The Billionaire's Second Chance (10 page)

With that, Dr. Surfer Dude patted Shannon on the shoulder, assured her that she was going to be fine and then left in search of the nurse, giving directions the whole way as he walked out the door.

Needing something to do and not being able to just stand idly by while someone else took care of his woman ….. wait a minute. Did he just think that? Yes, yes he did.
Nick sprang into action and went to the array of light switches by the door of the exam room. Testing all of them, he ended up clicking off two which still left the whole space illuminated but got rid of the high intense glare right over Shannon’s head.

“Maybe a little less light would help.” he said
quietly
as he moved closer to where she lay on the white sheeted bed looking pale as death and in an awful lot of pain.

Before even so much as another minute went by a very well-organized and matter-of-fact nurse bustled into their room pushing a cart of first aid supplies and immediately set about tending to the bruised knee, the scraped hands and of course the gash on her shoulder. The gash required Shannon to unbutton her blouse, her adorable cowgirl blouse, and slip one arm out as she protectively clutched the rest of the shirt to her front in defensive modesty.

Wishing to give her a little sense of privacy and also not wanting to get caught out staring at what he could suddenly see of her voluptuous breasts barely held in by a white lace bra, Nick placed himself at the head of the examining bed and watched while the nurse very, very carefully cleaned what ended up being a superficial gash on her shoulder which luckily did not require sutures.

The nurse, assuming he must be a boyfriend or husband, was talking to him in very matter-of-fact terms describing in specific detail how to manage the wound since there was no way she would be able to do it herself as it was on her shoulder and in a place she wouldn’t have been able to reach.

Shannon wanted to be angry that he was suddenly completely involved in even the smallest details of her care until she remembered that it was she who had reached for him when the Doctor questioned who he was.

Somehow he managed to cut right through all the red tape of caution which surrounded her life these last eight years. If her head didn’t hurt so much she’d certainly want to give that thought a bit more breathing room but right now all she cared about was where the loopy medication was that she’d been promised.

Less than a minute later a pair of orderlies appeared in the doorway with a wheelchair to take Shannon to the x-ray room. Having already discovered there was no way Shannon could sit in a wheelchair because it caused her too much pain
, Nick stepped in and spoke quietly to the medical staff
to
ascertain
if there was another way to get her down to the x-ray room.

In a heartbeat a special orthopedic wheelchair materialized and the two orderlies had her out of bed and into that wheelchair completely pain free, down to the x-ray department for a series of scans and then back in her private exam room in the blink of an eye.

Somewhere in that process they must have given her something for the pain because she did appear somewhat more relaxed upon her return. Not necessarily loopy but certainly less cross than she had been. In fact she may even have smiled at him when she came back into the room but it all happened so quick Nick couldn’t be sure.

In short order Dr. Surfer Dude reappeared to let her know what the x-ray showed. The good news was the ankle wasn’t broken; the bad news was it was quite deeply bruised. His instructions were pretty straightforward; stay off of it completely for forty-eight hours, as in don’t even put it down.  She was instructed not to do anything for herself; and if she did that he could almost guarantee that within a couple of days she would be able to walk without assistance. Oh yeah, that and she was going to need crutches and someone to wait on her hand and foot for the next 48 hours.

When Shannon heard this she all but panicked. Who would take care of her? Her own family was thousands of miles away. Rory worked for her and was in no way responsible for her personally and she couldn’t ask for her help because Rory would need to take care of the business. So who else was there? What the hell was she going to do?

Mister
I’m here to take charge of everything
stepped forward right at that moment and let them both understand in no uncertain terms that he would be handling this entire situation. Whatever was needed to assist Shannon, he would provide. He would make sure that she was off her feet for the prescribed amount of time. He would make sure that she followed doctor’s orders. He would make sure that everything was fine.
Oh great
.

It certainly hadn’t taken long after that for him to arrange for Shannon’s release from the clinic and for transport to her bungalow in one of the canyons above Malibu. 

Shannon was having her ankle wrapped and braced for comfort and stability while he was pinning down the specific details of having crutches and a ridiculously vast assortment of home medical supplies for every possible need delivered to her home.  Somewhere in the midst of all that he
had the
thought that here he was all but taking over her life and until the woman at the front desk had noted Shannon’s address from her intake information, he hadn’t a clue where she lived.  It was a surreal feeling to be overwhelmed in an in
stant; consumed by her nearness,
feeling oddly connected,
deeply
connected while at the same time having absolutely zero knowledge of who she was today.
Connect and
disconnect,
new territory to navigate for him.

By the time his vehicle was brought to the clinic door and Nick had returned to her room to help move her to the car, she was in full, loopy,
I am woman hear me roar
mode; jumping all over him and insisting she didn’t need his help the moment his face appeared in the doorway.

“I know how to take care of myself Nick Temple!” she growled. “I do not want you to put yourself out for me.” she declared with more snark than she actually felt while inwardly cringing at her reflexive use of his shortened name.  It galled her that he thought he knew what was best for her.  She’d never been very good at being bitchy and she was all but certain whatever they’d given her for the pain was making any bite she hoped
to convey with
her words
to come off
more
like soft pillows.

