Lovers and Other Strangers Box Set: The Boston Stories
Read Lovers and Other Strangers Box Set: The Boston Stories Online
Authors: L.C. Giroux
Tags: #Contemporary Romance
Table of Contents
His Lady Godiva Chapter Two: Radiology Suite at the Clinic Building
His Lady Godiva Chapter Three: The Morning of Surgery
His Lady Godiva Chapter Four: The Hospital during the Nor’easter
His Lady Godiva Chapter Five: Six weeks later
His Lady Godiva Chapter Six: Monday Lunch Time
His Lady Godiva Chapter Seven: Board of Directors meeting, Lyric Opera of Boston
His Lady Godiva Chapter Nine: The following Friday at the Gym
His Lady Godiva Chapter Ten: Back in Boston
His Lady Godiva Chapter Eleven: The Opera
His Lady Godiva Chapter Twelve: The Hotel
In my head these are the Boston Stories because they all take place in and around Boston. If you know the area you’ll recognize landmarks and even remember the T fondly. After this group of stories we move West, first to New Mexico and then farther out to Seattle.
Writing a story with a paralyzed romance hero may seem odd but I have no doubt that they are out there. I tried to be sensitive to the actualities of what may or may not be possible for a man with that level of impairment. Every spinal injury patient is different and I drew inspiration from many factual sources. If you or a loved one has a spinal cord injury I recommend the following sites for more information.
http://www.spinalcord.uab.edu/show.asp?durki=21720
http://www.christopherreeve.org/
http://www.nationalmssociety.org
Lovers and Other Strangers Book One
Michael Dennison is a brilliant surgeon and a broken man.
Violet Bellows has the power to make him whole if only he'll surrender his fear.
Together they will discover facets of themselves they never knew existed.
Dr. Michael Dennison hated seeing new patients. He enjoyed their cases but not the first meeting. Having been an orthopedic surgeon for enough years now he had an established routine when entering an exam room with a patient he had not seen before. He would enter, shuffling his papers and charts to announce his entrance but avoid eye contact. He would put the x-rays on the light box and act like he was looking at them. All to give the new patient time to get used to the idea that the man in the wheel chair could actually be their doctor.
Their surgeon more precisely, he would maintain this charade for 5 or so minutes before addressing them and seeing the pity on their faces. In truth, the patients were not what he hated, it was the pity. Along with the poor attempts to look anywhere but at the wheel chair. He expected his next patient would be much the same as all the others. He flipped through her chart.
Violet Bellows, age 29, seeing him for surgical correction of Spondylolithesis. From her X-rays he was surprised at the degree of slip in someone so young but there had been trauma to the vertebral bodies hastening the degeneration. He took a deep breath, best to get this over with.
He knocked and hearing her answer, rolled in while looking at his notes, he moved to the light-box and hung the x-rays and began to study them or at least appear to.
He was surprised when he heard her say “If you don’t mind me asking, how do you do surgery?” He was shocked at her challenge to his skills. He quickly turned around, his shock was instantly forgotten.
In front of him sat the most exquisite woman he had ever seen. Her skin was the color of whipped cream. Her eyes were dark rich brown, her full lips and high cheeks had a deep rosy blush. But her hair was indeed her crowning glory. Almost black, it hung to nearly her waist in renaissance curls. She wore it over her shoulders in such a way even in the johnny coat she was breathtaking. She reminded him of a temptress from a Vatican painting. “Excuse me?” he coughed to cover his lack of composure.
“I wondered how you do surgery?” Michael found the most intriguing thing about her question was that she directed it to his face, not over his shoulder, or staring at his chair but actually looking him in the eye. He searched her face for some kind of condescension, but he only saw intelligence and warmth. He almost smiled.
“I worked with a group to develop a wheelchair to my exact specifications that does this.” He pressed a button and the hidden engineering whirled to life, in a couple of seconds he was in a standing position. “It's a simple matter of hydraulics and weights, really. I have enough torso and upper body strength that I can do anything any other surgeon can. In the process, I can save my patients from a life such as mine.” He said as he lowered himself back to a seated position.
“You mean the life of a handsome and famous surgeon?” Now she was laughing at him and her laughter sounded like the tinkling of bells. He heard no slight in it and for several seconds Michael didn’t even realized she had called him handsome. He sputtered and finally got some control of himself and the situation.
“Yes. Right. Let’s see what your issues are then, shall we? If you look at your X-ray here and here you can note the vertebra are shifted significantly forward. This is putting tremendous strain on these discs and compressing the Cauda Equina. These nerve fibers at the base of the spine. That is why your legs go numb and you fall. Have you had any pain associated with this?”
“No” He had expected more from her but when he turned to look at her now she was changed. She seemed smaller as if having to talk about her situation was too much to bear.
“You’ve had no back aches? No charlie horses?”
“Oh, some but that is just part of life.”
"No, not in your case, Ms. Bellows. You have a grade four slip of all of these vertebra. I can think of only one other case I have seen in someone so young. We will need to get you in for surgery soon. I will have the nurse set you up in the schedule but this will have to be quickly.”
