“Difficult? Did you hate me that much for being a voice of reason that night?”
“Hate you?” Her chuckle was forced. “Oh, I’d tried to. At the time I told myself that I did, but…” She paused and, suddenly unable to go on, turned to stare out the balcony door.
She sensed rather than saw him move behind her. “For the record, I didn’t want to leave you.”
He spoke calmly over her shoulder. “I’d wanted to stay, more than you can imagine.”
She whirled to face him as she snorted an unladylike snort. “You couldn’t leave my apartment fast enough. Your tire tracks are probably still on the street.”
“I was angry. And hurt.”
“Hurt? Hah! You accused me of using you.”
“Weren’t you?”
“No!” She was aghast. “Never!”
“Can I help it if your timing was suspect?” he roared. “How was I supposed to know if sleeping together truly meant something to you? That it wasn’t a fluke or something you’d eventually regret?”
Her emotions bubbled to the surface and she poked him in the chest with her fingernail. “Because I loved you, dammit! You!”
Nikki’s words hung in the air like morning mist. She’d loved him?
At odd times over the past few months he’d thought it might be a possibility, but had refused to jump to any conclusions or raise false hopes.
He repeated the words aloud, both awed and pleased by her admission. “You love me?”
She squared her shoulders and looked away. “Loved. With a ‘D’. Past tense.”
Galen doubted if it was as far in the past as she tried to believe, otherwise she wouldn’t have fought so hard to stay away from him. “You can’t turn something like that on and off.”
“Maybe not, but I’ve had a year to recover.”
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry for not realizing how you felt before now.”
“How could you? You were too busy dating every woman who smiled in your direction.”
“I did not,” he protested.
“Maybe not every one,” she admitted. “Now that I think about it, there were a few others—the nurse with the crooked teeth, the pharmacy tech who had a bad case of acne, and—”
“Hey, I wasn’t that shallow.”
“No, but the fact is, you filled all the pages in your little black book. As for me, I did my best to hide my feelings, especially after I saw how you kissed that red-headed respiratory therapist goodnight. On a scale of ten, it ranked as a twelve.”
“You were wrong,” he protested. “I don’t even remember who she was.”
“Regardless, all you ever gave me were friendly pecks on New Year’s Eve, Christmas, and my birthday.”
“Because I didn’t trust myself. I was afraid to ruin our friendship.”
“Puhleeze.” She rolled her eyes. “You obviously weren’t worried about ruining any friendship with what’s-her-name.”
“I also hadn’t promised her cousin that I’d watch out for her so she wouldn’t hook up with the wrong guy.”
“And I suppose you thought that you were the wrong guy.”
“Yes,” he said simply. “Someone had to keep you from making a mistake.”
She poked a finger in his chest. “That’s another thing. It’s bad enough my brothers still see me as their baby sister, but I expected better of you. After all we went through in the ER, all the cases we worked on, I can’t believe that you felt you should make this decision for me. What hurt most of all was how you apparently thought I didn’t know my own mind. You had no right to decide on who was good for me and who wasn’t.”
“I made that promise to Cal when he realized we’d be in the same hospital.”
“You shouldn’t have.”
“Maybe not, but I did save your pretty butt on a few occasions. Remember the biker fellow who thought he’d take you home on his Harley because you smiled at him after you stitched up his chest? He’d carried you halfway through the ER before I stopped him. And don’t forget the paranoid schizophrenic who backed you into a corner because his voices were telling him to.”
“OK, OK. I’ll admit you rode to my rescue a time or two. You would have done the same even if Cal hadn’t asked.”
He met her gaze. “Probably, but I rarely made promises and when I did, I intended to keep them. The point is, you should have given me some clues that you were interested. When things escalated without warning—”
“Oh yeah.” Her sarcasm rang out loud and clear. “What sort of clues did you want? We were together more than we were apart. When I finally showed you how I felt, you ran. Do you remember Serena?”
“Yeah.” He answered cautiously.
“After you stopped seeing her, I started to think that if I played my cards right, you’d eventually notice me. Time after time, you latched onto someone else.”
“So that’s why you always made snide remarks about the nurses I asked out.”
“Yeah, no matter what juicy tidbit I passed along, you didn’t pay attention. And if I had spelled things out, would your reaction have been any different?”
Considering how he’d taken both his role of protector and his promise seriously, probably not. “I wanted you, too, but I was trying to be noble and trying to avoid giving your brothers or your cousin an excuse to rip my head off. I was Cal’s friend and he knew me better than anyone. Chances were good that he wouldn’t have been happy to welcome me into the family as more than an old buddy. And if he hadn’t been happy, I can guarantee your brothers wouldn’t have been either.”
“I would have protected you,” she said solemnly.
“Oh, yeah,” he scoffed, envisioning a little chickadee guarding its mate from five—make that six—huge vultures. “They would have turned me into mincemeat.”
“I would have,” she insisted, “but whatever they would or wouldn’t have done isn’t important any more. We’re two different people with different ideas and different feelings.”
“Speak for yourself, Nikki. Why do you think I was so eager to see you again?”
