The Surgeon's Convenient Fiancée (Medical Romance) (6 page)

The moral of that story was not to assume…

As Deirdre stared at the man, she thought that there was not much she could offer a
sophisticated, accomplished man like Shay Melburne—except her sincerity, honesty, all the positive attributes of character and personality that she thought she possessed. She was for the most part a quiet and modest person, she thought, one not given to blowing her own trumpet. Now, of course, she knew more or less all there was to know about running a home efficiently, and she had become a very good cook as well. She wasn’t a bad mother either. Those were not accomplishments to be sneezed at, although she knew that society in general did not put a high premium on those skills because they were often taken for granted, behind the scenes as they were, yet they were becoming rarer by the year, it seemed to her. Not that she would be in a position to offer him anything…

Smiling wryly to herself, she pushed those thoughts out of her mind. As she half rose to go forward to greet him, another man, a colleague attired in the same professional garb, came from another direction and accosted him. ‘Hi, Shay! How are you? Good to see you.’

‘Hi, Tom. I’m pretty good. Haven’t seen you for a while.’

‘I was in Prague for the conference. Lynne came with me and we decided to make a vacation out of it. We stayed for a month. I thought you might have been there.’

‘Couldn’t make it this time.’

‘Pity. It was great. How is Mark?’

‘He’s improving, I’m relieved to say.’

‘I’m glad to hear it. Well, I’ll see you upstairs, no doubt.’

‘No doubt, Tom.’

Deirdre had sat down again on the bench, not wanting to appear to be privy to the conversation which had been private. But because surgeons often tended to speak in loud, booming voices—and Shay Melburne’s colleague was no exception—it had been accessible to anyone who had cared to take note of it, although Shay’s contribution had been more subdued. As she looked around her, she could not see anyone else who might have been interested. They were all hurrying about their business. Mark, she knew, was the name of his fourteen-year-old son. Was he ill? She did not know Shay well enough to ask, and
although she had unburdened herself to him, it was not likely that he needed to do the same where she was concerned.

He saw her and smiled when she moved forward to greet him. ‘Good afternoon, Dr Melburne,’ she said.

He extended a hand to her and they shook hands formally, a gesture that for some reason brought a lump to her throat. She had got the distinct, subtle impression that he had wanted to touch her and that the handshake was the only way. For her part, she had felt the urge to sway forward against him so that he could hug her. The idea of it sobered her. In the space of a very short time she had come to feel a sense that she was relying on him. That would not do. Even if they were to work together, if luck were with her there, it would be a professional relationship.

‘Good afternoon, Deirdre,’ he said, looking at her searchingly. ‘I hope that all is well with you?’

‘Yes, it is.’

‘Good. This is a nice time to go to the cafeteria, if you’re hungry,’ he said. ‘The first lunch rush will be over. It’s on this level.’

Deirdre nodded, feeling suddenly tongue-tied.

Within a very short time they were seated at a table in the spacious cafeteria, where Deirdre had chosen a sandwich and a glass of orange juice, with their trays before them.

‘I’ve arranged with the head of the operating room for me to show you around,’ he said. ‘We have to be there in precisely twenty minutes, which doesn’t give us much time to gobble this food.’

‘I’d forgotten how rushed everything often is in a hospital,’ she said, smiling tentatively at him across the expanse of the table. ‘Constantly watching the clock and having deadlines throughout the day.’

‘Yes, I expect you get out of it after a while, then you have to make an effort to get back in. Maybe we’ll do a test. We’ll start with giving you two minutes to change into a scrub suit in the nurses’ change room. How about that?’ The smile he gave her made her heart do a little flip.

‘I think I could make it,’ she said. An almost forgotten feeling of happiness, euphoria, came over her.

It seemed amazing that less than twenty-four hours ago she had not known he existed, had sat like a zombie on a bus, unable to move. It was also amazing how quickly your life could be changed, for better or worse, if you took certain steps. Probably she would have contacted the human resources department on her own about jobs if she had not met Shay Melburne, but it would have taken longer and certainly would not have been so pleasurable. Not that she deluded herself that she was over her depression yet, or whatever it was, in spite of the positive effect of her companion. Something like that took time to work through. She would give herself that time, yet take action as well, she resolved there and then.

