A Doctor's Dilemma Read online

  Yep, scaring people just happen to be one of his daughter’s favorite pastimes. Maybe Carly had been simply curious about the helmets, but deep down he suspected she’d knocked them over on purpose.

  “I’ll take care of it.” He released his daughter and crossed the room to take the helmet from Kate’s hand. She stepped back as he collected the other helmets lying haphazardly on the floor.

  Kate leaned down to pick one up, wincing as she did. “There must be a bright side to having a shoulder injury. I just need to find it.”

  What? A discouraged Polly? No way. He leaned down to lift the last helmet and carefully set it on the rack as he glanced at Kate over his shoulder.

  “What did the orthopedic surgeon have to say?”

  Kate smiled wryly. “Not much. I’m scheduled for an MRI tomorrow morning to rule out a rotator cuff tear. All from a little kick.”

  Ethan pushed the helmet rack up against the wall as a way to prevent Carly from accidentally hitting them again. “I have news for you. It wasn’t a little kick. The guy weighed well over three hundred pounds and walloped you a good one.” From the corner of his eye, he noticed Carly edging closer to the helicopter. “Don’t even think about it,” he threatened.

  Carly stopped in her tracks, flashing a guilty look. He didn’t have time to revel in his success for catching her before she did more damage because his pager suddenly shrilled loudly.

  “I thought we were fogged in?” Ethan glanced at the pager. “Multiple motor vehicle crash involving a semitruck.”

  “Did you find someone to switch with you?” Kate asked.

  “No.” Grimly, he realized he’d been too busy chitchatting with Kate and cleaning up after his daughter to make additional phone calls.

  Reese and Jenna, the paramedic on duty, entered the hangar. The pilot lifted a brow when he saw the three of them standing there. “The fog is pretty much burned off. We can respond to this call if you’re willing to go.”

  Ethan swallowed hard, his mind whirling with possibilities, none of which he had time for.

  Desperate, he turned toward Kate. “Can I take you up on your offer? Will you watch Carly for me?”

  The flicker of hesitation in her gaze made his stomach clench with the sickening words. Had Carly’s trick with the helmets given Kate second thoughts? He couldn’t blame her if they had.

  Then she smiled, and relief poured through him. “Of course, go ahead. I’ll watch her.”

  Ethan nodded his thanks. Reese and Jenna were already opening the hangar door, preparing to pull the helicopter out for flight. He owed Kate big-time for bailing him out, especially after the helmet incident. No matter how difficult it was for him to talk about his wife, he needed to tell her at least part of the truth.

  “Thanks. Carly has had a bit of a discipline problem since losing her mother to cancer last year. I’m not sure the helmets fell off the rack by accident. I’d appreciate it if you could stay here at Lifeline until we return from this call.”

  He braced himself for a burst of questions. Kate opened her mouth, then amazingly closed it again without uttering a word. She simply nodded as he plunked his helmet over his head, then dashed out to the waiting chopper, meeting up with Jenna and Reese.

  As they lifted off, Ethan couldn’t help but wonder how Kate would manage his unruly daughter. What an unlikely duo. Like ammonia and chlorine, Kate and Carly were at opposite ends of the chemical spectrum.

  For some reason he couldn’t quite define, he really wanted Carly to be on her best behavior with Kate.

  Especially with Kate.

  Chapter Four

  Ethan tried to concentrate on the victim, but it wasn’t easy. He kept thinking of Kate and wondering what devious tricks Carly was up to.

  “Easy, now, just breathe nice and slow.” He caught himself talking to his patient, the middle-aged semitruck driver, the way Kate would have if she had been there. Man, why did his mind always circle back to Kate? “You’re going to be just fine.”

  Jenna the paramedic working alongside him, quickly strapped the trucker on the gurney. Ethan kept a wary eye on the heart monitor. Their patient was having the sort of EKG changes that led him to believe the guy had suffered a heart attack, either before, during, or after the crash. In these types of cases, there was a ninety-minute window of time that was critical to get the patient into the cardiac cath lab.

  “Make sure those straps are tight,” Ethan warned when their patient groaned. He didn’t want to lose another partner to flailing limbs. “Then increase his nitroglycerin drip and give him another two milligrams of morphine.”

