by Jen Andrews
“I love your hair, and the flush on your pretty face,” he replied in a hushed tone. He touched my face, running the back of his fingers delicately over my cheekbone.
My eyes instinctively closed when I pressed my cheek against his hand. How long had it been since a man had touched me like this? And why did it have to be this guy? A moment later, I felt the absence of his warm hand. I opened my eyes and found he had folded his hands together on his lap, probably regretting his words to someone who was clearly not his type.
“Wow. I am really sorry about that,” he said as his own cheeks flushed. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Maybe I did get knocked in the head harder than I thought.” He ran his fingers through his dark hair.
Jackie came into the room. “Hey, girl, are you finished in here, or do you need some help?”
When I realized I was leaning against his legs, I stepped back and looked away from the amazing, sexy man who I would never see again. “Uh, yeah,” I mumbled to Jackie. “I mean no, I’m finished. I don’t need help.”
Not with work anyway, but I wondered if I needed mental help. This guy was turning me in to a mumbling idiot. What floor is the psych ward on? I can’t remember . . .
Jackie’s eyebrows rose as she looked between my patient and me. I noticed the smirk on her face before she turned and left the exam room. I turned back to him and found him grinning at me.
Remembering what I was supposed to be doing, I applied a dab of antibiotic cream to the gash and put a small piece of gauze and tape over it to keep out germs. I gathered the empty gauze packages and tossed them into the trash along with my gloves. I dropped a few supplies he would need into a small bag for him. By the time I turned around, he was putting his tank back on. Bummer.
“Thanks for um . . . taking good care of me,” he said, slipping his toned arms into his work shirt. “I really appreciate it.”
“No problem. It was my pleasure.” And it really, truly was. “Promise me you won’t fight with any more cars, okay?”
He laughed and gave me a gorgeous smile. “I’ll try, but that’s not something I can promise with my profession.”
He stood and looked at me again without saying anything. Although I didn’t know him, I felt he was acting unusually. “Did someone come here with you? I’m not sure you should be driving. You seem a little out of it still.”
He nodded. “Yeah, thanks. My brother-in-law is in the waiting room. Besides, I’m quite sure now my head injury is not the problem.”
What did he mean?
He continued smiling, not taking his eyes off me.
“Okay, then. Well, good luck with your head. Keep it clean and use antibiotic cream and the bandages I gave you over it for today so it doesn’t get infected. Keep it dry after that—no getting it wet in the shower or anything—for forty-eight hours. Make an appointment with your doctor to have your stitches removed in about a week.”
He took the bag from my hand. “Thank you, again.” He didn’t make a move to leave. He stood staring at me with an odd expression on his face.
“Let me walk you out to your brother-in-law so I can speak to him.” I wanted to make sure someone knew to keep an eye on him, just in case.
He didn’t question me and obediently followed me out to the waiting room. I noticed another man who wore a uniform identical to my patient’s and walked toward him.
The man stood when he saw us and headed in our direction. Holy crap, he’s huge. He towered over me by at least a foot, and he was easily as good looking as my sexy patient.
The two men stood next to each other waiting for me to speak, while all I wanted to do was pull out my cell and snap a picture of them so I’d remember what they looked like.
“Are you with this guy?” I asked the taller, gorgeous blue-eyed man.
“Yeah, unfortunately I am. Is he gonna live?” His blue eyes sparkled in amusement.
Oh, he has an accent. Maybe he’s from Australia or New Zealand. I could never tell the difference because I hadn’t been around many people from either country.
I smiled. “Yes, I do believe he will. He did take quite the knock to the head and needed stitches. Can you keep an eye on him or let his family know to keep an eye on him after he goes home?”
“Oh, I am sure he can find someone to take care of him,” Mr. Accent said as a sly grin eased over his face. He looked back and forth between my patient and me, and I wondered if he could tell something had transpired between us in the ER.
“Thanks a lot, asshole,” my sexy patient muttered, clapping Mr. Accent on the back rather roughly. He seemed embarrassed by what Mr. Accent had said.
“Sorry about my brother-in-law. He’s an ass. Don’t mind him,” he said dryly.
I laughed at the two men in front of me as they bantered back and forth. I didn’t see a shop logo on their uniforms so I wouldn’t be able to find out where they worked. Crap. I glanced at the clock on the wall—almost five fifteen.
“Well guys, my shift is over, so I need to get out of here. I hope your head heals quickly, and remember what I said—no more fighting with cars.”
“No promises. Thanks again,” patient-guy said.
