It didn’t help that he’d acted out back in the day too. He’d only been sixteen when the news had broken about his father’s infidelity and he hadn’t handled it well. In fact, he’d crashed the new sports car his parents had bought him and injured the girl he’d been dating at the time, who’d been his unlucky passenger. She’d made a full recovery, but Zac still lived with the guilt of his recklessness.
One more reason he’d left his parents and all their money behind. The wealth had corrupted his dad. Who was to say it wouldn’t do the same to Zac?
Needing to get out of his own head and away from the pain of his past, he tried to change the subject again. “You and Priya ready for the wedding?”
Thankfully, this time Lance took the bait. “I guess... She’s in charge of all that. I just show up when she tells me.” He tossed his empty water bottle into the recycling bin nearby. “Like this fancy conference thing we’re going to next weekend. If she gets this new job it’ll mean a move to California. Not sure I’m ready to leave Alaska behind, but I guess sand and surf wouldn’t be a horrible change. Plus, we could always come back to Anchorage to visit.”
Zac nodded, not ready to reveal that he and Carmen would be at the conference too, and Carmen would be competing for the same position.
“Well, I don’t know what you got going on behind the scenes, but I’m telling you, dude, one of these days you’re going to find someone who’ll knock those player socks right off you,” Lance said, standing. “You’ll end up in wedded bliss just like the rest of us. See you later.”
Sooner than you think, buddy.
Standing too, Zac checked his watch. “I should get back to the rig. Help Susan check inventory.”
“I’ll walk with you.” Lance followed him out of the cafeteria. “Break’s over.”
They rode the elevator to the first floor and headed down the hall toward the ER.
“No man is an island, remember?” Lance said, apparently not about to let the matter drop.
“Maybe I am.”
Zac knew he sounded defensive—but, damn. Soon Lance and Priya and everyone else at that stupid conference would be all up in his business, so sue him if he wanted to fly below the radar just a little bit longer.
“Islands suit me. Some tropical place with fruity drinks and beaches for miles. I like that kind of island.”
They rounded the corner into the controlled chaos of the emergency room, where people were rushing around and the air was filled with the sound of babies crying and clacking gurneys. The scent of antiseptic and lemon floor wax mingled around him like a comforting blanket.
Across the way, Zac spotted Carmen talking to Wendy Smith at the nurses’ station and stopped short.
Lance glanced between Zac and Carmen and then clapped him on the shoulder and chuckled. “Sounds a whole lot like Trinidad to me, dude.”
Zac barely noticed his friend walk away, his attention focused on the gorgeous midwife with the warm green-gold eyes and even warmer heart. He’d agreed to help Carmen and he would. He’d go to her conference and play her besotted fiancé and keep his promise—because that was what he did. He wasn’t his father. He was trustworthy, moral, strong. He’d play her perfect date, wine and dine her to within an inch of her life, fool her potential bosses, and help her get the job.
He’d keep his emotions and his past out of it.
And maybe, if he told himself that enough times, he’d start to believe it.
CHAPTER TWO
“UNITS RESPOND TO motor vehicle accident on Arctic Boulevard at West Fifty-Eighth Avenue. Thirty-seven-year-old female, eight months pregnant, complaining of chest pain. Over.”
“Copy. FA14 responding,” Zac said from behind the wheel. “Two minutes out.”
He steered through the congested midday traffic toward the accident scene with lights blazing and sirens blaring, glad for something else to focus on besides Carmen. His weekend with her was only two days away now, and the closer the conference got the more worried he was that he’d made a horrible mistake.
What the hell had he been thinking, saying he’d pretend to be her fiancé in the last place in the world he ever wanted to set foot in again?
Besides the looming threat of being in his father’s world again, there was also the fact that the connection between him and Carmen had never gone away after their one night together. It wasn’t even a conscious thing, really—more an underlying thread of awareness that pulled a bit tighter each time he was around her. In truth, it was why he hadn’t dated anyone since they’d slept together. Much as he hated to admit it, since their fling he hadn’t wanted anyone but her.
Which scared him more than just about anything else.
Because if he did get serious with her, what was to say it wouldn’t end in betrayal, just like his father had betrayed his mother? Sure, his mother had found a way to forgive his father and work things out between them, but Zac couldn’t expect the same from Carmen if he screwed up. Or when he screwed up, since the odds weren’t in his favor given his genetics.
“What’s got your drawers in a twist?” said Susan, his EMT partner, from the back of the rig as she readied their medical packs for the scene. “You’ve got that look again.”
He glanced in the rearview mirror, scowling. “What look?”
“That brooding, pained one.” Susan snorted. “Either that or you’re constipated.”
“Funny. Not.”
Zac sighed and shook his head, pulling in behind one of four squad cars at the accident scene and jamming the transmission into park. He was unbuckling his seat belt as he opened the door.
“I’m fine. Why are you so nosy?”
“Not any of my business,” Susan said, climbing out at the back and handing him his pack. “Just figured you’d be a lot more cheerful since you have the whole upcoming weekend off. Lord knows I would be. I’d love to have three whole days to get away somewhere.”
