The Doctor's Former Fiancee

Look, Dad, I’m following in your footsteps.

The tension in his shoulders eased. Had he lived to see it, his father would have been unconditionally proud. Braden knew that. He expected his mother and brothers would feel the same way when they found out.

Braden couldn’t tell them yet. The Securities and Exchange Commission had strict rules against corporate presidents leaking that kind of information too soon. For now, he’d have to content himself with giving his baby brother a hard time.

“As if your ugly mug would be enough to drag me across the country,” he said, resisting the urge to throw a fake slo-mo punch at Jamie. Those childhood habits died hard. “But your wife’s pretty face, that’s another matter. Is Kendry working today?”

“She’s home, studying for an exam. Nursing school is no cakewalk. Better her than me.”

“Beautiful and smart. Driven. My kind of woman.”

“She’s all that and more, but since married women aren’t your thing, to what do we owe the pleasure of this visit?”

“This trip was strictly business,” Braden lied. He wasn’t about to confess his idiotic notion of visiting the chapel to formally end the promise he’d once made. “I was expecting to meet with Dr. Montgomery.”

“Montgomery? That old bastard is the reason you flew across the country? Now I am offended.”

“I wouldn’t have wasted the jet fuel if someone had bothered to inform me that Montgomery was no longer the head of research.”

“Until yesterday, I was basking in the sun under a coconut tree with Kendry. Good thing your company can afford the plane ticket.” To the nurse, Jamie gave orders for the patient whose cubicle he’d just left. “Nebulizer in four. Call me when the azithromycin IV is finished. I’ll be in the kitchen.”

Braden followed Jamie into the kitchenette that the staff used during their round-the-clock shifts.

“I could have done without the surprise,” Braden said, once they were alone. He still felt off balance after seeing Lana.

“What surprise?”

“Dr. Montgomery’s replacement. Lana Donnoli.”

“That’s your Lana? From med school?”

“You didn’t know?” Braden crossed his arms over his chest and eyed his brother skeptically.

“I told you, I was on a beach. On my honeymoon.”

“The decision wasn’t made yesterday.”

“I’m just a lowly E.R. doc. You want to get pissed off at a brother, go find Quinn. He joined the board.”

Braden shook off the offer of the cup of coffee Jamie had just poured, so Jamie drank it himself, settling against the counter. “It sucks being back on my feet after spending a week in bed.”

“Yeah, life’s rough.” Braden’s sarcastic answer was automatic, but he knew his younger brother deserved every bit of happiness that came his way. While serving the country as an army physician in a war zone, Jamie had lost the first woman he’d loved. He’d come a long way since that dark period, and Braden was glad to see it. Still, he didn’t want to hear about honeymoon bliss. “In all seriousness, I’m glad civilian life is treating you well.”

“Don’t get all mushy on me. The coffee’s decent. Have some.”

Braden poured a cup and sat down in a plastic chair that looked like a waiting-room reject. “Lana’s too young to be the department head at a hospital this size.”

Jamie had the nerve to grin. “We’re still on that topic? Like I said, Quinn’s on the board, not me. But I noticed this morning that her name’s been added to the E.R.’s coverage list. I wondered if it was your Lana.”

“She hasn’t been my anything for years. I sure as hell hope Quinn didn’t give her this position out of some misguided idea that he’d be helping out an old family friend.” He drank the coffee black. No cream, no sugar to hide the true flavor.

Jamie was watching him closely. As the youngest, he’d been away at college during Braden’s engagement. He probably knew very little about the whole affair.

Braden explained. “Lana’s the one who called it off. Mailed the ring to me at Harvard and never spoke to me again.”

“And then you walked into the boardroom today and there she was?”

Braden rejected the sympathy he heard in Jamie’s tone. “That wasn’t an issue. I just don’t want you or Quinn thinking she’s some kind of family friend who deserves special consideration.”

“I don’t see Quinn letting your love life influence decisions about this hospital. He treats this place like Dad did, like it’s some kind of gift to the community.”

Hearing Jamie voice his own earlier thought out loud was both discomforting and reassuring. As children, they’d all competed with the hospital for their father’s attention, Braden supposed, although he’d always felt pride in knowing the medical complex was a MacDowell legacy.

