Open Heart (Dr. Love): A Steamy Standalone Instalove Romance Read online

  Damn you for having such a strong heart that couldn’t wait at least another day or two before waking up.

  But, at the same time, I feel relief as well.

  The surgery has been a complete success. His earlier episode on waking and seeing me, a blur.

  I’d never stand between anyone and their family either, and as much as it pains us both I know the best thing for them both is for Evelyn to go to her dad again.

  To see him in the hospital at least.

  After that? I guess I’ll have to have that man-to-man I’ve been putting off in my mind.

  The part where I tell him she’s mine now. That she’ll be with me, living with me from now on too.

  Fortunately, it’s arranged easily for us both to fly back in an air ambulance flight. The patient going straight to St. Mercy’s hospital of all places so I can’t pass the chance up at such a direct route home.

  We leave behind anything we don’t absolutely need and within the hour, we’re back in the air, heading home and northeast from what looks more like a typhoon than just a tropical storm.

  So, maybe for the best all around.

  A real win-win. Yay me.

  I explain to the crew and the ambulance waiting at the airport that Evelyn is my ‘nurse,’ even though I make sure she doesn’t do anything except watch what’s going on.

  By the time I would have been planning our lunch in bed in Bermuda after a bath, we’re back in the hospital, with the ER staff on standby to take over for our patient, who I know should be just fine from here on.

  Not the greatest re-entrance, but almost just as quick as if we’d driven from across town.

  I take Evelyn aside once we’re done with our patient, asking her if she’s ready to see her dad.

  She shrugs a little, then hugs her elbows. The flimsy summer dress she still has on registering with me as if for the first time since we left the island in Bermuda.

  Almost as much as my own tropical t-shirt and shorts ensemble.

  “I’ll find us some scrubs,” I insist, not wanting her to be cold but mostly not wanting her body on display for the whole world to see either.

  I find her a private space to change in, and in minutes we’re both on our way up to see her dad in the ICU recovery.

  For now, I make sure I have a mask on and only see her as far as the nurse’s station before urging her on to go see her dad.

  “You’re not coming?” she says suddenly, gripping me by the arm, a look of near panic in her eyes.

  “Based on the last visit, I think it’s best if I don’t just yet,” I tell her candidly.

  “Just see how he is, don’t excite him any, and act like everything’s normal for now,” I recommend. Knowing this is shit advice when it comes to anything to do with Nick Partridge.

  The man’s no idiot, but I repeat the importance of him not getting any stress or undue excitement right now. For his health’s sake.

  “What about the frickin’ hospital bill he’s bound to ask me about?” Evelyn hisses under her breath. “It’s his thing, insurance. He’s woken up in a hospital after surgery… He’s gonna want to know what’s what,” she says firmly.

  Her grip on me doesn’t loosen, and I figure now’s as good a time as any to spell it out, just one more time.

  “You are mine, Evelyn. You’re dad’s my oldest friend, even though he thinks he hates me right now. I’m taking care of everything. Hospital, house… your college expenses that aren’t covered by any scholarship… Our life together from now on. Everything,” I hiss back.

  “Everything,” I remind her more gently with a final look to let her know I mean it, letting my voice relax as I feel her grip start to fall away.

  I watch her move away from me, almost reaching the curtains I know her dad’s behind. The familiar beep and hum of the machines telling me he’s stable.

  A situation I don’t want to jeopardize again until he’s well enough.

  Suddenly, she turns on her heel and rushes back to me, grabbing me with a fresh intensity.

  “I’m gonna pay you back,” she rasps defiantly. “Every damned cent, Dr. Love.” She stipulates, poking my chest with each word.

  I nod in agreement. Knowing in a split second she’s her father’s daughter alright.

  No way would Nick Partridge accept help of any kind, and his family is obviously no exception.

  “Deal,” I tell her if only because it’s the one thing I know that will let any of this move forward.

  So I can just take her home.

