Now that Nikki was here, Galen wanted to clear the air as quickly as possible. They’d already wasted an entire year, but she’d be living in Hope for at least two months so he could afford to give her enough time to settle into her new routine.
He’d hold off for a week and not one day longer.
Meanwhile, if she thought she could avoid him, she could think again. He might have been willing to keep a low profile during this seven-day reprieve, but he’d seen her reaction when he’d checked her bruised arm. She hadn’t shivered because she’d been cold—she’d shivered because she’d felt something in his touch. She clearly wasn’t as unmoved as she pretended to be and he intended to take advantage of that observation, even to the point of visiting her, uninvited.
Whether she liked it or not, whether she wanted it or not, he was determined to make himself an integral part of her life, to show her that he’d changed his priorities.
The address he’d wangled out of the clerk in Personnel had listed her apartment as 3D. He wasn’t surprised she’d taken the uppermost floor. Nikki’s favorite spot at St Luke’s had been on the roof or, in case of bad weather, the lounge on the fifteenth floor that provided the best view of the city.
Too impatient for the elevator, he took the stairs two at a time, but she didn’t answer her doorbell.
He could wait, he supposed, but it might take hours until she returned. Just because a Toyota with an out-of-state license plate was parked in her space, it didn’t mean she was at home. Lots of things—a grocery story, the city park, a diner—were within walking distance.
Disappointed, he returned to the ground floor. On the odd chance that she’d been sitting on her balcony and couldn’t hear the bell, he walked around the building. To his delight, he saw her through the wrought-iron railing, relaxing on a lawn chair, eyes closed.
Without hesitation, he selected a pebble from someone’s rock garden, and wound up with his best pitch. The small stone clanged against the railing and she opened her eyes to glance down.
Galen waved. “Hi.”
“Speak of the devil,” she told him wryly. “What are you doing here?”
“To see you.”
“What for?”
He thought fast for a plausible excuse. “To check your arm.”
“It’s fine.”
“I want to make sure.”
“Take my word for it. Don’t you have a hot date or something?”
“Nope.”
“A pity.”
He quickly ignored her sarcasm and thought of another excuse. “I also thought you might like to hear about Mr Kwan.”
“You could tell me tomorrow.”
“You’re right. I could.” He turned to leave, hoping he’d sparked her curiosity.
“Wait,” she called, rising to stand at the railing. “Did the police find his family?”
He stopped, hiding his relief that she’d nibbled at his bait. “Shall we discuss this privately, or do you want everyone in the complex to hear our conversation?”
She worried her bottom lip with her teeth before she straightened. “All right. Come on up.”
The battle had begun.
CHAPTER THREE
NIKKI watched Galen disappear around the corner and nibbled on her lip in indecision. If another colleague had dropped by, she would have invited him into her apartment without hesitation, so why couldn’t she do the same with Galen?
Because if he’d stayed out of sight, he’d stay out of her mind, she admitted. He obviously knew that, too, which probably explained why he’d showed up on such a flimsy excuse. Check her arm, indeed! If she couldn’t treat a slight sprain, then a medical refresher course was in order.
Lucky for him that she was curious about Mr Kwan, otherwise he’d be on his way home at this very moment.
Instinctively, she knew that he wouldn’t let her avoid him as easily as she had at St Luke’s. After two short days, she’d already learned that the lines separating their departments existed only on paper. For all intents and purposes, she was simply another branch of the ER and could expect to see him more often than not.
With that standard operating procedure in place, someone in the hospital would notice if she balked at the idea or steered clear of him. He or she would speculate why, another would add his or her opinion, and before she could say “Code Blue,” the grapevine would buzz with a story more sensational than the latest movie of the week. Heaven help her if they stumbled onto the truth.
She simply had to make the best of an uncomfortable situation. She didn’t have a choice.
Resigned to the inevitable, she flung open her door just as he raised his hand to knock. “You’re fast,” she commented as she stepped aside so he could enter.
“Only when it counts,” he answered with a grin.
“So tell me about Mr Kwan,” she said as she led him into the living room.
“Come on, Nik. What sort of hospitality are you giving these days?” he protested good-naturedly. “I remember being handed a bottle of beer or a soda as soon as I walked in.”
“If I’d known you were coming, I would have stocked up on Dr Pepper,” she said, referring to his favorite soft drink, “but I didn’t, so you have to choose between cherry cola and water.”
“Cherry cola.”
She walked into her small kitchen, suddenly conscious of him following her. Galen’s sheer size made the walls move in closer until she thought she couldn’t turn from the counter to the refrigerator and back again without bumping into him.
“Would you like to sit in the living room or on the balcony?” she asked as she prepared a glass filled with lots of soda and little ice, just the way he liked it.
“Wherever you’re most comfortable,” he answered promptly, although he didn’t budge from leaning against the breakfast bar. “Remember when we’d sit on the roof near the helipad during our lunch-break and watch the people below run around like ants?”
Nikki saw through his ploy, but because it seemed so reminiscent of old times when they’d discussed their days and shared their experiences, and because she did miss “the good ole days” even though they hadn’t been that long ago, she generously decided to give him some leeway.
