Page 44 of Noticing Natalie
“Dr. Lyon actually left the hospital a few weeks ago. There must have been a miscommunication. She got offered her dream job at Grady Hospital in downtown. Atlanta,” he tacked on, as if I might think either Halliwell or Indigo Falls had a booming downtown area. “It’s closer to her family, too.”
“Oh.” That took the wind out of my sails a little bit. I’d been looking forward to working with her. And now that Dr. Reyes had sort of asked me out, it might be awkward working with him.
He seemed to think that, too. “I can get you assigned to another surgeon.”
I waved a hand in the air, like it was nothing. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure we’ll make a great team.”
He grinned, and my stomach flip-flopped. “Well, that’s the thing. I think we’d make a great team, too, but I’m thinking about outside of the hospital. And I can’t date you if you’re regularly my surgical PA.”
I turned pink while Nurse Maxine giggled like a schoolgirl. This was super awkward.
He leaned a little closer. “Say you’ll go out with me. It’s the least I can do for attacking your face with a door.”
“Okay. Sure. As long as it doesn’t break any rules around here.” I couldn’t help but smile at him. He was so handsome—more like a doctor on television than one in real life. I hoped that didn’t mean he was a bed hopper like Tim was. Ever since I’d been with him, I’d made the conscious decision not to go out with ridiculously handsome men. I didn’t think I could take being cheated on again.
I started to get down from the bed to go start my first day.
“No, no, no.” Heath gently lowered me back down to the table. “You’re not starting today. I’ll go talk to the Chief of Staff.” He winked at me. “He’s my dad,” he whispered.
“Oh, please don’t do that,” I had visions of the other nurses already hating me. Here was this hot doctor asking me out and now he was going to pull strings for me.
“It’s not a big deal. But you can’t be in surgery with a possible concussion. You know that.”
“True.” He was right. I laid back on the bed again.
He got my number, apologized again, and left.
Maxine looked at me with big eyes after he left. “Honey. You don’t even know how rare that is. Dr. Reyes doesn’t date much, and when he does, it’sneveranyone in the hospital.”
I smiled, but I couldn’t help feeling a bit disappointed by the lack of spark I’d felt when he’d touched me to help me lay down in the hospital bed.
But that was silly. The only person I’d ever had much of a spark with was the only one I literally wouldn’t date if he was the last man on Earth.
I could be friends with Tim… but I could never be with him romantically again.
***
Lynne was having everyone over to celebrate my first day of work. She was making all my favorites—her barbeque chicken, homemade macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, and green beans. I didn’t think there was a better meal anywhere in the world, to be honest.
We all sat around the table and talked during dinner. I’d already had to explain my battered face to everyone. When Pete had first seen me, he’d been ready to grab his shotgun and go find whoever did that to me.
He calmed down when he heard the story, of course.
“Ooh, and you have a date with the handsome doctor, huh?” Lynne asked, waggling her eyebrows.
I would have rolled my eyes, but it would have hurt my black eye. “Yes,” I said, my face turning slightly pink. I hated that it still did that like I was fifteen years old.
I was relieved when Alexis started talking about what was going on in her complicated romantic world. She was going to a college nearby on a tennis scholarship and could come home often. She regaled us with her soap opera style life.
Finally, Sadie held up her hands. “Oh my God, Lex. I’m going to need charts and graphs to keep up with all these people.”
“I’ll make a presentation and it can be the entertainment at Thanksgiving.”
Everyone laughed except Alexis. I wasn’t so sure she was joking—or that I was opposed to a presentation. She had a way with words that sucked me right into her stories.
The table felt strangely empty without Wyn or Tim there. Wyn was at the University of Georgia on a tennis scholarship. She didn’t get to come home often, and I was sad not to see her a bit more often. As much as Alexis had once been the tennis start of the family, Wyn had taken it further. Much further. There was a lot of talk of her trying to go pro after she graduated. Of all theSummers siblings I knew her the least well. One, she was quiet and reserved, and two, she was so much younger than the rest of us. She kind of got left out of the fun, it seemed.
I wasn’t sure where Tim was, though I couldn’t help but wonder if he was out with some woman.