They weaved through the crowd of onlookers and cops to where three vehicles were crunched together and blocking two lanes—a flatbed truck in front, followed by a compact car, and finally a four-door sedan. Pretty clear from the damage and the placement that it had been a rear-end accident.
“Going anywhere special?” Susan asked him as they stopped near the middle car.
Yes.
“No.” Zac dropped his pack on the ground near his feet and spoke to the cop in front of him. “EMT Zac Taylor. We got a call on a pregnant woman with chest pain?”
“Over here,” the cop said, leading them around the vehicles to where two women stood near the curb, one perhaps around sixty, the other holding her very pregnant belly as she leaned against a lamppost. “That’s her.”
“I got it,” Susan said, walking over to the pregnant woman.
Zac approached the older woman, who looked pale as death and was visibly shaking. “Were you involved in the accident, ma’am?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
“This car?” He pointed to the middle car.
The woman raised a shaky hand toward the last vehicle. “That one.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No...”
Her voice was barely more than a whisper and her trembling worsened as shock set in. She cradled her left hand and Zac noticed blood on one of her fingers, oozing from a fairly deep laceration.
The woman swayed slightly, and Zac grasped her arm to steady her. “Ma’am, how about I take you inside the ambulance and we see about getting your finger bandaged up? You can rest there a moment, okay?”
“She’s pregnant...” the woman said, her voice dazed as he guided her toward the ambulance. “I want to make sure the baby’s okay. I was driving behind her and she slammed on her brakes. I didn’t realize I was so close and I went right into her.”
Susan was already at the rig, getting the pregnant woman loaded onto a gurney. A
s he helped the older woman up the stairs into the back Zac caught snippets of what the woman was telling his partner.
“I was hit from behind and then pushed into the flatbed in front of me.”
Given the damage to the vehicles, things could’ve been a lot worse for everyone, thought Zac.
He got the older woman situated on a bench in the rear of the rig, then climbed back out to help Susan load the gurney inside as well. Once both patients were secure, he tended to the older woman’s lacerated finger while Susan checked the pregnant patient’s vitals.
A bit of color had returned to the older woman’s cheeks since she’d sat down and Zac handed her a cup of water. Her focus, though, remained fixated on the pregnant woman across from her, her expression anxious. “It all happened so fast. Then she got out and said the wheel had pushed into her stomach.”
Zac glanced over to where Susan was hooking up a portable Doppler to the pregnant woman’s stomach to monitor the fetal heart rate. A comforting thump-thump rhythm soon filled the interior of the ambulance. Susan looked up at him and hiked her chin to let him know everything sounded okay for now. They’d still transport the patient to the hospital, to make sure everything was fine, but it appeared she’d been lucky.
“Right,” Zac said, finishing up with the bandage on the woman’s finger. “This isn’t as deep as I first thought, so you should be fine taking care of it at home, ma’am. Keep the wound clean and dry and change the dressing daily until it’s healed. Any questions?”
The older woman shook her head.
“Okay, then.” Zac stood. “You’re done here. I believe the police officers outside might have a few questions for you.”
“Blood pressure’s one hundred and two over sixty-nine,” Susan said, adjusting the cuff on the pregnant woman’s arm.
“Is that good?” the other woman asked Zac.
“Fine. It’s usually a bit low when you’re pregnant.” He helped the older woman stand, then led her toward the door. “Watch your step on the way down. I’ll keep ahold of your arm until you’re safely on the ground.”
“Oh, wait,” the woman said, stopping to turn back to the pregnant patient. “I’m so sorry about all this.”
The pregnant woman nodded. “Thank you.”
Once he’d gotten the older woman out of the rig and over to the cops, Zac secured the rear doors on the ambulance, then climbed behind the wheel and radioed the ER to let them know they were coming.
“Anchorage Mercy, this is Frontier Ambulance Fourteen en route to your facility with a thirty-seven-year-old female who is thirty-eight weeks pregnant, involved in an MVA. Five minutes until arrival. Over.”
“Copy. We’ll have OB on standby,” came the voice of a trauma nurse. “Any visible injuries?”
He glanced back at Susan in the rearview mirror.
“I have a midwife there,” the pregnant woman said. “Carmen Sanchez. I want her present.”
Zac nodded. Of course it would have to be Carmen.
He relayed the information, then signed off. “Be there soon. Over.”
Thankfully, traffic was lighter now, and they pulled into the ambulance bay at the hospital in under six minutes. Zac and Susan unloaded their patient from the back, then wheeled the gurney through the automatic doors into the brightly lit ER.
As they headed down the hall toward one of the open trauma bays Zac gave the ER team a rundown from Susan’s notes, doing his best to ignore the fact that Carmen was rushing along beside him, her arm brushing his and sending all sorts of inappropriate zings through his system.
“Patient states her abdomen struck the steering wheel hard during the accident. Fetal heart rate was normal during transport, no bleeding, spotting or cramping, though patient did complain of some chest pain post-accident. Patient has a history of three previous miscarriages and one stillbirth.”
