The Emergency Doctor's Chosen Wife

by Molly Evans

  “No, I don’t know what that’s like. But I personally don’t care what side of the tracks you come from as long as you are a decent human being.” He frowned down at her. “That’s more important.”

  “That’s easy for you to say.” Inside, Gina shook from the power of the memories that building evoked. She shouldn’t be angry at Thomas because he didn’t understand. It wasn’t his fault. This was her past, her problem, and hers alone to deal with. “Going into that place brings back all sorts of memories I’d rather not discuss.” Her humiliation at the hands of a rich society boy was the last thing she wanted to discuss with Thomas.

  “Gina, I don’t—”

  “No, I’m sorry, Doc.” She looked into his blue eyes, determined to be honest, despite the cost to her pride. “This is my problem, and I shouldn’t be so touchy about it.” But the fact was, it still hurt. More her poor judgment than anything else.

  “No harm done. But you might consider it an opportunity for personal growth.” The smile he gave her was full of compassion and some element she couldn’t make out, as if he did understand her pain. “I know a little something about that.”

  Gina stood and looked away from his gaze. “Thanks for the offer, but I really should get back to work now.” She’d even clean bedpans to get out of this conversation.

  “Gina,” Thomas started, his voice soft. “The fundraiser’s for a good cause. Who knows? It might actually be fun.”

  Gina felt a tremor rip through her. “I can’t go,” she said, her heart pattering fiercely in her chest. Just thinking about it made her shake. “I don’t know my left fork from my right spoon.”

  “Gina, you’re talking nonsense. This is an opportunity to have a little fun with your coworkers and the money raised goes to the university cancer center. The tickets are purchased by the department, so there is no cost to you.” He paused and looked deeply into her eyes. “We all have issues. Can’t you put yours aside for one night?”

  “But…” Gina sputtered in protest, her throat going dry at the thought. Could she do it? Could she actually set foot in that building again? How selfish was she being by not being part of the team?

  “Why don’t I pick you up?” His eyes gleamed with mischief. “You can ride in my car again.”

  Gina had to chuckle and some of her anxiety faded away. “Now, that’s playing dirty.”

  “A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do,” he said, and rapped his knuckles once on the table, decision made. “Besides, what else do you have to do on the weekends in such a small town?” Was hoping that she didn’t have a boyfriend going too far?

  “Well, usually, I go to the park or take a drive up the Blue Ridge Parkway. The heat’s a lot more tolerable up in the mountains.” And it had been her solace for so many years, offering her a silent comfort she hadn’t known she’d needed at the time. And now, with her father gone, her mother mentally compromised, she was feeling the need to find that peace again.

  “Sounds good. My schedule doesn’t allow for much free time except on the weekends, and I could use the time away from my desk.”

  Gina shifted in her seat and then nodded. “The park is a nice Sunday afternoon spot. Exercise helps with the stress of the job. You’re welcome to join me.” Would having some time together away from the hospital be a good idea? She didn’t know, but what was the harm in a couple of coworkers hanging out together? That’s all it was, right? There was no need to delve deeply into their pasts, find out what kind of pain they’d each had or investigate that current of electricity that ran through her every time she came near him. Right?

  He smiled again. “I’ll take you up on that. Sunday at the park. Now, as for the Boar’s Head Inn. Get a nice dress and shoes you can dance in. You might be surprised at how much fun you can have at a fund-raiser.” Thomas watched her as she digested that information. “They’re not all stuffy events.”

  “You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into, Doc,” she said. “I’m a mess.”

  “Gina, give yourself a little more credit than that. You’re a lovely, professional woman. I’m sure you’ll be fine.” He patted her on the shoulder, but the gesture failed to reassure her. “Let’s get back out there, shall we? I hear a laceration calling my name.”

  With a reluctant nod Gina left the staff lounge and returned to Triage. This was going to be a busy week.

