Page 1 of Waiting for Devon
Chapter One
Devon gazed withconcern at the Dalton baby being monitored in the pediatric ER unit of San Francisco General Hospital. “Page me immediately if the fever gets any higher, Jill. I’ll be in my office.”
“Yes, Dr. Brooks,” Jill answered and accepted the chart Devon handed to her.
After a lingering glance at the infant, Devon headed through the covered breezeway to the attached medical building that housed her office. As she stepped inside, her eyes widened in shock when she recognized the man standing beside her desk. Every muscle in her body tensed. She never expected to see him again nor did she want to, especially today.
He turned to face her. “You’re using your maiden name. I thought I made it clear I didn’t mind if you continued to use mine.”
“We’re divorced,” she said as she closed the door behind her. “I want no reminders of youorour marriage. Why are you here, Jack? Why today?”
“So you remember.” His eyes searched hers, perhaps for some sign of the love they once shared.
“Yes, I remember. Our divorce was final a year ago today. What are you looking for? A trip down memory lane?”
“I remember a lot of things about us.” Jack’s eyes caressed her.
“I’ll tell you what I remember. I remember how you turned your back on me after I miscarried our baby.”
“A mistake I regret.”
“I remember how you wouldn’t talk to me, wouldn’t look at me, and wouldn’t touch me after I had experienced the worst loss of my life.”
“I didn’t know how to comfort you.”
“You blamed me and hated me for losing our child.”
Jack expelled his breath. “I was grieving. Can’t you understand how much pain I felt?”
“You’re askingmethat? I felt our baby growing and moving inside me for months! When I felt its tiny spirit slipping away, I thought my soul was being ripped from my body. I grieved for our child.Alone.”
“Devon,” Jack began, his tone earnest, “let’s forget the past. My life hasn’t been the same without you. I think about you constantly. I can’t eat or sleep. I want you back. Please, can’t we try again?”
“No. Absolutely not. You killed any feelings I had for you a long time ago. Please, Jack. Just leave.”
Jack strode toward her. He reached out and caressed Devon’s neck. “I remember how good it was between us.” Without warning, he bent his head and took possession of Devon’s lips.
The familiarity of his mouth moving against hers brought the past rushing back in a flood of painful memories. Memories of the life they’d once shared. Working side by side and planning their future family. Devon had fought hard to forget those memories, and now they overwhelmed her with sorrow and regret. She pushed him away and dragged her hand across her mouth. “You had no right to do that, Jack.”
“No? How long has it been since you were kissed like that?”
Devon gasped in outrage, and her palms itched to slap him. “Get out of my office, Dr. Taylor!” She yanked open the door.
“Okay, that was unfair. I shouldn’t have made such a stupid remark. I’m not going to give up this easily, though,” Jack warned her. “You know how persistent I can be when I want something.”
Heart pounding in fury, Devon slammed the door after him. Before she could gather her wits, Jill called her. “You’re needed back in the ER, Dr. Brooks.”
“I’ll be right there.”
After working ahectic ten-hour shift, Devon took a dinner break. At four-thirty in the afternoon, she left the ER. With her tablet tucked beneath her arm, she crossed Mulberry Street. Adjacent from the hospital was a pleasant outdoor café where she enjoyed eating. She found her usual table, and a waiter came to take her order of a chef salad and a glass of water. She released her hair from its usual messy bun and ran her fingers through a heavy mass of loose curls that fell well past her shoulders. For a few minutes she planned to lose herself in a novel she’d been reading on her tablet and put Jack out of her mind.
Shane Barrington strodewith brisk steps down Mulberry Street after leaving a successful business meeting at a branch of his family’s business, Barrington Industries. His eyes narrowed in thoughtful consideration.
During his extended business trip, he’d been boasting to his family about hisfiancée, whom his father, Jasper, expected to meettoday. Shane couldn’t believe out of all the women he knew not a single one agreed to pretend to be engaged to him. They called him a jerk and a nutcase and threatened to tell his father, especially when he offered them money.
He didn’t understand why a simple proposition had to be so difficult. These situations always worked out in romance novels and in Hallmark movies. Though in his case, he had no intention of falling in love with his fake fiancée. Shane’s heart belonged to Alana Turner. If not for Jasper’s high expectations of a future Barrington bride, Shane would have proposed to the love of his life already. He’d learned at a young age, however, that love was never enough for a Barrington. Social prestige came with the name, and Alana was only a teller in one of his father’s banks.
Damn you, Dad, for being so tyrannical and unreasonable. Why can’t I have the woman I love and BI, too?
