One Summer In Santa Fe

“Sick?” Taylor frowned and grew concerned. The kid hadn’t been feeling poorly that morning, just ornery because Taylor had dragged him out of bed at the crack of dawn. Maybe bringing him to the hospital had been a bad idea after all. Though he’d been here just a few hours, there were all sorts of bacteria in hospitals that he could easily pick up. “Sick how?”

“Sick of being here. Can I go back to your house if I promise not to spill anything again? I won’t drink anything. Not even water, I promise,” Alex said, his dark brown eyes beseeching in a way that cut right through Taylor. He ran a hand through his hair. He wasn’t prepared for this. He couldn’t work sixty hours a week and care for a child. That camp thing Piper men tioned might have potential, though. Dammit. He just didn’t have it in him. The family he’d grown up in was no role model to draw from, either.

“You just can’t sit at my house and play video games all summer, Alex.” Taylor ran a hand through his hair, more than frustrated already and Alex had only been with him a few days.

“Why not?” he said, and gave Taylor a very adult look. “It’s what I do, Uncle T.”

“Didn’t you just say you wanted to climb mountains and jump out of airplanes like your uncle?” Piper asked from her seat beside Alex.

“Piper,” Alex whispered out of the corner of his mouth and cast her a conspiratorial glance. “He wasn’t supposed to know.”

“So how are you going to do any of this stuff if no one knows about it?” she asked, her manner totally at ease while talking to Alex. Taylor wished he could be that way, but his experience with kids was limited to birthdays and holidays and presents sent from far away.

Apparently, Alex had to think about that a moment because he didn’t have his usual snappy comeback ready. Then he shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Why don’t we go get a burger and fries and talk about it?” Taylor asked. “I’m sure there’s something we can fix you up with that we can both agree on.”

With only a sullen expression on his face and a noncommittal shrug, Alex tucked his belongings into a worn backpack. “Okay.”

“Want to join us, Piper?” Taylor asked, hoping she would.

“I brought a sandwich.”

“You can have that any day. Today is green chile cheese fries day at the cafeteria.” For whatever reason, he really wanted to have lunch with this woman. She’d offered him some hope in dealing with Alex and he’d…needed that.

“Sounds like death by french fry.” But she stood and followed them from the room. “But I’m game.”

Taylor slowed as Piper tugged on his sleeve and pulled him back.

“Just so you know, a bored kid is a bad kid. Especially the really smart ones.” She nodded at Alex who continued down the hall in front of them.

“So, tell me about this camp business I overheard,” Taylor said, and ushered Piper forward. “I ran wild on military bases as a kid, so I don’t know anything about how they work.”

Piper smiled up at him, and Taylor took a second look at her. Though not beautiful in the classic sense, her heart-shaped face and full lips were definitely attractive. But her warm blue eyes that sparkled with suppressed humor intrigued him more than anything. Straight caramel-colored hair in a shoulder-length bob swung enticingly as she moved. She was tall and trim, but curvy in the right places. Though he’d observed those things yesterday, he really hadn’t noticed them. Too busy with patients and work as usual.

Something in his chest cramped as he watched her catch up with Alex. If he’d been too busy to notice a woman as lovely as Piper, there was something seriously wrong with him.

After lunch, Piper returned to the ER to relieve another nurse for her break. Emily, the charge nurse, called her aside to make the assignment. “By the way, I hope I’m not intruding here where I don’t belong,” she said, and chewed thoughtfully on her lip a moment. “But I think I need to give you a warning.”

“A warning? What did I do?” Piper stared transfixed at Emily, unable to think of any infraction so far.

Emily touched Piper’s arm in a friendly gesture and Piper relaxed somewhat. “No, not in your work. Sorry. But I happened to notice that you had lunch with Taylor.”

Still not sure of what to make of this conversation, she said, “Is that against the rules or something?”

“No. But just to give you a heads up, Taylor’s a player, got a reputation with the ladies, especially the nurses who come through here.”

“I see.”

“He’s got CDD.”

“You mean ADD? Attention Deficit Disorder?” Piper asked, puzzled at the mistake.

“No.” Emily shook her head. “I mean CDD. Commitment deficit disorder. He hasn’t stayed with one woman for more than a few weeks at a time.” She patted Piper’s arm. “He’s a wonderful man and a great doctor, but he acts as if he’s at a dating buffet. He keeps going back for more.” She waved a hand. “Anyway, you’re a grown woman, but before you proceeded any further with him, I wanted you to have that information. Take it or leave it, at least you have it.”

“Thanks.” Piper said, then tried to change the subject, certain she wasn’t going to have to worry about Taylor getting too interested in her. He was just grateful and had bought her a burger. But Emily’s warning was certainly something to consider.

Chapter Three

“OKAY, so rock-climbing camp it is,” Taylor said as he clicked the “send” button on the computer and registered Alex for the camp with before- and after-care programs, starting tomorrow. No more bored days spent at the hospital.

