His Baby
Bombshell
Jessica Matthews

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Praise

About the Author

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Epilogue

Copyright

Praise for Jessica Matthews:

FOR A CHILD’S SAKE

‘Jessica Matthews tugs at our hearts with FOR A CHILD’S SAKE…Ms Matthews creates an absorbing premise and a strong emotional intensity.’

—Romantic Times BOOKreviews

‘Jessica Matthews entertains readers with compassionate characters, lively scenes and sparkling dialogue.’

—Romantic Times BOOKreviews

Jessica Matthews’s interest in medicine began at a young age, and she nourished it with medical stories and hospital-based television programmes. After a stint as a teenage candy-striper, she pursued a career as a clinical laboratory scientist. When not writing or on duty, she fills her day with countless family and school-related activities. Jessica lives in the central United States, with her husband, daughter and son.

To my husband Terry, my personal ‘go to’ guy for my golfing questions. To my daughter Jessica, for all those golf tournaments I was privileged to watch you play, and to my son Matt, for the music you bring to my life.

CHAPTER ONE

SABRINA HOLLISTER knew she’d eventually see Dr Adrian McReynolds again, but she’d never dreamed that moment would come unexpectedly at a golf course or that she’d knock him senseless in the process.

After a year of leaving her equipment in the back of her single-car garage to collect dust, her friend and fellow nurse Kate Ostmeyer had convinced her to brush off the cobwebs and participate in the First Annual Pinehaven Health Center Benefit Golf Tournament.

Although her first- and second-hole scores weren’t anything to brag about, she’d parred the next few before shooting an unbelievable eagle on seven. Not bad for a woman who hadn’t swung a club since early last season.

Between the excitement of continuing her game from where she’d left off and the thrill of being outdoors, instead of stuck inside on this beautiful summer day, life couldn’t have been better.

Until the eighth hole.

Sabrina took her first tee-off practice swing seconds before Kate completely shattered her concentration.

“Mercy Memorial is loaning us one of their ER docs,” Kate announced, clearly proud of her news scoop.

Sabrina froze and she felt her palms break out into a sweat inside her gloves. Steady, she cautioned herself. Don’t jump to conclusions.

Determined to only sound mildly interested instead of frantic, she asked, “Really? They’ve never loaned us one before.”

“There’s a first time for everything,” the OB nurse remarked cheerfully. “And why shouldn’t Mercy send us a doctor? They’re part of our consortium and the corporate folks decided that every hospital in the group would take their turn helping cover our ED until we hired a permanent physician. It’s Mercy’s turn.”

Mercy’s turn or not, Sabrina scolded herself for leaping to conclusions. The man she’d known at her former place of employment surely wouldn’t be the one who would come to her new stomping ground. However, her reassurance didn’t stop her from mentally crossing her fingers as she struggled to inject the right note of idle curiosity into her voice. “When is this happening? Not for a few weeks, I hope.”

“Oh, he’s already here. Started today. In fact, he’s playing in this tournament. Apparently our chief of staff wants to make a good impression so he insisted on including him as a member of his foursome.”

Sabrina didn’t care what Dr Mosby wanted. She did, however, care about working with whomever Mercy had sent. As a member of the nursing float pool, Sabrina was temporarily assigned to the emergency department until one of the regularly assigned nurses returned from maternity leave. Which meant she’d be sharing space with the new guy for the next three weeks.

Don’t let it be Adrian.

Sabrina gritted her teeth and asked the obvious. “Do you know who he is?”

“I forget his name,” Kate admitted sheepishly. “But, hey, you worked there before you joined us, so I’m sure if you mention a few, I’ll recognize his.”

“I’ve been gone for ages,” Sabrina pointed out. “Turnover was high. The ED folks I knew probably aren’t there any more.”

She wasn’t telling a lie. Mercy always had new ER docs coming and going, although it boasted a core group who’d remained the same over the years. If hospital administration had been asked to supply a physician, most likely the ED director would assign one of the newbies. Those with seniority wouldn’t be sent to another facility without good reason or unless they’d volunteered. She couldn’t imagine Adrian offering to leave his house and his job when his gesture meant he’d be an hour and a half away from his family.

Family. She was both envious that he had a family to call his own and bitter that he’d refused to share it with her. But both of those emotions were counter-productive, so she stuffed them back into the mental box where she stored “subjects not to think about”.

Kate tapped a forefinger on her chin in obvious thought. “All I remember is that it started with an ‘M’.”

Sabrina ran through the few names she recalled, eliminating one in particular. “Monighan, Miller, Magee…”

“Close, but not quite. Mac something, I think.”

Her chest tightened as only one person fit Kate’s criteria. “McReynolds?”

Kate snapped her fingers. “That’s right. Dr McReynolds.”

Sabrina’s entire world suddenly changed from living color to shades of gray. Blood rushed through her ears, drowning out all sound, and her heart seemed to thump through her chest.

Adrian was coming. No, he was already here.

Heaven help her!

She’d wanted to put off meeting him in this lifetime until she was mentally and emotionally prepared to face him again—preferably in about fifteen or twenty years. Clearly, she’d have minutes or at most twenty-four hours, which wasn’t nearly long enough for her to develop any sort of game plan.

She’d dated Adrian for about six months and by the end of that time their relationship had subtly shifted to the point where they’d discussed theoretical topics such as how many children they’d like to have, the sort of house they’d want to live in, which area of Denver had the best elementary schools. They’d been on the verge of a commitment, she believed, when everything changed in an instant.

While riding his motorcycle, Adrian’s twenty-four-year-old brother Clay had been sideswiped by a minivan on Interstate 70. He’d come into the ER more broken than whole, with his prognosis of being a paraplegic if his broken vertebrae had damaged his spinal column. Only time would tell.

Determined to help the man she loved to bear the burden of caring for Clay, she’d been crushed when Adrian had broken off their relationship because “he had to focus completely on his brother”. Although she’d tried to convince him that she wasn’t asking him to put her ahead of his brother’s needs, each passing day and failed attempt to see him had caused her hopes and dreams to slowly die. Finally, she’d surrendered to the inevitable and gave up trying to talk to him. Determined to avoid reminders of the man she’d grown to love and the places where they’d spent happy hours, she’d resigned her position at Mercy Memorial and headed for the growing northeastern suburb of Pinehaven, where she’d moved on with her life, just as Adrian had wanted.

Now he had the audacity to appear and upset her hardwon composure. Yet she couldn’t deny the hope that suddenly blossomed in her chest. Could he have volunteered because she was here and he wanted to see her? After all, as an ED physician with seniority, he normally wouldn’t have been chosen for an assignment like this.

But as the possibility raised her spirits, she warned herself to be cautious. Better for her to keep her imagination under control and not jump to conclusions. Extremely high hopes had a tendency to fall hard and land more painfully.

When she really thought about his arrival logically, it didn’t make sense for Adrian to tie himself to a job for three months just to see her again when he could have found her quite easily by other means. She may not have specifically given him her new address, but she hadn’t moved to Pinehaven in secret—any number of her ex-coworkers knew her destination. If he’d wanted to talk to her, he would have telephoned, emailed, or appeared on her front porch before now, especially if one considered how Pinehaven Health Center wasn’t far from Mercy—a mere ninety minutes’ drive if traffic was heavy, less if it wasn’t. No, if Adrian had truly and temporarily relocated here, he’d only come under duress.

The realization hardened her heart.

“Do you know him?” Kate asked, curiosity coloring her face.

Did she know Adrian McReynolds? What a question!

She knew details. He liked his coffee black, his food spicy, his work and living spaces clean and neat. He wore boxer shorts to bed, had silky smooth hair on his chest, developed five o’clock shadow twice a day, had the faintest scar near his left temple’s hairline and a birthmark on his right hip, and was a fantastic lover. He was charming, had a wonderful sense of humor, was devoted to his younger siblings, and locked away his deepest feelings behind a wall of stoicism that only a few could breach.

