Cedar Bluff's Most Eligible Bachelor

The child glanced up at his mother, as if seeking permission, and the pregnant woman offered a strained smile. “Go ahead, Ben. Tell the nurse what happened.”

“I was climbing the tree and I slipped,” he said. “My arm hurts real bad.”

“I know—we’re going to give you something for the pain. But can you tell me what happened after you slipped? How did you hurt your arm?” Hailey sensed the boy’s mother was frowning at her, but she kept her gaze on the boy. His story seemed a bit fishy.

“When I fell, I grabbed a branch, but it broke.” He sent another nervous glance at his mother.

“It’s okay, Ben. I’m not mad at you,” the woman told him softly.

“But I wasn’t supposed to climb the tree,” Ben said in a wobbly voice, sniffling loudly.

“No, you weren’t. But I’m not mad at you. Go ahead and finish your story.”

Hailey glanced at the pretty honey-blonde-haired mother, acknowledging that she sounded sincere. But she wasn’t going to let the woman off the hook yet. “What happened after the branch broke, Ben? Did you fall to the ground?”

“No, I didn’t fall, I jumped. The branch didn’t break all the way. I was hanging in the air when I felt my arm start hurting. When I jumped, I fell backwards on the same arm.” His wide eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry, Mom.”

“Shh, it’s okay, Ben.” The pregnant mother sent Hailey a resigned glance. “It’s not the first time Ben’s had a broken bone. He’s a bit accident prone.”

Accident prone? The hairs on the back of her neck lifted. She highly doubted it. The way the child was so afraid of his mother’s reaction didn’t sit well with her at all. “All right, Ben, I need to look at your arm for a minute.”

She gently palpated the extremity, reassured that there was a good pulse in his wrist. “I’m going to get the doctor to take a look at this arm, Ben. I think you’re going to need X-rays. Do you know what an X-ray is?”

“Yeah. I know. It doesn’t hurt.” The calm acceptance in the child’s eyes bothered her. No child should be that familiar with X-rays.

Hailey left Ben’s room and crossed over to the closest computer, intent on bringing up the child’s past medical history to look more closely at his most recent accidents.

“Where’s Ben?” a male voice demanded. She glanced up in time to see Dr. Seth Taylor standing near Dr. Carter. The expression on Dr. Taylor’s face looked grim. “Kylie told me to meet her here.”

Hailey glanced at her patient’s name. Sure enough, Ben Taylor. Was this the reason no one had looked closely at this child’s multiple injuries? Because he was the son of a doctor on staff?

“I don’t know, Seth. But calm down, we’ll find him.”

“Um, Dr. Taylor?” Hailey spoke up. “Ben was just placed over here in room seven.”

“Thanks.” Relief flared in his eyes as he headed straight for Ben’s room. Dr. Carter crossed over to where she was standing.

“What happened to Ben Taylor?” he asked.

“Dislocated shoulder and possible broken arm,” Hailey answered. “I’m worried about him. Hasn’t anyone considered getting Child Protective Services involved? “

“Child protective services?” Dr. Carter stared at her for a few seconds and then started to laugh. “For Seth and Kylie? No, Hailey, you’re way off base.”

She bristled at his casual dismissal. “Oh, really? Just because his father is a doctor here doesn’t mean this boy isn’t the subject of physical abuse.”

Simon’s laughter ended abruptly. “You’re serious!” he exclaimed, his eyes widening comically. “Come on, Hailey, I know Seth and Kylie. They’re not hurting Ben.”

“Then why is Ben so accident-prone?” She’d pulled up the boy’s medical record. Six months ago he’d had a gash to his leg that was deep enough to need stitches. And another six months before that he was admitted for hypothermia after falling into Lake Michigan. And before that he was hit by a car while riding his bike.

Accident prone was an understatement.

“Because he’s a mischievous kid who’s probably looking for attention now that his mother has another baby on the way,” he pointed out reasonably.

“Maybe.” She couldn’t deny his theory made sense, if Ben was telling the truth about climbing the tree against his mother’s wishes. She glanced at the boy’s history again. Falling into Lake Michigan couldn’t be construed as abuse. Neglect? Maybe. But his mother hadn’t been the one driving the car that had hit him. More neglect?

