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CHAPTER ONE
“PHONE CALL FOR YOU, Dr. O’Neil. She says it’s an emergency.”
Sean rolled his shoulders to ease the tension, his mind still in the operating room.
His patient was a promising soccer player. He’d torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, a common enough injury that had ended plenty of sports careers. Sean was determined it wasn’t going to end this one. The procedure had gone well, although surgery was only the beginning. What followed would be a lengthy rehabilitation that would require dedication and determination from all involved.
Still thinking about how to manage expectations, he took the phone from the nurse. “Sean O’Neil.”
“Sean? Where the hell were you last night?”
Braced for a different conversation, Sean frowned with irritation. “Veronica? You shouldn’t be calling me here. I was told this was an emergency.”
“It is an emergency!” Her voice rose along with her temper. “Next time you invite me to dinner, have the decency to show up.”
Damn.
A nurse came out of the operating room and handed him a form.
“Veronica, I’m sorry.” He tucked the phone between his cheek and his shoulder and gestured for a pen. “I was called back to the hospital. A colleague had problems with a patient. I was operating.”
“And you couldn’t have called me? I waited in that restaurant for an hour. An hour, Sean! A man tried to pick me up.”
Sean signed the form. “Was he nice?”
“Do not joke about it. It was the most embarrassing hour of my life. Don’t ever, ever do that to me again.”
He handed the form back to the nurse with a brief smile. “You’d rather I left a patient to bleed to death?”
“I’d rather you honored your commitments.”
“I’m a surgeon. My first commitment is to my patients.”
“So what you’re saying is that if you had to choose between me and work, you’d pick work?”
“Yes.” The fact that she’d asked that question showed how little she knew him. “That is what I’m saying.”
“Damn you, Sean. I hate you.” But there was a wobble in her voice. “Tell me honestly, is it just me or is it all women?”
“It’s me. I’m bad at relationships, you know that. Right now my focus is my career.”
“One of these days you’re going to wake up alone in that fancy apartment of yours and regret all the time you spent working.”
He decided not to point out that he woke up alone through choice. He never invited women back to his apartment. He was barely ever there himself. “My work is important to me. You knew that when you met me.”
“No, important is being dedicated to what you do but still having a personal life. What work is to you, Sean O’Neil, is an obsession. You are single-minded and focused to the exclusion of everything else. That might make you a brilliant doctor but it makes you a lousy date. And here’s a news flash—being charming and good in bed doesn’t stop you being a selfish, workaholic bastard.”
“Sean?” Another nurse appeared at his elbow, her pink cheeks and awkward demeanor suggesting she’d overheard that last sentence. “The team coach is waiting outside for news along with the boy’s parents. Will you talk to them?”
r /> “Are you even listening to me?” Veronica’s voice came down the phone, shrill and irritated. “Are you having another conversation while you’re talking to me?”
Hell.
Sean closed his eyes. “I’ve just come out of the operating room.” He rubbed his fingers over his forehead. “I need to speak to the relatives.”