Heart Surgeon to Single Dad
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Janice Lynn
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15.7K
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15
Chapter One
“I’M A DOCTOR, you know.” No, the flight attendant didn’t know, but Natalie Sterling was determined to make it on time to her presentation.
She’d heard of airlines overbooking flights, but it had never affected her. Until now.
“A pediatric heart surgeon,” she added, hoping to gain empathy. Natalie couldn’t recall having pulled that card before, but she wasn’t one to no-show a speaking commitment if she could help it. “Bumping me to a later flight doesn’t work.”
The stewardess shook her head. “There’s nothing I can do. It was in the agreement when you purchased your ticket that if the plane is overbooked you would have to take a later flight.”
Taking a deep breath, Natalie stared at the pretty thirty-something blonde in her crisp uniform. It wasn’t the woman’s fault.
“It’s urgent I go on this flight.” She heard the almost pleading tone, but was beyond caring. She needed to get to Miami this afternoon.
“We’re sorry for any inconvenience, but you’re going to have to exit the plane.” The forced smile on the attendant’s face warned that further argument was futile and the woman was losing her patience.
If only Natalie could have kept her flight the evening before, instead of having to delay her departure. Still, she’d been needed for an emergency surgery, and her patients came first. Always.
“What if I refuse to give up my seat?”
The attendant’s obligatory smile disappeared. “I would be forced to call Security.” Her tone warned Natalie would regret such a decision. “They would escort you off the plane. Are you refusing?”
Visions of herself being dragged off the plane, kicking and screaming that they had the wrong person, had Natalie cringing. Yeah, that splattered all over the news wouldn’t impress Memphis Children’s Hospital’s board.
Feeling much like she was being punished for a crime she hadn’t committed, Natalie closed her laptop, unclasped her seatbelt and pulled her case out from under the seat in front of her. “I’m not refusing, I just wondered if it was an option.”
“It’s not,” she was assured, the stewardess’s eyes still narrowed.
“Fine.” Not really, but apparently she had no choice. “But you have to get me to Miami this afternoon.”
She gathered her things and pulled her carry-on bag back out from the overhead compartment.
Seeing that Natalie wasn’t going to give them any further trouble, the flight attendant’s obligatory smile returned. “Yes, ma’am. We’ll do all we can to get you to your destination as quickly as possible.”
As she was passing through the first-class section, a man glanced up from his phone. He turned his head toward her about the time she registered who he was, and Natalie’s gaze collided with his.
Her breath caught. Just as it had done when their gazes had met in the airport waiting area.
No matter how she’d tried, she hadn’t been able to keep from glancing his way and they’d made eye contact several times. She’d felt an instant attraction, had thought that if her best friends were there they’d have pushed her to cross the room and strike up a conversation because they thought she needed a vacation fling. Natalie being Natalie, she hadn’t done anything more than fight to keep her focus on her upcoming presentation rather than on the intriguingly handsome man.
She bet he never got bumped from his flight.
No one would dare.
There was something dark and dangerous in those ice-blue eyes. Maybe it was his inky black hair and tan skin that contrasted so dramatically with those frosty blues that gave him such a startlingly handsome look, like he belonged in some paranormal movie where he’d shape-shift into a sexy mythical being who preyed on unsuspecting women who were powerless to resist his allure.
Natalie felt his pull, felt his power, and a sexual intensity flashed through her mind. No doubt, he’d have looked into the flight attendant’s eyes and told her to go pick someone else and she’d have answered, Yes, sir, and can I get you anything else with that?
Just like Jonathan.
Bleh. She wasn’t going to think about her boyfriend.
Ex-boyfriend.
The lying, cheating scumbag.
Literally.
Casting one last look at Mr. Dark and Dangerous, who was watching her with the same expression with which one might watch an accident unfold, probably wondering if she was going to cause a ruckus and delay his flight, she sighed. Not a good start to her little mini-vacation wrapped up in teaching a workshop at a medical conference. As long as she got to Miami in time to give her presentation, everything would be fine.
Despite rushing through Miami Airport and hiring a taxi driver who’d taken her request to get her to her hotel as fast as possible, literally, Natalie missed the time of her presentation.
Frazzled from the delay, then the mad dash, she’d dropped her bags with the bellhop, then quietly snuck into the auditorium and slid into the back row to catch the end of what they’d filled her spot with. Settling into her seat, she glanced to the front of the auditorium and almost fell out of her chair.
No way.
Not even possible.
She was hallucinating.
Maybe she’d fallen during her jaunt through the airport, bumped her head and was in a coma, about to have a fantastic fantasy.
Must be, because the speaker at the front of the room was him.
Mr. Dark and Dangerous from the plane.
He would be a fantastic fantasy.
