A Nurse, a Surgeon, a Christmas Engagement
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Allie Kincheloe
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CHAPTER ONE
SCALPEL IN HAND, Dr. Dexter Henry made his initial cut through the abdomen of his patient. As the skin parted, the ringtone he reserved for his mother began to play. His muscles tightened with dread, but before he could open his mouth to tell the nurse handling messages to ignore that one, she read it.
Out loud.
Where everyone in the operating room could hear.
“Dr. Henry, your mother is texting. It says: The Wicked Witch of Westfield will be riding her broom back into town for your brother’s wedding. Thought you should know ahead of time. How would you like me to reply?”
Hand frozen over the fresh incision, Dex struggled to maintain focus. The synapses in his brain blasted off like a Fourth of July fireworks display. Jessie had finally resurfaced. For some time now, Dex had managed to put the woman who’d quite literally left him standing at the altar out of his mind. Hearing that she’d returned opened a Pandora’s box of memories he’d rather not relive.
Heart beating faster, negative thoughts flashed by one by one like an old film strip in his mind showing him the low points in his relationship with Jessie. It took more effort than he wanted to admit to shove down the moment of panic temporarily overwhelming him. Surgeons with a patient’s life in their hands could not afford to let their minds drift off in the middle of a procedure to times—and women—best left forgotten.
“Dr. Henry?” the nurse questioned.
“No reply yet. I’ll take care of it when I’m finished here.” Dex sighed. Why couldn’t his mother have waited until he was out of surgery to text that information?
“Well, now I’m even more curious,” the nurse said as she laid his phone back down. “Is there more to you than we know, Dr. Henry?”
Ignoring her question, Dex said, “Suction, please. I need better visualization.”
While Dex was trying to put the text and the woman in question out of his mind, the overly eager young resident couldn’t seem to let the matter drop. Practically a prodigy when it came to medicine and surgery, the young man had no people skills, and his bedside manner needed work. With his lack of ability to read people squarely on display, the resident pushed for more information despite how Dex had clearly tried to shut the topic down. “Oh, come on, Dr. Henry, you can’t leave us hanging like that! Who is the Wicked Witch? Where is Westfield? And most intriguingly, why is it important that you know she’s coming to the wedding?”
As the words left the resident’s lips, everyone in the room seemed to nod in unison. A chorus of “Mmm-hmm” and “That’s right” followed.
Dex closed his eyes briefly. While snapping at the doctor in training might make him feel better temporarily, it certainly wouldn’t help this uncomfortable situation. Finally, he decided to give them a very clipped version of his past while keeping his tone ice-cold to discourage further discussion. Still, his secrets would be on the lips of every nurse and carried through the entire hospital on excited whispers by the end of the day. Gossip traveled through a hospital faster than a virus, and he’d rather it be the truth than let them draw their own conclusions from his mother’s words.
“Her real name is Jessie. And it’s important because she hasn’t been back to our hometown since she disappeared on our wedding day.”
Only the blips on the monitors and the occasional rustle of paper broke the silence in the OR. The familiar noises seeped into his soul, and he let them soothe the ragged edges that voicing his secrets had exposed. The quiet should have been unnerving, considering everyone in the OR was currently contemplating his confession, but instead he found it comforting. When the silence continued, Dex put his head down and got back to work.
“You know, if you need a date, all you have to do is ask,” Belinda finally spoke up.
Who else would make such an offer? Her support brought a smile to his face. Fifteen years his senior, Belinda had taken him under her wing when he’d first arrived at Metro Memorial Hospital with the cocky greenness of residency still permeating his every interaction. She’d taken him down a notch or two. There was no one else at the hospital who he respected more.
“Ah, but, Belinda, I’m already in love with you. Taking you back home to Westfield would just tempt me for things I know I can’t have.” He winked at the older woman. He didn’t worry that his favorite scrub nurse would misunderstand his flirty words as an actual come-on. They didn’t have that kind of relationship, just a teasing dynamic that allowed them both to let their guards down with each other.
Belinda stared at him over her mask. “If she’s coming, then you need a date.”
“It’s you or no one, B.” Even as the words slipped past his lips, the truth in her words sank in. He did need someone to go home with him for the wedding. Not Belinda, but someone to get his mother off his back. From the moment his brother Tommy had announced to the world that Jill had accepted his proposal, their mother had been on a one-woman mission to find Dex a new love.
