toward the ORs. “What do you mean?”
“We had this talk yesterday, Virginia. I’m not an asset to Bayview Grace.”
“Dr. Brice—”
“Gavin,” he interrupted.
She took a calming breath. “Gavin, who said you weren’t?”
“You did.”
“When?”
“Yesterday, after I saved Mr. Jones’s life in front of the board, or have you mentally blocked that catastrophe of public relations proportions from your brain?”
Virginia chuckled. “I never said you weren’t an asset. You’re a fine surgeon, Gavin, you just have to work on your interpersonal skills.” The doors to the scrub room slid open and she stepped inside. Gavin followed her.
Lord. Just let me be.
All she wanted to do was this surgery. Here she could clear her head and think.
“Interpersonal skills?” A smile quirked his lips. “In what ways?”
“I don’t have time to talk the semantics over with you. I have a choly to attend to, that is, unless you want to scrub in?”
Please, don’t scrub in, one half of her screamed, while the other half of her wanted to see him in action. To work side by side with him.
“I haven’t done a routine choly in…well, probably not since my residency, and it wasn’t done laparoscopically. The attendings and indeed the hospital where I obtained my residency weren’t up to par with Dr. Mühe’s ground-breaking procedure.”
“I would love to have you assist, Gavin.” Virginia stepped on the bar under the sink and began to scrub.
Gavin grinned, his eyes twinkling in the dim light of the scrub room. “Liar.”
“Pardon?”
“You don’t want me in your OR. I think you’ve had enough of me.”
“That’s true. You’ve been a thorn in my side since I hired you.”
He laughed. “I know.”
Virginia shook her hands and then grabbed some paper towel. “I would like to see you work, though. I haven’t had the chance to observe you, and the nurses tell me you’re a brilliant surgeon.”
He raised his eyebrows. “I didn’t think the nurses cared much for me.”
“They don’t.” She smirked. “You really need to work on remembering their names.”
“Not at the top of my priority.”
Virginia shook her head and moved towards the sliding door that separated the suite from the scrub room. “Make it a priority, Gavin. You’ll find things run a lot smoother if you do. Are you joining me?”
“I think I’ll pass, Dr. Potter. I may be needed in Trauma.”
“Virginia.” She shot him a smug smile and headed into surgery, both relieved and disappointed that he wasn’t joining her.
I should’ve gone into surgery with her.
Gavin was beating himself up over not taking the opportunity to sit in on a surgery with Virginia, the ice queen, even if it had been a routine one.
Emergency had been quiet. Eerily so. He’d resorted to charting, though secretly he was trying to learn the nurses’ names but couldn’t.
He could remember the most complicated procedure, but when it came to mundane, everyday things like dry-cleaning or remembering a name he couldn’t.
What was wrong with him?
Something was definitely wrong with him, because he’d turned down the chance to get to know Virginia by operating with her. She’d been so uptight every time they’d spoken, but this time there had been something different about her.
She was more relaxed, more receptive to gentle teasing.
He’d enjoyed his verbal repartee with her, even if it’d only been for a moment. Gavin had seen the twinkle in her eyes before she’d entered the operating room, that glint of humor, and he’d liked it.
And it had scared him.
He had no time to be thinking about women. The girls were his top priority.
“I won’t say what you’re thinking, because if I say it we’ll be bombarded with a bunch of trauma.”
Gavin looked up from his chart to see Dr. Rogerson leaning over the desk, grinning at him. Moira Rogerson was another trauma surgeon, but only a fellow as she’d just passed her boards.
“Pardon?” Gavin asked.
“You know, like how actors don’t say ‘Macbeth’ in the theater.”
“Oh, I get what you mean.”
ER physicians never remarked on a slow day. If they did it was bad juju and they’d have an influx of patients. Gavin returned to his charting, dismissing Moira.
At least he hoped it gave her the hint. The woman had been pursuing him like a lioness hunting a wounded wildebeest since he’d first set foot in the hospital.
“I was wondering if you’d like to grab a bite to eat with me after work?”
The lioness obviously couldn’t take a hint. It wasn’t that there was anything wrong with her, she was pretty, intelligent and a brilliant surgeon, but he wasn’t interested in her.
He didn’t like to be pursued and he wasn’t interested in starting a relationship with anyone at the moment.
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
Gavin sighed in frustration. “I just can’t.”
“I know you’re new to this city. What can you possibly have to do?”
Gavin slammed the binder shut and stood up, perhaps a bit abruptly. “Things.” He set the chart down and headed towards the cafeteria. Maybe grabbing some lunch would clear his head.
Moira, thankfully, didn’t follow.
Sure, he’d been harsh with her and, yeah, he had an itch that needed to be scratched, but since the girls had come into his life he had to be more responsible.
A year ago he would’ve taken Moira up on her offer and then some. As long as she hadn’t wanted anything serious.
She was attractive.
Now that he had his nieces, he just couldn’t be that playboy any more. His dating life could be summed up in two words. Cold. Showers.
In
