The Surgeon's Convenient Fiancée (Medical Romance) by Rebecca Lang Page A

remembering the shock of being asked, not knowing what to say. ‘She’s a lovely person, I really like her. I really don’t want to think of her as not being around.’
    ‘And what did you tell her?’ he probed gently.
    ‘Well, I couldn’t make up my mind then and there,’ she said, looking up at him. ‘I…I told her I would think it over. There’s no hurry, because she’s in good health, but she obviously wants to get it settled. But I…I don’t think Jerry would allow that. He would fight. It’s very complex. It’s not as though he cares for the children—he doesn’t. I don’t know what to do.’
    ‘Hmm,’ he murmured thoughtfully. ‘If you’d like to talk about it some more later, Deirdre, I would be very happy to listen and maybe offer my two cents’ worth. Right now we have to rush up to the operating suite.’
    Deirdre welcomed the sudden change of pace as they walked quickly to the elevators and went up to the second floor of the wing where the operating suite was situated. It made her feel exhilarated to be in a crowded elevator with hospital personnel again—talking to each other, greeting colleagues, laughing—and made her once again realize how isolated she had become. Here she was, back in an adult world that she understood, whereher skills would, perhaps, once again be valued…if she was lucky.
    ‘Two minutes. Remember?’ Shay instructed her as they came to a room outside the main part of the operating suite, which he told her was the nurses’ change room. He looked at his watch to indicate that he was timing her.
    When she found herself laughing, Deirdre was struck again at how strange it was that yesterday she had been in despair and then in such a short time her world was beginning to change.
    There was no one else in the change room and she quickly looked around for a locker with a key and flung her things into it, then picked up a light blue scrub suit, a paper hat to put over her hair and soft paper overshoes. This was just like old times, she thought as she stripped off her sweater and skirt and quickly got into the scrub suit. Not bothering to look at her watch, she knew that she was within the two minutes when she opened the door to join Shay.
    ‘Great!’ he said, as she came out, his eyes lighting up, his eyebrows raised at the sight of her. For a brief moment her eyes locked withhis and she found herself colouring at his obvious appraisal, smiling back as he smiled at her. Then she looked away quickly as a frision of awareness overlaid the camaraderie that they had shared, which had nonetheless remained somewhat formal, for all its apparent casualness.
    Instantly she knew that in her vulnerable state she was in danger of falling in love with him, or at least getting a schoolgirl crush on him, which was not appropriate as she was now a woman.
    ‘Come on,’ he said, giving no sign that he had noticed her colour. ‘I’ll introduce you to the head nurse. Her name’s Darlene Reade and she’s been here a long time.’
    The head nurse’s small office, like a command post, which was the purpose it served, was just inside the main double doors of the operating suite, over to one side. Directly in front of them, as they entered, was a desk for the main receptionist, who vetted everyone who entered the suite.
    ‘Hello, Bev,’ Shay addressed the receptionist, a blonde woman of about forty, while he deftly took a paper cap from a pile and putit on his head, then took a disposable paper mask for himself and handed one to Deirdre. ‘This is Deirdre Warwick, RN, who’s come to have a quick tour of the OR. Deirdre, this is Bev, who knows everyone and knows everything that’s going on here, at all times.’
    ‘Pleased to meet you, Deirdre,’ Bev said, standing up to shake her hand. ‘Are you coming to work here?’
    ‘That depends,’ Deirdre said, ‘on what I find here…and whether anyone would want me.’ When she smiled at the receptionist she was very aware of how her