Gemma would never tell the girl so, but she’d felt the same way when her father was taken away in an ambulance. But he’d never returned.
They heard voices outside the door.
“Uh oh,” Nell said. “I promised I’d tell Uncle Tris when you woke up.”
There was a clock on the table by the chair. It was ten minutes after four, which meant that Gemma had been out for hours. “Maybe you should tell Dr. Tris that I’d like to see him.”
“Sure.” Nell went to the door but paused with her hand on the knob. “Do you think you’ll fall in love with my uncle?”
“I’ll do my best not to,” Gemma said, repressing a smile. “Unless you want me to.”
Nell took a moment to consider this. “Momma says Uncle Tris is in love with an ‘impossible dream’ and that’s why he doesn’t fall for real women. But maybe you are that dream.”
“I doubt that, but I’ll consider it. I think—” She didn’t finish because the door opened and an extraordinarily handsome man came in. He was wearing a doctor’s white coat, a stethoscope hanging out of a pocket. He had black hair, blue eyes, and a jawline that could have been sculpted out of marble.
Gemma could see why there was talk of falling for the man, and she waited for her own temperature to rise—but it didn’t.
Dr. Tris looked around the door at his niece. “I thought you and Landy were going to play nurse and tell me when my patient woke up.” His voice was very pleasant.
“Landy fell asleep,” Nell said. “And his necklace was blinking so . . .” She shrugged.
“I want you and Landy to go next door and tell Uncle Colin that Gemma woke up.”
Nell’s face was serious. “Should I tell him you found a brain tumor?”
“Out!” Tristan said as she ran past him, giggling. “And if you frighten Colin I’ll sue you for malpractice,” he called after her. Shaking his head as he shut the door, he turned to Gemma. “Sorry about that. My niece is much too knowledgeable for her own good. I blame it on TV. Or the Internet. I haven’t decided which.”
He paused at the foot of the bed and stared down at her. Gemma wasn’t sure, but she thought he might be trying to ascertain if she was going to . . . well, probably start flirting with him.
But beautiful as he was, Gemma wasn’t attracted to him. She couldn’t explain it, but there was a faraway look in his eyes that almost made her feel as though he wasn’t really there.
What the doctor saw seemed to relieve him and he let out his breath. “I’m Tristan Aldredge.” He held out his hand to shake hers.
“Gemma Ranford.”
He walked around the side of the bed. “I’ve heard about you from Colin. That was some feat you two pulled off this morning.” He folded back the cover and lifted her gown to look at her bandaged side.
“What happened to me?”
“When the branch broke, it hit you and cut you along the rib cage. It wasn’t too deep. The stitches I used will dissolve in a few days. You’ll be sore for a while, so you shouldn’t go dancing—or climbing on Colin—for a week or two.”
“Did I pass out?”
“Yes, but I think you mostly had an overload of adrenaline. I hear you got a job you really wanted, then you were subjected to Colin’s driving, then you climbed up and rescued a little boy. It’s been a hectic couple of days. I suggest you rest for a day or two and you’ll be fine.”
“Has everything really been posted on YouTube?”
“Every second of it.” Tristan smiled. “Tom has suspended Carl, but the rescue is on the Web. There’s a second where you and the boy are standing in midair and some kid’s already selling posters of it.”
Gemma frowned. “It doesn’t look bad, does it?
“Bad?” He was checking her pulse.
“I mean I wouldn’t want to cause any problems for Colin. Or with any of the Fraziers.”
Still holding her wrist, Tris looked at her. “Afraid of losing your job?”
“Yes.”