Saving Dr. Tremaine

by Jessica Matthews

  She glanced at the room’s clock. “But that’s two hours from now!”

  “Yeah, it is, so you might as well make yourself comfy.”

  “Hell’s bells,” she mumbled, as she sank onto the bed once again. Her shoulders had slumped and she appeared as if all the stuffing inside her had suddenly collapsed.

  “Two hours isn’t very long.”

  She glared at him. “Would you put Mic on twenty-four-hour sick call if he were sitting here instead of me?”

  He started to say yes then realized he’d be lying. “Mic isn’t sitting here,” he said, sidestepping the issue. “You are.”

  “What would I have to do for you to reconsider?”

  “Nothing, because I won’t.”

  “Please?”

  Her plea, uttered in a small voice, bothered him far more than her earlier anger.

  “Please?” she repeated. “You don’t understand what it will be like if you yank me from duty over this. I have to pull my weight.”

  He hadn’t considered her situation in those terms. While women were slowly entering this all-male bastion, some men probably still resented females in these positions. They could easily make life a misery for anyone perceived as not holding up her end.

  But how could he reconcile his need to look after her with her need to prove herself to her colleagues?

  “They’re my team,” she said simply. “I need to be with them.”

  “What would you do if you’d broken a leg?” he asked.

  “That’s a legitimate injury. This…” she touched her forehead “…isn’t.”

  Again, he hesitated as he warred with himself. Should he allow Annie to continue, risking her health, so that, like his mother, she could show how tough she was?

  The situation isn’t the same.

  Maybe not, he grudgingly admitted, but it was close enough. His mom had ignored her dicey heart and had refused to slow down or tell him so he could have shouldered more of her burden. In the end, she’d paid with her life, while he blamed himself for not taking care of her. In a few short days Annie had managed to raise his fears and arouse the protective instincts he’d tried to bury.

  “Please,” Annie said again. “They’re all I have.”

  Suddenly, he recalled the look of envy on her face as she’d stared at the photographs of his family.

  It’s easy to feel adrift when you’re by yourself.

  Her words floated out of his memory and he knew exactly what Annie had done. She’d made her shift crew at the fire station her family because she had no one else. And now she refused to do anything that might jeopardize that relationship.

  He understood what was going on in her pretty head, but was he willing to take the responsibility if she developed complications? Or was he willing to weaken her link to her colleagues for his own peace of mind?

  He released a cleansing breath. “Could I interest you in a compromise?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “What kind of compromise?”

  “If you can take things easy and promise to let Mic do the grunt work so you supervise as much as possible, then I’ll let you go. Against my better judgment, I might add.”

  The glow on her face nearly blinded him. “I will. I promise.”

  “And I want Mic to keep an eye on you, too.”

  “I’ll tell him.”

  “No,” he said gently, “I’ll tell him because he’ll have to answer to me. Also, if you develop any other symptoms or if Mic notices even the slightest change, you will come back to the ER immediately.”

  “Immediately,” she echoed. “Is that it?”

  “One more thing. No more daring rescues.”

  “It wasn’t a daring rescue. I stumbled into the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  “Well, no more of that. And when you come home tomorrow morning, I’ll expect you to unplug your phone so you can sleep.”

  “I promise.”

  He strode away and opened the door. “Then you’d better leave before I change my mind.”

  Her grin almost made him feel good about his decision.

  “Thanks so much,” she said. Then, before she walked past him, she rose on tiptoe and brushed his cheek with her lips.

  Her featherlight touch caught him by surprise, but he quickly recovered. Before she could get away, he anchored her chin with his fingers and found her mouth with his own.

  Conscious of a potential audience, he only allowed the contact for a few seconds, but those few seconds were powerful, nonetheless.

  “Take care of yourself,” he cautioned one last time.

  “I will,” she promised, before she headed in the direction of the ambulance bay with a jauntier step than the one she had displayed earlier.