On the job, he was a perfectionist and demanded the best for his patients. He was completely immovable once he’d made a decision. At one time, she’d admired the trait because it showed tenacity, persistence and strength of character. Now she only saw it as a flaw of closed-mindedness.

Did she know Adrian McReynolds? Apparently not as well as she should have or as well as she’d once thought.

She hesitated before answering. Until she considered the ramifications of what his presence would do to her life, she refused to admit anything but the barest of details. She didn’t want people to know they’d once been quite close or that he’d ended the relationship because he didn’t want to make room in his life for her, so she stretched the truth almost to the breaking point.

“I’ve run into him a few times,” she said instead.

“Then I’m sure he’ll appreciate seeing a familiar face now that he’s here for the next few months. And speaking of faces, the stranger over there with Dr Mosby’s team must be our fellow.”

Sabrina lowered her club to study the group approaching the thirteenth green about fifty yards to her right. Instinctively, her gaze homed on the tall individual she hadn’t seen in thirteen months, one week and two days.

Even from this distance, she recognized his confident bearing, his long-legged walk, and his lucky black-and-purple Colorado Rockies baseball cap.

It was Adrian. The man she’d never expected to see until she’d plotted out every second of their next encounter, until she could think of him as a casual acquaintance rather than a lover, until she could face him with the cool indifference he deserved.

As aloof as she wanted to be, as often as she’d told herself she’d relegated him into her past and moved on with her life, seeing him with hardly any advance warning brought all of those painful emotions to the surface.

Her chest hurt as she realized his presence affected more than her own heart. His untimely arrival complicated everything she’d built for herself during the past year. She’d prided herself on her ability to work with anyone and everyone, but working with Adrian on a daily basis for several weeks was a punishment she didn’t deserve.

If disrupting her professional life wasn’t enough, he’d turn her personal life into a shambles, too. Pinehaven might be a suburb of Denver, but the people in this community were a close-knit group. Secrets were impossible to keep. All he had to do was ask the right question, and well-meaning people would share her meticulously vague story.

The same story to which only he could piece together all the bitter details.

Thank goodness his name had never crossed her lips. No one would associate him with the fellow who’d dumped her, not even Kate, her best friend and the OB nurse who’d coached her through her labor.

Tears of frustration blurred her vision and she rapidly blinked them away, hating the inevitability of Adrian turning her world into chaos after she’d finally, and with extreme effort, whipped it in order.

Instantly, her lungs seemed to deflate and she ran through the full gamut of emotions before finally settling on panic.

“Are we going to play or stand here all day?” Molly Blake, a third member of their Rusty Clubs foursome, whined as she swiped her forehead. “You guys might prefer to swelter under the sun, but I’d rather hang out in the air-conditioned clubhouse.”

Sabrina’s flight-or-fight response kicked into high gear. The only thought running through her mind was to escape before Adrian saw her. Contrary to what Kate might believe about familiar faces, Sabrina needed to postpone their imminent reunion so she could mentally prepare herself.

Numb, Sabrina stepped up to her ball and swung blindly. As soon as her driver made contact, she knew without even looking that she’d sliced the ball.

Time slowed as she watched it head in Adrian’s direction like a computer-guided missile searching for its target. Oh, surely fate wouldn’t be that cruel!

“Fore,” she yelled just before the projectile struck her nemesis on the side of his head.

He dropped like a rock and lay motionless on the manicured grass.

Horrified, Sabrina’s club slipped from her hand as her heart pounded. Dear God, she’d killed him!

She’d killed the father of her son.

“What the—?” Adrian squinted up at the blue sky, seeing stars when none had been a few moments ago. His head throbbed in time to his heartbeat and something warm trickled down his ear and neck.

“Just lie still for a few minutes, son.” A worried face hovered over his, blocking the sun from his eyes. “Give yourself a chance to recover.”

The world spun at all sorts of crazy angles, so he gratefully complied. “What happened?”

“Golf ball.” Mosby pressed a semi-clean golf towel to a spot above Adrian’s left ear. “How’s the head?”

He took stock. “Sore.”

“Any dizziness, nausea?”

“Some,” he admitted, hoping the power of positive thinking would slow down the spinning and churning of his internal amusement park ride from Tilt-A-Whirl to a sedate carousel.

Mosby peered into his eyes. “Pupils are equal and reactive, so you can rest easy on that account.”

“I’m OK. Just give me…a minute.”

“Take all the time you need,” Mosby advised, placing a hand on his shoulder. “An ambulance is on its way.”

“Not necessary,” he croaked, hating to appear weak, especially on his first official day in town. “I’m supposed to work in ER, not check in as a patient.”

“It’s very necessary,” Mosby assured him. “We take care of our own, and as of eight o’clock this morning, you’re one of us.”

Adrian folded one arm over his eyes, too befuddled to argue and quite content to lie on the grass until his wits returned. He heard voices and tried to focus on them through the pounding in his head, but none seemed to make any sense until he heard one so familiar it haunted him in his dreams.

“How is he? Is he OK? He’s breathing, isn’t he?”

Sabrina.

He’d known he’d see her again—the hospital wasn’t large enough to avoid it—but he wondered if her breathless concern would fade as soon as she realized that he was the one lying on the ground with a goose egg on the side of his head.

He lowered his arm and opened his eyes to see her face above his. Through his slightly blurry vision, he recognized her retroussé nose, high cheekbones, kissable mouth and eyes as black as midnight. “Yeah, I’m breathing and talking,” he answered for himself. “In a few minutes I’ll be walking, too.”

“That was one helluva slice,” Mosby commented. “I wonder who hit it?”

Even with his head feeling as if his brains had been run through a blender, Adrian was alert enough to watch color wash over Sabrina’s face. “I did,” she admitted.

Of all the people in this tournament, Sabrina had knocked him senseless? He wanted to laugh at the irony but his skull hurt too much. The best he could do was smile, and that turned out to be more grimace than grin.

As he covered his eyes with his arm once again to wait for the paramedics, one thought ran through his mind as clearly as a church bell on a calm summer day.

Paybacks were hell.

After seeing Adrian awake and alert, Sabrina felt marginally better, until she saw his ashen face and the blood trickling past his ear and down his corded neck to stain his shirt collar. In spite of everything that had gone wrong between them, in spite of past hurts, she’d never dreamed of physically harming him. Not that he didn’t deserve it, of course…

“I’m so sorry,” she murmured. “It was an accident. Honest.”

“Of course it was,” Mosby declared. “No one deliberately slices the ball.”

“That’s right,” she concurred, hoping Adrian wouldn’t accuse her of evil intent, at least not in front of this crowd of witnesses. “If it’s any consolation, I’ve never hit anyone before.”

“Or you haven’t been told,” Adrian remarked dryly. “That would have been quite a drive if it had gone straight.”

“Probably,” she agreed.

An ambulance siren wailed in the distance and he visibly winced, then sighed. “For me, I suppose.”

“Afraid so,” Mosby said.

“What if I don’t want it?”

Sabrina ignored his petulant tone. He’d hated receiving attention and today’s incident would forever mark him in the hospital staff’s collective minds. As a man who preferred to remain out of the limelight, he’d never forgive her for the notoriety.

Then again, he had worse things to hold against her than being the subject of well-meant gossip. Never telling him about their son topped this incident by a country mile. Oh, he’d no doubt be furious, but she’d endured too much during and after her pregnancy with no one but herself to rely upon to be afraid of his reaction. She’d had her reasons and as far as she was concerned they had been the right ones, but her bravado didn’t stop her from checking his hand for a wedding ring.

No ring. Not even a pale tan line marked his third finger.

