The Neurosurgeon's Unexpected Family
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Deanne Anders
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CHAPTER ONE
HANNAH REEVES SPOTTED the man she wanted the moment she stepped out of her patient’s room. Standing not five feet from her, Dr. William Cooper’s tall frame was propped against the wall. The neurosurgery department’s Ice Prince was on duty today, which meant her patient, Mrs. Nabors, would be in the best of hands.
Only, this wasn’t the same doctor whose frosty control had made him a legend in the operating room. His pale blue eyes were ringed with dark shadows and his mouth was drawn into a tired line, so she knew something was wrong. Was this about Mrs. Nabors’s CT? Hannah had known the news wouldn’t be good given the look the CT tech had sent her when they’d transferred the woman back to her bed.
“Shelley, I’m sorry. It’s an emergency.” He ran his hand through his thick brown hair, causing it to stick out in all directions. “I know... I’ll make some calls. Just give me a few minutes, okay?”
Hannah was about to interrupt him when he finally ended the call. Trying not to look like she had been eavesdropping, she stepped closer and found herself even more worried about the man when she noted his wrinkled shirt and lab jacket. And what was that stain on his shirt? Something was definitely wrong here, but whatever it was, it would have to wait until her patient was taken care of.
“Did you get the radiology report on Mrs. Nabors’s CT?” Hannah asked, hoping to get both her and the doctor’s mind back on what was really important. While she had assured her patient’s daughter that her mother would be okay, the older woman’s recent onset of confusion and the CT techs reaction had Hannah worried.
“I spoke with the radiologist before I came up. Her stroke has converted to a bleed, as you suspected. I’ll have to take her to the OR. I’m going to go talk to her family now. Can you ready her consent?” he asked.
“Sure, I’ll be right back.” Hannah headed to the unit coordinator’s desk to retrieve the proper form. Fifteen minutes later, she watched as the orderlies transported Mrs. Nabors to the OR.
Finally, she could start her end-of-shift notes. She’d already finished her patient rounds, but wanted to double-check the chart records to make sure there weren’t any new orders to pass on when she reported to the incoming night shift.
For a few minutes, she let herself relax in the cushioned office chair as she reviewed her patients’ charts. Her feet had been screaming for mercy for the last hour, so she kicked her shoes off under the computer table and wiggled her toes. She stifled a moan of pleasure. Satisfied with her charting, she closed her files. Just another half hour and she would be done.
Her mind began to tick off all the things that had to be done tonight. There was dinner to cook, Lindsey’s homework to check, and then her own schoolwork to do—lately it had turned into a contest between them to see who had the most homework each night. And then there was yesterday’s email from her college instructor reminding her that she still hadn’t lined up a preceptor for this semester. Had she taken on too much?
At least the dreaded history project had been completed the night before. The memory of Lindsey carrying in her papier-mâché model of the Alamo this morning brought tears to Hannah’s eyes. She’d come so close to losing her... She said a silent prayer for Lindsey’s heart donor family, then mentally added the cardiologist’s appointment to her list of things to do this week.
Hannah looked back at the clock. She had just enough time to make one quick round on her patients before the night nurse arrived and took over. Apologizing to her poor feet, she forced them back into her shoes, promising a long rest as soon as her life slowed down.
“Yes, I understand it’s late, but if you could possibly find someone... She’s just a baby, she can’t be that much trouble... But I’ll pay double...triple? I know it’s last minute. That’s how emergency surgery works. It’s not scheduled... No, I’m not trying to be rude... Okay, I understand. Can you at least tell me if you’ve had any luck finding someone full-time for the position...? Sure. I’ll call back tomorrow during office hours. Thank you.”
Hannah paused at the entrance to the doctor’s lounge where her favorite neurosurgeon now sat. Had she heard him right? A baby?
