Jessie's Wedding

Avalon Books
August 2001
ISBN: 0-8034-9485-8

When Jessie O’Brien was a little girl she walked down the aisle as a flower girl with Jarrett Collins. In the years that followed she always believed that he would be the man she’d marry. Instead, she received a broken heart when he suddenly left her without any explanation.

Now a successful physician, Jarrett has come to Wisconsin for a change, both in his life and his career. Jessie is now a hospital administrator at the very hospital Jarrett works. She is shocked to see him again. He tells Jessie one of the reasons he came to Wisconsin was to find her. Unwilling to be hurt again and unsure of his motives, Jessie informs Jarrett that he better not expect to begin where they left off. As Jarrett opens up to her, Jessie falls in love with him again. They are magical moments that remind them both of what they had and what they let slip away. Tiny expressions of caring, impetuous kisses and undeniable attraction bring Jessie and Jarrett full circle into each other’s hearts.

Reviews:

“JESSIE'S WEDDING is a perfectly crafted traditional romance, suitable and enjoyable reading for all ages.”
- 4 Stars, Gerry Benninger, Romantic Times

“JESSIE'S WEDDING is a delightful sweet romance with likeable characters and a fast-moving plot that engages the reader right away and never lets up. The attraction between Jessie and Jarrett interacts well with the emotional turmoil they experience as they struggle toward a new understanding of themselves and their relationship.”
- 4 Stars, Karen McCullough, Scribes World

"A truly touching romance. The romance between Jessie and Jarrett brings hope to any relationship and allows the reader to feel the emotions in Jessie's heart as she lets Jarrett back into her life. I recommend this novel to any romance lover looking from an enjoyable page-turner. The story held you until the very end and kept you wanting more. An excellent novel!"

-Danielle, Middlesex, NJ

Excerpt:

Chapter One

"If those clowns with the rescue squad don't arrive soon, that baby is going to be old enough to drive himself here!" 

Dr. Jarrett Collins paced the black and white checkered tiled floor of Mid-West Medical's emergency room and looked at his watch for the fifth time.  He cocked his head left, his ears straining to pick up the sound of the siren signaling the arrival of the ambulance.

"Relax, Dr. Collins," a sandy-haired male nurse rolling a wheelchair to the doorway said in response.  "You'd think this was your first delivery."

Jarrett strode to the attendant.  "What’s your name?"

"Ed."  The reply faded to a hushed stillness.

"Well, Ed," Jarrett said squeezing cool annoyance into both words.  "This might not be my first delivery, but it's just as important.  Each one is."  His tone silenced the muttering voices of nurses within earshot.  He turned his head briefly to them before continuing.  "You never know what can happen during childbirth, so you had better be ready for anything.  And we ARE ready, aren't we, Ed?"

The orderly nodded woodenly and ducked into an empty examining room as the whispers began again.

”A little testy today, aren't we, Dr. Collins?” Ann Ryan, an attractive dark-haired nurse behind the receiving desk, asked with raised eyebrows.  “Did we get out on the wrong side of bed?"

Jarrett looked up from his watch. "No, and..."  The faint whine of an approaching siren caught his attention and he cocked his thumb in the direction of the parking lot.  "Saved by the siren, Ann."  He glanced at his watch again.  "While I’m in delivery, ask those clowns in the ambulance why it took them thirty minutes to get a woman in premature labor here from the parking deck of a shopping mall only three miles away."

He barely had time to turn around and start toward the emergency entrance when the double doors swished open.  His eyes widened and he watched, speechless, as two circus clowns in full make-up burst inside.  They were pushing a gurney carrying a very pregnant and very unhappy woman.

"I want this baby out NOW!" she screamed, grabbing onto the arm of the clown in the bright hot pink and lime green striped coat.  He grimaced as she squeezed hard on the soft area just below his elbow until another labor pang passed.  "Make the pain stop or this one dies!"  She yanked on the rainbow print tie she was gripping in her other hand for emphasis.

The tie was attached to another clown in an oversized yellow trench coat who was trying to help steer the stretcher with one hand and pry the woman's fingers from around his necktie with the other.  When he finally did snap it free, he jerked backward, smashing his hip against the wall and setting off a loud blast from the rubber horn attached to his belt.  A burst of laughter erupted from the staff working at the nurse’s station.

As the unlikely trio came at him in a dead run, Jarrett put out his hands to stop them.  "What is going on here?"

Ann stepped from behind the desk, a smug look dancing across her face just as the gurney slammed into Jarrett's outstretched hands and bumped to a stop an inch from his right foot.  "Why Doctor Collins, I do believe it’s the clowns you were expecting with your maternity patient."

Also dressed in full clown make-up, Jessie O'Brien walked into the emergency room just as the exasperated maternity patient and the convoy of ER staffers and paramedics surrounding her headed into one of the free examining rooms.

