Her Kind of Doctor

by Stella Bagwell

  She picked up her tote and started out of the bedroom. Luke followed on her heels.

  “All right. So you’ve lived the wealthy life and gave it up,” he argued. “But you don’t know what it’s like to have nothing as a child—a young adult. I’ve told you how it was with my family—for me.”

  She stopped in her tracks and whirled to face him. “I heard everything you said. But don’t expect me to pity you, Luke. Do you honestly think I had money before I married David? I had to work two jobs just to put myself through nursing school. You see, my dad had already left me and my mom years before that. And she did well to take care of herself, much less me. I didn’t have a wealthy uncle to help me, either. I didn’t have anybody but myself.”

  “You still don’t understand.”

  She shook her head. “The trouble with you, Luke, is that you never appreciated the blessings you had whenever you had them.”

  His eyes little more than narrow slits, he stared at her for a long moment. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “You’ll have to figure it out for yourself, Luke. And once you do, you’ll be a happy man.”

  Chapter Twelve

  “Make sure the patient has his orders before he goes home. And make doubly sure he understands he’s not to get the wound wet for any reason.” Luke handed Paige the typed orders, along with two handwritten prescriptions, then turned his attention to Chavella, who was standing with them outside of treatment room two. “Come with me to room four. The patient needs sutures.”

  “Yes, Dr. Sherman.”

  As Chavella turned to follow him, she cast a helpless look at Paige and shrugged, as though to say it should have been Paige going to assist him, not her.

  But those days were over, Paige thought, as she clenched her fingers around the papers. Just like everything else was over between them, she thought sadly.

  A week had passed since she’d walked out of Luke’s house and during that time neither had discussed the incident. Away from the ER he’d not spoken to her at all and during work he more or less treated her like a polite stranger. The cool tension between them was so thick it had permeated the whole ER and Paige felt very guilty that her problems were causing her coworkers to be uncomfortable in her and Luke’s presence.

  But that would all soon end, too. Tonight was her last night at Tahoe General. After nearly eight years, she was leaving. And though Luke had no idea of her intentions, her fellow nurses were aware of her plans and all of them had made a point of saying a private word of well wishes to her as the long shift wore on.

  At seven the next morning, she was in the nurses’ locker room, cleaning the last of her things from one of the lockers, when Chavella walked over and slumped tiredly onto a long wooden dressing bench.

  “Seeing you doing that makes me even more exhausted,” she said to Paige. “I wish you’d think about this a bit more, Paige. You might realize that leaving Tahoe is the wrong thing to do. Things with you and Dr. Sherman might take a turn around.”

  Paige let out a short, humorless laugh. “Yeah. About as likely as we can expect it to snow next week.”

  “Well, it’s the second week of August,” Chavella said hopefully. “Who knows, a cool front could be coming through. Stranger things have happened.”

  “My dear Chavella, the cool front has already passed through. And I’m determined to go where it’s warmer.” She sat down next to the young nurse and gave her hand an encouraging pat. “Look, if it will make you feel any better, even though I won’t be working, Chet is making me take two weeks before I hand in my resignation and make things final. He wants me to be sure. I promised him I’d think this move over. But I could’ve told him he was only wasting my time and his.”

  Chavella shook her head. “But Paige, if you just want to get away from Luke, you could go back upstairs to the IM floor.”

  “Oh, no. I tried that once, remember. I hated it. No, my heart is in the ER.”

  “Then try to get switched to the day shift. Then you wouldn’t have to work with Luke.”

  “Chavella, no one on the day shift would be willing to switch with me. Besides, I need the daylight hours to do most of my farm chores. No. This is the best way. The only way.”

  Her head hanging with disappointment, Chavella asked, “What about your grandfather? Have you told him about your plans?”