Nick assessed in an instant what was going on and tried not to smile. The medication she’d been given was making her decidedly goofy and she was obviously trying to keep him at arm’s length, a realization which brought another wave of guilt washing over Nick as he considered that she’d actually rather be in pain and helpless than to lower her defenses and just let him help. While his heart sank a bit, he decided to put on his
I’m the boss
face and tried to reason with the injured, over-wrought female glaring at him who was flying high at the moment.

“Shannon, I know perfectly well that you can indeed take care of yourself. I remember an occasion when some tribal elders butted heads with you over schooling arrangements for the girls and from the way they ended up doing your bidding, I and everyone else, was relatively certain that Shannon Reynolds was a force to be reckoned with and one smart
lady
who could take care of herself!”

He watched with some satisfaction as the memory he had thrown down leapt to life in her mind, connecting them in this awkward moment to a shared experience from the past.

Feeling that he had most if not all of her attention now he
continued on,
“You’re hurt and it’s my fault.
  I’ve got this. You just concentrate on following medical advice
.
” he
insisted
while declaring that she was in no condition to take care of herself. 

Even in her fuzzy around the edges condition, Shannon realized this was the second time he had used the phrase that she was hurt and it was his fault. The thought that he was martyring himself because she was injured and this accident was some sort of metaphor for what he’d done to her the last time they’d talked ate at her and brought waves of confusion to the air around them.

On the one hand Shannon wanted nothing more than to get away from him for her own good. His presence was stirring up the past and confusing her grasp on the present circumstances.  Adding to that was the understanding that the last thing she wanted was any attention from him based on a guilty conscience from the past.  He’d declared her unworthy of his attention eight years ago and she highly doubted that
though
dressed
as she was
like a children’s book character
and
completely helpless
,
his
previous
belief
was
any less valid.

Lost and confounded in emotional thoughts, Shannon eyes him warily as Nick closed in on her like a laser guided missile.  With a tender sweetness in his delivery he tried to comfort her by losing the
I’m the boss
face
,
saying
,
“Shannon, I know you’d like nothing better than to curl up in your own bed, in your own surroundings and heal, but if you don’t shut that pretty little mouth of yours and just let me handle the details I’ll drag your unwilling butt to my hotel suite and be done with it.  I am not letting you out of my sight while you can’t take care of yourself so get over it.” he said with an increasingly irritated growl; something she remembered about him from so long ago that signified his frustration whenever something impeded his alpha male drive. 

“Oh, and by the way, you are still adorable when you pout so not letting you have your own way, well…” he said with a slight grin that allowed those bone-melting dimples of his to make a brief appearance
and thereby
unsettling her already shredded composure.  That she had called him Nick Temple and not his full given name at the start of this little tirade
probably told
him a lot about where her mind and emotions were.

Although embroiled in a present tense situation, the past hung heavily in the air like the thick smoke of a night time bonfire, every breath a pungent reminder of things from long ago which cannot simply be blown away by force of will alone.

They needed some fresh air.  They needed a chance to breathe again. He needed to give that opportunity to her, time to take some deep breaths. Clear the air and hopefully, god willing, take advantage of this unbelievable second chance the universe had placed squarely in front of them.
Hell, they hadn’t accidently bumped in to each other; they’d
collided
, literally, and the fall-out of that metaphorical crash indicated more than just a benevolent universe pointing the way. No, they’d been hurled at each for a reason
. Only a fool would have missed the significance and the promise which that fact revealed.

First he had to get her safely home and settled and then he needed to think through a plan to win her back because now that she had
crossed
his path, he was never letting her go again. He wasn’t going to be a fool twice. She was the only woman for him and if not her then there’d be nobody. She made him feel alive and since that particular
sentiment
had been seriously lacking in his life
from
the moment he had sent her away, there was absolutely no way he was walking away from that or letting her go without trying everything in his power to fix the mess he had wrought. Of that much he was certain.

With that settled firmly in his mind he got her moved comfortably from the private exam room and buckled her into the luxurious SUV, making sure her well-being was assured before taking the driver’s seat and getting them underway.

Shannon sat there, rolling over and over in her head what Nick has said about being adorable when she pouted. It took some time for the light to flash on above her fuzzy head once she realized what he said.

Had he been flirting with her she wondered? Why would he flirt with her she questioned because after all hadn’t
he
been the one to declare that she’d been of no consequence in his life? Flirting in that light seemed a bit like overkill.

Thankful that her headache had backed off considerably, she was certain that she had a firm enough grasp on what was happening to know that he was indeed flirting with that comment, the thought bringing a rush of heated pleasure climbing up from her toes to the top of her head. Even though she needed to appear immune to him she was disconcerted once again to realize that her heart
,
which had been in hibernation for a long, long time
,
seemed to be sputtering back to life with his reappearance in her normally calm and controlled world.

The boy she knew was now a serious adult, a grown man in every way those words applied.  Reluctant to look at his face for fear he’d be watching her, she
cast
a
downward gaze on anything other than the pull of his presence as the car made its way into the canyons around Los Angeles.