  She seems happy enough with that, and once she moves behind the curtain to see her dad I check over his charts at the desk.

  The relief surgical team has done a fine job. His recovery is looking to be quicker than anyone expected.

  Gold star day, apart from the fact I’m boning his only daughter.

  Waiting for the right moment to-

  “Dr. Love. What brings you here, yet again?” A familiar voice drawls behind me.

  I close the files on my patient and turn to see hospital director Carmichael, waiting for me around every corner it seems lately.

  “Just finishing up with the handover of my patient,” I lie, murmuring it so low he has to come closer to even hear what I’m saying.

  The nurse at the desk darts away, suddenly busy once he sees the hospital director coming towards us both.

  “I had a call from the Bermuda beach house staff last night,” he says ominously, and I figure I’ve had just about enough of his shit for one decade.

  “That right?” I reply dryly. “Did they mention the cashed-up cardiac patient I saved on the way here? You’re welcome,” I drawl right back at him, waiting for him to just go away, but he doesn’t.

  Of course, he won’t.

  It feels like anything involving Evelyn, worth fighting for in my life, is suddenly being road blocked by people or things I’d rather see removed for good than have to deal with personally right now.

  “I wasn’t aware of that, no,” he admits, clipping his tone as we both hear his hospital beeper go off.

  “I also wasn’t aware you had a certain patient’s daughter with you,” he adds icily, ignoring his beeper while he waits for my reaction.

  But I don’t have one. Not anymore.

  After twenty years of doing the right thing, climbing the ladder, and kissing so much ass, I feel like I’m using enemas for mouthwash.

  I figure it might just be time for Dr. Mark Love to hang up the surgeon’s mask after all.

  I can feel my hand balling into a fist, ready to give the hospital director my five-knuckle signature resignation in person when I feel a familiar set of cooler, smaller fingers clasping over it.

  It’s Evelyn.

  Stepping in to stop me from finishing my career, for her. For her dad.

  “Dr. Love, I can’t thank you enough again,” she gushes, grabbing my fist and pumping it into a handshake.

  “You remember director Carmichael,” I almost groan, motioning towards him and giving her what I can only assume is enough rope with whatever she’s trying to pull here.

  “I do,” she says, beaming with a tear in her eye and strutting over, she pumps his hand as well. Both hands.

  “I have to thank you both. As does the Dean of the college of medicine,” she adds with affection.

  Carmichael looks at me and then back at her.

  “The media coverage is going to be perfect! ‘St. Mercy hospital surgeon saves the life of scholarship winning medical student’s father and then shows her how it’s done first hand!’” she exclaims, using her open hands like headline news in the air in front of us both.

  “What?” Carmichael asks, his eyes straining as his head shakes in disbelief.

  I’m not too far behind him, I have to admit.

  “The news crews will be here any minute,” she adds. “Are you both ready?” she squeaks, the director smoothing what’s left of his hair back and starting to stutter a reply as I catch the real meaning of the glint in Evely
n’s eye.

  “I’m ready,” I declare. “Shall we?” I ask her, taking her arm in mine as we pretend to make our way to the elevators.

  I’ve never seen John Carmichael move faster, and before we can even reach an open elevator, he’s gone.

  “What the hell was that?” I ask her, half annoyed, half intrigued.

  She just shrugs.

  “Can you arrange some sort of media thing before the director figures out what’s going on?” she asks innocently.

  “It was either that or have to watch you drop him to the floor right there,” she admits.

  And I know she’s right.

  She’s always right.

  Pinching my brow, I think for a second, I know exactly what to do, calling in a dozen favors in as many minutes once I hook the phone to my ear.

  “He’ll be in his office, preening himself,” I tell Evelyn between calls. “I can call a few people, Evelyn. But a press conference?” I ask her in disbelief.

  She shrugs again, assuming we don’t have to be there. Even know what it’s about.

  And she’s right.

