One Special Kiss

Susannah Mercer worked tirelessly for years to reach her ultimate goal – becoming a doctor.

Now that she’s finally living her dream, all that’s missing is romance.

When the chief of staff pairs her with grumpy surgeon Greg Haversham for an important hospital event, she gets a bit overzealous with trying to look sophisticated.

To Susannah's surprise, the cantankerous doctor offers to help her land a date.

Then to her shock, Greg finds himself drawn to her–but only for an affair. He’s sworn off relationships forever.

While he isn’t looking for something serious, she is. The only option – cut ties with him.

That is until an unlikely turn of events changes Greg's heart forever.

“This is going to be a total disaster,” Susannah Mercer exclaimed, frowning at her reflection in the full-length mirror, nerves churning. Taking a deep, slow breath, she tried to calm her jitters.

“Hey, you’re the one who said you wanted to make Josh jealous,” her friend Cait said, aiming the hair spray at the back of Susannah’s head.

The hiss of the spray sounded before Susannah replied. She held her breath as she was enveloped in the mist. She couldn’t deny Cait’s remark. When she’d first learned Josh Denby had stopped calling because he was seeing someone else, she’d been hurt, and then confused, then angry. She thought they’d be heading for the altar one day. Instead, he was totally involved with someone else.

Stepping away from the mirror, she shook her head.

“Do you think it’ll work? Even though I don’t look a bit like myself in this getup, I’m not sure it’s going to be enough. I wish I was a fabulous fashion model with a figure to die for.”

She frowned again.

“What has me worried about tonight is that I have no business accepting the donation. I’m not sure I should even be going to this presentation banquet. The hospital’s chief administrator should accept. Or the head of Internal Medicine, not some newly appointed doctor of pediatrics.”

“Sally’s family specifically asked for you,” Cait said gently.

Susannah nodded, her eyes filling with tears. She missed her friend so much. It wasn’t fair. She’d died so young. Too young. She had her entire life ahead of her, until a drunk driver had ended it by ramming into her car at over a hundred miles an hour.

“Don’t do that or all your makeup will run and we’ll have to start over,” Cait fussed, touching her shoulder in sympathy.

Susannah looked up at the ceiling, blinking rapidly.

“No time for that. Dr. Haversham will be here any second. And the last thing I plan to do is keep him waiting.”

Cait began to tidy all the bottles and containers she’d brought.

“I can’t believe you’ve worked at the same hospital for six months and you still call him Dr. Haversham. Don’t you have any kind of informality there?”

“Not with him,” Susannah said, stepping in front of the mirror again.

The push-up bra gave her cleavage she’d never expected, and the painted-on dress displayed it for all the world to see. She tried to pull the dress up to a more modest level.

Cait slapped her hand.

“Stop that. It’s fine.”

“I feel I’ve been poured into this thing. I’m not sure this was a good idea after all.”

All her doubts and insecurities rose up to mock her.

“Hey, you wanted Josh to see you in a different light. This is it. No scrubs, no lab coat, no jeans. Just pure Susannah.”

“This doesn’t look very pure.”

Cait laughed. “Okay, then mysterious, sultry, sexy Susannah. Josh will eat his heart out.”
“I wish.” Sighing softly, Susannah turned when the doorbell sounded. “Great, nemesis himself.”

“Why did you agree to go with Dr. Haversham if you don’t like him?”

“Politics, why else? When the chief of staff heard I didn’t have an escort, he insisted Dr. Haversham take me tonight. Who am I to argue with the head man? Being low on the totem pole, I need all the friends in high places I can get.”

She hurried from the bedroom when the second peal came. The high heels felt strange, the turquoise dress was definitely two sizes too small, and her teased and tousled hair wouldn’t move in a tornado it had so much spray holding it. She wished she was spending the evening at home in comfy sweats.

Why had she ever concocted the idea of trying to compete with Josh’s new love?