Or was she simply overreacting?

“Seriously, Hailey, you have to trust me on this. Seth and Kylie are good people. They love Ben. They would never hurt him.”

“If you’re sure,” she finally agreed. She didn’t need Dr. Carter’s approval to call Child Protective Services—anyone could make a referral. But Cedar Bluff was a small town and the more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed that if something like physical abuse was going on, others would know about it.

“Hey, don’t be so hard on yourself,” Dr. Carter said quietly. “Actually, you did the right thing by raising the question. Sometimes we see these people so often, here at work and out in the community, we don’t even think about the fact that something horrible could be happening behind closed doors. Having new people work here is a good way to keep us on our toes.”

He was being nice, trying to make her feel better. Surely someone with integrity, like Dr. Carter, wouldn’t ignore a case of child abuse. “Thanks,” she murmured. “You’d better go in there to see him. He’ll need X-rays for sure.”

“Will do.” He flashed a quick smile before disappearing into Ben’s room. She followed and halted in the doorway, watching as Dr. Taylor and his pregnant wife hovered over Ben with obvious concern.

A family united.

Feeling foolish about her original suspicions, and maybe a bit envious at their closeness, Hailey turned away to check on her other patients.

After the fiasco with Ben, the rest of her shift flew by. Several times she thought about calling upstairs to the intensive care unit to find out how Hank McLeod was doing, but other issues needing her attention prevented her from following through.

But after her shift was over, Hailey couldn’t leave without checking on him. She didn’t call the ICU but simply walked up the few flights of stairs until she reached the third-floor surgical ICU.

Worrying her bottom lip with her top teeth, she read through the names on the census board. She didn’t immediately find his name and her stomach clenched, fearing the worst. But then she found him at the bottom of the list in the very last room.

She went down the hall toward his room, only to discover he was in the middle of a sterile procedure, a central line placement from what she could tell. She glimpsed at his vital signs on the monitor, reassuring herself that he was relatively stable, before she backed away.

Not an appropriate time to check with his wife to see how things were going. Maybe tomorrow she’d stop up to see Mrs. McLeod. As Hailey walked back out of the unit, she came face to face with Dr. Carter, who was apparently on his way in.

“Hi, Dr. Carter. Guess we’re both here for the same reason,” she said with a sheepish grin. She was impressed he’d cared enough to come up to check on their patient. “You can go in, but they’re in the middle of placing a central line on Mr. McLeod.”

“Ah, then I won’t bother them.” He stood for a moment, his hands tucked in the pockets of his lab coat as if he wanted to say something. “Hailey, stop the Dr. Carter stuff. You need to call me Simon.”

Her eyes widened and she swallowed hard. “I’ll—uh—try,” she hedged, stepping to go around him. “I have to run. I’ll—uh—see you later.”

“Wait, this is important,” he called, halting her escape. “I’m not trying to come onto you or anything.”

She sucked in a quick breath at his bold statement. “I never thought you were!” she said hastily, her cheeks burning with embarrassment.

Good grief, this was awkward.

Now it was his turn to avoid her gaze. Still, he continued, as if needing to clear the air. “The administration here at Cedar Bluff is working on a new initiative where we all work together as a team, keeping the patient at the center of all we do.”

“Okay,” she agreed slowly, trying to figure out where he was going with all this. “I’m all for making our patients a priority—why else would we be here?” And what in the world did that have to do with calling him Simon? She could feel her cheeks reddening at the thought of being on a first-name basis with him.

“Of course, we all do. But I think you’re missing the point. The most important part of achieving the goal of patient-centered care is teamwork. Cedar Bluff doesn’t want us to view ourselves as a hierarchical organization. Instead, they want us to have a team approach, where everyone has an equal say in what we do for our patients.”

“Really?” She couldn’t help the sliver of doubt in her tone.

Now his expression seemed a bit exasperated. “Haven’t you noticed how big the first name is printed on our hospital ID badge? Or heard everyone calling everyone else by their first names?”

She nodded slowly. “Yes. But I’m used to calling doctors by their formal titles. It’s a sign of respect. And I figured you all knew each other well enough to use first names, but I’m still new here.”