One which he, the eldest son, had left behind. One from which he’d just pulled a million dollars of funding.

The coffee tasted like hell. Braden dumped his coffee down the sink and crushed the paper cup in his hand. “It’s good that Quinn takes it seriously. A nonprofit hospital is a gift to the community.”

By Valentine’s Day, the PLI deal would be final, and Braden would be legally able to tell his family about the research facilities, his own contribution to the city. He looked forward to proving that he was still loyal to his hometown. The project was proof that Braden hadn’t abandoned his family or his father’s ideals, despite the way it may have seemed on the surface for the past six years.

Until then, what were another four or five days of misunderstanding? That subtle condemnation, that distrust, that assumption that he preferred to be a loner in the big city had started when he’d left Austin for Boston. When he’d left doctoring for big business. When he’d left Lana for—

For no one. He’d never left Lana. She’d done all the leaving.

Braden, don’t go. I want a second chance.

Her words today had shaken him, although she’d been talking about a second chance with his corporation, not with him. After she’d broken their engagement, he’d heard nothing but silence. If she’d spoken those words six years ago—or five, or four—he would gladly have taken her back, to be honest. But not now.

Now Braden was moving on. This Valentine’s Day, he intended to stake his claim as a MacDowell in Austin’s medical community. He also intended to announce the next phase of his personal life. He anticipated introducing Claudia St. James to his family, then proposing marriage to seal the deal.

After a six-year absence, he’d have a wife and an office in Austin, just as he’d always planned, although the office wouldn’t be a doctor’s office, and the wife wouldn’t be Lana.

He tossed his cup into the trash can. PLI and Claudia St. James would suit him just fine. Just fine.

Jamie tossed his cup in the bin, as well. “You don’t have to tell me the hospital is a gift. I know it is. Quinn knows it is. It’s possible that he was opposed to Lana’s appointment, but the rest of the board voted for it. You’ll have to ask him, since you suddenly give a damn about who chairs which department here.” Jamie pushed away from the counter and looked him in the eye.

Yeah, his baby brother was all grown up.

“Think about it, Braden. Your Lana is young enough to be called in to work the E.R. when we’re shorthanded. Financially, I gather from Quinn that times have been tight for the hospital.”

It was Braden’s turn to raise an eyebrow. Finances were his area of expertise. West Central looked prosperous on the surface, but it was possible the accounts didn’t paint the same rosy picture.

“Lana’s age might have been a bonus,” Jamie said. “She’s young enough to have the stamina to cover for docs like me, and despite her years in research, she’s still considered inexperienced enough to not expect a salary like Montgomery was pulling.”

“If she does his job, she should get his salary. Just because she’s young doesn’t mean she isn’t competent.” Competent was a lukewarm word to describe the woman Braden remembered. She’d been the sharpest person in the residency program—except for himself. They’d been in hot competition, vying for the best ratings, competing for the highest evaluations. She’d kept him on his toes. She’d been his match in more ways than he could count.

“Now she’s competent and not too young after all?” Jamie laughed a little. “Quinn’s not an idiot. Even if Lana is getting Montgomery’s salary, the hospital gets extra coverage for the E.R. out of the deal.”

Braden didn’t want to stand here and discuss Lana Donnoli, not when he should be preparing his family to meet Claudia. A change of subject was in order, and as brothers went, he was being a lousy one by not asking after his new nephew. “You’ve got a point. So, how’s Sammy?”

“Fine. Better than fine, making up for lost time now that all his surgeries are behind him. He’s walking now. When you feed him, he tries to grab the spoon out of your hand to feed himself.” Jamie’s love and pride came through with every word. His infant son had been facing medical hurdles when he’d first arrived in the States, but Jamie and his wife had helped their son leap them all.

Braden was glad to hear it. He liked kids, and he’d always expected to be a father someday. Just because it hadn’t happened with Lana didn’t mean it wouldn’t happen. Surely Claudia would want to have children after they married.

“I think taking care of the baby while we were on our honeymoon was more than Mom could handle,” Jamie said. “Call me after you see her. I want to know if she’s still fatigued. Tell me if you think she’s exhibiting muscle weakness—or anything else you notice.”