I watched as they turned around and walked their fine asses through the emergency room doors. As soon as they were out of sight, I jogged back to the nurses’ area and clocked out, then found Jackie and Nat waiting for me at the nurses’ station.
“You lucky little bitch,” Natalie said when I walked over. “I saw those guys you were talking to. Now let’s go so we can go find a few more at the bar.”
I let out a sigh. “Yes, they were both rather good looking, weren’t they? And I am definitely ready for that drink.” I needed to get my mind off sexy-patient guy and his Mr. Accent sidekick.
As soon as Andy and I walked out the door, the Northern California heat blasted me like a torch and I felt like I was going to keel over. I’d barely made it ten feet out the door before I needed to stop and lean against a pillar. I had no idea what had happened while I had been in the emergency room, but now I felt like I was having a panic attack. I was dizzy, hot, and sweaty, and my heart was racing so fast I couldn’t catch my breath.
The strangest sensation was feeling like I was outside of my own body and looking down on myself. I leaned against the pillar for a few minutes, but that didn’t help. I bent over at the waist, my head hanging, and my forearms resting on my thighs. I shut my eyes and willed myself to take deep slow breaths. In through my nose, out through my mouth.
Jesus Christ, was this what my sister went through for all those years when she had panic attacks?
“Jeremy! Are you okay? Do you need to go back inside to see the doctor again?” Andy gripped my shoulders and maneuvered me back to a standing position.
No, but I wouldn’t mind going back in to see the redheaded nurse.
Andy pushed me upright against the pillar. I drew in another deep breath and let it out while he pretty much held me in place. My heart rate slowed and I was feeling slightly better, but my head was pounding. “No, man, I think I’m good now. I need air though, lots of cold air.”
We walked across the parking lot to the shop truck and got inside. Andy started the engine and blasted the A/C as high as it would go. I aimed every vent in front of me directly at my face, but I was still too hot.
Once I pulled off my work shirt and pointed one of the vents toward my body, I felt some relief.
“What is with you?” Andy asked. “Are you sure that exhaust system didn’t hit you in the head harder than you said it did?”
“I’m fine. This has nothing to do with the damn car.” But it had everything to do with the gorgeous nurse and her telling me I had pretty eyes. I’d heard that my entire life and it never meant a goddamn thing to me.
Not until she’d said it.
As soon as the words had come from between her pink, full lips, my mind had gone off on its own. Did I really tell her I loved her hair and the flush on her pretty face?
&nbs
p; Holy fucking shit. I really did that. It’s official. I’m brain-damaged, just like Adam. What is happening to me?
The last thing I remembered distinctly, was working underneath a Mustang. I’d tack welded an exhaust hanger onto the cross-member for the new exhaust system I had custom built. I’d moved to the back of the car to weld another hanger, then Jason had asked me for help and I’d removed my welding helmet. The next thing I knew, the tack weld I’d just finished broke loose and the entire exhaust system had come down on my damn head.
The end of the tail pipe smacked me right on the forehead about half an inch below my hairline. I thought I was fine until I’d felt the warm blood running down my face and into my eye.
“Are you sure you’re alright?” Andy asked, breaking the silence.
I shook my head no, but “yes” came out of my mouth.
“Well, which is it?” Andy asked, shooting me a cocky half-grin.
I needed to know what the hell was going on, and why the redheaded nurse was getting to me. When she’d come in the room and said “hey there,” my entire body had reacted to her voice.
And I truly meant my entire body. My heart had felt like it stopped when she spoke. Once I’d pulled the towel back and opened my eyes to look at her, my heart had resumed beating. My damn toes had even curled inside my steel-toed boots.
Fuck!
I didn’t respond to Andy, instead, I opened the door. I had to do something. I couldn’t leave without getting her name and number.
“Where the hell are you going?” Andy asked.
“I’ll be back,” I said over my shoulder, practically running from the truck.
I went through the ER doors and over to where the receptionist sat behind the safety window. Thank God nobody was around. I was too antsy and nervous and might have chickened out if I’d had to wait.
The receptionist pulled open the window. “Can I help you?”
“Yeah, I hope so. I was just in here for stitches and . . . um . . . well, the pretty nurse with the red hair that helped me . . .” Shit, what was I supposed to say? “Look, I wanted to see if I could talk to her again. Is it possible for you to see if she is still here?”
Then I remembered her saying her shift was over when she’d walked me back out to the waiting room. Shit!
The receptionist smiled and pushed her glasses back to their rightful position on the bridge of her nose. “Sorry, sweetie, I know who you’re talking about, but she’s gone for the day.”
