by Amy Ruttan
“I think I should know about your tattoo—we are engaged after all.”
Henry sighed and finished scrubbing, shaking the extra water off his hands. “We can talk about this at dinner.”
Kiera chuckled to herself as he stepped into the operating room to get on his gloves and gown. She was looking forward to seeing how he worked and whether they would make a good team. She finished scrubbing in and stepped into the operating room.
* * *
Henry was operating on the opposite side of the table to Kiera as they repaired the internal damage that was caused by the car accident. The spleen was shredded and there was bleeding around the liver.
Henry kept an eye on the patient’s blood pressure, but other than a head laceration, it appeared she was stable. Although, a CT scan would show if there was something that he would need to do.
Right now, they had to get the patient’s internal bleeding under control.
As he stood across the table from Dr. Brown, from Kiera, he was impressed with her work. She might be infuriating, but he could see why Dr. Carr wanted to keep Dr. Brown around. She was talented.
So why was she wasting her time protesting the inevitable?
Aspen Grace Memorial Hospital would close.
Why was she wasting her surgical skills in a hospital that was small and falling apart when she could go to any hospital and save lives. Or, she could work in the new place his father and the board were planning to build.
Still, a part of him could see her point.
His father’s new hospital wouldn’t have an emergency room like this.
It would have trauma services, but only for those with insurance or the funds.
It wouldn’t be an open emergency room.
It would only be open for the right price.
He didn’t know if the woman they were operating on right now would have those financial means. If it were his father’s hospital, she’d be turned away and that thought sobered him. At least, they could provide care like they were supposed to.
It made him resent his father’s plans, because no one should be turned away.
He understood what Kiera was fighting for even though this wasn’t his fight.
Helping those who couldn’t pay their hospital bills was the reason this hospital was losing money. It was like the hospital was bleeding out.
“She lost a lot of blood.”
Henry had stood there in disbelief. “What’re you talking about? When I left for Los Angeles she was fine and...she was working up the mountain...”
Michelle’s doctor had nodded slowly. “The small town she was working in was remote. It was three hours away from the nearest trauma center. They only had a free clinic there and they couldn’t handle it. Michelle’s insurance wouldn’t cover a helicopter ride and there was a storm. There was no way to get to her and we ran out of time.”
“I would’ve paid for it!” Henry had shouted. “Why wasn’t I contacted? She was my fiancée...she was a surgeon!”
“I know, Henry. There was no time. If there had been a better hospital...”
“She would’ve had a chance?”
Sometimes all the money in the world couldn’t save lives. So what did it matter?
It hadn’t been able to save Michelle.
Aspen Grace Memorial Hospital was falling apart. The new hospital would bring more help to those who needed it.
Billing could take care of those who couldn’t pay.
Billing was not his problem. Saving lives was his problem.
“Pressure is dropping,” the anesthesiologist said, shaking thoughts of Michelle and the hospital’s state of affairs from his mind.
“Having some more fluids. She has another bleeder somewhere,” Kiera said.
Henry pulled on the retractor and spotted it. The bleeder on the splenic artery meant that the repair work was over. The spleen was beyond saving. “I think we should do a splenectomy. We have to cauterize the splenic artery.”
Kiera cursed under her breath, her brow furrowed, eyes focused on her work. “You’re right.”
“I know.”
Kiera glanced up at him quickly. There was a glint in her green eyes, but he couldn’t tell whether it was annoyance or humor. Not with her mask on.
Maybe he’d find out what was going on in her mind if he got to know her better.
And that gave him pause, because he had no plans to get to know her. That’s not what he was here for. He was here to do his job, and once that was done he could go back to Los Angeles, where it was sane.
Where it was safe.
He had no idea why that thought had crept into his head.
It was unwelcome.
He didn’t want it. He didn’t want to have that kind of thought.
They finished with the splenectomy and Henry scrubbed out next to Kiera. An awkward tension settled between them.
“So much for your day off,” he said, trying to make conversation.
Silence had never bothered him before, but now he was uncomfortable and making small talk.
Which he found infuriating.
Brutally and blindingly infuriating.
“That’s okay,” Kiera sighed. “I love my job.”
“You know, it’s a bit weird without interns and residents here.”
“Why?” she asked.
“You’re a good surgeon. You should be teaching others.”
Pink tinged her cheeks. “Well, there’s no teaching program set up here.”
“There should be. There could be if this new hospital was built.”
Her eyes narrowed and her spine straightened. “Maybe if the money for the new hospital was put into Aspen Grace Memorial Hospital, then it could expand and build a teaching program.”
“There’s no reason to build on here,” Henry said, his voice rising. “The new land...”
Kiera held up her hand. “Look, we can talk about this at dinner. I don’t want to argue in the operating room.”
“You still want to have dinner with me?” he asked, shocked. He had thought for sure that she would change her mind.
