“All right, Ella,” he said. “I’ll just take a picture of your arm, and then we can get started on making you feel better, okay?”
“Okay,” Ella said tearfully.
Just as Luke was examining the images, a blonde woman who looked a lot like the child burst into the room.
“Ella?” She ran to the child’s side, then looked up at Luke. “Is she okay?”
“She’ll be just fine — she shouldn’t even need surgery,” Luke explained. “I’ll just get her set up with our orthopedic doctor.”
He looked up at the woman and blinked again. She looked completely different from Bella — she had blonde hair instead of brown, and brown eyes instead of green — but Luke still thought she was Bella for a fraction of a second. He shook his head to clear it and grabbed the phone to call orthopedics.
When Ella and her mother went upstairs, Luke scanned the rest of the ER, talking to residents and figuring out who needed help. As he did, he smiled to himself. He knew better than most that the human brain worked in mysterious ways, but he was amused at howhisbrain worked. Apparently, he wasn’t ready to let go of Bella just yet, because everything was reminding him of her.
That would fade soon, though, Luke was sure of it. He was back at work. Soon, Bella would be completely gone from his mind, and he’d be back to his usual self.
“Let me help with that.” He stopped by the bed of an elderly man, where a young intern was trying to put in an IV catheter. “Your technique is good, but adjust the angle just a little… There we go.”
“Thanks, Doctor Porter,” the intern said.
“Anytime. Call me when you’re doing the next one, and I’ll have a look.”
See?Luke thought to himself as he hurried to the next patient.I’m focusing on work. I’m not thinking about Bella.After all, neither the elderly man nor the young intern had reminded him of Bella at all.
CHAPTER 8
BELLA
Bella tossed the onions and garlic in the pan, the warm scents of cooking alliums immediately filling her nose. She inhaled deeply and smiled before turning back to the pile of vegetables waiting for her beside the cutting board.
It was a rainy Sunday in early November, and she was preparing for her next big gig — a wedding the following week. The bride and groom were both vegetarians, and Bella had spent every free minute of the last week trying out different vegetarian recipes she could serve. It was fun and more relaxing than some of the other work she’d been doing lately.
Just as Bella was taking the flatbread she’d been working on out of the oven, the smell of burning rose from the onions.
Don’t worry,a calming voice said in her head.Just triage.
She quickly set the tray of flatbread on a trivet and added a splash of water to the onions, which immediately settled down. Then she sighed, leaning against the countertop. It had been more than a month since her night with Luke, and still, she couldn’t get him out of her head. She would remembersomething he’d said, or how he’d smiled, or how he’d kissed her, and it would be like it had all happened yesterday. She’d find herself standing in the dairy aisle at Costco, or in the middle of her living room, or in the park on a walk, frozen, lost in memories. Just like today, when she’d heard his voice in her head while she was trying to save her food.
It was silly. She felt like a heroine from an old-time romance novel, getting all swoony over a guy she’d met only once. Maybe Bella had just imagined their connection, or at least part of it. Maybe absence had made her heart grow fonder, as the old saying went. Or maybe Luke really had been an amazing guy who’d taken her breath away.
A few times, she’d considered looking him up. It wouldn’t be that hard to find a trauma surgeon named Luke who’d spoken at that conference, surely. Yet each time she got out her laptop, her hands froze above the keyboard, and she set the idea aside. There was a reason Luke had decided not to give her his full name or his number. And even ifhewanted an ongoing relationship,shedidn’t. Her hands were full with The Cherry on Top, and she didn’t have time for anything serious.
Bella grabbed a bunch of cilantro from the fridge and washed it. Usually, she loved the bright, fresh smell, but today it made her stomach uneasy. She quickly chopped it and set it aside, moving on to a small mound of tomatoes. As she diced them, she listened to the rain falling on the roof of her top-floor apartment and watched raindrops slide down the window. It was all very cozy.
Just as Bella slid the tomatoes into a pot, her phone rang. She rinsed and dried her hands before reaching for it.
“The Cherry on Top, this is Bella Nolan,” she said in her bright phone voice. Maybe it was a new client.
“It’s me,” the familiar voice of her closest friend, Stacy, came over the speaker as Bella put the phone between her ear and her shoulder and kept working. “What’re you doing?”
“Cooking another trial meal,” Bella said, adding turmeric, cumin, and salt to the pot. The sauce was really coming together now. She just needed something a little spicy to really tie the flavors…
“You’re always working,” Stacy complained, but there was a smile in her voice. Stacy was a middle school teacher who was just as dedicated to her job as Bella was to hers. “Do you have time to grab dinner?”
“Not really,” Bella admitted. She began slicing a red chili into thin slivers. “Tomorrow I have two meetings with potential clients, one for a conference and one for a big wedding next spring. I still have to finalize the dishes for this weekend’s wedding, too, and do all the shopping, and…”
“Okay, you’re busy.” Bella could hear the smile in her friend’s voice again.
“But,” Bella added quickly, “you could come over and taste my trial meal.”
