Her Kind Of Doctor

Maybe because Paige Winters is the only person you care about being around. Because without her, your job at Tahoe General would mean far, far less. Face it, Luke, for a long time now you’ve thought of the two of you as a team. Now you’re wondering if you might’ve torn your team apart.

Releasing a heavy sigh, Luke left the pier and began the steep climb up to the massive split-level house he called home.

Built of native rock and rough cedar, it was perched on a rocky shelf that overlooked a finger of the lake. Nestled among a stand of huge ponderosa pine, the solid structure was always shaded from the blistering sun in the summer season and partially guarded from high drifts of snow in the winter. Built onto the back of the house, a wide stone terrace was furnished with comfortable lawn furniture and an outdoor bar and grill. Potted plants, carefully tended by a gardener, were strategically placed to make the sitting area feel like an extension of the yard.

Even to his jaded eye, the place was incredibly beautiful, yet in the past four years he’d lived here, it had never felt like home.

Hell. No place would ever feel like home to him again, Luke thought. Even if he went back to West Virginia and walked into the tiny house where he’d grown up, where his parents had lived until the day they’d died, it wouldn’t be the same. Too much had happened. Too many things had been ripped away from him. Now he viewed everything with stark reality. Home was just a fanciful ideal and a house was simply a place to eat, sleep and take shelter from the elements. As for family—well, they were just something a person eventually lost.

* * *

Later that night, as Luke began his evening shift, it was glaringly obvious that Paige wasn’t present and the remaining nurses in the ER were tiptoeing around him as though he had a communicable disease.

With a steady stream of patients pouring into the emergency care unit, he didn’t have a chance to question where Paige was, or if she’d be showing up later. But as soon as there was a lapse in the number of patients, he caught up to Chavella Honanie, just as she was entering the medical dispensary. From what he observed in the ER, the young nurse appeared to be a close friend of Paige’s. If anyone could tell him about her absence, he figured Chavella would be the one.

“Yes, Dr. Sherman, is there something I can do for you?” she asked.

Feeling a bit embarrassed and hating himself because of it, he said, “I, uh, was wondering if you knew why Nurse Winters isn’t on duty tonight. Is she ill?”

The nurse’s dark gaze awkwardly fell from his. “I don’t think so. Samantha Newton is working a double shift to make up for Paige’s absence. As for Paige, I haven’t talked with her since she left the hospital at five this morning.”

Exactly when he’d ordered Paige to leave. Chavella didn’t say the words, but Luke knew the young Hopi nurse was thinking them.

“Do you think any of the other nurses might know why she’s not here?”

Chavella nervously darted a glance at him. “I’m not sure. You should probably ask Helen. She takes care of the shift roster.”

Nodding, he left the dispensary and walked out to the nurses’ station. When he approached the long, waist-high desk, Helen was on the phone. Trying to hide his impatience, he folded his arms against his chest and waited until she ended the conversation.

“Good evening, Dr. Sherman. Haven’t you ventured a little beyond your territory?”

Since Helen was nearly thirty years his senior and had worked in this very hospital for close to forty years, he felt she’d earned the right to say anything she wanted to say in whatever tone she wanted to say it.

“From time to time, I do stick my head out of the treatment area,” he informed her.

She cracked a smile at him. “Well, it’s nice to see your good-looking face tonight. What can I do for you?”

Good-looking? He’d never thought much about his appearance, other than to keep his face shaved, hair trimmed to a decent length, and his clothes clean and neat. Otherwise, it didn’t matter. But for some odd reason he was suddenly wondering how Paige saw him. Did she ever see him as a man, instead of a doctor? Had she ever thought of him as good-looking?

Silently cursing himself for having such idiotic thoughts, he said, “Nurse Winters isn’t here tonight. Can you tell me why? Did she call in sick?”

Helen’s chin lifted as she drew in a long breath. “Paige is not ill. In fact, she’s at work right now on the third floor.”

Luke stared at the veteran nurse as if she’d lost her mind. “Third floor! Paige is up in internal medicine?”

“That’s right,” Helen said smugly. “She’s been transferred out of the ER unit. At her own request.”

