A Nanny for the Cowboy Read online

  “You’re sure he’s not in any danger?” he asked.

  “Only if we ignore the symptoms,” Paige answered, “And we aren’t doing that. He’ll be in good hands, Luke—I promise.”

  Admitting to himself that he’d probably been luckier than a lot of other parents, he nodded. Things had been pretty easy with Brayden. “I know that. So what do we do when we get there?”

  “Take him in through the emergency room entrance. They’ll check him over before taking him to a room in pediatrics.”

  “I’m familiar with the pediatrics unit,” Hayley told Luke, “and it’s great.”

  “I have no doubt he’ll get excellent care,” Paige assured him. “They know where to reach me if needed, although I doubt that will happen.”

  “Then let’s get going,” Luke said, picking up his sleeping son from the examining table.

  “Take an extra blanket,” Paige said, reaching into a drawer beneath the exam table. Handing it to Luke, she put her hand on his shoulder. “Drive safely and stay within the speed limit. If this was an emergency, I’d call the fire station and have them send the ambulance. Okay?”

  “I promise to keep us all safe.”

  Paige followed them out to the car and waved as they drove away. In the backseat, Brayden was snuggled in his car seat, sound asleep. As Luke pulled out into the street, he turned to Hayley. “Here’s hoping they get him well, fast.”

  Chapter Eight

  While Luke filled out the necessary paperwork at the main desk, Hayley waited with Brayden in the examining room of the hospital’s emergency center. She had no qualms about the care from the nurses. She knew and had worked with several of them, including the one who was taking Brayden’s vitals and charting them.

  “Poor baby,” the nurse crooned. “We’ll get you well real soon, sweetie.”

  Before Hayley could ask about his temperature, another nurse she knew from nursing school stepped into the room to stand beside her.

  “Hayley, how do you keep from just gobbling him up?”

  “He is a little sweetheart,” she answered. “But—”

  Tammy leaned closer. “Not to mention that his daddy isn’t hard on the eyes. Don’t tell me things haven’t been...well, interesting.”

  Hayley had worked enough with Tammy in the past to know that she was famous for starting rumors with simple innuendos that could quickly grow to epic proportions. She needed to stop even the slightest hint of gossip immediately. “I’m Brayden’s nanny, Tammy,” she answered. “His father is my boss and I’m his employee. That’s it. Nothing more.”

  “Then you’re not nearly the woman I thought you were when we were in school.”

  Hayley had had enough. “That’s unprofessional of you to say, and you know it. That little boy over there,” she said, pointing to Brayden, “is very sick, so unless you’re here to assist Shirley with vitals and charting, please leave.”

  Tammy opened her mouth as if to argue, but then shrugged and left the room, without another word. Hayley could only hope she’d nipped any talk in the bud, but she wasn’t counting on it.

  “Good for you,” the nurse looking over Brayden said.

  Hayley turned and tried for a smile. “Thanks, Shirley, but it probably didn’t do much good.”

  Shrugging, Shirley jotted notes on the chart, then set it aside and turned to Hayley. “She’s a good nurse. One of the best. But she needs to take some lessons in how to keep her mouth shut and her nose out of other people’s business.”

  Hayley couldn’t have agreed more, but was saved from saying so when Luke walked in.

  “How’s he doing?” he asked her.

  She looked at the other nurse. “Shirley?”

  “All I can tell you is that his temp is still elevated. The doctor should be here any minute, and I’m sure he’ll—”

  As if on cue, the door opened and a tall, smiling man walked in. “I heard you were here, Hayley.”

  Surprised to see her favorite doctor, she flashed him a bright smile. “I see you’re still determined to become a doctor.”

  He laughed and extended a hand to Luke. “Dr. Derek Hunt. Hayley and I worked together for several months.”

  Luke glanced at Hayley as he took the offered hand. “Luke Walker. Brayden—the patient—is my son.”

  “I’m Brayden’s nanny,” Hayley explained.

  “And I’ll bet you’re good at it,” he replied. “So let’s take a look at this little guy.”

  After a thorough exam and a dozen questions asked and answered, he stepped back. “The chart says he was referred by a Dr. O’Brien in... Desperation?”

  Luke, standing near by, cleared his throat. “Dr. Paige O’Brien.”

  “I’m not familiar with the name or the town.”

  “About an hour drive from here.”

  He nodded again and put the chart aside, looking past Luke and directly at Hayley. “What drew you to a small town? From what I remember, you’d vowed never to live near one again.”

  She looked at Luke, and then back again at Derek. “I’m working there at Luke—at Mr. Walker’s ranch, caring for Brayden.”

  “So you’ve given up on your plan to become a PA?”

  “Not at all,” she announced, glancing again at Luke, who appeared to be engrossed in the conversation. “I hope to be finishing my masters this spring, and then I’ll be looking for the right place to work.”

  Derek leaned back against the examining table, while he made notes in the patient chart. “I’m glad to hear it. I always said you had what it takes.”