  He might have made her happy, but now came the hardest part. Waiting…wondering…and hoping he’d made the right decision.

  Annie returned to work, pleased by Jared’s decision. The compromise he’d asked for hadn’t been difficult for her to accept—she’d intended to do the very things he’d insisted upon. She wasn’t so gung-ho about her job that she’d take unnecessary risks with any patients she might encounter. She didn’t plan to give anyone in her new community grounds to accuse her of negligence. If she had the slightest doubts about her abilities, she’d put herself on sick leave.

  Fortunately, the rest of her shift was anticlimactic. Winona’s house had burned to a shell before they’d doused the fire and no one else had suffered any mishaps. As if the town had sensed this had been enough of a disaster, her evening remained quiet and she slept the entire night through. Monday’s shift was as quiet as Saturday’s and Annie made plans to celebrate the power company restoring Jared’s electricity.

  After spending nearly all Tuesday afternoon preparing dinner, Annie ran one last critical gaze at the table she’d set. Her grandmother’s china looked elegant against the white tablecloth, the water goblets sparkled and the purple and pink petunias in the center added a fragrant touch of summer.

  The cherry pie she’d baked sat on the counter, her pot roast, dilled potatoes and baby carrots warmed in the oven, along with a loaf of sourdough bread.

  Dinner was ready. The only thing lacking was the guest of honor.

  She ran her hands down her skirt and hoped she wasn’t overdressed. It had taken her nearly as long to choose her clothing as it had to prepare this meal. She’d tried on one garment after another, discarding one as too dressy, another as too casual, until she’d finally settled on a khaki skirt and a peach-colored polo shirt.

  With that decided, she skipped her usual braid and simply clipped her hair away from her face and let the ends hang loosely around her shoulders.

  It seemed ridiculous to act this flustered over her appearance for a man who wanted different things in life than she did, and yet she couldn’t deny her persistent attraction. Annie’s head told her that Jared was the same person he’d been before—still controlling, still protective to a fault, still determined to focus on his career rather than on the people he touched. So, what did she hope to gain by spending extra time with him when her commitment had ended yesterday with his power being restored?

  It was simply hard to part company, she rationalized. She hadn’t realized how much she missed coming home to a place where someone else had left remnants of their presence.

  If she harbored those feelings, then it was hard to believe that he didn’t miss being surrounded by the hustle and bustle of family. He might claim to want his career filling his life completely, but she wasn’t convinced.

  But who was she to convince him? A physical appeal strong enough to make the earth move didn’t negate the fact that she was as far out of his league as she’d been with Brandon. The thought of not measuring up to Jared’s exacting standards pained her, but she couldn’t be the prim, strait-laced person that he seemed to want. Never again would she put herself in the position of having a man—any man—find her lacking.

  Which was another reason why she’d invited him to dinne
r. She wanted to thank him for not placing her on the injured list. After Saturday’s fire, no one at the station would dare accuse her of not carrying her weight. While the men had seemed to accept her when she’d come to Hope, she’d worked with enough males to know that questions still hovered in the back of their minds. None of them would condemn her without cause—sexual discrimination was still an issue—but this incident had dispelled any lingering doubts and proved that she could and would do her job, no matter what.

  The doorbell rang, and her heart skipped a beat as she greeted Jared at the door. It skipped again when she saw how delicious he looked in faded blue jeans and a college basketball T-shirt.

  “Hi,” he said, as he held out a bottle of blush wine. “I should have asked about the menu, but I hope this will be appropriate.”

  “It is.” She saw the condensation on the glass. “And it’s chilled.”

  He grinned. “Electricity is a wonderful thing.”

  “Would you prefer a glass before dinner or during?”

  “During. I’m starved. I usually grab a bite at the hospital before I leave, but I didn’t today. How’s the head?”

  “Fine. After Saturday’s fire, we had a slow weekend.”