If someone had hit Luke square in the forehead with a baseball bat, he wouldn’t have been more stunned than he was at this moment. For as long as he’d known her, Paige had worked the ER. Sure, they’d exchanged heated words, yet he’d never thought she’d go to this extent to get back at him. But perhaps he was jumping the gun in assuming he was the reason she’d left the ER. Maybe there was a different reason.

He looked blankly at Helen. “Why?”

“Excuse me?”

He grimaced. “Why did Nurse Winters ask for the transfer?”

Helen rolled her eyes. “Think hard, Dr. Sherman. You’ll figure it out.”

Drawing in a harsh breath, he started to stalk away from the sarcastic nurse. But that would hardly garner the answers he was seeking.

Swiping a hand through his hair, he tried to keep his paper-thin patience from slipping completely away. “I don’t have time for mind games, Helen. Yes, Nurse Winters and I exchanged a few cross words last shift, but it hardly warranted her flying the coop!”

Helen’s head tilted to a challenging angle. “Perhaps you view the incident in those terms. Paige obviously sees it differently. Hmmph. I don’t suppose you bothered to ask her why she had tears in her eyes.”

His back teeth snapped together. “The reason for her breakdown didn’t matter then,” he uttered slowly and concisely. “Nor does it have any bearing on the issue now.”

The way in which the older nurse was eyeing him, Luke got the impression she’d like to spit a few salty words at him. Instead, she turned back to the desk as though to say her job was far more important than dealing with his demands.

Picking up a clipboard and pen, she said crisply, “Naturally you would have that attitude. You’re a man. You wouldn’t understand the deep pull of a woman’s maternal instincts.”

Maternal! Before he’d caught Paige crying, there hadn’t been any children visit the emergency unit. She couldn’t have been crying over a sick baby or an adolescent. Unless Helen was implying in a roundabout way that Paige was pregnant! No! Surely that couldn’t be!

“Helen, it might be helpful if you would explain that cryptic remark.”

“I think you should be having this conversation with Nurse Winters. Not me.”

He wasn’t going to have any more conversations with Paige, he thought crossly. She’d clearly made her choice to move on. Away from him. Away from the ER. If she’d gotten involved with some man and gotten herself pregnant, then he didn’t want to know about it. And he definitely didn’t want to think about it.

“Can you kindly explain if you have another nurse lined up to take Nurse Winters’s place? The unit was already short-handed on nurses.”

“I’m working on that, Dr. Sherman. Just give me a bit more time. Filling Paige’s shoes isn’t going to be easy, you know.”

Before he could make a retort, the telephone rang and Helen excused herself to answer it. Luke didn’t wait around to see if her conversation was going to be brief. He figured Helen had already spoken her piece on the matter.

Determined to put Paige and the whole incident out of his mind, he turned on his heel and started back to the treatment area. Yet as he passed the elevator used exclusively for ER patients, he suddenly wondered what Paige would think if he did show up on the third floor.

Would she tell him to go jump in the lake? Or apologize for calling him a bastard?

The nagging questions were rolling through his thoughts when the corner of his eye caught a flash of movement and he looked around to see Nurse Honanie motioning to him.

“Dr. Sherman, the paramedics are bringing in a patient with stroke symptoms,” she called to him.

Hurrying forward, he promised himself he’d think about Paige Winters later. Right now saving a life was his only priority.

Chapter Two

Friday morning after Paige had finished her night shift, she was walking across the parking lot to her car when she heard a familiar voice calling to her.

Pausing, she glanced over her shoulder to see Chavella hurrying to catch up to her. The young woman had changed out of her scrubs and into a pair of jeans and a shirt. Her coal-black hair bounced against her back as she trotted across the asphalt. She was so very young and beautiful, yet tragedy had wiped away too much of her youthful spirit when her fiancé had been killed in a freak construction accident. Paige had often wished Chavella would meet a man who would fill the emptiness in her life, but so far she’d shown no interest in forgetting her late fiancé.

“Hey, sweetie!” Paige called to her. “On your way home?”

Chavella nodded as she came to a stop at Paige’s side. “Yes, what about you?”

“Me, too. In fact, I have the next two nights off. I’m still pinching myself to make sure I’m not dreaming.”

The young nurse’s dark eyes widened. “Two nights off? Are you kidding?”

“No. Seems the internal-medicine floor has plenty of nurses to rotate. And my break just happened to fall this weekend.”

