The Neurosurgeon's Unexpected Family Page 6

  “Room three is ready,” Hannah said from the open doorway to his office. “It’s Mr. McGrew. He’s here for his post-op visit after his lumbar fusion. I went ahead and reviewed his range of motion. His pain scale is down and he’s very happy with the results.”

  It was the most she had said to him since the night before. Even so, she still wouldn’t look him in the eye. Was she embarrassed? Did he owe her an apology? They should probably talk about it. Women liked to talk about things. But how could they talk about it when he wasn’t even sure what “it” was? All he knew was that he couldn’t forget how Hannah had looked when she’d turned the tables on him. He’d taken two cold showers and still been up most of the night.

  “Hannah, we need to talk.” His phone dinged with the ringtone that notified him of a trauma in the ER. Reading the text message, he pushed back from his desk.

  “Tell Marion to take care of the office. There’s a trauma in the ER we need to go see,” he said as he reached for his hospital lab jacket, already feeling his blood boil at the description of the patient’s injuries and the ER doc’s message that he was suspicious of the husband having caused them.

  Domestic abuse. It never made sense. Why did men feel the need to mistreat the very women they’d promised to take care of? To love and to cherish? You didn’t abuse someone you cherished. ‘Til death do us part? In sickness and health? He’d learned from his father that those vows were just pretty words for a crowd of guests. By the time his father had wed his fourth wife, he’d proved that his vows meant nothing.

  He had only been nine when his mother had fallen down the stairs and received a traumatic brain injury which had resulted in her spending the rest of her life in a nursing home. By the time he was ten, his father had divorced William’s mother or wife number two and he was only a teen by the time wife number three had come into the picture. He couldn’t help but presume that it had only been death that had stopped his father at wife number four.

  A pang of sympathy slipped through the thick armor he had in place at the thought of the little girl he had been entrusted with. His half sister would never know either of her parents. He knew Avery would miss her mother just as he had missed his when his mother was taken away from him.

  The ride to the hospital was quiet. He’d given Hannah his phone to access the portal that contained the hospital’s patient records as much to get her up to date on the patient as to keep her occupied while he dealt with his own demons. These types of injuries always brought out the worst in him.

  They stopped at the ER desk to review the CT of the patient’s head. From the ER doctor’s description and the test results, it was easy to see the woman had a hairline skull fracture and possible concussion. She’d recover this time. It was the circumstances of the injury, however, that most concerned them. Next time she might not be so lucky.

  “Let me go in first,” Hannah said. “It might be easier for her to talk to another woman.”

  “Okay, see what you can get her to admit to. So far, she’s claiming she tripped and fell. Maybe she’ll relax around you,” William said.

  “It’s worth a try. Good luck,” the ER doc said before he picked up a chart and headed off to see another patient.

  While Hannah went to see the patient, William took a seat at the desk and searched the patient’s records. He wasn’t surprised to read that there had been more than one visit to the ER in the last six months with an injury that was always put down to some type of accident. On one visit, she’d claimed to have tripped over a basket of laundry. On another, a rug had caused the fall that had led to a sprained wrist and busted chin. Each time the staff at the hospital had tried to get her to admit that she had been abused, but the woman had always denied it, leaving their hands tied. She was just another example of misplaced love.

  William heard the shouting and shot to his feet. He could hear Hannah’s voice and that of an unknown male.

  He found her standing outside a trauma room doorway, her body ridged and her head thrown back as she looked up at a large man who was over six feet tall. Was this the abusive husband? The guy raised his voice at Hannah. “That’s my wife in there. You have no right to keep me away from her,” he snarled, giving Hannah a nasty stare.

  William stepped between the two of them as the man attempted to push past her.

  “Hannah, go into the room. I’m sure this man understands that our patient needs some privacy while we examine her,” William said, his tone cold yet calm even though he wanted to punch the man in the face.

  Hannah’s hand slid out to the man’s arm and she pulled him aside as two hospital security officers approached.

  Stepping in front of him, she lowered her voice. “I understand that you are upset, Mr. Jones, but we are just trying to do our job. Now, these two officers are going to find you a nice seat in the waiting room where you can wait till someone tells you that you can come back. If you choose to continue arguing with us, these officers will call the police and have you removed from the hospital. It’s your choice,” Hannah said.

  The man settled down and the two officers escorted him from the ER with warnings of calling the police if he caused any more trouble.

  “Now, if you’ll let me do my job, I’ll introduce you to Jeannine Jones,” she said to William as she turned toward the trauma room. He followed her inside without saying a word.

  What had he done? He’d only wanted to protect Hannah. To keep the man who he believed had beat his wife away from her.

  A small woman was perched on the side of a stretcher. Dressed in a silk blouse and dress pants, she ran trembling fingers along the string of pearls at her neck. Her arm had been splinted, Velcro strips holding it in place. Her pale skin highlighted the long row of black stitches above her eye. Purpling bruises marred her forehead, contrasting with dullness of the blue eyes that stared up at him. All medical evidence suggested Jeannine Jones had been physically battered. In his mind, whoever had abused her deserved to be locked up.

