When they were alone again, she reached over and rested her hand on his again. “Now that everything is out in the open, we can discuss Senator Gold’s fundraiser next month? It’s a very high-profile event. Mainstream media will be covering it and Daddy thinks it would be good for us to be seen there.”
He shook his head. “This isn’t working, Blair.”
“You mean us.”
“Yes.”
Again he waited for a reaction. Some show of genuine emotion. Something like Hope telling him he was the first man she’d been with since her husband died. And the tears glistening in her eyes when she’d said it. She’d cared deeply for the man she’d lost. He was jealous of a dead man, which made him pond scum. He’d wanted to hold Hope, just to offer comfort, but she’d looked as if she’d shatter at another touch, especially his.
“That depends on what you mean by working.” Blair lifted one perfectly arched brow. “I think what we have is a mutually beneficial relationship. You have opportunities to meet politically powerful people. And I like being with a man who’s going places, a man other women want to be with.”
To her he was just another Paolo. A fling. A Las Vegas thing. Blair was unfazed that he’d been with another woman. Unlike Hope. She’d made her feelings about his behavior pretty clear. She’d shown genuine, uninhibited, honest emotion. She’d been clearly upset that there was another woman. Maybe she was jealous. That wouldn’t upset him in the least.
On the contrary, her reaction produced a spark of hope that she might be interested in him. Hell, she slept with him, which should be a clue. Now he was comparing Hope to Blair as if he needed more proof that it was in Blair’s best interest for him to break things off now. He would never deliberately hurt her and prolonging this had the potential to do that.
He slid his hand from beneath hers. “You’re a wonderful woman, Blair. But I’m pretty sure that I’m not the right man for you.”
“Daddy thinks you are.”
“I have a great deal of respect for Congressman Havens, but a relationship between you and me is not his call to make.”
“No, it’s mine. And I think we shouldn’t be too hasty about calling it quits.”
“I don’t agree. And in my opinion letting things go on as if nothing’s wrong will hurt you in the long run.”
“That’s your official diagnosis, Doctor?” There was amusement in her tone.
He’d never claim to be an expert on touchy-feely stuff. But one thing he had in spades was street smarts. In his gut he knew he was doing the right thing. “As far as I’m concerned we shouldn’t see each other anymore.”
“We don’t have to be exclusive.” She sipped the last of her wine. “And I don’t believe you and I are over, Jake.”
They were definitely done, but there was no win in hammering home his point. He’d kept his promise to Hope about full disclosure with Blair. It was important that he end this complication even though he and Hope had agreed to a strictly professional association.
So he’d really just cleared the air with Blair because it was the smart thing to do. Pursuing anything personal at this juncture was not part of his career plan.
The problem was still Hope. He’d never met a woman who so completely tempted him to toss his career plan in the trash can.
Chapter Six
Two days after sleeping with Jake, Hope walked into the office of Mercy Medical West’s president and tried to act professional. Val Davis was in her fifties, an attractive brown-eyed brunette with a stylishly layered, shoulder-length haircut and a reputation for an anal-retentive, obsessive-compulsive attention to details—in the nicest possible way. The artistic and color-coordinated ambience of this hospital, in addition to the no-expense-spared health care, was all about this woman. This facility was her baby and Hope knew she was as protective of it as any mother lion.
“Hi,” she said from the office doorway.
Val glanced up from the paperwork on her desk and looked over the reading glasses on her nose. “Hope. Come in. Have a seat.”
“Thanks.”
She sat in one of the green tweed chairs in front of the desk. The pale gold walls held pictures of seascapes and flowers. Family photos of her husband, two adult children—a boy and girl—were prominently displayed beside the computer monitor and coffee mug.
Hope had interviewed with the other two campus presidents and Val before accepting this temporary position. The woman had a friendly warmth that made her approachable, a positive quality in an administrator. She’d canceled their last two scheduled meetings due to building permit and certification issues.
“How are you holding up?” Hope asked, knowing her boss put in fourteen-hour-plus days, like so many of them were doing to open on schedule.
“Hanging in there.” Val removed her glasses. “How are you doing?”
Hope wondered for half a second if the emphasis and nuance in her tone meant that she’d heard a rumor about her being with Jake. There was a reason every soap opera on TV had a hospital in it. Probably she was just hyper-sensitive because the guilt of what she’d done was heavy on her heart.
“By that I’m guessing you’re asking whether or not I have hearing loss from the fire alarms going off constantly?”
“Oh,” Val said wryly. “I was hoping you hadn’t heard that.”
Hope laughed. “Just a guess, but that high-pitched shrieky sound is kind of designed to get your attention.”
“Lord knows it’s taken a lot of mine,” the other woman said ruefully. “It seems that the manufacturer put in cheap smoke dampers that won’t close.”
“Not my area of expertise,” Hope said. “But by definition aren’t they supposed to shut and contain smoke in the event of fire?”
“Yeah. The whole system starts with the alarm which triggers the dampers. Then the fire doors close automatically and the sprinklers go on.”
“The domino effect,” Hope said.