“It’s over, Galen.” Her voice was flat. “We can’t go back.”
If Nikki had loved him during their years of residency, he couldn’t imagine how she could write him off as a lost cause. Surely she still carried a seed of attraction—a seed that, if properly nourished, would grow. Unless…
“You don’t believe me, do you?” he asked.
She fell silent. “Your claim is a little hard to swallow. We need to be on good terms for the next few weeks, but you don’t have to whitewash the facts for my sake. I can handle the truth. You never thought of me as anything more than a friend you could count on when you needed one.”
He stood abruptly. “What will it take for you to trust me? To believe I am telling you the truth about wanting you?”
She raised her shoulders helplessly. “I don’t know.”
“Well, I can think of one way.” He began yanking at his shirt buttons, baring his chest while fixing his gaze on hers.
Her jaw dropped. “What…what are you doing?”
“We’re going to finish what we started a year ago. I tried to act honorably then, but this time there are only two of us in this room. Your brothers, your cousin and everyone else in your family isn’t here. Just you and me, baby.”
She rose, her face turning a becoming shade of pink. “You can’t do this, Galen. It’s…it’s crazy.”
“No, it’s not. It makes perfect sense,” he said calmly as he released the last button and started toward her.
Nikki stared at Galen, hardly able to believe what was happening. He wore the look of determination of a conqueror, and he was headed straight for her.
She backed up a few steps, feeling a combination of wariness and excitement. “Now, Galen, think about what you’re doing. Nothing has changed.”
“I’ve changed, and I have thought about this. I want to finish what we started a year ago.”
“You can’t.�
� She still wanted him, heaven help her, but not like this, not without assurances of love or affection and certainly not to prove a point.
She backed up again, until the wall blocked her retreat. Before she could sidestep him, he trapped her in place.
His scent surrounded her and his bared chest was an inch from hers. She sensed his frustration and anger, but he was still the man she remembered, the finest she’d ever known, and he would never, ever lose control.
“Galen?” Her voice quaked as she stared into his eyes and tried to read the message she found there.
His voice softened and the corners of his mouth turned into a gentle smile. “Don’t be afraid.”
She managed to swallow at the same time she willed her adrenalin back to normal levels. The combination of ninety per cent excitement and ten per cent alarm had made her heart pound. “I’m not.”
“I’d never hurt you.”
“I know.” Whatever happened, whatever he planned for the next few minutes, he wouldn’t do anything without her being a willing participant. Tentatively, she touched the side of his face.
His mouth settled over hers and the past faded into insignificance as she concentrated on the present and the delicious sensations he was creating inside her. Smoothly and without her consciously realizing how it had happened, she found herself locked in a bear hug of an embrace that she had no desire to escape.
She slipped her arms inside his open shirt and snaked them around his middle. He was warm and solid and simply perfect.
He immediately moved one leg between hers, pressing his full length against her frame. The hard ridge resting against her abdomen spoke more loudly and was more convincing than anything he might have said. It was all the evidence she needed that he’d been telling her truth.
He wanted her.
Not the parade of nurses, the sexy respiratory therapist, or the radiology tech. None of those women had mattered.
Or had they? An unwelcome thought burst through her sensual haze—a thought that played on the insecurities still tethered to her self-esteem.
She pulled back.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“How long has it been?”
A puzzled furrow appeared on his brow. “What are you talking about? How long has what been?”
“Do you want me because you want me,” she asked bluntly, “or because you’ve already dated every available woman in town and I’m fresh meat?”
“No. Absolutely not. Would I have gone to this much trouble to get you here if I simply wanted someone new to date?”
He sounded affronted and looked the part. As one of her old mentors had said repeatedly, “If it looks like a duck and acts like a duck, it probably is…” Unfortunately, old habits died hard.
She retreated another step because she couldn’t think, standing this close to him. “I want to believe you and I’m trying, but—”
He gave a long-suffering sigh. “But you need more than a single kiss.”
She hesitated a fraction of a second. “I know you, Galen. You’ve always shied away from commitment to a woman and you never denied it. You can’t blame me if I find it difficult to believe that you’ve turned a hundred and eighty degrees in a year. You have a track record of becoming bored with a steady diet.”
“Hold onto your stethoscope, because I intend to prove otherwise.”
“Then you’re saying that you’re ready and willing to throw away your little black book for one woman? The same woman you knew for three years and let slip through your fingers?”
“I know it sounds far-fetched, but yes.” He softened his tone. “I’m tired of not having roots to call my own and I’m tired of being alone.”
“Which is all the more reason for you not to waste your time,” she told him flatly. “I’m a locum, Galen. I’m gone for weeks at a time and I’m leaving Hope in two months. Even if you convinced me during that time, we’ll still end up apart.”
“We definitely will if we don’t try. Come on, Nik,” he urged. “We have everything to gain and nothing to lose.”
She had plenty to lose, she wanted to cry out. At the top of the list was her heart.
“Hey, Nik, what’s happening?”
