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“Can I walk with you?”
Startled out of her private thoughts, Sierra glanced down to see a girl, about ten years old, falling into step beside her on the concrete walkway. The child wore an oversize T-shirt, bright pink leggings and well-scuffed white-and-lavender tennis shoes. Her skin was tanned and her brown hair possessed lighter streaks, which suggested she spent a great deal of time outdoors. Several strands of hair had escaped her ponytail, which wasn’t quite centered in the back of her head.
Although Sierra wanted to finish her walk through the labyrinth in contemplative quiet, she didn’t want to be rude. Instead, she glanced around the garden, carefully scanning each bench for a potential parent or an otherwise responsible adult. Surprisingly, the garden was vacant and no one else was walking the labyrinth. They were alone.
“Won’t your parents wonder where you are?” Sierra asked instead.
“My mom’s dead and when my dad’s out of town I stay with my uncle,” the girl informed her. “He says I have to keep myself busy until he finishes his shift. He has a very important job, you know.”
“Really?” she replied, amazed by how anyone could expect a child at her age to amuse herself in a hospital for hours on end. Surely a man who had this so-called “very important job” would realize that.
“He’s a doctor,” the child added meaningfully.
Sierra wasn’t as impressed as the little girl obviously expected her to be. By virtue of his profession, the man should know better than to let a child run around a busy medical center completely unsupervised.
Immediately Sierra wondered if any of the physicians she knew had a niece this age, but none came to mind. Even so, something about this child’s features seemed familiar.
“You’re a doctor, too, aren’t you?” the youngster asked, as if she already knew the answer.
“Yes, I am. Are you supposed to be outside by yourself?”
The girl drew herself up, adding an inch or so to her almost five-foot frame. “I’m almost eleven,” she said, clearly affronted by Sierra’s question. “My uncle says I can come out here if it’s not raining.” She raised her hands, palms up. “No rain today.”
“No. No rain today,” Sierra echoed. “Doesn’t he worry about you wandering all over the hospital while he’s working?”
“No, because I had to cross my hearts…” she pantomimed “…and promise to follow the rules. I can only go to certain places, like the li-berry, the coffee shop or this garden. Or his office,” she tacked on. “He trusts me.”
At least this nameless man had set a few boundaries.
“The other rule is that I don’t talk to or go with a stranger, no matter where I am.”
“I’m a stranger,” Sierra pointed out, deciding she would hunt down this irresponsible uncle and give him a piece of her mind, colleague or not! The risk was too great to leave this little girl unattended. The garden saw a lot of foot traffic and anyone who weighed more than a hundred pounds could haul this youngster off without breaking a sweat, even if she was kicking and screaming.
“No, you’re not,” she said, shaking her head. “I’ve seen you lots of times.” She scurried in front of Sierra and peered at her identification badge. “You’re Dr. McAllaster. Your name tag says so.”
“Yes, but—”
“I’m Hannah,” she answered. “Now we aren’t strangers anymore.”
Hannah’s logic was definitely lacking. “Actually, we still are strangers,” Sierra corrected her gently. “I could be a not-very-nice person.”
Hannah’s ponytail bounced with each shake of her head. “Nope, you’re not. I’ve been watching you ‘cause you come here almost as much as I do. If you were a rotten person, you wouldn’t feed the birds your leftover crackers.”
Goodness! Had she been so self-absorbed that she hadn’t noticed an unattended child before today? Or maybe she’d seen her and thought she’d been under the watchful eye of one of the many visitors who came to the garden for fresh air and sunshine. Regardless, it was still eerie to realize that someone had observed her so carefully without her knowledge. She would definitely have to pay closer attention to her surroundings in the future.
“Plus, you’re a doctor. Doctors aren’t mean people. Oh, they can do nasty things like give us a shot, but it’s for our own good,” she said confidently.
While Sierra agreed that most physicians were caring individuals, she personally knew of several who should have chosen a different profession. Even so, she wouldn’t destroy the girl’s illusions. Life would take care of those soon enough.
“A lot of people come here to walk, don’t they?” Hannah asked.
“They do.”
“My uncle says they built this because the lab-y-rinth,” she stumbled over the word, “is supposed to make people feel better. The Native Americans call it a medicine wheel.”
“Really?”
“Uh-huh. They’ve gotten really popular, he says, especially at hospitals. Walking the path helps people who have stuff like high blood pressure or who can’t relax. He says that the twists and turns are s’posed to represent the twists and turns in life.”
The child sounded like a brochure that detailed the hospital’s services. “He’s right. The labyrinth helps people put the bad things in perspective.”
“Is that why you’re here? So you can put the bad stuff in pers…pers…pective?”