His grip tightened around the scalpel in his hand. He’d rather stab himself with it than give Westfield something else to gossip about. He had only been home once since his ill-fated trip to the altar, and it had been awkward to say the least. In a single week at home, his mom had stuck every single woman in town under the age of forty in his path in hopes that he’d finally move on from Jessie. Awkward? Nah... What could be awkward about a parade of women he wasn’t remotely interested in?
He had, though.
Moved on, that is. Even if his mother was having trouble believing that.
He dated. Quite frequently, even. But no one seriously enough to bring home. He only dated to have a little adult companionship on occasion. A physical release, not an emotional connection. No risk for either party. In fact, he told anyone he dated from day one just what he was willing to give, and he always made sure to end things before anyone got hurt. None of the women he’d dated recently would work for this half-hatched plan, either.
He wouldn’t want to lead someone on, after all. Taking someone home for a family wedding during the holidays implied so many emotions that Dex almost shuddered in revulsion at the thought. Asking a woman to be his date to a family wedding at Christmas implied that a box with a diamond ring sat under the tree. And he’d never take that step again.
No, he planned to stay single forever. He had zero interest in long-term commitment, and he’d hesitate to do anything that might give any impression otherwise. After his trip down Matrimony Lane had dead-ended with him standing at the altar alone, his entire hometown watching as he got dumped from afar, Dex could live the rest of his life without putting himself into that sort of situation again.
“Taking a date would save me from more than a few matchmaking attempts and a fair bit of pointed stares. But finding someone on such short notice would be nearly impossible. It’s a Christmas wedding,” he added aloud, his thoughts running with how much more difficult the timing made things.
Getting someone to pretend to be his new girlfriend in June would have been easy. He’d just spring for a few days at a luxury beach resort and voilà, instant girlfriend. But with the wedding planned for the holidays, it made it ten times trickier to find someone to go along with a fake relationship scheme.
“Ah...so you need someone to go home with you, pretend to like you, and for the holidays no less. That will be hard to find.” Lena’s green eyes sparkled and he thought he might be able to see a hint of a smile behind her mask. “Who would have thought that a handsome young surgeon would have to resort to a fake Christmas girlfriend?”
“Are you volunteering?” He eyed Lena. She would be perfect. Just his type—long brown hair, more than a few curves and enough sass to keep him on his toes. And even more, Lena intrigued him.
He’d actually asked her out when she’d first started working at the hospital a few months back and she’d turned him down cold. Women didn’t tend to ignore him or say no to him. If anything, they usually came to him, leaving him to be the one to let them down easy. But not Lena. She’d looked him up and down, shook her head and said, “I’d rather empty bedpans.” Ever since that day, she’d dodged him outside a surgical suite whenever she could.
When she didn’t immediately answer, Dex returned his gaze to his patient. “Can I get more suction?”
For the next while, Dex gave his patient and the surgery his full attention. He ensured the patient was taken care of before he returned his attention to Lena.
Making eye contact with her, he murmured, “You never answered me.”
Word around the hospital called Lena an ice queen—a brilliant and reliable nurse, but cold and limited in her friendship. He didn’t know her story, had no clue why she had icicles in her eyes, but she’d certainly frozen him out. In his eyes, that made her a perfect candidate for a fake girlfriend. She’d never want or expect a proposal under the mistletoe.
Lena tilted her head and stared at him for a moment, her eyes seeming to reach deep into his soul as she considered his question. Scrutinizing him for some time, she finally asked, “How close to Christmas is it?”
“Christmas Eve.” He rolled his eyes. “My future sister-in-law is a nut for Christmas. I think she’d have gone with Christmas Day if the pastor at the church would have allowed it.”
The smallest laugh came from Lena at his words. “Is she really that bad?”
“You have no idea.” Jill lived and breathed Christmas year-round. It had come as no surprise to anyone in the family when the wedding date had been declared as Christmas Eve. No one had blinked an eye since it had been expected from the moment she’d said yes to his brother’s proposal. “When you meet her, you’ll see.”
“When I meet her... When?” She raised an eyebrow and he had to actively force himself not to flinch under the intensity of her gaze. “You’re awfully sure of yourself, aren’t you? I haven’t agreed to anything yet.”
“Wishful thinking?” He flashed her a hopeful smile. “It would really help me out.”
“Are you willing to return the favor? I have a...thing in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve that would go much more smoothly for me if I had a successful surgeon at my side.”
“Are we talking New Year’s Eve party or decapitating the one who wronged you?”