But why was he teaching her class? And smiling and charming the crowd as if he were a natural-born motivational speaker rather than the dark, sexy overlord she’d painted him out to be on the plane? Seriously, the man was discussing heart deformities and yet you’d think he was revealing the secret of longevity by the way the attendees were on the edge of their seats.
Even as passionate as she was about surgical neonatal heart disease treatment modalities, she didn’t think it was the topic that was mesmerizing the crowd.
It was him.
As he spoke, his gaze met with hers and recognition flashed in those unusual ice-blue eyes that somehow didn’t fit with his pleasant expression. Probably because she’d pegged him as shadowy and menacing, not smiling and charming.
He was smiling. And charming. And had a voice that should be reading the books she downloaded to her smartphone from time to time to listen to at night. What a way to fall asleep.
Dark and dangerous or smiling and charming, the man oozed sex. She wasn’t a woman who got hot and bothered from just looking at a guy. Or even hot and bothered from a whole lot of guy effort, but this man made her think S-E-X.
Hot, sweaty, body-slapping, can’t-catch-your-breath sex.
Which was quite disturbing because Jonathan hadn’t affected her this potently. Ever. Sex had been good, pleasurable, but just the thought of it hadn’t set her nerve-endings on fire.
His presentation didn’t pause, but his gaze lingered on hers, flashing with an awareness that made her nerve-endings burn. Hot, out-of-control burn.
He was gorgeous. Perhaps more so than any man she’d ever seen in real life.
Perhaps? Ha. Life had not thrown men like him into her path. Ever. As much as she’d cared for and found him attractive, Jonathan didn’t have a thing on this guy. Not even on this guy’s worst day and Jonathan’s best. Mr. Dark and Dangerous exuded pheromones by the bucketful. His bucket ran over and was flooding the auditorium.
Natalie picked up a mini-sized notepad with the hotel’s logo at the top and fanned her face. Mercy.
He finished his presentation, then did a question-and-answer session, fielding each question with ease, much more smoothly than she’d have done. She’d have been battling nerves at presenting to a room full of peers.
Whoever he was, he didn’t look nervous. Dark, sexy overlords probably didn’t get nervous. When the power of the universe was at your handsome fingertips, why sweat?
As she was doing. Her reaction had surprised her at the airport, on the plane, and even more so now that she’d seen the allure of his smile.
Applause filled the room. Natalie clapped, too. He’d done an excellent job, as if he’d been meant to give the presentation all along. She owed him for filling in when she wasn’t there.
At the applause, the workshop moderator stood. “Thank you, Dr. Coleman, for volunteering to present when the vacancy opened.” The moderator patted him on the back, shook his hand. “You did an excellent job, Matthew.”
“No problem.”
The man should really smile more because his face transformed into a work of art. Okay, so dark and dangerous had been a work of art, too, but smiling he was heart-stopping.
“I was glad to help, since I understand Dr. Sterling had travel delays,” he continued, not glancing her way, but Natalie felt his awareness of her. As if he had some sixth sense that let him know exactly where she was in the room without those amazing eyes having to focus her way. That sense pervaded her entire being and scorched her insides.
Good grief, the way he affected her. Maybe because she was on the cusp of a huge career leap, maybe because she still felt the sting from Jonathan’s betrayal.
Or maybe it was how pheromonally magnetic he was.
Another round of clapping and the group broke for a fifteen-minute break between sessions.
A few attendees moved forward to talk with Dr. Coleman. Natalie should thank him and introduce herself to the workshop moderator, who was also the conference chair, so she could apologize again for her delay.
Dr. Matthew Coleman. She’d never met him. No way would she have forgotten, so why did that name ring a bell?
Suddenly, her jaw dropped. Impossible. That Dr. Matthew Coleman had to be in his fifties at the absolute minimum. Surely. No way could this gorgeous doctor be that Dr. Matthew Coleman. It just wasn’t feasible that he could be the renowned pediatric heart surgeon whose work she so greatly admired.
No way.
Plus, he’d been on a flight out of Memphis. That Dr. Matthew Coleman lived in Boston and headed up a research team making great strides with a robotic laser being developed for surgical use, including in utero. There couldn’t be two pediatric heart surgeons by the same name doing innovative in-utero surgical repairs, surely?
That was when what he was saying caught her attention. He was making a comment about the robot that Dr. Matthew Coleman was one of the country’s leading experts on.
Yeah, she was about to have a fan-girl moment.
Holy smokes. The gorgeous man she’d been fantasizing about on and off ever since the airport was someone she’d idolized for his brain and surgical skills for almost a decade.
* * *
What were the odds of the pretty brunette who’d caught Dr. Matthew Coleman’s eye at the airport being his top competition for the hospital position he’d just interviewed for?
