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“I’m not blaming you. He’s the ‘doctor prince,’ right?”
“Yeah. He’s so humble, too. He doesn’t like anybody to draw attention to his princely status, thougheverybodyknows who he is.”
“He was very kind.”
“He is that, too.” She sighed longingly again. “All right, let’s get you through this CT scan, Angelica.”
Angelica. Why had she let him settle on that? Despite those old hidden desires, she was so far from an angel it was a joke to think about. Even her parents and her cousin Sadie, who adored her, would tell anybody Hattie was spicy and feisty and the only thing angelic about her was her loyalty to family and friends and her generosity with her vast financial means.
“Yes, let’s do it,” she told the nurse. “The quicker I can get off this hard board, the better.”
The nurse laughed and wheeled her out of the room.
She had to focus. Get through the CT scan, then scheme a way to hightail it out of Augustine. She’d never see Prince Doctor Steffan August’s blue eyes in person again. It was for the best. What did one more handsome man matter to her?
Now if she could only put those eyes, his smile, and his kindness from her mind.
CHAPTERTWO
Dr. Steffan August, Chief Medical Officer of Traverse Hospital, thrived in his hospital, and especially his emergency department. It was rare a case stumped him, a patient wasn’t immediately his friend, or even a nurse or female patient annoyed him fawning over him being a prince.
Today he felt completely off kilter. It was all because of his ‘Jane Doe,’ or rather ‘Angelica.’ Thankfully Keri had stood there patiently and hadn’t flinched or called him out for his unprofessionalism. As a personal rule, Steffan was friendly and warm with his patients, but flirting with one … not on his watch. It had never happened or been a temptation before, but he had never looked into a pair of deep-brown eyes that alluring. Angelica hadn’t seemed confused or blank like an amnesiac patient usually did. Every case was different, especially when sedation was involved, but he couldn’t help but wonder if she remembered but was pretending not to for some reason.
It was hard to think straight when he was close to her. There was some crazy tingling in his brain and connection sparking between them. Even strapped down to a spine board with smudges of dirt and scrapes on her face, Angelica was exquisitely beautiful—smooth, tanned skin, rosebud lips, high cheekbones and a cloud of dark hair surrounding her beautiful face.
Stop it, he commanded himself, hurrying to deal with a broken arm in partition four. Poor little man, only three years old. He was brave and a cute kid, both his parents right there, holding him, loving him, looking at him with concern and affection in their eyes. It made Steffan miss his mum, but that was nothing new. He had missed her every day since she’d been murdered seven months ago.
He shook that off and moved on to a finger that needed stitches, an older lady who’d sliced it open cutting chicken. She was a sweetie. She did make a fuss about him being a prince, but most did. It was fine.
His phone buzzed. Dr. John from radiation. He left the nurse to clean up and discharge the patient, raising a hand in farewell and grinning at the lady’s profuse gratitude.
“Hi, Dr. John.”
“Dr. Steffan. The CAT scan results for our Jane Doe came back clean. No spinal injury. Brain looks good. I’ve emailed them to you.”
“Thank you. I appreciate it.” He hung up, strode to his office, and clicked on his computer, downloading the scans. Pulling a water bottle from his fridge, he drank a long swallow as he looked over Angelica’s spinal cord and brain. John was right, as usual. The cord looked perfect.
If his intriguing patient didn’t have amnesia, she could probably be released. Where to let her go, though? It was odd she’d been alone, strapped into a paraglider, and nobody had come asking for her. The farmer thought she’d come from the Switzerland side of the mountains, but somebody had to have helped her into the paraglider. If that woman was in his life, he’d move heaven and earth to find her.
He called the nurse’s station. Brandy answered. “Hi, Dr. Steffan.”
“Hi, Brandy. Are you over our Jane Doe?”
“Yes, sir.”
“She’s been cleared of any spinal risk or brain injury, so we can let her get up and move around. Can you help her get cleaned up, changed into some scrubs, and comfortable? We’ll have her stay at the hospital tonight, maybe longer depending on her memory recovery. Hopefully her memory will return or a friend or family member will come to claim her.”
“Sounds great. Are you … available for dinner tonight? I get off at seven.”
“Sorry, no, but thank you for asking. I’ll come check on our patient in a bit.” He hung up before she could respond. Dang. He got asked out so often he had a lot of automatic responses, but Brandy was a great nurse, and he didn’t want any romantic notions messing up their relationship. He’d implemented the old, no dating coworkers’ policy for himself within days of finishing his residency and starting at the hospital. Did he need to have Emily remind the nurses of the policy? The older nurse was great and watched over him like a mother hen.
It was after six. After he made sure Angelica was comfortable, he should probably go home for the night. But why? What did he have to go home to? A huge, gorgeous home that was empty. He could head the half an hour south through the mountain pass to the palace to see Ray, Macey, T, Kiera, and his dad. As T’s primary care physician, it’d be good to check on his burns. But T had two of the best burn care doctors in the world checking in on him. He could have Ray and Macey hike or dirt bike with him up to Curtis’s cabin and see Curt and Aliya. Those two made him laugh. He loved Aliya’s ‘southern sass.’ Angelica had a similar sound to her voice, minus all the hilarious expressions Aliya loved to sprinkle her speech with.
He didn’t want to leave the hospital. He needed to help Angelica figure out who she was, but how?
He snapped his fingers, downed the rest of his water bottle, and pulled out his phone. He shot Jensen a quick text.
I’ve got a Jane Doe with an odd situation. I don’t think she’s in danger, but nobody was with her on a paragliding accident and nobody has come for her. Can you help me do a bit of research and figure out who she is and who she belongs to? Make certain she’s not in danger.