How curious, especially after what she’d seen…

“Sorry, young man, but when you go back to Mercy, you’ll go none the worse for wear,” Mosby replied. “If everything checks out, you can report for work in the morning.”

Either Adrian recognized the finality in Dr Mosby’s voice or he’d realized that an ambulance ride wasn’t such a bad idea because he didn’t argue.

“Sabrina?” Mosby turned his attention to her. “Follow Adrian to the hospital and make sure he’s given VIP treatment. Nothing’s too good for our newest physician.”

Oh, sweet baby Jane. “Me?” she protested, before she realized that refusing would only foster unwanted speculation.

Mosby studied her. “Why not you?”

Why not her, indeed? She could give him a specific reason—Adrian had told her that he didn’t want her in his life—but mentioning their volatile past wasn’t appropriate under the circumstances. Fortunately, the perfect excuse popped into her head.

“I’m not sure he’d appreciate me doing the honors when I’m the one responsible for his condition.” She glanced helplessly at Adrian, hoping, expecting him to refuse her company.

“Nonsense,” Mosby declared. “Dr McReynolds is a professional as well as a golfer. Accidents happen. He won’t hold this against you.”

She wasn’t as certain, but she bit back a reply because anything she could have said would have raised questions she didn’t want to answer.

“I suspect you won’t play worth a hoot after this anyway, so your team will probably thank me.” The chief of staff added with a twinkle in his eye, “It may also be safer for the masses if you aren’t swinging a club.”

Great. She’d never live this incident down, either. For a woman who’d won regional tournaments in both high school and college, she’d rather be known for a brilliant achievement instead of a hapless slice that had knocked out a fellow golfer and sent him to hospital.

Mosby laid a hand on Adrian’s shoulder. “Never fear. We won’t abandon you. Will we, Sabrina?” he asked with a pointed glance in her direction.

She glanced at Adrian, wondering why he consented to Mosby’s plans. While he truly wasn’t in a position to refuse any more than she could, she wondered if he was simply too confused to realize what was happening. Accident or not, she felt guilty for causing his injury.

“I’ll get my things,” she said reluctantly, hoping she wouldn’t be forced to contact his sisters with bad news. Conditions such as skull fractures, subdural hematomas and nerve damage were serious possibilities. Although it was a shame he hadn’t shown initial signs of amnesia. It would solve a lot of her problems, she thought wryly.

“Good. I’ll check in with you as soon as we’ve finished our round. We’ll have test results by then.”

“Paramedics are here,” someone said, and the small crowd parted.

Sabrina stood off to one side, watching the emergency personnel apply a cervical collar and prepare Adrian for transport. The grim set to his mouth and his one-word replies suggested his head hurt worse than he cared to admit. Surprisingly enough, his vulnerability tugged at her heartstrings.

You’d feel the same for any injured person, she told herself, refusing to believe she held any tender feelings for him at all. After the way he’d treated her, thrown her love away like yesterday’s garbage, how pitiful would she be if she did? In another lifetime, she would have been more than happy to escort him to the hospital and act as his hospital liaison, but too much had happened since those blissful days. Far better for her peace of mind if she treated him warily or, at best, as a familiar stranger until she discovered why he’d taken this temporary position at Pinehaven Health Center.

An uneasy thought came to her. Did he know about Jeremy?

No, she decided. She hadn’t mentioned her pregnancy to anyone before she’d left Denver. Since then she hadn’t run into any of her old friends and her new ones had never heard Adrian McReynolds’ name until today. For the moment, her secret was safe, although she’d have to deal with it sooner than she’d anticipated.

She caught a ride back to the parking lot in a tournament official’s golf cart, loaded her clubs, then followed the ambulance to the hospital.

By the time the paramedics had unloaded Adrian and installed him in a trauma room, he sported an IV in his hand, a pulse oximeter on his finger, and a long-suffering expression on his handsome face.

The old Sabrina would have teased out a smile because she hated to see him ill at ease, but the new Sabrina refused to let herself feel anything but objective concern. As far as she and the rest of the world were concerned, he was just another patient, even if he could legally use the initials “MD” behind his name.

“Would you like me to call anyone for you?” she asked politely after the ER doctor had examined him and they were waiting for the lab and radiology staff to arrive. “Your wife? Girlfriend? Or a family member?”

“No.” His blue-gray gaze met hers. “Don’t call a single soul.”

“I’m sure someone would want to know what’s happened.”

“There isn’t anything to tell to anyone,” he said shortly. “This is a minor injury and not worth the trouble it would cause.”

So much for finding out if he’d ever replaced her…“Suit yourself, but if you should change your mind, let me know.”

“I won’t.”

“As stubborn as ever, I see,” she remarked, already breaking her first rule to treat him as a stranger she’d met a few minutes earlier.

“I just want to play the hospital’s game so I can go back to my apartment where I can recuperate on my own.”

Knowing Mosby as she did, Adrian wouldn’t be heading back to his apartment as quickly as he thought, but someone else could break the news. On the other hand, Adrian hated not being in control, so if she planted the idea, maybe he’d resign himself to his fate before he got official word from The Man himself. Why she wanted to prepare him for the eventuality, she didn’t know, other than dealing with his surliness ranked at the bottom of her list of things she wanted to do.

There was a silver lining, though. She hadn’t wanted to be Adrian’s guardian angel in the first place, so if he gave her the slightest bit of trouble, she’d shovel it right back, in spades.

In fact, now that she thought about the situation, he wouldn’t have to complain too much for her to do so.

“Dr Mosby may decide to keep you overnight,” she mentioned offhandedly, testing his reaction.

He frowned. “Why? You don’t admit every person in the hospital for a bump on the head.”

“No, but you aren’t just any person.” She ticked off the reasons on the fingers of her left hand. “One, you’re a doctor, which means you get special consideration. Two, Mosby is determined to treat you like spun gold, not only because he wants to impress you but because he wants you to speak fondly of us when you go back home.”

“Ah. For recruitment purposes, I presume.”

“Probably,” she agreed. “This position has been vacant for some time so I’m sure he intends to take advantage of whatever opportunities he can to show us in a good light. The question for the moment though is, who would monitor you through the night if Dr Mosby discharges you? Unless, of course, you aren’t staying alone.” She raised an eyebrow.

“Fishing, Sabrina?”

“Not at all,” she said, airily indifferent, although deep down she wanted to know if he had allowed a significant other into his life. Not that she cared one way or another, of course. She was only being curious.

“Your living arrangements don’t concern me. However, they could factor into Mosby’s decision, so I thought you might appreciate the advance warning. If not, pretend I didn’t say a word.”

He fell silent as if mulling over his situation. “I don’t suppose the crickets count as companions?”

“Not unless they can take your vital signs and call 911 if necessary.”

“I was afraid you’d say that.” He sighed. “Then, yes, I’m all by myself.”

“I’m surprised.” She hadn’t realized she’d spoken aloud until he answered.

“Why would you think that?”

She evaded the question. “I assumed you would have brought Clay with you.” After Clay’s discharge from hospital, Adrian had moved him into his own home to oversee and assist in his rehabilitation.

“He’s living by himself these days.”

Relief at the news made her forget to treat Adrian with cool disdain. “Oh, Adrian, I’m so glad. Then he’s all right? I’ve wondered and worried about him…” Realizing she’d said too much, she cut herself off. When Adrian had severed their ties, he’d also severed her relationship to his family members and she missed them almost as much as she’d missed Adrian. Oh, she could have kept in touch with Clay, but it would have been an awkward situation for both of them, so she hadn’t.

“He hasn’t completely recovered,” he admitted. “It took awhile before he could start therapy and then his progress came slowly, but he’s graduated from a walker to a cane, which was quite a cause for celebration.”

