Convenient Marriage, Surprise Twins Page 7

  Lana had given up hoping for anything different. This was her life now and, as much as she felt trapped by the way her father had planned out her life, at least she could still practice surgery. At least she was still helping people.

  She took a calming breath. First she pinned her engagement ring to her scrubs like Andrew had suggested. It was heavy over her heart and she was very aware of it.

  Focus.

  As she stepped into the scrub room she watched the trauma surgeons work on the patient. The man had been impaled by a metal pole. And she winced when she saw it.

  “It’s nasty,” Andrew said, coming up beside her, scrubbing in. He had to be sterile too, even if he was only observing.

  “It doesn’t look pleasant.” She shook off her hands then grabbed a paper towel to dry them.

  “I’m glad you took my advice about the ring.”

  “Now everyone will see it,” she muttered.

  “The surgical gown will cover it.” Then he leaned over, grinning in that charming sexy way that always made her weak in the knees. “Besides, everyone knows we’re engaged. Unless, of course, you’re afraid that a token, such as a ring, makes you appear weak.”

  Lana rolled her eyes. “You ready to come in there?” she asked.

  He frowned. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

  “This is the first time I’ve seen you in the operating room since you came here. You’ve always avoided it since I’ve known you. Though I’ve noticed you in the gallery, I was surprised when you suggested you’d come in and observe.”

  The frown intensified. His eyes narrowed and she knew she’d pushed him again. She’d pushed those invisible buttons that he was so sensitive about.

  “Do you not want me in there?” He spun it around, trying to change the focus.

  “I want you in there. I would love if you assisted me.”

  “No surgical privileges, except observation, remember?”

  “I haven’t forgotten.” She headed into the operating room, shuddering at the change in temperature. The OR was chilly and she’d been in a packed gala for most of the night. Not to mention that it had been muggy outside as well. Even though she knew the operating room was kept at a lower temperature, her body still was shocked and she couldn’t help but shiver as a scrub nurse helped her on with her surgical gown and gloves.

  “Sorry to tear you away from your gala, Dr. Haole, but I figured that you might be the only orthopedic surgeon in a five mile radius who would be sober enough to help me.” Dr. Young was giving her a dig.

  Lana bit her tongue. Figuratively. “I am the orthopedic surgeon on call, so your assumption would be correct, Dr. Young.”

  Dr. Young snorted in response but continued working on the punctured lung. “I’ll soon be done here and then you can go about repairing the clavicle.”

  “What about the object in his other shoulder? Will you remove that?”

  “I would like to, but I think that I will have to break the other clavicle to remove it and you gave strict instructions for us not to touch it.” The tone was sanctimonious. Dr. Young was older than her and had been a trauma surgeon overseas while she’d been serving the country. She’d probably done this on her own, but when it came to orthopedic procedures at this hospital Lana oversaw them all.

  No one was touching the unbroken part of the clavicle until she’d gotten a good look at it.

  “Do we have any recent imaging?” Lana asked.

  “Here, Dr. Haole,” a resident said, lighting up the screen to show X-rays.

  Andrew walked into the operating room.

  “It looks like the object has lodged next to the acromioclavicular joint and the clavicle.”

  Lana nodded. “It’s lucky it wasn’t dislocated, but it’s jammed in there.”

  “The main concern Dr. Young had was whether dislodging it would damage the lung,” the resident, Dr. Page, said.

  “If I manage the dislocation I don’t need to break the clavicle. If I dislocate it from the joint in a controlled manner we can remove the object without damaging the lung and repair the joint with this side of the clavicle intact.”

  “I agree,” Andrew said. “I’ve done this before.”

  “Are you certain?” Dr. Young called from the table, where she was finishing up her part of the job. “I don’t want to have to come back and clean up your mess when you damage the lung.”

  “Then you don’t have to. I’ve repaired a lung before or Dr. Page can help me. I’m sure he’s capable of it as well.”

  Dr. Young shook her head. Lana knew she was overstepping some boundaries, but she didn’t know why Dr. Young had her knickers in a knot over her. Of course, when didn’t Dr. Young have her knickers in a knot?

  “Since you’re so confident in Dr. Page’s ability, I am finished here.” Dr. Young handed over her surgical tools and walked away.

  Lana gritted her teeth but didn’t say anything. Dr. Young was so passive-aggressive and didn’t trust anyone unless they’d been doing surgery for at least fifteen years. And it wasn’t as if her father had instilled a lot of confidence. He’d overseen most of her surgeries like this in the past and Dr. Young was digging at her for being the daughter of the chief.

  “What a diva,” Andrew whispered under his breath.

  Lana snorted as she took the lead surgeon’s spot. “Dr. Page, would you assist me?”

  “Yes, Dr. Haole!”

  “Get a surgical gown on and gloves.”

  Dr. Page nodded and headed over to a scrub nurse to get gowned up. He was eager and Lana couldn’t begrudge the resident that, though Lana would rather have Andrew, who had done this before. She’d rather he’d assist her, but Andrew made no move to assist. He stood where the X-rays were, watching her as she went to work.

