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Good thing she’d decided to keep her heart well hidden from the likes of him. She’d planned to just push him out of her life completely, but maybe she’d just enjoy this for whatever it was. Yeah, right. She was in so much trouble.
“That’s okay.” She tucked a strand of short blonde hair behind her ear, pretending a sophistication she didn’t possess. “I have no expectations where you’re concerned.”
If she repeated that often enough maybe she’d convince them both.
She’d never thought of herself as a good liar, but she must have done a decent job because after only a moment of hesitation he grinned, leaned so close she imagined she could feel his body heat.
“We’ll have to work on that.” He tweaked her nose and she felt the aftershocks all the way to her toes. “I’ll pick you up here at seven.”
Work on that? He wanted her to have expectations where he was concerned? Um, no. That was the pre-Simon Madison. The new Madison would never ever have expectations where a man was concerned. No way.
“Better make it a quarter after.” Even that would be pushing it. She rarely got off on time. Tonight she’d make extra effort and pray nothing came up with her patients.
He watched her a moment, half as if he thought she’d pushed the time back just to be perverse, but then he nodded.
“Done.” He straightened, sent another heart-melting grin her way. “See you then.”
Madison hadn’t thought she’d see Levi again during the workday, but one of his patients took a turn for the worse and she paged him. She’d heard rales, fine crackles, in Mr. Ridge’s chest, called Levi, and he’d ordered a chest X-ray, a complete blood count, and increased vital checks. At lunch he came by to examine the man and requested she check on Mr. Ridge with him.
Just seeing him stole her breath. She was having dinner with him tonight!
Which was no big deal.
Right.
“I called his family after I spoke with you,” she said in the hope of keeping her mind on her patient and not her patient’s very handsome doctor. “His daughter has been sitting with him almost non-stop, but she went home this morning.” This distraction technique wasn’t really working, but she kept talking anyway. “He’s been alone since.”
But whereas she was having trouble focusing, Levi seemed to be having no problem whatsoever, his expression somber. “You spoke with the daughter when you called?”
“I did. She was devastated that he’d gotten worse after she left, although I assured her there was nothing she could have done to prevent his downturn. She’ll be back this afternoon and plans to stay the night. I felt badly for her.”
He nodded. “Illness can be as difficult for the family as it is for the patient.”
Touched at Levi’s empathy, she followed him into the room. He spoke to his patient, but the elderly man barely acknowledged his presence and showed no signs of recognizing him.
“I’m going to listen to your heart and lungs,” he informed his patient, prior to leaning forward to place the diaphragm of his stethoscope on the man’s frail chest. When he’d finished listening, he sighed. “You’re right, Madison. He probably has aspirated and developed pneumonia. Is his chest X-ray back?”
She shook her head. “Not as of a few minutes ago. I’ll pull up the test on the electronic medical record system to see if the results have been entered yet.”
“Go ahead and get respiratory therapy up here, too. I want percussion and breathing treatments started ASAP.”
“Yes, sir.” Madison turned to the computer and entered Levi’s verbal orders while he finished examining his patient.
“Let’s keep round-the-clock pulse oximetry and oxygen going. Three liters per minute for now. If sat levels don’t go up to where I want, I’ll increase the flow rate, but we’ll need to get arterial blood gases to watch for increased carbon dioxide levels so we won’t push him into hypercapnia.”
Madison nodded her approval.
“Start IV antibiotics at one gram per twenty-four hours.” He named the specific antibiotic he wanted used.
When she’d finished keying in his orders, she turned back to where Levi spoke with his patient. “Still no X-ray report. Sorry. I’ll call Radiology and see what the hold-up is.”
“That’s okay. I’ll call when we’ve finished here and at least get a verbal.” He motioned for her to move to the opposite side of the hospital bed. “Help me sit him up.”
She did so, stabilizing Mr. Ridge, while Levi tapped on the man’s back, carefully listening to the sounds he made.
“Left lower lobe changes,” he murmured. Although the man just stared blankly, Levi explained what he was going to do to, then began beating on the man’s back more earnestly, trying to work loose any mucus consolidations.
When they’d finished, she followed Levi out of the hospital room, noting the tension etched onto his face.
