Chapter Four
S ierra admitted she was nervous before starting her first shift. Not because she was worried professionally. She knew she could handle the cases they were called to take care of. But she wasn’t sure what Connor was going to do or how he’d react.
She needn’t have worried. Connor, she soon discovered, was the consummate professional on the job. Their first patient was a young teenager who’d been injured in a car accident and was scared out of her mind. She had a broken leg and arm and a possible concussion. Connor talked to her while they splinted and stabilized her, soothing her fears and keeping her talking so she wouldn’t go to sleep. As Sierra had discovered during their night together, Connor was very easy to talk to.
“You’re really good at that,” Sierra told him once they’d dropped off their patient at the ER.
“At what? My job?”
“Yes, but I was thinking about your manner with her. How easily you managed to calm her down, for one thing.”
“It’s a gift,” he said with a smart-ass smile. “I’m good with women.”
Don’t I know it. “I’m serious. You really do have a gift.”
He looked at her for a moment as if he was going to respond. Instead, he shrugged and walked away.
She wondered how he was with men. She suspected he’d be every bit as comforting, in a guy kind of way. She was right, she discovered, on their next flight. The patient was a man, about the same age as Connor. He’d had an accident with a chainsaw and besides being in terrible pain, he was afraid he would lose his leg. She and Connor gave him morphine, which helped calm him down, but he was still in pain and worried about the consequences. Connor managed to assuage his fears without promising he wouldn’t lose the leg. Later she asked him about it.
“I hope he doesn’t lose his leg. What do you think?” She wasn’t at all sure that he wouldn’t.
“We have first-class trauma surgeons at Marietta Regional.”
“I know. My best friend here is one of them.”
“Then you know if it’s at all possible Sam will see that he doesn’t. But we got him here fast, and I know Sam will do her best.”
For the next couple of weeks Connor treated her as nothing more than his flight nurse. He never disputed her judgment but gave his opinion if asked. He clearly had no need of her telling him what to do. He knew his job. And he didn’t flirt with her. Never, not at work or at Grey’s or wherever else she ran into him. He still flirted with other women, though she never saw him leave with anyone. He was driving her crazy.
Instead of being thankful she was annoyed. Unreasonable? Sure, but she couldn’t seem to help it. So much for him wanting another chance with her. He treated her as an acquaintance, rather than a woman with whom he’d spent an amazingly hot night. One she’d never forget. Damn it, had he already forgotten her?
If he had she should be thankful. But she wasn’t.
*
Connor had never worked directly with someone he was interested in romantically. He’d dated a lot of women who worked at the hospital in one capacity or another. But there had been a couple of flight nurses before Sierra who he’d worked with and one had been married and the other much older than him.
He didn’t mess around with married women. All his romantic relationships—short as they were—had been with single women. There were a lot of them out there. Why mess with one who was already taken?
Sierra knew her stuff. And she respected that he knew his job as well. They worked well together. At work she always wore her hair braided or at the least pulled back out of her way. Very professional. Unfortunately, when she took off her helmet, he remembered what she looked like with it down…flowing over her bare breasts. Shit, he had to stop thinking about that.
Samantha Gallagher was throwing a birthday party for her husband, Dylan, the Friday evening about a week and a half after Sierra arrived. Connor didn’t really want to go, but Dylan was a friend of his and Samantha worked with him on occasion, so he went. He usually liked parties but lately they’d kind of lost their allure for him.
Sierra wasn’t there when he arrived at the Gallaghers’ ranch, but he knew she would be. Sam was the one who’d talked her into interviewing for the Redbird job and moving to Marietta, and the two women were close friends. He knew what would happen once Sierra arrived. He’d have to watch guys hitting on her and not smash his fist into their faces. Which was ridiculous. He had no claim on Sierra. But damn, he wished he did.
What if she came with someone? Or worse, came alone and left with someone? Just because he wasn’t seeing other women didn’t mean she wasn’t seeing other men. In fact, he knew she did because he’d seen her at the pub at the Graff with a man. And he, the guy who never particularly cared if a woman moved on, and in fact, wished them well when they did, admitted he was jealous as hell of any man who he saw with Sierra.
With the exception of what had happened in Afghanistan years ago, he’d never been jealous before. Not for more than a day, anyway. He didn’t like the feeling. At all.
He could go out with other women. God knows he wasn’t involved with Sierra, much as he might want to be. He didn’t sleep with every woman he went out with. Most of them, maybe, but definitely not all. Not that anyone believed that. But he didn’t want to go out with anyone else, much less have sex with them. No, damn it, the only woman he wanted to be with was Sierra.
