Secret Love (The 4Ever Series Book 2)

by Isabella White

  “I’m the new intern… from Seattle, Holly Scallanger.”

  The receptionist looked down at her appointment book, then back up again. “Please, take a seat. One of the attendings will be with you shortly.”

  “Thank you.”

  Holly plopped down on a couch and waited for what felt like forever. She paged through several glossy magazines.

  “Hi,” she heard someone say right next to her.

  Smiling, Holly placed the magazines back on the coffee table. The woman was tall, blond, with really big eyes that sat too far away from one another and frizzy hair that stood on end. Her eyes made her look like an alien, and her wide jawline did nothing for her, either. Still, she was kind of pretty, in her own way.

  “I’m Dr. Smith. I’ll be your tour guide. My apologies in advance for not being able to give you the entire tour, but if you need anything, everyone here is extremely helpful.” She smiled. “Welcome to Downsend.”

  “Nice to meet you. I’m Holly. Holly Scallanger.” She held out her hand and shook Dr. Smith’s. No first name as yet.

  Leading the way, Dr. Smith led them up a set of stairs while she spoke about the structure of the building—which was boring as heck and had absolutely nothing to do with becoming a doctor. “We have five hundred staff working here. Two hundred doctors, two hundred and sixty-five nurses, and the rest… well, someone has to do the dirty work others don’t want to do.”

  Changing course, Dr. Smith took Holly down a hall and then down another flight of stairs that led straight through to the OR.

  “This is where everyone wants to be. First years do not get a lot of scrub-in time,” she said, using finger quotes. “You will start where every single one of us started: right at the bottom. You will learn how the filing system works, how the inventory is completed, and that counting is the best way of controlling stock. Also, you’ll be admitting patients. All very boring, but everyone has to do it.”

  Holly smiled and glanced at the operating table again. She’d seen many, but this was truly where she wanted to be, fixing hearts.

  Making their way back up the stairs, they went through a door on the right, then back to the ground floor.

  “And here is Dr. Green,” Dr. Smith said, with a slight flirt in her tone. Dr. Green was standing at the reception desk. He was tall, with dark hair, a skinny build, and dark eyes. Not a Jake, but the guy was definitely something to look at. Dr. Smith liked him, that much Holly could tell. “Meet our new intern from Seattle, Holly Scallanger.”

  “Welcome to Downsend.” Dr. Green held out a hand to her. Holly shook it. “And please, call me Oliver.”

  “Oliver is the head of neurology,” Dr. Smith added.

  “Brains are my thing,” he joked, which had Holly thinking about Jake again. She hated that. Still, she managed to give him a small laugh.

  “I hope you don’t take everything Desire says literally. You will get to scrub in a couple times; otherwise, how are you going to learn?” He smiled, showing his dimples.

  Desire. Finally she had a first name for Dr. Smith. Giving Dr. Green a wide grin, they continued with the tour. They rode the elevator up to level three, where the cardiology ward was situated. It was the unit Holly wanted to work in. There, they met Dr. Embers. He was in his fifties, and had bags under his eyes. Holly didn’t know if it was from too little sleep, or the bottle. Her mother had bags under her eyes too, not as bad as his, but similar.

  “Dr. Embers,” Desire spoke. “This is the intern from Seattle, Holly Sca—”

  “Dr. Scallanger,” Dr. Embers interrupted. Holly could tell from Desire’s body language that that was something she absolutely hated. “You’re on the internal medicine program, wanting to become a cardiovascular surgeon.”

  “That’s correct,” Holly said, reaching her hand for his to shake, which he did.

  “I’ll take it from here.” He smiled, dismissing Desire. She left without giving Holly a chance to thank her properly.

  Dr. Embers began to tell Holly about certain cases, to find out what she had already learned in medical school. She answered diligently. Her answers impressed him, that much she could tell. She’d always known that she knew more than other interns.

  “I forgot, you are one of Dr. Somers’ students.”

