A Doctor's Secret

“No, I already called them to say I’d be late. They weren’t happy about it, but they understood.”

Her eyes were back on the gash just beneath his hairline. He had nice hair, Tania caught herself thinking. Something stirred within her and she banked it down. There’d be no more wild rides, she told herself sternly. They always led nowhere.

“Sound like nice bosses.”

“They are. For the most part,” he qualified in case she thought he had it too easy. Nothing could have been further from the truth. “What they are is fair.”

“So,” she said in a soothing voice, taking the first tiny stitch, “tell me exactly what you did to become a hero.”

Chapter 2

Tania heard the man on the gurney draw in his breath as she pierced the skin just above his temple. He sat as rigid as a soldier in formation.

Not bad, she thought. She’d had big, brawny patients who had passed out the very moment she’d brought needle to skin.

“It’s nothing, really,” Jesse said in response to her question as she slowly drew the needle through. He was aware of a vague pinching sensation and knew he was in for a much bigger headache later, when the topical anesthetic wore off.

Tania smiled to herself. Modesty was always a nice quality. It was also very rare in men who looked as good as Jesse Steele did. There was something about women throwing themselves at their feet that gave handsome men heads that barely fit through regulation-size doorways.

She kept her eyes on her work. “The man in trauma room three seems to think you’re the closest thing he’d seen to a guardian angel. And the man in trauma bay four thinks you’re the devil incarnate, so my guess is that you must have done something.”

He was probably going to have to give a statement and maybe show up in court, as well, if it came to that. No good deed went unpunished, Jesse thought.

Still, he did feel good about having saved the old man’s diamonds. “I tackled him.”

The doctor arched an eyebrow. He found it very sexy. “Excuse me?”

“The guy with the police escort,” he clarified. “I tackled him.”

“Why?” she asked.

His response had been immediate. There hadn’t been even a moment’s hesitation. “Because the old man yelled ‘stop thief,’” he told her and then, before she asked, he added, “and the guy in the suit was the only one running away from him.”

She could see why the old man had sounded so grateful. “That was pretty brave of you,” she acknowledged. “Most people would have looked the other way or pretended not to hear.”

He couldn’t do that, couldn’t look away or count the cracks in the sidewalk when someone needed help. He hadn’t been raised that way, wouldn’t have been able to live with himself if he’d just walked on. “I don’t like thieves.”

“Most of us don’t,” she agreed, humor curving her lips. And then she paused for a second to scrutinize him. There was more to this man than just looks, she decided. “Sounds like it’s personal.” Because her father had been and her new brother-in-law still was involved with the police force, she guessed, “Is someone in your family in law enforcement?”

He had meant to stop with just the first word, but somehow the rest just slipped out. She was extremely easy to talk to. “No. Someone in my family was robbed.”

Something about the way her patient said it made her look at him again, her needle poised for a third tiny stitch. “Who?”

“My parents.”

Tania felt her heart tighten in empathy. “What happened?”

Her patient blew out a breath and was quiet for so long, she thought he’d decided not to answer. Which was his right. She was prying.

But just as she completed the last stitch, he said, “My parents ran a small mom-and-pop-type grocery store in Brooklyn. We lived right above it. One night some thug came in and robbed them. When he tried to steal my mother’s wedding ring, my father pushed him away. The thug shot him point-blank and ran. My mother got to keep her wedding ring, the thug got seventy-three dollars in cash, and my father died.” His voice was stony. He could still remember hearing the shot and wondering what it was. He was home that night, struggling with his math homework and planning on asking his father for help. He never did do his math homework that night.

Tania cut the black thread and felt numb. When he mentioned his parents, she could envision her own, Magda and Josef, being in that situation. Granted, her father was a retired police detective, but, judging from the way Jesse’s jaw had tightened, the underlying emotional ties were the same.

She lightly placed her hand on his arm. “I’m very sorry.”

He nodded, trying to put distance between himself and the memory of that night. The memory of flying down the stairs and bursting into the store, only to see his father on the floor, not breathing, blood everywhere. His mother sobbing. Funny how it still cut so deep, even after all these years.

