After the Christmas Party(13)
“He’s going to need a coronary artery bypass graft,” he told another nurse, while Trinity applied pressure to where the catheter had been withdrawn. “Find an available vascular surgeon stat and let’s get Mr. Ryker into the operating room.”
So much for taking Trinity out to eat any time soon. They’d be here for several hours yet.
Trinity wasn’t sure how she’d gone from being in the catheter lab to the operating room as that wasn’t usual protocol. At least, it hadn’t been standard at the hospital where she’d worked in Memphis, but there she was. In the operating room. With Riley.
She was working as his assistant and blowing CO2 into Mr. Ryker’s open chest. That helped keep blood from interfering with Riley being able to readily see where he was making the anastomosis in the mammary artery to loop the vessel into the right coronary artery. While keeping the CO2 blowing at just the correct angle, she watched him carefully cut away a pedicule and reroute the artery. Painstakingly, he sutured the arteries together, making sure not to damage the vessels.
Another nurse dabbed at his forehead. Trinity found herself wishing she was the one touching him. Silly really. They were at the hospital. Working to save a man’s life. Touching the cardiac surgeon while he performed a procedure should be the absolute last thing on her mind.
She’d touched him the night before.
On the lips under the mistletoe and again on the dance floor and again this morning when she’d reached out to touch his magnificent chest. Who knew where else she’d touched him during the night? After all, she’d woken up spooned against that long, lean body of his.
She swallowed back the knot forming in her throat and refocused her attention on the CO2.
After what seemed like hours she snuck a peek. His blue eyes, which were normally so full of mischief, were focused intently on the job at hand, on how he meticulously placed sutures, making sure the vessel remained patent, that every movement of his hands were precise.
He’d been full of fun and teasing The night before, and even this morning. Now he was as serious as serious could be. Which one was the real him? The mischievous player who’d stolen a kiss from her under the mistletoe or the brilliant, intense heart surgeon attempting to save his patient’s life?
“How late do you have to stay?” Riley asked Trinity later that day, hoping she wouldn’t have to pull a full shift.
“I’m not sure. If nothing else has come into the emergency room, I expect the charge nurse will let me go soon.” She gave him a suspicious look. “Why? Do you need me to help you with something? Another procedure?”
“I do need your help with something. Have dinner with me.”
Her brow lifted. “You need help with dinner?”
“I’ll be lonely if you don’t join me.”
“I seriously doubt you’re ever lonely.”
He thought about her comment. He couldn’t really say that he recalled ever being lonely. He had a full life that he enjoyed a great deal, but the thought of not spending the evening with Trinity, as crazy as it was, did leave him feeling oddly bereft. “You might be surprised.”
“I don’t think going to dinner together is a good idea.”
Why had he known she’d refuse? “Because of last night?”
Her cheeks blushed a rosy pink and she shook her head.
“No?” One eyebrow rose. “Because you don’t want to encourage an incorrigible bloke like me?”
Looking torn, she took a step back. “That’s not it.”
He waggled his brows. “Then you do want to encourage an incorrigible bloke like me?”
If her cheeks had been pink before, now they were blood red. “You are incorrigible, but…”
He took her hands in his. “Then you’ll help me?”
“You don’t understand.”
“You have other plans?”
“No, but—”
“No worries, I’ll let you choose where we go. I’ll even splurge for dessert.”
“I don’t want dessert.”
He shrugged. “Okay, I’m easy. No dessert for you. If you’re nice I’ll share mine, though.”
She let out a long breath. “You really are incorrigible.”
He wouldn’t deny it.
“What time should I pick you up? You need a ride to your car and it’s my responsibility to get you there.”
“I’m not your responsibility.”
He studied her a moment then rubbed his knuckles across her cheeks. “We’re talking dinner and a ride to your car, Trinity, not for ever. Smile and say, ‘Thank you, I’d love to go to dinner with you, Riley.’”