A Bride for the Highlander (Wishing for a Highlander #1)
Chapter 1
CHAPTER 1
New Jersey, 2023
“Sorry, Dr. Platt, I lost track of time with the handover,” Adeline said in a rush, barging into her boss’s office. “You know what it’s like on Christmas Eve. Worst day to be in the medical profession.”
Dr. Platt sat behind his desk, nursing a glass of something he shouldn’t have been drinking on hospital grounds. “I don’t like to be kept waiting.”
“I know, but we’ve got two nurses out sick, and the resident on the night shift isn’t really happy with it after being here for… I think she said it has been three days since she’s been home,” Adeline tried to explain.
Dr. Platt waved her excuse away, gesturing for her to come and sit opposite. “I had to do the rounds twice to make sure she knew what was going on. It’ll be a crazy night for everyone.” He sipped his drink. “Would you like one? You seem stressed.”
He wasn’t someone she liked spending too much time alone with. But he was someone who seemed to like spending time alone with her, always calling her into his office for the vaguest of reasons. The nurses had warned her that he did it with all of the younger female staff, seeing what he could get away with.
However, as Head of Surgery, he wasn’t the sort of man she could afford to get on the wrong side of, paying her dues while she worked her way up the hierarchy. If that meant listening to him drone on about his new car or his latest golf trophies or enduring the discomfort of him telling her how pretty she’d look if she just made some effort, then so be it.
“No, thank you,” Adeline replied. “I’m driving home.”
“One won’t put you over the limit,” he reasoned.
“I… uh… don’t drink, to be honest.” She racked her brain, wondering if there was any staff night out where he’d seen her drink, but she figured it was a safe enough white lie when no memory came to her.
Since her birthday last month, she hadn’t been out at all, and before, her birthday had been the same. She was too busy working to become a bona fide doctor to have fun.
Dr. Platt pouted, his icy blue eyes skimming down the lapels of her white coat and across the neckline of her scrubs. But the gray t-shirt she wore underneath her scrubs seemed to disappoint him, forbidding him a glimpse of anything.
“You’re a gifted doctor, Adeline,” he said, swirling the drink in this glass, “but there’s more to being a doctor than just being good at treating patients.”
“I thought that was the very definition of being a good doctor,” Adeline replied, laughing awkwardly.
It was seven o’clock on Christmas Eve, and she had a red-hot date with her sofa, a bottle of red wine, and whatever Christmas movie she found on her TV first. More to the point, tomorrow was her first proper day off in weeks. This conversation was getting in the way.
Dr. Platt smiled as if he’d just heard the world’s least funny joke. “You have to prove yourself if you want to succeed,” he continued. “If your boss offers you a drink, you take it. If your boss tells you that you should make more of an effort with your appearance and get rid of those childish purple bits at the end of your hair, you should listen. Now, I saw on the schedule that you have a day off tomorrow.”
“I do.” A chill rippled down Adeline’s spine.
“Any plans for this evening?”
Adeline cleared her throat. “A movie with a girlfriend.”
“Any plans for tomorrow?”
She shook her head slowly.
His smile brightened, while his eyes darkened. “There’s a complex surgery scheduled for the day after tomorrow. A rare case. Not something you’ll see too often.” He paused as her heart leaped. “I could let you scrub in if that’s a belated Christmas gift you might like?”
“Absolutely, Dr. Platt,” she replied, nodding eagerly. “I’ll spend tomorrow reading up on it. What’s the case?”
Dr. Platt wagged a finger. “Not so fast. This is a huge favor I’m doing you.” His smile became a smirk. “What will you give me in return? Nothing is free, Adeline, not even a Christmas gift.”
“Excuse me?” Adeline frowned, hoping she was misunderstanding the situation. Maybe he just wanted her to accept a drink.
“My wife is out of town, visiting family. There’s no one home but me,” he explained. “Perhaps we could make one another a little less lonely this holiday season, and, by way of thanks, you’ll get your place in the operating room.”
Adeline’s heart plummeted, her hands curling instinctively into fists. “Let me get this straight. You’re suggesting I go home with you tonight, in exchange for scrubbing into a surgery?”
“That’s about the gist of it,” Dr. Platt answered, grinning. “Maybe you could cook me something for Christmas dinner, too. My wife didn’t leave anything.”
Adeline took a moment to gather herself, before flashing a cold smile in her boss’s direction. “I’d say she left the trash where it’s meant to be,” she said flatly. “With all due respect, Dr. Platt, if those are the terms, you can stuff your ‘huge favor’ where the sun doesn’t shine. I’ve heard you were a creep, I’ve heard you’d try and see what you could get away with, but I gave you the benefit of the doubt. Guess I should’ve listened.”
She scraped back her chair as loudly as possible. “Merry Christmas, Dr. Platt. I hope your wife doesn’t come back from visiting family and takes half of what you’re worth.”
“If you leave this room with this attitude, Adeline, we’re going to have to have a serious talk about your job here,” Dr. Platt insisted, his voice eerily calm, as if he’d done this a thousand times before—dealt with a thousand young women who he thought he could silence.
Adeline glowered at him. “I am leaving for my well-deserved day off. If you’re going to drag me in front of a tribunal when I’m back, you’d best believe that I’ll be telling them what a creep you are.” She paused, letting her anger seep into the room. “So, I would spend Christmas Day considering my choices, if I were you. Goodnight, Dr. Platt.”
She’d just reached the door when the smug, older man called out, “And you ought to consider whom they’ll believe!”
She wanted to turn around and say everything to him that countless women had probably wanted to say for years, but instead, she kept on walking, striding through the sulfur light of the wards, her sneakers squeaking on the linoleum floor, keeping her head down.
For all its faults and stresses, she adored the hospital, especially when it was decked out for Christmas with ancient tinsel, rough-looking plastic trees and pictures painted by the local schools. Dr. Platt had ruined the entire thing for her, and, what was worse, she truly didn’t know if he’d follow through with his threat.
Heading out into the icy evening, the wind battered the door, trying its best to keep her inside the hospital. She had to wonder if it was trying to warn her, letting her know—just as Dr. Platt had—that if she left, she wouldn’t be coming back.
She wouldn’t be a doctor anymore. Wouldn’t get to see the fruits of so many years of hard labor. In one unpleasant encounter, had everything she’d worked for just vanished like smoke in the wind?
They won’t fire me, she told herself, bent near diagonal against the wind, biting flakes of snow lashing her cheek. They won’t be able to. I won’t let them.
So, why was she crying, like she already knew the crushing outcome? The tears were on her cheeks before she realized, freezing against her skin in the bitter weather. There was a storm coming, and this was just the first taste.