“We did our own share of running when a chopper was coming in,” she said dryly. “The roof was the best place to get away and still be close enough if we were paged.”
“It was,” he agreed. “And remember all the times we took late supper breaks so we could sit in the tenth-floor lounge to stare at the skyline and watch the city light up?”
She smiled without any effort. “It was a great place to go and think. As I recall, you liked the lounge better than the rooftop.”
He shrugged. “Only because I didn’t have to worry about accidentally falling over the edge. But you’re right. Both places were great ten-minute getaways.”
He fell silent and his gaze grew intent. “I looked for you there during those last few weeks,” he said quietly. “I thought I’d eventually run into you.”
She ran a finger through the condensation on her glass before she answered. “I was too busy. We both were.”
Her excuse was only partly true. Because she’d held a lot of fond memories of their common meeting place, she’d purposely stayed away. There simply hadn’t been any point in rubbing salt into an open wound. She’d assumed that he wouldn’t try to find her, but knowing that he had purposely sought her out gave her an odd feeling.
“Yeah, we were.” To her relief, he didn’t go further but instead pointed to her glass balcony door. “With your penchant for high places, I’m not surprised you chose the top-floor apartment.”
She shrugged. “What can I say? There’s something powerful about being high enough to touch the clouds and breathe the air before someone else has.”
“The little bird imagines she’s an eagle.”
“It’s easier to think when you’re away from the crowd,” she corrected. “Fewer distractions.”
“And
you can look down at people instead of up.”
“That, too.” She motioned toward the living room. “Shall we?”
He chose an oversized chair while she sank onto the striped sofa. “I recognize the afghan, but not the furniture,” he said.
She stroked the brightly colored woven throw. That rectangle of soft fabric had dried a lot of tears and heard a lot of heartfelt thoughts. Thank goodness it couldn’t talk!
“The apartment came fully furnished,” she explained. “It’s too difficult to move sofas and chairs and tables every few weeks or months, so I don’t. My things are in Blue Springs, gathering dust in my condominium.”
“Then you don’t go home often?”
“I usually spend a week or two there in between jobs. Sometimes, if I get a long weekend, I’ll drive back, but I usually stay at my current assignment for the duration.”
Now, why did you tell him that? she mentally scolded herself. Outlining your routine isn’t the way to maintain distance.
She steered the conversation in another direction.
“What’s the story on Mr Kwan?”
“Impatient, are we?”
“It’s why you came, isn’t it?”
“Not entirely,” he corrected. “Your arm, remember?”
She held it out and flexed her fingers. “It’s fine. See? Now, about Mr Kwan…”
Another lazy grin appeared, as if he wanted to delay again, but he didn’t. “Apparently, he’s recently divorced. His ex didn’t know anything about his health and was quite shocked to hear of his death. She gave me the name of his physician and when I spoke to him, he said that Kwan canceled every one of his scheduled oncology appointments.”
“Then he wanted to die.”
“One would think that,” he said. “Which is a shame because he was supposedly a computer genius. Anyway, they’re shipping his body back to St Louis. It’s a sad state of affairs, but unfortunately life doesn’t always turn out the way we’d like.”
“I’ll second that,” she said fervently, thinking of her own disappointments.
“How’s your family?” he asked, clearly changing the subject to one more upbeat. “Are your brothers still keeping close tabs on you?”
Thinking of her five older siblings, she smiled fondly. “Yes and no. They’ve learned that I’m hard to catch, even with a cellphone, so each week I call one of them instead of vice versa. We visit and the lucky one passes the word along to the others. This week is Derek’s turn.”
“And they’re satisfied with this arrangement?”
She laughed, well aware of how over-protective they were. “Not really, but after I stopped answering the phone when I saw their numbers on my caller ID, they realized I meant business. I may be their baby sister and a foot shorter than the smallest of them, but I’ve also grown up.”
“Did you know I was jealous of you?” he asked off-handedly.
“No,” she said slowly, surprised by his confession. “I didn’t.”
“I always felt like I was on the outside of a group, looking in. Did you know that was one of the reasons why I agreed to keep a watchful eye on you when Cal asked? It made me feel as if I were a part of your family.”
“I never knew…Even when you joined us for holidays, I never knew…”
He shrugged. “You weren’t supposed to.”
Obviously, she hadn’t been the only one hiding her innermost thoughts. “I assume you never heard from your sister?”
“Not a word. With Mom gone, Mary wouldn’t be able to contact me even if she wanted to.”
She wanted to touch him and offer her sympathy. He might act as if the situation didn’t bother him, but she knew better. “Why not?”
“Few people in our home town know that I’m living in Hope.” His eyes brightened. “Isn’t it funny how things worked out? You were the one who seemed most suited to settling in one place and now you’re traveling around the country, while I, who don’t have any roots at all, have planted them.”
“It is,” she agreed. “I’m surprised you left Seattle. You couldn’t wait to go there.”
