The Surgeon's Christmas Wish

by Annie O'Neil

  Feeling herself being pushed out of the hug to be examined, Tara squirmed as Liesel scrutinized her.

  “He’s got you bad, doesn’t he?”

  Bristling just the smallest bit, Tara replied tartly, “I haven’t the slightest idea what you’re talking about.”

  Liesel looked over her tiny wire-rimmed glasses at Tara, an eyebrow cocked, clearly dubious of Tara’s pronouncement.

  “Uhh, yeah. I’ll believe that when the Abominable Snowman walks in the front door, asking for an icepack.”

  The two women looked at each other for a moment in taut silence then laughed.

  “We-e-ll....” Tara was forced to concede, “he’s all right. But if I were ever to date again, and that is a particularly big if, it would be with a man who would be worth the risk. Not some high-speed globetrotter.”

  “Earth to Tara. The man’s a highly skilled trauma surgeon! I don’t care what you say, but that’s hot.”

  “True, but that doesn’t mean he’s good at...” Tara struggled trying to think of something on this earth Fraser wouldn’t be good at. Hanging around long enough to fall in love? “I bet you he isn’t any good at playing Sudoku.”

  “Not really a deal-breaker in my book,” Liesel retorted, whirling round in her chair, her lap filled with the patient charts they’d worked up that morning.

  Deciding the conversation very clearly needed to be over, Tara turned to walk into the stock cupboard, only to hear Liesel calling after her, “Particularly if dating a man who looks like he could chop firewood and talk surgery all day is your thing.”

  “Maybe it is!” Tara retorted, enjoying their banter.

  “Maybe what is?”

  The sound of her ex’s voice made Tara’s blood run cold. What on earth was he doing here? Maybe she should’ve picked up the missed call. She could have saved him the journey.

  “Hello, Tara,” he drawled, clearly enjoying the shocked expression on her face. “How’s Santa’s playland?”

  “It’s great,” Tara replied through gritted teeth. How could she have forgotten his panache for belittling everything she enjoyed? Belittling a place that had grown so very dear to her heart.

  “Why are you here, Anson?” She glared at him, heart racing, willing this entire scenario to not really be happening.

  “Oh, I just thought I’d make a little visit to your winter wonderland and catch you up on everything that you’re missing out on in the Big Apple.”

  Wasn’t this interesting timing? Her mind flitted back to the article she’d read in the medical journal last night. Her gaze turned more searching.

  Had she noticed before that his smile wasn’t very sincere? That his blond hair was just a bit too perfectly coiffed? Sure, he was an attractive man, but it seemed ridiculous to her now that up here in the mountains he still wouldn’t risk being seen in anything less than three-hundred-dollar shoes.

  Maybe it was just that seeing him here, out of context of the big city social scene, Tara could see her ex for the person he really was...a lying, cheating, social climber who was only in love with himself.

  “And this is...?” Liesel injected herself into the situation, a bona fide superwoman in Tara’s eyes. She didn’t know if she could do this alone.

  Her ex took two of his brisk steps towards Liesel, offering her a perfectly manicured hand, “Anson Stanmore, Tara’s fiancé.”

  “Ex-fiancé!” Tara sharply corrected.

  Liesel sent Tara one of her raised-eyebrow looks, which she was just going to have to ignore right now.

  How dared he just barge in here and start behaving like he owned her? Those days had finished the moment he’d decided to steal her research and present it as his own. Which also happened to be around the same time she’d discovered he had cheated on her not once but several times over the course of their year-long relationship. If she hadn’t been neck deep in medical books and test trials maybe she would have noticed. Or—the notion suddenly struck her—maybe she hadn’t wanted to notice. Maybe her heart had never really been in the relationship.

  A sense of calm began to play across her frazzled nerves. Anson clearly sensed the shift as well and Tara had to suppress a smile of satisfaction as she watched him become increasingly uncomfortable under her gaze, his authority lost. What the hell was he doing here?

  “Is there somewhere we could talk?” His eyes darted about the room as Tara eyed him coolly. “Privately?” he added, all too aware of Liesel’s unabashed interest in the scene playing out before her.