For one fraction of a second, he began to doubt his rash plan to tell his mother he was engaged to Kiera, and his brain was trying to formulate how to get out of it.
Kiera smiled, sending a chill down his spine. As if this was far from over.
“Of course,” she said sweetly. “We are engaged and have a lot of things to discuss.”
“That we do,” he said drily.
Kiera finished scrubbing out. “It’ll be okay.”
He cocked an eyebrow and smiled. “Somehow I don’t think that it will.”
She chuckled and dried her hands. “I’ll see you at seven?”
Henry nodded, still a bit dumbfounded by everything that had happened since he’d gotten off the plane. He was missing Los Angeles, he was missing the sun. He was missing his work. No one bugged him there.
He wasn’t annoyed when he was doing what he loved, when he was in his own space, in his own practice.
Kiera left and he finished scrubbing out.
It would have been easier to ignore his father and stay in his blissful bubble in Los Angeles.
Your blissful, lonely bubble.
Only he had almost ruined his life, his practice, everything when Michelle died.
His father had saved him and never let him forget it.
Henry sighed and grabbed paper towels to dry his hands. He quickly dried his hands and tossed the paper towels in the garbage. He was dreading tonight for a number of reasons.
Mostly though, he was dreading being alone with Kiera.
She drove him crazy, but she was feisty, beautiful and talented, and that was always a dangerous combination for him.
She was exactly the type of woman he liked.
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Women like Kiera excited him.
They made him feel alive and he hadn’t felt like that in a long time. It was a scary feeling. Kiera was the type of woman he had avoided for the last eight years because it was too dangerous for him.
He wasn’t going to be hurt again.
He wasn’t going to feel that pain, that gut-wrenching loneliness and the hole that Michelle’s death had left in his heart.
So Kiera was dangerous for him.
She threatened his heart.
CHAPTER FOUR
KIERA OPENED THE door to the home she shared with Mandy. Though it was technically Mandy’s home, Kiera had lived there since she was a young girl, when Dr. Burke had taken her in as his foster daughter.
“Kiera?” Mandy called out from the kitchen.
“Yeah. I’m home.” Kiera shut the door as Mandy wheeled herself in from the kitchen.
“You were gone longer than I thought,” Mandy said. “I was getting worried. There was an accident on the road, some black ice.”
“I know.” Kiera hung her coat up. “I got called into the operating room. I was helping with the trauma cases.”
“Well, that explains it.” Mandy relaxed, but for a brief moment Kiera could see an expression she knew so well. It was a mixture of relief and envy. Mandy missed her work. She missed helping others, taking care of the injured. It had always been Mandy’s dream, but after the accident and her lengthy recuperation, her career had been ruined.
She could still be living out her dream.
And what about your dreams?
Kiera shook that thought away. She was living her dream—she was saving lives. She had had other dreams, like having a family. That felt frivolous now. Mandy and her father had taken care of her when she was young, lost and had no hope.
They had made her feel safe. They had made her feel loved.
They had given her a chance.
This was where she was supposed to be, so all those other dreams were just that. They were dreams. She couldn’t trust anyone else with her heart enough to have that secret fantasy of marriage and babies.
The one time she had thought of having all that had been when she was with Brent. When Mandy had still been working and Dr. Burke was still alive. When her life had been perfect. Or she had thought it was. Everything fell apart soon after that.
Brent cheated on her. Mandy was shot, and Dr. Burke died with a ton of bills.
Mandy and AGMH were her life, her family now.
“Sorry I didn’t call.”
Mandy shrugged. “No worries, but I’m glad you weren’t one of the injured. The roads out there were wicked.”
“They’re not too bad now. The salters have been out.” Kiera sighed and made her way to the living room, sitting down on the sofa and leaning back.
There was a meow and an orange tabby jumped up beside her. Sif was Mandy’s orange tabby but mixed with something. She had the grumpiest face. All smushed and grumpy like. Kiera always wondered what Sif was mixed with.
The devil most likely, but today was an angel.
That was something. She had dealt with one too many grumpy souls today.
At least Mandy’s cat liked her today.
“So, you got called in from your day off?” Mandy asked, coming into the living room.
“I did, but I got pulled off the protest long before the accident happened.”
Mandy cocked an eyebrow. “How come?”
“Don’t sound so amazed.”
“I am amazed. You’re pretty focused, even somewhat crazed, when you’re out there.”
Kiera chuckled. “Thanks.”
“It’s the truth,” Mandy teased. “On your days off you should be enjoying yourself. Living life.”
“I am enjoying myself.”
Mandy stared at her skeptically. “Uh-huh. Sure. So, who managed to tear you away from your mega fun day of protesting?”
Kiera sighed. “The governor’s son and the majority shareholder.”
Mandy’s eyes widened. “Wow. They sent in the big guns, huh?”
“You know who I’m talking about?”