  It was a delicate procedure, but it would be the only way to dislodge the object from the patient’s shoulder without damaging the joint, breaking the clavicle again or damaging the lungs. Lana took a deep breath and glanced over at Andrew again. She had a moment of uncertainty. She hadn’t done this procedure a lot of times. Especially without her father here. Whenever she came into the operating room with something like this, her father insisted on assisting.

  If she screwed this up...

  Don’t think about it.

  Andrew nodded. “You got this.”

  Just like that, his belief in her entered her and it shocked her how much he calmed her in that moment. No one had ever been able to calm her down so fast. It was scary, but she also liked it. And she was surprised by how much she liked it.

  Lana took a deep breath and waited for Dr. Page to join her at the table. The X-rays were wheeled over so that she could get a closer look at the object. Then the fluoroscope was turned on, so she could see the joints in the shoulder. After the object which had impaled the patient was removed, then she would repair the dislocation and then fix the broken side of the clavicle. The patient would be in the long haul for physiotherapy and would be in a lot of pain.

  Tonight would be a long night. She just hoped that she got a bit of sleep so she didn’t have dark circles under her eyes for tomorrow night’s wedding.

  “Are you ready, Dr. Haole?” Dr. Page asked.

  “Yes. Let’s get this patient on the road to recovery.” She took a deep breath and held out her hand to the scrub nurse. “Scalpel.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  RUN.

  That was his first thought, but he couldn’t do that to Lana. Instead he pulled at his collar, which felt too tight. Stifling, almost.

  Andrew had worn this tuxedo last night at the gala. It hadn’t bothered him then, but now, standing on the beach with the ocean behind him and a bunch of strangers sitting on either side of the torch-strewn aisle with a minister and Jack, it suddenly felt that the collar on the tuxedo was
shrinking.

  Run. Just run.

  Jack leaned over. “Stop pulling at it, Andrew.”

  “It’s bothering me,” Andrew whispered, but he continued to fiddle with it.

  “Yeah, ’cos you’re pulling at it.” Jack shook his head. “Why are you so nervous?”

  Andrew didn’t answer Jack’s question and stopped fidgeting. He was still tired from watching Lana perform that surgery last night—a surgery he was all too familiar with—and his arm twinged, reminding him of his accident.

  “Meghan, you should buckle up.”

  “I’m fine. I just have to take off my coat... Oh, my God. Andrew! The moose!”

  Andrew winced as the sound of screaming filled his head.

  If only his surgeon had done to him what Lana had pulled off so beautifully. Instead they had cut the metal out, tearing his joints and muscles around his shoulders. His shoulder blade had been shattered and pieced together incorrectly. He was lucky to have his arm still.

  Yeah, lucky.

  “You should’ve been the one to die!”

  “There was a moose, Dad. I couldn’t...”

  “I don’t care. You should’ve died. Not her. You killed her.”

  He’d watched Lana throughout that surgery with absolute awe and admiration. In the moment before the surgery started she’d looked at him for reassurance. In that moment she’d trusted him. It had been so long since he’d felt that kind of connection with someone.

  It was unnerving.

  As soon as the surgery was over he’d left, because he’d had to put some distance between them. She stirred something in him. Something that scared him. The problem was he was marrying her. There was no place to hide.

  There were so many emotions running through him right now.

  When he’d first thought of marrying to stay in the country he’d had no real emotional attachment or feeling about Lana other than attraction. She’d always been icy to him. She annoyed him and he knew that he annoyed her.

  They were civil, polite, but they hadn’t had much interaction. So he’d never really worried about the ramifications of any emotional attachment to her. He’d figured that he’d be able to walk away after the year and go on with his life.

  Until recently. Now, he was enjoying her company. He wasn’t so indifferent to her. He was setting himself up for something dangerous.

  This is not real. It’s platonic.

  Though right now, standing here, this wedding felt real. It was legal and real in that sense, but there was something more.

  Sophie Haole, Lana’s stepmother, had made this wedding as real as any he’d seen. Torches were arranged in the sand, forming an aisle, and amongst the guests there was no one he recognized. Andrew wasn’t surprised by that really, since the only friends he had were Jack and a couple of other guys he trained.

  He had no family here. His family didn’t care much about him.

  The sun was setting, slipping into the ocean, and the wind picked up, causing the flames on the torches to flicker.

  Deep breath.

  Then he thought again about turning and running, except it would humiliate Lana. She was in this as deep as he was. He had to stick it out. There was no going back now.

  The music started. Even though everything about him was telling him to run, he stood his ground. Then he saw Lana and everything that told him to flee was silenced in one quick moment.

  In fact, he forgot to breathe.

  Oh, my God.

  She was beautiful.

  Breathtaking.

  And he knew then and there that he was in big trouble.

  Dr. Haole was beaming as he walked Lana down the aisle toward him. Lana, under the veil, seemed a bit shell-shocked. It looked as if he wasn’t the only one who was unsure and terrified. A smile crept across his face and then he just couldn’t stop smiling as she came closer.

  Suddenly he was ridiculously happy and he didn’t know why and couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this happy.

  “You’re an idiot!” Meghan had screeched happily as they’d walked out of the movie theater.