  Embarrassed by the praise, Hayley answered with a smile. “Thank you. I appreciate your faith in me, Derek.” When Brayden began to fuss, she moved to pick him up. “I’m assuming you’re going to admit him,” she said, glancing at Brayden in her arms.

  “Of course.” He straightened and put the chart aside. “We’ll do a blood test, after we get him to his room, but I suspect this is bacterial. We’ll put him on an IV to ward off any more dehydration and to administer antibiotics, if it is bacterial, and keep him here a day or so, depending on how he does.” He turned to Luke, who stood silent and solemn by the door. “Once we know he’s in the clear and on the mend, he can go home.”

  “Thanks,” Luke replied.

  Derek started for the door, but stopped as he reached for the handle. “I’ll have a nurse take you up to pediatrics. It’s great seeing you again, Hayley. Maybe we can grab a cup of coffee the next time you’re in the area.”

  “That would be nice.”

  When the doctor was gone, Luke walked across the room and took a fussing Brayden from her. “You and the doctor obviously know each other real well,” he said, after trying to calm his son.

  “Everybody knows everybody in a hospital,” she said with a shrug. “It’s like a small town. Or maybe even a family. I can honestly say that Dr. Hunt is one of the best doctors here, not to mention a nice person. And I’m not the only one who thinks so.”

  Luke nodded, but didn’t look directly at her. “He seems to know what he’s doing.”

  The conversation was interrupted by a young, auburn-haired nurse, who held the door open for the orderly with a gurney. “Is this Brayden?” she asked. Luke assured her that it was and that he was Brayden’s father. “We’ll take him up to his room now,” she said.

  Brayden took one look at the rolling bed and let out a scream that would curdle cream. Luke tried to calm him down with, “Look at the neat bed,” bu
t Brayden was having none of it. Even Hayley couldn’t stop what bordered on hysteria.

  After sending the orderly and the gurney on their way, the nurse turned with a smile. “Don’t worry about it. It happens. Sometimes little ones just don’t like it. We do have an alternative, though.”

  Luke looked at Hayley before asking, “What’s that?”

  “If you’d like to get into the wheelchair, you can hold him on your lap.”

  “I’ll let Hayley ride in the chair with him,” Luke said.

  Knowing she wouldn’t be allowed to go up to the floor with them, Hayley quickly shook her head. “No, Luke. It would be better if you take him.”

  With a shrug, he took a seat in the chair, and Hayley settled Brayden on his lap. The little boy’s terror quickly subsided to quiet sobs, as he buried his face in Luke’s chest.

  “We’ll have him tucked into bed and feeling better in no time,” the nurse assured him.

  “I see there have been some updates made to the building,” Hayley said, as they stepped into the hall.

  “A few since you worked here,” the nurse answered, then gave Hayley a sheepish smile. “Oh, I’m sorry, but I know who you are. I’d just started nursing school when you were accepted into the PA program. There was quite a lot of excitement among the nurses who knew you.”

  Hayley wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. Either way, she wasn’t someone who liked being in the limelight, so she changed the subject as they moved down the hallway. “What’s the patient load like right now?”

  “Because of cuts, we’re shorthanded, but there aren’t as many patients as we had a couple of months ago.”

  Hayley nodded. “It ebbs and flows.”

  “Do you miss it?”

  It wasn’t a question Hayley thought about often, so it took her by surprise. “Sometimes,” she admitted, “but I think I’m going to enjoy working with doctors, instead of for them.”

  The nurse laughed, and then hurried ahead of them to push the elevator button. “I’m Amy,” she said when they reached her. “There’s a recliner in the room, Mr. Walker, if you plan to stay the night. And blankets in the closet behind the door, if you need them.”

  Hayley felt Luke watching her, and she suspected she knew why.

  “We’ll both be staying,” he said.

  Hayley started to answer, but Amy spoke first. “I’m sorry, Mr. Walker, but Miss Brooks can’t stay.”

  “What do you mean, she can’t stay?

  “She isn’t a family member.”

  “Well, that’s damn crazy,” he announced from his position in the wheelchair. “She’s a nurse, and I’ll feel better if she’s here with my son.”

  “She’ll be able to visit tomorrow during visiting hours.”

  “That doesn’t make sense.”

  Hayley decided it was time to intervene. “Luke, she’s a nurse,” she explained. “It isn’t her job to make the rules, only enforce them.”

  His eyes narrowed. “I didn’t know you wouldn’t be allowed to stay, but I guess you did.”

  “Yes, I knew.”

  “And you didn’t tell me.”

  She felt as frustrated as he obviously did. “I never really gave it any thought. He’ll be fine,” she reminded him. “What’s important is that you’ll be there. I’ll be back in the morning, and you can always call me if you have questions.”

  Her words didn’t seem to ease his concern, but he nodded. “Where are you going to go? It’s late, and I don’t think you should drive back to the ranch alone.”

  When the elevator door opened, Amy held it for them. Hayley smiled at his concern. “It’s only an hour drive. I’ll be fine.”

  “All right,” he said, “but be careful.”

