Chapter 4
Nellie was mad at herself. She’d been watching the incredibly attractive doctor the whole time and thinking of how she’d not seen a wedding ring when he’d put on his gloves.
She thought about how sexy his forearms were and how the muscles in them moved when he cleaned James’s wounds.
She should have been thinking of anything else except for the crazy attraction she felt to this doctor who was going above and beyond what anyone should do for them.
But then again, so did the man named Gator.
He’d come out of nowhere, saved them, and then had been taking care of them ever since.
So, when Dr. Townsend—Rowan—offered to get them snacks, she took the opportunity to personally thank him. That was until she saw Ingram at the nurses’ station way down the hall.
It was reflex to reach out and grab Rowan’s arm, feeling the strength beneath her fingers helped keep her grounded. “He’s here,” she whispered.
Rowan turned to look down the hall, then quickly moved to open the door and usher her inside. The kids were cuddled up together on the bed and Sue Ellen looked ready to pass out, even with the oxygen.
“Here,” Rowan told them, shoving the juice at them. “Drink this quickly.” He was already moving to log out of the computer and place medication in a bag.
“What’s going on?” Gator asked in a whisper, but it was enough to get Sue Ellen’s attention. Nellie met Gator’s caring eyes and he saw the fear there. “He’s here, isn’t he?” Gator asked.
Nellie nodded and Sue Ellen almost screamed, but Gator reached across the gurney.
His large hand that had killed an alligator only hours ago cupped Sue Ellen’s cheek ever so gently.
“Shh, now,” he said soothingly. “Remember my promise to you, pretty girl?” Sue Ellen swallowed, but nodded slightly.
“Rowan and I will take care of everything, okay?”
Shoot, Nellie found herself nodding too. Gator’s quiet confidence had soothed the entire room.
She turned at the sound of keys. Rowan was pulling them out of his scrubs pocket. “Gator, my car is on the first floor of the garage. Go get it and pull it up to the side door you came in. Take them straight to Granger.”
Gator didn’t say anything, he just grabbed the key, and for such a big guy, he slid silently from the room.
Rowan met Nellie’s eyes and she didn’t have a chance to ask what was going on. “I’ll be right back.”
“What do we do, Nell?” Sue Ellen whispered as she pulled the oxygen cannula from her face.
Nellie looked around the room and grabbed the surgical pliers Rowan had used. She clutched them in her hand, ready to stab anyone who entered. “We do what Rowan and Gator tell us to.”
A second later, the door opened and Nellie prepared to fight. Only it was Rowan carrying an armful of maroon scrubs. “These scrubs are for the janitorial staff. You and Sue Ellen put them on quickly. They’re checking the charts.” Then Rowan disappeared again.
“Sue Ellen, strip!” Nellie hissed to get her sister moving. They both pulled off their stinking and still slightly damp clothes and yanked on the scrubs right as Rowan came back into the room, pushing a cleaning cart that had a giant trash can on the end of it.
“James,” Rowan said quietly. He handed the medicine to him before he removed the IV and put a bandage on the boy’s arm. “I need you to sit in the trashcan and hold your sister. Can you do that?”
James nodded solemnly as Rowan easily picked him up and set him into the trashcan before reaching for Tally and doing the same. “Now,” he said to them. “It’s like hide and seek. You can’t make a sound until Mr. Gator finds you, okay?”
“We’ll be quiet,” James promised as he hugged his sister to him.
“I’m going to put this over you so it’s harder for Mr. Gator to find you because he’s really good at hide and seek.
” Tally giggled as he placed the blanket over them and then tossed on some lightweight trash like the juice boxes.
“Nellie, Sue Ellen, you two push this out to the right and then immediately down the hall. Don’t turn around for anything,” he said, sliding scrub caps onto them to hide their hair.
“Gator is taking you to my brother-in-law. He’ll help you. Trust me, okay?”
Nellie nodded before reaching out to touch him one more time. “Thank you.”
Sue Ellen gave him a quick hug then they were off.
Nellie didn’t turn around, but she felt Rowan right behind them, blocking them from view of the nurses’ station.