  “No.” Tara decided to hold her ground. “Anything you have to say, you can say in front of Liesel.”

  Her ex’s green eyes flickered nervously from the nurse to Tara. Drawing up to his full six feet, he took an impatient breath and exhaled a brusque, “Fine.”

  “So,” Tara tapped her foot. “What can I do you for?” She intentionally borrowed Marian’s folksy tone to irritate him. It appeared to work.

  “Tara, quit being silly. I’ve come to this little backwoods outpost where you’ve set up camp to bring you back to New York City. Where you belong.”

  “I’m pretty certain New York City is the last place she belongs.”

  Tara’s hand flew automatically to her lips at the sound of Fraser’s Scottish burr.

  “Fraser, I thought you were down in the Valley.” Tara’s heart rate quickened as she looked round to see him closing the back door behind her. He came to a stop close behind her, but his eyes were focused on her ex. Looking up at the five o’clock shadow that covered his jaw, Tara saw a muscle twitch as he clenched his jaw. It looked like Fraser and her ex weren’t exactly getting off to a friendly start.

  “I’m sorry.” Anson put on his most insincere smile. “You are?”

  “I don’t think it makes a blind bit of difference who I am when you’re the one who seems to be the fish out of water, mate.”

  Tara watched as the two men glared at each other, clearly at an impasse. She had to admit this was a completely new scenario for her. Here she was in a room with the two men who—the two men who what? One who had taught her not to trust again and one who turned her knees to jelly and just wanted to be friends. Terrific choice! At the very least, if that kiss she and Fraser had shared was anything to go by, the romance side of things with her ex could safely be consigned to the past—just a blip on her historical radar.

  “Tara, you’ve got to be kidding me.” Anson’s voice turned thin. “Can’t we go somewhere and talk?”

  “I didn’t invite you here.” Tara shot Fraser a quick glance then fixed her ex with a knowing look. “You should be lucky I’m speaking to you at all.”

  The looks of resentment on Fraser and her ex’s faces were completely undisguised. Maybe this would turn out to be quite fun! She’d never had two men jockeying for her attention before. Even if one of them “winning” her was out of the question, Tara decided to play the moment for all it was worth. Liesel was clearly enjoying herself, too. The verbal ping-pong match had just been kicked up a notch.

  “Tara, I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but if you could peel your eyes away from your black-eyed Braveheart here for a minute, you might do me the courtesy of noticing I have made quite an effort to come out here and offer you the chance of coming back to New York, where you belong.”

  “Offer me the chance?” Tara’s hackles had shot straight up and she didn’t care who knew it. “Are you crazy?”

  “I must be. Is this what you’re after, Tara?” her ex shot back, gesturing first towards Fraser then grandly around the clinic. “A life with Scotland’s answer to a mountain man and a bunch of skiers who don’t have the cerebral wherewithal to keep themselves out of your irrelevant clinic?”

  If Tara had thought her blood had run cold earlier, ice was coursing through her veins now. This had to stop. Now. There was no way Anson could speak to her like this. Not now. Not ever.

  “I think you’ll find the lady’s quite happy here.”

  “Fraser, don’t.” Tara fel
t grateful for his support, but this was her battle to fight. In truth, he didn’t belong here. This should’ve been a private conversation, but if her ex lacked the personal courtesy to be civil to her in front of Fraser, then having it out in front of her colleagues was just the way the cookie would have to crumble.

  Tara turned to face the full blaze of her ex’s green eyes and spoke slowly and evenly. “I am at a complete loss as to why you’d want me back in New York other than to finish the rest of my work in your name. I see you’ve run into a bit of a snag with funding. Such a shame.”

  She watched, gratified as the blood began to drain from his face. Feeling a charge of confidence, she continued, “Let me tell you something I should have said long ago. You will never get your hands on a particle of my research again, particularly after the contempt you seem to have for me and the lifestyle I’ve chosen. I may not know much about the future, but I can assure you of one thing...” She steeled herself, knowing she was making a public declaration of independence from her old life, from the old Tara. “No matter what you say to me, you will be going back to New York City on your own.”

