Just Right: The Bradfords, Book 1

by Erin Nicholas

  Jessica rolled her eyes. Dooley would actually get Ben a trophy for getting Sam’s uptight, conservative, bossy sister naked.

  Ben dropped his voice a notch. “Something to keep in mind about that trophy,” Ben said. “I can put foreign objects in bodies as easily as I can remove them. And without anesthesia.”

  Whoa. Jessica wouldn’t have blinked for the world. She waited to see Dooley’s reaction.

  Slowly, he grinned. “You just ruined an awful lot of fun for me, man.” He slapped Ben on the back.

  Jessica sighed. She should have known Dooley would admire Ben’s threat rather than be intimidated by it.

  “That was impressive,” she said as the guys headed for Kevin’s car.

  He looked at her. “I did it to stay on your good side—why go for Man of the Year when I could potentially be Man of the Decade.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Of the Decade? For what?”

  “If getting you naked gets me Man of the Year, imagine what I’ll get when I take you to bed twice in one night.”

  She laughed. “We haven’t been in bed together. And we’ve already done it twice.”

  Ben moved close and ran his hand up and down her arm. “I’d like to make up for your first point. An oversight on my part. As for the second, I’m going for too many to keep track of anyway.”

  Heat tingled along her nerve endings. “I’m not complaining about past locations.” She shivered in pleasure at the memories. “But a bed does sound nice.”

  “Yours or mine?” he asked, his voice gruff.

  “Which is closer?”

  “I like it when we’re on the same wavelength,” he told her before hauling her up on tiptoes for a hot, wet kiss that left her thinking that the brick wall of the police station was as far as she was going to make it.

  What the hell? It was firm. And here.

  Just then her cell phone rang. Damn. “It has to be Sam checking on us,” she muttered, rooting in her purse for the phone.

  “Or wanting details,” Ben said wryly.

  “Or wanting to tease me and congratulate you because he already got details from Dooley,” she said, finally pulling the phone from under her day planner.

  “Jess, it’s Sam. I—”

  “Why don’t you wait and get all the details from Ben tomorrow. I’m taking him back to my apartment right now to do a whole bunch more dirty stuff to him.”

  Ben gave her an amused, heated look. Sam was, amazingly, speechless for a moment.

  “Mario collapsed at the center. They’re on their way in.”

  Her brother’s words were like a bucket of ice water in the face. “We’ll be right there.”

  Ben’s expression was instantly sober and his only question was, “Where?”

  “St. Anthony’s.”

  They broke into a run together.

  Twenty agonizing minutes later, they finally screeched to a halt outside of the ER. Ben was out of the car by the time Jessica’s hand reached for the door handle.

  “You can’t park there!” someone shouted at Ben as they sprinted toward the ER entrance.

  “So tow it!”

  They ran through the automatic glass doors, but Jessica stopped abruptly on the other side. Ben almost plowed into her. He saw right away what had stopped her. Sam was coming toward them, in uniform. His crew must have been the ones to respond to the call. Ben felt Jessica tense as her sibling approached and knew she was hesitant to hear the report about Mario.

  “Where is he?” Ben asked.

  “Exam two,” Sam answered. Then filled in the rest so they didn’t have to ask. “He was at the center. Sophie said that he was quieter than usual, but otherwise seemed normal. Then he fainted when he stood up.”

  “Vitals?” Ben asked.

  “He’s shocky. Blood pressure is low. He’s weak.”

  Ben couldn’t stop his mind from playing over all of the possibilities. But they were numerous. He needed to know more.

  Son of a bitch.

  He took a deep breath as the realization set in—he was going to go in.

  Son of a bitch.

  He just couldn’t leave it alone. He couldn’t stand out here while they worked on Mario.

  There were a whole lot of reasons getting involved was a bad idea—and probably just as many why he was doing it anyway. But he wasn’t going to analyze what he was doing or why.

  He was going to act on instinct and reflex and pure intellect. To hell with emotions, and complications and cans of worms opening and slithering all over the fucking place.

  “Dammit.” He stomped in the direction of the exam room. He hit the swinging doors with two hands, both doors flying open.