“I can imagine.” And she could. She pictured Adrian, Clay, Marcy and Susan barbecuing in Adrian’s back yard. Adrian liked to wear his “Kiss the Cook” apron and chef’s hat and monitor the status of his burgers with the same intensity as an anesthesiologist monitoring a surgical patient. Clay had often stolen the green olives out from under Marcy’s watchful eye while Susan had scolded him for spoiling his dinner. Adrian’s portable CD player had usually provided the ambience while Sabrina had acted as the official and unbiased taste tester of Marcy’s culinary concoctions.

She wondered who did the honors now, then jerked herself off that fruitless and painful path. The McReynolds family wasn’t part of her life and never would be. For her own peace of mind, she had to remember that.

“In any case…” She steered the conversation back to the original topic. “If you’re living alone, I’d plan to spend the night in a luxurious private suite on our spacious second floor.”

“If it’s a matter of having a babysitter, you could do the honors,” he said in a clearly hopeful tone.

Coming from anyone else, she would have laughed and countered with a saucy answer, but the offer came from Adrian, which made his suggestion no laughing matter. If he didn’t look so pathetic, she’d tell him exactly what she thought of his idea, using words capable of blistering the walls’ semi-gloss enamel paint.

But he did look rather forlorn and pitiful and she let her opportunity slide. There would be plenty of others when she could fully vent her anger and not feel lower than pond scum for verbally attacking a concussed man. A confrontation was inevitable.

“Sorry, but I don’t do private nursing. And even if I did, I have laundry waiting at home.”

“You wouldn’t have to stay,” he coaxed. “Just long enough so Mosby thinks I’m not alone.”

She eyed him carefully and forced herself not to succumb to his pleading, puppy-dog-in-the-window expression. “I won’t put myself in the position where you can tell the chief of staff I ran out on you halfway through the night.”

“I wouldn’t.”

He must think her to be a complete fool if she’d trust him the minute she’d laid eyes on him, and she was not a fool. “Sorry, but that’s the sort of favor I’d only do for a friend.”

“We were friends once.”

“We were,” she conceded, “but not any more. Considering our past, aren’t you afraid I’ll slip arsenic into your coffee or smother you in your sleep?”

“I’ll take the chance, Bree,” he said dryly, “because we both know I won’t get any rest here. And…” He paused. “I’d hoped we could…talk.”

So Adrian wanted to talk, did he? She’d suffered through too many hurts to think that a simple heart-to-heart at this late date would clear the air and heal old wounds. He’d betrayed her trust and she couldn’t imagine any way he would possibly earn it again.

“You aren’t in any condition to carry on a conversation,” she said calmly, grateful for her ready-made excuse because the thought of discussing anything more serious than a weather forecast released a flock of butterflies in her stomach. The day for an in-depth conversation would come, but only when she was ready.

“Maybe not at this moment, but—”

“I’m not interested in rehashing ancient history,” she warned. “Not now. Not ever.”

“A year isn’t ancient history.”

“It is to me.” That year was a lifetime ago—Jeremy’s lifetime. Events before then weren’t worth the time or energy to dwell upon.

“Sabrina—” he began.

The curtain swooshed and a young man carrying a phlebotomy tray walked in. “Oh, my,” she said in a too-bright tone that hinted at her eagerness for the interruption, “Lab’s here. It’s Dracula time.”

Seizing the opportunity to gain much-needed breathing space, she walked out of the trauma room while the technician drew Adrian’s blood samples. Unfortunately, physical distance didn’t settle her thoughts, as she’d hoped.

Wishing she hadn’t sliced the ball like a novice and landed in her present position, Sabrina idled away the hours while he was poked, prodded, and CT-scanned. From time to time, like any good nurse, she exchanged his magazines from the waiting room’s well-thumbed collection, brought ice chips when he complained about being thirsty, and covered him with a warm blanket when she found him huddled under the sheet, half-asleep. Although she’d like to leave him to his own devices, Dr Mosby would ask Adrian about the care and personal attention he’d received, so she simply gritted her teeth and treated her nemesis as if he truly were a VIP.

Although, she decided with wicked glee, in his case the “I” stood for “irritating” rather than “important.”

Through it all, and somewhat to her surprise because Adrian didn’t accept defeat easily, he dropped the subject and stared impatiently at the clock. His gloomy mood didn’t improve until Dr Beth Iverson returned with his results.

“Do you want me to stay or leave you two alone?” Sabrina asked before the doctor could share anything that Adrian might consider a violation of his privacy.

“You may as well hear the verdict for yourself,” he grudgingly offered. “Go ahead, Doctor. Tell me what I already know—I’m fine. No cracks, no nerve damage, nothing!”

“At the risk of making your head swell more than it has,” Beth said cheerfully, “you’re right. Lab work looks great and no skull fractures or hematomas appeared on the scan. Your cut bled a lot and you can get by without stitches, although I’d like to put in a few to prevent the edges from separating too easily.”

Adrian looked quite smug as he met Sabrina’s gaze. “What did I tell you? I have a hard head.”

In more ways than one, Sabrina silently agreed.

Beth continued. “You’ll probably have a headache and some nausea for awhile—concussions will do that, you know, and as yours is mild, those symptoms shouldn’t last long. Continue with the ice packs and acetaminophen for the pain.”

“Will do. Now, if someone will give me my clothes, I’m going to my home away from home.”

Beth shook her head, her eyes apologetic. “Sorry. John wants to keep you overnight. As a precaution.”

“You don’t need someone as healthy as I am taking up bed space,” he coaxed in the charming manner that allowed him to get his own way more often than not.

Beth smiled. “I have my orders. There’s a bed upstairs with your name on it.”

His smile turned into a frown. “This is so unnecessary,” he groused.

“Take it up with the boss,” the doctor advised. “I’m just the hired help. After I stitch up your head, Sabrina will see you’re settled in your room. If you need anything, call me. I’m on duty until seven.”

She quickly closed the gash with neat sutures. After pronouncing her work finished, she breezed out of the room and left Sabrina to deal with an unhappy Adrian.

“Wheelchair or gurney for the next leg of your trip?” she asked, relieved to know her golf ball hadn’t done lasting damage. She wouldn’t admit it either, but she was privately glad he’d be under close observation for awhile. Problems weren’t always detected immediately and could develop over time. It would be far better for him, and for her peace of mind, to spend his first night in Pinehaven under a nurse’s watchful eye.

“I’ll walk.”

She shook her head. “Not on my watch, buster. Physician or not, you’re a patient, which means I’m in charge for the moment. Nor will I let it be said that I don’t abide by the rules. So what’ll it be? A wheelchair or a gurney?”

He glared. “Wheelchair.”

“Then sit tight and I’ll be right back.”

Transferring him to the medical floor went smoothly and silently, which came as a relief. She wasn’t in the mood for small talk and clearly he wasn’t either. However, once she’d braked his wheelchair and pointed to the hospital gown on the edge of the bed, he shook his head and crossed his arms.

“I may have to stay here unnecessarily, but I’ll do it in my own clothes,” he stated regally.

“And how do you propose they get here?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Need you ask?”

She held up her hands to object, but he didn’t give her the opportunity.

“You landed me in these spacious accommodations with your wicked slice,” he reminded her. “In my books, that’s a debt you have to pay.”

“If every other patient can wear the stylish apparel we so thoughtfully provide, so can you. And if you’re worried about your hiney showing, stay in bed.”

“Hiney? My, my,” he said dryly, “your professional vocabulary is amazing.”

“That’s what continuing education is for.”

“Whatever you call my hiney, buns, or posterior, there’s the matter of you being responsible for my VIP care. As a VIP, I want my own shorts and T-shirt, not a flimsy, see-through, doesn’t-close-in-the-back hospital gown.”

No question about it—the “I” definitely meant irritating.

“But you don’t sleep in anything except your boxers,” she blurted out.

“At home, I don’t. Does this…” he waved his arms in an all-encompassing motion“…even remotely look like home?”

