Free The Doctor Wore Spurs by Leanne Banks

surgery I never think about anything except the procedure. I don't think about the kid or the parents. But when I finish, that's when I let myself think about the kid." His face wrinkled in pain, and he led her out of the room. "Lilly, that girl in there, has so many problems with her heart it's a miracle she's alive. She's been in for twelve surgeries and I've performed the last two, but she has multiple deformities. Every time she comes in her parents and I know this could be the time her heart just quits. She went into arrest on the table yesterday."
    "Have you ever lost a patient?" Jill asked, feeling the strength of his tension.
    "No, and I don't ever want to."
    Her heart swelled with emotion for him. "What can I do for you?"
    His lips twitched. "Kiss me."
    Jill rolled her eyes and turned away. "I'll talk to you later. Hope you get some rest."
    "Hey, Jill," he called to her back.
    She glanced over her shoulder at him. "What?"
    "What did you do with the flowers?"
    She refused to give him an ounce of satisfaction in that area. "None of your business."

    Her doorbell woke her at 4:00 a.m.
    Jill stumbled out of bed, pushed her hands through the sleeves of her robe and went downstairs to the front door. She looked through the peephole, and her heart jumped when she saw Tyler on her front porch.
    She whipped open the door immediately, taking in his unshaven face, rumpled clothes and weary eyes. A knot of concern tightened in her chest. "What's wrong?"
    "Lilly died."
    Jill's heart fell to her feet at the gutted tone of his voice. She couldn't not hold him. Tugging him into her condo, she wrapped her arms around him. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
    "She went into arrest three times, and the doctor on call brought her back two. By the time they called me, she was gone." He swore and pulled away, turning his back to her. "It was the strangest damn thing. I hung around until after midnight. A little over an hour later she went into arrest. It was as if she was waiting for me to leave to die. I should have been there."
    She hated seeing him so torn up. "You can't always be there."
    "It's my job to be there to take care of a patient in a medical crisis," he said, his voice harsh.
    "And you did more than that by staying until after midnight."
    "It wasn't enough."
    "You told me she hadn't been expected to live as long as she already had."
    "She shouldn't have died in a damn hospital. She was only eleven. She shouldn't have died period," he said.
    Jill slowly walked toward him and touched his shoulder. "Do you think that maybe it was just her time?"
    "It is never my patient's time to go," he said, his voice clipped.
    Jill's eyes widened and she took a careful breath. "And I thought you were the only doctor I'd met who didn't suffer from a God complex."
    He hung his head. "I didn't want her to die."
    Jill walked around in front of him and took his face in her hands. "Of course you didn't. She was lucky to have you for her doctor, to have someone so skilled and so caring. She was very lucky."
    "Not lucky enough."
    "It sounds to me like you helped stretch her time."
    "That's what her parents said." His gaze met hers, and she felt herself drowning in her need to help him, if that were possible.
    She tugged him to her sofa. "Sit down. I'll be right back." She went to her small stash of liquor, poured a double shot of whisky and returned to set it on the sofa table.
    He glanced up at her with a raised eyebrow.
    "Drink it."
    "Bossy?"
    "Just at 4:00 a.m.," she said with a slight smile.
    He tossed back the drink, grimaced, swallowed then banged the glass on the table.
    "Another?" she asked, reaching for the glass and refilling it.
    He drank the second and looked at her. "Now what?"
    "Now we take off your jacket," she said, tugging his leather jacket down his sleeves. "Then your shoes," she said, bending down to pull off his boots.
    He met her gaze as she stood. "Don't stop now."
    She smiled and shook her head. "Come on." She led him up the stairs to