His smile died as he lifted his head to put his helmet on.
No way...
It couldn’t be...
But it was. The woman walking towards the little red car was none other than the new nurse from ED.
Samantha Braithwaite.
The name had burned itself into his memory banks instantly, with a similar lightning bolt kind of finality as what she looked like.
And, if he’d thought she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen in that moment, it paled in comparison to what he was seeing now.
She’d been wearing scrubs then. With her hair no more than a lumpy knot at the back of her head.
Right now, she was wearing a gypsy-style, loose white blouse and faded denim shorts with frayed hems that showed off an incredible length of slim, bronzed legs. And her hair... Released from that knot, it was astonishingly long, reaching her waist in a fall of gentle waves that the summer evening breeze was playing with.
Forget the impression of being a princess or a model. What Blake was looking at now was more like an image from one of those magazines he’d hidden under his bed as a teenager.
Every man’s fantasy.
And she owned the vintage MG roadster? Apparently so, given that she’d climbed inside and was now rolling the soft top back.
Blake’s breath came out in a snort. Of course she did. It was probably a gift from a rich father. Or husband. A boyfriend at the very least. Women who looked like that were never alone in life.
Maybe she’d had those stupid dots painted on her nails to match its paintwork, even.
This was ridiculous. Why was he even giving this woman and her questionable life choices any head space at all? Blake jammed his helmet onto his head and kicked the engine of his bike into life. He took off with perhaps a bit more acceleration than was strictly necessary so it really shouldn’t have surprised him that she turned her head to stare at him.
What did come as a surprise was that he rather liked the idea that she was watching him.
* * *
‘How long will I have to wait?’
‘I’m not sure, Jess.’ Sam had come into one of the cubicles assigned to her on this shift, to do the obs on a patient who’d been brought into the ED by ambulance earlier this morning. She watched the drip rate of the IV fluids and slowed them a little by turning the small wheel on the line. These fluids were running simply to keep a vein open in case medication was needed at some point. ‘I can make a call and try and find out, if you like?’
She knew which of the phones on the main desk she could use. And who to call. After a week in her new department, Sam was comfortably familiar with where things were, subtle differences in protocols and her new group of colleagues, both in the department and the consultants who got called in. They were a great bunch of people and Sam knew she was going to make new friends here. She particularly liked Kate Mitchell, an O&G surgeon, who was apparently also a member of the SDR team although she hadn’t had a chance to talk to her about it yet. She lived in the same apartment building as Harriet so maybe she should suggest that they all meet up for a drink one evening, or something.
‘That would be great.’ Jess nodded. ‘I’ve let them know at work that I’m going to be late but I haven’t worked there that long, you know? I don’t want them to think I’m a liability.’
‘I get it. I’m pretty new here, myself. Let me just do your blood pressure and things and I’ll get on it.’
At twenty-five, Jess was only a few years younger than Sam so she already felt an affinity with this patient. That she wanted to impress people at a new job gave them another connection. Sam smiled at her as she wrapped the blood pressure cuff around her arm. Not that she’d managed to impress anybody here yet, as far as she was aware, but at least she’d been able to keep her head down and work hard and had, thank goodness, avoided calling attention to herself for any less than desirable incidents.
She still felt like she was on probation, however, whenever Blake Cooper was in the near vicinity. Which seemed to be an awful lot of the time. She’d developed a kind of internal radar that alerted her to his presence in the department, even when he wasn’t visible, which was a bit weird but she’d proved herself correct often enough to trust it now. It was like some kind of energy that gave a recognisable crackle to the atmosphere.
She wasn’t into auras or anything like that, but it wasn’t hard to recognise charisma and she’d already been intrigued by this man. When she’d seen him roar off on his motorbike that evening last week, the jolt of what could only be described as pure lust had been shocking enough to explain the crackle she was now so aware of. It was also the reason she was avoiding eye contact with him at all costs. It wasn’t easy, either, because that feeling of being on probation came from the knowledge that he was keeping an eye on her.
Watching what she was up to and whether she was doing her job to an acceptable level of expertise.
How embarrassing would it be if he could see how attractive she found him?
She noted a normal blood pressure and then picked up the tympanic thermometer.
‘I’m sure I don’t have a temperature,’ Jess told her. ‘I don’t feel sick.’
‘We’re just keeping an eye on things. An infection is one of the things that could be interfering with your anti-epileptic medication.’
‘I don’t even think I had a seizure. I just fainted or something.’
‘You may as well get checked out properly while you’re here.’
‘I wouldn’t be here, if that cop hadn’t been in the coffee shop when it happened. He was the one who called an ambulance.’
‘I might have done the same thing myself, if I’d noticed your MedicAlert bracelet.’
‘But I was fine by the time it arrived. If he hadn’t threatened to call my parents if I didn’t go to the hospital, I’d be at work now and wouldn’t be here wasting people’s time.’
‘When was the last time you had an EEG?’
‘After my last seizure, nearly two years ago. Oh...’ Jess groaned. ‘I was just about to be able to get my driver’s licence back, you know? This really sucks...’