Sensing the futility in arguing—apparently he’d decided that if cajolery wouldn’t get what he wanted, arrogance and his rank would—she heaved a sigh. “OK, fine. I presume you also want a change of clothes for tomorrow and your toothbrush?”

“Yeah. Don’t forget my electric razor either.” He dug in his trouser pocket and tossed a keyring at her before he sank gingerly into the bed. “Thanks. I’d be grateful if you’d bring them within the hour.”

She caught it in mid-air, irritated by his demand. She couldn’t possibly meet his hour deadline even if she’d wanted to because she was due to pick up Jeremy from the hospital’s day care. Chafing under his order, she chose not to warn him she’d be late. Better to ask forgiveness after the fact than to beg permission beforehand.

“I’d also like a pizza,” he informed her.

“Our cafeteria has good food. The patients all agree.”

He eyed her loftily. “If I can’t sleep in a real bed, then I want to eat real food. Sausage, Canadian bacon and mushrooms.”

She ground her teeth. “Pizza it is. Anything else for our most illustrious personage?”

With that detail apparently settled to his satisfaction and apparently not put off by her disrespect, he closed his eyes. “No, but if I think of something, I’ll call you. You do still have a cellphone?”

“Yes, I do. Who doesn’t these days?”

“I’d like the number, please.”

She didn’t want to give it to him, but she really didn’t have a choice. A notepad wasn’t in sight and she didn’t have a pen, so she recited the seven digits from memory.

He listened intently before satisfaction showed on his face. “Same as before.”

His comment caught her off-guard. “I’m surprised you remember.”

“I remember a lot of things.”

“I’m happy for you,” she said tartly, but a new set of questions suddenly popped into her head. If he’d wanted her out of his life so badly, why had he remembered her number? Knowing that he’d never acted on the information at his fingertips only made the intervening months of silence more painful to think about.

The sudden pressure in her chest demanded she escape before he saw this new hurt he’d caused without even trying. Immediately, she pivoted on one foot and headed for the door.

“Sabrina?” he called.

Reluctantly, she paused. “Yeah?” Sounding hoarse, she hoped he’d attribute it to grumpiness.

“For what it’s worth, it’s good to see you again.”

She’d spent the last year shoring up her defenses against his anger and rejection, but had built nothing to protect herself against unexpected kindness. Not trusting herself to speak over the sudden lump in her throat, she simply fled.

CHAPTER TWO

“YOUR father isn’t playing fair,” Sabrina railed aloud as she drove to Adrian’s home-away-from-home while Jeremy fussed in his car seat. “After being such a jerk, he has no right to suddenly act like a decent human being.”

Jeremy chewed on his little fist and grunted as he kicked his legs and squirmed.

“I don’t know what he’s up to, but I’m not falling for it,” she mumbled as she parked in front of the apartment complex next to Adrian’s recognizable black Toyota Avalon. Apparently John Mosby had served as Adrian’s taxi service and given him a ride to the golf course. “I don’t care if he had a change of heart. It’s too late. Too late, I tell you.

“And frankly,” she continued her rant, “I’m glad my ball hit him on the head. He deserves some pain and suffering for everything he’s put me through!”

Buoyed by her thoughts, she lifted Jeremy out of his car seat, hoisted him on one hip, and headed up the sidewalk. “Come on, little man. Let’s get this nasty old errand done so we can go home and play.”

Carefully, she inserted the key and stepped inside.

The place reminded her of a hotel room, but Adrian had only arrived that weekend. He hadn’t had time to stamp his presence on the hospital’s apartment. Certain she’d find personal articles in the bathroom, she headed there first.

His toiletries lay on the counter, but she hardly noticed because the familiar scent of his favorite brand of soap hung in the air.

“What do you want for your birthday?” she asked as she cuddled against him on her sofa. “It’s coming up, you know.”

“I have everything I need right here.” Adrian nuzzled her neck.

She giggled as he focused on a particularly ticklish spot. “I’m serious. There has to be something you’d like or need.”

“Soap. Bath soap, in particular.”

Sabrina pulled away to study his face. “You’re kidding, aren’t you?”

He shook his head. “Nope. My sisters usually shop for me and they’re always buying the girly, flowery-smelling stuff.”

“Ask them to choose a different scent.”

“And hurt their feelings when they’re trying so hard to be helpful?” He sounded horrified. “No can do. But if someone should happen to give me a case or two and I rave about how good it smells, they’ll get the hint.”

“You’re quite a mastermind, aren’t you?” she teased.

“I raised a younger brother and two sisters,” he said matter-of-factly. “It was the only way I could stay one step ahead of them.”

And so Sabrina had bought a dozen bars of sandal-wood-scented soap which, surprisingly enough, he still used. After he’d dismissed her from his life, she would have expected him to toss out all reminders of her, including the soap, but perhaps he’d forgotten she’d gotten him hooked on it in the first place.

Idly, she grabbed his razor and his toothbrush and headed toward the bedroom. As Jeremy reached for the things in her hand and grunted his give-me noise, she allowed him to clutch the fluorescent blue toothbrush in his fierce, baby grip.

Adrian’s suitcase lay open on the queen-sized bed, still containing the clothing he hadn’t taken time to unpack. As she rummaged through the contents one-handed in search of underwear, socks, and the athletic apparel he’d requested, it was as if his fragrance had followed her, evoking more bitter-sweet memories—memories of soaping his back in the tub because he’d won their round of golf, celebrating her pay raise with champagne and strawberries, watching TV in his bed while feeding each other popcorn.

“You can’t go back,” she scolded herself. “You’ve moved forward, remember?”

Pushing those memories aside along with the pile of clothes she planned to deliver, she grabbed a pair of dress slacks and a short-sleeved pale green shirt from the closet, as well as his highly polished dress shoes.

He’d always polished them while he watched the evening news, she recalled, just as his father had taught him and just as he’d taught his brother Clay.

The question was, who would teach his son?

She glanced down at the bouncing twenty-pound joy of her life. “Sorry, kid, but spit-shining shoes wasn’t part of my education. It’ll be sneakers for us.”

He waved the toothbrush and chortled, scraping her face with the brush end before accidentally running it through his hair like a comb.

“Be careful with that, young man,” she said, smoothing down the light brown wisps on his scalp as he stuck the smooth end into his mouth.

She placed him on the floor with his temporary toy and her set of keys while she went in search of a bag to hold Adrian’s clothes. Coming up empty, she returned to the bedroom, dumped the rest of his clothes on the bed and refilled the suitcase with the things she’d selected. But when she took Adrian’s toothbrush away from Jeremy, he screamed. She closed her ears to his vocal protests until she noticed several distinct tooth marks on the handle.

Great. As observant as Adrian was, he’d see the ridges and wonder how they’d gotten there. Unable to dream up a plausible explanation—it was too bad he didn’t own a dog she could blame for the marks—she simply had to purchase a new one, even if it meant fighting the crowds at a store with a baby who didn’t handle shopping trips very well.

By the time she had loaded Adrian’s suitcase and her son into the car, Jeremy was yelling for his dinner. Adrian’s specified hour was nearly over, but he’d have to wait a bit longer, she decided grimly. Jeremy’s needs were more important than Adrian’s comforts.

Two hours later, after dinner and an unscheduled bath to wash the strained peas out of Jeremy’s hair and after she’d ordered Adrian’s pizza and ran into a drug store to select a bright purple toothbrush from the hundreds on display, she pulled into the hospital parking lot. With any luck, Adrian had either slept the entire time or had gotten so engrossed in television that he hadn’t noticed she was late. If he had, though, too bad. Impressing him with her efficiency and dancing to his tune weren’t on her list of things to do.

Balancing a well-fed and now-happy Jeremy on her

hip, she went inside.

