AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You should have double-checked. It’s not safe for you to be here at night alone with the front door unlocked for anyone to walk in.”
“I’m not alone.” Melissa gestured to the girl lying on the cot. As if sensing she was being talked about, Cindy made a soft moaning sound, but didn’t completely rouse. “Let’s go to my office so we don’t wake her.”
James’s jaw flexed, but he didn’t argue. Just watched her. Melissa ached from sitting in the chair so long, but refused to grimace under James’s eagle eye.
She checked Cindy’s IV line, then shuffled to her office, stretching to ease the ache in her lower back.
She needed to kill the intimacy of being in a dimly lit room with James, needed to see him, to know he was really there. She flipped on the light switch.
Although she wasn’t sure she wanted James to see her.
“What the hell are you doing, Melissa?” he ground out. “That girl should be in the hospital if she needs an IV. Not here in your office with you dead on your feet.”
“The hospital wasn’t an option.”
His eyes narrowed, and although he looked angry, his tone lowered. “No insurance?”
“She has TennCare.” Tennessee’s government provided insurance for the underprivileged and needy.
Confusion flickered across his handsome features. “Then why keep her here?”
Melissa inhaled a deep breath, fighting the need to rub her neck. What was he doing at her office in the middle of the night, fussing at her? And why was she letting him?
“Look, James, I don’t have to explain myself to you. My patient needed fluids and I’m giving them to her. End of story.”
Shaking with anger, he glared at her. “You’re determined to push yourself too far, aren’t you?”
“Cindy needed me.”
James swore under his breath. “She needs her parents to take her to Dekalb General so she can get proper care.” He glanced around her empty office. “Where are they, anyway? Shouldn’t they be here?”
“Her father died last year and her mother is at home with her five-year-old sister.” Melissa curled her fingers, putting her clenched hands on her hips and mentally daring James to say anything negative about Jamie. She’d likely punch him if he did.
His gaze dropped to her fists. His mouth twisted with frustration, he appeared ready to strangle her. Instead, he took a deep breath. “If you were going to keep the girl here, you should have made her mother stay to help you.”
Cranky from fatigue, from being woken up, from the surprise of seeing him, and how just looking at him made her heart ache, she didn’t budge from her stance. “Whether or not she should have stayed is none of your business. Just as what I do is none of your business.”
He looked taken aback, like she’d slapped him. What did he think? That he could run roughshod over her life, but she had no say in his world? Hardly.
Yet she hated the disillusionment in his eyes.
Frustration washed over Melissa. She didn’t want to argue with him. Didn’t really have the energy to do so, although she’d never admit that to him.
“James, I know you’re trying to help,” she sighed, “but Cindy is my patient. I’m doing what I believe is best for her and her family.”
“What about what’s best for you and your family? Is working yourself to the bone, not getting any rest—is that what’s best for you? For our baby?”
“I…” Melissa stopped, unable to go on. James was right. She glanced up, ready to concede his point.
The anger on his face melted into concern, and he raked his fingers through his hair. Hair that, she noticed, had been trimmed to its normal neat style since her ultrasound.
Two in the morning and he looked fabulous in his navy scrubs. Like he’d walked straight off some television show about doctors. Like he was the sexy star that made women tune in week after week for another drool-worthy episode.
“Go.” He motioned to the comfy leather sofa that was pushed up against her office wall. “Lie down and sleep.”
“I can’t.” She shook her head. “Cindy.”
He sighed. “I’ll keep an eye on her. You sleep.”
