After the Christmas Party (8 page)

Karen smiled. “I’ll be sure to let everyone know you’re off the market, Dr. Williams.”

“I didn’t know I was ever on the market. But you do that. My free time is definitely going to be occupied by this little lady so long as she’ll let me hang around.” Riley winked and nodded towards the cardiac care patient rooms. “How’s Mr. Ryker this morning? Holding his own?”

Still not quite believing how he’d just essentially given Karen permission to tell everyone that he belonged to her, Trinity shook her head in wonder.

Take that, Christmas party trio who’d called her “tonight’s lucky pick”
.

She was this week’s lucky pick.

Or something like that.

Then again, she had to wonder just what he had to gain by hanging out with her. Why he’d want to. Ultimately, how much did they have in common? Was he so used to women chasing him that he had to dazzle her so she’d follow suit?

Sure, she’d enjoyed talking to him into the wee hours, but everything was different when you were bone tired, right?

Still, she’d be lying if she said she hadn’t enjoyed spending time with him the evening before, despite what he’d had her doing. She’d definitely be fibbing if she said she hadn’t derived deep pleasure from falling asleep to the sound of his voice, to his breathing on
the other end of the phone, to him asking her thoughts and dreams.

No one had ever asked her those things.

“Oxygen sats are staying at 97-98%, but he’s still on two liters per minute,” she told him, referring to the patient she’d just finished checking prior to Karen’s inquisition. “Cardiac monitoring is normal. His vitals are stable. Ins and outs are normal. A physical therapist had him up walking not long ago.”

“That’s what I like to hear.”

It’s what she liked to report. No nurse wanted to deliver bad news regarding a patient.

“Come round with me?”

He was her superior so of course she’d go round with him if that’s what he wanted. Based on the past couple days, she’d do a lot of things with him if that’s what he wanted. If he could get her to decorate a Christmas tree, she was pretty much at his will to command.

Lord, she hoped that wasn’t really so.

“Y’all have fun and don’t do anything that will get Mr. Ryker’s heart racing,” Karen teased, looking quite pleased at Riley’s admission.

He laughed and Trinity didn’t say a word. Honestly, as impressed as she was at Riley not caring who knew he was interested in her, she hated the thought that she was the focus of hospital gossip. Even if it was positive gossip regarding her and Riley, because all good things came to an end and then what? She’d once again be poor pitiful Trinity who’d been dumped, because realistically she acknowledged that he’d be the one to end their relationship.

Would he humiliate her publicly, the way Chase had?

Of course, to give him credit, Chase had been drinking
too much. Would he have otherwise announced her shortcomings so cruelly at their hospital Christmas party? Probably not, but once done he’d been unable to take back his words, couldn’t stop the teasing that had ensued at Trinity’s expense. Why had she stayed in Memphis so long after that horrible Christmas? Had she purposely been punishing herself for being so stupid as to put her hopes in a man? At least she hadn’t started drinking, the way her mother had after being deserted by Trinity’s father.

She should have removed herself from the situation much sooner. She hadn’t wanted to run but, really, after her mother’s death she’d had no ties. She should have left. Next time she’d know.

Next time?

Was she already planning for the demise of any relationship between her and Riley? Whatever that relationship might be. She really didn’t have a clue what he wanted from her.

If he’d just wanted sex, wouldn’t he have knocked the night before instead of talking to her into the wee morning hours?

Riley tapped on the patient’s door then entered the private cardiac room. “Good morning, Mr. Ryker.”

The man stretched out in his bed smiled at Riley and then at Trinity. A clear tube ran around his face with a nasal cannula delivering oxygen. Multiple wires and leads were attached at various points to his body.

“Your nurse tells me that you’re ready to dance a jig and you want to blow this joint as soon as possible. That so?”

Not her exact words.

“If it would get me home earlier, I’d dance a jig or
two,” the heavy set man admitted, raising the head of his bed and scooting up, wincing a little as he did so. “Other than the pain in my chest and leg from being cut open, I feel great.”

“If all goes well today, I’ll release you to go home tomorrow morning and see you back in the office in a week or so.”