One of his friends, a woman he’d dated for a short time not terribly long ago, came up to him. “Connor, where have you been hiding yourself?”
He kissed the cheek she offered him and hugged her. “Hi, Mandy. I’ve been around. I heard you’d gotten engaged. Congratulations. Where’s the lucky guy?”
Her eyes clouded and she frowned. “The lucky guy turned out to be a frog.”
“Damn, I’m sorry. Want me to beat him up?”
She laughed and shook her head. “No, he’s not worth it.” She put her hand on his arm and slid it upward, looking up at him with soulful eyes. “But I’m sure you could take my mind off my troubles.”
Connor didn’t know what to say. Ordinarily, he’d have taken her hint. He liked Mandy and they’d had fun together. But he wasn’t tempted. The only woman who tempted him was eyeing him from across the room. Was she wondering what he was going to do? Did she even care?
He planned to let Mandy down easy. “Can’t say I’m not tempted but I have other plans tonight.”
With a sultry glance, she ran her hand lightly up his arm. “Are you sure you can’t change them? We could have a lot of…fun.”
Well, hell. He hadn’t counted on Mandy not taking the hint. “Sorry, no can do.” Catching sight of his brother Liam, he sent him a wordless appeal.
Liam, thank God, took the hint and walked over to him. “Hey, Connor. Mandy.”
“We’re still on for tonight, right?” he asked his brother.
Liam blinked but came through. “Sure. I’ll see you at the ranch after the party.”
“I’m helping Liam with something at the ranch,” Connor said to Mandy.
“At night?”
“A rancher’s work is never done.” Which was true, as far as it went. However, he couldn’t honestly think of anything Liam would need help with after a party.
Mandy didn’t look convinced either, but she did leave him alone after that.
“What the hell is going on?” Liam asked him after she left.
“Thanks. I just needed an excuse.”
“You needed an excuse to get away from a pretty woman? Why?”
“I just did.” He glanced over at Sierra only to find her talking to one of the docs who was a notorious womanizer. Well, shit. He couldn’t win.
*
Sierra thought about that night with Connor—at least once a day if not more—but she told herself it was just sex. After all, she’d just had a monumental dry spell, and damn it, she liked sex. Any nice, passably good-looking man would have done.
Except that was a lie and she knew it. No, Connor was different. First of all, he wasn’t ‘passably good-looking.’ He was gorgeous. Hot as sin. But beyond his looks…there was something about him that spoke to her. Something about him made her think there was a chance for them. Something indefinable between the two of them, something now, something lasting. What if she agreed to date him? What would happen then?
But she worked with him. That was the sticking point. One of them, anyway. Not because it was against the rules. It wasn’t. But what if she said to hell with her worries and she just dived in? What then? It might—probably would—be great for a while. But Connor was a known player. She’d married a man who wasn’t a player and look what had happened there. Besides, she was not ready to open up to anyone. They were pretty much doomed from the beginning. If they did date, what would happen when they broke up?
She could find another job. In another town, or hell in another state. For that matter, Redbird Flight Care might have something in another town. She didn’t want to move, but it was possible.
Sierra realized she hadn’t thought about her ex and his new love in weeks. She’d thought much more often about Connor and their night together than Phil and his ‘other woman.’ Well, why wouldn’t she? Connor was a much more pleasant topic to get lost in. What was she waiting for? No one else in Marietta had come close to interesting her. She’d met a number of men. Even gone out with a couple. But she hadn’t wanted to see more of them. Hadn’t felt a thing when she was with them. Nothing like she felt with Connor. Oh, not while they were caring for a patient. Connor was all business then and so was she. But there was a lot of down time, both before and after they picked up a patient and returned to the hospital.
She had friends in Marietta now. Samantha, of course. She’d made new friends as well. Women from work. Letty, one of the librarians, who she’d met at Grey’s early on and liked. She’d met all of the Gallaghers via Sam. She went out with the women, both the married ones and her single friends. Could she help it that wherever she went it seemed that Connor would show up too? Or would already be there?
Try as she might, she couldn’t help that often when she saw Connor something would remind her of their night together. It had been fun. And prior to that night she hadn’t had fun in a long time. Divorce didn’t lend itself to fun. Especially when you still had feelings for your ex. Lately, however, she’d thought a lot more about Connor than she had Phil.
She hadn’t heard of a single woman Connor had been out with since she came to Marietta. He was always with the guys when she ran into him at Grey’s or the pub at the Graff. She remembered seeing him at Sam’s party, trying to extricate himself from a woman who’d seemed determined to convince him of something. Probably to leave with her, she imagined. But his brother had come over and the woman left.
And damn it, even though she had no right, no claim on him, seeing him get rid of that woman had made her very happy.