Healing Her Heart (Crystal Lake Series Book 1) Read online

  “I love ranch dressing, so I’m good.”

  Ridiculous to be pleased that they had some tastes in common. They made their way over to the checkout lines, and he I ignored the surprised glances in his direction as he paid for the groceries. It was a little late now to be worried about the gossip mill, considering he’d already attended church with Larissa.

  After the way Rebecca had ruined his reputation at Madison, he’d tried to avoid attracting attention here in Crystal Lake. He hadn’t been seen with a woman before now.

  But there was no denying that he’d been living a lonely existence. And what was the harm of picking up veggies for dinner with Larissa? He didn’t care what people said about him outside the hospital. As long as his reputation within the Emergency Department remained untarnished, he was fine.

  The drive back to his house didn’t take long. Once inside, Larissa took over the kitchen. “I’ll make the salads,” she said, running the veggies under water to clean them. “You can grill the steaks.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he teased as he pulled the steaks out of the fridge, where he’d been marinating them all afternoon. The fact that he’d planned on having dinner with Larissa all along made him pause for a moment.

  Was he really considering breaking his cardinal rule against dating co-workers?

  No, he wasn’t. He couldn’t afford to do anything that might jeopardize his career. They were friends, that’s all. And friends could certainly share dinner on occasion. Not a big deal.

  He glanced up from the grill when Larissa came out through the patio doors, his breath catching in his throat at the pretty sight she made with her flowery skirt, her pink top and the soft smile that tugged at her mouth as she dropped into one of the deck chairs. “Salads are ready whenever you are,” she announced. “And don’t worry, nary a tomato to be found in yours. Mine, of course, is loaded with them.”

  His response was strangled in his throat, and he had to pull himself together with an effort. “Sounds great,” he finally managed. “And how do you like your steak?” he asked, trying to find his balance even as his thoughts raced. How had this suddenly turned into a date?

  “Medium-rare,” she said. “And let me guess, you’re the kind of guy who likes your meat to moo at you.”

  He couldn’t help but laugh. “Not me, I like my steaks medium-rare, too.”

  They ate out on his deck, overlooking the lake, and he couldn’t remember ever enjoying a meal more. When the sun set over the horizon and the mosquitoes came out, they reluctantly went inside. Since Larissa was on crutches, he brought all the dirty dishes in and set them on the counter. She tried to start the dishes, but he shooed her away. “I have a dishwashing machine, there’s no reason for you to do them.”

  “All right,” she agreed. “It’s time for me to head home, anyway. Thanks for dinner, Gabe.”

  “You’re very welcome,” he said huskily. As much as he didn’t want her to leave, he knew that it would be best for him if she did. He was already far too aware of her. And far too comfortable around her. “Do you need help getting out to the car?”

  “Hey, I’m a pro with these things by now,” she said, propping the crutches beneath her arms. “Although you were right about the fact that crutch walking isn’t as easy as it looks. My arms are already tired and sore from one measly day.”

  He knew exactly what she meant. “You’ll get used to it after a few days.”

  “I hope so.”

  He held the door open for her so she could make her way outside. The ride back to her apartment didn’t take long, another novelty of living in Crystal Lake compared to Madison. All the streets in Madison led to the capitol, which made traffic a total nightmare every day.

  “Are you working tomorrow?” Larissa asked, breaking into his thoughts.

  “Yes, are you?”

  “No, I’m off one more day.” Was that a flash of disappointment in her features? It was difficult to tell in the dim light. For a moment, he considered asking one of his colleagues to cover for him so they could spend another day together.

  Bad idea, he told himself. Really bad idea. Besides, he’d see her the following night.

  He tried to find a neutral topic. “If your ankle isn’t better, get in to see your doctor. I still think you might need that MRI.”

  “I will,” she promised.

  He pulled into the parking lot of her apartment building and shut off the car so he could help her out. Of course, being Larissa, she was already trying to get out on her own.

