HE KNEW SHE was there.
Oh, he hadn’t looked up to see if she’d actually gone into the viewing room, but he somehow knew she had. That she was watching even as he used his dermatome to remove a section of skin tissue from Matt’s clavicle and carefully place it into the collection tray. Hopefully the autograft would take on the first try so he wouldn’t have to harvest any more. There was always the chance of failure with a free skin graft, where there was no transfer of a vascular supply to the new location. To help combat that, he was using a split thickness skin graft rather than a full thickness, since it was a little less persnickety about how quickly those vascular highways were constructed.
As the nurse carried the skin away to prep it, he allowed himself to finally glance up. She was there, sitting in the front row. Her eyes met his for a second and she gave him a quick nod.
A spurt of warmth washed through his system. Her approval mattered a little too much, and it bothered him. He shouldn’t have even looked up. But what was wrong with needing a little word of encouragement from time to time? There wasn’t anything wrong with it. Not inherently. But caring that the encouragement specifically came from Elia should bother him.
He turned his attention back to his patient and did his best to forget she was there. But it wasn’t easy. And he didn’t like that he was taking even more care than usual with this particular surgery. As if he wanted to impress her.
He didn’t. What he wanted was for this young man to have a successful outcome. To go on with his life despite the trauma he’d experienced. It was good that Elia had recommended the teen and his family undergo counseling. It would help them know how to support him without suffocating him or turning overprotective. And it would teach Matt to absorb what had happened to him and maybe even use his trauma for something positive. Like using his story to help another burn victim in the future.
Like what Elia was doing?
Exactly like that. She seemed to have been able to get past her childhood accident and not only go into nursing in a burn unit, but do more than that. She was helping individual patients like Matt. It was a boon not only for Westlake Memorial as an organization, but also for individual patients. He was sure this wasn’t the first time she’d given someone helpful advice. Or supported a fundraising event in a very tangible way.
Maybe instead of apologizing to her, he should be thanking her. But that would involve pulling her aside yet again to talk to her.
And as much as part of him wanted to do exactly that, another part of him wanted to avoid conversing with her more than necessary. Because he was starting to care too much about different aspects of her life. About what she did or didn’t do. About what she thought or didn’t think...of him.
The nurse came back with the prepped skin, and he used forceps to pick it up and examine it for defects or other problems. He saw none.
“Okay, let’s get this done.”
With everyone doing their assigned tasks, the graft was attached. Jake had opted to use fine sutures rather than staples, since this was an area that would be highly visible and he didn’t want there to be a thick line of scarring where the graft met the rest of the skin of Matt’s face.
He rinsed the area to examine it closely and gave himself mental permission to call the surgery a success. “Okay, I think we’ve gotten what we came for today. Good work, people.”
The donor site was covered in a pressure bandage and would heal by second intentions, in which the wound would grow a new layer of skin. So there was no need for suturing that area at all, like they would have needed to do if they’d harvested a full thickness piece.
They woke Matt up, and when he glanced up at him with groggy, confused eyes, Jake gave him a simple thumbs-up sign. “Everything went well. We’re going to get you back to your room. Your parents are waiting there to see you.”
The teen put his hand up and lightly touched the bandage. And motioned for something. Maybe a mirror.
“You won’t be able to see it for several days, and you need to keep your jaw as still as you can to let the new skin attach and form new blood vessels.”
He nodded in answer. Jake would reiterate those instructions to his parents, since it was doubtful that Matt would remember much of what was said right now. When he glanced up at the observation window, he noted that Elia was gone. What had he expected, though? That she would stick around to talk to him later?
He patted Matt on the shoulder and then headed out the door to go find the teen’s parents. When he got to the room, he was shocked to see that Elia was there, already talking to the parents. He only caught a portion of it, but the part he did was about how good of a job Jake had done.
“Well, thanks for the vote of confidence, but I have a pretty good team around me that helps make that happen.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean to—”
He gave her a smile that was meant to reassure her that she’d said nothing wrong. “You didn’t. I was simply including you as part of that team. The recovery portion is just as important as the actual surgery.”
