slouched down in a chair, leaning his head against the low back to close his eyes for just a moment.
The door slammed and he sat up. Jennifer had entered, and pink tinged her cheeks when she saw him sitting there. He liked the way she blushed; she’d blushed like that against the sand when he’d kissed her.
“Sorry, Dr. Rousseau. I hope I didn’t wake you.”
“I wasn’t asleep, Dr. Mills. I thought you were with Dr. Ramsgate?”
“He had a quick cardio consult and he told me I could get a cup of coffee in here.” She nervously brushed at her hair, tucking the short strands behind her delicate ear, like she’d done when they’d first met. Only there were no more long strands.
She moved over to the coffeemaker and poured herself a cup, then proceeded to stand there, staring at the bulletin board, which was full of ads of stuff for sale and take-out menus. Just junk. She fidgeted with her hair again.
Nick could sense she felt uncomfortable. The tension was thick in the air. He knew the feeling of a standoff. The calm before the storm.
“You can have a seat. I don’t bite and you should know that.”
Jennifer spun around and frowned. “You do remember me, you dingbat.”
Nick couldn’t help but chuckle. “Dingbat?”
“I don’t curse much. I try not to …”
“Dingbat isn’t cursing. Now, the F word, that’s cursing.”
She winced. “Why did you act like you hadn’t met me?”
Nick cocked an eyebrow. “You did the same thing!”
“I thought you were a soldier.” She sat down in the chair across from him.
“I was. I was an army medic.”
“You never told me that.” A smile played around her kissable lips.
“Ah, we’re going to play that game, eh? Well, you never exactly told me that you were a surgeon, or a senator’s daughter, for that matter.”
She blushed again. “Fine. You have me, but I would really appreciate it if you wouldn’t spread around the fact I’m a senator’s daughter.”
“Is your father crooked?” he teased.
Jennifer’s eyes narrowed. “Hardly. I just don’t want the notoriety to follow me. I’m a damn good trauma surgeon. I don’t want that to cloud my team’s judgment of me. I earned my reputation.”
Nick nodded. “Of course.”
“Good.” She bit her bottom lip. “Well, I’d better see if Dr. Ramsgate is through. It’s good to see you again, Dr. Rousseau. I’m glad no harm came to you overseas.”
Nick didn’t respond as she got up and left the doctors’ lounge.
“I’m glad no harm came to you overseas.”
Even though she’d truly meant it, it still stung.
He touched the scar on his face. The only injury he’d sustained when the IED had blown.
Could his brother say the same? His brother had been sent home a year early, had had to leave the service.
Nick got to finish out his tour of duty.
Nick could still walk, run and keep up with the fast pace of trauma.
Marc couldn’t.
So, no, he hadn’t come back home unharmed.
Nick crushed the empty coffee cup in his hand and tossed it into the trash. Crushing the cup in his hand sated his ire, but only just. There was only one thing he could do to control this—he was going to bury himself in his work.
He was going to forget that stolen moment on Lake Tahoe with Jennifer, because he didn’t deserve that kind of happiness.
Nick was going to be the best surgeon he could be and maybe then his brother would think better of him and nothing, not even a woman, was going to distract him.
He couldn’t let it.
JENNIFER WAS GLAD to get all the paperwork and HR stuff done in enough time to head down to the ER and actually practice some medicine. She hadn’t had a chance to do any in a month, what with trying to find another job and moving across the country after her ex-fiancé had published the research they’d shared and been given a promotion at her old hospital in Boston.
She’d planned to stick it out. After all, he’d jilted her the previous year. She’d held her own and had faced him every day because she’d refused to be bullied out of the career she’d built, but then, when she’d let her guard down, he’d betrayed her.
The hospital board had backed him. After all, he’d been a surgical rock star, a god in their eyes, and he’d bring in lots of money.
Jennifer had been a nobody, as far as they were concerned. Just an easy, replaceable trauma surgeon.
So she’d given them the proverbial finger and left, leaving their trauma department to be run by a moron.
All Saints Hospital in Las Vegas had offered her everything to come and run their trauma department. And they were building a state-of-the-art facility better than that at Boston Mercy. So that was a plus. Even though it felt like she was returning home with her tail between her legs, she wasn’t. No, she was going to make All Saints Hospital shine like a star, like a supernova.
She smiled to herself as she slipped on the disposable yellow isolation gown over her dark green scrubs. The dark green scrubs marked her as an attending, while the interns and residents ran around in orange.
Jennifer shuddered. It wasn’t even a nice orange. Maybe she could have a talk with the chief about changing the color scheme of scrubs at the hospital.
Why the heck are you thinking about color schemes at a time like this?
She sighed. She didn’t need to be having this weird internal dialogue with herself. Ever since David had jilted her, people hadn’t treated her the same. They’d pitied her and she’d retreated a bit into her head.
That was another reason she’d had to get away. Though she knew the people at All Saints knew about her past. She could see it in their eyes, but she didn’t care. She was going to hold her head high.
She was not some screwball, crazy, jilted-bride-type person. She was a surgeon. A fine one.
No. A damn good one.
A neutron star.
Okay, your obsession with astronomy really needs to stop now.
“Dr. Mills, the ambulance is seven minutes out!” a nurse shouted as Jennifer walked into the triage area.
“Thanks.” She headed outside to the tarmac to await the arrival of the ambulance, craning her head, listening for the distant wail. It was a quirk of hers to know exactly how far away an ambulance was by the siren. Only with All Saints being right near the strip, Jennifer couldn’t drown out the rest of the noise to hear anything.
“What do we have coming in?”
She spun around to see Dr. Rousseau in an isolation gown standing next to her.
Damn.
“I thought you were on a break, as in napping in the on-call room?”
“Disappointed that I’m not?”
Jennifer rolled her eyes. “Hardly, but I heard it’s something minor. Something coming from one of the casinos. It’s probably just a myocardial