Taking another deep breath, she threw open the door, bracing herself for the onslaught of feelings she always experienced when she faced Greg Haversham. It didn’t seem to get easier, though she’d known him for six months.

She’d been in staff meetings with him. Seen him in the corridors dozens of times since she’d started working at Bayside General Hospital—usually in the company of some nurse or group of nurses gushing in adoration.

Not that it was hard to see what they found attractive.

Everything.

From his height, to the breadth of his shoulders, to the high cheekbones and dark, all-knowing eyes. Tanned as if he spent time outdoors and didn’t care about sunscreen, he always looked healthy and vital.

Tonight he looked perfect in the charcoal-gray suit, white shirt and deep maroon tie. But he looked equally wonderful when she’d seen him in the white lab coat he wore attending staff meetings, or even the rumpled scrubs after a day in surgery.

“Hi,” she said, trying to ignore the fluttering in her stomach that had suddenly grown worse. “I’ll just be a sec. Want to come in?”

She turned, without waiting for an answer, and snatched up her evening purse and the coat she knew she’d need for San Francisco’s cool evenings.

Cait came out from the bedroom, her tote on her shoulder.

“Have fun,” she said.

Her eyes widened with interest when she spotted Greg Haversham.

He’d stepped inside and stood studying Susannah’s apartment, or what he could see of it. Susannah imagined his disdain for her early second-hand store furnishings. Not that she cared. She had more immediate things to worry about—like getting through tonight’s presentation.

She could do it. Accept the check that would be given by the Stephens family’s attorney. Give her brief acceptance speech on behalf of the hospital. She could do that for her friend’s sake. She had to.

When Cait cleared her throat, Susannah rushed into introductions.

“Cait, this is Dr. Haversham.” Susannah motioned to Cait and said, “My neighbor, Cait Newsome.”

“Hello, Dr. Haversham, I’m pleased to meet you,” Cait said with a wide smile. She made it a point to cross the room and shake his hand.

Susannah envied her friend’s walk. If she practiced for years, she’d never get that sexy sway. Was that what men wanted?

“Cait, a pleasure, and it’s Greg.” His deep voice seemed genuinely pleased to meet her. Susannah looked at him, and wished he sounded half as pleased to see her.

“You take good care of Susannah tonight, Greg,” she said flirtatiously.

“I’m ready,” Susannah said, wishing she had her friend’s ease around men. But just being around Greg Haversham tied her tongue in knots and made her stomach feel as if a dozen butterflies were playing soccer.

Greg turned to her, letting his gaze run down the length of her. The slight amusement in his eyes flustered her even more. Was something wrong? Had Cait missed something?
Tilting his head to one side, he commented, “You look different from the way I’m used to seeing you at the hospital.”

“I couldn’t very well wear a lab coat,” she said shortly.

But his appraisal only increased her uncertainty about the appropriateness of her dress. Of her whole appearance. After years of concentrating on study and work, she felt like a novice in the social scene. Time to make changes. Starting tonight.

Raising her chin, she glared at him.

His lips twitched as if in amusement.

“My car is downstairs.”

Without another word, he stood aside for her to precede him out the door. Cait slipped through and waved.

“Tell me all about it tomorrow,” she called to Susannah as she headed down the hall to her apartment.

In only moments Susannah was seated in the luxurious interior of Greg Haversham’s silver Mercedes. He pulled away from the curb with ease and headed toward the downtown restaurant where the banquet was being held.

Feeling awkward in the silence, Susannah reviewed what she planned to say when the endowment check was presented. Her heart ached. Sally Stephens had been her best friend—she and Josh. Both Susannah’s age, just thirty, they had gone through four years of college together, medical school, then done their internships in hospitals close enough to hang out or study together when they weren’t working. She and Sally and Josh—the three musketeers, they’d been dubbed early on. The best of friends.

Now one was dead—and the other just as gone.

Aware the silence had lasted a long time, Susannah looked at her companion.

“Thanks for the ride,” she said.

He shrugged. “I was going anyway.”

“I can find my own way home. You needn’t bother.”