Jesse cleared his throat. He could feel the passage growing smaller, threatening to choke him. “Yeah, well, that happened a long time ago. I was thirteen at the time.”

Sympathy filled her. “Must have been rough, growing up without a father.”

She didn’t know what she would have done without hers. Especially after the incident. It was her father who’d broken through the stone wall she’d built up around herself rock by rock. Her father who’d held her hand throughout the ordeal and who’d given her the courage to stand up for herself. Without him gently, firmly urging her on, trying mightily to control his own anger, she didn’t know if she would have pressed charges, much less been willing to go to court to tell her story yet one more time. Each time she recited it, it got worse for her, not better.

But the latter never turned out to be necessary. She was spared the courtroom ordeal. Jeff Downey confessed at the last minute and the case was settled out of court with a plea bargain. He was sent upstate and got ten years. Less with good behavior. He was paroled six months ago. Which meant he was out there somewhere. She tried very hard not to think about that.

She’d always suspected that her father had had something to do with Jeff’s confession and his accepting the plea bargain, that somehow, Josef had managed to put pressure on the boy she’d once thought was the answer to her prayers instead of being the source of recurring nightmares. Her father had denied doing anything out of the ordinary when she asked.

But she knew her father, knew how he felt about all of them. How he felt about her being violated. There was nothing more important to Josef Pulaski than his wife and his daughters.

Although logically, she knew that not everyone had parents like hers, in her heart she always envisioned her parents whenever people mentioned their own. It was always sad to find out the opposite was true. Those were the times when she felt really lucky.

“It was,” Jesse agreed. His father had been a stern man, but fair. They were just beginning to get along when Jason Steele was murdered. “But I got through it.”

Interested, Tania asked, “What about your mom? How did she handle it?”

“She sold the store, bought a flower shop instead. Most people don’t rob flower shops.” He remembered how he begged her not to buy another store and how she’d tried to reassure him with statistics about flower shops. He still went there every day after school—to guard his mother until she closed up. “And she managed.” He paused, wondering how the blond-haired doctor with the killer legs and the sweet smile had so effortlessly gotten so much information out of him. “Is this part of the treatment?”

“Sorry, my attending always says I get too close to my patients.” Which wasn’t strictly true, Tania added silently. She asked questions, but she didn’t get close. Getting close involved vulnerability. She hadn’t gotten close to anyone since the incident. Not even to the men she’d gone out with since then. She didn’t know how.

He eyed her for a second, as if he was trying to make up his mind about something. “Do you?” he asked. “Get too close?”

She didn’t answer him directly. She gave him a reply she felt worked in this case.

“I find patients trust you more if you take an interest in them. And I am interested in them,” she assured him. “If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t be in this field.” Smiling, she mentioned the first job she could think of that had to do with solitude. One she’d actually considered, except that solitude meant that she would be alone with her thoughts, and that she couldn’t do. “I’d be a forest ranger.”

“A forest ranger,” he repeated, amused. “That would have been the medical world’s loss.”

Tania laughed softly. “Well, I see your encounter with the thief didn’t knock the charm out of you.” Pushing back the surgical tray, she stripped off the rubber gloves and deposited them into the trash bin. “We’re done here,” she announced, then took a prescription pad out of her lab coat pocket and hastily wrote something down.

“There might be pain,” she warned him, tearing off the paper. “You can get this filled at your local pharmacy, or use the hospital’s pharmacy.” She gave him directions since he was probably unfamiliar with it. “It’s down in the basement, to right of the elevator bank when you get off.”

Jesse took the prescription she held out to him and glanced at it. His eyebrows drew together in consternation. He was looking at scribble. “You sure it says something?”

Tania grinned. Her mother, she-of-the-perfect-handwriting, used to get on her case all the time. “It does look like someone dipped a chicken in ink and had it walk across the paper, doesn’t it? That was my first inkling that I was going to be a doctor. I have awful handwriting.”

Jesse folded the paper and put it into his wallet. “Not awful…” he said with less than total conviction, letting his voice trail off.

Before she could say anything, someone behind her asked in a jovial voice, “So, how is the hero?”