* * *

Sabrina was late. By nearly two hours. Adrian had dozed off and on during the three hours she’d been gone, but with all the staff fluttering around him, checking his vitals, quizzing him on what day it was, did he know his birth date, how his headache and nausea was, he hadn’t been able to rest for more than fifteen minutes at a time.

He grumbled aloud at how he could look forward to this well-meant but unwanted solicitous care for the remainder of the night as he pressed an ice pack to his head. The situation was enough to make a congenial man grumpy, and for the past several months he hadn’t been known for his congeniality.

Oh, he may as well be honest. His good humor had disappeared about the time he’d driven Sabrina away a year ago. Most people had attributed his curtness to his concern over Clay, but as time had marched on and Clay’s condition had improved, Adrian’s mood had not. In fact, it had worsened.

His siblings had compared their amateur psychology notes and had decided he needed a woman in his life to smooth his rough edges. However, after one date, he’d realized he’d spent the entire evening quietly comparing her to Sabrina. He’d suspected the poor girl had known it, too. Because no other female had interested him, his dating days had ended as abruptly as they’d begun.

Their next theory was that subconsciously he was expressing his latent anger and frustration over his broken relationship with Sabrina. That he was still mourning his loss and taking out his emotional distress on his hapless colleagues and staff members. Their answer? To get him back together with Sabrina.

Naturally, he disagreed. He was simply working too hard and doing too much. As for the ER staff, the skills of the people being hired simply weren’t up to the hospital’s formerly high standards.

As for his relationship with Sabrina, he believed he’d taken the high moral ground by ending it when he had. Clay needed his attention and he didn’t feel it was fair to expect Sabrina to put her life on hold or be relegated to the fringes of whatever life he was free to give her. For all he knew, Clay would never leave his wheelchair and would require years of intensive therapy and personal attention from experts as well as his family.

Fortunately, his fears never panned out. While he was glad Clay’s health problems hadn’t turned into the worst-case scenario, as his doctors had warned, Adrian couldn’t undo the past. He simply had to console himself with the knowledge that he’d made the best decision based on the information he had at the time and live with the consequences.

For him, those consequences turned him from being ‘that nice Dr McReynolds’ to a physician who caught nurses drawing straws in the employee lounge to see who would work with him. Even Clay’s slow but steady recovery didn’t improved his mood. Only one thing would—apologizing to Sabrina—but pride wouldn’t allow him to take that step. What was done was done. End of story.

But it wasn’t the end because his boss intervened.

“We’ve cut you enough slack, Adrian,” Carter had told him bluntly on Friday afternoon. “I’ve talked to you about your attitude and you’ve attended several human resource seminars on interpersonal relationships, but nothing seems to be working. I don’t know why you can’t pull yourself together, but I’m giving you your last chance.”

“Which is?”

“Our sister hospital in Pinehaven needs a temporary ER physician and we’ve been asked to provide one. I’m sending you.”

“Pinehaven?” The name of the town caught him by surprise and Adrian shook his head. “I can’t go there.”

Carter crossed his arms. His jaw was squared as he narrowed his eyes to study him. “Why not?”

“Because…” He drew a bracing breath. “Because my ex-girlfriend works there. Our parting didn’t…go well.” What an understatement! He’d been rude and obnoxious to make his point and he wouldn’t be surprised if she threw a bedpan at him.

At first Carter didn’t reply. Then he straightened in his chair and fixed his gaze on Adrian’s. “Then this will be a good time for you to work out your differences, won’t it?”

He initially balked at the Pinehaven assignment, but then he realized it was exactly what he needed. First, he’d swallow his pride and apologize for his former rudeness and salvage enough of their relationship so they could work in the same facility without coming to blows. Maybe, if all went well and the fates were kind, they would at least become the friends they had once been instead of remaining the bitter enemies they were now.

Secondly, as soon as he saw proof that her life was every bit as wonderful as she deserved it to be, he could finally rest knowing that he’d made the right decision. His worries and wondering would be over and he could return to Mercy Memorial emotionally whole, no longer venting his frustration on the people around him.

So far, his plan was stuck at square one. For supposedly being his liaison, she avoided him as much as possible and when she couldn’t, she talked to him as eagerly as she’d participate in a rattlesnake round-up! As much as he hated having this bump on his head, his injury had paved the way for Sabrina to be his captive audience this evening. Courtesy of a talkative nurse, he’d learned Sabrina was scheduled to cover the ED this next month, which made negotiating a truce even more critical for both their sakes. Sabrina’s, because she hated being a subject on the hospital grapevine and his, because if he went back to Mercy Memorial in disgrace, he’d be hunting for a new job.

Impatient and bored, he glanced at the clock once again as he tossed the ice pack onto the bedside table. Just when he began to worry about her being delayed by something horrible like a car accident, she rushed in.

“Sorry I’m late,” she said, hoisting his suitcase onto a chair. “The last few hours have been absolutely crazy.”

He eyed her carefully, relieved to see her. Her shoulderlength dark brown hair was tousled, as if someone had run his hands through those soft tresses and she hadn’t taken time to find a comb. She still wore the same yellow Bermuda shorts and polo shirt he’d seen earlier. And her face looked strained, as if she’d been running at full speed all day. Or, at least, since he’d seen her last.

For an instant, he felt guilty for asking her to fetch his personal things, but if he wanted to establish their personal ceasefire, he had to take advantage of whatever opportunities came his way.

Heaven help him, but after regaining his wits and seeing the wariness in her eyes, as if she expected him to act as boorishly as he had before, he wanted to redeem himself.

“I wish I could say the same,” he remarked. “The only crazy thing I can claim is being stuck in this hospital bed for no good reason.”

“How’s the head?”

He didn’t want to discuss his aches and pains. “Getting better as we speak,” he prevaricated. “Did you have any trouble finding my stuff?”

“No, but I had a slight problem with your toothbrush and had to buy another. It’s the same brand as the one you had, just a different color.”

He raised an eyebrow, unable to imagine anyone having a problem with a toothbrush. It wasn’t a normally breakable item. “What happened?”

She avoided his gaze. “Long, boring story. Not worth mentioning.”

“Dropped it in the toilet bowl, then had second thoughts?”

“If I had, trust me when I say I wouldn’t have bothered to replace it,” she said tartly.

He grinned. Every now and then he caught a glimpse of her simmering temper, which meant she was probably keeping her full fury in check because of the bump she’d given him. There weren’t any thrills in kicking a man when he was already down, so he was more than content to play the injured soul until she’d vented a portion of her pent-up anger.

“So what happened?”

“What’s with the third degree?” she asked, clearly exasperated. “It wasn’t a priceless Ming vase, Adrian. It was a cheap toothbrush that you would have replaced in a few months anyway. You should be grateful I went out of my way to buy you a new one. I didn’t have to, you know.”

“I’m grateful. Really. It’s just that I never knew you to be accident-prone.”

Her face colored. “Yeah, well, life happens. Today just hasn’t been my day. In more ways than one,” she finished darkly.

He glanced around. “So where’s my food?”

“I didn’t order it in time to pick up before I came. They should deliver it before long.”

“Good. I’m starved.”

A baby giggled in the background, sounding as if it was right outside his room. “I didn’t realize you admitted babies to this wing,” he mentioned.

“Oh, we don’t,” she said lightly. “Peds is to the left of the elevators. You know how sound carries.”

The baby cackled again. “This place has terrible acoustics if people can hear the kids throughout the entire floor,” he said.

“He did seem close by,” she admitted. “One of the nurses is probably walking around, trying to entertain a fussy one.”

Her story didn’t quite ring true. A nurse might be strolling a colicky baby around the hallways, but she wouldn’t expose an already sick infant to the germs on an adult ward. She would have remained on the pediatrics wing. Neither did it explain Sabrina’s hurried glances toward the doorway, but at this moment, he had more important issues to tackle.