  Trying not to roll his eyes, he hurried around to assist. She attempted to pivot on one foot and teetered to the side.

  “I’ve got you,” he said, catching her before she could fall against the door. Her small frame fit into his arms perfectly, and suddenly, he didn’t want to let her go.

  “Thanks,” she said breathlessly, her face buried against his chest.

  He stood, fighting against the desire to wrap his arms around her, drawing her even closer. But then she pulled back a bit and tipped her head to look up at him. And he couldn’t seem to help himself.

  He lowered his mouth to capture hers in a tender kiss.

  Chapter Five

  Larissa melted against Gabe, lost in his kiss. It wasn’t until there was a loud bang from someone slamming a car door nearby that she finally regained her senses.

  She pulled away, struggling to catch her breath. Why had he kissed her?

  Why had she kissed him back?

  “Larissa,” he began, and she immediately knew he was about to apologize.

  “It’s okay,” she said quickly, cutting him off. “I really need to get going. Thanks again for everything,” she said, desperately wishing she could just walk away.

  But of course, she couldn’t walk anywhere, not without the crutches.

  “Can you get the crutches out for me?” she asked when he didn’t say anything.

  “Sure.” He stepped back, opened the door, and pulled them out. “I’ll walk you inside,” he said.

  “No!” The word came out much harsher than she’d intended. Couldn’t he see she was hanging on by a thread? “Goodnight, Gabe.”

  She tucked the crutches beneath her already-sore armpits and made her way up the sidewalk. Of course, Gabe didn’t just let her go inside by herself; in fact, he rushed ahead to open the door for her.

  Keeping her gaze averted, she made her way toward the elevator. “Thanks, but I’ve got it from here,” she said with a bright smile. “Have a great day at work tomorrow,” she added as the elevator doors opened. She swung inside and jabbed the button to close the doors.

  It wasn’t until the doors closed and the elevator starting moving that she sagged against the wall in relief. The trembling in her legs had nothing to do with the exertion of crutches and everything to do with Gabe’s kiss.

  What had just happened? A better question might be—why had that happened?

  She’d heard about Gabe’s aloof reputation on her very first day. All the nurses talked about the fact that the good-looking ER doctor didn’t date nurses. Not even ones who worked elsewhere in the hospital.

  But that wasn’t the only reason she’d been fighting her attraction to him. She didn’t want or need the complication of a man in her life. She was here getting over a bad relationship, not to jump into a new one.

  Still, she couldn’t help lightly touching her tingling lips. Gabe’s kiss hadn’t just barreled against the walls she’d built around her heart, it had broken straight through.

  She closed her eyes and prayed for strength.

  ____________

  Larissa’s ankle felt much better the next morning, so much so that she decided against going to an urgent care, her only option on the Memorial Day holiday. The swelling had come down to the point she probably didn’t really need the crutches, but she used them anyway just to rest the ankle a bit more, especially since she was scheduled for another twelve-hour shift the next day. At least she was scheduled for the night shift, so she
’d have the entire day to rest it.

  Summer clouds darkened the sky, making it a great day to stay inside doing chores. Getting her laundry done was tricky, but she managed to scoot the basket into the elevator to get down into the basement.

  As the day wore on, she couldn’t seem to stop thinking about Gabe. Which was ridiculous, because she’d already decided that she needed to keep her distance from him. Yet she must have checked her phone a dozen times, wondering if she’d missed his call.

  Or a call from Annie.

  She thought about the poor woman as she placed the frozen bag of peas over her ankle. She’d called Annie’s number several times, but the calls went straight to voice mail. Either Annie’s phone was turned off or Kurt had destroyed it.

  She shivered, hoping that Annie had managed to keep the phone hidden. If not, the poor woman had no way of calling for help. Not that she’d called the police so far.

  Larissa had sensed Gabe’s frustration yesterday when Annie had refused to press charges. She understood all too well what was going on in Annie’s mind.