“Exactly. But if the damn dampers don’t close, we can’t pass the fire inspection and the fire marshal won’t give us the go-ahead to accept patients. We had to get a special dispensation for that dignitary open house the week before last.”
Hope remembered it well and not because of the dignitaries. It was the night Jake had kissed her for the first time. If the alarms weren’t functioning properly, that would explain why the heat they’d generated hadn’t triggered the high-pitched shrieky noise.
Maybe if the sprinklers had soaked them that first time, she’d have avoided an even bigger mistake. The man was a two-timing cheater. So not her type. So not noble like her husband. And not even thinking the worst of Jake could get him out of her mind.
That made a mockery of the agreement to make their association all about the work, because even in this meeting thoughts of him had crept in. What were they talking about? Oh, right. Fire.
“So is the system fixed?” she asked Val.
“It is. After much swearing and gnashing of teeth,” the woman confirmed. “You’d think we could just replace the dampers, but nothing is ever that easy. Doing that would require ripping out the ceilings.”
“Yikes.”
“No kidding. So, we had to change the motors. And that did the trick. This morning each section of the hospital was tested.”
“I heard.” The alarms had gone on for hours. “There were a lot of areas to check.”
“The good news is you just passed your employee hearing test.” Val grinned. “And the building passed the fire inspection. We got a gold star.”
“Good for you.”
“I know more about fire alarms than I ever wanted to.” Val took a deep breath. “So how’s E.D.?”
“The emergency department is coming along fine.”
Val checked her notes. “Good. I wanted to clarify with you the protocols for O.R. availability.”
“Okay.”
“As I’m sure you’re aware, surgeons have a problem when an operating room stands empty. But it’s standard trauma pr
ocedure to always have one open in the event an E.R. patient needs emergency surgery.”
Hope nodded. “Right. If it becomes an issue for the surgeons, I’ll remind them of the administration directive.”
“Another way to say refer them to me. That works. Next on my agenda—reasons to go on trauma divert.”
Hope glanced at her notes. “Equipment. CT scan down. Shortage of personnel in the event of trauma saturation.”
“Right.” Val met her gaze. “Everyone needs to be on the same page as far as evaluating which trauma room to put a patient in. Some are set up specifically for head or belly trauma, others for less serious cases.”
“Right.” Hope jotted things down on the notepad she’d brought in with her.
“Now E.D. staffing,” Val said.
“I imagine it’s going to be slow at first,” Hope said. “We might have to flex off some of the staff if there’s not enough work to support the load. I’ll make them aware of that.”
“Good. I talked to Dr. Edwards.”
Hope remembered the radiology specialist raising his issues at her meeting. “He was upset about paying his doctors for round-the-clock staffing whether or not there were cases.”
Val nodded. “I set him straight on that and administration will not be kicking in anything. He signed the contract. Doctors need to be here so that this hospital can maintain its trauma-level designation. I’ve gotten the hospital legal department in the loop in case that becomes an issue.”
“Good.” Hope tapped her lip. “Speaking of staff…”
Val looked up quickly. “Yes?”
“It’s come to my attention that Dr. Andrews…” How could she phrase this delicately? “I have a concern about his appointment to chief trauma surgeon.”
“In what way?”
“It has to do with who he knows being a factor in why he got the job. That makes me wonder about his qualifications for the position.”
And that one word sent her thoughts straight to his bedroom and him hovering over her.
“You’re new in town,” Val pointed out. “Have you talked to some of the veteran staff members who’ve been around a while?”
“Yes. But I thought it best to ask you. To separate real from rumor.”
She hoped that her behavior wasn’t making its way through the Mercy Medical gossip mill. If she could erase what happened that night, she’d do it in a heartbeat.
“Okay. This is off the record.” Val leaned back, shaking her head.
“What?”
“I’m aware that Jake is dating Blair Havens.”
“The daughter of the hospital’s board of directors,” Hope confirmed.
“Yes. But you shouldn’t hold that against him.”
Personally? Or professionally? Because either way she was doing her level best to constructively use the information and put up barriers.
“Why?” she asked.
“Jake Andrews is a good doctor. And a smart businessman. Most important, he’s a brilliant surgeon. Regardless of who he shows the bad judgment to see when he’s not on duty, the man’s hands are pure magic.”
That’s something Hope was well aware of. It had nothing to do with surgery, scalpels or sutures, and everything to do with seduction, satisfaction and seeing stars. His hands and mouth had taken her to places she’d never been before. Not ever. And that could very well be the source of her guilt.
She’d loved Kevin and losing him had hurt deeply. It still did. But she’d never experienced need like she had in Jake’s arms. That meant there was some kind of connection which was exactly what she was trying to avoid.
Now she knew and had independent confirmation of the fact that he wasn’t free. That should help put him out of her mind because so far she’d been unsuccessful. She wished, and not for the first time, that she’d left him stranded that night. Now she was in a complication that proved no good deed goes unpunished.
On the bright side, he was seeing someone. That gave her a level of protection from his specific brand of temptation. He was comfortable juggling women but couldn’t if she refused to be juggled.