The man’s wife, who’d been sitting quietly in a chair next to his hospital bed, got wide-eyed. “You’re going to let him go home that soon? Is that safe?”

“If everything goes as expected today, yes, I am. It’s safe for him to go home. Actually, the sooner I can get him home, the less risk there is of secondary infections such as a resistant strain of staph or C. diff.”

“Oh,” the woman blanched and she pushed a heavy-framed pair of glasses up the bridge of her nose. “What if something else happens? I won’t know how to take care of him.”

“If it’s a problem, we can have a home health agency come out and dress his chest wounds and the surgical site on his leg. But, honestly, he should be fine as long as he doesn’t overdo it.”

The woman’s relief was evident.

“But the first thing we have to do is get you through today.” Riley placed his stethoscope on the man’s chest, moving the diaphragm from spot to spot to listen to the man’s heart sounds.

“Can you tell if the bypass is taking, based on what you hear?” the man asked, looking concerned. “I keep wondering what I’d do if my heart rejected the graft.”

“That’s unlikely to happen as it’s your own tissue. But no worries, we’ll take another look at the blood
flow via an echocardiogram to make sure everything is working properly. You’re in good hands.”

Trinity wouldn’t argue with Riley’s claim. He did have good hands. Expert hands that worked magic with hearts.

Which, of course, made her wonder about what those hands were going to do to her heart.

Or should she even worry about that since Chase had tattered it to shreds and despite her move she knew there were only broken pieces where once a strong heart used to beat?

Maybe she was immune to Riley hurting her because she didn’t have a heart left to be broken.

Somehow she doubted that because already she knew she’d miss him terribly if he left her life.

That scared her more than she cared to admit. Maybe she should run while she still could.

Only could she, even if she wanted to?

CHAPTER SIX

“T
HIS ISN’T DINNER,”
Trinity pointed out when Riley pulled into the crowded mall parking lot that evening. Although he looked handsome in khakis and a polo and was in way too good a mood to have worked all day, she was still in her scrubs, hungry, tired and really didn’t want to fight the crowds. She’d told him she’d have dinner with him, so dinner they would have.

Somehow she hadn’t envisioned him taking her to a shopping center for a slice of pizza or Chinese. Then again, she knew next to nothing about his eating habits and they had eaten sandwiches the night before.

“True,” Riley admitted, not looking one bit guilty as he parked the car in a just-vacated parking spot.

One more thing to not like about Christmas. Everywhere was packed. Parking lots, shops, streets. It was as if every person came out of hibernation and crowded every public place, searching for that great deal on the perfect gift that they’d spend money they didn’t really have to spend. Trinity would much rather be at home with a good book and Casper curled up in her lap than dealing with all the holiday hoopla.

Her car door opened and she glanced up at the man
waiting for her to get out of the car. Really? She’d rather be with her cat than with this gorgeous man?

Okay, so not really. But hanging with Casper would be a lot easier on her emotions in the long run.

Please, don’t hurt me
, she silently pleaded. All day she’d questioned why he’d taken an interest in her when there were so many women out there who would gladly kiss his rear end and had to be more suitable than her. She was just Trinity Warren from the wrong side of the tracks, so to speak. He was a cardiac surgeon who’d obviously led a privileged life. They couldn’t be more different.

“Come on, princess.” A big smile on his face, he motioned for her to get out of the car. “We’re just going to do a little shopping before we eat.”

What? He wanted her to go in there and face the shopping frenzy? Had he lost his mind?

“I don’t think so. You didn’t mention anything about shopping.”

“Didn’t I?” He pretended to look repentant. “Must have slipped my mind.” He took her hand and laced their fingers together. “No worries, princess. I promise to feed you, too.”

As if skipping a meal or two would hurt her.

Still, the last thing she wanted was to go into a mall all decked out with Christmas decorations and sales. Maybe she really was a Scrooge.

“I don’t like shopping.” Had she sounded petulant? It hadn’t been her intent, but she felt like digging her heels in and refusing to budge. Seriously, the man did not have to have his way on everything.

