Loving the Nurse by Piper Sullivan

Cal

“We have an incoming MVA, Dr. Rutledge. You’re up.”

The nurse’s words pulled me from my catnap, but this was the job. The one sleepless nights during medical school, and my residency had prepared me for. Jumping awake at a moment’s notice, ready to set a bone, stitch a wound, or save a life. I chose the ER because I love the constantly changing nature of the cases.

“On my way,” I told the head nurse, Melanie Gibbons.

“They’re two minutes out,” she read from a clipboard. “Multiple fractures and bleeding was all the info I got, think Bobby has a new trainee with her today.” Melanie shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Lord save us from newbies.” With those words, Melanie shuffled off.

I poured a shot of cold coffee down my throat, ran a hand through my hair and headed towards the Emergency Department, my home away from home. Actually, the house I’ve been rehabbing for eighteen months was my home away from home. The ED was my home. Period. I spent more time at the small hospital in Jackson’s Ridge, Oregon than I did at the place that I paid a mortgage for and received my mail.

When I’d find the time or energy to rip up the floors and replace them, update the electrical wiring, and, well a lot of other things that were needed to make the house my ultimate bachelor pad, I had no idea. It was time to face reality, this wasn’t a task I could finish on days off, not unless I was willing to wait a decade to turn that place into a home. I knew exactly who to call. “Hannah, I need your help.”

Silence reigned, and then the sound of my younger sister’s throaty laugh. “Hello, dear brother. I’m well, how are you?”

I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Hey Hannah. No time for pleasantries, got a MVA incoming.”

“Nice excuse for poor phone manners. What do you need?”

“I’m never going to finish my house on my own.” It was a major admission on my part, and I braced myself for her response.

“You mean long hours at the hospital and weekends spent chasing women in the city doesn’t allow for a lot of time to remodel a whole house? Shocking.”

I ignored her mocking tone. “You’re right, okay? I don’t have the time.”

“Or the expertise,” she added with a laugh.

“That’s not the point,” I growled into the phone as the ambulance sirens drew closer. “I need someone, a professional.”

“You don’t say.”

“Save the sarcasm for when I have time, Hannah. Can you help me or not?” It was the job of little sisters to be as big a pain in the ass as humanly possible, and Hannah did her job beautifully.

“We both know I can help. Just tell me what you need, exactly and-,”

I shook my head as the ambulance came into view. “No time, Sis. Handle it, please and thank you. Love you,” I shouted and ended the call before shoving my phone in the pocket of my scrubs.

The ambulance pulled into the lot and my focus shifted back to the work that invigorated me, that satisfied more than any romantic relationship ever could. This was what I was meant to do with my life, and I did it better than damn near anybody else. On the worst day of someone’s life, I was there to make it better. Most days, anyway. Some injuries or traumas were too severe, and some required a specialist, but it was my job to keep them alive, to get them stable enough to be passed on to one of my colleagues. That was my passion and I loved it.

“Name?” I liked to know who was on my table. Some doctors preferred the distance of anonymity, but not me.

“Charlie Gray.”

Charlie had a crushed leg, broken ribs, a broken nose and a possible concussion. “Get ortho on the phone and keep them updated.”

“Yes, Doctor.”

That never got old either. What man wouldn’t love a job where he said what needed to be done and everyone—for the most part—did it without arguing? “Thank you. Now let’s get Charlie patched up.” He had a long road to recovery ahead of him. Broken bones healed quickly, but not easily, which meant lots of time laid up followed by tons of physical therapy. “You with me Charlie?”

He nodded because that was all he could do at the moment.

I smiled down at him. “You’ll be all right. There’s nothing here that can’t be fixed.”

He nodded again, giving me that look of trust that I knew well. It was a strange thing, having people you didn’t really know have such blind trust in you. It was an honor and a privilege that I didn’t take lightly. I did for Charlie what I did for all of my patients, I gave them everything I had, every chance to make it out of the ER better than when they entered it.

Almost ninety minutes later, Charlie was as fixed up as he was going to get without the help of our orthopedic surgery department, and I was leaving the ER in search of a hot cup of coffee. As much as I loved the work, emergency medicine was exhausting and coffee was my closest companion.

