Only Yours (Fool's Gold #5)(3)

She’d been burned over forty percent of her body. He’d performed surgery yesterday. If she survived, it would be the first operation of many. For the rest of her life, her existence would be defined by her burns. He should know.

Her parents were devastated and frightened. They wanted answers and he had none to give them. The next few weeks would decide if the little girl lived or died. He didn’t like to guess or assume, but he also couldn’t escape the heaviness in his chest. “Dr. Bradley.”

He smiled at Kalinda’s mother. Mrs. Riley was not yet thirty and probably pretty when she wasn’t pale with worry and fear. Kalinda was her only child.

“She’s been quiet,” the mother continued.

“We’re keeping her sedated as she heals.”

“There was a dog here before.”

Simon tensed. “It won’t happen again.”

Mrs. Riley touched his arm. “She opened her eyes when she heard the commotion. She asked to see the puppy.”

Simon turned toward Kalinda’s room. The child shouldn’t be that lucid. He would examine her, then look over her medications.

“Did she say if she was in pain?” he asked.

Later they would teach her ways to manage her discomfort. That’s what they called it. Discomfort. Not agony or torture or suffering. All the things a serious burn could be. Later she would learn about breathing and meditation and visualization. For now drugs would get her through.

“She said she wanted to hold the puppy.”

He drew in a breath. “It was an eighty-pound mutt that doesn’t belong in a hospital.”

“Oh.” Mrs. Riley’s eyes filled with tears. “We had a dog. A small Yorkie. She died a few months ago. I know Kalinda misses her terribly. I remember reading something about hospitals using therapy dogs. Do you think that would help?”

She was a mother who loved her child and would do anything to help her. To keep her from suffering. Simon had seen it hundreds of times. The greatness of a parent’s love never ceased to amaze him. Perhaps because he hadn’t experienced it himself.

Simon would rather eat glass than have a filthy animal in his burn unit, but he also understood that the healing powers of the human body could be triggered by unexpected sources. If Kalinda was to survive, she would need something close to a miracle.

“I’ll see what I can find out,” he said, and turned toward his patient’s room.

“Thank you,” Mrs. Riley said, smiling bravely through her tears. “You’ve been amazing.”

He’d done very little. Surgery was a learned skill. The gift he brought to those skills came at a price, but one he was willing to pay. He lived for his patients, to heal them as much as humanly possible and then move on. To the next tragedy. The next child whose life had changed in a single flash and the lick of a flame.

“YOU’RE NOT GOING TO PRISON,” Max Thurman said firmly.

“I should. He was right. What happened was criminal.”

Montana had had nearly an hour to beat herself up and she’d made use of every second. Her bravado when facing the angry doctor had faded and now she was left with little more than a sense of having messed up in the worst way possible.

“Dramatic much?” Max asked, his dark eyes bright with amusement. “You’re taking this way too seriously.”

“Fluffy was loose in a hospital. She ran around, knocked over a couple of carts, then got into the burn ward.”

“I’m not saying we want wild animals running through a sterile facility, but it was an accident and, according to the hospital administrator, no damage was done. You need a little perspective.”

They were in Max’s office, a bright room at the back of his house. The kennels were on his property, as was the training facility. Montana wasn’t a very good judge of how much land made up an acre, but she would guess Max owned more than a few of them. She knew she had to drive a good three minutes from the road to even get to the house. Which could be challenging in winter.

“If you’d seen that doctor…” she murmured, remembering his coldness most of all. “He was beyond furious.”

“So, apologize.”

“To him?” She never wanted to see him again. That would really work best for her. “Or you could call back the administrator and tell her I’m really sorry.”

Max’s blue eyes crinkled with amusement. “Very mature.”

“You know her.”

“So do you.”

“She likes you.” Every time they’d had a meeting, the administrator had been unable to keep from staring at Max.

Montana thought he was pretty nice looking, although a little, well, old. He had steel-gray hair, rugged features and piercing blue eyes. He was tall and rangy. He looked like the kind of man who could take care of himself in any situation. Although nearly sixty, Max looked and acted much younger.

“If you’re that concerned, you should call her yourself,” he told Montana. “She understands it was an accident.”

“Dr. Stick-Up-the-Butt didn’t,” she muttered, but without a lot of energy. Max was right. Montana should be the one to call. “I’m going to work with the dogs while I gather my courage,” she told him and left the office.

Once she was outside, she crossed the large expanse of thick, green lawn. To the east, she could see the mountains rising high against the blue sky.