  Holly laughed. “I helped out at his free clinic whenever I could.”

  “It’s a shame he got Parkinson’s. He loved being a doctor.”

  “He still is, just not the way he wants to be.”

  “Do you know how fortunate you are, to have been guided by him?”

  “I do.”

  “I bet that he showed you his old-fashioned techniques as well.”

  Holly simply chuckled, which was her way of letting people know that they were right. They just didn’t know how much he’d shown her.

  Just then, a girl appeared. She had the most awful reddish-pink hair Holly had ever seen. She could tell it was a color experiment gone horribly wrong. The girl rushed up to Dr. Embers with lab reports in her hands.

  “Tanya, this is Holly. She’s here to learn how to become a cardiovascular surgeon, too, something the two of you have in common. Holly, Tanya Niagelli.”

  “Niagelli?” Holly pondered over the girl’s last name. Why did it sound so familiar?

  “Busted.” Tanya smiled.

  Dr. Embers smiled, too. “The Niagellis are just as famous as the Peterses.” He winked at Tanya, whose lips formed a cheeky smile.

  Okay, Holly thought to herself, pretending to not have seen the wink.

  “And now, they are finally merging together, creating a new kind of special breed.”

  Tanya laughed.

  “Merging together?” Holly asked, dumbfounded.

  “Kate, my cousin, is going to marry Jake Peters. You know… merging together.” She elaborated, using her hands.

  Holly knew Jake had someone in his life, but she’d never thought that he would actually marry her. Still, she smiled and pretended that she was an idiot for not understanding. But if she were honest, it had completely bowled her over.

  She’d heard about Kate. She’d won the Edinger award a couple years ago. The Edinger wasn’t the Gillespie, but it was still an honor. However, she still didn’t think that they would get married. She should be happy, but a part of her struggled over the news of Jake really having moved on. It was so unfair.

  She’d seen his profile picture on Facebook. She’d never opened another account after having closed it, but she’d needed to find pictures of him when Jamie began all her questioning. And what popped up was his Facebook profile picture, which happened to be of him and a blond woman. She had a beautiful face, blue eyes, and the most gorgeous lips. Holly hated that picture.

  “You must be starving,” Dr. Embers said, breaking into her thoughts.

  “A little bit.” She smiled.

  “Tanya, could you show Holly to the cafeteria?”

  “Sure,” she replied, nodding for Holly to follow her.

  They walked down the hallway in silence. Rounding a corner, Tanya suddenly turned on Holly and practically seethed, “If you in any way, take what little time I have for scrubbing in, your ass is gone. You hear?” Tanya’s attack came from nowhere.

  “Excuse me?”

  “No need to excuse yourself, just as long as we understand one another. Scrub-in times are mine! I’ve worked my ass off these past eight weeks to get noticed, and no bimbo with fake, strawberry-blond hair is going to steal that from me. You can find the cafeteria yourself.” She turned, mumbling something about not being anybody’s guide dog.

  “Okay, then.” Holly took a huge breath and continued to stare at Tanya’s retreating back.

  One of the other doctors, who happened to be standing nearby, laughed. He was tall with scruffy blond hair and glasses.

  “Rev Van der Beeck,” he said, walking up to Holly, chuckling again when she just looked at him, still dumbfounded. “That is Tanya, sweet as hell in front of all the doctors, but a bitch
behind everyone’s back.”

  Holly laughed, shaking her head. “Sorry, Holly Scallanger, from Seattle.”

  “Ah, now I know why she feels so threatened. We’ve heard a couple of things from Seattle.”

  Please don’t say that.

  “Come, I’ll take you to the cafeteria. She has more bark than bite. You don’t need to be scared of her.”

  “I’m not,” Holly assured him, chuckling again. “I just wasn’t expecting that.” Suddenly, she remembered his last name. “Wait, you said your surname was Van der Beeck?”

  “James Van der Beeck is my grandfather. The doctor, not the actor.”