"What on earth are you doing here and in that get-up?" Ann called out as she saw Jessie pull the curly, red, nylon wig from her head.  "When did you get back?"

Jessie ran her fingers through her thick blond hair. "Yesterday.  You know I’d never miss the fundraiser for the squad.  Like my new outfit?" she asked, tugging on the bright purple pants she was wearing.  She pointed to a box of tissues on a file cabinet behind the desk.  "Hand me some of those, please."     

Ann tossed her the box. "How's your grandmother?"

"Better, thanks. It was just a mild stroke," she said making a valiant attempt to remove the white face paint from her cheeks. "No paralysis, thank heavens.  But the doctor in Minneapolis did tell her that she has to slow down a bit.”

“No more mule riding into the Grand Canyon then?”

“That’s right.  And no more sky diving.  She’s been grounded.”

Ann leaned an elbow onto the counter.  “How does she come up with these adventures at her age?”

“I have no idea.  But Grandma Ginger has always been the anomaly in the family.  O’Brien women tend to be a lot more cautious when dealing with the unknown.”

Ann gave her a level look and handed the chart she was working on to another nurse who slid it on back into its place in the file.  "It’s in the genes, then.”

“What’s in the genes?”

“You missed a spot with the tissue,” Ann replied, pointing to Jessie’s forehead.  “This propensity you have to hold back is a family thing. I thought you were just being careful.”

“Hold back on what?” Jessie asked quickly.

“I wasn’t the one who refused to go out with that nice pharmaceutical salesman who stopped in here last month.”

“I don’t date the proverbial traveling salesmen.”

“Then what about the teacher you met when you took that course at Community College.  What was his name anyway?”

“Tony.  And he had just broken up with his girlfriend.”

Jessie tossed a tissue into the wastebasket.  “He was a rebounder.  In a few weeks he’d probably have gotten back with her and then where would I have been?”

Ann picked up a chart and began to write.  “What about the hockey player you ran into at the ice rink last winter?”

“He was traded to the New Jersey Devils which made him a GUP.”

Ann looked up.  “Made him a what?”

“A GUP.  A Geographically Undesirable Person.  Someone farther away than the thirty minute driving distance rule.”   Involuntarily her thoughts began to drift back, reminding her of a time when she would have driven thirty days straight to try to make a long distance relationship work.

"Speaking of time frames, we all thought Matt was going to have to deliver that baby in the ambulance," Ann said.

Jessie set the tissue box on the counter and jammed the used ones into her coat pocket.  "Not while I'm driving.  You know I always get them here on time."  She turned back to the desk and signed some papers before continuing.  "So, anything new happen around here since I've been gone?"

"Dr. Chadwick finally retired."

Jessie's mouth dropped.  "You're kidding.  He's been threatening that for years."

"Well he finally up and did it.  Took down his shingle and headed for Florida," Ann replied.

“What will Tempest do for a pediatrician now?"

Ann shrugged.  "Use Family Practice, I guess."

Jessie leaned forward onto her elbows.  "I suppose that was the extent of the excitement.”

Ann looked at one of the other nurses and they both grinned broadly.  "Not exactly!"  They said in unison.

"It's only been a week."  Jessie countered.  "What could have possibly happened to make you two look like cats with mouthfuls of canaries?"

Ann raised and lowered her eyebrows suggestively.  "They finally hired a new Chief of Emergency Medicine, and he's creating quite a stir around here, to say the least.”

“Really?  Keep going.”

“He’s tall, drop-dead gorgeous, and I hear, newly single."

"Sounds promising," Jessie said, interested.  "Is he here now?"  She looked around but saw only familiar faces.

"He's in with the maternity case you just brought in."  Ann leaned closer and lowered her voice.  "I'm telling you, this guy is causing more excitement than the time Mayor McDaniels ran off with the redheaded waitress from the Bagel Barn.  If I wasn't married, I think I’d be more than tempted by that smile of his to throw my hat into the ring."

Jessie arched an eyebrow.  "He must be something to entice you."

"This town may be called be Tempest, but you know as well as I do that Mundane would be more appropriate.  That kind of six foot, hunky appeal doesn't come along everyday and set up housekeeping in a place like this.  Mark my words, either he's in the witness protection program or he's running from a broken heart.”

“Maybe you’re jumping to conclusions.”

"Don’t think so.  Why else would someone like that choose to come to a ordinary, quiet town in the middle of nowhere when he had the excitement of living in the city that never sleeps?"  Ann shrugged.  "Heartbroken or hiding, he’s fair game around here.”

"Step back and get out of my way ladies, I'm about to mark my territory." Peggy Clark, another emergency room nurse, interrupted as she walked by snapping on latex gloves. "You know it’s only a matter of time before the man’s mine." 