The worry in his brother’s voice was as unmistakable as his earlier pride in his child had been. Braden was instantly worried, too. Worried, but on a schedule.

“I’m flying back to New York now. This was just a fly in, fly out.”

“Nothing’s a ‘fly in, fly out’ anymore. Not when there’s a two-hour security wait before every flight.”

“PLI has a few private jets. Don’t give me that look. It’s a business necessity, not a luxury.”

Jamie whistled softly. “You flew here in a private jet just to see Dr. Montgomery? It would have been a lot more interesting if you’d come to see Lana.”

“I don’t waste company resources.”

But he had. He’d come to say farewell to Lana. Not the real woman, of course, but the memory of her. He’d failed to execute that step, but the rest of his plan was still in place. “I was going to spend Valentine’s weekend at the ranch. Do you think Mom’s health is too frail?”

“You should check on her. Go back to New York tomorrow. You can sleep at my place, if Mom’s not up to company. My guest room’s empty.”

“No, thanks. The last thing I want is to be around a couple of newlyweds cooing over each other.”

“If marital bliss makes you queasy, then Quinn’s got a pullout sofa.”

Braden just raised an eyebrow in the way he knew made him look like their father. “I’ll be at the Four Seasons.”

Jamie raised an eyebrow in return. He could do the MacDowell look as well as Braden could. “The Four Seasons in New York?”

“In Austin.”

“Good.”

Braden left the hospital through the ambulance portico as he phoned his executive assistant. She would contact the hotel and the pilot. There was always a packed suitcase on board the plane, one which would be delivered to the Four Seasons with no inconvenience to himself. Braden mentally adjusted his schedule before his assistant could answer. He would use this unexpected layover in Austin to execute another key step in his plan.

He wanted to use an Austin jeweler to create the perfect engagement ring for Claudia. Nothing in New York had seemed appropriate. But first, he’d visit his mother to be sure her health would allow her to meet the perfect potential daughter-in-law.

Valentine’s Day. He was a businessman who set goals and timelines. His life would finally move on, come Valentine’s Day.

Chapter Five

Lana couldn’t focus on the pink paper hearts that Myrna was sticking on the door to their office. She watched Myrna painstakingly frame the square window that made up most of the top half of the door. Hopefully, a ten-second break from her computer screen was all Lana’s eyes needed.

It didn’t work. When she looked back at the monitor, the numbers quickly began jumping on the screen once more. They blurred before her tired eyes. Maybe she needed reading glasses. Maybe Dr. Montgomery had left an old pair behind.

Her hand reached for the desk drawer even as her eyes filled with tears. The thought of needing reading glasses made her cry, even if Braden MacDowell didn’t.

“Am I that old?”

Lord, she felt it. Old and tired. It was a natural consequence, she was certain, from running for too many days on too little sleep. Packing up in D.C., driving halfway across the country and taking over a department in disarray left no time for rest. Of course she couldn’t focus. She was tired. Not old and tired. Just tired.

But she needed to focus on these numbers. She needed to win another research contract with PLI. Braden MacDowell’s company.

Braden. He was why she felt so old. Six years had passed, but they felt like sixty. Seeing Braden had been a shock, but it was already over, and Lana would be dealing with Cheryl Gassett from now on. Myrna already knew the PLI representative, in fact. It was quite possible that Lana might never see Braden again.

The thought almost made her sad. Braden was part of her lost youth.

Lost youth? She was only thirty-four. This pity party had to stop. She had a job to do.

Lana crammed her feet back into the pumps she’d kicked off. She sat up straighter in her chair and tugged her dress into place.

My completely unsexy, strictly business dress.

What had Braden thought of her severe appearance? Had he wondered what had happened to his former bed partner? Had he thanked his lucky stars that he hadn’t been saddled with her as a wife after all?

God, she felt old.

She turned away from the monitor and flipped open the three-ring binder that held the paperwork for the patients in the migraine study. They’d have to be contacted, asked to return early, and their remaining pills—whether active or placebo dummies—would have to be retrieved. Lana ran her finger down the page of names. Instead of numbers, letters jumped and swam on the page. So many people, so little hope for them. How could Braden be so heartless?