Hearty peals of laughter rang out at his dark joke, and an awareness shot up in him like he’d been injected. He shook it off and focused on her words.
“The former. I might have to take you up on the latter, though. It’s a fundraiser gala, black tie, of course. My father runs a hospital out there, and lately my mother spends her time doing his bidding and raising money for various charities. If I tell them I’m coming alone, it will be, uh, very strongly suggested that I take my father’s current protégé as my date. And if there’s anything I want less than attending this gala in the first place, it’s attending it with that guy.”
“Well, I do happen to own a tux. I suppose we should coordinate the details sometime before then.” The dark-haired surgeon glanced over at her, and she thought he might be smiling beneath his mask. “It wouldn’t be good if my fake Christmas girlfriend missed the wedding because I didn’t give her the right directions.”
Thank god for surgical masks that hid the blushes that her body seemed determined to produce any time he glanced her way. What was wrong with her? The man made her crazy. She couldn’t be in the same room with him without wanting to strangle him, so why did she find herself glancing in his direction every few minutes and growing warm whenever their eyes met?
“So, who here is skipping the hospital Christmas party on Saturday?” the anesthesiologist asked. “I’m on call so I’ll have to be here even though I hate the Secret Santa crap. Who needs another Christmas candle or a gift card in a lesser denomination than you brought? Or worse, a polo shirt that’s three sizes too large, like I got last year.”
“I’m skipping it,” Lena and Dex said at the same time.
“Ooh... You two have a hot date?”
“No.” Again, they spoke at the same time. Dex looked over at her and their gazes locked over the patient. A hint of amusement crinkled the laugh lines at the corners of his eyes.
When she met his eyes, though, her heart grew erratic. Dr. Dexter Henry had eyes a woman could spend the rest of her life lost in, with thick, dark lashes that framed them perfectly. But more than being captivating, those eyes held a level of emotion Lena wasn’t used to seeing. A hint of mirth sparkled over his little joke, but behind that lingered a shadow. Had the ex-fiancée put the darkness in his gaze? And what would it take to banish the ghosts of his past and brighten his eyes back to their true brilliance?
“Uh-huh.” The anesthesiologist laughed. “It would be more convincing if the pair of you weren’t sneaking heated glances at each other every few seconds and practically finishing each other’s sentences.”
Lena shook her head, unable to form words at that moment. If other people were noticing, she must have been looking at Dex far more than she’d realized. Embarrassed tears welled up in her eyes and she blinked rapidly, determined to keep them from spilling over. Crap.
Gossip had been the motivating force behind her leaving LA, and she’d been in Nashville less than six months before finding herself right back in the middle of it. The one-year contract was supposed to give her the breathing room she needed to decide what to do with her life. Nashville had started to feel like home. Despite its lack of sand and ocean views, she could see herself making a life there. Away from California and her overbearing parents. She’d found a calm in Tennessee, but the anxiety and fears that the fresh start had quelled came rolling back in with a vengeance when she found herself the topic of conversation again. She swallowed hard. She hoped no one noticed the big, shaky breath she took while trying to gain control over her emotions.
“Leave it alone, Jason,” Dex warned, his voice low and firm. “Worry about our patient, not my personal life.”
“Come on, Dex, I’m just having a little fun. Don’t get your scrubs in a knot.”
“It’s not fun for me, and I don’t think it’s fun for Lena. So knock it off.”
An inexplicable urge to hug him rose up, and she had to squash it before she made an even bigger fool of herself. Past experience had taught her that men got close to her for one reason—to get close to her father for his connections in the medical field. She had never had a guy stand up for her just for her own sake, and it gave her this warm, fuzzy feeling deep down inside.
She tried to avoid looking at him and only spoke when necessary while they finished up the gallbladder removal. The puzzle of how Dex benefited from standing up for her rolled around in her mind unsolved.
The more she’d thought about it, the more she worried there was too much at risk. And she was the one who stood to be hurt. She’d been told how he’d dated half the nursing staff. A doctor could do that, though, whereas a nurse could not. She needed to put a stop to this before they reached a point of no return.
After surgery, she found herself alone in the scrub room with Dex. They washed up next to each other without speaking. She dried her hands and stepped away.
Lena took a deep breath and glanced at the door. She should really make her escape before she got sucked deeper into this ill-fated charade and the man at the center of it. Something about Dex had drawn her like a moth to a flame when she’d moved to Nashville. Handsome, of course, charismatic even, but something more about the young surgeon called to her. A confidence in his gaze that pulled her in like gravity and made spending time with him a risky endeavor.