Her face turned pink, something he still found attractive as all get-out. It made him want to see what else would make her blush, before shutting down that line of thought.
Matt’s mom smiled. “Any projections as to how visible the scars will be?”
He shot a quick glance at Elia to see what her reaction to that was, since her scars had evidently never healed as smoothly as other people’s might have. But she didn’t look uncomfortable about the question.
“It won’t be so much the scars that are visible as the fact that the skin tone may be slightly different, and there will be no beard growth possible in that area since the hair follicles are different than those in other parts of his jaw. But even that can be altered slightly if he chooses to get hair transplants from other areas of his chin and/or jaw. We can get pretty darn close nowadays.”
“Matt will be so happy to hear that. When can we see him?”
“They’re just letting him wake up a little more and then he’ll come back to the room. Maybe a half hour, tops.”
“Thank you again. Will he need more skin graft surgeries?”
“If this one takes the way that I hope it will, he should be good to go as far as skin goes. He’ll still need the teeth implants done, but the skin is in place, which is a pretty big thing, since it will help prevent infections from settling into open tissue.”
“We are so grateful,” his mother said. “So very grateful.”
He understood what they meant. Part of it was probably referring to the surgery itself, but part of it was probably also talking about how lucky they were that Matt’s injuries could be treated. That he would be able to live a fairly normal life. Like Elia did. She was pretty damn lucky, too. Some of those deep-tissue injuries required a lot of work to get to them to a place where they could still be functional, even if the tissue didn’t look like most people’s.
“I’m glad it’s turning out the way it is.” He glanced at both of them. “Do you have any more questions for me?”
They both shook their heads no. “But we do want to ask Elia a little more about the counseling service she recommended to us.”
“Okay, good. You have my cell number. Don’t hesitate to give me a call if you have any concerns or questions.”
“We will.”
Jake turned to go out of the door and heard the next conversation start with, “He was great when I talked to him about my experience, even though my injury happened many years ago.”
The door closed behind him, shutting him out of the conversation completely. But that was okay. He’d been fairly anxious to get away from Elia before he ended up having to talk to her alone.
He went to the desk, and before he could help himself, he took the tongs and selected a cookie...bit into it. It tasted as fresh and good as they had a week ago when she’d first started bringing them. Maybe he needed to ask her about getting reimbursed for at least some of the ingredients. The sign-up sheet beside the jar looked new, and when he picked it up, he saw that there was a staple in it and that there were at least three other sheets of paper stapled together. At least a hundred people were now signed up. Just on this floor. He frowned. He didn’t think they even had that many patients. Were people from other departments coming over to get cookies? That could get pretty expensive for Elia if she was having to foot the bill for providing refreshments for the whole hospital.
Yes, he was going to have to catch her and see where they stood. He frowned. Wait. Maybe he had an answer for that, one that would help on more than one level. He went into one of the supply cabinets and found a spare glass jar that was used for tongue depressor dispensers. He grabbed a Sharpie and a piece of paper and wrote in big letters:
Cookie Fund. Take a cookie, leave a donation.
That should get the point across. And then Elia could use the funds to replenish what she’d spent on making all of these.
Except she came out of the room and took one look at the sign and the marker in his hand. “Absolutely not.”
“Word has obviously gotten out that there are some pretty good cookies up in the burn unit. I already feel bad that you’re having to spend your free time making these. The least that people can do is donate something to the cause.” With that, he took out five dollars and dropped it into the jar.
“My mom is actually bringing more cookies up tomorrow. So it’s not just me making them.”
“Well, then you can give her some of the money, as well. There won’t be a lot, I’m sure, but maybe it will at least buy some of the ingredients.”
She shook her head but smiled. “Oh, you don’t know my mom. She does it because she loves it. And she makes decent money as a pastry chef in the Austin area. People come from miles around to sample what she makes.”
This time, though, she didn’t say anything about the bread she’d promised her mom would make for them. And he wasn’t about to bring it up.
