Reunited with Her Hot-Shot Surgeon

by Amy Ruttan

  The warmth that was once in those blue eyes that she so loved dissipated quickly, his expression hardening. “Has it?” And without asking her anything further he returned to his work.

  Okay. So apparently he did hold something of a grudge.

  It hurt, but what did she expect? She was used to indifference and formality. This is what her mother told her would happen. She was prepared for this. Only...it still hurt. She had hoped Calum was different. Apparently, she was wrong.

  “Calum,” she said firmly. She wasn’t going to be swayed or pushed aside. She was here for her patient.

  That wasn’t why she was back.

  “There’s nothing to say, Pearl. I don’t want to talk about the past. You’re five years too late for that.”

  “I didn’t come all this way to rehash the past. I came here to talk about a case.”

  “I have a wait list. I don’t have time to take on cases,” he said. “There are other surgeons in this hospital that I’m sure have room.”

  “You are seriously holding on to the past?” she asked, pulling the door closed behind her.

  His eyes narrowed as he turned around. “I’m not holding on to the past. I’m stating a fact. I’m swamped and I don’t have time to take on some athlete who has some injury that’s preventing him from making millions as a...quarterback.”

  “Linebacker,” Pearl said offhandedly.

  “Whatever,” Calum responded dryly. “There are other surgeons.”

  “How did you know it’s for a football player? Is that why you turned the case down without looking at the chart?”

  “I know you were hired as a physician for a sports team in New York. Everyone knows you’re the top of your field. Congrats on that, by the way,” he said dryly.

  Was he jealous?

  Calum had always told her he wanted a big career. That was why he had become a doctor.

  She didn’t want to believe it, but his apparent jealously seemed to prove otherwise.

  “I’m based here in California now.” She pulled out her patient’s file. “And it’s not some injury. I can handle any surgery for an injury. It’s an osteosarcoma and a brutal one. I know that you have the best success rate for saving the leg, for saving the bone. This young man has worked so hard through college, scholarships and odd jobs just to get here, and then has had this sideline him.”

  He turned back to look at her. “An osteosarcoma?”

  “Yes. I can’t help him and you’re the best, or so I’ve been told. This player came from nothing to become a superstar. He’s young and deserves a fighting chance.”

  Calum’s expression softened and she knew she was getting to him. Calum had worked so hard to get through medical school. He had had it harder than others and she knew that even though this young man had signed a six-figure contract, that the rough start in life, the determination the young man had put forth, might just soften Calum’s heart a bit. It always had in the past.

  When they’d been working on patients, he’d always take the pro bono cases.

  Always.

  Though she was worried he’d say no to the team again because she was working for them and because his father was an investor for the Bridgers. She knew Calum didn’t have the best relationship with his father, but a young man’s life was at stake. And if Calum was still the man she remembered, he would do what he could for George.

  It was that softness she knew laid deep inside, that drew her to him.

  He flipped open the file and leaned back in his chair, reading it.

  Pearl stood there, her pulse racing, and she wondered if she really still did know Calum. Had he changed in five years? Would he help? If she believed what her parents had always told her, then no, he wouldn’t. He would hold a grudge like her parents did.

  Calum wasn’t like that. He always wanted to help others. She knew that about him.

  Did you ever really know him, though?

  Pearl was confident she knew the type of surgeon he was. His compassion and his drive to be the best were what had drawn her to him in the first place.

  Even though she didn’t want to date or have a relationship after growing up through her parents’ awful marriage, Calum was so different. He had been a breath of fresh air in her stagnant, emotionless life.

  He had brought color to her dark, bleak world.

  Pearl had grown up in a house where her parents fought, cheated and blamed each other for their failures.

  Her parents were constantly trying to outdo one another, until finally in her last year of medical school they got divorced. Finally, there was no arguing. Although, there was really nothing anymore. There was no home to go home to during school breaks.

  Her mother was bitter and angry. Her father started a new life and a new family with a younger woman.

  Their hate for each other steeled Pearl’s resolve to never date someone she worked with.

  Until she met Calum.

  He was a high achiever, and so was she, but he understood her unhappy childhood.

  He got it.

  And they bonded. She was drawn to his light in spite of the darkness of her past.

  He was comforting.

  He was home.

  Then one night, one foolish drunken night, she couldn’t resist that strong attraction, the need she had for Calum, and one thing led to another and another, and that had ended up in eventual heartache.

  Heartache she wasn’t too keen on ever experiencing again. She was going to make sure of that.

  “This isn’t good,” he said gently, still focused on the file.

  “No. It’s not. Can I sit down?” she asked. He nodded and she took a seat on the other side of his desk.

  Calum set down the file and scrubbed a hand over his face. “Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t know that it was a cancer and I didn’t know that it was this bad. I thought it was just another sports team trying to woo me to leave the hospital. I thought it was an injury and I thought any surgeon could handle it.”