The infant’s laugh suddenly became more of a shrill, happy scream. Adrian winced as the pitch caused his head to throb. “If that child is fussy, I’d hate to hear him when he’s happy. In fact, he doesn’t sound like a sick kid at all. Do they allow visitors to bring babies on to the floor?”

“Sometimes. Under extenuating circumstances.” She rushed to close the door. “There. The noise shouldn’t bother you now.”

“I didn’t say it bothered me,” he protested.

“Whether it does or not, you need peace and quiet,” she insisted. “And you really need to reconsider your decision to work tomorrow.”

“I won’t.”

She muttered something about mule-headed doctors, then sighed. “I didn’t think you would, even though we both know it’s for your own good.”

“I’m fine now and I’ll be even better in the morning.” He changed the subject, tired of having his health the sole topic of conversation. “I hear you’re scheduled to work Emergency for the next month.”

“Unfortunately, I am.” She sounded resigned.

“Unfortunately?” He studied her closely. “Don’t you like covering that department or are you afraid to work with me?”

“Afraid?” She sputtered, and bristled like a porcupine, which suggested he’d nailed the reason for her concern accurately. “I may not want to work with you, but I’m not afraid to. I’m a good nurse. A careful, meticulous, nurse. Just ask anyone. If you’re not convinced, feel free to ask the director of nursing to reassign me while you’re here,” she finished caustically. “It wouldn’t be the first time you pushed me out of your life.”

He started to shake his head, then stopped as his skull protested. “Ask to reassign you? Not a chance.”

“Oh, I get it. You’re just planning to question my nursing skills and nitpick everything I do to death so that I’ll ask for a transfer.”

“I won’t.”

She eyed him dubiously and he continued, “Working together will be good for us.”

Her jaw dropped. “You clearly need another CT scan. Your brain is obviously bruised.”

Adrian laughed at her response. “I’m serious.”

“So am I.”

The apparently happy baby now yelled its rage so loudly Adrian heard him through the closed door.

“I have to go,” she said instantly.

She couldn’t leave yet! He hated the idea of spending the rest of the evening with only the television, his thoughts, and the eager-beaver nurses for company. More importantly, they hadn’t had time to talk about his idea of starting over with a clean slate.

“What’s the rush?” he asked. “It’s still early. You can share my pizza.”

“It’s later than you think,” she mumbled before she lifted her chin in defiance, “and I’m not hungry. Besides, I have things to do and…and someone’s waiting for me.”

The news caught him by surprise, although it shouldn’t have. Bree, as he’d called her, always had a lot of girlfriends coming and going and he said so.

She bit her lip. “It’s not a friend. He’s my…guy.”

He’d been celibate since their break-up and the idea of Sabrina having a relationship burned like a hot poker in his gut. After giving her the freedom to date someone else, his response was completely illogical. “Someone special?”

“Someone I love very much.”

His spirits deflated like a punctured inner tube. It was depressing to think she’d moved on with her life so easily when he’d struggled. For now, he simply summoned a smile to hide his resentment and disappointment. “Be sure to introduce us.”

“Yeah. Probably. Some day. I have to go.”

“See you tomorrow.”

“Right. Tomorrow.”

Adrian watched her scurry from the room like a mouse escaping a cat before it could pounce. Sabrina had never been secretive before and if she’d been a typical woman scorned, she would have rubbed his face in the fact that she had a new man in her life. Yet she hadn’t. She hadn’t bragged or said anything about him—hadn’t even mentioned his name—which seemed odd. In his experience, the women he knew never stopped talking about their latest love interest, whereas Sabrina had practically run away before she could.

Now that he thought about it, shouldn’t she also have acted grateful toward him? After all, if they’d stayed together, she wouldn’t have had the opportunity to meet this new man of her dreams.

Curiouser and curiouser.

Whether she had a boyfriend or not, he’d come to Pinehaven to do his job and salvage his career. For the sake of everything he held dear—his profession and his family—he had to make his peace with Sabrina, then leave the past where it belonged.

You should have told him about Jeremy, Sabrina’s alter ego scolded in the dark of the night, long after she’d finally tucked her son into bed. You had the perfect opportunity.

No, I didn’t, she argued back. The perfect opportunity had been when she’d first learned she was pregnant, but at the time he’d still refused to talk to her.

In the days immediately after Clay’s accident, she’d done everything she could to help Adrian and his family during their crisis. She’d sat by Clay’s bedside so he wouldn’t be alone, even though he’d been too groggy from pain meds to know she was there. She’d fixed meals for Adrian because he’d focused completely upon Clay to the exclusion of everything else. She’d run errands and washed a few loads of Adrian’s laundry so he could spend more time with Clay. She’d understood his need as Clay’s elder brother and head of the McReynolds family to be at the hospital every chance he could.

She’d also tried to be the emotional rock they’d needed, encouraging them to think positive and not give up hope when the experts had admitted there was a chance that Clay might be a paraplegic.

Little did she know that this news became a turning point for her. Two days later, Adrian told her to stay away; he was ending their relationship because Clay required all his attention and energy. He didn’t have room in his life for her, he claimed.

She argued her case that she could help, that she knew and understood how Clay was his priority, but he remained adamant. She begged and pleaded and told him how much he meant to her, but none of her entreaties made an impression.

He refused to reconsider. It was for the best, he told her.

From then on he didn’t answer her phone calls, return her messages or speak to her in the hall. It was as if she had become a complete stranger.

Deciding she was only setting herself up for more pain, she changed her schedule so their paths couldn’t accidentally cross, only visited Clay on a rare occasion when she knew Adrian wouldn’t be there, and erased Adrian’s number from her cellphone directory. Meanwhile, she prayed he’d come to his senses and kept her distance in every way possible.

Until the little test strip turned blue.

She waited outside the hospital after his shift had ended, hoping to catch him on his way to his car, but before she could rise off the park bench, a tall, beautiful redhead burst through the ER entrance doors and rushed after him. He turned, they talked, then he grabbed her close, swung her around with such exuberance that Sabrina could hear their laughter across the lawn.

His apparent no-time-for-romance philosophy only seemed to apply to her. Her spirits crushed, she slipped away before he could see her.

Pride stopped her from trying to contact him again. If he didn’t have time for her, he certainly wouldn’t have time for a baby. During her weak moments she debated about sending him a letter, but she was afraid his over-developed sense of family would force him to propose out of a misguided sense of obligation. She wasn’t about to marry a man under those circumstances. After her mother had died, her uncle and his wife had taken her in because they’d felt they had to, and she’d been reminded of their sacrifice too often. Asking her child to suffer through the same was out of the question.

Another possibility was that he’d offer financial support, but strings always came with money. She’d have to share her baby with him and she wasn’t inclined to do that either.

He’d wanted to go separate ways, so she’d honor his wish. Having made her decision, she planned her future to become a single mom.

She arranged for a transfer to another hospital in the same consortium in order to maintain as many employee benefits as possible, announced her departure, hid her condition, which wasn’t easy because she’d been so ill, then moved to Pinehaven to start over.

Now Adrian had arrived and no doubt would muck up her new life.

As she stared at the dark ceiling above her bed, she wished he’d never left Denver. The reasons for his arrival didn’t matter, but what concerned her now was how he’d respond when he learned about his son.

Although Sabrina didn’t expect Adrian to stay home the next day and give himself another twenty-four hours to recover, she hoped that good sense—or John Mosby—would rule the day. Unfortunately, Adrian reported for his shift bright and early at six a.m., looking quite strong for a man who’d spent the night in the hospital under observation.

“What are you doing here?” she asked as he caught her reviewing the contents and arrangement of the traumaroom cupboards.

“My shift starts at six, remember?”

“I know that,” she said stiffly, “but Dr Mosby couldn’t have discharged you already. He doesn’t make rounds this early.”