  “Gown,” he barked to the first nurse he saw.

  She grabbed one and he practically ripped it from her hands.

  “Torres, what are you doing?” Chris Burnham, the attending ER physician, asked with a scowl.

  Of course Burnham would have to be the attending. Chris Burnham was controlling and pompous and jealous, especially of Ben.

  “Your surgical consult is here,” Ben told him grimly, pulling on a pair of gloves. “Where are we at?”

  “Like hell,” Chris objected sharply. “You don’t work here.”

  Chris struggled between trying to intimidate Ben and keeping his attention on the patient on the table.

  “I do work here.” Ben approached Mario, much more worried about the low blood pressure on the monitor than Chris Burnham’s ego.

  “You were suspended and haven’t been reinstated,” Chris snapped.

  “Ultrasound is here, Dr. Burnham,” Linda, one of the nurses, said coming through the doors. She stopped and looked at Ben. “And Dr. Torres.”

  He moved aside as the ultrasound machine was rolled past him and reached to take the x-ray report Linda had brought in as well. Chris beat him there.

  “You’re not reinstated,” he said again, trying to shoulder Ben out of the way.

  “So reinstate me,” Ben growled.

  “Sorry. I can’t do that.” Chris looked smug.

  “But I can.”

  Both men turned to find Russ Edwards watching them, his arms crossed over his chest. “Dr. Torres, you are officially on the job. Try not to hit any patients.”

  Ben gave him the slight nod of acquiescence that Russ was expecting. Burnham snickered.

  “But Burnham isn’t off limits?” Ben inclined his head toward the other physician.

  Russ didn’t answer, but he gave Chris a pointed look.

  Chris waited until Russ turned his back to look pissed.

  “Get that ultrasound going,” Russ said, taking the x-rays from Linda himself.

  He hung them on the viewer and Ben and Chris moved in on either side.

  “Three ribs fractured,” Russ said.

  “Uh, Dr.…all of you,” Linda said behind them.

  The ultrasound was going and Nadia, the ER resident, was running it over Mario’s abdomen. Ben moved in. Mario’s stomach was distended and bruised where his ribs were broken.

  “It’s his spleen,” Ben said, pointing to the ultrasound screen. “Dammit, he’s bleeding internally. We’ll have to go in.”

  He’d have to go in. He was the trauma surgeon on the case.

  For better or worse.

  “What took you so long?”

  Jessica looked away from the trauma room doors to see her sister coming toward her. Sara’s eyes were red and her mascara smudged.

  “We just got here. We were…” She couldn’t tell her sister the truth. “Where have you been?” Jessica asked instead.

  “Restroom.” Then Sara’s eyes went wide. “What are you wearing?”

  “Forget that,” Jessica said quickly. “How’s Mario?”

  “Ben’s here too, right?” Sara asked.

  “Yes. He was with me.” Jessica grabbed Sara’s arm. “What happened?”

  “I have no idea.” Her sister’s eyes went to the doors of the trauma room. “Oh, Jess, he looked so bad
at the center.” Sara’s voice broke and she sniffed.

  “How is he?”

  “He was so pale. His eyes fluttered when Sophie was talking to him, but he didn’t really wake up,” Sara said.

  “How is he now?” Jessica asked, trying to be patient.

  “I tried to take his pulse, like you showed me. And I made sure he wasn’t bleeding anywhere. Then I tried to be sure he was breathing. He was, so I knew that meant he didn’t need CPR, but I kept checking every few seconds to be sure. It seemed like it took the ambulance forever to get there.”

  Jessica pulled in a long breath.

  In spite of the fact her nerves were wound so tight she felt like she’d drunk three pots of coffee, eaten four candy bars and had a vitamin B12 shot in the past fifteen minutes, she tried to be patient.

  Sara was sweet, compassionate, gullible…prone to dramatics.

  Jessica was as close as she’d ever been to shaking the nicest person she knew.

  “How. Is. Mario. Now.”

  Sara shook her head. “I don’t know. No one’s told me anything. Sam’s been in there the whole time I’ve been here.”