Hannah’s insight surprised her. Sierra began visiting the garden during her lunch hour as part of her mental-health regimen when she’d first joined the medical staff. Walking the circular concrete pathways, which were lined with colorful petunias, helped her deal with stress, especially after she lost a patient. She also knew of several surgeons who walked the labyrinth in order to clear their heads before performing surgery.
“Yes, I do,” Sierra said. “Why do you come here? To be outdoors instead of being cooped up inside?”
Hannah shrugged. “I like this place. My mom died of cancer when I was little, and whenever I get sad, I walk until I feel better. Do you think she might have lived if there’d been a lab-y-rinth at her hospital?”
Hannah’s matter-of-fact tone didn’t minimize the compassion Sierra felt for her. Oddly enough, she almost wanted to give her nameless uncle a break. Being a single parent or, in this case, an uncle wasn’t easy, especially when one dealt with an obviously precocious child like Hannah.
“Sometimes cancer wins, no matter how hard people try to fight it.”
Hannah’s brown eyebrows drew together as she nodded. “That’s what my uncle says, too. He says she didn’t want to die, but it wasn’t her fault she couldn’t stay and watch me grow up.”
“No, it wasn’t,” Sierra agreed.
Oddly enough, her uncle seemed to have imparted good insight to his niece. Sierra added one mental point in his favor.
Suddenly, the sound of dogs barking broke the quiet. Hannah immediately pulled a hot-pink cell phone out of the matching pouch hanging around her neck and the barking stopped. Sierra chuckled at herself as she realized the noise was a ringtone instead of a pack of canines on the loose.
The youngster glanced at the display and winced. “Gotta go. ‘Bye!”
“Wait! “ Sierra called as Hannah began hurdling the flowers with an easy-limbed grace in her haste to head toward the north door. “What’s your uncle’s name?”
Hannah simply smiled and waved before she disappeared through the north door.
So much for discovering the child’s identity, Sierra thought as she watched Hannah somewhat benevolently. Knowing Hannah had a cell phone made her feel somewhat better about the situation.
To Sierra’s disappointment, her wristwatch showed her allotted break time was over, too, even though she hadn’t reached the center of the labyrinth. After taking one last look in Hannah’s direction and seeing her disappear through the glass entrance doors, Sierra carefully stepped over the petunias as she strode in the opposite direction and disposed of her apple core in the trash.
Inside the main emergency hallway, ringing telephones, whispering gurney wheels and excited voices contrasted sharply with the tranquility she’d left behind. Directly ahead, she saw two different paramedics from the ones she’d met earlier, another ED physician and a nurse escorting another gurney into a trauma room. Meanwhile, Trey was heading toward an exam room as he reviewed the form on his clipboard. As soon as he saw her, his smile widened.
“How was lunch?” he asked.
She thought of the precocious Hannah. “Interesting. Why don’t I take over for you so you can take your break?”
“Thanks, but this case shouldn’t take too long. It’s also too early to meet my lunch date in the cafeteria, so I might as well earn my pay.”
She should have known. The man probably arranged his personal schedule months ahead. “Then I won’t keep you.”
Before she turned away, he stopped her. “Save tomorrow for me, though.”
She paused. “Excuse me?”
“Lunch. Tomorrow. My treat. It’ll be my official ‘welcome to the department’ gesture.”
“Do you take every new person to lunch?” she asked.
“Everyone,” he reassured her. “Even the housekeeping staff. So don’t pack your apple.”
She stared at him in surprise. “How did you know—?”
“I’m an observant kind of guy.”
Of course he was, she thought wryly. “Okay, fine. We’ll do lunch.” Then, to make certain there would be no misunderstandings, she added, “Strictly between colleagues.”
His smile seemed as broad as his shoulders. “Fair enough.”
She turned away, but he stopped her. “Out of curiosity, are you seeing anyone?”
This time she smiled. “What does the grapevine say?”
“You’re not.”
“Correct, as usual,” she agreed lightly.
“Is there someone back home?” he pressed.
Sierra hesitated. How could she explain, and did she want to? However, if her answer prevented speculation and stopped people from pushing her towards every eligible man who came along, why not?
“There was,” she replied slowly.
“Breakups are tough,” he agreed, his expression sympathetic. “So you came to Pittsburgh to start over?”
If only it had been that simple. “I did, but the situation is a little more complicated than a mere breakup.” She met his gaze. “When I left North Carolina, I left my husband in the Fairview Cemetery.”