“There he is,” she heard a nurse say. “Dr. Townsend, this is Judge Faust. He’s looking for his children and thought they might be here. He’s checked the main hospital for his wife already, but wanted to make sure they didn’t come in here. I told him you had a John Doe so to ask you.”
Nellie and Sue Ellen turned the corner.
“Do you have a photo?” she heard Rowan ask.
“Yes, this is my son and my daughter,” she heard Ingram’s polished voice say.
“Oh,” Rowan said. “Sorry, my John Doe was a teenager. I guess the chart didn’t update because I put that in there, nurse.”
“I must have missed it, sorry.”
“Also, my John Doe snuck out twenty minutes ago so you know the drill, Anita.”
She sighed. “I’ll make sure all the drugs are locked up and accounted for.”
“Sorry we couldn’t help you, Mr. Faust,” Rowan said before they got too far down the hall to not be able to hear.
“There’s the door,” Nellie whispered. They used the cart to push it open and a red sports car sat idling with Gator waiting for them. It was a little two-door thing with a small trunk. The front passenger seat was pushed forward and Gator yanked off the blanket.
“You found us fast, Mr. Gator!” Tally squealed.
Gator reached in and pulled her out and even leaned into the car and placed her on the small bench that counted as a backseat.
“It’s because I couldn’t wait to see my princess again.
” Gator turned and lifted James out. But before he put him in the car, Gator looked James in the eyes.
“I made a promise to your mother to keep you safe. You know that promise means I’ll always keep you and your sister safe too, right? ”
James flung his little arms around Gator’s thickly muscled neck and hugged him.
Sue Ellen sniffled, but smiled the first real smile Nellie had seen from her in years.
James was placed in the backseat and then Sue Ellen took the passenger seat.
Gator grimaced, but Nellie didn’t care as long as it meant they got away from Ingram. “Don’t worry, I’ll take the trunk.”
Gator opened it and she climbed in. At least she had more kneeroom than she would have had in the backseat.
Gator drove out of the parking lot and Nellie found herself wondering if she’d ever see Dr. Townsend again.
Rowan wanted to bolt from the hospital, but he knew that would draw attention. Instead, he rounded one more time and then went to speak to Dr. Patel, who ran the medical side of the hospital.
“We had a judge who came in looking for his children. While I sympathize with that, we have to follow HIPAA. We didn’t have any proof that he was the father of the children he was looking for and we didn’t look to see if they had an order of protection against him.
Yet a nurse tracked me down to ask about a John Doe.
You need to address this with your staff. ”
“He’s a judge,” Dr. Patel said, confused.
“And judges can break the law, too. I’m concerned the nurse heard a sob story and put the hospital at risk for a lawsuit by disclosing that we even had a John Doe.”
Dr. Patel shook his head. “You’re right. What was I thinking? Even I could be fooled by a good story. Good catch. I’ll send out a note to staff, reminding them of the proper procedure.”
Rowan said goodbye to Dr. Patel and closed his hand around the keys to Gator’s boat. It was time to get back to Shadows Landing. He walked across the parking lot, hopped over the wall, walked down the embankment, and untied Gator’s flat-bottom boat.
He started up the engine and headed for home.
His thoughts turned to today, but it wasn’t about the mother, Sue Ellen.
It was about the children’s Aunt Nellie.
He respected the hell out of her for how she handled such a stressful situation.
That was the first thing he’d noticed. The second was, after tending to James, Nellie didn’t have an engagement ring or a wedding ring on her hand.
She was damp, dirty, smelled of the river, and yet he noticed her big round blue eyes that could have been in shock like her sister’s, but had been sharp and attentive. She was of average height, but her curves were not average. They stood out, even covered in mud and blood or in baggy scrubs.
Rowan shook his head as the wind whipped around him.
He shouldn’t be thinking of her like that.
He never dated the mother of a patient. But Nellie wasn’t the mother.
An ethical war waged as he drove home, but one thing was clear.
Ethical or not, he wanted to be the man standing next to Nellie Hale when push came to shove, he realized he must have the same fierce look on his face that Gator had worn at James’ bedside.
He’d do anything to protect her now that he’d met her.
Shit. Damon was going to have a field day with this, but even that didn’t stop the feelings from seeping into his heart and causing it to pump with a renewed purpose.