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

4. Sienna

CHAPTER 4

SIENNA

I arrive early at the hospital, wanting to make sure everything is set up for Reece and his first day. I do not have faith that this is going to go well at all. This isn’t the first first-day that I’ve ever supervised, but it is the first time I’ll have to babysit a doctor who’s a few years my senior and should know what he’s doing.

I’m sure he is a good doctor — good enough, anyway. I’m just not certain that our clients are going to be anything like the patients he’s used to.

He’s probably used to treating people like dirt, and that’s not going to stand in my hospital. And if he thinks I’m going to let it slide, he’s in for a world of revelations.

He breezes in late. I do my best not to make a snippy comment about it.

“Good morning,” I say. “I was expecting you a little earlier.”

Guess I fail at not being judgy.

Reece shrugs me off as if to say who cares? I clench my fists hard to stop myself from looking like I do, too much.

Whatever he may think, this hospital is my life. I’m not about to have him sit here and disrespect me and the people who I know like family.

“Well,” I say breezily. “I hope you had a great night last night. All settled in? Sleep well?”

He grunts, and I take that to be a no.

I take a deep breath. “Okay, well, I thought we should take it easy today, get you used to how we work here. How about a quick tour of the place, then I’ll get you set up on our system. Sound good?”

He grunts again. “Yeah, whatever.”

What kind of doctor are you, anyway? I force myself not to say.

Without giving him any more time to argue or sulk, I stand up and gesture to the door. We step out of my — our — office and I try not to think about what he must think of my setup.

I like my office. It’s got plants and posters and all the things I need to keep me cheerful during the day. I have a picture of Gramma on the desk and a whole section of my wall dedicated to pictures that kids have drawn for me over the years.

Maybe that’s tacky, but it makes me smile. It makes me remember why I love my job.

Systematically, I lead Reece around all our facilities. I think we’re pretty state of the art, but he sniffs in disdain at almost all of them.

He’s unimpressed by everything from our operating rooms to our coffee machine. Nothing here is modern enough for him. Nothing is new or up-to-date enough. And even though everything works perfectly fine and gets a service check every single year, it’s just not good enough.

And he feels like he has to let me know, loudly, every single time.

I force a smile onto my face. To do anything else will mean that I’m going to yell at him, and unlike him, I do have a reputation for being a nice, kind, and good person. I don’t need some ass like him ruining what everyone else thinks of me.

Just as we’re about to conclude the tour, we pass Giselle in a corridor. She grins at us, then I see her eyes widen at the sight of Reece. “Well, hello there,” she says, smiling her very best smile at him. “Welcome to Silverbell General. We’re so happy to have you here.”

I shoot her a look that says, Are we? And then I see the way she’s looking him up and down, sizing him up like he’s a racehorse. I stare firmly at her, trying to dissuade her from doing anything stupid, but she just raises both eyebrows at me and grins.

Reece was completely oblivious to the silent conversation we just had, the one where Giselle said Oh, isn’t he dreamy? and I said Don’t even think about it , which is kind of a relief. I can’t imagine how unbearable he would be if we tickled his ego.

This guy is the worst, but right now, he’s ignoring me. Which means I don’t have to bother trying to like him.

“I’m sure Sienna is doing a great job of looking after you, but if you ever need anything, my office is on the second floor. I’ll be here for you if you need anything at all, just come by and see me.” Giselle smiles prettily, and I sigh.

Reece looks her up and down in response, and I see the slight downturn of his lips, the slight sneer on his face as he decides that Giselle isn’t good enough for him. That makes me hate him more. Giselle is utterly gorgeous. She has long, colorful braids and the softest skin I’ve ever seen, and her smile is totally dazzling.

If she’s not good enough for him, then nobody is.

“All right, I’ve got things to do, so see you around,” she says, then winks at me, turns on her heel and darts away. She’s just about to turn the corner when she looks back at us. “Feel free to page me anytime.”

“Page her?” Reece says, showing the most emotion I’ve seen from him so far, even if that emotion is despair. “Please don’t tell me you guys actually have pagers.”

“So what if we do?” I bristle, instinctively covering my own pager with my hand. “They work.”

“So does a phone,” he snorts. “Who’s still using a pager this side of the Millennium?”

I take a sharp breath. I will not argue with him. I will not argue with him. He can rile me all he wants, but he’s not going to win.

We head down to the general care ward. This is where I work most of the time, with people in town who need a little extra help, or those who have come for checkups and blood draws. Personally, I love these little tasks. I love knowing I’m helping people on a real level. Though really, when it comes to care, there’s no such thing as a little task.

I give Reece a nudge and we head over to one of the women I often look after. “Mrs. Oakton.” I smile. “Welcome back. We’re going to be joined by a new doctor today. This is Dr. Westbrook. Is that okay with you?”

Mrs. Oakton is eighty-nine years old, with a shock of white hair and the most piercing blue eyes you have ever seen. She’s in here all the time needing something or another. I say needing. She doesn’t really need anything at all, but I think this is a way of getting out of the house for her. It’s almost like a social life.