He hadn’t always been. She’d been engaged to a man who’d been gentle with the patients in this hospital, gentle with the horses on his ranch, gentle with her when the grueling process of becoming a doctor consumed her life. Then he’d left her and their dream of working together behind, and she’d been heartbroken that her fiancé had been driven by the need to make money.

There was no money in treating migraines, he’d said. Lana trailed her finger down the page, seeing patient after patient who would not be helped because they couldn’t generate a profit.

One name, one name in the entire bunch, jumped off the page, crystal clear, in perfect focus.

Oh, Braden, how could you?

His own mother was about to lose her chance for pain relief. Marion MacDowell had been receiving the active medicine.

Lana glanced at Braden’s card. She’d set it off to the side of her desk. Lana was not supposed to deal with PLI’s president directly, but this Cheryl Gassett did not have the power to keep a study running. Only Braden did.

His mother’s involvement in the study might not be enough to sway him. One patient made no difference to a worldwide corporation, and Braden represented that corporation.

Then again, even Braden MacDowell in pursuit of the almighty dollar might not be able to ignore his own mother’s needs. Maybe Lana could keep the migraine study going.

I regret to inform you that Plaine Laboratories International has decided to end all trials. Goodbye, Dr. Donnoli.

No, that couldn’t be the last word between them.

Lana picked up the phone and dialed.

* * *

“Excuse me, Mom. I need to take this call.”

No matter where he was in the world, Braden’s assistant took all his calls, acting as his gatekeeper. She only picked up on the fifth ring, however, an arrangement that gave Braden the option of answering if he felt it was necessary. As his phone rang, Braden recognized the first digits on the caller ID as being from West Central. It could be Jamie calling. Or Quinn. Or...

“MacDowell,” he answered on the fourth ring.

“It’s Lana. I’d like to set up a meeting. I’ve got more information on that migraine trial.”

Or it could be his former fiancée, suddenly back in his life when he’d decided to let the last memory of her go.

“Go ahead,” he said, standing up from his mother’s dining-room table and walking into the kitchen.

“I’ve got availability every day this week. Is there a particular time that works best for you?”

“I meant, go ahead. I’m listening. Let’s hear your pitch.”

“Now?”

He let his silence answer her. Did the woman not know how business was done? On the spot. At the moment. Around the clock.

“I was calling to set up a future time. We can do this by phone, if you like, but I wasn’t planning on bothering you now, not while you’re traveling to Manhattan.”

“If I weren’t ready to conduct business, I wouldn’t have answered the phone.” He didn’t say he wasn’t on a plane. He did not tell her he was standing in front of his mother’s kitchen sink, watching through the picture window as twilight settled over the distant barn and the even more distant fence line.

Lana spoke evenly, although he was sure his terse response must have irritated her. “I didn’t call to give you a thirty-second canned speech. I am, however, ready to set up a time for the two of us to have an intelligent one-on-one discussion.”

Braden heard the steel in her voice. Lana refused to be intimidated by him. She’d never been intimidated by anyone, he recalled.

Good for her. She was going to need that backbone in her new position, but whether or not she had the chops to run West Central’s research was not his problem. In fact, West Central was not his problem, not directly. As president, he needed to deal with the big picture, not individual research sites.

“Then when you’re ready to present whatever information you feel is necessary,” he said, “call Cheryl Gassett. I’m sure her contact info is in Dr. Montgomery’s records.”

“I realize that the hospital your father founded is no longer worth your time, but I wanted to discuss something that I don’t think your regional rep needs to know.”

Braden almost smiled. He had to give her points for bringing up his father, a blatant but understandable attempt to stir his emotions. In negotiations, when someone was stonewalling, it was possible to break through that wall by engaging that person’s emotions.

Braden had always found it easy to stay detached during business negotiations. Emotions had no place in science. No place in research. Her attempt was useless.

Lana spoke when he did not. “I’m worried about your mother’s involvement in this study.”

Then again, his mother had no place in research, either. He glanced at her as she entered the kitchen. “My mother is ineligible for the study because she’s a relative of a PLI employee. She’s not enrolled in any study that I know of.”