  “Got it.” Jenna quickly did as asked, then slung their pack of supplies over her shoulder. “Let’s roll.”

  Ethan nodded and helped push the gurney toward the chopper. They’d already been at the scene for twenty minutes, and again he found himself worrying about how Kate was faring with Carly. Normally, he thrived on scene calls, but not today. Reese couldn’t fly them to Trinity Medical Center fast enough.

  Between them, he and Jenna lifted the trucker into the back of the helicopter. Reese had the engine running, ready and waiting to take off. Ethan climbed in after Jenna and settled on the seat near the patient’s head.

  “His oxygen saturation has dropped to eighty-eight percent,” Jenna noted.

  “Increase his oxygen to six liters.” Ethan didn’t want to intubate the guy unless he had to. What was his name? If Kate were here, she’d know. He settled the headphones over his patient’s ears so he could talk to him, then checked his wrist ID band, placed by the paramedics. “Larry. How is your chest pain?”

  The patient groaned, shaking his head from side to side. Not good, apparently.

  “Worse than before? Or the same?”

  “Same.” Larry’s voice was faint through the intercom.

  “Give him another two milligrams of morphine.” Ethan was afraid the patient’s heart attack was getting worse. He cued the mic so that only the crew could hear him. “Reese, I need to be patched through to the cath lab team. They’ll need to meet us on the helipad for a hot unload.”

  “Roger.” Reese sounded calm and in control. A minute later, Ethan heard a new voice through his headset.

  “This is Dr. Arvani from the cardiac cath lab.”

  “We have an acute STEMI coming in from the field. I’d like you to meet us at the helipad for a hot unload. We are thirty minutes in already. Reese, what’s our ETA?”

  “Five minutes,” Reese responded.

  “Sounds good,” Arvani said. “I’ll have a team waiting.”

  Ethan disconnected from the line, then double-checked the nitroglycerin drip. “Increase it again,” he told Jenna. Larry seemed to be resting a little better between the nitro and the morphine, but his heart was still showing signs of heart damage.

  “Got it.” Jenna changed the rate on the IV pump and scribbled notes on the flight record. “Anything else?”

  “Not right now.” Ethan glanced at his watch. Four minutes to go before they’d land at Trinity. He felt good about having the cath lab team meeting them there.

  Glancing down at Larry, he tried to reassure the guy. “You’re going to be fine.”

  Larry didn’t answer. Ethan knew if Kate were here, she’d be talking to Larry nonstop. Ethan wondered if her chatter would have helped Larry or made his chest pain worse. Either way, Ethan wouldn’t have minded flying with her. Her serene demeanor and oddball sense of humor had a way of easing the tension from the situation.

  Five minutes later, Reese landed on Trinity’s helipad. He assisted Jenna in lifting Larry out and wheeling him toward the cath lab team. Together, they took the elevator down to the cardiac cath lab. Ethan filled Arvani in on the amount of morphine and nitroglycerin they’d given en route. The transfer didn’t take long, but Ethan kept glancing at his watch. How long had Kate been keeping an eye on Carly? An hour? Surely, things were fine. Kate was an optimist, maybe Carly would respond to her positive outlook. How much damage
could a five-year-old do in less than two hours?

  Quite a bit if the helmet incident was anything to go by. Inwardly, he groaned.

  Once Larry was undergoing his cardiac procedure and their paperwork was completed, they were free to go. Ethan tried not to rush Jenna, but he wanted to run with the empty gurney back up to the helicopter.

  “I’m going to refuel before heading back,” Reese told them, once he was seated in the back of the chopper with Jenna.

  No! Ethan wanted to bang his head against the bulkhead. Refueling didn’t take long, but in reality, every minute Kate was alone with his daughter was a potential disaster.

  Somehow, he managed to stay calm until Reese landed the chopper at Lifeline. Ethan didn’t care if he was the first one out of the chopper. He needed to know how Kate had fared with Carly.

  When he walked through the door, his eyes widened in horror and his step faltered. Oh. Boy.

  A bright pink gooey substance covered every surface, clinging to the lockers and the spare flight suits hanging nearby. The pink stuff was everywhere. The place was a total disaster, confirming his worst fears.