  CHAPTER THREE

  THOMAS usually spent most of his weekends catching up on work. With his family at a safe distance in another town several hours away, no girlfriend and no other pressing commitments, he used this time to do as he pleased. Hiking parts of the Appalachian Trail, mountain biking, and a variety of other solitary sports were his favorites. He went at his own pace and didn’t have to talk if he didn’t feel like it. Today, some sort of restlessness overtook him, and he found himself staring out the window, rather than wanting to get out his bike or put on his hiking boots. Meeting Gina at the park crossed his mind, but then he stopped. Overlooking the obvious, what could be the result of getting involved with her? They were two people who were going to head in opposite directions soon, so the only thing they could have would be temporary at best. But there was something that drew him back to thinking about her.

  He sighed and stretched his back. Why get so philosophical on a beautiful Sunday afternoon? Thomas took a look at the stack of charts piled up on his desk. As the medical director, so many areas required his attention. Not that he hadn’t been aware of the requirements when he’d taken the job, but sometimes… He sighed. Sometimes he longed for more freedom and the ease of less responsibility. He suddenly understood the appeal of travel nursing, the ultimate freedom that Gina obviously enjoyed with no commitments and no obligations past a thirteen-week contract. Thinking about her and her carefree lifestyle made him want to pull up stakes and just go somewhere, anywhere, for a few months and not look back. Maybe he could do work for something like Doctors Without Borders or another charitable agency, helping people in the world who had nothing.

  But life based on whims wasn’t his way. No, his was a prominent family filled with physicians and scientists, prep schools and Ivy League colleges. His life had been planned before his birth, and he had been channeled to fit that family mold. Both of his brothers walked the same path and were also successful in their careers.

  His time here in Hidden Valley was limited. He knew that. But for a time he’d needed to come here to lick his wounds and recover from the most brutal experience of his life. This little town had helped him through his divorce, and he enjoyed the surrounding mountains, but something was definitely missing. Something he hadn’t anticipated wanting again. Something soft and curvy. Something he hadn’t thought he’d miss after his experience with his ex-wife, Constance. But then Gina had wandered in front of him in the parking lot and his thoughts hadn’t strayed far from her since.

  There had been plenty of available women around, but none had captured his attention as fully as…blue eyes and curly red hair that cascaded down a trim back.

  Nearby, the sound of a lawnmower distracted him, and his resolve to work evaporated. It was Sunday, for heaven’s sake. He should be out playing, exercising, enjoying himself and flirting with a beautiful redhead, not stuck in his office with nothing more exciting to keep him company than a half-dead house plant. Grabbing his keys, he headed for the park, determined not to let his weekend be a total loss.

  After a side trip to a coffee shop for something cold and so full of caffeine his hair stood on end, he looked around for Gina. The park wasn’t that big. If she were here, he would find her. Within minutes, a herd of giggling children raced by on Rollerblades, being chased by a redhead in full protective gear, her hair flying out behind her in a long braid.

  With a grin, Thomas watched Gina, strangely pleased at her off-hours activity. At least she was enjoying her time traveling. Their contracts were short and they played hard on their assignments. And she was getting more out of her time here in her first week th
an he had in months.

  He pushed away from the car and waited by the sidewalk until the group skated back a few minutes later.

  “Hi, Doc! You came,” Gina said with a smile of welcome. “I’m surprised.” She stopped with the skill of an accomplished Rollerblader.

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. I figured you were too married to your work to take any time off, even on a Sunday.” She panted, catching her breath.

  He cringed inwardly. He was way too predictable. “Those are quite a set of blades,” he said.

  Gina looked down at her hot-pink Rollerblades. “Yeah, they’re great. I took an assignment in California once. They have great parks there. You learn fast or you leave your skin on the sidewalk.”

  “I’ll pass on that experience,” Thomas said, admiring the long, shapely legs exposed above the blades and below her denim shorts. “Should we sit for a while?”

  “Sure. I could use a break.” She pulled a bottle of water from her pack and drank, needing to drag her eyes away from the way his simple T-shirt clung to his chest and arms. The man had a physique that said he was active, but didn’t spend hours in the gym trying to make himself look artificially muscle bound. She liked that about him. She liked a lot of things about him that she really shouldn’t.

