Nurse a La Mode — Jeanne Bowman

After accompanying a patient from Chicago to the astronauts' center in Houston, Nurse Elsa Hoyt was persuaded to sign on at Port Haven Hospital and to stay in the Southwest. Then she discovered that the chief of staff was the stepfather who had broken her mother's heart. She was on the point of resigning when her stepfather begged her to stay, offered her his beach cottage to live in, and suggested she not admit she knew him. As if that did not complicate her situation enough, Elsa was confronted by the hostility of one young doctor, which she was unable to explain, the equally understandable friendship of another medico, and the interest of a mini skirted nurse with whom she had little in common. The dilemma seemed insoluble; indeed, it took a full scale Texas hurricane to resolve it.

Nurse Elsa Hoyt signed on for a temporary stand-by assignment at Port Haven Hospital during her brief vacation in the Southwest. Port Haven had been the scene of many childhood memories, including those of handsome Albert Steffner and those of Dr. Paul Hoag, the stepfather who had broken her mother's heart. When Elsa discovered that the very same Paul Hoag was the chief of staff of Port Haven, she was tempted to resign immediately. But her stepfather begged her to stay, explaining that he needed her, but not explaining why.

Puzzled by his behavior and confronted with the hostility of now Dr. Albert Steffner, Elsa began to suspect a conspiracy against her stepfather. Faced with a decision whether to return to Chicago and to her fiance‚ or to stay in Port Haven, Elsa was frightened of what she might learn . . . and uncertain if she really wanted to. It took the chaos of a full-scale Texas hurricane to resolve the chaos in Elsa's life.

Original Title: Nurse in Conflict

Hero: Dr./Doctor Albert Steffner
Heroine: Nurse Elsa Hoyt