that week, when the staff had joined the interns offsite at a nearby bar and grill for a casual get-acquainted session, all it had taken was seeing the way her body had been shaped by a pair of denim jeans and a pullover sweater, and his mouth had watered for days.
And then he had run into her at a grocery store one Sunday. She had been dressed for church and he’d gotten a chance to see the most gorgeous pair of legs any woman could own. She had looked so good in her peach-colored fashionable two-piece suit that he had only narrowly avoided running his grocery cart into a display of canned goods in the middle of the aisle.
Never had any woman been able to dominate his attention like she had, especially in the workplace. And no matter how much he’d tried, he hadn’t been able to lick his inappropriate attention for the female doctor who was reporting to him directly. And that wasn’t good.
The bummer was that the attraction was one-sided. There was not one incident he could cite as being deliberate on her part. She had the type of beauty a woman didn’t have to flaunt. It was just there and he honestly doubted she knew the effect she had on men.
Hell, he’d even seen Dr. Dudley eye her down more than once and had to bite down the jealousy that had consumed him. But then the old man was known to have that bad-ass habit with the female interns. Lucien was surprised no one had filed a sexual harassment complaint against him. Lucien wasn’t blind. He’d seen the looks and heard Dudley’s offhand comments to several of the female interns. He’d even confronted his superior about his behavior, which hadn’t gone over well.
As he sat down to dine alone, his thoughts shifted back to Jaclyn Campbell. He’d assumed he had fixed his problem when he’d sent her to work the nightshift in E.R. for a while. Usually she would have left the hospital by the time he would arrive. But on one particular morning there had been a school bus accident resulting in a number of injured kids. E.R. had been quite busy that day and everyone, even off-duty personnel, had been called in to assist.
And he had seen her. He had worked alongside her that day, and finally admitted to himself that he didn’t want distance between them again. He would just have to learn how to control his attraction. So far he had. However, there were days, like today, that could test him to the fullest.
While they were in Mr. Spencer’s room together, he had looked at her face and thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world. He’d seen the long dark lashes and how they’d fanned across her face, her beautiful hazel eyes, her chin-length, straight brown hair and creamy fair skin. Although she’d never confirmed or denied it, he’d heard that she was the product of a biracial marriage. Her father’s family hailed from Scotland and her mother was African-American.
After completing his meal, he stood to stretch his body when his cell phone rang. He smiled when he pulled the iPhone from his back pocket and saw the caller was his sister.
“Yeah, kiddo?”
“Everyone, especially Nana, will be particularly glad to hear you’re coming home for Christmas. Tell me it’s true, Lucien.”
He chuckled. Although both he and his sister were naturalized citizens of the United States, “home” was their birthplace of Jamaica. He, his sister, Lori, and a slew of cousins had all left Jamaica about the same time to attend college in the United States and had eventually made it their home. But for the holidays everyone tried returning for what they considered a family reunion. Due to work obligations he’d missed attending the last two years.
“It’s only August, Lori. Any reason you want to know so soon? You’ve got four months.”
“Four months will be here before you know it, Lu. Besides, we need time to plan and to prepare Nana for the disappointment if you aren’t coming again. It will be three years. I wish you can make it this year.”
Lucien didn’t have to be reminded. His grandmother did that every time they spoke. He hadn’t been home since he’d taken the position of chief resident at the hospital. With the job came new obligations as well as a number of sacrifices.
He smiled. “You’ll get your wish, Lori. I’m going home for the holidays. The time off is already on the hospital schedule.”
Not wanting to risk getting a busted eardrum, he held the phone from his ear when she began screaming in excitement. He was older than his sister by a year and they had always been close, although they now lived thousands of miles apart. She was an attorney working and living in Los Angeles.
He placed the phone back to his ear when he felt it was safe to do so. “Doesn’t take much to get you excited, does it?”
“Oh, you,” she admonished softly. “This is great news, so don’t try to downplay it. Nana is going to be counting the days.”
And he would, too. As far as he was concerned his grandmother was the wisest women he knew and always had been. And she was the kindest and most motivating. Not only had she raised Lucien, but she had also supported everything he’d ever wanted to do and had extended this same support to his sister and his two cousins whom she’d also raised. That’s why one of the first things the four of them had done after achieving their goals in America was to build Nana a beautiful and spacious home in Kingston, Jamaica, that had a picturesque view of the Blue Mountains from every room.
A short while later Lucien ended the call with Lori, looking forward to the two weeks he would be home. But he had a lot to do before he left Alexandria for Kingston. He had to get some normalcy in his life. And the way to achieve that goal was to get a handle on his attraction to Jaclyn Campbell. He’d tried it before and it hadn’t worked. This time, no matter what, he couldn’t fail.
Because he knew if he did, he was headed for deep trouble.
Chapter 2
“Have you given any more thought to my suggestion that we get a puppy, Jaclyn?”
Jaclyn glanced across the stretcher at her roommate Isabelle Morales as they quickly rolled a pregnant woman down the hall toward the delivery room. A Jennifer Lopez look-alike, Isabelle wanted to go into pediatrics when her residency ended, and Jaclyn considered her friend one of the brightest interns at Hopewell.
“I honestly don’t think a puppy is a good idea, Isabelle. With the hours we spend at the hospital who’s going to make sure he’s fed properly?” she replied.
Before Isabelle could respond, the patient, who’d been enduring her labor pains quietly, suddenly screamed. She had been in labor for the past ten hours and, last timed, her contractions were less than three minutes apart. Her obstetrician was already in the delivery room waiting.
“The two of you are talking about puppies and I’m about to die here,” the woman snarled at them.
“You’re not dying, Mrs. White, you’re having a baby.”
Ignoring what Jaclyn said, the woman then added, “And where is my husband?”
“He’s washing up. He’ll be in the delivery room when we get there,” Isabelle added.
“I don’t want him there. He’s the one responsible for my condition.”
Jaclyn cast a glance over at Isabelle and fought back a smile. She pitied Mr. White about now.
As soon as they wheeled the mother-to-be through the double
