Read A Place in Her Heart Online
Authors: Trish Milburn
The Doctor’s Cowboy
“Is it possible to die of boredom?”
Dr. Brody gave him a quick smile as she lifted his chart from the end of the bed. “Afraid not, though I’m sure it feels that way.” She made a couple of notations on the chart before returning it to its previous spot.
“So, I think I’ve figured out your first name.”
“That so?” She walked around to the side of his bed and checked the fluids in his IV bags.
“Yeah. You look like a Carly.”
“Swing and a miss.”
“Christa.”
“Nope.”
When Wyatt started to guess again, she shook her head. “Only two guesses a day.”
He lifted a brow. “Just how long do you think I’m going to be in here?”
“That’s partly up to Dr. Pierce.” She pointed toward the IV bags. “But we’ll start gradually lowering the dosage on these as well as the painkiller.”
“So what do I get when I guess your name?”
A hint of a smile tugged at the edge of her mouth. “The satisfaction of a mystery solved.”
He laughed a little, and damn if it didn’t hurt his middle. “You must have gone to the medical school where they teach doctors to have an actual personality.”
“Oh, this is all me, there way before med school.”
“Naturally quick with comebacks, huh?”
“That’s what happens when you grow up with brothers. Couldn’t beat them up, couldn’t outrun them, but I could win in a smart-mouth contest any day.” She shifted as if leaving already.
“Seriously, when can I get out of this place?”
Her light demeanor fell away. “You sustained significant injuries. If that horn had cut a little deeper, you might not be talking to me right now. So you need to give your body time to repair itself.”
“That’s not a definite answer.”
“Because I don’t know a definite answer. It depends on how quickly and how well your injuries begin to heal.”
Frustration welled up within him. He was not good at lying around doing nothing, especially when he was pretty sure he’d exhausted his limited health-care coverage by the time he rolled out of surgery.
“Is there anyone we can call to let them know you’re here?” she asked. “Having visitors would make the days go by more quickly.”
Wyatt shook his head. Even if he were back in Wyoming, there wasn’t anyone close enough that he’d be able to call them up and have them sit in a hospital with him.
“Tell you what. I’m done with my rounds in a few minutes. I’ll bring you some magazines, maybe a crossword puzzle book. That will help pass the time until something decent comes on TV tonight.”
“Any chance I can at least go sit outside?”
He had to give her credit. She looked genuinely sorry when she shook her head. “Not yet.”
He was going to go stark-raving mad.
“I know it stinks. But I’ll be back with some issues of
Woman’s Day
before you know it.”
“You are evil,” he said, at least thankful that she was personable and he had her brief visits to look forward to.
“Who, me? I’m an angel.” She pretended to buff an invisible halo before laughing a little and heading for the door. “Hang in there, Cowboy.”
She knew his name, but there was something about the way she called him “cowboy” that he liked. Still, part of him enjoyed imagining her saying his name right before he kissed those pink lips. Yeah, he’d been daydreaming about his doctor. That’s what happened when you were full of stitches, unable to get out of bed and had way too many hours of staring at the wall. Never mind not having been on a date in a while.
Wyatt was pretty sure the minutes slowed after she left. He stared out the narrow window, but the view of the empty helipad lost his interest pretty quickly. He closed his eyes and tried to think of every possible female name that started with a C. He wanted to know the doc’s name, but he sure didn’t want to stay in the hospital long enough to guess it. Maybe he’d get lucky tomorrow. He settled on the two most likely choices then was left with nothing to do again. He finally resorted to turning on the TV and found an older-than-dirt action movie. It wasn’t a great film, but it was better than resorting to counting the ceiling tiles.
He was beginning to wonder how the movie even got made when Dr. Brody returned, the promised magazines in hand. He muted the TV as she placed the magazines on the rolling table and pushed it close so he could reach it.
“I behaved,” she said as he sifted through the stack of magazines. One about hunting and fishing, another about cars,
Sports Illustrated
and... “Mostly.”
