Shit. What a fucking good morning. I had to shake all of this off. Tomorrow I was on call all day, and if I was going to be dealing with any bullshit, the old bat was going to be on call with me. I needed to be in a good working mood with the woman, or I’d strangle her before the twenty-four-hour on-call was over.
The next day I was able to catch up on a shitload of backup work. I sat in the nurses’ station and sipped on my coffee while thumbing through the evening shift-change paperwork. The interns were annoying as hell, but shit, I was in their shoes once too. In truth, it was a slow day, so they were floating through the floor like disheveled messes, trying to find stuff to do.
I should have known that once I took a bite of the sandwich that it took Jackie an hour to bring me, the call that the interns had been praying for all day would come in.
I flipped through the man’s chart who was being rushed into my OR, looking at everything in his medical history. CPR was being used to keep the sixty-five-year-old alive, and now it was my job to open him up and do what I did best.
With the stealth and the supreme skill of my staff, all hands were on deck as I went to work, saving the man from the heart attack that was desperately trying to steal him from the world.
I performed the bypass as effortlessly as most people would tie their shoes. Three of his arteries were blocked, but still allowing proper blood flow. The culprit was the plaque that blocked one of his arteries entirely. After bypassing that, his body and heart fell into a sound rhythm. Unfortunately, after three hours with this patient, I knew blocked arteries weren’t the man’s primary issue.
“Well done, Doctor Mitchell,” my attending physician acknowledged while we worked to close up the wound in his chest. “I will take it from here.”
I stepped back, knowing the patient was in good care with Doctor Chi. “I’ll inform the family of his stability and what the future holds for the patient.” I looked at the interns, “Two of you may join me. As you already know, his family is out in the waiting room, and they are in distress. They don’t need the audience of too many interns.”
I pulled off the glasses, mask, gloves, and the rest of my protective gear and tossed them in the hazmat can, and I walked out with two interns trailing me. I hated greeting patients in my scrubs and scrub hat like this—something about it was too sterile and intimidating for people who were waiting to hear if their loved one was alive or dead. I suppose there was no appropriate attire to receive such news, though.
I hit the auto-open button with my elbow that opened the doors to the visitors’ waiting room of the ER-wing to the hospital. The family stood, and my eyes widened when I could have sworn the ghost of my Ash stood amongst the two older men and a woman in the family room. I had to blink a few times—nope, it was her, in the flesh.
“Good evening,” I smiled, peeling my eyes from Ash and looking at the man who seemed to command the room. “I assume you’re the family of Mark Taylor?”
“He’s my dad, yes,” Ash pried her way up between the two men who stood like bodyguards in front of her. “Please, God,” she covered her mouth with her hands, and tears poured out of her puffy eyes.
If only I could bring her into my arms and tell her he’s going to be okay…for now.
“The surgery went well. He’s now in recovery,” I pulled my brain out of Jake-Mitch mode and into supremely-focused surgeon mode…the mode that I was in before I saw her stunning bronze eyes. “He’s going to be fine. A nurse will be out shortly to go over the details with all of you. Can any of you tell me who his current cardiologist is? There was nothing filled in on his charts or paperwork,” I said, thumbing through the papers I had and then looking up at the family again.
“He hasn’t seen a doctor since before my mother—” Ash’s voice cracked, and she turned into the embrace of the strong man she clung too.
I brought my attention to his red-rimmed eyes, eyes that were glassy and hardened from holding back tears of fear. “The nurse will set up an appointment with a cardiologist if he doesn’t have one. She will go over the details as to why he must be seen soon after he’s released and recovering from this surgery.”
“What does that mean, Doctor Mitchell?” the man asked.
“He will need further evaluation. He is stable, but it is crucial that he be seen by a cardiologist much sooner than most of our patients after they’re released to recover at home.”
Shit. Ash needed to know her dad had a very critical situation with his enlarged heart, and the only way to fix it would be a transplant. I would need to inform Jackie that Mark Taylor must be my future patient. Being that Mark Taylor was my Ash’s dad, I didn’t trust him in anyone’s care but mine.
After seeing Ash’s reaction to almost losing her father, I internally prayed I could convince both of them of a heart transplant as soon as a donor was available. I had the best record in the nation on transplants—the media was interviewing me about that next week. Ash would lose her dad if we didn’t get him a new heart. He had multiple issues, but the main problem from what I saw without the machines was that his tricuspid valve was not functioning correctly, otherwise known as Epstein’s anomaly.
I’d learn more once he was my patient. Right now, I had to hope he’d accept me as his doctor, the idea of a transplant, and then, of course, the donor heart.
I left the room, Ash watching me through tear-stained eyes, and me not being able to do a damn thing about that. I was some fucking idiot flirt who’d fucked her all night in my room. How the fucking hell was she supposed to take me seriously a year later, walking into a room in scrubs, announcing her dad was fine, and doing my usual doctor routine of leaving the rest to the nurse to go over with the family?
I walked back to where Mr. Taylor was being transported out of the OR and up to the SICU wing of the hospital until he was recovered enough to be admitted to my floor.
I ran my hand over my scrub hat, pulling the navy-blue material from my head and ran the back of my hand over my forehead. I had to see Ash again. I had to help her and her dad. Call it doctor instincts—or just part of this crazy world of being stuck wishing I’d never let her walk out of the room that morning.
I forgot how beautiful this woman was. How she mysteriously did what none other could do, capture my attention solely for her. Hell, we had to be meant for something. These crazy run-ins had to have meant more than I knew.
Chapter Six
Jake
“Last patient, and then you’re gone until Monday, correct?” Sandy, the receptionist, asked at the end of my long-ass Friday.
“Correct,” I said. “See you then. Enjoy the weekend.
“You too, Jake,” she said with a beaming smile.
I walked through the empty waiting room floor, smiling at her boyfriend. “Are you two sure you’re old enough to drink?” I teased the two.
Sandy laughed, pulling her purse up on her shoulder and shutting the receptionist’s alcove lights off. “Asks the man-child chief surgeon,” she joked back, coming through the door.
“How are you doing, Doc?” her boyfriend, Gabe, asked as he reached out to shake my hand.