  “No! I’ve only told him I’m going to take a much-needed vacation. He doesn’t know about my trouble with Luke. I don’t want him to know. At least, not until I can make up some reason that made us part ways. Not for anything do I want him to learn how Luke really feels about the farm. It would hurt Grandfather deeply, Chavella. He likes Luke—he thinks he’s a nice guy.” She paused and swallowed hard as hot tears knotted her throat. “It…well, I’ll think of some sort of explanation to give him when the time is right.”

  Sighing, Chavella rose to her feet and opened her locker. “Too bad you didn’t look up the word ass in the dictionary before you got involved with Dr. Sherman.”

  “Why?”

  The nurse made an openhanded gesture. “You would’ve seen his picture and known not to get involved with him.”

  Chavella’s remark had Paige groaning loudly.

  “Corny, corny, Chavella. But I love you anyway.”

  Chavella leveled a serious look at her. “What about Luke? Do you love him?”

  For the past few weeks, Paige’s heart had been overflowing with joy. She’d wanted to sing and dance and celebrate the fact that she was alive and in love. Even though she wasn’t loved in return. Deep down, she’d believed and hoped that one day Luke would decide he couldn’t do without her. That one day he would finally realize he loved her. But that had only been a fool’s dream.

  “I’m afraid so, Chavella. But that fact means nothing now.”

  *

  The next afternoon Luke had just stepped out of the shower and was wrapping a towel around his waist when he heard his cell phone ringing.

  Stepping into the bedroom, he spotted the caller as Chet and immediately plucked up the phone. “Luke here. What’s up?”

  “Have you eaten yet?”

  He didn’t want anything to eat. In fact, the thought of food nauseated him. “I’m not even dressed yet.”

  “Good. I’ll buy your lunch or dinner or whatever you call your evening meal before work. Want to meet me at the Green Lizard?”

  “No!” He wasn’t about to start his work night sitting in a place that would only remind him of happier times with Paige.

  “Okay. We’ll eat at the hospital cafeteria. I have something to discuss with you.”

  “What now? More regulations and paperwork for us doctors to do rather than spend our time actually healing patients?” he asked, not bothering to hide the sarcasm from his voice.

  “No,” Chet said crisply. “This is a different matter. I’ll tell you about it when you get here.”

  Before Luke could press him for more, Chet hung up the phone.

  *

  Forty minutes later, Luke entered the hospital cafeteria, which was located on the ground floor not far from the ER. Chet was already there, sitting at one of the small round tables situated near a glass wall overlooking a courtyard.

  The moment he spotted Luke, he left the table and met him in the middle of the busy room. “Let’s get our food first,” he said.

  Food was the last thing Luke wanted to deal with now, but he followed Chet over to the serving line and plunked a packaged cheese sandwich and a carton of milk onto his tray. Chet didn’t follow his example, though. He chose to continue on through the buffet until his plate was filled with a hot meal of meat, potatoes and vegetables, along with a tall glass of iced tea.

  “Glad to see you eating so healthy,” Chet said mockingly as the two men took a seat at the table. “That sandwich ought to keep you going strong for hours.”

  “I’m watching the scales,” Luke told him.

  “Watching them go down? You look like you’ve been l
ost in the desert for about six weeks.”

  “You always could make me feel good about myself,” Luke retorted.

  Chet smiled wanly as he shook pepper over his food. “That’s me. Good ole, dependable Chet.”

  Luke forced himself to bite into the cold sandwich, then swallowed it down with a swig of milk. “You should already be on your way home. What’s wrong? You didn’t hang around here just to buy me a cheese sandwich. Have I done something wrong to make the board of directors unhappy with me?”

  “It would be much simpler if it was the hospital board unhappy with you. No. This is about Paige.”

  Luke practically threw the sandwich down on his plate. “I did not come here to listen to you spout all the wonderful merits of Paige Winters. So if that’s your plan, I’m leaving.”

  Unaffected by Luke’s sharp retort, Chet dipped his fork into a mound of mashed potatoes. “I don’t think I need to remind you of Paige’s merits. You can probably list them yourself. Before you walked blindly into your shift tonight I wanted to inform you that Paige won’t be among your staff of nurses.”