  “I could handle an injury myself. I would’ve just asked the chief of surgery for special privileges to work at the hospital. This is something else. Something I can’t handle. I need help.”

  Calum nodded. “I’m sorry for this young man—this is rough.”

  “Can you make time to see him? There’s no one else I’d rather have on the case.”

  A strange expression crossed his face. “Why me?”

  “You’re a great surgeon, Calum, and I thought from one friend to another—”

  “We’re not friends, Pearl,” he stated firmly. “Colleagues on this case, but if I take this patient on, he’s my patient. I don’t need your assistance.”

  It was another slap in the face. It stung, but she was prepared for that reaction. The only thing she was not prepared to do was step aside when it came to her patient. She couldn’t.

  Pearl straightened her spine. “He’s my patient, too. I’m responsible for everyone on that team and I will be with him every step of the way. You don’t know him or the treatments he’s had. I won’t back down when it comes to my patient. I’ll treat you cordially, since you stated we’re not friends, but I won’t be pushed aside.”

  “Fine.”

  She was relieved, but she hid that from him. Like she hid so many other emotions. Calum could be just as stubborn as her. He never really liked to be backed into a corner, that much she remembered from their days as residents. He wouldn’t step down if he felt it was the right thing to do. Something else she admired about him.

  Part of her wanted to pull back, let him handle this case. That way she could keep her distance and not let him affect her. Already being near him was dredging up all these old feelings and memories she thought she’d locked away. She wasn’t going to be bullied out of this. George was her patient and she had been with him right from the start.
Right from when the San Francisco Bridgers had signed him from college, up to his injury after his third game, until his diagnosis.

  George lived far from his home in Philadelphia and his mother was on her way out to see him, but she had other kids at home and Pearl felt bad that George was on his own. She made it her mission to take care of him and she wasn’t going to be pushed aside because of Calum.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  His expression softened. “You’re welcome, but I do expect some compensation.”

  “The team will pay you.”

  “I know that, but for privileges to my hospital I want you to take some of my caseload.” He grinned and there was a twinkle in his eye.

  “What? I don’t have time for that!”

  A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “I think you can make time. I am making time for your patient.”

  Heat bloomed in her cheeks.

  He was right.

  And it honestly secretly thrilled her to do surgical work again. Most of her surgeries as a sports doctor involved knee replacements or torn ligaments. Sports type of injuries. It would be nice to do a rotation on the trauma floor. To work on a variety of different cases.

  Pearl stood up, yanking up her briefcase swiftly. “You have a deal, Dr. Munro. Thank you for seeing my patient. When can I bring him in?”

  “I’m glad to hear it,” he said. “You can call me Calum, you know.”

  “Why? We’re not friends, you said so yourself.”

  “I didn’t mean to insult you before. I was just surprised to see you standing there again after all this time.” He ran his hand through his ginger hair and sighed. “It’s been a long time.”

  She smiled. “You didn’t insult me. And, yes, it’s been a long time.”

  “You don’t need to be so formal. It feels weird having you call me Dr. Munro.”

  “You said you wanted to keep it professional.”

  “I know. Again, it was a shock. You haven’t changed at all.”

  Her heart skipped a beat. “Neither have you.”

  And he hadn’t. Not really. She thought five years apart would’ve been enough time to lay the ghosts of her past to rest.

  She was wrong.

  “So when can I bring George in?” she asked, trying to ignore all the feelings he was stirring up in her. She had to put an end to this conversation and put some distance between them.

  “How about you bring him in this afternoon? Say around four? Does that work.”

  “It does.”

  “And Pearl, try to relax. I’m sorry for what I said. It was just... It was a shock to see you standing in my door.”

  She relaxed a bit. She understood that. It was a shock to see him, too, but she wasn’t going to let him know that. She had to keep her distance, though it would be hard working with him. She was drawn to him. She’d always been.

  Even though she knew she was here to see Calum, she wasn’t mentally prepared to see him again. She thought she had prepared enough, but seeing him there, sitting at his desk, brought it all back.

  The night she left him. It was still fresh in her mind, haunting her. She had hated herself for leaving. Though it had been the right thing to do.

  Had it?

  Pearl shook that memory from her mind. “I’ll see you at four.”

  “Sounds good.”

  Pearl opened the door and left his office. Her hands were shaking and her pulse was racing. She wasn’t quite ready for the effect that Dr. Calum Munro still had on her. And she was going to make sure that she had full control over it. She wasn’t going to risk her heart for anything.

  Not even if it wanted to.

  * * *

  Calum leaned back in his chair, trying to process what had happened. He had no idea that Dr. Pearl Henderson had come back to San Francisco. He had no idea that she worked for the San Francisco Bridgers. Maybe if he had known...

  Would that have really changed your mind?

