Bachelor Doctor

“You’re very young to be regarded as a respected authority and leader in your field,” she pointed out. “But that’s to be expected since you graduated from college in less than three years and medical school in only—”

“You’ve been reading the med center’s press releases about me, Sheely. Gearing up to hit me for a raise?”

Callie blushed. If Trey only knew how much she knew about him, had read about him…he would probably peg her as an obsessed fan!

“I just wanted to remind you that you’re still considered the Boy Wonder around here.”

“Boy Wonder,” he repeated. “That was my identity for a long, long time, but once you’re thirty, you stop being a boy anything.”

“Some men don’t ever stop being boys,” Callie said, with a touch of acid. “No matter how old they might be—which goes to prove you don’t have to be young to be foolish, I guess.”

She thought of Scott Fritche and his penchant for young student nurses, of her brother, Kirby, a year and a day younger than her, a self-described slacker living rent free in their parents’ basement while he pondered what he wanted to do when he grew up.

“You’re right.” Trey looked thoughtful. “And it works the other way, too. Kids can be quite sagacious. I was, and I’m sure you were too, Sheely.”

“Well, I never actually saw myself as a ‘sagacious’ sort of girl,” joked Callie. And if she had been one, it was too bad she’d grown up to be a foolish woman, she added silently, one harboring a futile, unrequited crush on the unattainable Trey Weldon.

“Don’t make light of your accomplishments, Sheely. I don’t believe in false modesty. You were the valedictorian of your high school class and of your nursing school class, too. Those are not the accomplishments of a foolish girl.”

“How did you know about all that?” She had never mentioned her scholastic achievements to him, though it was hardly a secret if anyone cared to check.

“I checked, of course. Before I offered you the position as scrub nurse on my team.”

“You told me at the time that you’d been observing me in the OR and my experience there was why you—”

“I also checked your academic records, Sheely. I wanted to make sure you were the real thing, the complete package. Knowledge and character supported and enhanced by skill. I had no intention of choosing anything less for my team.”

“Oh, that’s me, the complete package.”

Grabbing a tray, she took her place in the sandwich line. There was a backup at the grill, with only one short-order cook working today, when at least three were needed.

Knowledge and character supported and enhanced by skill? Trey could very well have been describing Sister Benedicta, the stalwart principal of her old alma mater, Guardian Angels High School.

Could he make it any plainer? She did not evoke any romantic feelings within him at all. Callie unsparingly faced the truth: her insipid crush on him was even worse than hopeless, it was just plain absurd. Thank heavens nobody knew.

And then she thought of the glint in Jennifer’s eye in the locker room earlier.

I am not the type who goes after another woman’s man, Jennifer had said. Hadn’t her expression been just a shade too perceptive?

Callie flinched, imagining the speculative gossip that might already be spreading via the ever-efficient hospital grapevine. When confronted, would a breezy laugh of denial be enough to counter the rumor, or should she offer some sort of explanation?

“You are, you know,” Trey said quietly.

Callie’s train of thought, already derailed by the probability of gossip, wrecked completely as Trey came to stand closely behind her.

Her senses seemed to take over, making her intensely aware of everything about him. Of the feel of his chest brushing against her back. Of the size and strength of his muscular frame, which seemed to surround her.

When she inhaled, his scent filled her nostrils with a musky mix of male sweat and pungent, antiseptic OR soap.

The temptation to lean into him, to press back against the hard heat of his body was so fierce that Callie came dangerously close to giving in to it. To throwing caution and restraint aside and acting on her feelings, showing him that there was more to her than knowledge and character supported and enhanced by skill.

There was desire and need, and it was all for him. What if she were to take a chance and let him know?

“Dr. Weldon.” A male voice sounded behind them.

Callie jumped and turned her head to see Scott Fritche approaching Trey. Hot color suffused her skin, right down to the tips of her toes. Her head abruptly cleared. She was herself again, and she offered mental thanks that she had not—impulsively and unprofessionally—nestled against Trey. She was horrified by her near lapse in sanity.

“Fritche.” Trey frowned at the younger man who’d joined them. “I intended to talk to you sometime today. I suppose now is as good a time as any.”