might be able to minimize the damage to the spinal cord.”
Elana nodded, indicating she’d heard him. Relieved that the spine damage may not be permanent, she made sure Jamie was ready for the OR, taking off her rings and her necklace and putting them into a valuables envelope to be stored in the hospital safe.
The OR team showed up and took over the case, taking Jamie straight up to surgery. Once her patient was gone, Elana felt the all too familiar letdown. She enjoyed trauma nursing, but there was a part of her that had considered moving to the critical care area so that she could follow the trauma cases more closely. She’d miss the thrill of caring for patients coming in right from the scene, but it would also be great to see some of these patients actually recover.
“Elana? Are you all right?”
She glanced at Brock, her stomach knotting with apprehension. How could she be all right with him around? She needed to get away from him. Far, far away. “Of course. Excuse me while I restock the supplies before the next trauma call comes in.”
“I’ll do it,” Raine offered, glancing between Elana and Brock with frank curiosity.
She ground her teeth together, wishing Raine wouldn’t try to be quite so helpful. Since Raine hurried to do the stocking, and Brock simply stood there, watching her with concern, she turned and headed towards the staff lounge. Unfortunately she wasn’t going to get the privacy she needed since Brock was right behind her.
“What do you want?” she asked, spinning around to face him and crossing her arms over her chest defensively.
“First of all, I wanted to say I’m sorry. I had absolutely no idea you worked here.” Brock’s sincere expression didn’t succeed in soothing her annoyance. Maybe she had noticed the shock in his eyes when he’d recognized her, but she was the one who’d lost a sister. “I moved home for family reasons, not to torment you.”
“Doesn’t matter to me where you work,” she said in a stiff, formal tone. “You stay out of my way, and I’ll stay out of yours.”
He stared at her for a long moment, and she struggled not to squirm beneath his intense scrutiny. She could see why Raine had called him steamy hot. He wore his chocolate-brown hair a little longer than was fashionable, but with his chiseled jaw and strong chin he was ruggedly attractive. To everyone else, maybe. Not to her. “If that’s what you want. But it might help if we could spend some time talking things through.”
Talk things through? She blinked. Was he serious? The nerve of him acting as though talking things out would somehow bring Felicity back. She curled her fingers into fists, her nails digging into the palm of her hand, and for a moment she relished the tiny flash of pain.
Maybe they had to work together, but, as far as she was concerned, there would never be anything remotely personal between them.
“No. I don’t think so.”
He frowned. “Why not?”
“Because there is absolutely nothing you have to say that I want to hear.” With that, she turned, leaving a gaping Brock standing behind her as she walked away.
CHAPTER TWO
FINISHING her shift, while being stuck in the trauma bay with Brock Madison, was the hardest thing Elana had had to do since moving into her first foster home at the tender age of fifteen.
He’d wanted to talk things through.
Yeah. Right. To make himself feel better, no doubt.
Elana swallowed hard, trying without success to keep from ruminating over Brock Madison. Even when he wasn’t in the immediate area, she’d found herself searching for him. If only so she could find a way to stay as far away from him as possible.
Raine was right: Brock was devastatingly attractive. Too much so. In those brief moments when he’d pinned her with his sizzling blue gaze, she’d nearly forgotten how much she hated him.
Brock had matured over the years. She shouldn’t have been surprised; it wasn’t as if she was the same angry and confused fifteen-year-old, either. But for some reason, her brain had always pictured him as the young, reckless college student who’d been speeding down the highway when Felicity pulled out in front of him.
For years she’d railed against the unfairness of it all. Brock had essentially walked away from the crash with only a couple of minor injuries—a broken collarbone and a few cracked ribs—while Felicity had died at the scene.
Enough. She needed to stop wallowing in the past. She threw herself into her work with a vengeance. Elana thought she’d successfully hidden her feelings towards Brock, but at the end of their shift, Raine cornered her in the staff lounge.
“All right, give. What is up with you and Dr Madison?”
Elana raised a brow, trying to keep her expression impassive. “Nothing.”
Raine rolled her eyes. “Yeah, sure, and I’m Princess Stephanie. Come on, Elana. It’s obvious you two know each other. For one thing, he called you by name before anyone had introduced you. And then he followed you to the staff lounge to talk to you in private. Did the two of you have a relationship in the past or what?”
Relationship? Good Lord, nothing could be further from the truth. “No. I barely know the guy.”
“I don’t believe you.” Raine swiped her badge through the time clock, and Elana followed suit. “I’m not blind. There’s a definite tension between you.”
Elana suppressed a sigh, knowing Raine would continue to badger her endlessly unless she explained. “Remember when I told you my sister died in a car crash nine years ago?”
Raine frowned. “Yes.” Then her eyes rounded. “Was your sister dating Brock at the time?”
“No. Worse.” Elana walked into the staff locker room to retrieve her purse. She slammed the locker door shut with more force than was necessary. “Brock was the driver of the car that hit her.”
“No! Really?” Raine’s mouth dropped open in disbelief. “You have got to be kidding me.”
“I wish I was.” Elana’s expression was grim, and she dropped onto the bench, her shoulders slumping with sudden fatigue. Keeping up the pretense that everything was okay when it really wasn’t had been exhausting. “I don’t know if I can do this, Raine,” she whispered. “I don’t think I can work with him.”
Raine sat down beside her, putting a comforting arm around her shoulders. “Don’t make any rash decisions, Elana. I’m sure this has been a shock, but Brock Madison seems to be a really good doctor. Maybe you need to give him a chance.”
Give him a chance? Why? What about Felicity’s chance? Her sister’s life had ended far too young, and it was all Brock’s fault.
She didn’t want to give him a chance. Logically, Elana knew Raine might be right, since Chloe would have told her the same thing. But letting go of the past wasn’t easy. Those dark years after her sister’s death had been so awful. She winced and rubbed her pounding temple. “I can’t,” she murmured.
“Elana, you can. You’re