CHAPTER TWO
TREY didn’t know what had possessed him to broach the subject of her personal life. Perhaps he’d simply been looking for an excuse to stay away from Sierra and hearing of a fellow back home would have provided it. Perhaps he was simply a glutton for punishment and hearing of her unattached status would only provide a temptation he’d be hard-pressed to resist.
Unfortunately, her response had been completely unexpected. He’d certainly never dreamed that the man she’d left behind had been her husband, much less that he was dead.
Certainly, the information she’d shared explained so much—her long hours, her avoidance of the dating scene, and her move to a new city and work environment. She hadn’t come to Pittsburgh on some grand adventure to see the world. Like his brother, Mitch. Sierra was picking up the pieces of her life.
All of which proved his theory—the best relationships were temporary.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured.
She nodded, apparently accustomed to hearing condolences if her frozen expression was any indication. “Thanks,” she murmured. Then, with a visibly shaky hand she smoothed her hair. “Are you sure you wouldn’t like me to see your patient?”
Her abrupt change of subject couldn’t have been more plain. Their question-and-answer period had come to a close, which was good. For a man who never had trouble finding something to talk about, he was suddenly at a loss for words.
He glanced at his watch. He only had ten minutes before his cafeteria appointment and it took nearly seven to walk there. “Do you mind?”
“Not at all. Enjoy your lunch.”
Eager to get away before he asked more questions, Sierra pulled the clipboard out of his hand and headed down the hall. She’d already shared more than she’d ever planned, and if she gave him enough time, the inevitable “What happened?” would follow.
She simply didn’t want to go there. Not now. Not yet. The tragedy had occurred over a year ago and she simply refused to dredge up those old feelings of shock, despair and anger, not to mention guilt. She’d finally come to the acceptance stage, but it hadn’t been easy.
Now, however, was not the time to walk down memory lane and analyze the past. At the moment, the only person who deserved her full attention was her patient—not Trey Donovan, and certainly not David McAllaster.
By the time she’d received the results of Karen Maxwell’s strep screen—it was negative—and referred her to an ENT specialist to evaluate her chronic sinusitis, Trey had returned, looking as rested and refreshed as he had before their full morning of traumas and regular patients.
As Sierra sank onto a chair in the nurses’ station, she noticed he was chatting up one of the radiology techs. The poor girl was smiling as if he’d single-handedly hung the sun, moon and stars.
“He has quite a knack with the women, doesn’t he?” Sierra mused aloud to Roma, who was clicking away on her keyboard at a nearby terminal.
“You must be talking about our famous Dr. Donovan,” Roma answered, without glancing away from her screen.
“How did you guess?”
“He does have a way with people,” she commented. “Young, old, male, female, staff, patients, it doesn’t matter. Why, I’ve seen him talk the most recalcitrant patients into behaving. When he’s on duty, things just run more smoothly.”
Sierra understood why. By virtue of his personality, he inspired people to dig deeply and give one-hundred-and-ten percent.
Just like David.
The only question was, did Trey do it for personal gain, or was he as altruistic as everyone believed? She wasn’t quite convinced of the latter.
Roma finally glanced away from her screen to direct her gaze down the hallway. “He’s so sweet to all of us. In fact, everyone fancies themselves a bit in love with him,” she remarked.
“I’ve gotten that impression,” Sierra said wryly. “Given the way women act when he’s around, I’d bet he never spends an evening alone. I’m surprised he has the energy to come to work.”
The nurse laughed. “There’s where you’re wrong. He doesn’t date as often as you might think. Oh, there are a lot who’d give their right arm for a night with him, but he’s very careful about who he takes out. And he never sees anyone more than a handful of times.”
“Really.” Sierra wasn’t convinced, but Roma seemed to know what she was talking about. “I find that hard to believe.”
Roma shrugged. “It’s true. Dr. Donovan seems like a happy-go-lucky sort, but don’t let his winning ways fool you. There’s a lot more to our good doctor than meets the eye.”
Sierra watched as the X-ray tech walked away with a light step, her face beaming in obvious delight over her encounter with Trey. Meanwhile, he wore his own satisfied expression, which suggested he’d gotten whatever he’d wanted.
Just like David, she thought with some disgust. Everything was a game, nobody was anything more than a chess piece. Thank goodness she’d grown wise to such manipulations. She’d been a pawn once in her life. She wouldn’t be one again.
After finishing with his next patient, Trey strode back to the doctors’ office. He’d requested a CT scan for one of his patients with a debilitating headache and Lila, the X-ray tech, had promised the images would be online by two o’clock. It was five minutes till, so he didn’t expect to see them posted, but it didn’t hurt to check.
He accessed Joan Villiers’s computer file and, as he’d suspected, the CT scan was still pending. A brisk knock at the door heralded Roma’s arrival.