It was close to 7:00 p.m., past time to leave the hospital, and Hope was still studying the budget spreadsheet on her computer. Keeping the emergency department within the parameters of the allocated funds was going to mean sacrifices, doing more with less. In today’s world where individuals were more concerned about themselves and paranoid about being treated unfairly, managing personalities was going to be a challenge. The staff needed a charismatic director who could lead by example.
Kevin had been that way, she remembered sadly. He’d put in more hours than the Department of Children and Families could pay for because he loved kids. If he’d been more selfish and less heroic, he would still be with her.
The sound of voices in the hall outside her office broke up her pity party. She’d forgotten to shut her door and walked around her desk to do that. A few feet away, she stopped, recognizing Jake’s deep voice. It always triggered a ball of heat in her belly and did now, even though she couldn’t see him.
“This place feels like a hotel. It’s really something.” The male voice was unfamiliar. “But it’s too far away for me to do hospital rounds. You know my office is on Horizon Ridge. That makes seeing patients at this facility problematic.”
“What did you think of the MRI and the new cath lab, Dean?”
That was a clue to Hope that he was talking to Dr. Dean Harrison, a busy internist.
“It’s very cool, and you know it, Jake.”
“How about the gamma knife?” There was just the slightest bit of snake-oil salesman wheedling in Jake’s tone.
“Remarkable. No pun intended—cutting-edge.”
“Good one. It’s state-of-the-art medicine,” Jake said. “So it takes you a couple minutes out of your way. Isn’t that a small price to pay? Here, your patients won’t have to wait for a bed like they do at Mercy Medical’s main campus.”
Hope remembered his talking about the patient billed for ICU, intermediate care and step-down beds when he never left the E.R. There was certainly a need for more acute-care beds in the Vegas Valley. But change was never easy and people pushed back even if it was good change.
“Tell you what, Jake,” the other man said, “I’ll think about coming on staff here at Mercy Medical West if you’ll agree to speak at the Nevada Hospital Council in Reno next month.”
“Happy to do it,” Jake said.
“I’m holding you to that.” Hope could picture the doctor pointing a finger at Jake. “Thanks for the private tour. This place really is impressive.”
She heard retreating footsteps and went back to her desk. The two doctors were gone now, so there was no reason to shut her door.
“Knock, knock.” The words were followed by a light tap.
Unlike her heart which was tapping like crazy. She braced herself as best she could and looked up. “Jake.”
“Hope.”
They stared awkwardly at each other for several moments while she wished he would go away and stop torturing her. Finally she asked, “Was there something you wanted?”
The way his eyes turned to silver told her that was a bad choice of words even as a rebellious little thrill skipped through her.
“You’re here late,” he said, not answering the question.
“So are you. Blair must be busy.” She pressed her lips together and wished it were possible to rewind or delete the previous words.
“I honestly have no idea what her plans are.” He leaned a shoulder against the doorjamb, deliberately not moving closer. “I’m laying off sugar and fat. Especially no cream-filled sponge cake.”
“No more fried Twinkie?” She picked up a pen and nervously pressed the top, pushing the ballpoint’s tip in and out.
“I will neither confirm nor deny engaging in such behavior.”
“Okay.” Her tone left no doubt about what she believed.
“I’m here touting the merits of Mercy Medical
West to one of my colleagues.”
“So I heard.”
“You were eavesdropping?” One dark eyebrow lifted as a teasing expression slid over his face.
“Not on purpose,” she defended. “But I couldn’t help overhearing the deal you made with Dr. Harrison.”
“Deal? Interesting choice of words. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you disapproved.”
“Not me.”
“All evidence to the contrary,” he drawled. “What do you have against a speaking engagement?”
“Rumor has it that you’re a gifted surgeon.”
“Really? Says who?”
She didn’t want to inflate his already-inflated ego, or admit to asking about him. “Does it matter?”
“Yeah. I need to know who to thank with flowers.”
She sighed and gripped the pen tighter. “I had a meeting with Val Davis. We were discussing staffing for the emergency department. Your name came up.”
“In reference to fried food?”
“Are you ever going to let that go?” she asked.
“Probably not.” He slid his fingers into his dark slacks, lifting the bottom of the expensive matching jacket. “But back to me being good at my job.”
“She said—” Hope bit back the words on the tip of her tongue. The exact quote: No matter who Jake showed the bad judgment to see when he wasn’t on duty, the man’s hands were pure magic. She shivered again as a vision flashed through her mind of those strong sensitive hands skimming over her skin as she lay beside him in his bed. The ball of fire in her belly got bigger and hotter. “She said you’re a good doctor and a brilliant surgeon.”
“So a nice big bouquet of flowers to Val’s office for the hospital grand opening.” He smiled.
His grin could bring women to their knees and made Hope glad she’d showed the good sense to remain seated.
“Don’t you think it’s a better use of your time and reputed talent to take those skills out for a spin in the operating room instead of the boardroom?”
“Community engagements put the hospital’s name and excellent reputation in front of the public.” His teasing tone disappeared and she missed it.
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