After one surgery with him where she’d had to stand tucked at his side, arms brushing as they moved for several hours, she’d known they’d be physically compatible if nothing else, so when he’d asked her out, she’d shut him down hard. Getting involved with him was a risk that she just was not willing to take.
She’d heard the rumors about him. According to hospital gossip, Dr. Dexter Henry got around. His motto seemed to be love them good and leave them quick. His type was exactly why she’d uprooted her career and moved across the freaking country, after all. She’d fallen for the playboy once and still had the scars on her soul as souvenirs. Swallowing hard, she pushed those thoughts to the far recesses of her mind.
Lena couldn’t take the risk of real involvement. Not after the things she’d seen when a relationship went wrong. So despite the surface-level attraction she felt to Dex, she’d never let it become more. Ever. After the fallout that had followed when the truth about her relationship with Connor had surfaced, Lena’s entire foundation had been shaken. Her career had nearly collapsed back in California. The negativity had invaded all aspects of her life and convinced Lena to stay single for the rest of her life. Unfortunately, her parents were not on board with Lena’s plan for an eternity of lone wolf status.
Statement of fact—she needed a good-looking, successful doctor to go home with her. Bringing home a date who looked like Dex might be the only chance she had of getting her parents off her back when it came to dating Martin. They’d been pushing that angle since about ten minutes after the scandal about Connor broke, and she’d love to avoid it if she could. Her dad had deemed his protégé to be perfect son-in-law material, while Lena herself would rather gnaw her own arm off than to marry, or even date, that balding schmuck with his fake tan. Her mother wanted her to settle down with Martin because it would force Lena to return to LA because of his career.
Dex presented a nearly perfect solution to the Martin situation. With just one problem...
“I’m not sure how nosy your family will be, and maybe with the wedding taking some of the focus off, we can get by with your family easily, but my family will expect me to know you if we are dating. Really know you. I don’t bring a lot of guys home, so—”
“What do I need to know?” Dex interrupted her to ask.
Visions of Dex being the guy to make Martin disappear and get her parents off her back vanished with the delivery of that single question. As the only daughter of William Franklin, an egotistical plastic surgeon turned hospital administrator who thought himself better than every female in his acquaintance, Lena had spent much of her life being treated like her voice was nonexistent. Connor had been the same, but she’d been so stupidly in love with him that she’d overlooked his every fault. It wasn’t until they’d broken up that she’d decided she’d never voluntarily spend time with a man who didn’t have enough respect for her to allow her to finish speaking again, and she didn’t plan to change her mind now. Even if Dex was the most likely candidate for helping her to avoid her parents’ attempts at marrying her off.
“First of all, I absolutely cannot stand being interrupted like that. So if you aren’t going to let me speak or if you are going to insist on talking over me, then we should both find someone else.” Lena’s eyes narrowed as she glared at him. With her fists balled at her sides, she added through clenched teeth, “You will be respectful enough of me to wait until I have finished my sentence or you can try your best to find another woman willing to pretend to be your girlfriend for this wedding, are we clear?”
Satisfaction rushed over her when Dex gaped at her for a moment. “Yeah, I’m sorry.”
Lena’s head moved side to side dismissively. “Why do guys do that? Do you even realize that you do that?”
“I’ll try to be more mindful.”
Tiny little wrinkles appeared on his forehead as he seemed to sink down into his thoughts. They made Lena wonder if anyone had ever pointed out to him that he talked over them. Or maybe she had merely projected some of her frustrations onto him. Either way, she kind of liked seeing that she’d gotten his attention. It had made him think at least a little about how he treated women. She’d never managed to accomplish that with her father or Connor.
“Okay, so as I was saying,” she continued. “I don’t bring a lot of guys home. My parents will assume that we are fairly serious if I have brought you home for the gala. Because of that, they will expect that you know things about me, things a dating couple would know. More than we can cram into a couple of plane rides. The best I’ll be able to tell my family is that you are right-handed but prefer to keep your tools on the left for some unknown reason and that your favorite sandwich seems to be the turkey club since you’ve had it three times a week since we met. We need to spend some time together and learn these things.”
“Are you asking me on a date, Lena?” The confusion on his face had cleared. In its place sat a self-satisfied smirk.
And there it was.