"Ever-ready Peggy."  Jessie and Ann said in unison.  Peggy acknowledged the comment with a wrinkle of her nose and a very unlady-like dust-off gesture just before disappearing into the examining room.

"Now there's a woman who knows what she wants," Jessie said.

Ann chuckled.  "And from what I hear, she wants everyone." 

Jessie rolled her eyes.  "If Peggy has claimed the good doctor, the man is doomed."  She was about to say more when she saw the clown in the green and pink pants come out of the examining room.  "Matt, how's the mother and baby?" She walked toward him while waving good-bye to the nurses at the station.

"The baby’s not cooperating, so mama might need a C-section. Her OB’s tied up with an emergency across town and can’t get here for a couple hours, but he’s in contact by phone.”

"No wonder she wailed louder than the siren on the way over here."  Jessie shifted and looked over Matt’s shoulder hoping to catch a glimpse of the woman through the window next to the examining room door.  But the trauma team still surrounding her blocked Jessie's view.  "Who'll do it?"

"Baker's covering maternity and Dr. Collins will assist."

Jessie froze.  The name immediately threw her mind into reverse and shot her flashes of the bottle green eyes and the dangerous smile that still managed to creep into her dreams. 

"Did you say a Dr. Collins was assisting?" she asked, shifting to get a better view of the inside of the examining room through the window.  When she did, her gaze froze on a tall, powerfully built figure who appeared to be in total control.  She watched him cross to the other side of the stretcher, his walk bringing back a familiarity that nearly stopped her from breathing.        

"Yeah, Collins.  The new doctor from the big city."  Matt leaned his hip against one of the waiting room chairs.  "Oh, that's right, you don’t know.  He came on board last week.  I don't have any specifics, but the word is, he's pretty good."

Jessie hesitated.  Collins.  Doctor.  From the east.  "Naaa," she muttered, shaking her head.  "Couldn't be him." 

Matt straightened.  "Couldn't be who?"

Jessie fought for control of her senses.   Her imagination was running wild now as more images raced rapid-fire through her mind putting the appealing green eyes and dazzling smile she thought about earlier onto the face of the man whose back was still toward her.  Her heart thumped with anticipation and then with uneasiness as the picture focused inside her mind.         

"I used to know someone by that name who wanted to be a doctor," she replied shaking the images to the back of her mind. "But that was a long time ago.  We've since lost touch."  She managed a weak smile.  "Which one is this Dr. Collins?"

“He’s the one next to Peggy.”

Jessie saw the tall figure in hospital scrubs turn and, shedding his gloves, head for the door.  In another second it opened, a moment more and they were face to face.

He removed the white paper mask from across his nose and mouth and did a quick double take.  He leaned closer, peering past the smudges of make-up still remaining on her face.  "Jessie?  Jessie O'Brien?  Is it you under all that gunk?"  He cupped her chin with his hand and rubbed what was left of the white make-up from her right cheek with his thumb.

Jessie felt warm and in sharp focus with his touches.  She was so surprised by the sensation that she hardly had time to compose herself.

“Jessie.  It is you.”   His fingers lingered for a moment more on her face before he dropped his hand to his side.

His voice greeted her with warm pleasure, the familiarity of its tone vibrating through her as her lips parted in a silent breath of astonishment.  "Jarrett," she managed to squeak out, feeling the heat growing on her neck and face.  "It's been a while.  How have you been?"  Her gaze went automatically to his eyes as they always had in the past.  They were more distracting than she remembered, and a deeper green and more magnetic.

Matt looked at them.  "You two know each other?"

All Jessie could do was nod, her round-eyed gaze glued to Jarrett's face.  The half-smile that hovered around his lips made every emotion she ever felt for him come together from the past and slam headlong into the present. She saw something flicker over Jarrett's expression when he realized she wasn’t responding.

"Yes.  We're old friends," he said.

Matt turned to Jessie.  "Then this is the guy you started telling me about a few minutes ago."

“I hope you were kind, Jess,” Jarrett said, grin widening.

Jessie shook her head with a guilty start, like a little girl getting caught red-handed in a lie.  "All I said was that I thought I might know the new addition to the staff." 

"And it turns out you do."  Jarrett's straightforward answer did not leave any room for doubts. 

Matt took up the conversation and Jessie watched as Jarrett crossed his arms over his broad chest and leaned against the wall.  She noticed he had much larger hands than she remembered, and his shoulders were much more massive.  But of course they would be.  He was a man now, in his thirties, a learned professional with a future firmly set in success.

She studied him, unhurriedly, feature-by-feature, noticing as she did how the years had changed the boy she once knew so well.  The shaggy blond hair she loved to run her fingers through had darkened to gold and had given way to a careful style that added an air of distinction to his handsome face.  When he laughed in response to something Matt said, his smile fanned tiny, attractive lines out of the corners of his eyes and displayed a line of straight white teeth.  There was so much potent male charm in the way he looked that she had to command herself to breath.  