“I do. Dr. Henry Baker is one of the foremost neuro and plastic/ENT surgeons on the West Coast. He has shares in many hospitals, not all of them part of his father’s vast empire.”
“Vast empire?”
“The Bakers own a lot of Colorado. A lot.”
“No wonder he’s so arrogant,” Kiera mumbled. “He’s privileged.”
Mandy chuckled. “You could say that, but he doesn’t seem to run in the same circles as his parents. He rarely comes to Colorado. You must have made some kind of impression on the Bakers if they brought in Henry to deal with you.”
“Well, I feel honored, I guess.” Kiera paused. She wanted to tell Mandy about the deal she and Henry had made, but also she didn’t. It was clear that Henry was privileged—she knew that—but now she felt guilty for agreeing to Henry’s crazy plot.
So he didn’t want to be harassed by his parents for not getting married and continuing on the family dynasty.
That wasn’t her problem.
Still, the temptation of what he was offering was hard to pass up. To save the free clinic, to save the hospital, the hospital she loved.
It was just a lie.
“What,” Mandy asked, as if reading her thoughts.
“What?” Kiera’s cheeks heated.
“There’s something you’re not telling me. I can read you like a book, Kiera. What happened today?”
“I was told to stop picketing.” Which wasn’t a complete lie, she had been.
“Did you get fired?” Mandy asked, worried.
“No. I didn’t get fired. They wouldn’t fire me for exercising my free will.”
“Then what?”
“I’m going out to dinner in an hour with Dr. Baker.”
Mandy’s eyes widened and she smiled. “You’re going on a date with the enemy?”
“I know,” Kiera said drily.
“That’s kind of fun,” Mandy teased. “He’s kind of handsome. Or at least he was the last time I saw him.”
“He still is that.” Her blood heated, and she didn’t like that she was reacting to Henry. Sure, he was good-looking, but she’d met other good-looking men before and didn’t know what it was about him that got under her skin so much.
What was different about him?
Why did he make her feel this way?
There was something about him that unnerved her. Like he could see through all her protective layers. He looked at her with a hunger that she was sure was reflected in her own eyes.
And she couldn’t recall ever lusting for or being so attracted to someone like this.
What was also frustrating was he drove her absolutely crazy.
“So I guess I didn’t need to save you spaghetti.” Mandy headed back to the kitchen. The whole lower level of the older cottage-style home was open concept so that Mandy could get around easily.
It was accessible. Mandy’s bedroom and bathroom were now in what used to be her father’s office when he had his practice out of his home.
Kiera had the top floor, where there was a washroom and a large gabled room that she used to share with Mandy when they were younger.
Before Mandy’s father died.
Before the accident.
When life had been simpler.
And Sif, the cat, just ruled the entire house.
“What’re you going to wear?” Mandy asked from the kitchen.
“What do you mean what am I going to wear?”
“You can’t wear what you’re wearing. You’re going out with a Baker,” Mandy teased.
“So?” Kiera asked, puzzled.
“He’s probably going to take you to one of the private restaurants in
the resorts. One of those fancy restaurants up near the ski lifts or something.”
“Ugh, I hope not.”
“Come on, live a little. You said so yourself, you thought he was handsome.”
“Why are you so invested in this?” Kiera asked.
“Because you never go out or have fun. You deserve to have fun. Sexy fun, even?” The last bit was said with hope.
“I can’t stand him. He’s trying to shut down my program. He’s trying to shut down my hospital.”
Mandy shot her a funny look. “So? Live a little. If I were you...”
“You’re going to try to guilt me into dressing up, aren’t you?”
Mandy smiled deviously. “Maybe. Is it working?”
“No.” Kiera sighed. “Fine, I’ll change.”
“Do your makeup and hair. Wear heels.”
“What is with you? Since when did you become my fairy godmother?”
“Oh, I quite like that title,” Mandy teased as she scooped a large spoonful of spaghetti out of the pot and plopped it into a plastic container, making a squelching sound. “Besides, with you out of the house maybe Derek will come over.”
“Derek? Our neighbor Derek?” Kiera asked, surprised.
Mandy smiled and a blush tinged her cheek. “He comes over from time to time when you’re on a long shift.”
“Oh. That’s great.” Kiera was surprised by that. Not that Mandy couldn’t date or anything, but she had never seemed to be interested in doing so since the accident. She had never seemed to want to. All she had wanted to do was hang around with Kiera. Which was fine.
She wanted to take care of Mandy.
You deserve a life, too.
“When is he picking you up again?” Mandy asked, looking at the clock.
“Seven.”
“You have an hour. You’d better get started. Dazzle him.”
Kiera laughed, rolled her eyes and got up off the couch. Sif stared at her in disgust for leaving her and not continuing to pet her. Kiera was tired, and really all she wanted to do was curl up and go to sleep.