During the summer months, he always made it a habit to drink his morning coffee here on the pier, where the beauty and solitude helped him unwind from the rigors of the ER. But this morning, Luke was far from relaxed. The image of Paige Winters’s face continued to float in front of his eyes, blocking out the magnificent view of prime Nevada real estate.
Damn it! What in the world had come over her? Of all the nurses he’d worked with during his ten years as an MD, Paige was definitely the most capable. If anything rattled her, it never showed in the smooth, efficient way she administered care to the influx of ER patients. Before this morning, he’d never once seen a glimmer of a tear in her eyes.
He didn’t know what had caused the waterworks. And he damn well didn’t care. The only thing that mattered to him was that his best nurse remain focused and ready for whatever emergency came through the door.
Luke unconsciously gripped the insulated coffee mug even tighter as the image of Paige’s clear gray eyes swimming in tears replayed itself in his mind. She would never know, or possibly guess, how much it had hurt him to see her crying. He could hardly believe it himself.
You didn’t have to cut into her the way you did, Luke. You were a jerk. A bastard, she called you. And she was right. You don’t deserve to have a nurse like Paige working at your side.
Cursing under his breath, he rose from the Adirondack chair and walked to the edge of the long, planked pier. As he stared down at the deep blue water, he shoved mightily at the accusing voice in his head.
It was possible he’d overreacted, he contemplated. And he might have tendered his words in a gentler manner. But he’d never had to handle Paige with kid gloves. She was tough. She could take anything he dished out. On top of that, he’d been right in confronting her and right in sending her out of the ER. He wasn’t going to allow anyone, even Nurse Winters, to jeopardize a patient’s life. So why did he feel so miserable?
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!”