They both looked over to the trauma room’s entrance. The man whose diamonds he’d recovered stood in the doorway, beaming at him. There was a butterfly bandage on his cheek but other than that, he seemed none the worse for wear.

Tania pushed her stool back, then rose to her feet. “Good as new,” she declared, then turned back to Jesse. “Now comes the really hard part.” Her mouth quirked. “Filling out the insurance forms.” She turned to lead the way out. “You can do that at the outpatient desk.”

Isaac stepped into the room. He raised both hands, as if to beat the notion back. “No need. It’s on me. I’ll pay it,” he told Jesse eagerly.

Jesse slid off the table, picking up his jacket. “That’s all right,” he told the older man. “My company has health insurance. They’ll take care of it.”

Isaac gave him a once-over, taking in the torn trouser leg and the stains. “Then a new suit,” he declared with feeling. “I owe you a new suit.”

For just a second, there was a mental tug of war. But in the end, pride prevented Jesse from taking the man up on his offer. The suit he had on had set him back a good five hundred dollars because he knew appearances were everything.

But he was his own man. He always had been. That meant he paid his own way and was indebted to no one.

“No,” he assured the old man, “you really don’t owe me anything.”

This could go on all afternoon, Tania thought. She gently placed a hand to each man’s arm and motioned them out of the room. “I’m afraid that you two need to settle this outside.” She smiled brightly at Isaac. “We need the room.”

Isaac began backing out immediately. “Of course, of course.” He took both of her hands into his, his gratitude overflowing and genuine. “Thank you for all that you did.”

Jesse debated slipping on his jacket, then decided to leave it slung over his arm. A dull ache started in his shoulder. He was going to feel like hell by tomorrow morning, he thought, remembering his days on the gridiron.

“What about you?” he asked the old man as they walked out of the room. “How’s your face?”

Isaac touched the bandage, then dropped his hand. Even the slightest contact sent a wave of pain right through his teeth.

“If Myra, my wife, was alive today, she would say ‘as ugly as ever.’” He shrugged philosophically. “When you are not a good-looking man, a blow to the face is not that big a tragedy.” And then he smiled, nodding at his Good Samaritan. “Not like with you.” He stood for a moment, cocking his head like wizened old owl, studying the doctor’s handiwork. “Nice work. My brother Leon would approve. Leon is a tailor,” he explained. And then his eyes lit up. “Of course. I’ll send you to Leon.” The thought pleased the jeweler greatly. “He will make you such a suit. And I will pay him.”

How did he get the old man to understand that he didn’t owe him anything? That successfully coming to the jeweler’s rescue was enough for him. “No, really, I don’t—”

But Jesse got no further in his protest. Isaac pursed his lips beneath his neatly trimmed moustache and beard. “Pride is a foolish thing, young man.” He wagged his finger to make his point. “It kept the Emperor without any clothes.” His voice lowered. “Please, it’ll make me feel better.”

Tania passed the two men on her way to get the chart for her next patient. “I’d give in if I were you,” she advised Jesse. “It doesn’t sound as if he’s about to give up.” And then she winked at the old man, as if they shared a secret. “Trust me,” she told Jesse, thinking of her father, “I’m familiar with the type.”

And with that, she hurried off to a curtained section just beyond the nurses’ station.

Isaac watched her walk away. There was appreciation in the man’s sky-blue eyes when he turned them back to Jesse. “Nice girl, that one.” And then he asked innocently, “Are you married?”

“What? No.” Was the man matchmaking? Trying to line up a customer for a ring? Well, he wasn’t in the market for something like that right now. Maybe later, but not for a couple of years or so. “And not looking for anyone right now, either,” Jesse emphasized.

His words beaded off Isaac’s back like water off a duck.

“Sometimes we find when we don’t look. And should you find,” Isaac said, digging into his pocket, “you come to me.” Producing a business card, he tucked it into Jesse’s hand. “I will take good care of you. I’ll match you up with the finest engagement ring you’ve ever seen.” And then he added the final touch. “On the house.”