  “It’s nice to meet you,” William said, dragging his thoughts away from things he could not change. “I’m Dr. Cooper. I’m the neurosurgeon on duty today. Can you tell me what happened?”

  “I’ve told everyone that it was an accident. I just tripped. I’m clumsy, that’s all.” The woman’s eyes begged him to believe her. What must her home life be like? he wondered, unable to even imagine the fear she might be living with day by day.

  “I know it’s frustrating, but it helps us in our neuro assessment,” Hannah said, stepping closer to the stretcher. “Just like how we keep asking if you know your name and date of birth. With the injury to your head, we need to make sure your mental status doesn’t become altered as that could be a sign of a much bigger problem.” She took the woman’s hand and held it comfortingly in her own.

  “But I feel fine,” Jeannine insisted, pulling her hand back. “I don’t know why Tabitha called that ambulance. It was such a small cut.”

  “Is Tabitha a friend?” William asked. If anyone needed a friend, it was this woman.

  “She lives next door. She comes over for tea sometimes when Calvin is at work. Calvin thinks she’s a busybody, but she’s really a very nice girl.”

  A nice girl who had taken on the duty of guardian angel to a woman who’d apparently been abused for too long, it seemed.

  “Head wounds bleed a lot. It probably scared her to see the blood, and she did the right thing. You needed the stitches to close the gash above your eye,” Hannah said. “Maybe we could call Tabitha and you could stay with her until you feel better?”

  “No, I need to go home. My husband needs me there,” Jeannine said, panic coming back into her voice. Panic and fear.

  There was no way William was letting this woman go home today.

  “Actually, I’ve reviewed the CT and there’s a good probability that you have a concussion. I need you to stay overnight so we can ma
ke sure that you’re okay. I know Tabitha would want you to stay,” William said as he looked to Hannah.

  “Wouldn’t she feel better knowing you were doing what the doctor asked?” Hannah picked up his cue. “How about I call her so I can let her know you’re doing okay? She’s probably worried about you. If you give me the number, I can call her for you,” Hannah said as she pulled her phone from her pocket.

  William stepped out of the room to let Hannah work her magic as he knew she could. Jeannine wasn’t ready to admit that she was being abused. Hopefully, her friend Tabitha would find a way to help the woman.

  Within a few minutes, Hannah stepped out of the room.

  “Did she agree to stay?” he asked as they made their way through the emergency department. “Was her friend helpful?”

  “Jeannine has agreed to spend the night. Her nurse is going to take a guard with her when she goes to tell her husband in case he tries to cause trouble.” Hannah added, “Her friend was out, so I gave Jeannine my cell number in case she needs anything.”

  “I don’t understand how people let themselves get into this type of situation. It doesn’t make sense. How can someone who says they love you hurt you like that? And how can you love someone who would do something like that to you?” William said. “Don’t they see that that person is just using their love against them?”

  “I wish I had the answer,” Hannah admitted. “I’m sure love means different things to different people, but I know that what Calvin Jones feels for his wife can’t be real love. Jeannine knows it, too. She kept saying how embarrassed she was, and I don’t think she meant the injuries. I think she sees herself as weak and that’s what she’s embarrassed about.”

  “Then why doesn’t she leave?” William asked as he opened the door that would lead them back to the parking lot.

  “She probably doesn’t feel like she can leave. It’s scary being out on your own, William. They have no children and, if her husband is like most abusers, he’s cut her off from her friends and family. I’m going to call the social worker on the neuro floor when we get back to the office to see if she can help.”

  Hannah opened the door to the car. “Maybe this time Jeannine’ll reach out for help.”

  “I hope you’re right,” William said as he settled in behind the wheel and started the engine. “Because I have a feeling that the next time her husband decides to beat on her it might be too late.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  STANDING AT THE kitchen window, Hannah watched William as he snapped his fishing line in the air above him before laying it precisely in the same spot over and over. He’d been out there for more than half an hour and she hadn’t seen him pull in a single fish.

  She was supposed to be studying while William and the kids played outside, but she had stopped for a moment to check on them and now she was unable to step away. The repetition of the movement was mesmerizing as he brought the line out of the water again and again, making it dance in the air above him before casting out once more. It was a beautiful sight and she was only watching for the elegance of the movements. It had absolutely nothing to do with the way William’s body swayed with each cast, his muscles tensing as he whipped the line back then relaxing as he let it sink into the water. Nope, it had nothing at all to do with William.

  Refusing to waste the precious time she had to herself, Hannah moved back to the table and settled down to study. She had no time to be gazing out the window. She had an assignment due before the weekend.

  Only, being out of sight did not take the vision of William from her mind. Both the cool, calm and collected man who ruled the operating room and the man standing alone on the bank of the lake were fascinating. The more Hannah saw of him, the more questions she had. And it wasn’t just the physical attraction she felt for William that had him constantly in her thoughts. The man was such a mystery that she felt the need to find out what had made him that way. How could he go from cold to hot so fast?