  Everything inside Luke turned ice-cold. “What? Are you saying she’s pulled that transfer stunt again?”

  Chet looked at him with something like pity. “You’re really clueless. You honestly don’t know what you’ve done to her. Or maybe you don’t care. I’m not sure anymore. Either way, I thought you ought to know that the problem of Paige is off your hands now. She’s quitting Tahoe General. She’ll be working at some other hospital.”

  Luke wondered if he was suffering from some sort of delayed sleep paralysis. He could hear the sounds around him, see the diners inside the cafeteria and the few who’d wandered out to the courtyard. Yet he couldn’t speak or move.

  Chet continued, “I’m not sure if Paige intends to continue working at another hospital here in Carson City or take a job closer to home like Fallon or Fernley. Wherever she chooses to go, she’ll certainly get a glowing recommendation from Tahoe General. I think even you will agree she’s a top-notch nurse.”

  A breath of air finally rushed out of him and Luke reached for the milk carton, hoping the act of swallowing would free his frozen throat.

  “This morning after our shift ended I saw Helen and Paige in the parking lot behind the ER,” he finally said. “I wondered why Helen was hugging her.”

  “Helen puts on a stern act. Deep down she’s a marshmallow.”

  Chet continued to eat as though nothing was wrong, while Luke was certain the area must be experiencing underground tremors. His world was tilting and he quickly hid his hands under the table so that Chet wouldn’t spot their uncontrollable shaking.

  “Connie Lamont will be replacing Paige on the shift tonight,” Chet explained. “She’s been working pediatrics. If she works out with you and the rest of the staff I’ll see about putting her on the night shift permanently. Otherwise, we’re shorthanded right now.”

  Permanently. Paige wouldn’t be in the ER or any floor of the hospital. She’d be gone forever from Tahoe General and his life. Perhaps he should be feeling relief. After all, she’d been right a week ago when she’d confronted him about his feelings. It didn’t matter that he felt incredible passion in her arms, or that she was the first woman in years to make him feel any sort of joy. The two of them weren’t compatible. They wanted different lives. So why did he feel like his life was over?

  “Yes,” he said dully. “Nurses are always in demand.”

  “Well, I’m not sure one will come along that I can trust as much as I did Paige,” Chet said. “She was responsible, dedicated and compassionate. That’s not always easy to find.”

  Luke wanted to throw the sandwich straight at Chet’s face. “Okay, I got the message. Can we talk about something else?”

  “Sure. Like where you might find a CD of canned laughter? You can take it home and play it on the stereo. If you listen long enough you might even convince yourself that you can laugh, too.”

  Luke started to fling a curse word at his friend, when his cell phone notified him he had a message. Hoping beyond hope that it might be Paige, he pulled the device from the holder on his belt and scanned the short note.

  “You look a little stunned. Bad news?” Chet asked.

  Luke reread the message to make sure his mind had registered the information correctly. “No. It’s…actually a nice bit of news. My sister is going to have a baby.” He glanced across the table at Chet. “I’ve not heard from her in months. She, uh, has pretty much kept her distance since we lost our parents. It’s no secret that she blames me for their accident.”

  Chet shook his head. “That’s your sister’s problem, not yours. Anyway, it’s good that she’s reaching out to you now. That’s the way with babies. They have a way of softening even the most hardened hearts and bringing people together.”

  Luke eased back in the chair and swiped a shaky hand through his hair. “Strange that I got this news from Pamela today. Marcella’s baby was the reason Paige and I got together in the first place. Now Paige is gone, but my sister has decided she wants to share her good news with me.”

  “Maybe it’s an omen, Luke. That it’s time you quit dwelling on the past and start thinking about the future and having babies of your own—with Paige.”

  Luke glanced around the large, L-shaped room. No doubt a portion of the diners were here at the hospital to visit patients, he thought soberly. Some of them might not be given the chance to take their seriously ill or injured loved one home. On the other hand, Luke had been given a wonderful chance with Paige, yet he’d not valued the relationship enough to nurture it and make it grow.