“It was a great place, but after seeing so much of the same thing we saw during our training—knifings, gunshot wounds, assaults, and running full tilt—I thought I’d like a slower pace. I read about Hope City Hospital and it sounded like a nice, quiet place, so I thought, Why not?”
“And you were hired.”
“Moved here last fall,” he commented. “Aren’t you still with the same agency?”
“Yes, but I almost changed jobs, too,” she admitted. “My boss wasn’t an easy man to work for. He was an older doctor who thought women should stick to obstetrics. He’d never give me long-term assignments, so I was constantly living out of my suitcase. By the time I’d decided to find something else, he’d sold the business, so I stayed to see if things improved. Fortunately for me, they did.”
“But you still move around a lot.”
“Yes, but I rarely go anywhere for less than a month. The most time I’ve spent in one place is eight weeks when I covered a woman’s maternity leave.”
“And now you’re at Hope. It’s quite a coincidence that we ended up in the same place.”
Galen looked too innocent and his tone too light-hearted for her to believe that fate had taken complete charge. He’d known the name of her agency, so he’d clearly had an unfair advantage.
“Yes, isn’t it?” she asked dryly. “In fact, I’d guess you’re responsible for me being here, aren’t you?”
He chuckled. “I had nothing to do with Hope City needing a locum. Jared’s plane crash was beyond my control.”
“I don’t mean his accident,” she said crossly. “I’m talking about selecting his replacement.”
He shrugged. “I can’t take all the credit. I only played a minor role.”
“How minor is ‘minor’?”
“I’d mentioned your agency to our CEO and he placed the call. When we visited with a representative, I mentioned that we’d prefer having you if it was possible, but we didn’t cut any special deals or receive any promises. We knew we would get the first available ER physician. I just wanted him or her to be you and I was willing to nudge things in that direction.”
Nikki suspected he’d done more than nudge, but it didn’t change the fact that the final decision had been hers. Philip Barnes, her boss, might recommend a position or try to convince her take it, but if she refused to go, he didn’t force her.
“When I’d heard that Hope had specifically requested me, it seemed odd because I’d never been here before and didn’t know a soul on the staff. Now it makes sense.”
Although she hadn’t intended to touch upon their history and had planned to avoid it, curiosity made her ask, “Why did you care if I came or not?”
He raised one eyebrow. “I missed you.”
“You had my phone number and email address.”
He shook his head. “Not good enough.”
“Why not?”
“Because you rarely returned my calls. I started to suspect it was because we didn’t part on the best of terms.”
She stiffened, suddenly realizing that he’d masterfully led her to the conversation she’d intended to avoid. “Yes, we did. I distinctly remember wishing you good luck.”
“You said it like we were strangers. Not friends who’d seen each other through thick and thin. On those rare times since then when I’ve spoken with you, it was the same.”
Clearly, he’d seen through her façade.
“We were drifting apart,” she defended herself. “It was inevitable. In another year we’d exchange the obligatory Christmas card and that would be it.”
“I thought we were headed in that direction,” he said, nodding, “so I decided to chart an intercept course.”
“You decided?” she sputtered. “Why did you care one way or another?”
“I just did,” he said firmly. “You see, I started thinking about that night. At the time I understood your
embarrassment and how we both had so much going on in our lives, but I thought the tension between us would blow over in the end.”
“It did,” she insisted.
“No, it didn’t. Cal mentioned how you were working too hard and I began to ask myself why you hadn’t eased up on yourself and why you weren’t seeing anyone.”
“I date,” she protested. “Long-distance romances don’t work, so I decided to take a page from the same relationship and dating manual you’ve been using. It’s worked for you all this time. Why shouldn’t it work for me?”
He continued as if she hadn’t interrupted. “I was trying to think of the best way to approach you when suddenly a golden opportunity fell into my lap. I grabbed it.”
“You should have let sleeping dogs lie.”
“I couldn’t. I was wrong to let this much time go by without tackling the real issue.”
The real issue? Oh, dear. He suspected there was an issue? The best defense was a good offense, or so she’d learned during those years spent watching pro football with her brothers. She put the theory to the test.
“You should have been open and honest about being here,” she told him. “I don’t like being manipulated.”
“I didn’t manipulate you. The choice to accept our position or not was always yours. I merely worked behind the scenes.”
“Exactly. Which is why you should have—”
He leaned forward to interrupt, his gaze intent. “Speaking of being open and honest, would you have come to Hope if you’d known I was on the staff?”
He’d backed her into the proverbial corner. If she said no, which is exactly what she would have done, he would demand an explanation. If she answered the opposite, she’d have to give a plausible excuse for why their foundation of friendship had crumbled. Even if she hadn’t fallen in love with him, they’d shared so much and had grown so close because of their common experiences that they would never have become two people who only jotted a few lines to each other during the holidays.
Suddenly she was tired of the game. Once he knew the truth, he’d do the right thing and leave her alone.
“You’re right,” she said, unflinchingly meeting his gaze. “I wouldn’t have come because of the way I felt. Being around you is too difficult.”
The Baby Rescue Page 4