The Surgeon's Engagement Wish

‘Start CPR,’ he instructed Beth.

She worked hard to make her chest compressions as effective as possible, but Luke shook his head as he felt for a carotid pulse moments later.

‘We’re still not getting a pulse.’ He raised his voice. ‘Mike? I’m going to have to go for a thoracotomy here.’

Beth’s jaw dropped but Mike sounded perfectly calm. ‘That’s fine,’ he called back. ‘I’ll come and intubate for you in a second.’

Luke had caught Beth’s astonished expression and his tone suggested he had taken her reaction as a personal criticism. ‘You’ll find a thoracotomy kit in the storeroom, Beth.’

She was pleased to be able to turn away. ‘I know where it is.’

He was a surgeon after all, and maybe Luke had had experience with opening people’s chests. He certainly seemed confident enough, and it was probably the only procedure that was going to save a life here, but it was still horrific to watch him divide Stella’s sternum with a saw in what seemed like only a few minutes later.

It was just as well she’d had theatre experience in the past, Beth decided, handing instruments and wound towels to Luke. It was how they’d met in the first place. Luke had been a surgical registrar and Beth had just been starting work as a theatre nurse. She’d transferred, of course, when their relationship had hit the rocks and the fascination and pressure of working in the emergency department had gone from being a welcome distraction to a real passion.

And here they were again. The bizarre impression of being in a time warp was heightened after Luke took a scalpel and carefully incised the membrane of the pericardium. The rush of blood wasn’t enough to suggest a fatal cardiac injury and there was a collective sigh of relief as the vigorous pumping of Stella’s heart could be actually seen.

Mike had his fingers on the side of Stella’s neck. ‘Great output,’ he said delightedly. ‘Fantastic!’

His voice startled Beth. The feeling that she and Luke had been a single—and isolated—unit had been so strong she had actually forgotten Mike was there in the last few minutes. She had been standing so close to Luke. Their hands had touched more than once when she had handed him instruments, and that closeness—that touch—had wrapped them into a space that had been theirs alone. Luke merely nodded in response to Mike’s delight. ‘We’re not out of the woods quite yet,’ he warned. ‘Let’s cover everything with dressings and sterile drapes and get her up to Theatre to finish.’

But he paused fractionally when he caught Beth’s gaze and for the third time that night she was trapped by the expression in those dark grey eyes.

There was no hint of displeasure in them this time. Or the suggestion that she had changed beyond recognition. And, very oddly, the flicker of warmth that she saw was far more of a shock than Luke’s earlier reactions to seeing her had been.

His voice touched exactly the same tender place as that fleeting glance had.

‘Thanks, Beth,’ Luke said softly. ‘You were brilliant.’

CHAPTER THREE (#ulink_ac0631bf-f540-5ab7-8f8d-f40a73ecffdf)

IT WOULDN’T go away.

That flash of warmth in Luke’s gaze had been contagious, and Beth could still feel it, hours later, when she was finally able to follow Chelsea to the staffroom where Maureen was making a pot of tea.

She could still abandon her new job and leave Hereford, she reminded herself as she sank gratefully onto a chair. Her head was telling her that in no uncertain terms again and again. Her heart, on the other hand, was insufferably smug in the knowledge of how difficult it would be her to talk herself into walking away. From this place. From the new job.

From Luke Savage.

And all it had taken had been that one little spark from the warmth in those grey eyes and the tone of his voice when he’d said she’d been brilliant.

Brilliant!

Beth’s toes actually curled inside her shoes as a new wash of the glow spread through her.

‘You’re looking happy.’ Maureen placed a steaming mug on the table in front of Beth. ‘Sugar?’

‘No, thanks.’

‘I reckon she’s just relieved it’s all over.’ Chelsea reached for the sugar bowl. ‘What a night!’

Beth smiled wryly. ‘It’ll certainly go down in history as the most memorable first shift I’ve ever had at work, that’s for sure.’

And the major incident with the gang members had only been the half of it.

‘You did an amazing job out there.’ Maureen pushed a plate of chocolate biscuits closer to Beth. ‘Well done.’

‘Yeah…’ Chelsea was eyeing Beth curiously. ‘You were brilliant.’

Beth hadn’t blushed like that since she’d been a teenager. She reached for a biscuit to cover an embarrassment that had little to do with any modesty concerning her professional skills.

It hadn’t been the first time she had been a key player in a dramatic life-and-death scenario in an emergency department. Not that she’d assisted with a thoracotomy, of course—in a big department there was always a queue of more senior staff eager to participate in something that big, but there had been that emergency Caesarean that time. And the puncture wound in a carotid artery and…

And none of that history mattered a damn because any praise that had come her way had been strictly professional.

As the comment that Chelsea appeared to have overheard from Luke had been, she reminded herself firmly.

But it hadn’t felt like that, had it? The approbation from Luke had touched a place that hadn’t been touched since…since…

Since she had been Luke’s lover.

Beth crushed the thought relentlessly because Chelsea was still giving her an odd look. As though she was determined to read her mind.

So was Maureen, come to that. Beth’s eyebrows rose sharply.

‘What?’ she asked. ‘Have I got chocolate all over my nose or something?’

‘We’re just curious,’ Maureen explained.

‘About the thoracotomy?’

Chelsea laughed. ‘No. About whether you’re going to ask or not.’

Beth was mystified. ‘Ask what?’

‘What every new female staff member always asks.’

So the interest had to concern a male staff member, and Beth suddenly knew exactly whom Chelsea had in mind. She could stop this conversation right now. Change the subject. Pretend that an urgent trip to the bathroom was called for. But her mouth had other ideas. It smiled.

‘Which is?’

Chelsea exchanged another significant glance with Maureen. ‘Whether Luke Savage is married or not, of course.’

The fact that the answer was expected did not stop Beth’s heart stumbling over the next beat or two, but she actually laughed and shook her head in a valiant attempt to feign indifference. She picked up her mug of tea with a remarkably steady hand and took a sip.

Her lack of any verbal response did not faze Chelsea but she did seem puzzled.

‘Well, that’s a first, then.’