  “Do you do this all the time?” Thomas asked, and watched as the group of kids raced back in the other direction, their energy seemingly endless, even on a hot spring day.

  “As often as I can. Exercise really does help me de-stress. I hike or walk or ride my bike sometimes.” She eyed him narrowly. “So what have you been up to today? Nose in the latest issue of JAMA, catching up on the latest tropical diseases?” She laughed and drank again.

  “I’m ashamed to admit I’ve spent most of this beautiful weekend in my office, reviewing charts.” He shook his head in disgust and drank more coffee.

  “Oh, yuck,” Gina said with a laugh, and patted his back. “You need to relax more, enjoy life while you can.”

  “I’m a doctor. I don’t know how to relax,” Thomas said. “Sad, but true.”

  “Hasn’t anyone ever discussed stress-related illnesses with you?” she asked with a serious nurse look on her face. “If you’re going to keep up such a stressful pace, you’re looking at an MI by the time you’re forty-five. You don’t want that, do you?”

  “No, you’re right.” He thought about her words. Though delivered in a light tone, there was a lot of truth to her statements, truth he didn’t really want to hear. “Somehow I never pictured myself working as much as I do. I used to play a mean game of golf, but I haven’t been out for months. I keep thinking I’ll take a day off soon, but it never happens. Something always comes up.”

  “Am I going to have to have my cardiac patient talk with you?” she asked, her head tilted to the side, her eyes serious, that nurse look still on her face.

  “What’s that?” Amused, he had to hear this.

  “That’s the little chat I have with patients who come in with chest pain. Usually men, neglecting themselves so they can get ahead in life. But by the time they get wherever they want to be, they are usually suffering from stress-related illnesses and becoming too debilitated to enjoy their lives.”

  Thomas looked at her, his gaze wary, her words striking a little too close to home. “Uh, no. I don’t think you’ll have to have that talk with me. At least, not today.”

  “Good!” Her face brightened. “Today is too nice to have to be too serious.” She shifted her position and faced him. “But you know, Doc, if I’ve learned one thing in my life, it’s that you have to keep trying. No matter what. Set your sights on a goal, and don’t let anything get in your way. Not money, not another person, not your place in society. Even if it’s something as simple as learning to use Rollerblades, like I did.” She held up one foot. “Or a weekly golf game. But you do have to have some kind of balance. You’ll have to work on that.”

  “How did you get to be so smart?” he asked, really wanting to know the answer to that question. Usually people had to suffer in order to have such a philosophy about life, and Thomas wondered what had happened to her. She had the eyes of someone who had experienced great sorrow and something in his soul reacted to that, understood it and commiserated with it.

  At that Gina looked away. “Oh, I don’t know that it’s all that smart. More like too stubborn to give up.”

  Thomas thought about that for a second and a small piece of the puzzle that was Gina snapped into place. Even though he didn’t know her whole story, there was pain hidden behind her statements.

  “So what was it like, growing up here?” he asked, and took a sip from his glass, but his attention was on Gina.

  “Oh, it was pretty quiet.”

  “Somehow, with you around, I doubt that it was quiet.”

  Gina clutched her hand over her heart as if pained. “If I were easily offended, I might take exception to that comment.”

  “I doubt that. What was it really like?” He paused, watching her. “I can’t see you as the cheerleader type, but you weren’t number one in your class either, were you?”

  All playfulness left her, and her shoulders stiffened. “You see way more than I gave you credit for, Doc.”

  “Does that bother you?” He turned to face her fully on the bench, suddenly wanting to know the answer to that. “That I see the real you?” Playing games wasn’t his style at all, that was his ex-wife’s game, not his. If he wanted something he went after it in a straightforward way. Like right now. Being away from work and getting to know Gina a little on a personal level intrigued him. Scared him, too, if the truth be known. Part of him hesitated, part of him wanted to charge forward, and he trembled with the two parts warring within him.

