Page 14 of Rules of the Heart

“Fuck, fuck, fuck—Ella, get over here! I need your hands.”

Ella didn’t hesitate. She handed her scalpel over to the most senior resident, who could easily finish closing the brain up for her and hurried over to stand opposite Valerie.

“Where do you need me?”

“There’s a piece of shrapnel tearing up the carotid artery. Shit, I can’t believe I missed it. We should have made time for a scan.”

“If we did a scan before coming into surgery, he’d have been dead when he arrived!”

Even as they spoke, they were working. Ella was frantically stitching up the damage the shrapnel did as it moved, while Valerie was desperately trying to clamp the artery above it to stop it from causing further damage.

“Ha! Okay, you little bugger. Come to Momma.”

She got it. Ella couldn’t believe it as Valerie clamped the artery with one hand and made a small hole with a pair of plies with the other, pulling the shrapnel out in one swift motion.

It was so hot, it made Ella’s knees weak, and she was forced to lock them to stop herself from swaying on the spot. Swaying on the spot right now would be fatal for her patient, and she wasnotgoing to let a patient die because she was inappropriately turned on during surgery.

Valerie started stitching the artery from the opposite direction, and she and Ella met in the middle. Their gloved fingers brushed, and it felt like a tingle of electricity went through Ella’s whole body at that touch.

She looked up at Valerie and found Valerie staring at her. They gazed into each other’s eyes for several long moments before one of the nurses cleared her throat.

Ella and Valerie jumped apart. Ella felt her face reddening as she went back up to the patient’s head to check her resident’swork. Finding no problems with it, she went to scrub out, a grin on her face.

This was why she did what she did. This was why she had worked so hard to get where she was—to save the patients that no one else could save. To feel like she was really making a difference.

Valerie came to scrub next to her. Ella half expected some criticism or the other. She was so used to fighting with Valerie that Valerie’s next words took her completely by surprise.

“You did a really good job in there, Ella. He wouldn’t have survived without you.”

“I—thanks, Valerie. He wouldn’t have survived without you either.”

Valerie nodded. She dried her hands and reached forward for a strand of hair that had come out of Ella’s scrub cap in all the chaos. She tucked it back behind Ella’s ear. Ella watched her with bated breath, wondering what would come next.

“Get some rest, Ella. You’ve earned it.”

Then Valerie turned and left, letting the door swing closed behind her.

Ella stared after her, flummoxed. What was that?

Such a display of tenderness was completely uncharacteristic from Valerie. Was she perhaps usually more prone to affection after intense surgeries? It could be her way of releasing stress and pent-up adrenaline. Yes, that made sense. It was the only theory that did. Unless… Could it be that Valerie was softening toward Ella?

Ella had to admit that she was tired of the constant fighting. If she and Valerie could just get along… but Valerie was so darn rigid, she didn’t see them getting along any time soon. Ella had never played well by the rules, and Valerie seemed to thrive on the rules. They were just too different… too different for anything ever to work between them.

If only Valerie was less attractive—actually, no. A few weeks ago, Ella might have thought that would solve the problem, but now, she wasn’t sure. She was attracted to Valerie for more than her looks. She loved how passionate Valerie was about her patients.

She had watched Valerie interacting with various patients in the clinic. She had a calming, gentle manner about her. She could be fiery when it came to fighting for what she believed in, but she could also be soothing and comforting when the situation called for it.

If only Valerie could get over her thing about rules, Ella thought they could be good friends—maybe even more than that.

Valerie didn’t seem to be getting over her thing about the rules any time soon, though. Ella would just have to deal with the situation as it was. She hadn’t gotten to where she was by dealing in wishes and whims. The work of a surgeon was rooted in hard, cold reality.

She didn’t see Valerie much over the next few days and wondered if Valerie was avoiding her. Of course, that was probably just Ella being paranoid and self-centered. Valerie was a busy woman, and it was only natural that their paths didn’t intersect for a few days at a time.

Ella kept doing her job, and the work fulfilled her, but it felt like these days, half of her mind was always occupied by Valerie. It was stupid, letting one woman—a woman who probably wasn’t even interested in her—get under her skin so much, but Ella couldn’t help it.

Every time she found herself in a surgery with a patient who had complications with their heart, she waited with bated breath for Valerie to appear, but it was always a different cardio surgeon. Valerie had a busy time managing the whole surgical department and, of course, she needed to delegate surgeries toother surgeons, but Ella still couldn’t suppress the feeling that Valerie was avoiding her.

Well, sooner or later, they would need to work together again. Then, maybe Ella could get a proper read on what Valerie was thinking.

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