“Dr. Rutledge, there you are!”

Melanie’s voice was sugary sweet, a tone reserved for two things. Asking favors and matchmaking. Neither of which I was in the mood for right now, so I kept on walking. “Can’t talk now, Mel. Got another patient.”

“The ER is in the opposite direction,” she growled.

“I’m taking the circuitous route, gotta get my steps in,” I called over my shoulder. “It’s good for the heart, I hear.”

“Calvin Rutledge, if you make me chase you down this corridor I swear you will live to regret it. You might as well kiss your precious weekends good bye.”

Those words stopped me cold, as she knew they would. Many of my weekends were spent outside of the scenic town where I grew up. Jackson’s Ridge was as small town as they came and twice as gorgeous, but there was an over-abundance of marriage minded women, which meant I spent my weekends where the women had more casual tendencies. I turned slowly towards Mel, who wore the kind of satisfied smile that likely spelled trouble for me.

“What can I help you with, Nurse Gibbons?”

“That’s better,” she practically purred as she caught up to me. “I have the perfect woman for you, Cal. She’s tall and gorgeous, and best of all she’s a surgeon just like you so she knows all about crazy schedules and last-minute cancellations.”

She sounded promising, but Melanie’s goal was creating happy endings, not casual hookups. “Where does she live?”

“Salem, though what you have against the women here in town, I’ll never know.”

She wouldn’t find out from me, either. “What makes this woman perfect for me?”

Melanie blinked. “I already told you, she’s a doctor so she knows what your life is like. She’ll be more understanding of your schedule and less likely to break up with you.”

I smiled. “You’re fishing, Mel.” The last woman I dated semi-seriously broke up with me in a very public way, so the whole town knew I was dumped for cancelling on Gina one too many times. “What else?”

“What?” She blinked, looking far too innocent, which was a dead giveaway that she was up to something.

“She’s a gorgeous surgeon who lives in Salem. What else do I need to know about her?”

Mel bit down on her lip, blue gaze looking everywhere but at me as she let out a deep sigh. “She’s divorced. And a mother.”

I let out a low groan and shook my head. “Thanks Mel, but no thanks. I have no interest in being someone’s father after five dates.” Single mothers weren’t my thing because they came with too many expectations. Expectations I couldn’t live up to.

Melanie’s smile turned into a frown, her shoulders drooped in disappointment. “You’ll have to grow up and settle down, sometime Cal.”

“What makes you think I’m not a grown up? I live alone and pay all of my own bills. I give to charity and I pay my taxes, all recognizably grown up things to do. Finding a wife doesn’t make me an adult, Mel.” Too many people thought that was the next logical step in life, and more often than not, they lived to regret it.

“No, it doesn’t, but avoiding love at all costs is childish.”

“I’m not avoiding it, I just have no interest in it.” Truthfully, I’ve never been in love before, not even puppy love. There were women I enjoyed spending time with inside and outside the bedroom, some I cared about, but none ever rose to the level of love.

“When you find the right woman, you’ll change your mind.”

I smiled at Mel, who had the best of intentions. “Maybe I just haven’t met her yet, then.” It pissed me off that everyone believed I was somehow defective for choosing to be a bachelor.

“Shannon could be the right woman,” she shot back in a sing-song voice.

“No. She’s looking for something serious, single mothers always are, and I get that, I really do. But I don’t want another woman thinking she can change me, or that I’ll change my mind about what I want.” I never changed my mind. No matter how beautiful the woman, how good the sex or the food, no woman has been able to change my mind about what I want in life, or more specifically, what I don’t want.

“Says who?”

“Really, Mel?”

“Okay, fine. Maybe that’s her goal, but maybe you’ll fall in love with her and want all that stuff too.” I appreciated the hope that sparkled in her deep blue eyes, even if it was misplaced.

“That’s too many maybes for me, Mel. Sorry, but no.” I flashed a small smile, kissed her cheek and made my escape.

I appreciated that my hometown was so filled with people who wanted to see me happy, even if they only wanted what they thought would make me happy. If they knew the truth, that what I really wanted was a woman who was happy to keep things casual, they might die of shock.