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The man was an excellent surgeon. The best she’d ever worked with. Many of the other orthopedic surgeons, although talented, were moody, sometimes socially awkward. Not Justin. Everyone on the unit loved working with him.
Always upbeat, he usually chatted while performing whatever procedure they had going. Thus far today, however, he’d been all business.
Which was fine. Only...
Oh, no—no onlys.
Justin needed his full focus on his job and so did she.
The scrub nurse had the patient properly positioned. The anesthesiologist had the patient completely unaware of what was happening to and around him. And, with the patient lying flat on his back, Justin made an eight-centimeter incision. Once he had the incision made, he placed soft tissue retractors in front of and behind the femoral neck, exposing the hip joint.
“Scalpel.”
The surgical tech handed Justin the cutting tool, which he took and released the capsule to expose the femoral head and the acetabulum. He studied the area a moment, made another tiny cut. When he was happy with what he’d done he used a protractor to work on the unhealthy acetabulum, removing bone spurs and diseased tissue.
Reminding herself that she was responsible for what every person in the room was doing, not just Justin, Riley pried her gaze away from his skilled hands and took in each member of the OR team. Anesthesia was closely monitoring vitals, and everyone else was attentively doing what they should be.
Her gaze went back to where Justin worked. He’d dislocated the hip and was inserting a large screw into the acetabulum. Once the screw was securely embedded in the bone he exposed the femoral head more fully and finished removing the capsule.
While the anesthesiologist chatted with his assistant about a recent sailing trip he had made, Justin painstakingly removed the femoral head with an oscillating saw, cleaned the acetabulum, then went about rebuilding the joint with prosthetics.
All in all, the surgery took just over two hours to complete.
When he was finished, Justin’s gaze lifted and sought Riley’s.
What she saw there had her stomach churning more than any bone-cutting surgical procedure she’d ever witnessed.
His eyes glittered with what she could only label as hurt because she’d pushed him away—although more likely that was just his wounded pride she was seeing. But there was also curiosity as to why she’d done so. And something more that she could only think of as warmth—not that that made any sense.
None of what she saw made sense except the curiosity. He probably wasn’t used to women walking away from him, so no doubt that did have him puzzled.
Leaving him had been her being proactive on preventing heartbreak. A pre-emptive strike. She’d left before he had.
Maybe if Justin hadn’t been quite so handsome, had been something more ordinary than an orthopedic surgeon, not quite so fabulous, she might have risked a relationship. Doubtful after what Johnny had done, but maybe.
Someone so good-looking, so successful, was destined to break her heart if she gave him the chance.
“Good job,” he praised the team, still holding her gaze.
Something flashed in the blue depths that suggested he saw more than she wanted him to see, that he knew she warred within. She wanted to look away, to mask her eyes from his. With each passing second her heart pounded harder.
Just as it reached the point of thundering in her ears, he broke contact and headed out of the operating suite.
“Wonder what was up with Dr. Brothers. He was quieter than usual,” the recorder said as soon as Justin was out of the room.
Riley stared down at the surgical tray.
“But he’s still a pleasure to work with. If only all orthopedic surgeons were as easy to be with in surgery as that man,” the assistant observed.
“If only all orthopedic surgeons were as easy on the eye as that man,” the surgical tech teased with a waggle of her brows.
Riley said nothing and prayed that Sheila, the scrub nurse, wouldn’t say anything either. Sheila and her husband had been at Cheyenne’s party.
“Looked like you were all cozy with him on Friday night, Riley,” said, Sheila giving her a knowing look. “I saw you leave together.”
Ugh. Of course Sheila had seen. And now she’d mentioned that. In front of the whole team.
“Really? Lucky you...” The surgical tech sighed.
