Lightning Strikes - Mary Baxter Lynn

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      The soft but emphatically spoken words fell into the room with the force of an exploding bomb. She wanted to scream; she wanted to attack him physically; she wanted to hide from the pain he was inflicting.

      She did nothing. Instead, she stepped back and stared at him like he was the scum of the earth, which was exactly how she thought of him. Who the hell did he think he was to walk into her house out of the blue and calmly tell her he wasn’t going to marry her, that he no longer loved her?

      A first-class bastard who didn’t deserve her.

      Amanda jutted her chin and fought back the tears. She would rather have died than let him know how deeply his unexpected attack had wounded her. “All right, have it your way.”

      “Amanda—”

      “No! Don’t say another word.” She pulled off her ring and threw it at his feet. It bounced off one booted foot and landed on the carpet.

      He didn’t move.

      “Pick it up, damn you, and get out! I never want to see you again.”

      Without taking his blue eyes off her, he leaned over, scooped up the ring, straightened, then headed toward the door. Only after he closed it behind him, did it hit her what had actually happened.

      In the blink of an eye, her life had changed. Noah was no longer a part of it. She had sunk to floor and cried until she had no more tears to cry.

      To this day, she still had no idea why he had walked out on her. The following morning at work, she had learned that he’d taken a one-year personal leave of absence from his duties as staff surgeon.

      Somehow, with the help of close friends, she had managed to keep on living and functioning, despite the devastation done by Noah’s betrayal.

      Then he had come back. A few months earlier than expected.

      “Why, you bastard?” she whispered, digging her nails into her palms. “Why did you even come back?”

      Chapter Four

      Amanda felt the jiggle at her side. Her smart phone was going berserk. She should have known the short respite was too good to be true.

      ER was calling, but that was good. She needed to work. A few minutes later she was striding through the automatic double doors.

      “Trauma one, Doctor!” an attendant called out.

      Harold Epps. Something had obviously gone wrong. Upping her pace, Amanda dashed into the room. Dr. Sloane and a male nurse were holding the man down on the bed; he was in the throes of a violent convulsion.

      “What happened?” Amanda demanded in a controlled but firm voice. She then stepped up to the gurney.

      Dr. Sloane was clearly upset. “I…turned my back just for a second. That’s when I heard that terrible noise and knew he was having a seizure.”

      Amanda issued orders. “Get something to put into his mouth so he won’t swallow his tongue.”

      While that was being taken care of, Amanda used her tiny light and peered into his eyes. They were rolled up toward the top of his head.

      “Harold! What’s wrong with my husband?”

      Ignoring the frantic voice behind her, Amanda gave another order. Within seconds, Harold settled down, but was soon wheeled to X-ray for extensive testing.

      She turned then and looked at the white-faced and pregnant young woman who hovered inside the room next to the door. One of the ER nurses on duty, Liz Roberts, stood beside her.

      After letting the woman see that her husband was sleeping peacefully, Amanda asked her to sit down, then told her what had happened.

      “Oh, God,” the woman whispered, tears filling her eyes. “Is…is he going to die?”

      An alarm went off in Amanda’s head. “Why do you ask that?”

      “Didn’t he tell you?”

      “Tell me what?” Amanda asked, the alarm blaring.

      “He…he has epilepsy.”

      “Why wouldn’t he have told us?”

      The woman bit down on her lower lip and looked scared out of her wits. “Because he’s like that. Always puts on a happy face so he won’t have to miss work.” Tears spilled from her eyes. “You…you see, we don’t have much money, and I’m not able to work, with the baby coming and all.”

      She was sobbing in earnest now, and Amanda said, “He’s going to be all right. You dry those tears and soon I’ll let you see him. Meanwhile, Liz will accompany you to the waiting room. If need be, we’ll talk later.”

      “Thanks, Doctor,” she said with a gulp.

      After leaving orders to be kept apprised of Harold’s condition, Amanda checked on two other patients who remained under observation, then went back to her office, where she realized she was trembling.

      Those two young people had gotten to her. One of these days, she feared, she was going to get tough and not care. If that ever happened, she would turn in her license. An uncaring doctor wasn’t worth his salt.

      Sitting at her desk, Amanda placed her head in her hands, only to flinch as another streak of lightning danced across the sky, followed by a mean rumble of thunder. Would this mess ever stop? she wondered, feeling more and more uneasy by the minute. Bad weather usually had no affect on her, maybe because she was used to dealing with crises. Possibly her childhood had as much to do with that as being a doctor, for it had been as traumatic and vicious as this storm.

      But she knew why her nerves were seemingly resting on the outside of her skin. Noah. There was a God, however, as she hadn’t yet encountered Noah face-to-face. But then, she’d made it a point not to see him, though it hadn’t been easy. She was lucky she hadn’t passed him in the hall, or worse, ended up sitting beside him in a staff meeting.

      Of course, she hadn’t avoided him because she still cared. She didn’t. Noah had destroyed her love by his flagrant violation of her feelings. Not only that, he’d undermined her newfound trust in the opposite sex.

      “Don’t do this to yourself!” Amanda whispered, taking a deep breath, which somewhat slowed her racing heart. She’d made a new life for herself. That was the key to survival.

      She had found a new man.

      Gordon Bishop was a woman’s dream come true, a man who knew how to love a woman, and he did love her. He was an investment broker with a fat bank account, although that wasn’t important to her. Though not wealthy, she made a good living and could do most anything she wanted, except set up her own practice. That would take megabucks, which she did not have.

      The most notable and important thing about Gordon was that he not only loved her but wanted to marry her. Although she didn’t love him like he loved her, a fact she hadn’t kept a secret because she was unwilling to be anything other than up-front, she nevertheless wanted to take that leap of faith and marry him.

      She was scared, admitting that Noah’s cavalier desertion of her had left deep scars. Gordon, however, was as different from Noah as daylight from dark. She knew she could trust Gordon beyond all doubt. And that trust did not come easy. It hadn’t then and didn’t now. Her tumultuous upbringing had seen to that.

      Amanda sighed, hating the fact that she continued to beat up on herself, asking instead why she didn’t rush back to the ER where her mind and emotions would be focused on her patients and their needs.

      Nothing doing. She didn’t move. The past held her down, insisting on resurrecting itself. Instead of Noah and that cold, foreign look in his eyes, she saw her mother’s empty, angry ones. Tears gathered in Amanda’s eyes, almost blinding her.

      Funny, she didn’t realize she had any more tears to

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