He laughed at the copy of
Cosmopolitan
. “Maybe it’ll help me figure out how women’s minds work.”
“You mean you don’t think you know that already?”
“There’s not a man alive who’s figured that out.”
“Maybe you all just aren’t observant enough.”
Wyatt shook his head, not going down that road filled with land mines. “Thanks for the magazines.”
Thunder rumbled outside, drawing their attention to the window. It had grown dark out, even though it was still a few hours from nightfall. Wyatt noticed that a weather broadcast had broken in on the movie. The radar image was several shades of red with lots of indications of lightning strikes.
“That doesn’t look good,” he said.
Dr. Brody sighed. “Just in time for my drive home.”
“Guess you’ll have to stay here until it passes.” When she glanced at him, he winked at her.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you ordered the storm.”
“If I had that much power, I’d heal myself so I could get out of this awful bed. My back feels like I fell off a building.”
“Here, let’s see if we can do something about that.” She crossed to the other side of the room, where an empty bed sat awaiting another unfortunate hospital guest. She grabbed a pillow and stepped close to his side. “Carefully lean forward.”
He bit his lip to keep from wincing, but then his breath caught for a different reason. Dr. Brody grasped his shoulder as she tucked the pillow so that it stretched from his lower back to his shoulders. She stood close enough that he could smell her feminine scent, something flowery but not overwhelming.
“You smell nice.”
She stopped moving for a moment, and he thought he heard her breath catch, too. But when she eased him back against the pillow and took a step away, she smiled.
“Well, you’re used to smelling antiseptic and bleach,” she said, deflecting his compliment.
A loud crash of thunder that sounded as if it were just above his room caused her to jump. Right on the heels of the thunder, the sky opened up and released a deluge of rain. In the space of a couple of seconds, the helipad became obscured.
“Even Mother Nature thinks you should stay and keep me company,” he said.
“Since I didn’t bring my canoe to work, I think you’re right.”
He was actually sort of surprised when the doc pulled up a chair and propped her feet on the end of his bed.
“So, Wyatt Kelley, tell me something about yourself.”
“Not much to tell.”
“Everyone has a story.”
“And some of them aren’t all that interesting. What about you?”
“What do you want to know?”
“Your name.”
She smiled, and he spotted a mischievous glint in her eyes. “Nice try.”
“Okay, are you originally from Blue Falls?”
“Yep, born and raised on a ranch outside of town. My turn. Where are you from?”
“Laramie, Wyoming.”
“Long way from home.”
He shrugged, irked that even that slight motion sent a twinge through his injured side. “Not really. I mainly live on the road.”
“Traveling from rodeo to rodeo.”
He nodded.
“I don’t know how you guys do that, especially climbing onto bulls. My younger brother did rodeo for a while, but he was a roper. At least he wasn’t cheating death every time he got in the chute.”
“Most of the time I don’t even think about it.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. I’ve been around rodeo all my life. It’s nothing out of the ordinary.”
Dr. Brody shook her head slowly. “Maybe all of you have just had one too many concussions to know better.”
“Maybe, but the crowds love it.”
Another loud boom of thunder set off a car alarm outside, and in the next moment the electricity went out. Dr. Brody immediately jumped to her feet and headed for the door, but before she got there the backup generators kicked in.
“Be back in a bit,” she said, then disappeared.
He listened to the flurry of footsteps out in the hall, as the staff checked on patients to make sure all the necessary monitors and equipment were operating correctly. Wyatt glanced at the TV and realized the angriest part of the storm sat right smack on top of Blue Falls. After a storm like this, there would no doubt be necessary cleanup. If only he weren’t a prisoner of his injuries, maybe he could pick up a couple days of work. Lord knew his wallet could always use the extra cash.
That thought took him back to Dr. Brody’s comments about how he put his life in danger every time he climbed on the back of a bull. But it was all he knew beyond basic manual labor. Maybe he could have done something else if he’d applied himself, but rodeo had gotten into his blood early and he’d not thought much beyond it. Good thing that bull two nights ago hadn’t done anything that was irreparable.
