Dr. White's Baby Wish - Page 18

Didn’t do so well, buddy. He huffed a sigh. ‘I’m sorry. I mean, thank you, Harper, I’d appreciate your help. But you have to promise me one thing.’

She turned wary eyes on him. ‘Yes?’

‘That you won’t set me up. Pick purple or magenta just because you can get away with it.’

Merriment flooded those beautiful eyes that he hadn’t been able to forget for days. ‘Tell me how you even know what magenta is. Or what purple might look like on your walls.’

‘I don’t.’ He stood absolutely still, his gaze locked on those eyes that sucked him in and made him feel like he was drowning. Silently he willed her to keep laughing. He loved the sound of her laughter, the sight of it in her face and on her mouth; in the honest way she stood in front of him. She was a sexy package, but add laughter and she became something else. Adorable. Lovable. Lovable? Gulp. Where were they? Colours. Right. ‘But it won’t take long for someone to tell me I’ve screwed up.’

What was he doing here? Why was he inviting her into his home? He should be doing all in his power to walk away because she’d never want to take their friendship to the next level, even if he decided to take a risk. He should even be grateful that she wouldn’t. But right this moment he wanted to enjoy the glow, feel her warmth, be with her.

Her smile widened with mischief. ‘I guess you’ll just have to wait for the verdict, then.’

‘You’re having fun at my expense.’ He tried growling the words but his voice only came out light and happy.

‘You bet.’ Then she tugged a pager from her pocket and her smile faded. ‘We’re on. A stat one’s coming through the door.’

As they rushed to the department Harper continued giving him the brief details. ‘A multiple car pile-up on the Hutt Motorway. Five patients expected in the next ten minutes.’

‘All hands on deck.’ That would keep him busy and make the afternoon fly by. Fingers crossed there were no fatalities, before or during the patients’ time in the ED.

‘When’s a good time to come look at your room and those paint charts?’ Harper asked as they reached the staff room. ‘Tonight?’

He shook his head. ‘Not tonight.’ Nor tomorrow, nor any time until he decided how far he was going with this—this need building up muscle by muscle inside him. ‘I’ll be out.’ He’d agreed she could help because he’d felt bad about walking out on her in the café, but he couldn’t have her in his home. That would be getting too cosy. ‘I’ll let you know when I’ve got a free night.’

‘Your social life’s that busy?’ Her grin was a little sick looking, making him go from feeling bad to worse.

It just seemed he couldn’t get it right with this woman. ‘I’m always busy, not often socially.’ That was a cryptic answer, and at the screwing up of her face he decided to put her out of her misery a little. ‘I visit my mother often, and tonight I’m busy catching up with old mates from when I went to school here.’ One, anyway. He was having dinner with Trent and his wife.

‘Don’t think you can get out of me choosing a shade of purple that’ll knock your socks off.’ Harper tapped him on the forearm. ‘We have a date.’ She blinked and gasped as what she’d just said must’ve sunk in. ‘I mean, um, we’ll sort out your decorating some time.’

‘Let’s go sort out accident victims first.’ He held the door wide for her, and grinned at the tight back view she presented as she stalked down the corridor, obviously embarrassed with her choice of phrase.

If she hadn’t touched a need within him he could’ve laughed. But she had, and he couldn’t. ‘Harper? What colour are your eyes?’

He knew when heat touched a face that the shade colouring the cheeks was pink. In this case, bright pink.

She told him in a low voice that sent shivers up his spine and tightened muscles that didn’t need tightening right at that moment. ‘Brown, with flecks of yellow and green.’ She gave him a rueful smile. ‘Just so you know.’

CHAPTER SIX

SO MUCH FOR keeping Cody at a safe distance. That question about her eyes was over the top, and warmed her right down to her toes. Her fingers tensed. And she’d gone and invited herself to his home—make that demanded an invitation—all because she’d been adamant about helping him decide on the colour for his bedroom. Bedroom. Not the bathroom, or kitchen, or dining room. The bedroom. Cody’s bedroom.