Chavella shrugged. “Lucky you. We’re still short-handed, so none of us are expecting days off.”

“Oh. You mean Helen hasn’t replaced me yet?”

“Three different nurses have come in for the past three nights. All of them are just temps.”

Confused by this news, Paige shook her head. “What is the woman thinking? She knows the ER always has a demanding load of patients!”

Chavella glanced away as she pulled the strap of her tote higher onto her shoulder. “I think she expects you to return.”

The hollow feeling in Paige’s stomach spread until it culminated in a dull ache in the middle of her chest.

“I’ll have a talk with her. She needs to understand that I’m not coming back. Not for any reason.”

Disappointment clouded Chavella’s pretty features. “Oh. So you like the internal floor?”

“I like anywhere I’m needed,” she said evasively. She wasn’t going to come right out and admit that she’d been bored out of her mind for the past three nights. The morbidly quiet hallways of the third floor were nothing like the hustle and bustle of trauma patients rolling through the ER. And never in a million years would she reveal to Chavella, or anyone else, that she missed Dr. Sherman and his acid tongue. Even more, Paige missed his confident manner in treating the patients and his knack for being able to make a rapid diagnosis when every second counted. Most of all she missed having the solid strength of his presence and knowing he was only a few steps away if she needed him. “And the IM doctors only show up when they’re making rounds. Makes for a peaceful shift.”

Chavella smiled wanly. “I’m glad your transfer has turned out so well. You must be very happy.”

She’d never been more miserable in her life, but she gave the other nurse the brightest smile she could manage. “Thanks, Chavella. I think—yes, even though I miss you and the other nurses, this move was best for me. Tell everyone hello for me, won’t you?”

“What about Dr. Sherman? Do you have a message for him?”

Paige glanced around the parking lot as though she expected to see the man suddenly walking toward her. Which was a ridiculous reaction. Dr. Luke Sherman always remained at the hospital long after his shift ended. She didn’t know if that stemmed from dedication to his job, or because being a physician was the only thing he had going in his life.

“Chavella, you’re far too nice a person to repeat the words I’d have to say to Dr. Sherman,” she said ruefully.

The young nurse studied Paige with dark eyes that held far more wisdom than most women her age. “None of us nurses ever understood why he was always so hard on you, Paige. Most of us thought it was because he was...well, sweet on you. But now, I guess we were wrong.”

“Dead wrong,” Paige said bluntly.

Chavella cleared her throat. “I think he misses you. He’s not seemed the same since you left.”

In spite of his hateful words lingering at the edges of her thoughts, a bereft feeling shot through her. “Of course he isn’t the same,” she argued. “His whipping post is gone. So who is he yelling at now? Dear Lord, I hope it’s not you.”

“That’s what none of us nurses can figure out, Paige. He’s not yelling at anyone. He’s quiet. Scary quiet. We’ve all been tiptoeing around him, expecting him to explode at any moment. So far it hasn’t happened.”

Chavella’s news was like a knife to Paige’s chest. All this time she’d been telling herself that Dr. Luke Sherman was the type of man who would always need someone to browbeat, someone he could spew his bitterness at. She’d believed that once she was gone, he would move his insufferable treatment to another nurse. But apparently she’d been all wrong. For some reason she would never understand, it was her and only her that he’d wanted to hurt.

Trying to paste a smile on her lips, Paige said, “Well, that’s good news. With me gone there’ll be peace in the ER. I’m glad for all of you.”

Pressing her lips together, Chavella gazed back at the hospital building, which was now bathed in warm morning sunlight. “I don’t like it peaceful, Paige. I’m thinking I’ll go to Mr. Anderson and ask to be transferred, too.”

Paige instantly snatched up Chavella’s hand and patted it. “Oh, no, Chavella. Please, don’t do that. The ER is so important. It needs nurses like you, who are compassionate and dedicated. And what would Helen do if all of you started migrating out of there? She and the patients would be in trouble.”

The young nurse sighed. “Yes. I suppose you’re right,” she said glumly.

Paige gave Chavella’s hand another pat before she released it. “Cheer up. In two months Marcella’s maternity leave will be up and she’ll be returning to part-time work in the ER. She’ll make everything better.”