  It might have.

  When the Bridgers came to him he thought it was his father reaching out, trying to get a freebie. His father only wanted him when Calum could give him something.

  After years of trying to please his father, he had learned no matter what he achieved, no matter what he did, he’d never gain the attention or respect of Grayson Munro.

  So he had given up trying and caring.

  Calum had been approached by every major league team in San Francisco—and beyond—ever since he had won his major scientific achievement award, also known as the MSA, through his alma mater for his treatment in osteosarcoma. His practice blew up, but he just couldn’t be lured by the money to be the exclusive doctor for a sports team. Not anymore.

  When he first started out, Calum might have been tempted because he was sure it would have impressed his father, but when Pearl left he realized he couldn’t live his life trying to impress others.

  He loved the hospital. The hospital and his work were the only stable, constant things in his life.

  He wanted to stay here.

  He had researched and helped create that surgery so that he could help everyone with osteosarcoma, not just athletes. And, truth be told, he was a bit resentful of big teams like Bridgers.

  It was a team out east that had lured away Pearl after they’d lost their baby. Even though he knew that’s what she’d always wanted—to work as a sports doctor for a professional team—he still hated it.

  Work was the most important thing to his father, and apparently it was to Pearl. Still, there was a part of him that didn’t think that Pearl was all about the work—she was just using that as an excuse to run away. She had a tendency to shut out everyone when things got too hard. Bottle up her emotions when she became overwhelmed, like she was ashamed of them. He couldn’t even remember ever seeing her cry before.

  She certainly hadn’t cried when they lost their baby.

  She always tried to remain calm and collected, but he saw through that charade.

  Are you sure it wasn’t just an act?

  There were moments during their time together, he really saw her. Saw her joy, her sorrow, her compassion and her vulnerability, but never her tears, so he had always suspected it was all a front.

  No, he wasn’t sure. Pearl had made it clear to him when they first met that she wasn’t interested in dating anyone, especially not someone she worked with, and she wasn’t interested in a traditional family.

  Neither had he been, to be honest. His upbringing hadn’t been the most wholesome and he had never really thought about having a family.

  Ever.

  He should’ve kept away from Pearl, but she was fun to be around. She was smart and sexy and after one foolish night one thing led to another and she was pregnant. For one golden moment in his life he had thought he could have the thing he had secretly wanted when he was growing up. He had been terrified of being a father, but he had wanted to try to be better than his father ever was. He wanted roots. His outlook had changed. He had wanted that family. He had wanted that tradition.

  He had wanted Pearl.

  He’d always wanted Pearl.

  Then his world came crashing down and it was all taken from him. Instead of he and Pearl comforting each other over the loss of their child, she had left for that high-paying job she’d always aspired to and he had been left to grieve alone.

  She had left him, just as his father had. His father had left and then his mother had died. He had grieved for his mother alone and when Pearl left he had grieved alone for the child he had never known he’d wanted.

  When he thought about being a husband and father, he thought he could be the man his father never was.

  The kind of man his mother deserved. It’s why he had never wanted a relationship. For so long he had known he couldn’t commit. Until he’d met Pearl. He’d thought she w
as different.

  It broke his heart, to carry that burden, when it had seemed like Pearl didn’t care that their child was gone.

  Only, he was used to being alone.

  He should’ve known better.

  No one stayed.

  His sister, Sharon, left when she went to college and she never came back. His mother had to leave him alone to work and then she died.

  Then Pearl left.

  Pearl knew all this about him and she still left him, breaking his heart, but try as he might he couldn’t let her go.

  He could never get over her.

  And that was his burden to bear.

  He might never get over her, but he wasn’t going to let her back in.

  Calum had sworn that he would never forgive her, that he never wanted to see her again. But when he saw Pearl standing in that doorway, it was like time hadn’t touched her. Like the last five years apart had never happened.

  Her hair was still that deep, beautiful, rich color of chestnut mixed with red. Her brilliant blue eyes were just as mesmerizing as they were the day he looked up over a chart and saw her across the charge station with Dr. Chin.

  And he remembered keenly the velvety softness of her lush pink lips, the way she tasted and the way she melted in his arms.

  She was just as beautiful as he remembered, and all that anger that he felt about her leaving him dissipated. And he couldn’t say no to her patient.

  He might not want to work for a team exclusively, but he wasn’t going to turn down a young man and ruin his chances at his dream because he was still angry that Pearl had left him.

  He wasn’t a monster. He wasn’t like his father.

  His father had only thought of their pocketbook. He worked constantly and had never helped out Calum. Calum had scrimped and saved, worked for scholarships, worked several jobs just to get himself an education. His father had had the money, but he wouldn’t give him a dime.

  He had kept it to himself. And Calum had never known why. It had bothered him, but now he didn’t care. There was no excuse for that behavior.