  “This problem with Paige—it didn’t happen because I’m dwelling on the past. The farm is—”

  “Who the hell are you trying to kid? Yourself?” Chet demanded. “If you could own up to the truth, you’d admit that you’re using the farm as an excuse. You don’t give a damn about that house on the lake. In fact, you’d trade a thousand of those houses to get Paige back. You’re just too afraid to try. Too afraid you might lose everything—again.”

  Several charged moments passed as Luke stared at Chet and then slowly and surely, he felt a cold, hard barrier inside him shatter. The emotions that rushed over the crumbled pieces were so overwhelming, he came close to dropping his head in his hands and sobbing.

  The trouble with you, Luke, is that you never appreciated the blessings you had whenever you had them.

  Oh, God, Paige had been so right, he thought sickly. And he’d been so wrong.

  “I’ve been a fool, Chet. A complete fool.”

  An indulgent smile spread across Chet’s face. “Yeah, and one of the biggest mistakes you’ve made is settling for a cheese sandwich while I’m buying.” He fished a rather large bill from his wallet and tossed it toward Luke’s tray. “Go get a plate with some real food on it. You’re going to need all the strength you can get to throw yourself at Paige’s feet.”

  *

  Later that night Paige sat on the top step of the front porch while Samson rested his muzzle on her thigh. As she gently stroked the top of the dog’s head, she stared out at the starry sky in hopes its beauty would push the image of Luke and the ER out of her mind, but they stubbornly refused to leave.

  “You hardly ever get a chance to watch TV,” Gideon said from his chair behind her. “Why don’t you go in and see if there’s a program you might enjoy?”

  Her mind was whirling with doubts and questions, and even more regrets. Staring at a TV screen would do nothing to ease the anguish she was feeling. “I like sitting out here with you.”

  Gideon didn’t reply and after a while, Paige glanced over her shoulder to see he was whittling on a piece of wood that would eventually emerge into a whistle.

  “You quit your job, didn’t you?”

  Jolted by his question, she drew in a deep breath and focused her gaze on Samson’s sleeping face. “I haven’t quit nursing. I’m just changing hospitals, that’s all.”


  “Why didn’t you tell me that in the first place instead of giving me all that nonsense about taking a vacation?”

  She closed her eyes and pressed fingertips against her burning eyelids. “I didn’t want to worry you.”

  “Why should that worry me? You’ve only worked there for nearly eight years. You probably don’t have any sentimental feelings about the place.”

  Paige swallowed and blinked at the sting of tears in her eyes. “If I take a job at Fallon or Fernley I’ll have a much shorter drive. Which means I’ll have more spare time. The fuel expense will be reduced to a fraction of what it is to drive to Carson City. Not to mention lessening the wear and tear on my car.”

  “Yeah, that’s all true. And you won’t have to work with Luke, either.”

  Paige couldn’t stop herself from groaning. “You’re worse than some wise old bird. I can’t hide anything from you.”

  Gideon grunted. “When you get to be my age you see everything. And I can see you’re mighty unhappy. What happened with you two?”

  She hesitated, then said, “We want different things in our lives, Grandfather. Besides, Luke wasn’t ever going to love me. The two of us were headed down a dead-end street.”

  Gideon’s next words surprised her completely. “Hmm. He’s not our kind, that’s for sure. But that’s nothing to hold against him. And I got the feeling he cared about you, granddaughter.”

  Paige couldn’t remember the last time Gideon had called her granddaughter. Probably not since she’d been a small girl, tagging along behind him and getting underfoot. The sound of it now brought a bittersweet ache to her chest.

  “He cares in the only way Luke knows how to care about a person. I’m not so sure he understands what it means to love.”

  “Do you?”

  She twisted around to look at him and in the process caused Samson’s head to slip off her thigh. While Paige thoughtfully studied her grandfather’s profile, bold against the light shining through the screen door, the dog whined in protest.