Cedar Bluff's Most Eligible Bachelor

Had she given him the impression she wished he would? Or that she thought he was? Good grief, talk about humiliating.

He couldn’t know that the last thing she wanted was a relationship. With him or anyone else.

“I can’t believe you’re still here!” Rachel exclaimed, coming into the locker room and interrupting her tumultuous thoughts. “Don’t tell me you rode your bike today. I know it’s spring, but it’s freezing outside. Not to mention dark. Why would you ride this late? It’s close to midnight.”

Hailey offered a weak smile. “Biking is good exercise and I don’t live very far. Don’t worry, this fluorescent gear keeps me safe.” Despite the budding friendship she felt toward Rachel, there were some secrets that were too dark to share, no matter how strong the friendship.

After all, she’d come here to Cedar Bluff to escape the past, not dwell on everything she’d lost.

“You’re crazy,” Rachel said, slamming her locker door shut as Hailey pulled on her bike helmet. “Truly crazy. Are you sure you don’t want a ride home?”

“I’m sure,” Hailey responded firmly. She pulled on her gloves and then opened the locker-room door. She had to shut this conversation down before Rachel asked any more questions. “Bye, Rachel. See you tomorrow.”

“Bye, Hailey. Ride safe.”

“I will.” Outside, true to Rachel’s word, the cold wind cut through her sweat-wicking biking gear. She clenched her teeth together to keep them from chattering. After deftly unlocking the bike, she jumped on and followed the familiar path towards home.

She’d come a long way since those dark days after Andrew’s death. In the fourteen months that had passed, she’d recovered both emotionally and physically from the accident that had stolen everything that had been important to her.

But no matter how much she’d healed, she still couldn’t bring herself to get behind the wheel of a car.

Simon mentally smacked himself in the forehead as he rode the elevator down to the first floor, putting as much distance between himself and Hailey as possible.

Idiot. How could he have been such an idiot?

I’m not coming onto you or anything.

I never thought you were!

Shaking his head, he strode out to the parking structure towards his car. He’d made a complete fool of himself. But at least Hailey would know that he wasn’t interested in anything more than a nice, friendly working relationship. Teamwork, just as he had said.

He shouldn’t have assumed anything, he acknowledged as he drove home. Just because Rachel Connell had asked him out a few times, it didn’t mean every single female would.

Hailey was beautiful enough that some other guy would surely snatch her up in no time.

And why that thought annoyed him, he had no idea. Normally he couldn’t care less who dated whom.

Simon didn’t live far from the hospital, so he made it home in less than fifteen minutes. He walked inside his small ranch-style home and tossed his keys on the counter.

The blinking light on his answering-machine gave him pause. Most of his friends used his cell phone. He only kept the land line because of the need to be on call for the emergency department. He’d started out using just his cell phone, but he’d slept through the first call he’d ever received because the ringer on his phone, even at maximum volume, just wasn’t loud enough.

Maybe his parents had called? He hadn’t talked to them in over a month, he realized guiltily.

He pulled a beer out of the fridge, twisted off the cap and took a long drink before walking over to look more closely at the answering-machine.

Three messages, all from a blocked phone number. He frowned. Not his parents. Unless they’d changed to a blocked number for some reason? He pushed the play button.

The sound of a dial tone echoed in the room.

He deleted that message and played the next. More dial tone. The third one was also nothing but dial tone.

Three hang-up phone calls. All from blocked numbers.

Dread painfully twisted his stomach.

Erica had left hang-up messages. Especially in those final weeks before he’d finally picked up and moved, without telling anyone where he was going. Not only had he kept quiet about his true destination, he’d claimed he was moving to Arizona to be closer to his parents. He’d even gone as far as applying for an Arizona medical license.

No one, outside his parents, knew he’d come to small-town Cedar Bluff in Wisconsin instead.

Almost two years had passed. Surely Erica hadn’t found him. Why would she even bother after all this time? She must have moved on with her life by now.

Hadn’t she?

CHAPTER THREE

BY THE next morning, Simon had convinced himself that telemarketers had left the three hang-up messages. It was the only explanation that made sense. He needed to remember to update his number on the national do-not-call list.

He sipped at a mug of coffee, thinking about his plans for his day off. He found he was oddly disappointed that he wouldn’t be seeing Hailey.

Stupid, since nothing would ever come of it.

He was through with relationships. After everything that had happened with Erica, he couldn’t imagine allowing anyone to get close.

To this day, he still felt guilty for what had transpired between them. He’d had no idea she was the clingy type of woman when they’d started to see each other. She’d been a nurse working in the same Chicago Children’s hospital emergency department he had been. The way she’d call him if she hadn’t heard from him had seemed nice at first, complimentary. Deep down, he’d been thrilled to know how much she liked him. And she was sweet, too.

But then, when he’d tried to pull back a little, needing a little breathing space, Erica had got upset. She’d been so upset that he’d gone back to seeing her, thinking that perhaps he’d overreacted.

All too soon he’d known it wasn’t going to work. So he had broken things off again. And then circumstances had changed and things had gone from bad to worse.

He closed his eyes for a moment, wishing desperately that he’d handled the situation differently. His actions had caused both of them to suffer. And then there was…

No. He shoved thoughts of Erica aside. Two years was a long time. She’d moved on and so should he. Maybe a tiny part of him would never be the same again, but he had created a new life in Cedar Bluff. New friends. And he was being considered for a promotion, the open ED Medical Director position.

He was happy with his new, if lonely, life. And he’d finally realized there was nothing he could do if Erica wasn’t happy in hers.

Nothing he could do to change what had been lost.

While mowing his lawn, a job he liked for the sheer mindlessness of the work, Seth Taylor called him. He had to shut off the lawnmower in order to hear him.

“Simon, I need a favor.”

“No problem.”

There was a slight pause on the other end of the line. “I haven’t told you what the favor is yet,” Seth protested.

He chuckled at Seth’s incredulous tone. “Doesn’t matter, Seth. But go ahead and ask me, if it makes you feel better.”

“I need you to cover my three-to-eleven shift in the trauma bay tonight. Kylie has to cover a sick call for the paramedic unit and I don’t want to leave Ben with a babysitter as he’s still having some pain in his broken arm.”