  “Hear, hear! That’s my girl” Fraser couldn’t help himself. This was a woman who would never cease to amaze him. He could feel it in his bones. Just look at her!

  “I’m sorry?” Anson arched a furious eyebrow.

  “Apologies, old boy, just couldn’t keep from supporting my woman.” Instinct took over and before he knew it Fraser was tipping Tara back in his arms to give her an all-consuming congratulatory kiss. A possessive kiss. A kiss being returned by Tara. One that felt promising enough to lead on to—

  “What on earth do you think you’re doing?”

  Anson’s voice broke sharply into the room and Fraser felt Tara shift her shoulders underneath the arm he now protectively placed across her shoulders.

  “Just giving you a glimpse of the full picture. Tara’s got everything she needs up here in Deer Creek.”

  “Fraser—I don’t think we need to explain a thing. Perhaps you and Liesel should leave us alone to wrap this up.”

  Not a chance. Not with this idiot hanging around.

  “I have to admit...” Tara shot her ex a wide-eyed look “...I didn’t think you’d have the gall to show up here.”

  “Don’t worry. I’m getting the message loud and clear.” His green eyes darted back to Fraser before landing back on Tara with a pathetic stab at self-righteousness. “C’mon, Tara. You don’t want him.” Anson’s voice sounded thin and whiny now. “Come back with me to New York and we’ll take your work to new levels together. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

  Was he pleading with her? Seriously? Was he nuts or was she? She could see Fraser looking inquisitively at her out of her peripheral vision. She needed to wrap this up and the only way to do that was to block him out.

  “If you think wasting another minute of my life for your benefit is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, you’re crazy. C’mon, Anson, it’s time to let the past stay where it belongs.” Couldn’t this man take a hint?

  “Not even for a year? I’d bet you wouldn’t even miss him at all—it’s only a fling, right?”

  “I think we’re done here.” Her tone was friendly, but Tara surprised herself at the level of resolve she heard in her words. She shrugged Fraser’s arm from her shoulders and continued, “I belong in Deer Creek and I’m not going anywhere.”

  She tipped her head in Fraser’s direction. “What Dr. MacKenzie does or doesn’t do with his life is irrelevant to this discussion.” And before either man could interject she fixed her ex with an assured eye and continued, “Let me make something very clear to you. Any research I do now or in the future will never—and I mean never in a million years—be done with or for you. What you did forced me to grow up and now I hold the reins in my own life. Not Fraser, not you. No one. Do you understand me?”

  Anson shook his head in agreement. They were finished and he finally looked like he knew it. “I’m sorry things couldn’t have worked out better for us.”

  “I’m not and you shouldn’t be either,” she responded, hoping their goodbye could also provide a much-needed closure to this chapter of their lives. “There’s someone out there waiting for you and we both know it’s not me.”

  Just saying the words sent a surge of strength through her. She was her own woman—her own woman who would decide what to do with her own life.

  She watched as he turned to leave the clinic, his gait a bit too jaunty to be genuine. She couldn’t help but feel a bit sorry for him and felt hugely relieved to see him leave.

  A sharp draft entered the room as a twenty-something brunette escorted an ashen-faced man of about the same age through the main clinic door. She was helping him to hold his hand away from his body.

  “Can you help us, please?” The woman pleaded, oblivious to the tension in the reception area. “Allen fell on his hand and now he can’t move his thumb. He’s in agony.”

  “Absolutely.” Tara gestured for the couple to enter the main examination room. “Please, come with me.” She looked over at Fraser and Liesel. “Are we okay?”

  Fraser answered for both of them, his eyes still firmly fixed on her ex. “Oh, don’t you worry, Tara. Everything is going to be A-okay.”

  *

  Tara felt about as pale as her patient looked as she closed the exam-room door firmly behind her. Long slow breaths, long slow breaths.

  “Right, how can I help you?”

  The man, clearly struggling with his injury, held out his hand to Tara. He flinched at her touch, explaining he’d been skiing and had fallen, “Which normally I don’t do, but those snowboarders are getting crazier every year.”