“Thank you. I’m familiar with her history,” Carmen said, and she nudged him aside as they pushed the patient into an empty trauma bay where the OB on call, Dr. Tom Farber, raised a hand to Zac in greeting.
“We’ve got it from here.”
The curtain abruptly swooshed closed in his face, and Zac stood there a moment, blinking at it, while Susan chuckled beside him.
“There’s that look again, buddy.” Susan clapped him on the back and chuckled. “Don’t worry. Carmen’s too good for you anyway. I’m going back out to the rig to clean up.”
Zac moved over to the nurses’ station to get out of the way. He didn’t usually hang around after they’d dropped off patients, but things had been slow all day and his shift was almost over. Besides, he wanted to make sure things were all right with the baby.
That was the excuse he was going with anyway.
* * *
“You’re still here?” Carmen said when she emerged from behind the curtain twenty minutes later.
The words had emerged snarkier than she’d intended—but darn it. Bad enough that she hadn’t been able to sleep well since their conversation in the cafeteria, her mind whirling with thoughts of him. Now he was distracting her at work too. The only way her plan was going to work was if she kept her wits about her and her feelings out of it. In fact, most things in life worked better that way, in her experience. Caring too much only meant trouble.
She stepped around Zac, who stood far too close for her comfort. The weekend conference was approaching fast. And, as if that weren’t stressful enough, she’d just worked three twelve-hour shifts in a row and now, with this new patient’s arrival, her already long night was about to become even longer.
“Figured you’d have a hot date or something.”
“No dates for me. I’m off the market now, remember?”
She gave him a pointed glance. If Zac had taken offense at her snapping at him, he didn’t show it. He just stood there, grinning and looking smug.
“Just getting into practice for my role this weekend. Besides, my shift’s almost done. And since when do you care so much about my schedule?”
“I don’t care,” Carmen lied. “I just don’t want any rumors starting around here about us. You know how people gossip.”
Zac snorted. “You don’t think they’re going to hear about it from Priya and Lance anyway? The guy’s my good friend, but I don’t tell him anything I don’t want the rest of the hospital to know. He’s worse than social media when it comes to privacy.”
He laughed, but she gave him a dark look. “Don’t remind me.”
“Hey, this was your idea, remember?” he said, leaning closer.
Close enough that his warm breath ghosted the shell of her ear and made her shiver.
“Speaking of remembering—I’ve been thinking about that night we spent together. I remember those soft little sounds you made when I held you close. The way you gasped and sighed when I kissed that sensitive spot on your neck...the one near your collarbone where...”
The sound of a clearing throat had her jerking away from Zac. Good thing too, since her pulse was throbbing in her ears and her skin felt too tight for her body. As if the memories she had of that night weren’t naughty enough, now she had to think about Zac reliving them too. Lord, help her. When had it got so hot in here?
Carmen swallowed hard and looked over her shoulder to see Tom standing outside the trauma bay as she tugged at her collar.
“Sorry,” Tom said, glancing between her and Zac. “Didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“You weren’t,” Carmen answered, too fast. After smoothing her hand down the front of her pink scrubs, she raised her chin. “What’s your assessment, Doctor?”
“I think she’s good to go. No signs of fetal distress. Baby’s heart rate is normal and strong. Mother’s blood pressure is fine too.” He walked over to the counter. “No spotting or cervical effacement on exam. I’d say she’s fine to discharge—unless you disagree.”
“Agreed. Excellent.”
Carmen was doing her best to portray her usual efficient self, even though her insides were still fluttering from Zac’s heated flirtation. Lord help her... If one brief encounter with him had her this riled up, she was in big trouble for the weekend ahead.
“I’ll go in and talk to her for a bit...answer any questions she might have...then send her on her way. Thank you, Dr. Farber.”
“My pleasure.” Tom gave her and Zac one more assessing look before backing away toward the elevators. “You kids have fun.”
“We will, thanks,” Zac said, raising his hand.
“No, we won’t.” Carmen gave him a narrowed stare. “Fun is the last thing we’ll be having this weekend.”
“Remind me again why I’m going, then?” He raised a brow at her, then sighed. “I know... To help out a friend. Got it. Trust me. This won’t be a party for me either.”
It was her turn to snort now. “Really? Why not? Free stay at a luxury resort, all expenses paid? Sounds like a great time to me.”
When he didn’t answer right away she looked up from the paperwork she was filling out and noticed his playful expression had turned serious.
“What?”
“Nothing. It’s not important.”
He looked away and she saw the shadow of something cross his handsome face. Before she could ask about it though, one of the nurses came up to the desk and started talking to him.
Carmen felt a quick pinch of unaccountable jealousy before she pushed it aside. She had no claim on Zac Taylor. He was helping her out this weekend. That was all.
She sighed and returned to her documentation, doing her best to ignore Zac and failing miserably. Seeing Tom and Wendy so happy together with their new baby, plus Tom’s daughter Sam from his previous marriage, had given Carmen hope that she’d find the same for herself someday—if she ever found the time to date again in her busy schedule.
Until then she was stuck with fake fiancés and imaginary lovers.
A Weekend with Her Fake Fiancé Page 3