Jesse nodded, pocketing the card, fairly certain that this was an empty promise the old man felt he had to make. Once there was a little distance from the events of today, Jesse was confident the man would feel completely differently. He had no intentions of holding a man to a promise made in the heat of the moment.

Besides, the last thing he needed right now was an engagement ring.

“And you, do you have a card?” Isaac asked him curiously, his bright blue eyes shifting to Jesse’s pants’ pocket.

Just by coincidence, he’d been given his first batch of cards yesterday afternoon. He hadn’t had a chance to hand any out yet. “Yes.”

Isaac waited for a moment. When nothing materialized, he coaxed, “May I have it? So that I can have your phone number,” he explained. A gurney was being ushered by. Jesse and Isaac stepped to the side, out of the way. “Not to bother you, of course, but to see how you are doing and to find out when you are available for that suit.”

Maybe saving this man’s diamonds hadn’t been such a good thing, after all, Jesse mused. Then again, maybe he was being a little paranoid. After all, the man was justifiably grateful. But after what he’d been through recently with Ellen, well, it had him still looking over his shoulder at times.

“Believe me, it’s really not necessary.”

Isaac fixed him with a long, serious look. “Neither was coming to my rescue, young man, but you did. Isaac Epstein does not forget a kindness. You are a very rare young man.” So Jesse dug into his pocket and handed the man his card. “Jesse Steele,” Isaac read, then glanced at what followed. “You are an architect?”

It had been a long road to that label. He still felt no small pride whenever he heard it applied to him. “Yes, I am.”

“You know—” Isaac leaned his head in as if he was about to impart a dark secret “—my house could use expanding…”

Jesse couldn’t help laughing. Isaac was harmless and well-meaning, if pushy. He put his arm across the older man’s shoulders, leading him out of the area and to the outpatient station so they could both get on with their lives—especially him.

“I think we need to get out of everyone’s way, Mr. Epstein.” The police had indicated that he could come in later and give his statement, for which he was extremely grateful. “And I need to get to my office.”

They weren’t going to hold the meeting for him forever, he thought. He had a change of clothing at the firm, in case he had to take a sudden flight out on business. The suit might be wrinkled, but anything was better than what he was currently wearing.

“Let me make a call,” Isaac offered. “My cousin’s son, John, he owns a limousine service. You can arrive to your office in style.”

“I can arrive on the bus,” Jesse countered as he walked down the hallway with the older man.

Isaac released a sigh that was twice as large as he was. “I never thought I would meet anyone more stubborn than my Myra.”

Jesse tried to keep a straight face as he said, “Life is full of surprises, Mr. Epstein.”

“Isaac, please,” the man corrected him as they turned a corner.

A little more than two hours later the flow of patients temporarily became a trickle. It was then that Shelly Fontaine, a full-figured nurse with lively eyes and a quick, infectious smile, came up to her, dangling a watch in the air in front of her.

“What would you like me to do with this, Dr. Ski?” The name was one Tania had suggested after Shelly’s tongue had tripped her up several times while trying to pronounce her actual surname.

Glancing up from the computer where she was inputting last-minute notes, Tania hardly saw the object in question.

“Have Emilio take it down to Lost and Found where everything goes,” she murmured. And then her mind did a double take. “Hold it,” she called to Shelly who moved rather fast when she wanted to. “Let me see that again.” She held her hand out for the watch. Upon closer examination, she recognized it. The timepiece was old-fashioned with a wind-up stem. And, if she wasn’t mistaken, it had come off Jesse Steele’s wrist. She had assumed he’d put it back on after she’d examined the scratch beneath the band. Obviously not. But just to be on the sure side, she asked, “Where did you get this?”

“Trauma bay one.” Shelly nodded back toward the room where, even now, another patient was being wheeled in on a gurney. It looked as if the flow was picking up again. “You were taking care of that hunk in there.” Shelly’s mouth widened in a huge, wistful grin. “I thought you might know where to find him. Assuming this is his and not some patient who was there before him.”

“No, this is his,” Tania said with certainty. “I recognize it.”

