in the English language.
“I would never ask you to give up your job,” he repeated. “But here’s the funny thing—it turns out there’s more than one hospital in the United States. And equally funny is the fact that many of these other hospitals also treat cancer.”
She blinked at him. “So, you mean, like, get a job in Des Moines?” What the hell was he talking about? Sure, Cedar Point was a lot closer to Des Moines than it was to Chicago, but why would she relocate and essentially start her career over in a new hospital if she wasn’t going to move to Cedar Point...
“Calhoun Creamery has recently decided to make an investment in the community of Cedar Point,” he went on, suddenly sounding more like a CEO than a farm boy. “We’re going to be endowing a fund for a brand-new cancer pavilion at Cedar Point Regional Hospital. We’re still working out the details, but the hospital administrators and I agree that it would be best to bring in someone new to handle the transition. The current oncologist on staff, Dr. Jim Cook, is well into his seventies.” Her eyes bugged out of her head. “It’s good publicity for the creamery,” he added. “I learned that from the Newports.”
“Josh, what are you saying?” Because it sounded like he was saying—
“Marry me,” he said. “Marry me and come home to Cedar Point and take over the oncology department at the hospital. I don’t want you to give up your job. I don’t want you to stop saving people and I don’t want you to stop trying to beat cancer. But I do want you by my side. I want you by me today and tomorrow and for the rest of our lives. There are no guarantees in this life, Lucy, but you are worth the risk to me.”
She gaped at him. Was this really happening? Because she might have collapsed in her bed and fallen asleep and had the most wonderful dream ever. Ever.
Josh must have taken her silence the wrong way. Instead of pulling her closer, he pushed her away, just a little bit. “I just hope that I’m worth the risk to you, too. But if I’m not, I understand.”
Oh, God, she was not screwing this up. “No! I mean, yes! I mean...” She hauled him down to her and kissed him.
He stiffened in her arms, but only for a second. Then he was pulling her tight and kissing her hard.
“You’re worth the risk,” she told him. Giving up her job at a prestigious urban hospital and relocating to a small town in Iowa certainly was a risk.
But then, not doing either of those things was a risk, too. She’d be risking her heart and her sanity. She’d be risking a lonely life and she needed to hold out for more.
God bless Sutton Winchester, but that was exactly what she was going to do.
“Just so we’re clear,” Josh said with a smile. “Was that a yes or no to the marriage proposal? Because I’m not going to give up on you, Lucy.”
She hiccupped, and even she didn’t know if she was laughing or crying. It didn’t matter because suddenly she felt right again. “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you, because I’m never going to give up on you, either.”
“I love you, Dr. Lucinda Wilde.”
“And I love you, Joshua Calhoun. I always have.” She knew that now.
He kissed her again, harder, and in between kisses, he said, “And if I have anything to say about it, you always will.”
* * * * *
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Billionaire Boss, M.D.
by Olivia Gates
One
“Lili...look alive! The boss man himself is about to arrive.”
Liliana Accardi swung away from the microscope to impale her
coworker with a glare, his rhyming—whether he meant it or not—annoying her.
But it was just as well he’d interrupted her. Instead of the gray-scaled cells she was supposed to be studying, she’d been seeing only red. Ever since she’d heard the news that would end all her professional and scientific dreams. No way was she rushing off to go stand in line while said new “boss man” inspected them like a shepherd inspected his newly acquired flock.
Brian Saunders raised his hands in a “don’t kill the messenger” gesture. “I just think you should come, if only to get firsthand word on the direction of his management. Maybe he’ll allow you to carry on with your work, after all.”
“Yeah, sure. From what I’ve read about him since I started my morning with the delightful news of his takeover, Antonio Balducci rules his empire with a steel fist. He’ll never allow me independence.”
Brian spread his arms. “You know me, I never say never.” At her hardening glare, he grinned. “I’m in the same hijacked boat as you. I just decided to deal with my captivity and go on the journey with a different attitude.”
She huffed, deflating in her chair.
Brian was right. He was just another victim of the tsunami takeover. She should save her wrath for their new boss.
But Balducci wouldn’t be her boss for long. Not if he insisted on sweeping years’ worth of work and results under the rug and forcing them to dance to his profit-hungry tune.
Despite a medical degree, two master’s degrees and lucrative offers, she’d spent years at Biomedical Innovation Lab with a salary that barely paid the bills. All to do marginalized but necessary research.
Until Balducci Research and Development opened its bottomless maw and swallowed them whole. They now sloshed deep in its belly among other chomped-off acquisitions.
What most galled her was the humiliating speed with which everything had been initiated and finalized. The commercialized global whale, a major tentacle of the Black Castle Enterprises leviathan, had assimilated them in mere hours.
Claimed by the Cowboy Page 16