  He swallowed hard. Where in the world were Kate and Carly?

  Splat! He’d only taken a few steps when a gooey substance hit him square in the chest. Childish giggles reached his ears. He gasped. “What are you doing?”

  “Carly, you can’t hit your dad when he’s unarmed,” Kate protested. “Not fair.”

  His daughter continued to giggle, seemingly not in the least repentant. “It’s only Silly String, Dad. Ooh, I got you, too, Kate.”

  Ethan peeled the neon pink strand away from his flight suit, feeling the pressure in his chest tighten. This wasn’t funny. This was awful. What had he been thinking, to leave the two of them alone? Not only was there a total neon pink mess, but Carly and Kate were both hopping on weird red and blue ball-like things with rubber handles, chasing each other around the hangar, shooting each other with the cans of Silly String. Kate was clearly losing the battle, hampered by her shoulder injury. His gaze narrowed when he noticed she held the can of Silly String with the hand in the sling, aiming at his daughter while hanging on to the ball with her non-injured hand.

  What was she thinking? She shouldn’t be using her injured arm at all, especially not for something as stupid is Silly String.

  “Clean this place up, right now.” Ethan used his deepest I’m-not-kidding tone. There wasn’t a single surface untouched by the pink goo, leaving him no safe clean place to set his helmet. Annoyed, he tucked it under his arm.

  Kate hopped across the room toward him, bobbing up and down on her ball as she eyed him curiously. “Lighten up, will you? We’ll clean it up, don’t worry.”

  Lighten up? Clearly her head was light enough for the both of them. Kate looked like she was enjoying herself a little too much. Right now, she could have passed for a teenager, bouncing on the rubber ball, with her long blond hair streaked with pink. He clenched his fingers into fists, why on earth did he have the insane urge to kiss her? “Does Jared know about this?” He pushed the ridiculous thought of kissing her aside. “And what on earth is that thing you’re riding like a horse?”

  “It’s a Hippity Hop. Pretty cool, huh? I got the Hippity Hops and Silly String at the supermarket in town. Jared had to leave. I think he mentioned something about Shelly having a doctor appointment.”

  Figured Jared was gone. No wonder the place was trashed. If Jared had been there, Ethan was sure the Silly String war wouldn’t have happened. At least, not to this extent.

  “Hey, at least we managed to have fun, right, Carly?” Kate grinned.

  “Right.” Carly aimed a stream of Silly String at the back of Kate’s head, then laughed when she scored a direct hit. Kate returned Carly’s fire.

  The mess faded as Ethan zeroed in on the sound of his daughter’s laughter. When was the last time he’d heard his daughter sound so carefree? Months ago? Last year? Maybe Kate’s methods were unorthodox, but despite everything, he could feel his mouth curving into a reluctant smile. “Maybe I should get myself one of those cans.”

  “Mine is empty.” Carly’s lower lip curled into a pout. “Kate, can I have some more?”

  “Sorry, Carly, but I’m out, too.” Kate raised her can and hit the sprayer to prove her point. Tiny puffs of pink goo fizzled from the can. “You know what this means, right? It’s cleanup time.”

  Ethan steeled himself for the worst, knowing how much his daughter resented anything having to do with cleaning up, even if she was the one who’d made the mess. He eyed his watch with a sigh. Better to help Kate with the mess before making additional phone calls to find someone to switch for him.

  “Okay.” Carly stayed on her Hippity Hop but began to gather the remnants of Silly String. The pieces came apart in her hands and fell to the floor in small shreds. She glanced askance at Kate as if she’d done something wrong.

  Kate frowned as she picked up a handful, too, a good portion of it falling to the floor in tiny pink bits. “It’s supposed to be easy to clean up.”

  “And you believed that?” Ethan couldn’t help his sharp tone, irritated all over again by Kate’s naïveté. Where was her Pollyanna attitude now? “Get me a broom.”

  “Why would they lie?” Kate asked.

  “Gee, maybe to make you buy the stuff?”

  She ignored his sarcasm but abandoned her Hippity Hop and headed over to the small closet where the clean equipment was stored. Ethan suppressed a sigh. He supposed sweeping was a small price to pay for Carly’s laughter.