Chavella smiled faintly, but said nothing. Paige reached over and gave her shoulders a hug. “I need to get going. Why don’t you stop by the farm and have a cup of coffee with Grandfather? I don’t have to tell you how much he enjoys your company.”

“Maybe soon,” Chavella said, then sighed. “I promised Mother I would take her into Fallon this morning for grocery shopping. I keep hoping that one of these days she’ll learn how to drive a car.”

Grinning faintly, Paige suggested, “Maybe you should teach her.”

Chavella chuckled. “Then I might wind up as a patient in the emergency instead of a nurse.”

Paige laughed along with her, then after a brief goodbye, walked on to her car.

For the next few minutes Paige concentrated on maneuvering through the morning rush-hour traffic in the city, but once she was traveling on the open highway toward home, her thoughts turned to Chavella’s remarks.

I think he misses you. He’s not seemed the same since you left.

Could it be that Dr. Luke Sherman had actually noticed she’d been gone? Could he be missing her? No. He’d never miss her, Paige Winters, the woman. But he might be missing Nurse Winters.

Don’t be an idiot, Paige. Luke Sherman has never seen you as a woman. And if you worked at his side for another three years, he’d still see you as nothing more than a nurse. A nurse he loved to yell at and step on. Forget him. Forget the ER. And forget the empty feeling in the middle of your chest. You’ll get over it just like you got over David.

The mere thought of her ex-husband put a frown on Paige’s face. He’d been a liar and a cheat. And seven years ago, when she’d left him and his mistress behind in Reno, she’d basically pushed the idea of love and marriage out of her life. She didn’t need to go looking for another heartache. That had been her motto.

But earlier in the week, when she’d held Marcella’s daughter in her arms, she’d suddenly been swamped with loneliness and the feeling had startled her. All these years she’d lived as a single woman, she’d thought her life was complete. She’d never thought of herself as lonely. She’d never gone around longing for a husband or children. After all, she had her busy job at the hospital, along with helping her grandfather on his little farm. She didn’t need anything else.

But the night Paige had held newborn Daisy, something deeply maternal had called to her. Suddenly she’d been remembering how much she’d once wanted a man’s love. How much she’d longed to have babies and be a mother.

When Luke Sherman had spotted her tears, he’d accused her of being emotionally out of control. He couldn’t know that for the first time in years, she’d allowed herself to be a woman and all the feelings that went with it. But he wouldn’t care about that. No, with him it was always about rules and stipulations. Well, she’d stepped over that rigid line he expected her to follow and she had no intention of ever going back.

Forty-five minutes later, when she arrived home, she spotted Gideon and Rob Duncan in front of the barn, changing a tire on one of the tractors. As she exited the car and started to the house, both men waved to her. She waved back, but didn’t make a point to go greet them.

Rob had never hid the fact that he wanted to date her and though he was a nice, generally good-looking man, she was tired of repeatedly turning down his invitations, and Gideon didn’t seem to understand. As far as her grandfather was concerned, the neighboring farmer would be a good catch for Paige.

Inside, Paige changed into a pair of old jeans and a checked shirt, then went straight outside to the henhouse. She’d fed the chickens and was gathering the eggs that had been laid since yesterday, when Gideon stepped into the dimly lit structure.

“Hey, girl, couldn’t you find enough eggs in the house for your breakfast?”

Paige placed the last brown egg in the basket on her arm before stepping over to her grandfather. “I didn’t want any breakfast. I wanted to come out here. It makes me feel good to hear the hens cluck.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “What’s the matter—you don’t want to eat? You getting sick on me?”

“No, Grandfather. I’m fine.”

He lifted a worn gray cap from his head and swiped a hand over his hair. “Rob was wondering why you didn’t come say hello.”

Paige inwardly winced. “I waved hello to him.”

“The man is crazy about you, Paige. The least you can do is be friendly.”

Sighing, Paige shook her head. “He views being friendly as encouragement. And I don’t have any romantic interest in the man.”

“Maybe you should,” he retorted. “You could do a lot worse than to marry Rob.”

It wasn’t like Gideon to pry into her private life. Sometimes he suggested that she needed to get out more and do something fun with friends, but he’d never pushed her about men or marriage until recently.