He flicked her a glance. “I’ll take you home.”

He could sound a bit more friendly, she thought. The embarrassment she’d felt when the chief of staff had informed her Dr. Haversham would pick her up hadn’t totally faded. If she had thought about it early enough, she could have found someone to escort her tonight, couldn’t she?

But Josh was the one she would have chosen, and he was too entangled with Amelia, the sexy bombshell.

“Tell me about Sally Stephens,” Greg said, “and why her family’s providing this endowment for the hospital.”

“She’d been hired at the hospital a week before she was killed,” Susannah said slowly.

The now-familiar ache in her heart seemed to spread.

“She was so excited about being a doctor. Thrilled to be taken on at Bayside General. I guess we all are when we start out.”

She looked at him, wondering if she’d become as cynical as he after she’d been working a few years. She hoped not.

“You don’t have to say anything, I know what you’re thinking,” she said defensively.

“And that is?”

“That we all seem young and idealistic and it won’t last. But I’m still excited and not afraid to admit it. Sally had her whole life ahead of her—finally able to start the career she’d spent years training for. She’d just gotten engaged and was making plans to get married, have kids.”

Susannah’s voice broke and she looked away, furious with herself for letting this man see her emotions.

“Tough break.”

“It’s unfair.”

“Life often is.”

“Spoken like a true cynic.”

“Is that how you see me—cynical?”

“Aren’t you? Your views stated in the staff meetings sure seem to point that way. I don’t want to become like you.”

“Then let’s hope you can stay in your cozy cocoon.”

“I’m not encased in a cocoon. I’ve been working as a doctor for some time now. I love it. It has its bad moments, of course—when, no matter what, I can’t help someone. But mostly, it’s exactly what I always wanted.”

He slid the car to a stop in front of the restaurant. Susannah slipped out when the doorman held the door open, wishing the dress hadn’t ridden up so much. She tugged it in place, pulling the bodice up a bit for good measure.

Good manners dictated she wait for Greg, but she wished she could go into the banquet room alone. The reality was she’d be spending the entire evening with him. She glanced down at her wrist. No watch—darn. How long would it be before the banquet ended and he took her home?

She regretted her outburst. She and Greg Haversham didn’t see eye to eye, but there was no call to start an awkward evening off with hostility. Not that she was going to apologize. There was nothing wrong in expressing her thoughts. He was cynical. Even he hadn’t denied it.

The banquet room was almost full when they entered. Walking toward the designated head table, Susannah nodded to two or three acquaintances and quickly scanned the room to see if Josh had arrived. He’d been invited—as a close friend of Sally’s. Her family was not coming. It was still too soon after her death.

She saw him seated at a table to the right. Immediately her gaze was drawn to the red haired beauty at his side. There was no denying Amelia was gorgeous. Frowning, Susannah marched onward, feeling self-conscious with the drastic change in her appearance.

And with the startled looks she was getting from people who knew her at the hospital.

She took another deep breath. This technique for calming jittery nerves seemed highly overrated. Any more deep breaths and she’d hyperventilate. Her nervousness grew as more and more people swung around to stare at her. Was it simple curiosity or was it the dress?

Maybe, just maybe, she’d gone a tad overboard with the hair and makeup.

Or were they fascinated by the fact that she had arrived with Greg Haversham? Would it be all over Bayside General tomorrow that Dr. Susannah Mercer couldn’t get a date, that she had to be set up?

How long had it been since she’d been on a date? A real honest-to-goodness date—not a night out with Josh and Sally? She shied away from thinking about all the evenings the three of them had shared. She refused to let her emotions choke her tonight. This was for Sally.

Tilting her chin, she stepped up to the head table, grateful to be able to sit. At least she didn’t feel so much on display.

Unfortunately, Greg Haversham sat right beside her. Too close, actually. She peeked at him through her lashes, then looked quickly away. Could she pretend her phone had sounded and dash away?

No. She owed it to Sally’s memory to accept the endowment.