  We won’t be.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Evelyn

  “I got it,” I assure the nurse, dismissing her with a nod from Mark who tells her it’s all under control.

  “Alright, and thanks. We got it from here,” he tells the other staff, who all swish behind the curtain, grumbling at feeling left out as I straighten dad’s pillows.

  What’s changed everything?

  Well. The few minutes I had alone with dad once we got back to the ward for starters.

  Turns out a leopard can change his spots, given the right opportunity.

  Maybe.

  Mark’s still looking a little unsure about everything, but I figure someone with some common sense had to take charge here.

  A girl with her future goggles on, and not some set of college doctors living in the past, right?

  “Dad?” I ask him, leaning close and making sure he really is okay. “Remember what we just spoke about, okay? No excitement,” I tell him again, glad when he nods, asking for just a sip of water from the cup by the bed before he continues.

  “Mark…” he rasps, his voice strained with fatigue. “I remember everything,” he says before drawing a long and pained breath.

  “You should really not talk,” Mark suggests, as a doctor. Not just as a guy who doesn’t want to hear it all.

  But dad has his hand up, he’ll say his piece if it’s the last thing he does and I can see Mark understands that.

  “I remember that day, all those years ago. And I’ve blamed you for my own failings ever since,” he wheezes.

  “I was almost dead once, at the bottom of a lake, and you saved me. Now I wake up and find out it’s you who gave me yet another chance, with a better heart,” he adds, wanting to tap his chest but I stop him.

  Mark’s lips curl into a face that’s holding back regret. Or is it something else?

  I can’t tell. But he stays quiet when I plead with my eyes for him to hear my dad out.

  “I blamed you for everything, Mark. And I was wrong.” I hear my dad say aloud, almost whimpering the tears that I feel coming.

  “I lost you as my brother, my best friend. And then I lost Evelyn’s mom a few years later. She didn’t want to stick around with a guy who was so bitter. But at least she left me, my angel. My beautiful daughter, Evelyn,” he gasps.

  “I never even knew you had a family, Nick,” Mark says. His voice thick with emotion.

  “If you’d only-” he adds before my dad chokes his reply. “And if you’d only come back to me. Looked us up. Anything,” he sighs.

  “You were pretty clear on your terms last time we spoke, twenty years ago, Nick,” Mark reminds him, almost growling.

  “I suppose I was,” my dad whispers, a tear sliding from his cheek that I catch with a tissue.

  “But… I’ve had some time to lie here and think about things, Mark. Seems two chances at the same life are better than none,” he sobs suddenly.

  “Maybe I was an asshole, Mark? Maybe I was too proud to accept that I could be saved twice by the same man. My brother?” he finally asks, holding up a shaking hand.

  “You got a brother for life, Nick,” Mark says firmly, gripping his hand for what I can only guess is the first time in twenty something years. “No question,” he adds, but his eyes dart to mine and I have to convey I haven’t told my dad about us.

  Not quite yet.

  “There’s an interview coming up on TV,” I pipe in, interrupting the pair and flicking the channels over until I see the familiar face of the hospital supervisor.

  It’s all or nothing, I figure. If my dad can take Mark back, he can accept the fact I’m gonna become a doctor too, someday.

  A one-day doctor who just happens to be in love with the very real, present-day surgeon, Dr. Mark Love.

  The man I know I want to spend the rest of my life with. If only I knew how to bring that part of the conversation up.

  I’m not sure who looks more surprised though. My dad or Mark.

  There’s a press conference in the foyer of the hospital alright, but it’s all about the billionaire we both flew back from Bermuda.

  An as-yet-unnamed patient who it’s revealed is one of the majority owners of the hospital.

  “Why am I seeing this, sweetie?” Dad sighs, his head lolling back as the TV fails to keep attention.

  Mark and I almost shrugging in unison as the press conference continues.

  The mystery emergency patient carries more weight than either of us ever expected.