‘Good. I’ll show you where the change room is, then there are piles of uniforms inside and the disposable overshoes that you can just put on over your regular shoes. Remember?’ He grinned at her.

‘Yes, I do.’ She grinned back. ‘I’m looking forward to it. I…I’m really grateful to you for setting this up, Dr Melburne.’

‘I just hope it works out for you, if you
decide it’s what you want,’ he said. ‘Please, call me Shay.’

They ate quickly and talked at the same time. ‘You mentioned to me last night that you were going to see the children’s grandmother,’ he said.

‘Yes. I did go this morning. We’ve sorted out some things. If the children really don’t want to go on living in the same house as Jerry, they can move in with her. But, of course, the house they are in now is bigger and nicer, and he’s away a lot, but they are going to have the option, and will move over some of their clothes and other things, to be ready if he gets worse. So far he hasn’t been physically abusive to them, thank goodness. They stay at my parents’ house with me, too, fairly frequently.’

There was the other concern that she was not sure she should, or could, tell him, something that she could not make up her mind about because it would have a profound effect on her life. How could she tell him, this virtual stranger, that she was apprehensive that she would not be able to have a husband and children of her own.

‘And?’ he said, stopping in the act of finishing off his food, looking at her very astutely, so that she found herself blushing. It was uncanny that he seemed to read her mind on such a short acquaintance.

‘How do you know that there is an “and”?’ she said.

‘In the short time that we’ve known each other,’ he said, ‘I’ve come to interpret the nuances of your reactions, Deirdre,’ he said, smiling slightly.

‘That’s a little scary,’ she said.

‘A matter of acute observation,’ he said, smiling again so that such a reply would not seem pompous.

‘Um…there was one other thing,’ she said in a rush, deciding to tell him. ‘She—Mrs McGregor—asked me if I would agree to be legal guardian to the children if she were to become incapacitated…or die in the near future.’ She looked down at her plate, remembering the shock of being asked, not knowing what to say. ‘She’s a lovely person, I really like her. I really don’t want to think of her as not being around.’

‘And what did you tell her?’ he probed gently.

‘Well, I couldn’t make up my mind then and there,’ she said, looking up at him. ‘I…I told her I would think it over. There’s no hurry, because she’s in good health, but she obviously wants to get it settled. But I…I don’t think Jerry would allow that. He would fight. It’s very complex. It’s not as though he cares for the children—he doesn’t. I don’t know what to do.’

‘Hmm,’ he murmured thoughtfully. ‘If you’d like to talk about it some more later, Deirdre, I would be very happy to listen and maybe offer my two cents’ worth. Right now we have to rush up to the operating suite.’

Deirdre welcomed the sudden change of pace as they walked quickly to the elevators and went up to the second floor of the wing where the operating suite was situated. It made her feel exhilarated to be in a crowded elevator with hospital personnel again—talking to each other, greeting colleagues, laughing—and made her once again realize how isolated she had become. Here she was, back in an adult world that she understood, where
her skills would, perhaps, once again be valued…if she was lucky.

‘Two minutes. Remember?’ Shay instructed her as they came to a room outside the main part of the operating suite, which he told her was the nurses’ change room. He looked at his watch to indicate that he was timing her.

When she found herself laughing, Deirdre was struck again at how strange it was that yesterday she had been in despair and then in such a short time her world was beginning to change.

There was no one else in the change room and she quickly looked around for a locker with a key and flung her things into it, then picked up a light blue scrub suit, a paper hat to put over her hair and soft paper overshoes. This was just like old times, she thought as she stripped off her sweater and skirt and quickly got into the scrub suit. Not bothering to look at her watch, she knew that she was within the two minutes when she opened the door to join Shay.

‘Great!’ he said, as she came out, his eyes lighting up, his eyebrows raised at the sight of her. For a brief moment her eyes locked with
his and she found herself colouring at his obvious appraisal, smiling back as he smiled at her. Then she looked away quickly as a frision of awareness overlaid the camaraderie that they had shared, which had nonetheless remained somewhat formal, for all its apparent casualness.