Nikki smiled at her brother’s lazy drawl as she leaned back in her desk chair on Friday afternoon and pictured him doing the same in his office. Derek was two years older than she was and a high-powered sales rep for sports equipment. He’d been the one most enamored by his little sister because her arrival had taken away his baby-of-the-family status and had made him feel grown up.
“Saving lives, as usual,” she quipped.
“Still working twenty-hour days?”
She heard the worry underlying his innocent tone. “I’m in Hope, remember? If we count every man, woman, dog, and cat in the county, we might have a population of twenty thousand.”
“Then you have a slower pace.”
She thought of her morning. Ten walk-in patients with everything from migraine headaches to infected gashes. And that didn’t include the car accident that had brought five kids and two adults to the hospital.
“To a certain degree,” she admitted.
“That’s good. You don’t sound as stressed as you have been. Everyone will be glad to hear you’re turning back into the sister we used to know.”
She smiled, aware of how her family’s information network could rival the FBI’s. Within fifteen minutes after she hung up, Derek would have passed along the latest update.
“Oh, hey,” he added, “I hear Galen is at Hope, too. You’re in good hands.”
Her blood pressure jumped twenty points. “What’s that supposed to mean?” If he’d called Galen and asked him to keep an eye on her again, she’d make Derek rue the day he’d ever thought of the idea. She and Galen had reached a truce, of sorts, and she didn’t need any outside interference.
“Calm down. I didn’t mean anything except that he’s a good man. Steady. Reliable.”
She made a note to pass his description to Galen. After making himself sound like the Ultimate Bad Boy, he’d be pleased to know he’d broken free of his label, at least in Derek’s eyes.
“And, anyway, you can’t blame us for worrying about you,” he said, sounding hurt although she knew he was only pretending. “Hope isn’t even on the map.”
“It is, too,” she scolded gently, aware that any place with a population of less than fifty thousand didn’t exist in Derek’s opinion. “Everything’s fine.”
“OK, but I reserve the right to pay you a visit and see for myself.”
“Warn me beforehand, so I can be sure I’m not on duty.” With the mutual awareness simmering between herself and Galen, it was only a matter of time before it rolled to a full boil. When that happened, she didn’t want to worry about her brother interrupting them.
“Will do. So what sort of night life does Hope have?”
“The ice-cream parlour is a hot spot,” she replied, thinking of Galen’s Wednesday evening excursion. She wasn’t naïve enough to believe that a few nights on the town meant he was ready to settle down with one woman, much less her, but in all fairness, he deserved a second chance to prove it.
“A local jazz band gives concerts on Wednesdays and the American Legion baseball team plays on Thursdays. I think Friday is movie night.”
“Geez, Nikki. With a harrowing schedule like that, do you have time for a shift at the hospital?”
She laughed at his wry tone. “I do, believe me.”
“Where will you go after Hope?”
“I don’t know yet. Don’t worry. I won’t be unemployed,” she teased, knowing that he was asking when she’d settle down and choosing to ignore his question for now. Once she conquered her insecurities and truly believed that she was Galen’s last rather than his latest—that he really was as ready for commitment and family ties as he claimed—she’d make the long-term plans her family wanted to hear.
He laughed. “I should hope not. Mom and Dad would croak
if they thought those years of med school went to waste.”
She chuckled. “They won’t.” Seeing Lynette in the doorway, chart in hand, she quickly straightened in her chair. “Gotta run. Give my love to everybody,” she added, before she broke the connection.
“What do we have?” she asked her nurse.
“A lady brought her three-month-old in for a check-up. She’s new in town and doesn’t have a family physician, so she wanted you to check out her little one until she finds a regular doctor. I put her in the Bambi room.”
The Bambi room was designed for their younger patients. The walls were tan and a forest mural, complete with a doe and her baby, covered one wall.
Nikki took the chart and went into the room. “I’m Dr Lawrence,” she said, greeting the young mother who appeared to be in her late twenties.
“I’m Alice Martin,” the brunette said as she shook her hand while juggling the baby in her arm. “And this is Emma.”
Nikki peered at the infant who was wearing a frilly white dress with pink trim. Her long dark eyelashes lay against her cheeks and she slept contentedly as she worked her rosebud mouth as if dreaming about food.
“What a pretty dress,” Nikki exclaimed, before she ran her gaze down the numbers Lynette had recorded.
“Thank you. She had her picture taken this morning and I bought this for the occasion.”
“She’s adorable. According to this, your daughter is right in the middle of the height and weight range for her age. If you’ll give her to me, I’ll check her over from top to bottom.”
Nikki accepted the bundle, smiling as Emma arched her back and stretched. “Working out a few kinks, are you?” she murmured softly.
“She’s quite active,” Alice commented, hovering nearby. “She sleeps on her back, but I keep her on her tummy as much as possible when she’s awake.”
“Excellent.”
“She loves music, playing in her bathwater and squeaky toys. I also read her to sleep every night. It must work because she sleeps until morning.”
Nikki smiled at Alice’s report. The woman clearly doted on her child. “One can’t foster a bookworm too early,” she said, remembering how her adoptive parents had read to her and Derek each night.
The Baby Rescue Page 5