Coupled with the few hints from the side of the conversation she’d heard earlier, she now had a good idea of what had upset the doctor. Hadn’t she found herself panicking over the same thing many times before? Only, it didn’t make sense that the single doctor would be having issues with childcare. She knew for a fact the man didn’t have any children. If he had, he certainly would have mentioned them before now.
She thought of the big stack of books waiting for her at home. She should pretend she hadn’t overheard his conversation and walk away, but she’d been there herself too many times.
“Hey, Dr. Cooper, we missed you at Marjorie’s retirement party last night,” Hannah said as she stepped into the room, grappling for a way to approach him about what she’d overheard. She really didn’t want to appear to have been listening in on his conversation, but there wasn’t really any way around it.
“That was last night?” he asked.
“The flyer’s been on the door of the breakroom for the last two weeks,” she said. Marjorie had been one of his favorite nurses; it had been surprising when he hadn’t showed up.
He leaned back in his chair and shook his head. He had the look of a man that had suddenly woken up and didn’t quite know where he was. It was plain to see that he needed help.
“I’m sorry, Dr. Cooper, but I couldn’t help overhear your conversation on the phone. Is there something I can do to help?” Hannah asked.
“You’ve dealt with all this childcare stuff with your daughter, Lindsey, right? Trying to find someone to watch her while you’re working?” he asked.
“Sure, every parent has to at some point,” she said. “Is there a problem?”
“Yes, I have a really big problem right now. I need someone to watch a baby for me. I thought the person I hired understood that I needed someone flexible with their hours. They’re only temporary, but it was all I could arrange at the time. Now I’ve got Mrs. Nabors being prepped for surgery and I don’t have anyone to take care of this baby. Do you know any childcare services that do after-hours?”
Hannah couldn’t help but feel for the man. She’d had her own trials with child-minding while she’d been working and going to school, even though Lindsey had spent what seemed like half her life in the hospital before she’d received her transplant. Hannah remembered those days all too well, especially when she and Lindsey had first moved to Houston.
It was impossible for her not to offer to help him.
Don’t do it! Getting involved in other people’s lives is just asking for trouble, a voice deep inside her intoned.
As usual, Hannah ignored the declaration she recognized as her mother’s—an ingrained voice from which she feared she’d never escape, no matter how hard she tried.
“Look, I’ve been where you are before. It sucks,” she said. “There have been lots of times when I’ve had a friend save me by volunteering to watch Lindsey. Most of the time, they’re single moms like me and I can repay the favor.”
Maybe this is a mistake, but what else can I do? The man had to do the surgery and didn’t need to be worried about anything before he opened up poor Mrs. Nabors’s skull.
“I’d be glad to help,” she told him. “It’s almost shift change, and I have to go pick up Lindsey at her after-school program, but that’s only five minutes away from here.”
“Really, you wouldn’t mind?” he asked.
Was her offer such a shock? Of course, he was a world-renowned neurosurgeon. He probably never found himself in the position of needing someone else’s help.
“Like I said, I’ve been there. What’s her name?” Hannah asked. When he looked at her blankly, she prompted, “The baby? Her name? Her age? The address where I need to go?”
His face froze for a second before it seemed his brain kicked in and took over. There was definitely something more than just a childcare issue bothering him.
“Her name is Avery. She’s eleven months—no, I think she’s still ten months. I’m honestly not sure. I should know that, shouldn’t I?” he said, though Hannah wasn’t sure if he was talking to her or to himself.
“I take it she’s at your house?” she asked, tearing a sticky note from the pad closest to her and sliding it across to him as his phone rang.
Glancing up at her, he scribbled an address as he took the call. Picking up the sticky note, she recognized it as one of the more affluent areas of Houston.
“I’ll be right there,” he said to the caller before hitting the end button. “That was the OR. They’re ready for me. Look, Hannah, I don’t know how to tell you how much I appreciate this.”
“It’s not a problem, Dr. Cooper. Like I said earlier, I’ve been there. How long are you expecting to be in surgery?” she asked, thinking she’d need to make plans for supper if he was going to be late. She would have also liked to ask about the child’s diet, whether she was still on baby food or eating table food, but Hannah knew he didn’t have the time to answer all her questions. She’d just have to wait till she could question the babysitter.