It would be too much of a coincidence for there to be two watches like this worn by patients occupying the same room on the same day. Rather than give the watch back to the nurse, Tania slipped the watch into her pocket. Hitting several more keys, she saved what she’d input and rose from the desk.

“His address has to be on file,” she said, thinking out loud. She knew for a fact that she’d seen it written on the information form the nurse had taken before she’d come in to treat the man. “I’ll look it up and have someone mail it to him.”

Shelly sighed soulfully as she followed her away from the desk. “I’d like to mail me to him.”

“Shelly, you’re married,” Tania pointed out.

“I’m married, I’m not blind. I can look. And maybe lust,” the older woman added mischievously. “It’s not like Raymond doesn’t look every woman over the age of eighteen up and down when he passes them.”

Obviously not every marriage was made in heaven, Tania thought.

“Hey, you ready?” Kady called, coming around the corner like a runaway steamroller.

Tania made a show of looking at the watch on her wrist. “For lunch or dinner?” It was a blatant reference to the fact that her older sister was more than half an hour late.

“Sorry, it’s been crazy today. I had to perform an emergency cardiac ablation. This man had an attack of atrial fibrillation that just wouldn’t stop. I know I should have called, but there wasn’t any time—”

“Save your apologies.” Tania grabbed her purse from the drawer beneath the nurse’s desk. “You lucked out. It’s been hectic here all morning, too.”

“Did it have anything to do with the camera crews outside?” Kady wanted to know.

She hadn’t seen the light of day since she’d walked in yesterday. Armageddon could have swept the street of Manhattan and she wouldn’t have known about it. “Camera crews?”

“Yeah, outside the E.R.” Only extremely tight security, instituted right after the serial killings that had rocked the hospital last January, had kept the pushiest of the crew members out. “Something about a hero saving a dealer’s diamonds. Security kept them out, but I heard that the media swarmed all over the guy when he finally left the hospital.”

Tania shook her head. “Poor man probably never got to go to his meeting.”

Kady stopped walking and looked at her sister, confused. “Meeting? What meeting?” And then the answer dawned on her. “Did you treat him?”

Stopping by the elevator, Tania pressed for the basement where the cafeteria was located. “I sewed up his scalp wound.”

Kady sighed. “Some girls have all the luck,” she teased. Tania looked at her and for one moment Kady could have bitten off her tongue. Because for one unguarded moment, Tania had allowed the pain to come through and register in her eyes.

But the next, Tania was flashing the wide smile she’d always been known for and nodding her head in agreement. “Yeah, we do. Your turn to buy lunch, by the way.”

Kady was relieved that the moment had passed. “I distinctly remember that it was your turn.”

“Maybe you should be marrying a neurosurgeon instead of a bodyguard. There’s something going wrong with your memory.”

The elevator arrived and the doors opened. Kady put her arm around Tania’s shoulders and guided her in. “Not today, little sister, not today.”

Chapter 3

She’d just wanted to make sure he was all right.

She’d been a safe distance away, trailing discreetly behind him—far enough away not to be noticed, close enough to see—when Jesse had stopped that thief.

Her breath had caught in her throat as she’d watched the two grapple on the ground. And it had taken everything she’d had not to run up to Jesse when she’d seen the blood trickling along the side of his head. She’d wanted to clean the wound with her handkerchief and make it better with her kisses.

In all probability, she would have run up to him to do just that, but the ambulance had arrived in the blink of an eye. When it had, rather than step forward she’d melted back in with the crowd. That was when she’d read the logo on the side of the vehicle. It had been dispensed from Patience Memorial Hospital.

She knew where that was.

Several months ago they’d treated her there when her wrists had had an unfortunate meeting with a shard of glass. The police had brought her there, summoned by her nosy superintendent who’d come about the overdue rent and had illegally let himself in when she hadn’t answered the door. The police had wanted to label it a suicide attempt. She’d talked them out of it, saying it was just an accident. A glass had broken when she was washing dishes and she hadn’t realized it until the jagged edges had scraped against both of her wrists and she’d felt faint.

They didn’t look like they believed her, but she’d convinced them. She was good at convincing people when she set her mind to it.