‘I know.’ Sam wrote the normal temperature onto the chart. ‘It’s a bit stressful starting a new job. Have you been sleeping okay? Eating well?’
They were all questions that had been asked by the junior registrar who’d been assigned this patient but, sometimes, people found it less intimidating to chat to their nurse and new information could be forthcoming.
But Jess just shook her head. ‘You’re starting to sound like my mother.’
‘Sorry.’ Sam grinned. ‘Helicopter parent, huh? I know what that’s like.’
‘You’d think I was still six years old, not a responsible adult.’ Jess sighed heavily, leaning her head back on her pillows. ‘I don’t blame them, you know? My brother died in a car accident when he was seventeen. They’ve been watching me like a hawk ever since and I know how much they care. That’s why I can’t let them know I’m in here. My mother would totally panic.’
Sam had frozen for a moment, after clipping the chart back onto the end of the bed.
‘I understand,’ she said quietly.
Man...she had way more in common with this patient than an age group or a new job.
‘And I’m so sorry to hear about your brother. That’s really rough.’
She knew exactly how rough. Not that her brother had died in a car crash. No. Alistair had been feeding his adrenaline addiction and climbing a mountain. He’d been twenty-five. Sam had only been sixteen and the loss of her only brother and her best friend had been devastating. Her parents were never going to get over it.
‘It wasn’t his fault. They said it was, because he was driving but I don’t believe it. One of his mates in the car said he collapsed at the wheel but he’d had a head injury and nobody believed him
.’
There were tears rolling down Jess’s face. ‘It changed everything, you know? It was when I had my first seizure and knew how terrified my parents were. We all miss him...so much...’
Jess was sobbing now. Sam moved to put her arms around her patient. She needed to comfort her. Emotional distress like this wasn’t going to help. It could even possibly trigger another seizure.
And, even as the thought appeared, she could feel the sudden change within her arms. The instant lack of any muscle tension.
‘Jess? Jess...?’
The lack of any response was no surprise. Swiftly, Sam removed the pillows from behind Jess’s head and tilted her chin to ensure her airway was open before pressing her fingers to her neck to check her pulse. The sudden jerking beneath her hand made it impossible to feel anything. All she could do now was to make sure that she kept Jess safe for the duration of this seizure. And to alert the registrar, Sandra, of this new development.
The movements weren’t violent enough to put Jess in danger of falling off the bed so Sam took a quick step back to flick the curtain open far enough to call whoever was closest and ask them to find Sandra urgently.
There was only one person close enough to call.
And this was not an appropriate moment to avoid eye contact.
Oddly, she didn’t need to utter a word.
And, even more oddly, it felt like she’d known that since the first time she had made eye contact with this extraordinary man. It was exactly why she’d been avoiding this—it felt like he could see anything that she might be trying to hide.
Not that she was trying to hide anything right now. She needed back-up and it took only a split second. With two strides, Blake was behind the curtain with her, his intense gaze on Jess as he took in the uncontrolled movements of her body.
‘This is Jess, twenty-five years old,’ Sam told him rapidly. ‘History of epilepsy. She was brought in by ambulance nearly an hour ago and is waiting for an EEG. She...um...got upset when we were talking. Sudden loss of consciousness and the seizure started maybe fifteen seconds later.’
‘Draw up some midazolam,’ Blake ordered. ‘Five milligrams. We’re going to need it if this lasts more than five minutes. Grab some valproate as well, in case the midaz isn’t enough.’
Sam’s hands were rock steady as she swiftly found the ampoules, double checked the name, dose and expiry date with Blake and drew up the drugs.
He checked his watch. ‘Three minutes,’ he murmured. He was resting his hand on the arm that had the IV line inserted, to protect it from being knocked out of place. ‘What was she upset about?’
‘She was telling me about her brother who died in a car crash when he was a teenager. Her epilepsy got diagnosed not long after that.’
‘Oh?’ Blake slanted a glance towards Sam and, again, there was a moment of communication that went beyond the words being spoken. They both found this snippet of information interesting.
‘Apparently, one of the passengers in the car thought he might have collapsed suddenly at the wheel.’
Blake’s glance sharpened with what looked like curiosity.
‘What are you thinking?’
A lot of people wouldn’t have jumped in with both feet the way Sam did. She was a nurse. It wasn’t her place to suggest that a doctor’s diagnosis might have been wrong. But maybe she recognised the significance of something others might have dismissed and she had the feeling that Blake was on the same wavelength.
‘What if it’s not epilepsy at all?’ Sam suggested quietly. ‘But something like long QT syndrome?’
Surprise replaced curiosity in that dark gaze. ‘What do you know about long QT syndrome?’
‘It’s a delayed repolarisation of the heart that can lead to episodes of torsades de pointes and can cause fainting, seizures and sudden death due to ventricular fibrillation. It can be hereditary and run in families.’
‘She must have had ECGs done.’
‘They did a twelve lead in the ambulance this morning. It was reported as sinus rhythm and NAD.’
No abnormalities detected.