That unbearable arrogance that all the surgeons she’d ever met possessed. Her father had it in spades. Connor had thought far too much of himself too.
Was it issued to them along with their medical license?
“Ugh!” Her hands flew up in irritation. “Why did I ever entertain this idea?”
Annoyance flashed through her, white-hot and simmering on the cusp of anger. Dexter Henry made her crazier than anyone had in a long time.
“Because you know we’d be perfectly suited to take care of each other’s needs.” Not a question. There was an undercurrent to his words that took that phrase from simple statement to sensual promise. His gaze moved over her body before he made eye contact once more, making her one thousand percent certain that he’d meant his words to have multiple meanings.
Her skin heated under the scrutiny of his gaze and she swallowed hard.
She couldn’t do this.
No way. She could not spend two weeks with an arrogant man who changed women more than a lot of nurses changed their scrubs, but worst of all, made her want him to take off his scrubs and see if he could live up to the masculine sexuality he projected. Even if he won in every category when compared to Martin—better hair, nicer smile, sexier... Nope, she wasn’t going continue that line of thought. Shaking her head, Lena took a step back.
“This is a bad idea.”
Or a very good one...
“Hear me out before you reject the idea entirely.”
She waited for him to speak, crossing her arms over her chest. He’d need a good pitch to get her sold on this idea. He was far too much temptation for her otherwise.
“We both need a significant other to get us through the holidays unscathed by the cupid wannabes in our families, right?” He raised an eyebrow and waited for her to nod before he explained, “As far as I can see, neither of us has another solid lead on that.”
“Having you with me would help me avoid yet another matchmaking attempt.” She sighed. “Like I said, though, my family will expect us to know things that dating couples would know.”
Not having to be partnered with Martin for another fundraiser would save her feet a great deal of pain, though. Her parents had insisted that she attend a gala with him at the local children’s museum. The clumsy plastic surgeon not only had two left feet, but a complete inability to recognize his lack of skills. He’d nearly crippled her before she’d thought of a plausible excuse to leave early. But dancing with Dex would be dangerous for other reasons. She wasn’t sure she could keep her distance from him if she had to step into his arms. And getting close meant risk. Her goal was to get through the New Year’s Eve gala with as little risk as possible.
“So, we tell them that we only met a few months ago, which is the honest truth, but then tell them we started dating fairly recently but things are getting serious fast. That will help us with the not knowing enough details about each other. No one will expect us to know everything there is to know after only a couple months of dating.”
“I don’t know.” She chewed on her lower lip. Dex’s plan made a lot of sense, but she worried about spending so much time with him.
“Come on,” Dex coaxed, his voice lowering as he tried to sway her decision. “What do you say? You go to the wedding with me, I’ll go to the gala with you, and then we conveniently break up a few weeks into the new year. No one in either family is the wiser for it.”
“Okay,” she found herself saying. She almost couldn’t believe she would be taking a man home to meet her parents that she’d barely had a conversation with. Remembering how her dad had grilled Connor the first time she’d brought him home, Lena shuddered. “There may be a pop quiz, though.”
Not that her father’s interrogation had sidetracked Connor’s plans... He sold himself to her father with the same charisma he’d used to charm her. Lena had fallen for him quickly and her parents had been just as taken. It was only once Connor had gotten what he’d wanted—her father’s influence to gain a promotion—that his true colors began to show.
“Luckily, I’m a good test taker.” Dex winked at her, causing her stupid heart to somersault inside her chest.
Dex Henry is not datable. She repeated the little mantra to herself. Dex Henry is not datable.
“This isn’t a joke.” Lena put her hands on her hips and frowned at him. She tried to focus on the frustration she felt for Dex, not the attraction, but the hint of a smile that played on his lips distracted her more than she wanted to admit even to herself. “I don’t know why I’m agreeing to this if you aren’t going to take this seriously.”
“I’m very serious, Lena. You know what? I think I’m going to have them leave you on my service through Christmas. It will keep us together during the days and give us some legitimate things to talk about. The fewer lies we have to keep straight, the better, right?”
“True.” He certainly had a point on keeping things as close to the truth as possible.
“How about some dinner? We can discuss the finer points of our agreement.” He raised a brow in question.
She shook her head. “No, if we are doing this, we are keeping it quiet around here. I do not want to be counted as the next notch on your well-whittled bedpost.”
“Okay then. I’ve got patients to check on.” He looked a little hurt by the brusqueness in her words, but recovered quickly. He stepped past her without another word.