  She giggled. “Nice to meet you, Rev Van der Beeck with a famous grandfather.”

  He laughed.

  The cafeteria was located right where they’d started, at the entrance.

  Rev grabbed something to eat as well, and sat with Holly at a table.

  Just as she was about to take her first bite, her phone buzzed with a message.

  I met him!! He freakin’ took me on a tour. 

  There was a dancing yellow smiley face next to Rodney’s message. She couldn’t help but smile, but the fact that Jake was getting married sort of ruined her day. And that he’d taken Rodney, an intern, on a tour? That didn’t make any sense. She’d gotten an attending for a short while, followed by a very bad intern to take her on her tour. She supposed she was just bitter.

  Awesome. Holly typed back. Have you made any friends yet?

  What! We’re supposed to make friends? I thought that only happened in first grade.

  Hahahaha. Holly sent off.

  What are you eating?

  Decided on a club, you?

  They have awesome foot-longs. Got to go, The Brain God just walked in.

  She sighed. Play nice. She put the phone face-up on the table.

  Rev caught the picture of Jamie on her phone. “Good looking kid. Who is she?”

  “Jamie, and she’s mine,” Holly said, placing the phone back in her pocket before he looked any closer and recognized the Peters DNA in Jamie’s sweet face.

  “You have a kid?”

  “Sexy, huh?”

  “I don’t know, it’s kind of sexy.”

  Holly laughed.

  “Who is the father?” They always asked that.

  “Some ass who didn’t want her.”

  “Idiot.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  She’d always wondered what people would say were she to tell them the truth of who Jamie’s father was. He would quickly fall of the high pedestal everyone had put him on. But that would never happen, because she would never divulge that information.

  They dug into their lunches, and when they were done, Rev took her back to the reception area, where she filled in some paperwork. He waited, which was sweet of him. He was a sweet guy, but so not her type. And he was way, way too young for her. She smiled at that thought.

  She filled in the paperwork while Rev and one of the nurses joked with each other. He had the entire reception area rolling in laughter when he told them about Tanya threatening Holly this morning.

  “The Niagellis are all the same,” one of the nurses said.

  Holly couldn’t fully complete her forms as she hadn’t memorized the old fire station’s address yet. She’d have to get it from Rodney, then go back and fill it in. For siblings, she wrote not applicable. Jamie was on her mother’s insurance, so there was no need to switch her over, if she was lucky enough to get a plan. And if she did, it would more than likely be a crappy one.

  Done with the administration bit, Rev showed her to the changing rooms, where a brand-new doctor’s coat was waiting for her.

  She’d had one during her eight weeks at Seattle, but this time it was different. It was permanent. She’d finally graduated from a student to an intern.

  BEFORE SHE KNEW IT, HER FIRST TWENTY-four-hour shift was over. She had gotten a schedule that consisted of working one twenty-four-hour straight shift, with evenings off, then another thirty-hour shift on the seventh day, with days off, but working nights.

  It reminded her of when Jake had started. She’d only seen him when he’d had nights off. But she didn’t work like an idiot her first month, the way he had.

  She’d gotten angry, knowing he’d lied to her that first month. It must have been that married woman she’d somehow forgotten about. He must’ve bumped into her at the hospital or something, and they must’ve talked. He must have been with that woman while she was pregnant, while his ‘other woman’ had waited like an idiot for him to phone her.

  She felt so stupid now. Her mother had been right when she’d said, “When something is too good to be true, it usually is.”

  Two hours before her shift ended, she grabbed herself a cup of coffee, but for some reason, struggled to get it into her system. It was strong and tasted bitter, like no amount of sugar would help it taste like the cup of joe she enjoyed in the mornings.

  Her phone buzzed and she picked it up.

  Coffee is disgusting. I miss yours.

  It made her smile knowing that she was at least good for something. Even if that something was making a good cup of joe.

  We need to buy big travel cups, then you can take some to work.

  Her phone beeped again.