He looked a little taken aback by that statement. “Not at all. I mean, I know some of the people really well but others I don’t. Regardless, it’s about being a team. Not a doctor versus a nurse, or a tech versus a nurse. A team. Got it?”

What he was saying made some sense. She reluctantly agreed, “Got it.”

He looked relieved. “Good.” There was another awkward silence and he cleared his throat and then glanced at his watch. “I have to get home, too. Goodnight, Hailey.”

His expectant gaze forced her to respond in kind. “Goodnight, Simon.”

His name sounded strange when she spoke it out loud and for a moment there was a simmering awareness hovering between them. After a few moments he deliberately turned and walked away, breaking the intangible connection.

When he headed for the elevators, she decided to slip down the stairs to go to the staff locker room.

In the privacy of the female locker room, she peeled off her scrubs and pulled on her skin-tight florescent striped biking gear, reliving those few tense moments when Simon had told her he wasn’t coming onto her.

Had she given him the impression she wished he would? Or that she thought he was? Good grief, talk about humiliating.

He couldn’t know that the last thing she wanted was a relationship. With him or anyone else.

“I can’t believe you’re still here!” Rachel exclaimed, coming into the locker room and interrupting her tumultuous thoughts. “Don’t tell me you rode your bike today. I know it’s spring, but it’s freezing outside. Not to mention dark. Why would you ride this late? It’s close to midnight.”

Hailey offered a weak smile. “Biking is good exercise and I don’t live very far. Don’t worry, this fluorescent gear keeps me safe.” Despite the budding friendship she felt toward Rachel, there were some secrets that were too dark to share, no matter how strong the friendship.

After all, she’d come here to Cedar Bluff to escape the past, not dwell on everything she’d lost.

“You’re crazy,” Rachel said, slamming her locker door shut as Hailey pulled on her bike helmet. “Truly crazy. Are you sure you don’t want a ride home?”

“I’m sure,” Hailey responded firmly. She pulled on her gloves and then opened the locker-room door. She had to shut this conversation down before Rachel asked any more questions. “Bye, Rachel. See you tomorrow.”

“Bye, Hailey. Ride safe.”

“I will.” Outside, true to Rachel’s word, the cold wind cut through her sweat-wicking biking gear. She clenched her teeth together to keep them from chattering. After deftly unlocking the bike, she jumped on and followed the familiar path towards home.

She’d come a long way since those dark days after Andrew’s death. In the fourteen months that had passed, she’d recovered both emotionally and physically from the accident that had stolen everything that had been important to her.

But no matter how much she’d healed, she still couldn’t bring herself to get behind the wheel of a car.

Simon mentally smacked himself in the forehead as he rode the elevator down to the first floor, putting as much distance between himself and Hailey as possible.

Idiot. How could he have been such an idiot?

I’m not coming onto you or anything.

I never thought you were!

Shaking his head, he strode out to the parking structure towards his car. He’d made a complete fool of himself. But at least Hailey would know that he wasn’t interested in anything more than a nice, friendly working relationship. Teamwork, just as he had said.

He shouldn’t have assumed anything, he acknowledged as he drove home. Just because Rachel Connell had asked him out a few times, it didn’t mean every single female would.

Hailey was beautiful enough that some other guy would surely snatch her up in no time.

And why that thought annoyed him, he had no idea. Normally he couldn’t care less who dated whom.

Simon didn’t live far from the hospital, so he made it home in less than fifteen minutes. He walked inside his small ranch-style home and tossed his keys on the counter.

The blinking light on his answering-machine gave him pause. Most of his friends used his cell phone. He only kept the land line because of the need to be on call for the emergency department. He’d started out using just his cell phone, but he’d slept through the first call he’d ever received because the ringer on his phone, even at maximum volume, just wasn’t loud enough.

Maybe his parents had called? He hadn’t talked to them in over a month, he realized guiltily.

He pulled a beer out of the fridge, twisted off the cap and took a long drink before walking over to look more closely at the answering-machine.

Three messages, all from a blocked phone number. He frowned. Not his parents. Unless they’d changed to a blocked number for some reason? He pushed the play button.

The sound of a dial tone echoed in the room.