And she acts mean, but I love her anyway. Last year for my birthday, she made me some cookies and brought them in. I don’t know how she found out that I love a toffee nut more than anything, but she did from somewhere, and that was the best gift I received that year.

“Sure is, honey,” she says, her eyes raking over Reece like a scanner reading a barcode. “As if I would ever mind being tended to by a handsome young man.”

I chuckle, and so does she, but Reece says nothing.

“Let’s go,” I say, and steer us off towards a room. I don’t pull out the special treatment for everyone, but Mrs. Oakton deserves it.

We head into one of the general visit rooms. As we cross the threshold, I hand Mrs. Oakton’s chart to Reece. He looks at it like I’ve just handed him a bomb, and then he realizes that, yes, out here in the country, we do still use paper.

To my relief, he doesn’t comment on it. Instead, he flicks through the pages with a frown on his face. “Mrs. Oakton,” he says, reading her name off the page as if he didn’t listen to a word I just said. “What’s wrong today?”

“Well, you see, I’ve been having this awful bad aching in my back, the kind of twinge that just won’t go away. I’ve tried?—”

“Don’t tell me you’ve tried any of that over-the-counter heat treatment stuff,” he sniffs. “Putting heat on it is just a Band-Aid to the problem. If you really want to fix it, you should try something better.”

Her mouth drops open. “Well, Nurse Sienna has always told me that the very best thing to do when it starts hurting is to take a painkiller and apply heat as soon as possible.”

“Nonsense,” he sniffs. “Let me look.”

He walks over to her and, without any delicacy, places his hands on her back. She grunts a little, tensing uncomfortably, and I almost want to bat him away and say be careful. She’s not young. She’s strong as an ox, but she’s still elderly. She can still hurt.

“Yes, it’s just muscle tightness,” he says, standing up. “You’d be better off getting into a stretching routine. Pain pills and heat will only help in the short run,” he says as he walks over to the computer and turns his back on us.

Mrs. Oakton and I share a look, the kind that says, well, isn’t he a handful? And he is.

In the back of my mind. I’m kicking myself for slightly agreeing with Giselle. If he wasn’t a nasty piece of work, Reece would be kind of dreamy. But nice as he is to look at, I have a feeling I’ve got a long month ahead of me dealing with him.

The printer starts up, and he grabs a few pages off the tray. He stalks back over to us and shoves the papers at Mrs. Oakton.

“Here. These are some stretches you can do to help strengthen your back muscles.” He points to the page. “I’ve written comprehensive instructions so you don’t forget, but you should aim to do at least one set of all of these every day. If you can do it in the morning or in the evening, that would be better. Otherwise, I can’t see anything else wrong with you at all.”

He spins back around to walk back to the desk. A long moment of silence passes.

Realizing that he’s probably not going to say anything else at all, I force a smile back onto my face and say, “Thank you, Dr. Westbrook.”

Then I turn back to our patient, who’s clutching the paper in her hand with the most baffled look I’ve ever seen. “Mrs. Oakton, let me show you out. Do you need to take my arm?”

“No, hon,” she says with a weak smile. “I’m sure I can manage today.”

I guide her out of the room, offering her my arm anyway, knowing she’ll take it if it’s there.

“How long is Dr. Westbrook staying?” Mrs. Oakton asks.

“Just a month,” I say, swallowing a breath of relief. It’s hard not to be happy that his time here has a hard limit.

“And you have to look after him that whole time?”

I nod unhappily. I probably shouldn’t be letting on to a patient, but Mrs. Oakton is basically a friend at this point.

“Just you take care of yourself,” she says. “Don’t let him get the best of you.”

“I won’t,” I say, trying to smile.

She pats my hand. “I know you won’t. You’re a good girl, Sienna Hale.”

“I’ll see you soon,” I say as I deposit her in the reception area.

We have more people to get through, but I quickly dart over to the receptionist and ask her if she’ll give us a few minutes.

I need to speak to Reece. Alone.

I rush back down the corridor, and when I get back to the room, I shut the door behind me. “What the hell was that about?” I snap.

“What was what?” he says. If I didn’t know better, I would think he was being contrary on purpose. But no, his ignorance of his rudeness is true. I don’t know if that makes this better or worse.

“You’ve got to be kinder to people here. This isn’t the city. I know none of this matters to you, but it matters to me. It matters to us. So all I’m asking is that you just show the people here the most basic iota of respect. Can you do that?”

“I am,” he says, his eyebrows furrowing like he’s genuinely confused. “Didn’t I just help her?”

“It wouldn’t hurt you to smile.”

He glares at me. “Last time I said that I got a verbal warning.”

It takes all I have not to groan in frustration. “I’m not saying it because you’re a man or anything else. I’m saying it because the people here expect a slightly more personal level of care. That’s all. Obviously, you can treat people however you want. I’m not the boss of you. I would just like it if my client base would still talk to me once you’re gone. That’s all.”

He does an awful mock salute. “You got it, ma’am,” he says, mimicking my accent, making fun of it. I shake my head and turn away.

Yes. If Reece was a kind man, he would be an absolute dreamboat. But he’s not. He’s intolerable.

Four more weeks.

We’re both doing the same countdown.

I just hope it’ll be over before we know it.