Not that Dr. Luiz had told him that, but he’d said there was another contender the hospital had been planning to offer the position to, prior to Matthew’s interest. Dr. Natalie Sterling was who the man had repeatedly praised for her surgery skills and dedication to pediatric cardiology. She had to be who the department head had meant and, possibly, why they’d not been willing to meet the conditions Matthew had required to relocate.
Those conditions were the deal-maker—or -breaker.
Relocating to Memphis would decrease his stress by leaps and bounds in some ways, but he still wasn’t sure he could give up everything he’d worked to achieve just to make the move in any case. Just because his life had been thrust into total chaos three months ago. Basically, he wanted what he had in Boston, but with less work hours and a new zip code that better fit his personal needs. Anything less and he’d stay where he was.
Which was why he’d contacted Dr. Luiz when a colleague had told him about the upcoming opening at Memphis Children’s Hospital. He’d already been toying with the idea of relocating to Memphis to be closer to family—for Carrie, the little girl he now had to take care of, to be closer to family. Closer to people who actually knew how to take care of kids. But he couldn’t just step away from his research and career. He wouldn’t.
Maybe he should try to convince his mother to move to Boston, again. He wasn’t sure what he’d have done if she hadn’t been able to stay those first few weeks of Matthew’s unexpected push into fatherhood. She’d been so good with Carrie. Why couldn’t she have stayed longer?
Or maybe he’d resume interviews for a live-in nanny for the precious four-year-old who was now his sole responsibility. Some older woman who’d successfully raised multiple children and could get a child out of bed, have her dressed, fed, looking presentable, and to preschool on time. Something he continued to struggle with on a daily basis. None of the nannies he’d met so far had clicked, but surely there was someone out there he’d trust with Carrie?
His gaze connected with Natalie’s golden one and he let out a long breath. Prior to Carrie’s new role in his life, he’d have gotten her number at the airport and made plans to meet.
Instead, for the first time ever, despite his many previous flights, he’d been sweating getting onto an airplane, his mind filled with all the things that could go wrong—and recently had.
Plus, he had a four-year-old girl to think about.
Pursuing relationships with pretty brunettes wasn’t on the cards. He could barely juggle his current schedule, much less adding someone else to the bedlam. He’d always excelled at everything he’d done. Who’d have thought it would be an adorable little kid who’d have him ready to pull his hair out?
He turned back to the portly gentleman from Shriner’s Hospital, smiled as they exchanged business cards, then heard a voice behind him.
“Why didn’t you tell me who you were?”
Knowing who it was even before their eyes made contact, Matthew turned, his gaze connecting to the brunette’s. He could feel her presence as succinctly as if he had sonar outlining her shapely curves. “Excuse me?”
Her face took on a sheepish expression. “Sorry, I guess there was no reason for you to tell me, but I can’t believe the coincidence that you’d be on my plane.”
Not a coincidence, but there wasn’t a reason to tell her about his meeting with Memphis Children’s Hospital and that the job she was vying for had been offered to him. He’d turned it down when his terms couldn’t be met. Natalie need never know she wasn’t always the top contender.
He smiled, thinking she was even more attractive up close. Her eyes sparkled like sunshine hitting honey. Her skin was smooth and naturally tan with a few light freckles scattered across her nose. Her hair flowed silky and dark to just beneath her shoulders.
She wore a red skirt suit with a crisp white shirt that loosely hugged her curves.
“I see the airline was able to book you another flight.” Perhaps it was wrong to tease, but he couldn’t resist. Something about her made him want to tease, to watch her facial expressions and burn every detail into his memory.
“Too late to make it on time, though,” she mused, her painted red lips curving into a smile. “Thank you for filling in.”
Matthew resisted the urge to loosen his collar. “No problem. I was with the conference coordinator when he was discussing what to do with your time slot. Pediatric heart surgery of any kind is a subject I’m passionate about, so I offered to step in.” He grinned. “He jumped at my offer.”
“I’m sure.” Another flash of those sparkly eyes and dynamic curving of her full lips. “Are you staying for the next presentation?”
At her smile, all his blood traveled south and brain operations came to a halt, making logical thought impossible. Did she have any idea of the power her eyes held to bewitch a man? Absolutely stunning.
“If so, there’s an open seat next to mine,” she continued. “Maybe you’d like to join me?”
Matthew stared at the biggest temptation he’d ever faced, wished the timing of meeting her had been prior to three months ago, when his life hadn’t been in such upheaval. “If not?”
Uncertainty flashed across her face, but then with a determined look, she lifted her chin, stared straight in his eyes, and said, “If not, then maybe we could meet later for the conference opening dinner reception and you could tell me all about your work, because you fascinate me. Your work does, that is.”