“John called after you left last night. He said, and I quote, ‘If you don’t have any problems, you can leave first thing in the morning’. So I did.”

“I doubt if he meant for you to check out before dawn.”

“As far as I’m concerned, five-thirty can be considered ‘first thing’. Just so you know, my vital signs passed muster all night, so after finding my way around the doctors’ lounge to shower and change clothes, here I am.”

And, indeed, here he was, wearing a long white lab coat over the pair of tan trousers and pale green dress shirt she’d delivered to him last evening. Surprisingly enough, he appeared well rested, which was hardly fair when he should have been the one to suffer a sleepless night instead of her.

He frowned as he studied her with similar intensity. “No offense, but you look more frayed around the edges than I do. A stiff wind would blow you away.”

To think she’d spent extra time this morning with her make-up to hide those dark circles under her eyes! She’d obviously wasted those minutes, along with her beauty products. As for the stiff wind, she’d lost all of her pregnancy weight and then some, because, for her, coping with a job and a newborn all by herself had been a terrific diet plan. Hating that he’d noticed, she changed the subject.

“I thought you’re supposed to attend orientation this morning,” Sabrina said, irritated because she had to share her first morning in the ED with him. As a floating nurse, it usually took her a day or two to fall back into the rhythm of her new assignment and she didn’t want Adrian finding fault before she’d re-established an efficient routine.

“I am, but the session doesn’t start until eight. I thought I’d orient to my own department before I learned about the rest of the hospital. So what’s up?” He glanced at the board where all the current patients were listed, along with their preliminary diagnoses.

“As you can see, we’re empty at the moment. This might be a good time for Hilary, our nursing supervisor, to give you the grand tour.”

He grinned. “I already asked. She sent me to you.”

“Oh, really?” Sabrina wasn’t convinced.

“Yes, really. If you like, you can confirm it with her. She’s in her office, mumbling about the schedule and sounding quite ferocious about staff hours and budget cuts.”

“What about Dr Beth?”

“She’s breakfasting in the cafeteria, or so I’ve been told.”

In the time it took Sabrina to talk her way out of this little task or find someone else for the dubious honor, she could be finished, so she gritted her teeth and vowed to give him the fastest orientation in the ED’s history.

“As you can see, this is the trauma room, complete with everything you could possibly need.” Her gaze landed on the crash cart within easy reach.

“Our second trauma room is next door.” She led him into the corridor. “And it can accommodate three patients, too. We also have six cubicles for walk-in patients and two that are set up for pediatrics.

“We have electronic record keeping, so all your reports can be found by accessing the hospital information system. I’m sure someone from IT will assign your password and explain how to navigate the software.”

By the time she’d answered his questions, referred those she couldn’t to Hilary and showed him around the entire department, it was time for his orientation session.

As soon as the double doors closed behind him, Sabrina sank bonelessly into a chair behind the nurses’ station and rubbed the tense muscles in her neck. She’d known that working with Adrian underfoot would be tough, but these past two hours had been more difficult than she’d imagined. Not because he’d been rude or sullen or looked through her as if she didn’t exist, but because he’d done the complete opposite! She didn’t want him to be congenial, polite, or study her thoughtfully from under his incredibly long eyelashes.

She grabbed the receiver out of its cradle and prepared to dial her director of nursing when she suddenly hesitated. Asking for a transfer was like admitting to fear, and she wasn’t afraid. She was anxious, wary, and cautious, perhaps, but she had faith in her abilities even though she had to work with a man who upset her composure just by standing in the same room. She would simply grit her teeth and suffer his presence for the next 3 weeks. After all, it wasn’t for ever.

“You chose a good day to start in the ED,” Hilary remarked as Sabrina joined her at the nurses’ station.

Sabrina glanced at her supervisor, grateful that the woman was a congenial sort whose interest in her patients and staff was sincere. “How so?”

“It’s a slow morning, our new defibrillator is on its way down from our bio-med department, and we have a new, handsome doctor in our midst.”

“Oh, yeah. Right.” Immediately, Sabrina felt Hilary’s gaze rest upon her.

“You don’t think the new guy is handsome?”

“Beauty, or handsomeness, is only skin deep,” Sabrina returned.

Hilary chuckled. “You’re too young to be so cynical, girl.”

Sabrina grinned. “I am, aren’t I?” Then, because she didn’t want to discuss Adrian McReynolds, she asked, “Is there anything new I should know about?”

“Nothing I can think of at the moment, but feel free to read through our department manual.”

“I will,” Sabrina told her. She would do whatever was in her power so Adrian wouldn’t find fault with her performance.

As it usually happened, their slow morning turned into a busy day and Sabrina could only spare those manuals a longing glance. A patient with a kidney stone was followed by a man who needed stitches after trying to sharpen his lawnmower blade by himself. After that came a chest-pain case, a teenager with strep throat, and an elderly man who’d fallen out of his bed at the nursing home and broken his hip.

Just as Sabrina was about to slip into the lounge and eat her late lunch, or early dinner, depending on how one described a mid-afternoon meal, a well-dressed woman in her sixties rushed through the emergency room doors, dragging two young children with her.

“Please, you have to help us,” the woman begged as soon as she saw Sabrina.

Sabrina pushed aside her plans to put up her feet and enjoy her carton of yogurt. “What’s wrong?”

“These two grandsons of mine…” the woman shook the arms of the two boys who stared at their surroundings with wide eyes “…got into my purse and ate my digoxin pills.”

Sabrina immediately ushered them toward the pediatric trauma room, then flagged down the passing ward clerk. “Send Dr Beth, stat,” she murmured before following them into the room where she hoisted each of the boys, approximately three and four years old, onto a bed. “How many did they swallow?”

“I just came from the pharmacy to refill my monthly prescription. There are only five left. Between the two of them, twenty-five are missing.”

“And you’re certain the boys ate them.”

The woman nodded, her eyes frantic with worry. “They were playing doctor. I don’t know what possessed them to take the bottle from my purse. What’s so awful is that I’ve always asked the pharmacy to use snap-on lips instead of the childproof caps for my pills. You see, I live alone and my arthritis makes those lids difficult to open.” She sniffled. “This is all my fault. I should have moved my purse or put my pills in the cupboard where they couldn’t reach.”

“Kids can get into trouble in the blink of an eye,” Sabrina said.

The woman nodded, then squared her shoulders as if drawing on her emotional reserves. “As soon as I saw how many they’d eaten, I brought them straight here. If anything happens to Corey and Casey, I’ll never forgive myself.” Her voice cracked and her lips trembled. “I’m Edith Gilroy, by the way, and I’m watching my grandsons because my son and daughter-in-law are attending a funeral in Oklahoma City.”

“We’ll do everything we can,” Sabrina told the trio as she began taking vital signs, noting the absence of any abnormalities.

“They look so healthy. Maybe those pills won’t hurt them?” Edith asked hopefully.

“They will, I’m afraid. An overdose of digoxin will produce cardiac toxicity which manifests itself in a number of ways, depending on the amount ingested. If we can get those pills out of their system before the drug is absorbed, they’ll be fine.”

Sabrina watched the two closely for the less serious symptoms of nausea, vomiting and a headache, hoping they could prevent the more severe ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation. So far, these two looked more scared than ill, although the time for symptoms to develop could be anywhere from thirty minutes to hours. Regardless, those pills had to be removed. By the time these two went home, they would never play doctor with their grandmother’s medicine again.

“Should I have just gone to the drug store and given them syrup of ipecac?” Edith asked.

“No,” Sabrina told her. “Vomiting can make any abnormal heart rhythms worse, which is why in cases of digoxin poisonings we often do a procedure called a lavage where we rinse out their stomach contents with fluids. Then we give activated charcoal to adsorb any of the drug that may have gotten into the bowel.”

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