  The press conference reveals all, making the hospital director a hero as well as my man, Dr. Mark Love.

  Mark leans over, seeing how weak my dad is.

  “Maybe we can leave everything else ‘til later?” he suggests, and I readily agree.

  “Let me take you home,” he adds, noting my dad’s need to get some sleep.

  But dad isn’t done yet.

  “I’m no fool, Mark. I know what’s going on with you and my only daughter,” he says firmly, trying to sit up and failing again before I can settle him.

  Once the newscast reaches his ears, I realize it might not have been such a great idea to involve everything all at once.

  There’s the hospital director, a close-up in a newscast, praising the efforts of himself first and then the actions of Dr. Mark Love and his nursing assistant in bringing the man home in time for life saving surgery.

  They say the camera adds ten pounds, but I don’t even recognize myself from the footage, and heck knows where they filmed that from anyway.

  Must’ve been Bermuda as we boarded that tiny plane and again when we arrived in the ambulance.

  Jesus my ass looks huge.

  Mark smiles to himself as he watches my shapes move across the screen, but is quick to explain everything.

  Even though it might not be to my dad’s liking.

  “Yep. I got her here, Nick,” he drawls. “And she’ll make a fine doctor herself one day… If you’ll let her,” he adds, shooting me a wink.

  My dad shakes his head.

  “Don’t change the subject, Mark. I know Evelyn wants to be a doctor, I’ve tried to talk her out of it for years. What I’m talking about right now is how you ended up with her in Bermuda while I’ve lain here like a wet fish in a sack?”

  Mark moves over to calm my dad himself, reaching out to stop his hands from messing with the tubes that he’s hooked to but dad grabs his hand with full force, gripping him hard and holding his eye.

  I hear myself gasping aloud, feeling helpless.

  Exposed.

  Mark draws a breath to speak, but dad cuts him off.

  Like it might be the one chance he has to say anything before it’s too late at all.

  “Just don’t stand here and tell me you’re stealing her away to get back at me you sonofabitch! Tell me you love her, that you’ll marry her and give her your everything or tell he
r the truth to her face right now!” he tries to yell but winces back in pain.

  A nurse appears from behind the curtain as machines beep out of control all over again.

  “That’s it,” she announces. “Everybody out, I don’t care who you are, this man needs complete rest and no excitement,” she says loudly, her wide eyes glaring at us both as Mark holds up his hands in surrender.

  My dad lapsing into unconsciousness yet again as Mark guides me out by the shoulders.

  I feel like an idiot.

  The stupid rouse with the interview, coming back to the hospital with Mark of all people so soon.

  Maybe dad’s right.

  Maybe he’s always been right.

  He can see through my girlish plans and dreams, but at the end of the day, he’s just being realistic.

  How on earth could a guy like Dr. Mark Love fall for a girl like me?

  Could he really commit to me for more than something which I figure must’ve just been a fling?

  Once we’re out of the ward, Mark wastes no time in explaining my fears away.

  “I love you, Evelyn. You know I do,” he tells me, gripping my shoulders and looking me square in the eyes with an intensity that far outweighs my dad’s outburst.

  But he’s just as worried about the effect of my dad’s words as he must know I am.

  “We’re getting out of here, just for now. Your dad will be fine,” Mark announces gruffly, telling me he’s taking me home.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Mark

  She doesn’t want to go home though, and she tells me so. The tears she’s held back all this time, my brave girl. They’re threatening to flow like a river now after her dad’s performance.

  “I don’t mean that home, Evelyn. I mean our home. The home I promised you on our first night. The home that’s here, forever,” I insist, beating my own chest against my heart with a fist out of sheer frustration.

  The elevator opens and I move her with me out of it, gripping her by the arm until I realize I don’t have a car here. Nowhere to go really.

  Just us as we are.

  “I love you, Evelyn,” I tell her again, turning her with both hands to face me. “I want you like nothing else on this earth. I need you like air. More than air,” I confess.