  The sexual awareness between the two of them seemed to be increasing every day. At some point, one of them would make a move. When it happened, would they be risking their new friendship for something that could easily burn itself out? Would it be worth it? She remembered how William had looked just moments earlier. How his smile made the muscles in her stomach clinch and her breath catch. How the boyish grin he’d given her the night before while they’d bathed Avery had set her heart to racing. Would she have the strength to walk away from that man? No, she definitely would not.

  “Mom, have you seen my video headset?” Lindsey asked as she rushed through the back door. “William says he’ll play with me after he gets Avery to sleep since I’ve already gotten my homework done.”

  “I don’t think I’ve seen it. Are you sure you brought it?” Hannah asked as she shut the textbook. She’d been reading the same paragraph over and over and still couldn’t remember the information.

  “Maybe it’s in the stuff that I left in that black box by my desk,” Lindsey said. “I get to choose the game so I have the advantage.”

  Hannah shook her head as Lindsey ran down the hall to their rooms. It seemed that every couple of days Hannah had to make a trip to their apartment to retrieve something one of them had forgotten.

  Deciding she might as well take a break, Hannah put together some drinks and took them out to the backyard. Setting the tray on the picnic table, she reached into the playpen where Avery was playing. The wiggly girl clapped her hands then wrapped them around Hannah’s neck.

  Hannah’s heart squeezed. The child was quickly working her way into Hannah’s heart, right along with her brother. If she wasn’t careful, Hannah would have her heart broken by both of them when she had to leave. Something she wasn’t sure she could survive. Unfortunately, her heart didn’t seem to understand the danger.

  * * *

  The lake was calm, the water lapping against the bank in a slow, steady rhythm that had always soothed him. Only, today, it did nothing to calm the anger he felt toward a man he didn’t even know. Inside, he knew there was nothing more at the moment he could do in a case like Jeannine’s, but that didn’t make him feel any better.

  William couldn’t shake the picture of Jeannine Jones sitting in the emergency trauma room all battered and broken. How many times had she awoken from a beating and wondered where her life had gone wrong? How many times had she regretted that she’d ever met her husband?

  He looked back toward the house, relieved to see that Hannah had moved away from the window. He’d known she’d been watching him. He’d seen that window a hundred times from the banks of the lake, had looked out of it himself hundreds more, but never had it looked so right to see Hannah standing there. It made him think of things that could not be. Not for a man with his family’s history of mistakes. William had sworn to his own father that he would never make the same mistakes his father had repeated over and over.

  Still, the sight of Hannah in his kitchen window had seemed so right at that moment. She wasn’t just the nurse or the student or the friend who was there to help him, though she was all of those things. She was the woman he had discovered that night in the gym, the one still giving him restless nights.

  But what did she see when she looked at him? Was it the renowned surgeon or the wealthy bachelor? Avery’s half brother? The doctor she worked with? Or did she see the man who had almost lost himself to the need she’d made him feel that night in the gym? A need that tugged at him as she crossed the yard to him now.

  “I thought you might need something to drink,” she said, holding out a glass of what looked like lemonade. Taking the glass, he slowly sipped the tart yet sweet juice and then smiled at Avery as Hannah transferred her from one arm to the other. He was using the time to collect his thoughts from the dangerous ground where they had wandered.

  “Thanks. I wanted to apologize for the way I acted today. I should have known that you could take ca
re of yourself,” he said, knowing he couldn’t promise he wouldn’t do the same thing again.

  “I can take care of myself, William. I’ve been doing it for years. Calvin Jones isn’t the first irate family member I’ve had to handle and he won’t be the last. I’d already sent one of the techs to get the officers.”

  “I know you can handle it. I just lost it for a few minutes. All I could think about was how he had hurt his wife, someone he was supposed to care about. I figured he’d have no problem hurting you. But I should have known you were prepared,” he conceded. “And you did a great job with Jeannine, too. I checked on her before I came outside and the nurse said she was resting well.”

  “Thank you, William,” Hannah said, looking out over the lake. “I’m glad she’s doing well.”

  “There’s something else I want to talk to you about...” William he rested his glass on the grass. “I got a call from one of my father’s lawyers and it seems there are a lot of papers in my father’s office I need to personally go through and decide what to do with. So I’m going to have to make a visit to my father’s house this weekend.” He began taking his casting rod apart. “I don’t expect you to come with me. I know you have a lot of studying to do right now.”

  “And miss you experiencing a road trip with Avery? Never. Besides, I think it’s a good idea to take her back to her home.”

  Her words startled him. “What?” he asked, his hand stilling above his tackle box.

  “I realized, talking to Lindsey just now, how much stuff we left behind that we probably should have brought with us,” Hannah said. “There are probably things at your father’s place that Avery is attached to. It’s kind of like me moving Lindsey in here. I let her make the decision about the most important items to her—what she couldn’t live without, sentimental items—and those are the things she packed to bring here.”