“Oh, yeah.” Lena sat next to him and nudged his side with her elbow. “And she’s so excited that you’re in love again.”
Dex huffed out a noise of disbelief. “I can’t believe she said that.”
Lena leaned against him, her shoulder pressed against his biceps. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye and couldn’t resist a bit of a tease, hoping to get a rise out of him and distract him. “If you don’t freak out and confess our plans, I think we really can pull this off.”
“I hope so.” Dex didn’t take the bait. Instead, he took her hand in his and Lena squeezed his in solidarity.
“We got this.” Trying a different tactic, she infused her voice with positivity. “We will go to Westfield and they will think we are so in love that we will be announcing our own wedding once it won’t steal your brother’s thunder.”
With his thumb rubbing slow circles against the back of her hand, Dex exhaled long and deep. “And when the truth comes out, they will never forgive me, will they? What are we doing? Is salvaging a little pride for one day each worth potentially hurting both of our families?”
Worry and concern roughened his voice and gave her a minute’s pause.
“Listen, we’ve already told your mom that I’m coming. If I don’t show up now, I think that will make things worse for you, won’t it?”
Dex murmured something noncommittal that could have been either an agreement or a disagreement.
“If they don’t know our relationship is fake, it can’t hurt them, right? Seriously, we just mention each other for a few weeks after the holidays and then casually say we broke up. No one gets hurt. That’s what you told me, remember?”
Why did it feel like she was the one talking him into this mess now?
“Right.” They made eye contact and a lingering spark in his gaze smoldered brighter as they continued to look at each other. Smack in the middle of a crowded shopping mall, with “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” playing through the overhead speakers, a spark fluttered between them. The place buzzed with Christmas spirit, frazzled nerves and people going further into debt, but Lena’s eyes seemed locked with the handsome surgeon’s next to her.
“So, remember those sweaters we saw on the way in? We are totally buying those for the rehearsal dinner.” Lena stood and held out her hand. “Come on. I’m starving and we have gifts to buy.”
CHAPTER FIVE
THE WAY HER cheeks pinked up when he pulled out her chair made him want to do more for her. Something about that shade of pink made him think about what he could do in order to see it again. And if that isn’t crazy...
Once they got through the holidays and this fake romance, Dex needed to find someone new. Someone who didn’t want forever and who didn’t look at him like he was a jerk for only wanting short-term. He hadn’t had a deep connection since Jessie. In fact, he’d actively avoided making a connection that lasted longer than a month. But why did that seem less and less appealing?
“So, why did you become a doctor?” Lena asked as he rounded the table and sat across from her.
“I wanted to help people.”
It wasn’t the greatest of answers, but it was an honest one. Maybe a little bit of an oversimplification, but true, nonetheless.
She snorted. “Nice try, Doc. I’m gonna need a bit more info than that.”
“Long story short, when I was ten, I witnessed a really bad car crash. And the paramedics, they were just brilliant. I watched them take these people that were so bloody, I thought they had no chance. And they pulled them out of this mangled heap of metal and got them in an ambulance.”
She tilted her head and stared, eyes full of questions. “So why not a paramedic?”
“Honestly, that’s what I wanted at first. I even did a couple ride-alongs, but it was a paramedic that convinced me to go to med school. He told me that surgeons were the ones who really helped the most people. So I got involved with this mentor program that let me shadow a couple surgeons for a day, and, well, the rest is history.”
That conversation that day in the back of that ambulance had been life-altering for him. It had set him on a trajectory out of the tiny town of Westfield and into a life that he loved. Westfield had been a great place to grow up, but he’d had little problem leaving it behind.
She wrinkled her nose in disagreement. “Clearly that man has never worked with a nurse. Because all nurses know who really helps the most people as well as keep the hospitals running.”
Dex laughed, both at the cockiness in her voice and the truth in her statement. Years ago, he’d learned that if a doctor got on the wrong side of the nursing staff it made for a rough work environment. Nurses definitely made the world go ’round and kept a doctor’s arrogance firmly in check.
Still, he couldn’t just admit that to her, could he?
“Yes, we know, nurses are the real rock stars. Yet how many nurses can perform something as simple as an appendectomy or save a person from a ruptured spleen?”
Lena rolled her eyes. “Point taken. We are all necessary.”
“Anyways, so then I set my sights on being a surgeon. And that’s my story.” He paused and looked around the crowded restaurant. Red-and-gold tinsel hung from the rafters. Why did every place insist on burying their business under a rainbow of Christmas trappings?
When Lena didn’t continue the conversation, he did. “Why did you become a nurse?”
“Because it angered my father.” She snatched one of the rolls from the basket the waiter was setting down. “At least initially.”
They quickly ordered, and Dex tried to steer the conversation back to her motivations for being a nurse. He straightened in his chair and leaned forward with interest to catch her answer. He’d known a lot of people who took jobs for various reasons, but to spite their parent? That was a new one.
“You chose a career simply to tick off your dad?” He held back the laugh that tickled against his lips because the expression on Lena’s face was one hundred percent serious. Deep in his gut, he knew laughing now would be one of the worst mistakes he could make with the beautiful nurse sitting across from him.