  Jessica looked toward the doors to the room where Mario was being worked on. She could go in too…

  Actually, she couldn’t. She couldn’t distract Ben. His full attention had to be on Mario.

  “I wish we knew what was going on.” Jessica started to pace. Thank goodness she had two pockets on the front of her scrub top. She had to do something with her hands.

  “Well, now that Ben’s here, everything will be all right.”

  Jessica stopped and looked at her sister. “What does that mean? We don’t even know what happened.”

  Sara shrugged. “Ben will figure it out.” She looked at Jessica. “Right?”

  She was completely serious. Of course, Sara was seeing him from the base of the pedestal that Jessica herself had put him on.

  Sara was watching Jessica closely.

  “Sara, Ben’s a great doctor, but…”

  “The best trauma surgeon in Omaha.” Sara crossed her arms. “Or so I’ve been told.”

  Had she really run at the mouth this much about Ben to her sister?

  “The best in the Midwest,” Jessica corrected.

  “Exactly,” Sara said, nodding in satisfaction. “Mario’s in great hands. He’ll be fine.” She smiled and took a deep breath. “Thank God.”

  But what if he wasn’t fine? The thought came automatically and Jessica’s heart cramped in her chest at the thought of voicing that to her sister. Or worse, the news that Mario definitely wasn’t fine.

  They didn’t even know what had happened. Ben was in there working on a mystery, with the clock ticking.

  That kind of pressure, the constant reality that he might have to give someone news that would change their life forever, the frustration of trying to fix something without knowing the cause…and that was on strangers. Jessica stared at her sister as the thoughts bounced around in her head.

  He had to face this every day. He knew that he might disappoint someone every time he walked into the ER. Bad things happened all the time. He couldn’t prevent them all. She knew this. As a nurse, she experienced it too. And it was the same for every one of the doctors.

  So, why did she expect so much of Ben? Why couldn’t she understand that he might want to walk away from such stressful, difficult circumstances?

  She knew the answer almost instantly. Ben was more to her than an amazing physician or a wonderful co-worker. He was the man she wanted in the role of confidant, friend and lover. Always. And she wanted him to be perfect at all of it.

  She wanted him to make everything good and right for her.

  Being the hero of the ER was simply representative of all the other ways she wanted him to be a hero.

  “Of course he’s in good hands,” Jessica acknowledged. “But,” she went on. “Ben isn’t a magician. He can’t fix everything.” She needed to remember that, too.

  Sara shook her head. “But…Ben’s the best. He’ll figure out what’s going on and then he’ll be able to put it back together.”

  Jessica closed her eyes and rubbed the middle of her forehead. All of this was getting so complicated. It was so unfair. Ben would give his all, but it wasn’t fair to expect so much from him. He was a man, human, not omniscient, not able to turn back time, no magic wand. Strangely, as worried as she was about Mario, she was just as worried about Ben. This wasn’t what he wanted. He hadn’t chosen this. He had come tonight because of her. While he was trying to escape situations exactly like this, she was nagging and pushing. Forcing him back into the hospital, the ER, the situations that made it impossible for him to fail without losing a part of his soul.

  “Sara, sometimes—”

  “Mario’s just a kid,” Sara stubbornly interrupted. “He can’t die.”

  “Ben will do everything he can.” She knew that for certain. Ben would put everything he had into this. No matter how it turned out, or how he felt afterward. Just like he would for her.

  “Then everything will be fine,” Sara said resolutely. She glanced over Jessica’s shoulder. “Sam!” Sara stepped around her sister to go to her brother. “How is he?”

  “They’re still working on him.” He slipped an arm around Sara’s shoulders. “They found some broken ribs and a lacerated spleen.”

  “What’s that mean?” Sara asked.

  “One of the arteries to his spleen is torn. They’ll have to operate to fix it. He fainted because of the internal bleeding.” Sam turned his eyes to Jessica now. “Ben’s going to operate.”

  Sara sighed in relief. Jessica barely squelched the urge to say No! Instead she frowned at her sister and her irritating adulation.