“Every woman likes to shop.”

She snorted. How stereotypically male!

“Shows how much you know about women,” she countered, chin high at his arrogant comment.

He stopped walking and gawked at her. “How can you not like shopping? Especially at this time of year? Every store is a smorgasbord of treats just waiting to make someone happy.”

Her stomach roiled. “It’s especially at this time of year I don’t like shopping and my guess is that that smorgasbord of treats causes more problems than happiness. Someone has to pay for all that stuff bought that no one really needed to begin with.”

Wow. She sounded a lot like her mother.

Which she really didn’t want because, God rest her soul, Trinity didn’t want any similarity between herself and the woman who’d given birth to her. Still, facts were facts. People went crazy at Christmas.

“Bah, humbug.”

“Make fun of me all you like, but I prefer if we eat and then you take me home before you do your shopping.” If his lower lip stuck out any further she’d swear he was pouting. “Or you can just take me home now and you can come back and do your shopping. We can do dinner some other time.”

“We’re not doing my shopping and no way am I taking you home without feeding you first.”

This time she was the one who stopped walking. She stared at him as if he was making no sense. Actually, he wasn’t making any sense.

“Whose shopping are we doing?”

“Yours.”

Her face squished and her nose curled in disgust. “Mine?”

He nodded, tweaking her nose to unfurrow the wrinkles.

“I don’t need to do any shopping.” Her needs were simple and she wasn’t running low on anything. Who would she buy something for? She barely knew anyone in Pensacola and as much as she liked Karen, she wasn’t sure they were at a buy-each-other-Christmas-gifts point in their friendship. Although she did like the woman and Karen had seemed happy for her regarding Riley’s interest, so maybe…Trinity usually just ordered a few gift cards online to have on hand in case she needed a quick gift. Last year she’d used most of them herself come January because she just hadn’t had anyone to give them to.

“Sure you do,” Riley countered with so much confidence that her insides heated a little.

She blew out a frustrated sigh. “Riley, I don’t like it when you assume things about me.”

A serious expression slid over his face. “Noted. I don’t mean to railroad you into doing something you don’t want to do, princess. But I also feel it my personal responsibility to get you into the Christmas spirit.”

His personal responsibility? Poor guy. He had no clue what he was in for.

“Good luck with that.”

“Thanks.”

She shook her head, not surprised her sarcasm had fallen short. Riley only seemed to see the positive, regardless of what she did or said.

Still, Christmas was pushing it. Why couldn’t they have met at a Halloween party? Or, better yet, a New Year party? Anything but Christmas because taking away the fact that he was a gorgeous doctor and she was just her, the fact they’d met at a Christmas party spelled doom from the start.

So far as she was concerned, nothing good had ever come out of Christmas.

But the sooner they got this shopping ordeal over with the sooner they could eat and the sooner she could go home and over-analyze the past few days yet again. “What am I shopping for?”

“It’s less than two weeks until Christmas Day and you don’t have a single decoration up or a single wrapped present in your apartment.”

That was a problem why? Her apartment was the one place she could escape from all the holiday craziness.

“I hate to burst your bubble, Riley, but most single people without kids don’t go all out with decorations and presents. They have better things to do with their time than decorating for themselves.”

Like take out the trash and give the cat a bath. Important things like those.

He shook his head in mock disappointment, his eyes twinkling. “I bet you were one of those kids who never believed in Santa and took joy in telling other kids that he wasn’t real.”

Although she doubted he’d meant his comment to hurt, she felt a sharp sting in her chest and a defensive shield popped up. “I never told other kids Santa wasn’t real.”

He stared at her incredulously. “But you never believed in Santa? in the magic of Christmas? Not even as a kid?”

Swallowing the lump in her throat at memories she didn’t want rising to the surface, she shook her head.

“Then who did you think climbed down your chimney and left all the Christmas morning goodies? The tooth fairy?”

She didn’t think anything. Not about the tooth fairy or Santa. Or the Easter bunny or any other mythical creature who was supposed to do something good for her. Why would she?