At that moment, the service elevator pinged and the doors opened. Matt’s bed was being wheeled toward his hospital room. One of the orderlies was smiling at something the teen evidently said—despite the fact that Jake had just warned the kid to move his lower jaw as little as possible. It had already been immobilized due to the transplanted bone, but even using the muscles of his lips to form words would jar the skin grafts. He started to go over there, only to have Elia place her hand over his arm.
He looked at her in question.
“His parents will remind him. He doesn’t need both you and them getting on to him.” Her eyes were gentle. “He is still groggy from the anesthesia. Believe me, if anyone wants this graft to take, it’s Matt. He won’t purposely do anything to sabotage that.”
He relaxed. “I guess you’re right. I can be a little overbearing at times.”
“Who, you?” Although her eyes were wide and innocent, there was laughter behind them that told him she was joking.
“Very funny. You’ve never gotten on to a patient for doing something that could be detrimental to their health?”
“Yes, of course, if they were willfully flouting doctor’s recommendations. But not right after surgery, when people’s thought processes can be affected by the anesthesia meds. It does contain an amnesiac.”
“I’m quite aware of that. But point taken. If I see him doing a lot of talking tomorrow, though, I can’t promise I won’t say something to him.”
“If he’s still doing it tomorrow, then I’ll beat you to it. But I doubt that he will be.”
“I’ll hold you to that, Elia.”
She blinked for a second before sucking down a deep breath and leaning her hip against the nurse’s desk. “How is Randy? Have you heard anything else?”
“No, but I plan on calling him sometime later today. I know he’s home and was doing well as of yesterday.”
“Good. Have you done any more training for the festival?”
“No. And the bike group isn’t getting together this week in deference to Randy. People chipped in to get him a new ride, since his bike was totaled.” Someone had asked him to mention it to Elia, but she’d only been with them once, so he hadn’t felt right asking her to contribute.
She opened the jar and took out the five-dollar bill and then went behind the counter to pull out a wallet. Probably hers. She extracted a twenty and handed him both bills. “Can you add this to what everyone contributed?”
“Elia...”
“I want to. I’m happy to be able to at least do something for him.”
She pulled his hand toward her and placed the money on his palm and then closed his fingers around it. Her touch was warm and sure, and he wished it had lasted a little longer than it had. “I’ll give it to the bike shop. They’ll know what to do with it. Maybe they can start a fund to get him a new helmet or other piece of equipment to go with the bike, which has already been bought.”
“How long before he can ride again?”
“I would assume at least five more weeks or however long it takes for his elbow to heal.”
She frowned. “He was planning on participating in the bike festival next weekend, wasn’t he?”
“He was, but there’s no way he’ll be able to.”
“I get it. But it still makes me sad for him.”
Sheryll came out of a room and moved toward them. That was Jake’s signal to move on, since she’d kind of given them a funny look when they’d gone off together earlier today. The last thing he needed was for a rumor about them to start making its way around the hospital.
“I need to get back to work, and I assume you do, too.”
She grinned. “Nope. I’m off as of an hour and a half ago. I just wanted to watch Matt’s surgery, so I stuck around.”
“I’m sure he appreciated that.”
Sheryll glanced at them as she arrived at the desk. “Who appreciated what?”
At least this was a question he could answer without making anyone uncomfortable.
“We were talking about Matt’s surgery and the fact that Elia stayed to watch it.”
“I was wondering why you were still on the floor.” The other nurse glanced at her watch. “Did your mom make it in?”
“That’s tomorrow.”
“Oh, that’s right. It’s been a crazy day. But mine is about to end, too, and then I’m taking a long weekend off.”
Jake did remember hearing something about that, whether it was an overheard conversation or whether she’d said it when Elia had mentioned going to watch the surgery. He smiled at her and said, “Well, I hope you have a wonderful weekend.”
“Thanks. I’m sure we will. It’s been a while since my husband and I have gotten away together.”
“Enjoy,” said Elia. “And I’m going to take off, too. See you on Monday, Sheryll, and I’ll see you...?”
