but you can’t have anything to eat or drink.” His plaintive expression wrenched her heart. This was the hard part of parenting. If she could take over Ben’s discomforts for him, she would. “After surgery is over, then you’ll get something to drink.”
“But I’m hungry and thirsty now.”
Her son’s querulous tone made her sigh helplessly. Luckily the nurse returned, pushing an OR cart.
“Hop over, Ben. We’re going to take you on a ride down to the operating room.”
Distracted, her son scrambled over to the cart, and Kylie crossed over to walk down with him. She was glad Ben didn’t seem to be overly nervous about the event.
“The doctor is going to put you to sleep, so you won’t feel a thing,” the nurse explained as they made their way to the elevator. “When you wake up, you’ll feel drowsy for a while, but once the anesthesia wears off you’ll be fine.”
Sure, unless there were complications. But Kylie refused to let her thoughts show. “And you’ll get to eat and drink anything you want,” she added.
“Okay.” Ben glanced around at the nearly empty halls. “Can’t you push me faster?” he asked, as if the cart were some sort of amusement ride.
“Nope, sorry. This is as fast as I go,” the nurse answered with a laugh.
At the doorway to the operating room the nurse halted the gurney with an apologetic glance. “Sorry, Mom, but this is as far as you get to come along.”
Kylie forced a smile, ignoring the knot in her stomach. Reaching over the side rail of the gurney, she gave Ben a big hug and a kiss. “See you in a couple of hours, Ben. I love you.”
His arms tightened around her neck, as if he suddenly realized having surgery might be a big deal. But the sedative the nurse had given him earlier helped keep him calm. “I love you too, Mom.”
As the nurse wheeled him through the doors, she felt her eyes filling with tears. She brushed them aside and turned, running headfirst into Seth.
“Hey, are you all right?” He captured her shoulders in his hands before her nose smashed into his chest.
“Fine.” She sniffled and gave a halfhearted smile. “I’m just overreacting a bit.”
“I’m sorry I missed him,” Seth said, not seeming to be in any hurry to let her go. His hands were warm and strong on her shoulders. “I tried to get here earlier, but there was a crash on the highway and traffic was backed up for miles.”
“It’s okay. He’ll be fine.” She longed to throw herself into his embrace, so she forced herself to take a step back. His thoughtfulness to come and see Ben off to surgery was touching, but completely unnecessary. Somehow she had to forget those sizzling kisses and put her son’s needs first, before her own. “Guess you’d better get back down to the ED, since you’re working today.”
“Yeah.” He fell into step beside her as they slowly made their way down the hall toward the elevators. “Did they tell you how long he’ll be in surgery?”
“Not more than a couple of hours.”
Seth nodded. “Great. I’ll dash up to check on Ben when there’s a lull in the patient load.”
She wanted to protest that it wasn’t necessary, but knew that Ben would be thrilled to see him. “All right,” she agreed.
At the elevators they paused, and from the expression on Seth’s face he had something on his mind, but his pager chose that moment to chirp.
He unclipped it from his waistband and read the display. “I have to go. There’s a patient on the way in.”
“From the crash?” she guessed.
“Yes.” He took her hand, reached over and brushed a quick kiss across her lips. “See you in a little while,” he murmured.
Her mouth tingling, she could only nod in shocked surprise as he took the stairs down to the first floor ED.
He had to stop doing that, she thought, irritably jamming her finger on the button to summon the elevator. He really, really had to stop doing that.
Seth was acting as if they were already a couple.
But they weren’t.
Her fault, since she’d allowed him to kiss her. Twice. Make that three times if you counted this most recent one. But enough was enough. This emotional rollercoaster ride needed to stop, now.
Determined to forget about Seth for a while, she returned to Ben’s room. She tried to work on the training program, but found herself surfing the Internet instead.
She typed the name of Air Force pilot Shane Andre into