  Awesome idea. You’re the best. Adding them to the grocery list now.

  She laughed at Rod’s silliness.

  How was the first day, Dr. Baluccio?

  Boring! And no, I didn’t get to see the inside of a real, live brain yet.

  Bummer! I’m sure if you flutter your eyes at TBG, he will let you scrub in soon.

  Oh, it’s Macaroon now. So GA. Besides, I don’t think I’m his type.

  Holly smiled at the GA reference. Ever since she’d known Rod, he’d referred to Grey’s Anatomy as GA. He teased her about it, too. He thought nobody’s lives, especially doctors, were that complicated.

  Macaroon? Ha-ha. His loss, you are going to be brilliant.

  She received a yellow smiley face with hearts for eyes.

  Her phone buzzed again ten minutes later.

  How is your schedule?

  Not too bad. Twenty-four-hour shift today, day off, work tomorrow night, then nights all the way till a big thirty-hour shift.

  WHAT? You lucky bitch. I worked the first month like an ass. I regret taking P&E now.

  Holly felt bad that she’d thought about Jake having an affair that first month. So it was a P&E thing. Still, he’d left her when she’d needed him. He was an ass—it could’ve still happened.

  Sowi, I’ll make you extra cups of coffee.

  Hope you will deliver them, too.

  She laughed. Love you a lot, buddy, but not so much that it I’ll go to P&E, she thought, choosing to reply with a smiley face.

  Slumping in her chair, she closed her eyes, still having no idea where the sleeping quarters were. Her mind rushed over the past twenty-four hours. She’d spent almost the entire day in the ER. After entering, a resident on Dr. Embers’s program told her that everyone went through the same thing on their first day, so she needed to be on the lookout for cardiac cases and call immediately should she come across one.

  As it turned out, she felt stupid when Dr. Embers found her, because she’d been pranked. Tanya had more than likely been the one behind it. Dr. Embers said she was supposed to stay in the ER, and he told her to get her ass back there. The tone he used was one she didn’t at all like, but she obliged. It wasn’t like she had a choice. She handled minor cases—fevers, headaches, and checkups—before admitting patients. Of course, she filled in her fair share of paperwork, too.

  There were a couple of near heart attacks, and these she was good at. She was especially good at relieving fears, but she never got to show what it she could do, as a second- or third-year resident would always push her out of the way and steal the case from her.

  She found Dr. Green smiling at her when she walked back into the emergency room’s lobby, looking
extremely bummed out.

  “You should show some claws. Maybe they will back off?”

  She giggled. “I doubt that.”

  “So what makes you tick?”

  Holly laughed. “Precisely that.”

  He smiled. “Good word choice, then. See, if you loved the mind, I could’ve helped you.” He started to walk away.

  “Bummer,” she yelled after him.

  She found Agneta, or just Aggie as most doctors called her, behind the desk. She was the one who had said the Niagellis were all the same.

  “Uh huh,” she said.

  Bernie would’ve died a thousand deaths if she was here, which made Holly smile. But her humor disappeared quickly; thinking about her friend made her miss her.

  Agneta was one of the nurses she’d had the pleasure of working with in the ER yesterday. Aggie reminded her of a mamma teddy bear you could hug, and she would make all your problems go away. It had been a pleasure working with her.

  “You are everywhere, aren’t you?” Holly said. If she’d learned one thing from Jane, it was to be super nice to the nurses; they could either make your life as sweet as honey, or as hard as hell.

  “Don’t change the subject. That one’s got his eye on you… and maybe something else.”

  “You make me sound cheap,” Holly said.

  “Heart, baby, I was talking about the heart.”

  “Didn’t sound like that, Aggie,” Holly said, picking up the chart of the next patient waiting to be helped.

  Aggie simply laughed.

  Most of the cases involved minor injuries, as the second years stole all the bigger ones. If that was how things were going to go, Holly wasn’t going to see the inside of an OR at all this year.