  He stepped closer to lift her wispy bangs for a better look. His touch, and the whisper of his breath against her cheek, sent a shiver of awareness down her spine. “It’s healing nicely.”

  “I think so, too. In a few days all I’ll have is a scar to show for it. My badge of courage.” She smiled.

  “Yeah, well, don’t get too many of those,” he warned. “Some of us can’t take the stress. Where’s your corkscrew?”

  While he removed the cork and poured the wine, Annie carried their meal to the table. The gleam in Jared’s eyes as he surveyed the steaming bowls gave her a great deal of satisfaction. She was equally impressed by his gallant gesture of holding her chair.

  At his first bite he closed his eyes and almost purred. “If you ever decide to change careers, you should open a restaurant.”

  “It’s nothing fancy, but thanks for the compliment. By the way, I’ll bet you were thrilled to come home last night and discover everything was working.”

  “It was great. You don’t realize how much you take for granted until you don’t have it any more.”

  “How true.” She hadn’t realized how much she’d enjoyed her grandfather’s presence until she’d no longer had it. Brandon had filled the gap for awhile and now she relied on her bagpipes to help with her sense of connection. It seemed ironic that Jared, in just a few short days, had marked her apartment so strongly. She wouldn’t be able to watch television without remembering how he’d lounged on her sofa and propped his stockinged feet on the coffee table. It would be a long time before she would walk into the bathroom and not smell his cologne.

  After tonight, he’d spend his evenings in the same way he’d spent them before and she would do likewise.

  It wasn’t a particularly pleasant thought. Watching television and practicing her bagpipes weren’t the most entertaining ways to pass the time. She couldn’t complain too loudly, though. She’d made remarkable progress with her pipes today and if she kept going, she just might reach the point where she could impress Jared with her skill.

  “Before I forget…” He leaned to one side and dug in his pocket. “Here’s your key.”

  “Thanks,” she said lightly, to mask the regret that he hadn’t asked to keep it.

  You aren’t his type, she consoled herself.

  He speared another slice of roast beef onto his plate and spooned more potatoes and carrots beside it. “If you don’t open your own restaurant, you should at least consider catering.”

  “To whom?”

  He grinned. “People like me. I know a lot of guys who’d pay dearly for a meal like this delivered to their door.”

  An unwelcome vision of serving Jared and another woman, maybe Erica, in his apartment struck her.

  “I wouldn’t have the time,” she said.

  “I know you work every other day, but you get long weekends, don’t you?”

  “Over a two-week pay period we work six days, which roughly translates to four twenty-four-hour shifts every other day, and after the fourth we get four days off. So my break will start on Thursday.”

  “Speaking of breaks, Walt Whittaker has a friend who owns a fishing lodge in Missouri. He’s flying several of us physicians there on Friday. Could you pick up my mail and newspaper? I’ll be back on Monday.”

  He’d be gone? Her days off now seemed to stretch interminably.

  “I’d be happy to,” she said. “What’s the occasion?”

  “Walt wanted a weekend to get away and since I was free I thought it would be a nice change to join him. Mark Cameron and Justin St James are going, too.”

  Annie knew that Walt Whittaker was a pediatrician with a wife and two small children. Drs Cameron and St James were in family practice and internal medicine respectively. Rumor had it they were single, but whether their current status was due to divorce or never having been married she didn’t know.

  “I didn’t realize that you had an interest in fishing.”

  He smiled. “I don’t. Whittaker is our new medical director, so I didn’t feel I should turn down the invitation.”

  “Ah. You’re not relaxing. You’re networking.”

  “A little of both,” he admitted. “What about you? Do you have any plans for your time off?”

  Annie shook her head. “A lot of people find second jobs for those days, but I haven’t. I probably should—the extra money would come in handy.”

  “We may have openings in the ER before long,” he said. “You might want to consider applying.”

  “I will,” she said. Considering how Jared could melt her with a single look and a simple touch, she wondered if she’d be torturing herself to be around him all day long.