He deleted that message and played the next. More dial tone. The third one was also nothing but dial tone.

Three hang-up phone calls. All from blocked numbers.

Dread painfully twisted his stomach.

Erica had left hang-up messages. Especially in those final weeks before he’d finally picked up and moved, without telling anyone where he was going. Not only had he kept quiet about his true destination, he’d claimed he was moving to Arizona to be closer to his parents. He’d even gone as far as applying for an Arizona medical license.

No one, outside his parents, knew he’d come to small-town Cedar Bluff in Wisconsin instead.

Almost two years had passed. Surely Erica hadn’t found him. Why would she even bother after all this time? She must have moved on with her life by now.

Hadn’t she?

CHAPTER THREE

BY THE next morning, Simon had convinced himself that telemarketers had left the three hang-up messages. It was the only explanation that made sense. He needed to remember to update his number on the national do-not-call list.

He sipped at a mug of coffee, thinking about his plans for his day off. He found he was oddly disappointed that he wouldn’t be seeing Hailey.

Stupid, since nothing would ever come of it.

He was through with relationships. After everything that had happened with Erica, he couldn’t imagine allowing anyone to get close.

To this day, he still felt guilty for what had transpired between them. He’d had no idea she was the clingy type of woman when they’d started to see each other. She’d been a nurse working in the same Chicago Children’s hospital emergency department he had been. The way she’d call him if she hadn’t heard from him had seemed nice at first, complimentary. Deep down, he’d been thrilled to know how much she liked him. And she was sweet, too.

But then, when he’d tried to pull back a little, needing a little breathing space, Erica had got upset. She’d been so upset that he’d gone back to seeing her, thinking that perhaps he’d overreacted.

All too soon he’d known it wasn’t going to work. So he had broken things off again. And then circumstances had changed and things had gone from bad to worse.

He closed his eyes for a moment, wishing desperately that he’d handled the situation differently. His actions had caused both of them to suffer. And then there was…

No. He shoved thoughts of Erica aside. Two years was a long time. She’d moved on and so should he. Maybe a tiny part of him would never be the same again, but he had created a new life in Cedar Bluff. New friends. And he was being considered for a promotion, the open ED Medical Director position.

He was happy with his new, if lonely, life. And he’d finally realized there was nothing he could do if Erica wasn’t happy in hers.

Nothing he could do to change what had been lost.

While mowing his lawn, a job he liked for the sheer mindlessness of the work, Seth Taylor called him. He had to shut off the lawnmower in order to hear him.

“Simon, I need a favor.”

“No problem.”

There was a slight pause on the other end of the line. “I haven’t told you what the favor is yet,” Seth protested.

He chuckled at Seth’s incredulous tone. “Doesn’t matter, Seth. But go ahead and ask me, if it makes you feel better.”

“I need you to cover my three-to-eleven shift in the trauma bay tonight. Kylie has to cover a sick call for the paramedic unit and I don’t want to leave Ben with a babysitter as he’s still having some pain in his broken arm.”

“No problem,” Simon repeated, glancing at his watch. He had a couple of hours until three o’clock. “I’d be happy to cover you.”

“Thanks, man. You know I’ll return the favor some time,” Seth said gratefully.

“I know,” he agreed. Since he was one of the few single guys on staff, he had less reason to need anyone to cover him, but he didn’t mind.

Work was his salvation.

When Simon walked into the ED a few hours later, controlled chaos reigned.

Apparently several staff members were sick with flu, so they were working short-handed. Even with the tight staffing, he was surprised to see that Hailey had been assigned to work trauma with him.

Not that Hailey wasn’t a capable nurse. She’d certainly proved herself with the McLeod case. But Cedar Bluff’s policy was not to put their new nurses into the trauma bay until after six months. Hailey had come to them with trauma experience, though, and from a level-one trauma center to boot, so maybe that was why they’d made an exception in her case.

Secretly thrilled to discover he was working with Hailey after all, he crossed over to talk to Quinn Torres, the day-shift physician in the trauma bay, to find out what was going on.

“Hey, Simon,” Quinn greeted him. “It’s been steady all day, but nothing too overwhelming. The biggest issue is staffing. For second shift the trauma team is also covering team one.”