  “I will. Now get Brayden up to his room, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  He nodded, then reached for her hand and held it, thumb caressing the tops of her fingers. “Thank you, Hayley.”

  Far too aware of his touch, she eased her hand from his. “You’d better get going.”

  “Yeah.” He glanced up at the nurse and nodded. “Yeah, we’d better get going.”

  Amy backed the chair into the elevator. Just as the doors began to close, Hayley saw Luke’s tired smile, and he waved. Returning the wave, she sighed, feeling as if she’d run a marathon. If the pounding of her heart had been the only indication, she might have.

  Outside in the cool night air, she looked up at the sky, studded with stars. It was going to be a long night.

  * * *

  LUKE SPENT A RESTLESS night next to Brayden’s hospital bed in a recliner that was a twin to the one that had belonged to his dad. Even now, his dad’s recliner still had a place in the house where he and his brother and sister had grown up. He decided that memories may have had something to do with his fitful dreams that had included bits and pieces of his childhood and the parents he’d lost fifteen years earlier.

  At some point during the predawn hours, he heard a nurse say softly that Brayden’s fever had broken and his temperature was slowly going down. Luke wasn’t sure if he’d said anything to her or not, but when he awakened a few hours later to his son’s constant demands to see “Haywee,” he knew the little guy was on the mend. And he couldn’t remember when he’d ever felt so relieved.

  Hayley arrived after Brayden had finished his breakfast, and she seemed as relieved as Luke felt. “I doubt we could have done what they’ve done here at the hospital to turn him around so quickly,” she said when she heard the news.

  “He’s on antibiotics for what they’ve decided was a touch of bronchitis,” Luke explained. “They said he’s already beginning to respond to those, too.”

  Hayley leaned down and gave Brayden a long hug. “I missed you,” she told him, “and I’m so glad you’re better this morning!”

  “Go,” he answered, his lower lip pushed out and a deep frown on his face. “Wanna go.”

  “Not yet, buddy,” Luke told him, looking at Hayley. “If he takes his meds without giving them any trouble, they said he’d have a better chance of going home soon.”

  She nodded. “It does make a difference, and I know he’ll be good,” she said, before turning to Brayden. “Won’t you?”

  “No!”

  Luke and Hayley both laughed. “Oh, he’ll take them, all right,” Luke said. “I don’t want to spend many more nights in that torture thing they call a chair.”

  “Recliners are nice for short naps, but they weren’t made for all-nighters.”

  “I’d be crazy to argue,” he answered, reaching around to his back and faking a groan. When she laughed, he felt better...about his back and everything, and laughed with her. “You’re amazing,” he said, then wished he could take it back when he saw the crimson on her cheeks.

  She walked to the window, before she spoke again. “Did they give you any indication of when he might get to come home, other than soon?”

  “When his temperature is normal and the antibiotics have kicked in.”

  “That’s good news.”

  He couldn’t have agreed more. He’d talked to Dylan earlier and explained that he wouldn’t be around to do chores for a couple of days. When he’d explained why, his brother had voiced his concern that Brayden was going to be okay. He’d assured Dylan that the trip to the hospital might have made the difference between a sick little boy and a very sick one. He had Hayley to thank for that. She’d remained calm when he’d nearly lost his cool. While he’d known what t
o do, she’d been the one who had made sure that he followed through and did it. And he needed to let her know how much he appreciated her and everything she did. He just wasn’t sure how to do that.

  By the next day, Brayden was released, with instructions to see Dr. O’Brien in a week for a quick checkup to make sure everything was all right. As Luke watched Hayley help Brayden dress for the trip home, he noticed how quickly his son seemed to tire. The fever and infection had taken a toll on the boy, causing him to lose his usually sunny disposition. Hayley wasn’t going to have an easy time of it, until Brayden was back to normal, and Luke wondered what he could do to make things easier for her, in the meantime.

  The trip back to the ranch was at first a little noisy, with Brayden voicing his complaints from the backseat. Even though he was getting better, he wasn’t one hundred percent and would have to take it easy for a few days.

  Once they were home and Brayden was settled in his bed, surrounded by his favorite toys and with an array of healthy snacks and a drink at his side, the first thing he did was fall asleep. His long eyelashes nearly hid the dark circles under his eyes that Luke hoped would soon be gone. Until they were, he wouldn’t rest easy about his son’s health.

  As if she could read his mind, Hayley said, “He’s out of danger, Luke. He’ll be back to normal by the end of the week.”

  “Yeah, I suppose he will,” he answered. At the moment and except for those barely noticeable circles, Brayden looked rested and healthy. But he wasn’t. Even a few days was too long to wait to see him bouncing around the house again or have him hanging on his legs. Luke missed both already.

  Downstairs again, he took a seat at the counter. “It’ll be an early night for me, that’s for sure.”

  “I hope it won’t be a late night for me, either.” Reaching into the refrigerator, she produced two glasses of tea.

  “Why would it be?”

  Placing his glass within his reach, she took a seat at the end of the counter and tipped her head to the side, a quizzical expression on her face. “Why, because it’s Monday.”