She picked bits off the roll, smooshing the tiny bits of bread between her fingers. “My father is one of those doctors who thinks nurses are second-class citizens. You don’t do it, but I know you’ve seen the kind I mean. That act like nurses are only there to do their bidding.”
He nodded, pulling in a slow breath and releasing it even slower while he thought of the best way to respond. Lena was the definition of someone with daddy issues, that much was clear. She’d need to let go of all that if she wanted to truly move forward.
Lena continued without his response, though. “In my misguided youth, I thought that if I were to become a nurse, I could show my father that nurses were worthy of respect.”
He let the statement settle and it felt heavy. The weight she carried around with that mission meant she was far stronger than he’d given her credit for. Every scrap of information he learned about her ticked his admiration up a notch or two.
“And how’d that work out?”
She laughed sadly. “Not well. But it was absolutely the best decision I’ve ever made. I love my job.”
“You’re really good at it too.”
Her cheeks pinked up again but she met his eyes when she said, “Thank you.”
Dex took a big gulp of water, swallowing hard. Lena was so much more than he had been expecting. Being around her made him oddly nervous. He worried she’d see his hands shake or realize that he had butterflies constantly flitting about in his stomach when he was with her.
He’d saved lives. Taken organs out of people’s bodies. Sliced through layers of skin and muscle. He’d held a human heart in his hand during a cardiac rotation and massaged it back to life. Going on a fake date with a beautiful nurse should be as simple as pie.
* * *
Lena’s heart raced as Dex complimented her. Knowing your skills and having them recognized by someone else were totally different. She wasn’t sure she’d ever stop blushing when someone praised her. This was starting to feel a little like a real date, though, and she felt the need to rein it back in.
The waiter brought their food by and then once again left them alone.
Lena poked at her food for a minute, rolling ideas around in her head for how to begin this conversation. “So, um, we should talk about expectations.”
“Seems simple to me. You pretend to be my girl while we are in Westfield for a few days for my brother’s wedding. I’ll pretend to be your guy while we are in LA for your fundraiser thing.” He jabbed a fry in her direction. “No emotions. No risk. Simple enough.”
Lena patiently took a large drink of her water. “I meant the finer points of the agreement. Logistics, travel dates, lodging.”
He popped the fry in his mouth and chewed, his eyes never leaving hers. “I figured I’d sort out the details for my thing, you’d sort them for yours. But I really like your concern for our sleeping arrangements.”
The air between them seemed charged with that hint of this being more. His voice wrapped around her and sent zings of electricity up and down her spine. She swallowed hard, trying to put the picture out of her mind of them sharing a bed.
“While I think that’s an acceptable start, I’m really going to need more details. I need to know where I’ll be staying while we are in Westfield.”
“With my parents, of course. My hometown isn’t exactly set up for out-of-town visitors. It’s more of an idyllic haven in the midst of a tourist area. There are no hotels in town, only some rental cabins. The closest are down the mountain in Gatlinburg.”
“With your parents?” She gulped.
“Yeah. But it’ll be fine. They have a spare bedroom and I’ll be in my own room next door.”
The odd feeling the settled in her chest in that moment took Lena some time to identify. It was a mixture of relief and disappointment. How bizarre that she should feel disappointed about the idea of her own room.
“Unless you’d rather share,” he said with a wide grin.
She took a large bite and chewed slowly while digesting that line of thought. The blatant flirting she could deal with, but she didn’t like how her body reacted to it. Not giving in to the temptation that Dexter Henry presented was going to be a big challenge.
It was hard to keep her eyes off the handsome surgeon sitting across from her. And when he flirted, it made her think about things she had no business even imagining. Dex could break her heart if she wasn’t careful. But she was done being this submissive nothing, catering to the whims of surgeons who thought themselves better than her.
And she wasn’t going to give him the chance to hurt her.
Even if they had so much chemistry that she found herself daydreaming about just how much Dexter Henry was her type. Because she didn’t have a type anymore. That implied she could trust someone enough to let them in.
And the last thing she was willing to do was to trust another surgeon.
“No, my own room is an inflexible requirement. My parents have several spare rooms, if you want to stay at the estate. I’m happy to foot the bill for a hotel while we are in California, though.” She took the emotion out of her tone. This was a business transaction, nothing more.
“You decide. I trust you.” He leaned across the table as he said it, taking her hand in his.
Lena’s breath shook when she inhaled sharply. “I think we need to keep the PDA to a minimum too.”
He held on when she tried to tug her hand away. “We have to be comfortable touching each other, Lena. We’ll be in close proximity and under scrutiny. Even if we say minimal touching, there has to be some. Or we will be fast outed as fakes.”
Shifting uncomfortably in her seat, Lena still tried to tug her hand free. “Maybe so, but do we have to do this now? I could eat easier if you weren’t holding my right hand hostage.”
“Fine.” He squeezed her hand before letting it go. “But you know I’m right.”