But what if it had?
Maybe he needed to think about a plan for when his rodeo days were over. Even the best of the best had to quit riding sometime. If he started chatting up some of his contacts now, maybe he could plant the seed that would grow into some sort of rodeo-related job after he quit riding. Maybe he’d even follow in his grandfather’s footsteps and become an announcer.
But that was down the road. All he needed to do now was heal enough to escape this damn bed and get back on the road. He was losing precious time, points and money, none of which he could afford.
Dr. Brody stayed gone so long that he’d begun to think maybe she’d headed home. He hoped not, and not just because he liked her company. Using the dim light above his bed, he started flipping through the fishing-and-hunting magazine. He honestly wasn’t much for hunting, but he liked the solitude and quiet of a morning of fishing. He had a lot of fond memories of fly-fishing with his grandfather on the Laramie and North Platte Rivers, outings he often wished he could relive just once.
Not wanting to travel down memory lane, he tossed the magazine back onto the table and looked at the TV screen. It appeared the storm was moving quickly. As if to confirm that observation, the rain subsided outside. He shifted his focus to the doorway and watched as people walked back and forth, but none of them were the person he wanted to see. He’d barely had that thought when she popped her head in the door.
“I’m going to see if I can float home now. Behave yourself.” She gestured toward the magazines. “And good luck figuring out the mysteries of the female mind.”
He snorted. “I’ll settle for figuring out your name. I’m confident I’ll get it right tomorrow. I’ve got two good guesses ready to go.”
“You’ll have to hang on to them. I’m off for the next couple of days.”
Wyatt’s heart sank. The days were long and boring enough without her brief visits. “Then I get six guesses when you come back.”
She smiled. “You’ll need them.”
Wyatt tried to occupy himself with some more channel surfing and reading the magazines. He even pulled out the crossword-puzzle book and worked a few. But his mind wandered and he started writing down all the C names he could think of down the margin of one of the puzzles.
When a nurse came in after the shift change that evening, he chatted her up a little before springing the question uppermost in his mind. “Hey, could you tell me what Dr. Brody’s first name is?”
“Sure,” she said with a smile that made her eyes twinkle. “It’s Chloe.” The nurse lowered her voice. “Don’t tell the other docs, but she’s our favorite.”
His, too.
He waited until the nurse, Sophie, left the room before he let his mind fix on the lovely doctor’s name. Chloe. It fit her. But with his curiosity satisfied, there was no way he was going to give her the correct answer. For however long he was stuck here, he needed something to look forward to. And if “guessing” the wrong names kept Chloe coming back, he’d toss every crazy name he could at her.
He smiled and felt better than he had since she’d left.
* * * * *
Look for THE DOCTOR’S COWBOY
by Trish Milburn, on sale in March 2015
wherever books and ebooks are sold!
Dear Reader,
I was thrilled to be asked to take part in the Harlequin More Than Words program because I think it’s wonderful that women such as Linda Burston, who are so giving to others, are honored for their service. When I found out about all the wonderful aid and programs available to women through the Women’s Lunch Place, I was even more proud to be able to write a story that featured the organization.
While I have personally been very fortunate to have a kind and loving husband, I know many women are not so lucky in their relationships and often find themselves in dangerous situations. I truly admire the staff and volunteers of women’s shelters everywhere, people who give of their time, their pocketbooks, their hearts and souls to help put these women on a path to healing and a better, safer life.
I hope you enjoy
A
Place in Her Heart
. I really enjoyed writing this story of the healing power of love.
Sincerely,
Trish Milburn
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, author Christi Barth honors the work of Megan Yunn, president and founder of Beverly’s Birthdays in Pittsburgh—a charity that spreads birthday cheer 365 days a year by organiziing birthday parties for children living in homeless shelters.
And in
A
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&
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Prayer
, author Andrea Laurence honors the work of Ann McGee, founder of Miracle Flights for Kids, which provides children and their families free flights to hospitals and treatment centers nationwide that they could not otherwise reach due to financial hardship.
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