Almost Twilight (3 page)

“Go
on, Nurse Richards.” He leaned against the wall, one tanned hand resting beside
her head. “You were saying something about loving and being loved.”

He
was teasing her now, and she didn’t like it one bit. She was about to open her
mouth when the fresh scent of soap marched past her nose, reminding her of the
night she was stuck on that roof and fell on top of him.

An
involuntary shutter snaked through her. No wonder the nurses dated him. He even
smelled delicious.

“It’s
n-nothing you would understand,” she blurted out.

His
presence was unnerving. Why had she ever mentioned the word love?

He
cocked a black brow. “Try me.” 

His
voice was smooth. Too smooth. Candy had learned her lesson once before, and
this man was out of her league - rich, handsome, and too egotistical for the
likes of her.

Her
pulse quickened when somber gray eyes clung to hers. He seemed to be analyzing
everything she thought and did.

“I
said, it’s nothing you would understand,” she repeated.

Before
he could respond, she ducked beneath his arm and hurried down the hallway.

Candy
forced a smile on her face as she stepped into the hospital room and made her
way toward the small patient that was swallowed in the metal-framed bed of Room
222. Crisp, white sheets and a blue, knit blanket were tucked tightly beneath
the mattress, making it almost impossible for the little girl to move, not that
she could move very much in the first place.

Candy
gazed at Susie, trying to hold back her emotions.

She
would not think about Dr. Rafe Clearbrook or his laughing gray eyes. She would
not think about the way his coal, black hair curled behind his ears in a
devil-may-care attitude.

She
would not think about him at all. Everything about the man was enough warning
for her to stay clear of him.

“Hello,
Susie. How are you feeling today?”

From
beneath a bald head, five-year-old eyes the color of a mountain spring stared
up at Candy. “Not so good. My head hurts again and I feel hot. I thought you
went on vacation.” 

Candy
hid the raw ache in her heart. “I am on vacation. I’m here seeing you, aren’t
I?”

Susie
gave her a half-tooth grin, making her look like a normal child waiting for her
two front teeth to come in.

Cartoon
music lingered in the background and Susie giggled.

Candy
glanced up at the television to see some purple chicken with a red tutu doing a
tap dance across a bed of hot coals. Ha. Sometimes Candy felt that was exactly
what she was doing, tap dancing through life on a never-ending bed of fire.

“Let’s
loosen up those blankets, okay, honey?” 

Smiling,
Candy slid her hand beneath the sheets and magically pulled out a soft, stuffed
toy lamb that she had one of the nurses plant beside the mattress earlier.

“Goodness,
look what I’ve found hiding under there. You must have squished it.”

“Wow!”
Susie’s eyes flashed with delight as her delicate white hands drew the lamb to
her body. “How did you do that? That’s the lamb I wanted in the gift shop.”

Susie’s
parents were barely scraping it to make ends meet, and there was no way they
could have splurged for the twenty-five dollar stuffed animal. Candy didn’t
think that the tiny amount taken from her down payment was anything compared to
Susie’s happiness.

“Don’t
tell anyone, but I’m a fairy princess disguised as a nurse.”

Susie
smiled. “I love you the bestest of all the nurses. I mean princesses. One day
I’m going to be just like you. I’m going to make all the kids in the hospital
better.”

Candy’s
throat filled with emotion. For some reason, Susie had pierced her nurse’s
shield from day one.

After
kissing Susie’s forehead, Candy plumped the pillow behind the girl’s head. “I’ll
just wave my magic wand, and you’ll be out of here in no time. You’ll see. And
when you do, I’m going to bring you to Bernie’s Bakery and get the biggest
whipped cream cake there is.”

“Could
we get chocolate frosting inside?”  

“Sure,
what do you take me for, a fairy princess without magic or something? I’m in
charge of the double chocolate frosting at the princess academy.” 

Susie’s
eyes blinked with delight. “I like double chocolate. It’s my favorite.” 

The
little girl squeezed her stuffed animal and closed her eyes, her head sinking
back into the pillow as if it were too tiring to continue the conversation. “Lammie
and I will dream about it right now.”

In
less than a minute, Susie fell into a deep sleep, a look of pure innocence
passing over her soft features.

Candy
frowned as she turned to leave.

Life
wasn’t fair. The little girl probably wouldn’t make it through the year. Sometimes
being a nurse was harder than Candy ever realized it would be.

“Nurse
Richards, may I have a word with you?”

Candy’s
head jerked up, her sandals coming to an abrupt halt at the sight of a pair of glittering
silver eyes glaring at her from the open door.

Dr.
Rafe. What did
he
want now? 

Her
heart skipped a beat as she stepped into the hall and closed the door to
Susie’s room.

With
a sense of foreboding, she looked up. The nurses had told her he was on the
prowl again. She would have to make it clear to him that she wanted nothing to
do with him or his money. However, it didn’t mean she wasn’t attracted to the
man.

Still,
she had told herself a thousand times she would never date a doctor again, even
if it were this dark-haired millionaire hunk all the nurses were going gaga
over.

But
she couldn’t deny the way his ruggedly handsome face affected her. And though
he was a great doctor and gifted with intelligence at a very young age, skipping
many grades and finishing college in two years, it still didn’t change her
impression of him. His thirty-two-year-old ego was way too big for any human.

If
he had been interested in her at Tanner’s wedding like she’d thought, he would
have asked her out then and not waited all these months. She would not be Dr.
Rafe’s special nurse of the month!

“Can
I help you?” she asked with a lift of her chin.

She
instantly noted his set face, his narrowed black brows and pursed lips. He was
determined, she would give him that.

