The Doctor’s Simple Life (Love Heals All Wounds #3)

2. Sienna

CHAPTER 2

SIENNA

“ G ood morning, Sienna.”

“Good morning, Sally Anne. How are you doing?”

“Good.”

“Morning, Sienna.”

“Good morning, Dr. Michaels,” I say.

This is how every day goes when I step into work. I’m met by a chorus of greetings, and I smile at everyone just the same. None of it’s fake in this hospital. We all care. It’s what makes the team like a family.

“Morning, Giselle,” I say as I pass my boss.

“You excited to start your first day?”

“Giselle, it’s not my first day,” I scoff.

It actually couldn’t be further from my first day. This is how every morning of my life has gone since I was twenty-six years old and fresh out of nursing school. There’s nowhere else on earth I would rather work. I love my colleagues. I love my town. I love this hospital.

And most days they love me pretty well too.

“New job, new day one,” Giselle says, raising both eyebrows.

The florescent lights reflect off her dark skin and give her brown eyes a twinkle, making her look like she’s up to mischief. I narrow my eyes. “This isn’t exactly a new job,” I say. “It’s the same job I’ve been doing the last six years.”

“Nevertheless, hon, you’ll find out pretty quick that being a nurse is fun. Being a manager of nurses… well, sometimes they take a little herding, that’s all.”

“I think I’ll cope just fine.”

“I know you will.”

Giselle is one of those people who, if you don’t know her, seems stern and cold, but she’s actually one of the warmest, nicest people I know. She’s just professional. There’s a certain manner you should take with patients, firm and kind but objective, and she manages to strike that balance perfectly.

She can also drink almost anyone under the table.

I’ve never challenged her, and I doubt I ever will.

“Look, Sienna,” she says, taking my elbow to pull me aside into another corridor, somewhere a little more private. “I know this is your first day,” she says, and I give her a look. “But I have a favor to ask.”

“Go on,” I say, bracing for whatever’s about to come.

“You know everyone loves you here, right?”

“Yeah…”

“And that’s why you’re the perfect person to help me out with this.”

“Cut to the chase,” I say, folding my arms. She’s starting to test my patience.

She smiles apologetically at me. “Come with me,” she says, leading me into another room.

My heart starts pounding in my chest. This is my sixth year at this hospital. Surely, I haven’t done something so wrong that I have to have a disciplinary.

It makes no sense. Giselle just said it. Everyone likes me.

I know that sounds bigheaded, but it’s true. I’ve worked hard to get where I am. I pride myself on being a good coworker and in caring for my patients, making it so that each and every one of them feels an individual connection to me. I work hard, and I thought it had been paying off.

My mind spins with the fear of what might be about to come. Am I getting fired? Am I getting my promotion taken away?

Giselle closes the door behind me and gestures for me to sit. I do, and my heart leaps into my mouth.

“Look, hon,” she says, then blinks, looking at me again. “Okay, you can wipe that terrified look off your face. You’re not in trouble.”

“Oh, thank God,” I breathe, the knot of anxiety in my chest releasing a little.

Giselle chuckles, shaking her head as she sits next to me. “I’ve asked you here because I need someone I can trust on this, and there’s nobody I trust more than you.”

“Okay…” I say dubiously. My heart is still pounding with leftover adrenaline. “Hit me. What do you want?”

Giselle grins awkwardly at me, and my heart sinks again. This is too much to handle first thing in the morning. “I got a call from the hospital owner last night.”

Oh, no, the big boss, I think, but I don’t say anything, waiting for her to continue.

“Starting tomorrow, there’s a doctor coming to us from the big city?—”

“From Miami?”

She nods gravely. “Yes, one of the big-name plastic surgeons there. He’s coming to spend a month out here for God knows what reason. But he’ll be arriving later today and starting work tomorrow, and I need someone I can trust to show him the ropes.”

“Okay,” I say. Then I say, “Oh… okay,” as exactly what I’m being asked to do sinks in.

On the one hand, it’s great that she trusts me enough with this task, but on the other, I have so many better things I could be doing than babysitting some hotshot guy from the city who thinks he’s better than all of us country folk. I know exactly what kind of man this is going to be.

This is the kind of guy who hates small towns because he thinks we’re all idiots.

And much as I’d love to have the time to prove him wrong, I have my own job to do.

“So, you’ll do it?” Giselle grins at me, and I sigh.

“Yeah, okay, fine. I’ll do it.”

“Great! He’ll be getting here later on this afternoon. I’ll give you the address, and it would be fabulous if you could get over there and make him feel welcome to our town.”

I call Gramma on the way to Dr. Westbrook’s house.

“I don’t want to do this,” I tell her.

“Come on, sweetie pie,” she says, and I can practically see her smile on the other side of the phone. “They all know you’re good at your job. That’s why you’ve been chosen. They know that if anyone’s going to be able to keep some good-for-nothing doctor from the big city in line, then it’s going to be my baby girl.”

“I know I can do it. I just don’t want to. I don’t feel like being treated like an idiot by some rich guy who thinks he’s so much better than me just because his job’s more important or better paid than mine or whatever.”

“Sweetie, you and I both know exactly what you’re capable of. The Lord sends his trials, and we do our best to weather them. That’s all you can do, honey, just weather it. It’s only a month, you said?”

“Yes.”

“Well, then he’ll be gone before you know it. You show him who’s boss, and he’ll quickly come around to thinking that Silverbell isn’t just some little town filled with little people. He’ll see. Don’t let him grind you down. I have faith in you.”

We chat for a little longer, every word my grandmother says filling me with the confidence and strength I’ve been lacking. But as I pull up to the house he’ll be calling home for the next few weeks, it’s not enough to soothe my trepidation. I turn the engine off, tell Gramma I love her, and hang up the phone.

I take a breath to myself, just for a second, then step out of the car.

My confidence might have been restored, but I’m still nervous. I have no idea what or who I’m going to find on the other side of this door.

I knock hard on the door, and a few seconds later, a handsome young man answers. I say young. He must be at least my age, probably mid-thirties. His hair is spiky and bleach blond, his eyes piercingly blue. And when he smiles, it’s dazzling, drawing all my attention to his high cheekbones and his strong jaw.

He’s not at all what I was expecting.

I don’t really know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t someone whose looks would take my breath away. Inside, I kick myself, and outside, I force myself to smile.

“Hello, Dr. Westbrook?”

“Hello,” he says, his eyebrows creasing in confusion. “That’s me. Who are you?”

“I was sent to welcome you. Make sure you’re getting on just fine.”

He looks me up and down, then nods slowly, his hair flopping into his eyes. “I’m just fine. I guess I don’t need you now, but you can get started tomorrow.”

“Whoa, whoa,” I cut him off. “What?”

He blinks, his beautiful mouth dropping open as he processes the information. “You’re… my housekeeper, right?”

“No,” I scoff. “I was sent to welcome you. From the hospital. I’m your boss.”