Don’t be so silly, Jennifer Jacobs, she told herself sternly. You haven’t met Ramón Martínez yet. Meg likes him. He’s probably really nice.
And yet she couldn’t help it. Even ten years after Andrew, she found herself on the defensive whenever she met someone new—correction, someone new who happened to be male. And every time she had to remind herself that not all men were like Andrew, that she knew plenty of nice men. It was a gut reaction that she couldn’t quite overcome, despite the counselling she’d had.
‘Earth to JJ,’ Meg said, waving a file at her.
‘Sorry. I was miles away.’
‘Dreaming about our hunky Spaniard?’
Jennifer scoffed. ‘I’ve only got your word for it on the hunkiness issue.’
Meg grinned. ‘Believe me, any woman under ninety would get palpitations just from looking at him.’
‘Better alert the cardiac ward, then.’ Jennifer smiled to take the sting from her words and gave Meg her full attention while they finished the handover. ‘Right—you have a good couple of days off, Meg. See you on Friday.’
‘I will. Oh, and Ramón will be with Stephen Knights,’ Meg said, referring to the baby who’d come in for an operation on a cleft palate. ‘He should be back from Theatre any minute now.’
‘I’ll keep an eye out for him,’ Jennifer said. Time to move on, she told herself as the other sister left the ward. It’s just another day. Another ordinary day. Ramón Martínez is nothing to worry about. And if he is a bulldozer, he’s only here for four months. Nothing that bad can happen in four short months.
She was steeling herself, ready to meet him, when Lizzy Bowers pushed past her in the corridor in floods of tears.
Jennifer picked up the couple of files she’d dropped, then followed in Lizzy’s wake to the toilets. Lizzy was leaning against the sink, sobbing. Jennifer balanced her files on top of the wastebin and put her arms round the student nurse. ‘Hey. It’s OK.’ Clearly it wasn’t—she would have said Lizzy was the least likely of her staff to burst into tears. But it wasn’t necessarily something to do with work. She knew Lizzy was going through a rough time at home; maybe she’d had the news she’d been waiting for but praying not to hear. ‘What’s happened?’ Jennifer asked gently.
‘Dr Martínez…he was so angry with me. I didn’t mean…’ Lizzy hiccupped her way through a garbled explanation.
Jennifer squeezed her hand. ‘It’s just a simple misunderstanding. We’ll sort it out.’ Though her expression hardened. So much for her thinking she’d been unfair to Ramón Martínez. He’d just bawled out her best student in front of her patient’s parents. Whatever Lizzy had done, a public telling-off was completely unprofessional. And it was Jennifer’s job, as the senior sister on the paediatric ward, to make him understand that bullies would not be tolerated. Under any circumstances.
‘I…’ Lizzy was still shaking, still incoherent.
‘It’s OK. I’ll handle it,’ Jennifer said quietly. ‘Wash your face and take ten minutes out in the restroom. Have a cup of tea then if you’re ready to come back on the ward, that’s fine.’ She gave Lizzy a hug. ‘If you need some time off, just let me know and I’ll get a bank nurse in.’
‘Thanks, JJ.’ Lizzy gave her a watery smile. ‘I feel so stupid…’
‘You’re not stupid. You’re doing really well. You’re a final-year student, you still have things to learn, and you’re already worried sick about your aunt.’
‘I won’t let the team down.’
‘I know you won’t. And that’s what teams are for—to support each other.’ Jennifer gave her a wink. ‘Go get that cup of tea.’ She gathered her files together again and headed for the side room they’d allocated to Stephen Knights.
Standing next to the parents was the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen. Meg’s description had hardly done him justice. Ramón Martínez was seven or eight inches taller than her own five feet six, Jennifer guessed. His white coat was a perfect foil to his olive skin and blue-black hair; he had broad shoulders, narrow hips and very long legs. He used his hands a lot when he spoke, she noticed. His eyes were dark and expressive.
But his mouth was the real killer. Generous and full, promising warmth and passion. Meg had been absolutely right about that smile—a smile to die for. For one intensely scary second, Jennifer even found herself wondering what it would be like to be kissed by that mouth. And then she stopped herself. No. She didn’t do kisses. She didn’t do dates. She didn’t do anything of the kind any more. Besides, this man had just reduced one of her staff to tears. He might be gorgeous to look at, but he was also arrogant and in dire need of a lesson in good manners.
‘Hello, Mandy. Hello, Paul,’ she said, walking into the room. ‘Hello, gorgeous.’ She ruffled the sleeping baby’s hair, then turned to Ramón Martínez. ‘Good afternoon, Dr Martínez. I’m Sister Jacobs. I’m sorry I wasn’t on duty when you joined us.’
Cool, controlled and terribly English, Ramón thought. And he hadn’t been prepared for her in the slightest. She was a completely ordinary woman—average height, average shape, light brown hair cut in an unassuming short style, grey-blue eyes. No make-up, dressed in a dark blue sister’s uniform and flat black shoes. She was nothing out of the everyday. So why had his heart rate just speeded up a notch?
Ridiculous, he told himself. He was here at the Bradley Memorial Hospital for a four-month secondment. A relationship of any kind would be short term and pointless. And even if he was prepared to think about it, it couldn’t be with someone he worked with. There would be too many difficulties. And then there was Sofía…No, it was all too complicated.
He’d expected the ward’s senior sister to be older than Meg—Meg herself had given him that impression—and this woman didn’t look much older than her mid-twenties. Clearly she had to be older, or she wouldn’t have the experience to do the job.
Automatically, his glance slid to her left hand. There was a slim band of gold on her ring finger. So she was spoken for. He was aware of the stab of regret for an instant before he banished it. ‘Good afternoon, Sister.’ He shook her proffered hand and lightning coursed through him. Hell. This was a complication he really, really didn’t need—especially as it was clearly one-sided. She didn’t look as if his touch had remotely affected her. He only hoped that this cool, calm nurse couldn’t read minds. If she could, he had a feeling she’d slap his face. Hard.
‘How did the operation go?’ she asked politely.
‘It was a success. I was telling Mr and Mrs Knights about the care their son needs over the next few days.’
He didn’t quite understand the look she gave him. Only that she was extremely angry with him—though this was the first time they’d met, so he couldn’t have done anything to upset her…could he?
‘I’ve stitched the palate back together in layers. There is one layer in the floor of the nose, then the muscles in the middle of the palate, and then the skin on the roof of the mouth,’ he said. ‘There are stitches in the roof of his mouth, but you can’t see them from the outside.’
‘You might see some red fluid coming from his nose and mouth,’ Jennifer added, ‘but that’s very common after an operation