Blake checked his watch again but Sam could see that the drugs weren’t going to be needed. The chaotic movements of Jess’s body were subsiding. She could see their patient’s chest heave as she took a deep breath. Blake quickly turned her into the recovery position, talking quietly as he did so.
‘It’s okay, Jess,’ he said gently. He pulled up the bed cover and tucked it around her shoulders. ‘You’re fine. Everything’s okay. Just rest for a minute.’
Then he straightened. ‘Where’s that ECG?’
Sam took the manila folder from where it was clipped behind the observations chart she had been filling in a short time ago. The sheet of pink graph paper was behind the ambulance officer’s report form. She handed it to Blake and he stared at it for a long minute.
Sam waited, holding her breath, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he handed the trace to her.
‘What do you think?’
Her mouth went suddenly dry. All aspects of cardiology were fascinating to her but she was no expert and traces were difficult to read. Then she let her breath out slowly. She didn’t need to analyse every lead on this ECG. All she needed to look at was the rhythm strip at the bottom and to remember what the normal interval between the downward Q spike and the end of the T wave was. She started counting the tiny squares, the figure of ten being in her head.
‘Eight, nine...ten...’ She was whispering aloud. ‘Eleven...no, it could be twelve.’ Her gaze flicked up from the paper. Was she making an idiot of herself, here?
‘Hard to tell without a ruler, isn’t it?’ Blake’s gaze was steady. He wasn’t looking surprised any more. And curiosity was long gone. This look had a very different message.
He looked seriously impressed.
‘Definitely long.’ One side of his mouth curled up just a fraction. Okay, maybe there was a bit of surprise mixed into that lingering look. He hadn’t expected this from her, had he?
She had wanted a chance to impress him but it was kind of annoying that he was so impressed that she might have a brain. Blake Cooper might be the hottest thing on two legs she’d ever met but his attitude was less than desirable. It wasn’t the first time that Sam had encountered a reaction that suggested she didn’t look as smart as she was. What usually followed was the impression that the fact that she could think was just an added bonus that wasn’t particularly relevant.
The burning fuse of the potent attraction she’d been so aware of had just been doused with a bucket of cold water and, ironically, in the moment of realising she didn’t have to avoid eye contact with this man any more, it became remarkably easy to break it. She turned towards her patient who was waking up properly now.
But Blake had turned as well and they both reached to take Jess’s pulse at the same time.
Skin brushed on skin and Sam had to snatch her hand away as if she’d been burnt.
It felt like she’d been burnt.
Maybe that fuse hadn’t been extinguished as well as she’d thought.
Blake didn’t seem to have noticed anything. ‘Give Cardiology a call, would you, Sam?’ he asked. ‘And bring a monitor when you come back. Hopefully this isn’t going to happen again, but it would be helpful to be able to record it if it does.’
* * *
‘Good call, mate.’ Luc Braxton paused by the central desk in the ER to talk to Blake. ‘I was having lunch with one of the cardiology team and they told me all about your case. Sounds like you probably saved that young woman’s life.’
Blake couldn’t take all the credit. He couldn’t actually take any of it.
‘It was a good call,’ he agreed. ‘She could well have gone on being treated for epilepsy that didn’t exist and died from a VF arrest down the track.’
‘You should write t
he case history up for a journal,’ Luc suggested.
‘I think it’s been done,’ Blake said. ‘What bothers me is that nobody queried whether her seizures could have been due to oxygen deprivation in the first place. And I can’t really take the credit...’ He lifted his gaze to scan the emergency department. ‘It was actually one of our nurses who joined the dots.’
‘Wow. That’s impressive. Who was it?’
‘Samantha...someone. She’s new.’
‘Ah...’ Luc raised an eyebrow. ‘The one that looks like a model?’
‘Mmm.’ The response was meant to be discouraging. He didn’t want to find out that any of his colleagues found her attractive. And he certainly didn’t want to give anyone the impression that he did. She wasn’t his type and never would be.
‘Give her a pat on the back then.’ Luc turned away but then threw a grin over his shoulder. ‘Figuratively, I mean.’
Blake ignored the subtle reference to his reputation with women but the suggestion had already been made by the cardiology team. ‘I’ll do that.’
Not that he could see Sam anywhere. After a week of being so aware of her in the department, half expecting her to do something else that was clumsy or inappropriate, it was a little disconcerting to realise he might have to go looking for her to pass on the congratulations.
Maybe that had something to do with the impression he’d been left with that she hadn’t exactly been thrilled to have him take over Jess’s management until the patient was transferred to the cardiology department. She’d barely spoken to him when she’d brought the monitor back and busied herself attaching electrodes and then she’d faded into the background when Jess asked her to contact her parents and let them know what was going on.
What had he done to offend her?
And why did it bother him, anyway?
Okay, maybe she’d ditched those frivolous nails but she still belonged to a world he did his best to avoid. A supermodel clone who drove around in a real-life Dinky toy and had the time and inclination to sit around in beauty salons.
The Shy Nurse's Rebel Doc Page 3