Double duty. He grimaced at the news, knowing there would be delays with patients in team one if emergency cases arrived. There was nothing they could do, though, other than their best. “All right. What’s the disposition with this guy?” he asked, glancing at the patient who was currently in the trauma bay, hooked up to a cardiac monitor and a ventilator. He noticed Hailey was there getting a report from Claire, the day-shift nurse.

“Fifty-eight-year-old guy with a GI bleed. We’ve dumped several units of blood and fresh frozen plasma into him, so he’s stable for the moment. We’re waiting on an ICU bed—hopefully should get one within the next fifteen minutes or so,” Quinn replied. “They’re moving someone out to make room.”

“So are all hospital beds tight or just critical care beds?” he asked. Without open-floor beds and ICU beds, patient dispositions took much longer, causing back-ups in the ED. Not good on a day when they were already short-staffed.

“Just critical care,” Quinn assured him. “And I think they’re moving a couple of patients out, so you should be fine.”

“Okay. Anything else about this guy I need to know?”

“Not really,” Quinn murmured, glancing over at the patient. “We have an H/H pending and there are four units of PRBCs and four units of fresh frozen plasma on hand if you need them.”

“Sounds good.”

“Excellent,” Quinn said, slapping Simon on the back. “Have a good night, because I know I will.”

Simon had to laugh. “Is that your way of saying Leila is off tonight, too? “

“Yes, and Kane Ryerson is the surgeon on call tonight. Don’t you dare page Leila unless you have a code-yellow situation,” Quinn threatened.

A code yellow was a disaster call, something they’d never had to implement in time he’d been there. “Don’t worry, we won’t.”

After Quinn had left, he went over to stand at the foot of the patient’s gurney, taking note of the most recent vital signs flashing across the screen. Hailey was performing a physical assessment, her head bent down as she listened to his heart and lungs. His fingers itched to tuck the silky strands of blonde hair behind her ear.

He dragged his gaze away with an effort. So what if he thought she was incredibly attractive? Just the fact that she was a nurse on staff made her off-limits.

“Ah, Dr—I mean, Simon?”

He inwardly cursed when just the sound of his name in her voice made his gut tighten with awareness. Get a grip! She’s off-limits!

“What do you need?” he asked, glancing up from the computer screen and keeping his expression neutral.

“His hemoglobin hasn’t come up much—it’s 7.8 now and was 7.5 before the blood transfusion,” Hailey informed him. “Do you want me to start another unit?”

“Yes, that should work. Hopefully he’ll be transferred upstairs to the ICU shortly,” he decided.

“Sounds good.”

Hailey smiled, but he noticed a strange wariness in her blue eyes as she crossed over to the nearest phone to order the unit of blood.

He told himself to be glad Hailey seemed content to keep a professional distance between them.

Because heaven knew, if she were to come on to him, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to turn her down as easily as he had Rachel.

Hailey eagerly transferred her patient up to the medical ICU, thankful for the momentary reprieve from being stuck in close proximity to Simon.

She’d tried to get out of working in the trauma bay for her shift but Theresa, the ED manager, hadn’t given her a choice. The two trauma-trained nurses had both called in sick, leaving her to pick up the trauma shift.

Another reason she’d left Trinity Medical Center had been because she’d lost the thrill of working in a level-one trauma center. She liked ED nursing overall, but had told Theresa there was no rush in getting cross-trained to trauma. Hailey had planned on settling in for at least another few months before having to face her first shift there.

Guess not.

She could do it, she told herself for the fifth time. Of course, having Simon on duty with her served as a distraction from her past.

She didn’t linger upstairs, as much as she wanted to, but hurried back down to the trauma bay, knowing another patient could arrive at any moment. Besides, there were still a few patients in team one to follow up on.

Her trauma pager remained silent, though, so when she returned to the department, she left the tech, a new woman named Bonnie, to clean up and restock the trauma bay while she headed back over to team one.

She double-checked on the patient they were treating for flu. The poor woman had thrown up right after getting settled into her room, just missing Hailey’s feet. Hailey glanced up at the IV bag, satisfied to see it was nearly empty. “How are you feeling, Christy?” she asked the young college student.