Instantly she knew that in her vulnerable state she was in danger of falling in love with him, or at least getting a schoolgirl crush on him, which was not appropriate as she was now a woman.

‘Come on,’ he said, giving no sign that he had noticed her colour. ‘I’ll introduce you to the head nurse. Her name’s Darlene Reade and she’s been here a long time.’

The head nurse’s small office, like a command post, which was the purpose it served, was just inside the main double doors of the operating suite, over to one side. Directly in front of them, as they entered, was a desk for the main receptionist, who vetted everyone who entered the suite.

‘Hello, Bev,’ Shay addressed the receptionist, a blonde woman of about forty, while he deftly took a paper cap from a pile and put
it on his head, then took a disposable paper mask for himself and handed one to Deirdre. ‘This is Deirdre Warwick, RN, who’s come to have a quick tour of the OR. Deirdre, this is Bev, who knows everyone and knows everything that’s going on here, at all times.’

‘Pleased to meet you, Deirdre,’ Bev said, standing up to shake her hand. ‘Are you coming to work here?’

‘That depends,’ Deirdre said, ‘on what I find here…and whether anyone would want me.’ When she smiled at the receptionist she was very aware of how her confidence had risen a few notches as Shay had referred to her qualification—it had been a long time since anyone had introduced her as an RN.

‘You’ll be wanted. Darlene’s in her office, so you’d better grab her before she disappears. This has been a hectic day so far.’

They went through the same process with the head nurse in her office. Darlene Reade could have been anywhere from forty-five to over sixty, Deirdre thought, viewing the tired, pale face of the head nurse who nonetheless looked cheerful and welcoming, if harried.

‘You go ahead, Shay,’ she said, after
shaking hands with Deirdre. ‘I’m pretty well tied up here. We’ve had more than our fair share of emergencies.’ When one of the office telephones shrilled, Shay took Deirdre’s arm and they left.

‘Put your mask on,’ he said, ‘then we can be anonymous. At least, you can. I’ll show you around generally, we won’t go into any rooms where there’s an operation in progress.’

When she tied on the rather stiff paper mask, her hands felt clumsy with a certain nervousness, not least because she found that she wanted very much to impress Shay, but feared that she was out of touch and would need a refresher course.

He showed her everything—the stockrooms, the clean instrument room where trays of instruments were packed and sterilized for specific operations, the dirty instrument room where used instruments were washed and sterilized by specially trained staff. The central supply unit was thus part of the operating suite, yet separate from it. Then they went on to the operating rooms themselves, each with a scrub area outside,
of sinks where the surgeons and the nurses scrubbed before an operation.

‘I do mainly general surgery,’ he informed her. ‘And this room, number one, is where I usually operate on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.’

‘I see,’ she said, looking through a small communication window off the scrub area so that she could see inside the room where an operation was in progress. ‘It’s so nice to be back in an operating room. Is that a gut resection they’re doing?’

Shay moved up close behind her to look over her shoulder, so that suddenly she was acutely aware of his physical presence just inches away from her. Swallowing nervously, she stared straight ahead. ‘It looks like it,’ he said. ‘There’s an operating list over here.’

Beside the entrance door to each operating room, the operating list for the day was posted on the wall. Shay ran his finger down it. ‘Yes…look,’ he said, putting a hand on her shoulder and drawing her over beside him to view the long list of operations that were on the agenda for that day, many of which had already been done. ‘It is a gut resection.’

Aware of nothing other than his touch, Deirdre stared blindly at the list. Then he dropped his hand, having touched her for no longer than a few seconds, not long enough for it to be suggestive or offensive had she not liked him. He was simply being attentive and kind, Deirdre knew, and it was having a devastating effect on her, starved for affection and attention as she was. Hoping that wasn’t too obvious, she searched her mind for something to say.

‘Well…you certainly get through a lot of work here,’ she managed to get out.

All too soon the tour was over and they were back at the main entrance. ‘Thank you so much,’ she said. ‘I like the atmosphere of the place.’ All along, other members of the staff had spoken warmly to Shay and had greeted her warmly also when introduced. Her first impressions were that this department was very professional, very efficient, very busy and a good place in which to work. ‘There seems to be a good team spirit.’