  “Tell me about it.” Tara nodded. Remembering her first encounter with Fraser rendered her unable to stop a ripple of goosebumps from wending its way down her spine. Out of sight... She tried shaking away the images of him skimming through her head. Nope. Most certainly not out of mind.

  “It feels as though my thumb has practically been ripped out of the socket.”

  “I’m not surprised.” Tara forced herself to focus, completing a thorough examination of his very tender and incredibly swollen hand. “I’m afraid Mr. ...”

  “Parker. Allen Parker.” He filled in the blank she’d left open for him.

  “I’m afraid, Mr. Parker, you’ve got yourself a classic case of skier’s thumb.”

  “Skier’s thumb?”

  Tara smiled gently as each of the couple’s eyebrows rose. They were clearly unfamiliar with the term. Good old medicine. At least she could rely on it to put her in familiar territory. Maybe she could hide here in the exam room with the Parkers for the rest of the day rather than confront Fraser about that ridiculous kiss. A flip-flop in her tummy was enough of a reminder that she had actually enjoyed that “ridiculous” kiss but even so...it had been out of order.

  “Skier’s thumb,” she repeated, as if to prime her own memory. “It is when your thumb has stretched or, in your case, torn the ulnar collateral ligament.”

  The man’s pale face went gray. “That sounds horrible!”

  “It’s not very nice, as you can well tell.” Tara turned to her desk to make some notes. “I would like to take an X-ray to determine if the injury is limited to the ligament or if a piece of bone was pulled off when you fell. Your movement seems fairly limited, but that could just be the swelling.” She took a quick peek at the woman’s ring finger. “Mrs. Parker?”

  The woman’s eyes flitted to her expectantly. Phew, got that one right. “We are going to be a little while with X-rays and splinting up your husband’s hand.”

  “A splint!” Her fingers flew to her mouth, a look of dismay passing between them. “Oh, sweetheart. I’m so sorry.”

  “Don’t worry, m’love. I’m the one who has gone and messed up the vacation. Guess I’ll owe you a second run on the slopes at Valentine’s Day.” They shared a kiss then, remembering Tara was in the room, pulled apart looking slight
ly embarrassed at their spontaneous show of affection.

  Tara laughed and waved off their embarrassment. “Sounds like a good solution to me!” Turning her focus to his wife, she continued, “I’m afraid you’ll have to organize getting your husband’s skis back to the lodge. You’re staying there, right?” The couple nodded in unison.

  “Perhaps if you came back in half an hour or so we’ll be all wrapped up here and I’ll have your husband ready for collection!”

  As the couple cooed out their farewells, Tara eased herself out of the exam room, relieved to find Liesel sitting on her own at the reception desk. No sign of her ex. Good. No sign of Fraser. Not quite as good.

  “Jeepers.” She flicked her head in the direction of Exam One. “You’d think they were never going see each other again.”

  “Uh-oh. Someone’s grouchy.” Liesel was never afraid to call a spade a spade.

  Tara huffed out a “humph” and threw an it’s-hardly-surprising face over her shoulder before stomping back to the X-ray room to prepare the machines. It wasn’t as if Liesel hadn’t just borne witness to her life taking a seismic shift!

  Her ex appears out of nowhere, just as she had gotten her life back on track. No. That wasn’t right. Her ex had been well and truly out of the picture. First, Fraser had flown into her life. Literally. Thrown everything she’d worked for over the past couple of years up into the air. But when all the pieces started to come back down, she was beginning to realize a rigidly ordered, solitary lifestyle was not necessarily what she’d been after. It was being able to trust again. The only question was, could trusting someone come in the shape of a six-foot-something Scotsman? One who literally swept her up in his arms and sent her into cloud cuckoo land with his all-too-wonderful kisses? The answer to that was a very big no.

  Tara forced herself to count backwards from ten, exhaling a low, deep breath as the numbers slipped downwards. By the time she hit zero, a sense of calm began to unravel her tightly wound emotions. A wash of freedom suddenly flooded through her as if the last bit of weight tethering her to her past had finally been lifted.