She looked at him though her lashes, her face was unreadable. Was she scared? He couldn’t tell. He found her beautiful but distant. “Will it be very painful?” She finally asked in almost a whisper.
“I can’t lie to you. We do have very good pain control methods available but yes, I’m afraid the days just after surgery are not pleasant even with a morphine pump. Unfortunately without the surgery, you are looking at being in a wheel chair within the next few months. If it comes to that, I don’t know that we would be able to get enervation back even if we did surgery. Can I have you to stand in front of me?”
She got off the table and stood facing him. She was about five foot five, and fairly slim. Michael noted that her hips were even but tipped forward at a severe angle. She showed the sway back associated with her condition. “Now, walk to the door, stop, turn around and come back.” She did as she was told. “Yes, you have a classic presentation, I could probably have diagnosed you without even seeing the X-rays. I will need a few more images, CAT scans, and an MRI before we bring you in for the surgery but we should be able to get those done quickly.”
He had turned and started to leave when she said “Will I still be ugly?” His chest felt like he had been kicked. How could a woman this spectacular worry about being ugly? He turned back to her, noticing her lashes were now wet. He was not in the habit of giving compliments to his patients or anyone else for that matter. He knew for a fact the nursing staff, while respecting his work, sought to avoid having to work with him.
For this woman he wished he could be polished, more articulate. He searched his mind, his love of opera, food, wine, beautiful art, but could come up with nothing that compared to her. Finally he gave up and tried for honesty. “You are already so beautiful, a small thing like straightening your spine will have very little effect.” Lost in trying to pay her a compliment, he had not realized he had placed his hand on her knee. He saw her look down and blush. He immediately felt her skin go warm through the thin cotton of the gown. He pulled away like he had been burned.
He had no idea he could make a woman respond to his mere words like that. “Well yes... I should go and let you get dressed. You need to stop at the front desk. They have the list of things to be scheduled and my nurse will set up the surgery date.” His mind was chaos and he needed to get out of there quickly. Thankfully, a returning patient waiting for him next. After getting outside the door, Michael’s hands were shaking. What had this woman done to him?
The Clinic Building Entrance
Violet thought that would never end. Everyone is so worried about the patient experience but it would be a lot better if the appointment process were more streamlined. She made a mental note to talk to Allyn about it. She let her thoughts drift to Dr. Dennison again. He was unarguably attractive in a buttoned up way even in scrubs. What was it about him that made her want to unbutton him. She had become very practiced at no longer looking men in the eye so she didn’t see the initial attraction fade when they saw how deformed her back was. Could her interest only be because, in a wheelchair he was “safe”. He’d understand what it felt like to be stared at for something you couldn’t control. Maybe, but the silky sandy blond hair, sapphire blue eyes, close cropped beard, and those broad shoulders didn’t hurt. He had already called her beautiful. Just thinking about him saying it made her light up like Christmas. Hmm, good she’d need that to be nice and warm to go outside. She hated winter and yet, couldn’t really live anywhere but Boston. It made no sense but she loved the house and Allyn was there. Living in the huge place together allowed her to feel like she was part of a family still even if it was just the two of them.
Stepping out of the building her attention was drawn to the street by the blaring of car horns. The light had changed and someone crossing in a wheelchair was still in the crosswalk. It took a second to register that the chair must be stuck either with a power failure or snow clogging the wheels. “That poor man!” All she saw of him was his over coat and a fedora. She couldn’t stand around and not try to help him. She ran into the traffic now trying to go around him. Once she reached him she asked “Is there a way to release the drive so I can push you."
Michael Dennison was never a patient man but at times like these he could be a complete bastard and he knew it. Some do-gooder wanting to help the cripple, just what he needed today. He growled “I can deal with this myself, Thank you very much!”
“If you’ll just let me help, I can get you across the street and then you can be on your way!” The woman yelled over the blaring horns.
“I said I am fine, thank you!”
“Look, you are obviously not fine! You are stuck in the middle of traffic and if you don’t tell me how to release the mechanism so I can roll you to the curb you are going to get us both killed!” Shouts now added to the car horns.
“I didn’t ask you to help!”
“No, but I am here now and you obviously need it, stop being so pig-headed and... oh, here is the damn release!” Violet flipped the switch and pushed the miserable man across the street. Once they were safely out of traffic she moved to the front of him. “It is all well and good having your pride but it is not worth getting killed over or worse taking someone else with you!” She gulped when she realized the man she was screaming at was indeed her handsome doctor. “Dr. Dennison! I...well, don’t thank me!” and she turned on her heel and entered the building. Michael sat staring at her as she walked away. Wonderful, the one patient that hadn’t pitied him outright now thought he was a complete prick.
“Brilliant Dennison, just brilliant!” he said out loud. Today was shaping up to be a top ten worst of all time and to make matters worse he still had to go to records and sign off on charts before lunch.
Violet was supposed to meet Allyn at the hospital president’s office but she was still too angry to be civil and called him to catch up with her down in the lobby and they could go to the cafe in the atrium. He took about 20 minutes to finish up his meeting and found Violet reading a magazine there.