His mother looked surprised. She pointed to her chest and mouthed the question, Me?

Braden raised an eyebrow in question, and she shook her head “no.”

“In addition to being a PLI relation, my mother doesn’t suffer from migraines, so she wouldn’t be enrolled in this study in particular.”

“Regardless, she is a patient in the study.” Lana’s tone was starting to reveal her irritation. Her emotions, at least, were engaged. “She was receiving the active drug, not the placebo. I’m asking you to reconsider. Don’t terminate a study that was benefiting your own mother.”

“The study is not viable whether my mother is involved in it or not. And she’s not.”

He looked toward his mother for affirmation, but this time she only used her hand to imitate a phone held to her ear as she mouthed, Lana?

Of course, his mother would have keyed in on the name Lana. Braden turned back to the window. He needed to concentrate.

“The address for this Marion MacDowell is your ranch, Braden. She does still live there, doesn’t she?”

Braden didn’t answer. His mind was racing ahead to the implications of his mother’s enrollment in the study.

“If she doesn’t suffer from migraines, then why else would she have been given this medicine?”

That was a million-dollar question, indeed. Braden was anxious to get off the phone and find out, but he wasn’t going to tell Lana that.

Lana continued probing. “Your parents were friends with Dr. Montgomery. Would he have been using this study drug to treat your mother for some other reason? What other conditions might it treat?”

Leave it to Lana to figure out the implications so quickly. Braden was burning with curiosity himself. “I’ll retrieve the records from your office tomorrow.”

“I thought you were in New York.”

“My plans changed. I’ll be there tomorrow. Eight o’clock.”

Braden disconnected the call and turned to his mother. She was quick on the trigger. “Was that Lana Donnoli? Are you two speaking again?”

“First things first, Mom. What kind of pills did Dr. Montgomery give you, and why?”

His mother used her hand to wave his question away, making a shooing motion as if his question were an annoying fly that had gotten in between them when she wanted to talk about something else. “Lana Donnoli, after all these years. I’m happy to hear you two have found each other again.”

“Lana and I haven’t found anything. We’re only speaking out of necessity. I need to know if Dr. Montgomery gave you any pills.”

“Out of necessity? What on earth does that mean?”

“It’s business,” he said firmly. “Let’s not get distracted from the subject.”

“Lana Donnoli is the subject. Watch your tone, young man.”

That did make Braden pause. He was the president of PLI. He set the agendas. If he said the subject was Dr. Montgomery, then that was the subject. One thousand employees of PLI would agree. But his mother?

Braden sighed and let himself lean against the sink. “Dr. Montgomery might have given you a medicine that my company was studying. As my mother, you aren’t eligible to be in the study at all. This is serious. Breaches in study protocol can be brought to the FDA’s attention.”

“By whom? I haven’t told a soul.”

“There are more people involved. Lana, for one.”

“Lana wouldn’t tattle on you.”

“It’s not tattling. This isn’t school. This is business. If Lana wanted to use it as a weapon against me—”

“Lana has always been crazy about you. She would do no such thing.”

Braden’s phone was on the third ring. He answered it. “MacDowell.”

“Yes, I know. You hung up on me, Braden.”

Lana sounded angry. Her emotions were engaged, so Braden should have the upper hand. There was, however, nothing to negotiate, certainly nothing that needed to be discussed while his mother glared at him.

“I didn’t hang up on you. We’d concluded our business and we’ll meet tomorrow.” He emphasized the word business for his mother’s benefit. Dang, but she could still give him a look that made him want to squirm. He had an angry woman standing in front of him and an angry woman speaking in his ear. The president of PLI was not quite in control of the situation, and he knew it.

“Braden, I cannot turn any records over to you at eight in the morning.”

“They aren’t your records. They belong to PLI.”

“I’m well aware that your company owns the data.”

“Then you’ll return it upon demand. That’s part of every contract.”

“You can demand all you like, but that won’t make my office door magically unlock at eight o’clock. My assistant won’t be in yet, and she’s the only one who knows where everything is, including the door’s key. I’ve only been in town for a day.”