  How many times had she begged her mother to leave George? Too many to count. Her mother always had an excuse—either she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to find a job, or she was afraid George would come after her, or she was afraid George would actually leave her alone. She’d tried to tell her mother they were better off without him, but it wasn’t until he’d attacked Larissa that her mother had sneaked away in the dead of the night, going straight to a women’s shelter, one of the many Larissa had tried to convince her to go to in the past.

  The years after George had been rough on both of them. Her mother had been depressed, and the only job she’d been able to get was that of a waitress, which hadn’t brought in much money. Larissa had gotten a job as soon as she’d turned sixteen to help with the household expenses. When she was seventeen, she took the nursing assistant program through her high school and had gotten a decent-paying job at a local nursing home. She enjoyed working with patients and had decided to go into nursing.

  Ironically, once she’d headed off to college, her mother had found a new man, one that didn’t hit her or abuse her in any way. He was significantly older, but as long as her mother was happy, she didn’t care. In talking to Annie in the ER, she’d tried to explain to Annie that she could do the same.

  But after the incident last evening, she could only assume her words had fallen on deaf ears. Well, maybe not completely deaf, as Annie had tried to call her.

  Shaking off her depressing thoughts, she finished her laundry and then settled in for a movie marathon. She had a secret weakness for the old Star Wars movies and watched one after another, staying up as late as possible so she could sleep in before her next night shift.

  The next afternoon, her ankle felt even better. She stayed off of it until she needed to get dressed for work. Even then, she wrapped it snuggly for extra support.

  Dark storm clouds obscured the sun, streaks of lightening flashing across the sky as she headed to the hospital. She hurried, trying to beat the rain, making it inside the hospital with mere seconds to spare before the sky opened up and rain pelted the earth.

  She grinned at her friend Julie. “I thought for sure you’d be off today. Didn’t you work the past two days?”

  “Tonight is my last of three shifts in a row, and then I’m off for four glorious days,” Julie responded. “Can’t wait!”

  Julie was lucky to have purchased a townhouse on the lake. She’d gotten a decent price because one side had suffered a kitchen fire. If Larissa had managed to save more money, she might have put in a bid for the place herself. Although she was glad her friend had gotten it. Next year, she silently promised. Next year she’d have enough money for a down payment.

  “Are you in the trauma room tonight?” Larissa asked as they made their way over to the desk. Debra was the charge nurse, and she looked harassed as they approached.

  “I don’t know,” Julie said with a wry smile. “Guess we’ll find out.”

  “I’m glad you’re both here,” Debra said. “We’re short staffed tonight, so I’ll need both of you to take a team and help cover the trauma room,” she instructed. “Larissa, you’re team one, and Julie, you’re team two. I have Jessica covering team three, and I’ll pitch in as needed.”

  Larissa exchanged a wince with Julie before nodding. “Okay.”

  “This is going to be a long night,” Julie muttered as they walked away to their respective teams. “I bet this storm is going to bring a bunch of trauma cases in. We’ll be running for sure.”

  “You’re probably right,” Larissa agreed. Too late now to wish she’d gotten a doctor’s excuse. Although to be fair, she was glad she hadn’t called in, otherwise she would have left Debra, Julie, and Jessica to handle the ER alone.

  For the next three hours, Larissa dealt with a steady stream of patients, and thankfully, only two trauma patients had come in. She’d taken the first one, and Julie had taken the second.

  “Tag, you’re it,” Julie had joked as they passed in the hallway like ships in the night.

  “I know, I know,” Larissa muttered. They were to take turns with the traumas unless there were two at the same time, and then Debra would come and assist.

  Gabe walked into the ER at quarter to eleven, and she realized he was also assigned the night shift. The doctors worked eight-hour shifts instead of twelve, and she hadn’t really thought about Gabe at all until now.

  Memories of their heated kiss made her blush, and she kept her gaze focused on the computer screen as he went over to the main census board.