“I shouldn’t be too late. Hopefully no longer than two hours, but I won’t know till I get in there and see the size of the bleed,” he said as he stood to leave.
She saw the hesitation in his eyes. “Don’t worry about Avery. I’ll take good care of her. We’ll be at your house whenever you get there,” she said in the same calm tone she used with her patients when they were anxious.
“Okay. I’ll be there as soon as possible,” he said before exiting the lounge and heading down the hall to the elevator that would take him to the OR.
Hannah had always found the man to be a bit of a mystery and now she was even more curious about him. He had a ten-month-old baby girl staying at his house. Where was the child’s mother? Was he the father? Maybe they were having some type of custody issue...
She heard that voice again telling her to mind her own business and stay out of other people’s troubles, and this time she had to admit that it was good advice. But Hannah had been living her life her way for a long time now. She made her own decisions and helping out a coworker was the right thing to do.
“Wow!” Lindsey breathed as they pulled up to the large house clad in stone and dark wood. Two wrought-iron balconies jutted out from the second story, giving it the look of a long-ago castle.
“Yeah. Wow!” Hannah said as she parked at the front entrance.
As Lindsey raced to the front door, Hannah slowly climbed out of the car. The large yard, she noted, was manicured to perfection, azaleas bursting from their buds in pink and purple blooms and shrubs trimmed into precise angles. It was the perfect complement for the impressive mansion.
Hannah planned to buy her and Lindsey their own home as soon as her education was done and she had secured a permanent job with one of the neurosurgeons. But even in her wildest of dreams, she had known that a small suburban home on a postage-stamp-size yard was all she would ever be able to afford in the Houston real estate market.
Following her daughter up to the door, she ran a calming hand over Lindsey’s hair as the girl hopped excitedly from foot to foot. The eleven-year old had spent so much of her life waiting for a heart transplant to allow her to experience everything other children took for granted, that now she seemed to race headlong into every situation—something Hannah herself had done today.
The heavy wood door and wrought-iron chandelier that hung above the front porch screamed money. Feeling like the country mouse that had come to town, Hannah rang the doorbell and waited.
“Who are you?” asked the girl who finally opened the door, giving the two of them the once-over.
This was Shelley? The girl couldn’t be much older than eighteen.
“I’m Hannah and this is my daughter, Lindsey,” she said as she moved closer to her daughter. “Dr. Cooper sent me to watch over Avery until he gets out of surgery.”
“Hi, I’m Shelley. Are you Dr. Cooper’s girlfriend or something?” The girl gave her another top-to-bottom look.
“No, just a friend and coworker,” Hannah said, pointing to the hospital badge hanging from her scrub top.
“Well, I’m just glad someone showed up. I should have been out of here—” the girl pulled her phone from her back pocket “—thirty minutes ago. I’m going to be late for my study group. I tried to explain to Dr. Cooper that I had to be there. College exams are coming up, you know?”
“Dr. Cooper had an emergent surgery or I’m sure he would have been here,” Hannah said.
“Hey, I’m premed, so I get it. I thought we could make it work since it was only a temporary thing, you know, until he can get someone full time,” the girl said, still standing in the open doorway. “He’s a good guy and all that, so I really wanted to help him out.”
“Can we come in please?” Hannah asked.
“Sorry.” Shelley stepped aside and then closed the heavy wooden door behind them.
Cooler air welcomed them in out of the Texas heat. Above them, wide beams lined the cathedral ceiling of the entranceway, where a majestic staircase occupied one complete side. On the other side there was a large open-concept great room from where Hannah could glimpse a spacious kitchen and dining room.
The sound of a baby’s whimpering led her to a small playpen that had been set up in the middle of the great room. Unable to help herself, Hannah picked up the child and held her close. Pushing damp curls from the baby’s face, she was greeted with large brown eyes rimmed in red.