  “Daddy, Kate said I can keep the Hippity Hop. And she wants to give you hers, too.”

  There was no way on this green earth he was riding that thing, but he forced a smile. “Great. For now, though, why don’t you put them in the other room? I need to sweep up this mess and bouncing on your Hippity Hop and flattening the bits of Silly String isn’t going to help.”

  “All right.” Carly hopped away, dragging Kate’s Hippity Hop with her through the doorway before disappearing into the next room.

  Turning back, he noticed Kate sweeping awkwardly, once again using her injured arm. His previous good mood faded as he stepped toward her. “What do you think you’re doing? Are you trying to hurt yourself more? Give me that.” He tried to snatch the broom from her grasp.

  She hung on. “I can sweep. It’s my mess.”

  Ethan felt like a two-year-old fighting over a toy. He ground his teeth and tightened his grip on the broom.

  “She’s my daughter, which makes this my mess.” He was close enough again to see the sprinkling of freckles on Kate’s upturned nose.

  “Carly is a great kid, Ethan.” Kate’s voice was soft as she relinquished the broom. “You’re very lucky to have her.”

  Abruptly, his throat tightened, and his annoyance faded. He was momentarily at a loss for words. He cleared his throat. “I know.”

  She was staring at him again, only this time her eyes were a deep, intense green. For a moment they simply looked at each other, then he forced himself to take a step back. What on earth was wrong with him? She had just been trying to be polite.

  “I’m sure the doctor didn’t put your arm in a sling for no reason. He meant for you to rest the injury.”

  “It doesn’t hurt as bad today.” Kate watched him sweep for a minute, then crossed to the sink and grabbed a rag. With one hand she ran it under some water, then used the cloth to brush all the pink bits from the surfaces and onto the floor where he could sweep them up. “I’m hoping to come back to work soon.”

  He concentrated on sweeping the concrete floor, but her words echoed in his head, and an irrational excitement flickered along his nerves. Would she be back soon?

  And if she was, would he be scheduled to fly with her again?

  For a moment, he felt as young as Carly. Which was absolutely ridiculous. Kate was a nice girl, but he wasn’t interested in anything more.

  But regret burned deep at how he’d rebuffed her earlier o
ffer of friendship.

  “Whoa, what happened here?” Reese frowned as he entered the hangar with Jenna at his side.

  Kate knew the inside of the hangar looked as if a giant neon pink Super Ball had exploded, but how many times did she have to explain? You’d think these guys never once in their whole lives ever played with Silly String.

  “Nothing happened. We just had a little fun. No big major crime.”

  The corner of Reese’s mouth kicked up in a grin. He’d been much more likely to smile since his recent marriage to Dr. Samantha Kearn. “A little fun? I’d hate to see what this place would look like if you really got going.”

  She stepped in a pile of pink goo, and it stuck to the bottom of her shoe when she lifted her foot. What was with this stuff anyway? It was supposed to harden into a foamlike substance, making it easy to clean up. And you believed them? Ethan’s voice echoed in her mind. She reached down to peel the stuff off her shoe. Yeah, okay, maybe she had been a little naïve.

  She and Ethan worked together for the next twenty minutes, getting most of the Silly String into the garbage. She suspected they’d find bits of the stuff for the next few months, but she couldn’t regret her decision.

  Carly had needed to do something fun. And in her opinion, the sound of Carly’s laughter had been well worth it.

  The phone rang, and Reese leaned over to answer it. “Just a minute. Kate?” He turned toward her. “Phone for you. It’s Jared.”

  Puzzled, she crossed the room to take the phone from him. “Jared? What’s wrong?”

  “Shelly’s obstetrician put her on bed rest because she’s been spotting. I’m taking her home now. Since you’re officially on light duty, I need you to help me with the schedule. Shelly won’t be able to fly, and with you out as well, I’m concerned we won’t have enough backup.”

  “Of course, I’ll work on the schedule. I’m having my MRI tomorrow morning, and I can talk to the orthopedic surgeon again. If they allow me to take off the sling, and if the pilots are willing to help with lifting, I should be able to work my scheduled shifts.”