Green
scrubs leaned toward her. Silver eyes hardened like steel. “Yes,
Nurse
Richards
, you could help me a great deal.”

The
hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. Okay, so maybe this was not a man
asking for a date.

“I’m
all ears,” she said sarcastically.

“Then
hear this. You will curtail your Pollyanna attitudes with my patients this
instant. Susie needs to be told the truth, not some fancy fairy tale about a
whipped cream cake and how she’ll live forever. Fairy princesses are not, and
never will be, in my medical repertoire.” 

His
sharp tone was like shards of glass to her heart.

“I’m
not on your time today, Dr. Clearbrook. This is my vacation, and I’ll do
whatever I please.” 

People
started looking their way, and Candy felt a surge of both anger and irritation
at Dr. Rafe’s arrogant behavior. She would be the talk of the floor by tomorrow.
Well, so what? 

As
he took in the gawking nurses down the hall, his displeasure was even more
evident when a muscle flickered angrily in his jaw.

“Nurse
Richards, if you would follow me, we can avoid a three ring circus.” 

The
shadow of a dark beard told Candy that he’d been up all night. For a second or
two, she started to feel a bit of sympathy for the man. But that didn’t last
long.

“I
really don’t have the time for this,” she snapped.

“Time
is not the question here.” 

Without
warning, his hand wrapped securely around her elbow, as he maneuvered her
toward the closest room available, the janitor’s closet a few feet away.

Candy
gasped in outrage as she was jammed inside a small six by six room with a
bucket of disinfectant at her feet and the end of a mop pushing into her ribs. His
broad frame blocked her from reaching the doorknob. “Oh, great idea, this will
stop the gossiping. I’m sure of it.” 

His
muscled arms seemed to ripple with tension. “Gossiping is the least of my
worries.”

“Okay,
let’s get down to the three ring circus then,
Doctor
. You have no right
to tell me what I can and cannot do on my vacation. Got that.”

Stillness
settled in the air as brown eyes battled with gray.

“I
have every right to tell you what to do when it involves
my patient
. I
could have you fired for what you just did.” 

“Fired?”
Stunned by his bluntness, Candy shifted her gaze over the shelves of soap
before she dared a glance back up at him. “I’m a nurse. My duty is to take care
of patients. There was nothing wrong with what I did.” 

It
was obvious he was not about to let her leave until they met with some kind of
understanding. But she would not back down, even though the room started closing
in on her.

When
Dr. Rafe had maneuvered her into the closet, her volatile emotions had made her
almost forget about her claustrophobia.

Almost.

“You’re
not letting that little girl face the truth,” he uttered in a cool tone as
voices sounded outside the door. “Get that through your stubborn head. Susie
has a brain tumor, whether you give her that whipped cream cake or not.”

Candy’s
eyes rounded in outrage. “Tell me, why is it that doctors like you cannot face
your patients with anything but frigid bedside manners? You belong to a species
that doesn’t have an ounce of sympathy.”

She
swallowed the bile that rose in her throat and took in a deep breath to gather
her thoughts. Everything seemed to push up against her. She should have eaten
the gingerbread Tanner’s father Fritz had offered her this morning. The older
man had been too kind to her since she had moved in. But the man was also
Rafe’s father, and she had best remember that.

“If
you think I’m going to take insubordination in my hospital, you’re dead wrong.”
His voice cut through the tension like a scalpel.

She
looked up through half-lidded eyes and grabbed a strand of hair that fell from
her ponytail, pushing it behind her ear.

“Your
hospital? I didn’t know you paid my wages.” 

Another
wave of queasiness fell over her.

Her
heart began to crescendo into a loud, fevered pitch. It took every ounce of
strength to keep herself upright. The room was getting smaller and smaller by
the second. But she refused to faint in front of this man whose broad
green-smocked shoulders were still blocking the exit.

Letting
out an exasperated sigh, Dr. Rafe leaned back and put a hand on the doorknob. “I’m
not the monster you may think I am. I just don’t want somebody hurt any more
than they should be. Susie’s a good patient. She realizes her cancer may be
fatal. I don’t want her to stop her fight, but the girl needs to be told the
truth, even if she is only five.”

Adrenaline
pumped through Candy’s veins as she fought an indescribable impulse to push the
man aside and grab a breath of fresh air. The pungent smell of disinfectant was
beginning to choke her. But she didn’t know if she could move at all.

“I
n-never said she didn’t have cancer.” Her voice wavered as she backed up
against the mop.

“You
can’t become personally involved.” His voice softened, as if he cared for the
girl as much as she did, but she knew that was impossible.

“It
makes it harder for everyone,” he continued.

Candy
barely heard him. The walls were bending toward her, squeezing the very breath from
her lungs. Like a trapped animal, her eyes darted toward the door. “I n-need to
leave.”

A
gentle hand reached out, touching her. “Are you sick?”

“No,”
she snapped, shrugging his arm away.

She
was caught off guard by the intensity of his touch. It made her start to like
him again, and she couldn’t afford another doctor in her life.

“I’m
not sick.”
I’m just going to faint if you don’t move your body out of my way.
She didn’t need anyone knowing her vulnerability, especially him.

His
palm held steady in the air. “Hey, no need to get angry. You look a bit pale,
that’s all. Eat breakfast?”

Candy
glared at him, grabbing the mop, using it as a prop to hold herself up against
the wall. “I don’t believe I made an appointment to sign you up as my doctor? I
can take care of myself, thank you very much. Now, if you would please leave, I
can get back to my vacation. I do have a ride waiting for me.” 

She
wasn’t about to tell him the ride included almost his entire family, including
Tanner, Hannah, Fritz, and Jeremy.