  “Okay, Mr. Harris, you’re all set for discharge,” she said, walking into her patient’s room. “Remember you have to follow up with your doctor first thing tomorrow morning, okay?”

  “I’ll remember,” the elderly patient said as he stood. Mr. Clarence Harris had congestive heart failure and often forgot to take his medications, which then caused him to become short of breath. In reading his chart, it sounded like his son wanted him to go to a nursing home, but the older man kept refusing.

  “All right, take care, then.” She helped him out to a wheelchair. Rick, one of their techs, came over to escort the patient outside.

  “Hi, Larissa, I’m surprised to see you here.” Gabe’s voice broke into her thoughts. “How’s your ankle?”

  She took a deep breath before turning to face him. “It’s a lot better, thanks. I have the crutches in my car if you want them back.”

  “No rush,” he said with a shrug. The way he stood there with his hands stuffed into the pockets of his lab coat, she sensed there was more he wanted to say, but just then, their trauma pagers went off.

  “Car versus pedestrian just off Highway Z,” Gabe said out loud as he read his pager. “Victim is a fifty-year-old woman, and her vitals are bad. It doesn’t sound good.”

  Her stomach clenched with dread as she read the same message. Annie was fifty years old and lived near Highway Z. Granted, that didn’t mean she was the victim. Still, she sent up a quick prayer for Annie’s safekeeping.

  “We should call a chopper, in case she needs to get to Madison,” she suggested as she followed Gabe into the trauma bay. They were only a level-two trauma center, and if this patient was really bad, they’d need to stabilize her and get her transferred as soon as possible.

  “Good idea.”

  She’d barely made the call when the ambulance bay burst open revealing a bevy of paramedics surrounding a gurney. The moment she saw the victim, she knew it was Annie despite the massive amount of blood.

  “Fifty-year-old woman with serious head injury, unconscious at the scene. Vitals reflect hypovolemic shock. We have fluids running wide open.”

  “Is there another victim?” Gabe asked.

  “No, apparently this was a hit and run.”

  Larissa concentrated on taking care of Annie, but deep down, she felt certain Kurt was the one behind the wheel of the car that had hit his wife.

 
And she suspected he’d intended to kill Annie.

  ____________

  Larissa and Gabe worked on Annie for a solid hour before they deemed her stable enough to transfer. Larissa watched the flight team wheel Annie away and silently prayed.

  Dear Lord, please keep Annie safe in Your care.

  “Larissa?” Gabe’s low voice broke into her prayer. “Are you all right?”

  Suddenly, she wasn’t. She had to get away, just for a few minutes. “Excuse me,” she murmured, slipping away.

  She stepped outside, staying beneath the overhang so that she didn’t get drenched by the rain. What had happened to Annie? Had she tried to escape Kurt on foot? Had she been on the road, helpless as he drove directly at her?

  Squeezing her eyes shut didn’t help erase the image she could see so clearly in her mind. Maybe it wasn’t Kurt, she tried to tell herself. Maybe Annie had been running from her husband and dashed onto the road, directly in the path of an on-coming car.

  She took several deep breaths, trying to calm her ragged nerves. There wasn’t anything she could do to help Annie right now. She and Gabe had done their best, placing a breathing tube and a central venous catheter before pumping several units of blood into her system.

  The rest was up to the trauma team in Madison and God.

  Feeling calmer, she turned to go back inside, shivering when a blast of cold rain hit her back, soaking through the thin fabric of her scrubs. The trauma bay was empty now and had already been cleaned up, which made her feel guilty. It was almost four in the morning, the most difficult part of the night shift, and she realized she must have stayed outside longer than she intended.

  Time to stop worrying about Annie and to focus her attention on the handful of patients who still needed care on her team.

  She was about to head through the trauma bay when suddenly the ambulance bay doors opened behind her, letting in a blast of cool air. She jumped around in surprise and nearly tripped over her feet when she saw a disheveled man standing there holding a gun.