Yeah, she got it. She’d made a monumental blunder and now had to work out how to backtrack without getting further into deep water. Though he had been reluctant to fix a day or time for her to visit, so that was in her favour if she was serious about changing her mind about helping.

What did it matter to her if he messed up and painted it orange or teal? Or purple? Her mood softened. So the man was colour-blind. He had a fault. A tiny, almost insignificant one, unless he’d wanted to be the captain on one of those fishing trawlers he’d worked on, but it was there. She liked him even more. Damn it.

This time a week ago she’d barely known Cody existed. Now all her spare time was taken up just thinking about him. He filled her skull with questions and nonsense and excitement. She’d even passed the donuts in the break room today without taking one, and she’d made a hair appointment for some highlights and to get the ends tidied. It was an appointment that was long overdue but which hadn’t bothered her until—Cody. He was bringing out a side of her she hadn’t seen in a very long time.

‘You and Cody take Lisa Lang, thirty-one, compound fractures to right leg, possible fractured pelvis. Trauma injury to head. Unconscious.’ George stood at the desk organising everyone. ‘Resus Two.’

Phew. Not that she’d have time to relive Friday with the patient they were expecting, but so far today she and Cody had managed to avoid Resus One, thanks to George. ‘How far out?’

‘Next ambulance to arrive. Approximately five minutes.’ George called out the names of other nurses to work with them. Then, ‘Karin, you take the one after that. I’ll be working with you.’

Harper blanked out the rest of George’s instructions and concentrated on her patient’s requirements. The first of which required a phone call to the on-duty orthopaedic surgeon.

As she did that the bell buzzed, announcing the arrival of their patient, and she saw Cody stride out to the ambulance bay in his fast but seemingly unhurried way.

Then Lisa Lang was wheeled into the room and that was the end of the brief quiet spell.

‘GCS and BP?’ Harper asked.

‘Two and sixty over forty-five.’

‘Way too low, even allowing for the fractures and head injury.’ Harper issued instructions. ‘Cody, IV lines and attach her to the heart monitor. Jess, ABCs. Cath, cut what’s left of her clothes away from her chest and that leg for an X-ray. I’m going to intubate.’

Everyone worked fast and efficiently, but it took two attempts for Harper to get the endotracheal tube in place. Finally she was satisfied and straightened up. ‘BP?’

‘Still sixty over forty-five.’

No change was better than getting worse, but only just. She needed the BP to go up. ‘IV?’

‘Lines in place, open and running,’ Cody told her.

‘Right, I need X-rays of the right leg, pelvis and the neck. And a CT scan of that head injury.’

The orthopaedic surgeon walked in as the first image came up on the screen. He tapped the shattered fibula on the screen. ‘Now, there’s a mess. The tib’s looking a little better.’

‘BP’s seventy over fifty-five,’ someone called.

‘It’s coming up slowly.’ Harper answered the surgeon’s raised eyebrow and kept working with Lisa until she was taken to pre-op.

But there was no time to catch their breath, as Cody wheeled another patient in from the same vehicular accident. ‘Janice Leigh, forty-one, soft head trauma, fractured ribs, possible punctured lung.’

‘GCS and BP?’ Harper asked. Here we go again.

Time flew by and the end of shift seemed to rush at them. By then the last of the victims had

been brought in and four of them sent on to Theatre for surgery.

‘You’ve got a chock-full waiting room to deal with.’ Harper smiled tiredly at her replacement. ‘I’m going home for a long shower, followed by dinner.’ A lettuce leaf and tomato. Ah, to hell with it. If her hips were a little heavy, then today she didn’t care. Her stomach was crying with need for food, and her energy levels required some input. This was only Monday.

‘Some shift that turned out to be,’ Cody muttered as he joined her on the walk out of the hospital.

How come he still looked so fresh? Fresh and fit and in very good shape.

Tags: Sue MacKay Billionaire Romance
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