“It’s okay, sweetheart,” Hannah said as she instinctively began rocking the child in her arms as she checked her forehead for fever. “How long has she been crying like this?”
“She’s teething. I’ve tried to give her that teething ring thing, but she just throws it down. I put some ointment on her gums about an hour ago,” Shelley said.
“Poor baby.” Hannah checked the baby’s diaper.
“I know, it’s so sad, isn’t it?” Shelley said as she grabbed her book bag from the side of a chair.
“Sad?” Hannah asked as she lay Avery down on a nearby couch and peeled off her diaper. She took the clean one Lindsey handed her, along with wipes and a tube of diaper rash cream laid out on a side table. This really wasn’t any of her business. Wasn’t she involved enough, already?
“I mean, losing both her parents that way. My momma said it was a shock for Dr. Cooper, too. Losing his dad and stepmom like that and then finding out they’d named him as guardian of their baby if something happened to them. Major life change, right?”
“What?” Hannah paused for a moment. How had she not known that Dr. Cooper had recently lost his father and stepmother? Of course, the man had always been a bit quiet about his personal life. But still, he should have known that his coworkers would be there to support him.
And again, she reminded herself, this wasn’t any of her business. If he didn’t want anyone to know he had lost his father, she needed to respect his privacy.
She picked Avery up and hugged her close. This poor baby had lost her mother and father. The pain of her estrangement from her own parents still clung to Hannah after twelve years. Except, Avery’s parents hadn’t turned their backs on her like Hannah’s had done the first time she’d gone against their wishes. They’d been taken away. Luckily for this child, she had a stepbrother who was there for her.
“Yeah, he went from Avery’s half brother to pretty much her daddy in just a few days.” Shelley glanced down at the phone in her hand then swore. “I’ve really got to go. I’m going to be so late.” She started for the door then stopped and turned back. “I really appreciate this. I was feeling really bad because I knew Dr. Cooper didn’t have anybody else to help with Avery.”
“I’m sure there are a lot of people at work who would’ve been happy to help out if they’d known about Avery. The staff on my unit are always there to support each other. We just didn’t know.”
“That’s good, because I was really dreading telling him that I couldn’t help out anymore. He’s a really nice guy and my mother loves working for him, but I have to put my classes first. I’m sure he’ll understand. I feel so much better now that I know you’ll be here,” Shelley said.
Hannah watched as the girl hurried out, trying to understand what Shelley had meant. Surely she couldn’t have thought that Hannah was going to...
“Shelley, wait!” Hannah called out as she heard the front door slam.
She set the baby inside the playpen and turned to Lindsey. “Stay here with Avery,” she said as she ran from the room.
“Shelley,” Hannah called again, rushing out the door. Stopping in the driveway, she watched the bright red Mini Cooper drive away.
That girl was as fast as a Texas jackrabbit.
So many things had just happened that it took a few minutes for Hannah’s brain to catch up. Dr. Cooper had recently lost his father and stepmother. Little Avery, who was Dr. Cooper’s half sister, was now his responsibility. That had certainly been a surprise, though it helped to explain a lot of the man’s behavior earlier that day. And then last, but in no way the least important, Dr. Cooper’s babysitter, the only one he had been able to find, had somehow gotten it into her head that she wouldn’t be needed any longer.
Walking back into the house, baby giggles and the laughter of her daughter echoed throughout the great room and soothed away the stress that had filled Hannah just moments earlier. It was going to be all right. In a city as big as Houston, there had to be someone Dr. Cooper could hire to take care of his little sister.
Looking around the rooms, she noticed the pile of dirty dishes in the kitchen sink and the trash can overflowing with diapers.
“Come on, you two, let’s go explore this house and find this little one’s room so we can get her cleaned up. We have a lot to do before Dr. Cooper gets home.”
And she would have a lot of explaining to do if Shelley had really meant she wasn’t coming back.