  Before long he’d made huge inroads into dinner. “You’re not going to take the rest of the pie to the station tomorrow, are you?” he asked hopefully.

  She giggled. “I’ll keep it here, just for you.”

  He insisted on washing the dishes but they only required a quick rinse before stacking them in the dishwasher.

  “Shall we sit outside and enjoy what’s left of the evening?” she asked. She’d hardly spoken when someone knocked on her door.

  He groaned. “I hope that isn’t an emergency.”

  “Me, too.” She found young Nate standing in the corridor, tossing a baseball into his mitt.

  “Can you play?” he asked hopefully. “We’re short two outfielders.”

  “Isn’t it rather late?”

  “Some of the guys want to have batting practice for thirty minutes,” he said. “We need someone to field for us.” Then, looking over her shoulder, he said, “Hi, Dr Tremaine.”

  “Hi, Nate. How are you?”

  “Fine. You wouldn’t want to field baseballs for us?”

  “Well…” he said slowly.

  “You don’t have to hit or run,” Nate reassured him. “Just catch the balls and throw ’em to the pitcher. Please? We can only play for half an hour and we need the practice. Our big game is tomorrow.” He turned to Annie. “The Hornets beat us last time by two runs. We can’t let ’em do it again.”

  Annie would never forgive herself if she refused to help Nate’s team and they lost, but she hated to cut her evening with Jared short. She looked at him. “Would you mind being another gofer?”

  “I suppose not,” Jared said, clearly reluctant. “I’ll warn you, though. I haven’t caught a baseball in years.”

  “Don’t worry,” Nate said. “We won’t laugh. It isn’t like we expect you to throw anyone out.”

  “That’s reassuring.”

  “It’ll be fun,” Annie said, tugging on his arm as she realized that she’d just been handed a golden opportunity to show him that kids weren’t the proverbial millstone around one’s neck.

  “On a full stomach?” He r
aised one eyebrow. “I don’t think so.”

  “You heard him. No running required. If you’ll grab my baseball mitts and the mosquito repellent out of the closet, I’ll change.”

  She hurried to her bedroom before he could rethink his decision. Five minutes later, she and Jared had joined three other boys who were Nate’s age at their sandlot field across the road.

  After liberally spraying themselves with the bug repellent, they took to the outfield. It was obvious that Nate wasn’t their normal pitcher because the ball rarely went into the strike zone.

  “At this rate, the boys will never get a chance to bat,” Jared commented under his breath to Annie.

  “I can catch, throw and bat, but pitching isn’t in my pool of baseball skills.”

  He glanced around the field. “Surely one of their fathers could be helping.”

  “Most of these boys come from single-parent homes,” she informed him. “Their dads aren’t in the picture.”

  “I see.” Without giving any indication of his plans, Jared strode forward toward the pitcher’s mound. “Why don’t I give it a try?”

  Nate happily handed over the ball. With Jared’s third pitch, a loud crack signaled contact and before long Annie could hardly keep up. However, her busy pace didn’t stop her from noticing how great Jared was with the boys. His tips and lavish praise soon had the boys vying for his attention. By the end of the thirty-minute practice, which had stretched to forty-five, Annie was exhausted and Jared had become a hero to four little boys.

  He’d make such a wonderful father. How could he possibly choose to be without a family? What a terrible waste for a man who handled children so well to prefer the joys of a career to the joys of guiding young lives. Couldn’t he see that, with the right woman at his side, he could have both?

  What was even more terrible was that in spite of being poles apart in what they wanted out of life, she was starting to imagine him as the man of her dreams. If she wasn’t careful, she was going to do something that she’d promised she’d never do again.

  She was going to fall in love with the wrong man.

  It had been years since Jared had played baseball with his brothers, working with them to improve whatever skills had needed improvement. He’d expected to be rusty, and he was, but no one seemed to notice. By the end of their practice session he was pleased by both his and the boys’ progress.