He was in his twenties the last time she saw him lean against a wall like this.  He was going off to medical school and she thought that he was going to ask her to marry him before he left. Instead he had looked into her eyes and said, "But I'll always love you, Jess.  And if you ever need me..." Then he stopped speaking and stood there, looking at her, waiting.

She'd merely nodded and shut the door on him.  She hadn’t been able to think of one sensible thing to say.  Through the curtains at the front window, she watched him leave, unable to sort through the jumble of feelings that clogged her heart to find the words that would make him stay or take her with him. 

For years she clung to the hope that somehow he would come back for her.  But he hadn’t, and eventually she admitted to herself he never would.  She was forced to close the book on her childhood fantasy of marrying Jarrett Collins and grow up fast.  Now she didn't anyone.  She had made it all on her own.

"I really have to go...Doctor."  Jessie found herself having trouble trying to get out his title.  How was she supposed to relate to him as a professional when what she was feeling at the moment was anything but?  If she thought she had gotten over Jarrett Collins years before, seeing him now made her realize she hadn't even been close to it.  "And so do you.  Your patient is ready."  She gestured to the woman being wheeled by them.

"Hey," the mother-to-be called out when she saw Jessie,  "Take care of handsome there for me.  He sure knows what he's doing.  I feel great now."   The woman yawned.  “I hope I don’t sleep through the birth.”

Jarrett patted her shoulder.  “I won’t let you.  I promise.”

"I see you’ve made another conquest, Dr. Collins," Peggy said, helping guide the stretcher toward the elevator.

Jarrett laughed.  It was a rich chuckle that seemed to reach out to Jessie and caress her with its warmth.  "Only since the sedative kicked in.  Before that I was on the hit list right after the clown."

Peggy smiled and brushed a strand of bright red hair from her eyes with one hand.  "Doctor, you'd be first on my list," she called back as she walked away.

Jessie noticed Jarrett dip his head and raise an eyebrow.  She briefly wondered if the comment was making him nervous or eager.  She took a deep breath and adjusted her expression.  "I really do have to go, Jarrett."

"And I have a promise to keep.” 

“Gonna do that C-section?” Matt asked, turning to leave.         

Jarrett lightly touched Jessie’s elbow, urging her to walk with him as he spoke.  “First, we’re going to try to turn the baby.  Hopefully that will put him in the right position and nature will take its course.  The mother’s doing fine and there’s not really a risk to the baby if we wait a little longer.  I’d rather not have to go in and get the little guy if I can avoid it," he said smoothly. 

“Good luck,” Matt said as he took a right turn at the next hallway and disappeared in the direction of the coffee shop. 

"You do look wonderful, Jessie."   Jarrett said stopping at the elevator and pressing the up button.  Jessie didn’t reply.

While he waited for the car, he searched her face for traces of the girl he left so many years earlier.  But even with streaks of silly white clown make-up still slashing across her cheeks, he could see that a beautiful woman had replaced that girl.

He tipped his head curiously at her.  "A penny for your thoughts."  He watched her cheeks color through the make-up, but noticed she firmly held his gaze.

She shook her head.  "I don't understand.”

"I take it you're not glad to see me?"

"Yes, of course I am.  It’s just that-" She broke off as the elevator doors opened.

“It’s just what?”  The elevator doors closed and left without him.

“Don’t you have to get up to maternity?”

"She needs to get prepped.  I can catch the next car.”

Jessie looked him straight in the eye.  “Didn’t it occur to you that I might still be here in Tempest and you might run into me some day?”  She tried to sound composed, but her voice quavered. 

“Yes.”

She flinched away from the admission and pressed the elevator call button.  “The last time I talked to you, you were going away and it was obvious I wasn’t invited to come along.”

“I made a mistake.  I was wrong to walk away from what we had together.”

Stunned, Jessie blurted out the words she had been practicing for years.  “Whatever we had, or whatever we thought we had, has been over for quite a while. This isn’t the time or the place for a discussion on the past.  I'm sorry."

"For what?" he matched her grave tone.  "I'm the one who left, remember?"

"Yes you did.”  For a while silence hung in the air between them like a sword waiting to fall and Jessie made no immediate attempt to change it.

"Is it really important why I'm here?" Jarrett finally said.

"To me it is."

"Okay, then."  He reached out and traced the curve of her cheek with his forefinger.  "I know I have no right to say this, but I came back for you.”

Jessie's eyes widened.  She could find nothing to say as the elevator doors closed and took Jarrett away.  Pleasure and misgiving entwined themselves around her heart until the edges of each blurred and she could not tell where one emotion ended and the other began.

He said he’d come back for her.  It was the last thing on earth she ever expected him to say.