Alex raced through the living room at full speed. “Yeah! I’m going climbing!” He raced back to the office and nearly flung himself at Taylor. “Thanks, Uncle T. I’ll never ever forget this.”

Taylor caught the boy to him before he knocked them out of the office chair and stood Alex in front of him. “Whoa, there. It’s okay, Alex.” He gave Alex a pat on the shoulder, surprised at the amount of enthusiasm sparking off the boy.

“I’m serious. You have no idea how totally cool this is.” He looked wide-eyed at Taylor. “Wait. You do know how cool this is, ’cause you already go rock climbing. Duh,” Alex said, and slapped himself on the forehead.

“It’s okay. I’m just lucky we got you in.” When Taylor had been Alex’s age, and living under the domineering thumb of his father, he had been lucky to get out of the house without an altercation of some sort. There had been no camps for Taylor. Climbing trees and rock formations had saved his sanity in his pre-teen years, challenging himself in ways that his father couldn’t understand. After that, progressing to bigger and more dangerous excursions had seemed natural. Honing his muscles and growing into his height, his father had no longer been able to control him. That’s when things had really changed between them, and they hadn’t spoken for years. Thankfully, he’d had an uncle help him figure out how to get what he wanted out of life. He hoped to pass that gift on to Alex. Perhaps not medical school, but whatever the kid wanted to pursue in life.

“Let’s finish this conversation another day. Time you’re off for a shower. You don’t want to smell like a polecat your first day at camp, do you?”

“No, I don’t wanna smell like a polecat,” he said, and frowned, staring up at Taylor. “I…I don’t even know what a polecat is.”

Taylor gave a laugh. “It’s a kind of skunk. Hit the shower, kiddo, just to make sure,” he said, and tousled Alex’s hair.

“Okay.”

Taylor laughed as Alex headed for the bathroom. Maybe this thing with Alex was going to turn out okay after all. Caroline was right. He didn’t really know his nephew, and he should. Even though his life was a little on the wild side, Taylor was the only stable male influence in the boy’s life. But now, spending so much time with Alex stirred up feelings that he thought he’d put to rest long ago. His relationship with his father was not much different than the one Alex had with his own father. More like they tolerated each other than liked each other’s company. Whatever. Over and done with for him. Rising from the chair, he changed into jogging pants and his running shoes. The last two days he’d been off his exercise schedule and desperately needed the release it gave him. Endorphins, here I come. He knocked on the bathroom door.

“Alex, I’m going for a jog. I’ll be back in an hour.”

“Okay.” Alex called through the door.

Once out into the evening air, Taylor drew in deep breaths and stretched a few minutes before walking to the park. Exercise and strength training had made him physically strong, and he needed that endorphin kick he’d been missing the last few days. Sometimes that was all that got him through some very long and intense days at work. Though he worked with a lot of very good nice people, he had few truly close friends. A few guys he climbed with, a few doctors like Ian McSorley, and a few women he’d had casual relationships with. Nothing serious. Nothing long-lasting and that was how he needed it. At least at this point in his life.

In minutes he reached the nature park, filled with desert flora and fauna native to the high desert of New Mexico. Breathing in the cooling evening air, he relaxed into his pace and sought the zone that had been his salvation for many years.

Piper watched as Taylor loped around the sand-filled track. She’d never catch up with him with the pace he set, so she just walked along behind him, enchanted with the plant life and terrain that was so different from any place she’d ever been. Now she understood what was meant by high desert. Muted browns and greens covered most of the ground, but here and there were fabulously colored blooms, usually attached to thorny cacti. There was beauty here, you just had to look for it. Up ahead, a jackrabbit zigzagged in a crazy move to dash away and hide beneath a bush. Unaccustomed to the 7000-foot elevation of Santa Fe, Piper was winded after a few minutes, so she found a large rock to rest on, took in the nature scene and caught her breath.

She kept her eye on the lone jogger working his way up and down the hills through the park. There were no trees to speak of, just clumps of large bushes, so she could see him as he moved around the park. Numerous other people walked and ran past her on the trail, but no one captured her attention as Taylor did.

The man was intense. As intense as any doctor she’d ever worked with, and her heart noticed every time she’d been close enough to smell his spicy cologne. She wondered how he was going to cope the entire summer with his nephew at his side, but she was not willing to take a bet as the other staff had done. Men like Taylor valued their freedom and independence more than anything. That had been her ex-boyfriend exactly. Another physician. Another assignment. Another town, miles away. Another heartbreak she was not going to repeat. She’d never been enough for him. He’d made that clear from the start. She’d never be enough for a man like Taylor, either.

Taylor dropped behind a hill, and Piper lost sight of him, then he reappeared on the next rise, closer to where she was. The man in motion was definitely a wondrous sight.

Eventually, he jogged right up to her. “Hey, Doc.”

“What?” He looked at her then. “Oh, hey, Piper.” He stopped and bent over to catch his breath. “What are you doing out here?”