  “Oh, come on, you’re happy to have me home, admit it!” He’d slung his arm around his sister.

  “I am. I’ve missed you. It’s been terrible here.”

  “Well, that will all change. You’ll come back to Vancouver now that you’re going to school there. You can live with me. I’ll take care of you, Meghan.”

  “Promise?”

  “I promise.”

  Only he’d broken that promise that night.

  He wouldn’t break his promise to Jack.

  When Dr. Haole placed Lana’s hand in his, hers was trembling.

  “You okay?” Andrew whispered as her father stepped away.

  “Perhaps.” Then she smiled. “What happened to our simple wedding at City Hall?”

  “Nothing about us is simple, it seems,” he teased.

  They both laughed at that, melting away all the tension and uncertainty about what they were about to do. The officiant stepped up and began the ceremony. Andrew was only half listening. All he could think about was how beautiful Lana was.

  She glowed.

  He wasn’t sure if it was the waning sunlight or the dress, but all Andrew could think about was that she was going to be his wife.

  Mine.

  Only she wasn’t his. There would be no honeymoon. No night of passion between them. Even if he wanted it. Lana would only be his on paper. He would never be able to take her in his arms and make love to her. This deal wasn’t forever. There was an end date.

  An expiry.

  “Do you, Andrew Francis Tremblay, take Iolana Sarah Haole as your lawfully wedded wife?”

  “I do.” It shocked him how easily the words came out. He had been worried he wouldn’t be able to say it so smoothly when it was all a lie.

  “Do you, Iolana Sarah Haole, take Andrew Francis Tremblay as your lawfully wedded husband?”

  “I do,” she whispered. She squeezed his hand after she said the words, as if she too had been worried about the vows. It was nice not to feel alone.

  “Do you have the rings?” the officiant asked.

  Jack handed him her wedding ring, while her stepmother handed her a gold band that would be his. He slipped the band on her finger and she slipped the thick gold band on his hand. It was heavy. It felt awkward. Like a shackle.

  “Then, by the power invested in me by the State of Hawaii, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss your bride.”

  His pulse roared in his ears as he lifted the veil.

  Just one kiss to seal it. That’s all.

  Her dark eyes were twinkling in the twilight. They were wide as she looked at him. He’d wanted to do this. He wanted this, badly. So he cupped her face and bent his head down to kiss her. Electric heat, like a burn, moved through him. And he knew as the kiss ended and everyone clapped that one kiss would never be enough.

  * * *

  Lana was still in a daze as Andrew took her hand and they moved down the aisle. People were tossing flower petals at them. The memory of Andrew’s kiss was still burned into the flesh of her lips. The thing was, she wanted more.

  Every time she got closer to Andrew, the more she wanted. She glanced down at her hand to see the wedding band and it shocked her. She’d only got her engagement ring last night at the gala and now she had a wedding band on her hand. It felt foreign, but she liked the look of it as well—and she’d thought she would never wear a wedding band, because she had no interest in the idea of matrimony.

  Or at least didn’t think that it would happen.

  “You’re still shaking,” he said as they headed down the path to the tent on the golf course overlooking the ocean where their reception was
waiting.

  “I think I’m in a bit of shock. Did that really just happen?” she asked.

  “I’m afraid so.” He kissed her hand as they walked the path. “Thank you, by the way.”

  “For what?”

  “For marrying me.” And he was serious. This wasn’t a tease or a light-hearted moment. This was a moment of sincerity, which made her stomach flip flop with anticipation. She didn’t know what to say, but could feel blood rushing to her cheeks and she looked away.

  “No problem.”

  “You’re stuck with me now,” he teased, which eased the tension.

  “I could say the same. Thank you for the ring, by the way. Both the rings.”

  “You deserve it.” They waited outside as the rest of the guests filtered in from a different direction. “Your stepmother went all-out.”

  “I told you that she would. It’s her profession and I guess I’m her showpiece.”

  “A luau, though? I thought your father didn’t like the gimmicky touristy things people expect about Hawaii.”

  “Usually, but he likes luaus. What my father wants he gets,” Lana sighed. She’d really had no say in it all. Ever since Andrew had announced their engagement in the staff meeting, it had felt as if she didn’t have much say in a whole lot of things. Her father had taken over—as usual. Her whole life, she had been dictated to.

  All she’d wanted was a simple wedding. She hadn’t even picked out her dress.

  You didn’t even want this, though.

  Which was true, so she shouldn’t be saddened by her father planning it. It wasn’t real after all.

  “What did you want?” Andrew asked and it surprised her he asked. No one ever asked her what she wanted. She didn’t know what to say.

  “City Hall.”

  He chuckled. “No, I mean what did you really want? What did you dream about as a young girl?”

  That was something she hadn’t thought about or even entertained since she was about ten years old. She’d forgotten about those dreams. That was when her mother was around still and she could just be a kid.

  Since her mother left she’d really let go of all her childhood memories. All those hopes and dreams and the make-believe. When her mother left was when she grew more pragmatic. That was when she’d started playing peacekeeper and parent. It was when she’d had to grow up.