  Ben was going to operate on Mario.

  Jessica’s heartache got worse. A symptom of what she was beginning to suspect was guilt. Ben was here because of her. He was about to face something incredibly difficult, potentially devastating, because she’d dragged him into the center, Mario’s life and, tonight, the hospital.

  “Is it true you got Ben arrested?”

  Sam’s words took a few seconds to sink in. Jessica gaped at him. Of course he knew because Ben had called him from the police station. Sam had sent Dooley—an act she fully expected to get retribution for. But she couldn’t believe Sam was bringing this up here and now.

  “You couldn’t wait to get back to your apartment?”

  “He told you why we were arrested?” she exclaimed.

  “I guessed. But he did confirm it.”

  She frowned at him. “You have a dirty mind.”

  Sam grinned. “I know.”

  “He should be working on Mario, not talking to you,” Jessica said, trying to turn the conversation.

  “He didn’t talk. He just had to nod.”

  Sam was still smiling and Jessica knew that meant he intended to get all the details from her. “How much was the bail?” He was far too entertained.

  “None of your business,” Jessica snapped.

  Sara frowned at her. “Wait a second. You did get him arrested?”

  “Hey, I got arrested too!” Jessica said.

  “For having sex in public,” Sam made sure to add.

  “What?” their younger sister practically shrieked.

  Jessica glowered at him. Sara looked from Jessica to Sam to Jessica. Then Jessica got huffy. “It wasn’t public,” she said. “It was some guy’s backyard. It was dark. And a total accident.” She crossed her arms and tipped her nose into the air.

  “You got arrested?” Sara asked, her eyes wide. “Having sex?”

  “Yes!” Jessica shouted throwing up her hands. “We got arrested having sex in the front seat of Ben’s truck. Okay? Don’t forget that you were the one, Miss Sara Jo, that informed him you and Sam thought that’s what I needed.”

  She stopped for a deep breath and then noticed Russ Edwards coming toward them.

  Of course.

  Jessica sighed and ran a hand
through her hair as her pseudo-boss stopped in front of her, his hands casually tucked in the front pockets of his slacks. His expression, however, was anything but casual.

  “Explain to me how getting him arrested is keeping him out of trouble.”

  “Russ, it was…a mistake…”

  “Does my top surgeon now have a police record or not?” Russ demanded.

  “Russ—”

  “Explain to me how going out with him dressed like that—” Russ swept his hand up and down in front of her, “—and doing what I understand you were doing to him is supposed to deter him from acting like this.”

  Jessica felt herself blush but she looked Russ straight in the eye. “It’s none of your business, Russ. But remember, you asked me to keep track of him.”

  “Not just keep track of him, Jessica. Keep. Him. Out. Of. Trouble. Convince him that he wants to go back to work as a conservative, responsible, upstanding physician that makes this hospital look good.” Russ paused and took a deep breath. “You seemed like the perfect choice. It seemed too good to be true, since you are the only person Ben will spend significant amounts of time with—though tonight certainly helps clarify why.”

  Jessica bristled. “Russ, you are overstepping here. I understand you’re frustrated and worried and under a lot of pressure from the Board and staff to get Ben back, but how Ben and I spend our time outside of this hospital is none of your business.”

  “That’s not entirely true,” Russ said. “Do you remember the Code of Conduct you signed when you started working here? Ben signed one as well. Everyone does. It says, among other things, that our employees will not do anything outside of work that will reflect negatively on the hospital. Like assault. Or getting arrested.”

  Jessica vaguely remembered something like that, but she’d been working here so long—and at the time would have been completely convinced that she would never do anything that would violate a code like that—she could barely remember it.

  “My job is in jeopardy?” Jessica asked. Russ wasn’t even being subtle. He was telling her this right in front of her sister and brother. Witnesses. He wasn’t trying to intimidate or manipulate her. He was stating facts.

  “None of us want that. We don’t want to lose you or Ben. The Board can come up with some disciplinary action other than termination. But we have to control this. So far we’ve kept things quiet. Ted Blake’s lawyers have agreed to be sure that the story stays out of the papers—”