“What’s the matter, Grandfather? Are you thinking I’m turning into an old, cranky spinster?”

“Hell, no. I...well, sometimes I get to thinking you’re wasting yourself living here with me. Never having much of a life of your own.”

Smiling now, she curled one arm around the back of his waist and gave him a squeeze. “Hush, Grandfather. Not one minute of my life is wasted when I’m with you. So if you’re getting tired of me, you’re out of luck. I’m not going anywhere. And you can tell that to Rob Duncan, too.”

“I’ll tell him,” Gideon muttered. “No use in letting the man hang on to false hope.”

Trying not to roll her eyes, Paige urged him out of the henhouse. Once they were away from the chicken yard and walking toward the back of the house, she asked, “When did you have the flat on the tractor?”

“Don’t know. I found it that way this morning. I would’ve fixed it myself, but since it was on Ole Red I thought I’d better wait until I got some help.”

Ole Red was Gideon’s biggest tractor. The one he used for plowing and cultivating the alfalfa field. The tires on the Farmall were much too enormous and heavy for one man to handle. Especially a man of Gideon’s age.

“I’m glad you did. But you could’ve called a garage in Fallon to send someone out. I would’ve paid for the service. You didn’t need to bother Rob.”

“He was on his way to Carson City and just happened to come by to say hello. Being neighborly, he offered to help. And speaking of being neighborly, old lady Krenshaw is feeling poorly again. If you ask me she’s just wanting attention, but I thought you might go visit her this evening. On your way back to work.”

By now the two of them had climbed onto the back porch and Gideon held open the screen door in order for Paige to precede him into the kitchen. The room smelled of sausage and pancakes, and normally, the scents would have whetted her appetite, but for the past few days she’d found it impossible to eat more than a few bites at a time.

“I won’t be going back to work this evening,” she informed him. “I have the next two days off.”

Pausing in his tracks, Gideon stared at her. “Glory be. What are you going to do with yourself?”

“Just what I want to,” she joked, then added in a more serious tone, “I honestly don’t know yet. Hoe the garden and wash curtains. Maybe even make you some pies.”

Gideon pushed back the bill of his cap and scratched the top of his head. “Guess things are going to be different around here with you not working in the ER. Maybe your transfer was all for the better.”

It would be for the better, Paige thought, if she liked the slower pace and could get used to not having Dr. Sherman standing over her shoulder, barking out orders. Darn it! Why did his memory have to keep butting in? For days now she’d tried to forget the awful things she’d said to him. True, he’d deserved every word and more. But it wasn’t in Paige’s nature to be nasty to anyone. Even someone who’d treated her unfairly.

“I hope so,” she told him, then directed their conversation away from her job. “So explain this to me, Grandfather—how do you know Hatti Krenshaw isn’t feeling well? Have you been calling her?”

“Now why would that idea surprise you?” he asked with a grin. “Your old grandfather knows how to talk to a woman.”

Paige placed the basket of eggs on the cabinet and began to gather fixings for a fresh pot of coffee. “I didn’t know you were that acquainted with the woman. The only time we see her is at church. Have you been making trips over to her house?”

His wry chuckle had Paige arching a brow at him.

“You don’t know what goes on around here all the time,” he said, a sly sparkle in his blue eyes. “I still drive, you know.”

So her seventy-five-year-old grandfather had more romance going on than Paige did. That pretty much summed up her love life, or lack of one, she thought glumly.

“If that’s the way things are with you and Hatti, then I’d like to know why you call her ‘old lady.’ Hatti’s probably five years younger than you.”

He sidled up to the cabinet counter and watched as Paige poured water into the coffeemaker. “I call her old because she acts old. Ever since her husband died she’s sat down and gave up on life. I’ve told her she’s wasting herself. But she doesn’t listen. None of you women do.”

Paige’s grunt was full of humor. “What do you think Hatti needs to do? Kick up her heels and go dancing?”

“It sure as heck would be a start. Get her legs limbered up and her heart pumping. Use it or lose it. That’s what I tell her. Any way you look at it, life is short. Nobody should sit around frittering away precious time.”

Paige could hardly be accused of sitting around. In fact, she rarely took any leisure time for herself. But ever since she’d held baby Daisy, she’d been thinking about time and her future and whether she was going to end up childless and alone.