“Do you worry about them finding out that this is all fake?” She changed the subject, refusing to discuss the idea of them touching further in that moment. “My family will be critical, examining for weaknesses in our story and cracks in our relationship, in hopes of it not working out so that they can continue to push me toward marrying a man of their choice.”
Dex leaned back and shook his head. “Why would you let them tell you who to marry?”
Lena stared down at the melting ice in her glass. “You don’t understand the pressure. Sometimes it’s easier to give in than to fight and fight only to lose anyways.”
“Some things are worth fighting for.” He reached out and ran a finger down her arm gently. “Like love. You can’t help who you love, Lena. And you sure can’t let someone else decide that for you.”
“Oh, believe me, love is not a factor in their decisions.”
“Well, my mom’s just going to be happy that I’m seeing someone. She won’t expect perfection.”
“I feel a little guilty deceiving everyone.” Lena sent him a wry smile. “Don’t you?”
He shrugged. “Maybe a little. But it benefits both of us, and if we do this right, it’s not like they will even know. No one needs to know, and that way no one gets hurt.”
She nodded an agreement, but couldn’t help but think that the person most likely to get hurt in all this was her. Sucking in a deep breath, she focused on the positives.
“We did manage to get a lot of shopping done today. How about a wrapping party to get all these gifts ready for our trip?”
“Whatever makes you happy,” Dex said, staring her down.
Lena licked her lips under his scrutiny. She could think of a lot of things that might make her happy right now, and every single one of them involved a certain dark-haired general surgeon.
She was in so much trouble.
CHAPTER SIX
DEX RECLINED BACK on the couch, feeling the tension ease from his muscles. He flipped on the hockey game and tossed his phone onto the table out of reach. He was half-asleep when a loud banging came from the door.
It sounded like someone was kicking it?
He answered the door and his jaw dropped. “Uh, how did you know where I live?”
“Belinda told me.” Wrapping paper and ribbon filled Lena’s arms. From the various angles her rolls projected from her grip, it looked like she had a very precarious hold on the colorful load. She was grinning from ear to ear and her cheeks were as bright a shade as the paper in her hands. “Are you going to let me in or not? I’m about to drop all this all over your doorstep if you don’t.”
“Yeah, of course.” He jolted into movement and pushed the door open wide, motioning for her to come in out of the cold. “Can I help?”
“I think if you try to take any of it, I’ll drop it all.” She stepped over to his coffee table and squatted down. She carefully dropped all the festive trappings across the wooden surface. A spool of silvery ribbon bounced off the table and rolled across the carpet to his bare foot.
“What is all this?”
She waved a hand vaguely at the mess she’d just made of his coffee table as if that was explanation enough. “We’re wrapping presents tonight. I told you this.”
“I got it covered.” Dex gestured toward the hearth where a stack of gift bags sat beside the presents he’d purchased with Lena’s help. He didn’t wrap presents. Gift bags were made for a reason, the reason being that wrapping paper was an unnecessary annoyance created to annoy people who weren’t overflowing with Christmas spirit.
“I have presents in my car too. I couldn’t carry everything at once. Since you don’t have shoes on, I’ll get them myself.”
“Lena...”
But she had disappeared out the door before he could verbalize another thought.
She came back a moment later with several bags in her hands. She set her bags on the couch before turning to him, hands on her hips. “Did you forget that I was coming over tonight?”
“I didn’t think you were serious!” Dex protested against the accusatory tone in Lena’s question. He’d thought she was joking when she’d said she’d be at his door with bells on to wrap the gifts they’d bought before they left for Westfield in a couple days. He never expected her to actually show up with wrapping paper and ribbons.
“I’m always serious when it comes to Christmas!” Spinning around, Lena’s eyes took in the minimalistic decor. A measure of shock shone brightly on her face. “Why don’t you have a Christmas tree?”
Dex huffed. “Because I’m a busy surgeon who lives alone and won’t even be in town for Christmas? What’s the point?”
She looked so affronted by that he decided not to tell her that he’d never once had a Christmas tree in this house. She might implode. At the very least, it would launch her into another rant about Christmas spirit and the importance of the holiday season.
The last tree he’d put up had been with Jessie the Christmas before their disastrous attempt at a wedding. She’d moved from Westfield to live with him in Florida while he finished med school. He’d hoped that by removing the physical distance between them, the emotional one would close too. Their relationship had been splintering even then, but he’d stubbornly tried to patch it like a crumbling gingerbread cookie. The thought of losing her had propelled him into proposing, and her acceptance had been half-hearted at best. He’d been too bullheaded to even allow the idea that Jessie didn’t want to marry him into his head. In hindsight, he’d lost her before that Christmas, and all the Christmas traditions and wedding planning had only pushed her farther away.
He’d spent every waking moment of that December planning a wedding with a woman who’d been apathetic about the idea at best. It should have given him pause, but no. He’d prodded and planned while she seemed more interested in watching breakup movies and going out with her new friends without him. Reflecting back, he couldn’t remember why he fought so hard to keep their relationship intact when it had been clear she was pulling away. Or why he had let it get so far without addressing it at all.
A Nurse, a Surgeon, a Christmas Engagement Page 6