  A flush brightened her face, and her eyes searched his, then broke away quickly. “There’s not much to me, really.” She gave a nervous laugh and drank from her bottle, but he noticed a slight tremor to her hand.

  “Gina—”

  “How about we talk about something else for a while?” she asked, and stood, looking intently off into the distance.

  “Sure. About what?” About how strange it felt to be attracted to a woman for the first time in months? About how getting involved with a coworker was a bad idea? About how he had to curl his hands into fists to keep from reaching out to touch her?

  Suddenly she pointed in the direction she was looking. “How about that kid over there who just took a header off the stair railing. Come on, Doc. We’re on duty.” Without waiting to see if he followed her, she raced across the park.

  Thomas dashed after her to a young boy who was writhing on the ground, clutching his chest and screaming in pain.

  “What happened?” Thomas asked, and clasped the boy’s wrist to check his pulse.

  “He fell off the handrail,” another boy beside him said.

  “What did he hit?” Thomas asked.

  “The pavement,” the boy said.

  “He means what body part hit the pavement?” Gina asked and shook her head.

  “Oh. His stomach, I think, but I don’t know.” The kid scratched his head, trying to remember.

  “Can you hear me?” Gina asked, and the kid nodded, still gasping for air. “You need to hold still so we can see what’s wrong.” As gently as possible they tried to straighten him, but he screamed again, unable to accomplish the move, even with assistance.

  “I was afraid of that,” Thomas said. “He’s probably got fractured ribs.” That was only the first of several probable injuries he’d sustained.

  “Where’s a portable X-ray machine when you need one?” Gina mumbled, trying to cover her nervousness.

  “What’s his name?” Thomas asked.

  “Billy,” his friend said.

  “He needs to breathe better, Doc,” Gina said as the boy gasped for breath. “He’s looking a little blue around the gills.”

  Thomas nodded, pulled out his cell phone and dialed 911.

  “They’ll be here in a
few minutes,” Gina said, and stroked the boy’s sweaty hair back from his face. “The station’s not far from the park. Just hang on, kiddo.”

  The boy nodded, but his breathing was still erratic and choppy. Tears poured from his eyes, though he had stopped screaming and allowed Gina to hold him against her.

  “Listen to me,” Gina said in a soft, soothing tone. “Just listen to my voice and close your eyes. Breathe. Just breathe.”

  After a few tries Billy was finally able to take a slightly deeper breath, and he started to relax a little against her.

  “I’d like to look at his chest,” Thomas said, watching Gina calm the boy.

  “I’m going to pull your shirt up so Dr Thomas can have a peek,” Gina said. “You’re lucky there was a doctor in the park.” So was she. If she’d had to face this on her own, she’d not have been so calm. But being with Thomas certainly made her feel more confident, whether she actually was or not. Something else she’d never have thought when they’d first met. But now? She didn’t know. There was so much about him that didn’t match with what she thought she knew about him, his family, men like him.

  The red mark of the point of impact spanned the entire width of Billy’s chest, with scraped skin all around it. Moving on with his assessment, Thomas pressed his hand into the boy’s abdomen, and Billy tensed, pulling his legs up. “Ow,” he cried, and clutched his hands to his belly, pushing Thomas’s hands away. “That hurts.”

  “What’s your mom’s phone number?” Gina asked. “We need to call her right now.” Her concerned glance met Thomas’s and they knew they had a medical emergency on their hands. “Spleen?” she whispered, and Thomas gave a curt nod.

  “No. She’ll get mad.” Billy shook his head. “She said I could go to the park with Eric for the first time by myself.”

  “We have to call her, Billy,” Gina said in a gentle voice, and patted his arm, brushing off little bits of gravel that stuck to his skin. “I’m sorry, but trust me. She’s going to want to know what’s happened. She can yell at you later, but right now we’ve got to get you fixed up.” The sound of a siren filled the air. “They won’t be able to see us over this hill.”