“I’m working tomorrow,” Jake said. “You?”
“Same. So I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Was it his imagination or did she not look very happy about the fact that they would be working with each other the next day? Well, it couldn’t be helped, so she’d better get used to it, otherwise they were both going to have a big problem. Like the fact that he was finding himself worrying about things like those damned cookies and how much time, energy and money she was spending on the bike festival, when promoting it was something he should be doing.
“See you then.”
With that, Jake turned and headed back to his office, leaving the two of them to talk about whatever they wanted to.
And if it was about him?
He couldn’t imagine anything they might have to say about him. And really, he didn’t care. Or at least he shouldn’t. That didn’t mean that part of him didn’t wonder, though. But as long as they weren’t making plans to match him up with anyone, he wasn’t going to worry about it. Just to be sure, he went to his office and dug down to the bottom of one of his desk drawers. He pulled out last year’s copy of Daily Gossip and stared at the headline for a minute. There was a huge picture of Samantha on the cover with a distressed look on her face. Above it were the words Plastic Surgeon Abandons Model on French Riviera. A second, smaller photo was of him with an angry look on his face, but the anger wasn’t directed at Sam. It was at the photographers who’d always dogged their every step back when they’d been an item.
He’d met Sam while at a conference in Dallas, where she had a second home. They’d hit it off and had started seeing each other. They’d been able to keep their relationship a secret for a while at his request, but once it got out, the press had a field day with it and speculated whether or not she’d been one of his patients. Then, when things went sour, there was the tabloid article along with her angry social media post, and even more speculation had happened. So much so that his hospital asked some hard questions that he’d answered truthfully. Things had blown over, but it had been a cautionary tale about rumors and gossip. One he wasn’t likely to forget. So when Sheryll had looked at him and Elia with speculation in her eyes, he’d been only too happy to leave the scene, before that speculation grew into something else. He could only hope that Elia wasn’t the type to fuel those kinds of rumors, although he didn’t get that vibe from her.
But the less the head nurse saw them doing things together, the better. So he would make it a point to treat Elia just like any other nurse. Because that’s what she was, right? She was nothing special to him.
A quick twinge in his midsection made him wonder if that was absolutely the truth. But even if it wasn’t, he was somehow going to need to get back to a place where it would become the truth. No matter how hard that might prove to be. It was either that or face the possibility of something like this—he tossed the paper to the side of his desk—happening all over again.
Sheryll leaned closer. “Is there something I should know?”
“Know?” Elia tilted her head and looked at the other woman.
“You guys have been hanging out a little bit, haven’t you? First the group bike ride and now Matt’s surgery?”
She frowned. “Uh, that wasn’t exactly hanging out. We were in two separate rooms, for one thing. And Matt asked me to stay, and I did as a favor to him...the patient, not Jake.”
“Okay, I get that.”
“And he was here at the desk because he had the dumb idea that he should take up donations for the cookies I’ve been making.”
Sheryll nodded. “I think that’s a great idea. There have been a lot of people eating them, Elia. It has to be costing a fortune.”
“No, it’s not. Besides, I really like baking and haven’t had the chance to do as much of it as I used to. Before I became a nurse. And now, I’m too exhausted by the time I get home.”
Sheryll nodded. “The job does take such a lot of emotional energy out of you. I’m the same way when I get home in the evenings. I don’t have much motivation to do much of anything. So I don’t know how you can bake cookies. It’s like you’re still working for Westlake even in your off hours, since it is their event.”
“I guess I don’t see it that way. I’m doing something besides nursing, so that has to count for something, right?”
“I guess. But I am still going to leave this donation jar up. Because I think it’s the right thing to do.”
Elia rolled her eyes and said, “Fine. Do whatever you want to do.”
“Believe me, I will, so leave this here.”
“Fine.” She pretended to flounce off in a huff but knew her friend would see right through her. In reality, though, her and Jake’s concern warmed her heart and made her feel like she’d made the right decision when she’d moved to Dallas to take this job. It felt right. And right now that was the only thing she was going to dwell on.