“Can you at least tell me her name so I can come back to see her another day?” She frowned and I knew she was going to say no.
“Sorry, but I can’t give out that kind of information for confidentiality reasons. I’m sure you understand,” she replied.
Yes, it made sense, but I still didn’t have to like it. “Do you have a pen and a piece of paper I can use to leave her a note? Can you make sure she gets it when she comes back to work?”
She smiled and found a notepad and a pen then handed it to me.
After I thanked her, I found an empty seat to sit on to write the note. I had no idea what to say to the nurse without coming across as a creeper so I kept it short.
Dear Red,
Thanks again for taking care of the cut on my head today. Please don’t take this the wrong way, but I’d like to see you again. Without having to get more stitches in my head, though. If you want to get together for a drink or dinner sometime, give me a call or text. My cell number is 555–0102. Hope to hear from you soon.
Jeremy James
I’d never written a note to a girl in my life, so I read the damn thing six times before I took it back over to the receptionist. After reading what I had written one last time, I decided it wasn’t too stalker-like, folded it in half and handed the paper through the window along with the notepad and pen.
“I’ll make sure she gets this,” the receptionist said. I watched her scribble a name on the paper then tack it to the bulletin board next to her desk.
I tried like hell to read the name she’d jotted down, but it was too small and too far away. Shit. If I at least knew her name, I wouldn’t be feeling so helpless right now.
She would have my name and number as soon as she got the note, and I hoped she would call. It was up to her now, and I didn’t like it one bit. Usually it was the other way around—a woman was waiting on my call. Now that I’d given her my number, I was the one waiting in limbo.
I walked back to the truck and hopped in. It was nice and cold inside as Andy had been blasting the A/C while he waited for me.
Halfway back to the shop, Andy finally broke the silence. “Do you have something you want to talk about, mate?”
I couldn’t ask my brothers or my friends about what was going through my mind because they’d all give me shit. Andy was the only person that wouldn’t. Well, not too much anyway.
“Dude, please don’t think I’m a total pussy when I say what I’m about to say. Something happened in the ER. I’m not sure if what I think it was . . . is really what it was. Does that make sense?”
“Just spit it out already, mate. Then I’ll decide whether or not you’re a pussy.”
Here goes. “What did it feel like, and what were your first thoughts when you met my sister for the very first time?” I blurted out.
I had overheard Zoey’s version of the story when she was talking to Jess, and she’d described it as an instant connection. Like she was drawn to Andy almost magnetically and had no control over it. From what I’d seen over the nearly two years they’d been together, she was right.
When we had our family dinners, they were always within twenty feet of each other. They gravitated around each other, like one of them was the sun and the other the moon. I had a feeling that they both thought of the other as the sun.
Shit, I sound like a total pussy right now, but I have to know.
“Dude, are you going to answer me?” I asked, staring over at him. He seemed to be deep in thought.
“I’m not telling you my first thoughts of your sister,” he said dryly without looking at me.
“What the fuck. Why the hell not?” I needed to know if what I felt was similar to what happened with them when they met.
“Because the first time I saw your sister she was on her hands and knees, with her ass in the air cleaning my bathtub . . . that’s why.” He shot me a sideways look with a devious grin on his face.
“Okay, okay, Andy! Shut the fuck up now. I don’t need to know that.”
He smirked. “You asked, asshole. What’s going on? You’re acting strange.”
“The nurse. I uh . . . felt something when I met her. I need to know what it was. It’s never happened to me before when I’ve met a girl.”
Andy took a deep breath and eased the blasting of the A/C. “I scared the hell out of her the first time I met her. She had her earbuds in and didn’t hear me when I tried to get her attention. When I finally did, she stood and turned around to face me . . .”
He stopped talking so I stared at him, waiting for him to finish. I had no idea what had just happened to him, but he had so many emotions rolling over his face, it was almost too hard for me to watch.
I knew he’d gone through a lot before he moved to the States, and life hadn’t gotten much easier for him once he’d moved here. He’d had several losses in his life and I knew my sister was his anchor, as he was hers. He had a great life now that he had Zoey and Hannah.
I’d never experienced that with anyone, so I had no idea what it felt like.
“Do you know what they say about what happens right before you die? How your life passes before your eyes?” He looked over at me and I nodded my response.
“That was what it felt like when I saw her for the first time, except it happened backward. Instead of seeing my past, all I saw was her. My future, my wife—the mother of my children. The only family I had left was my aunt and uncle. But then I saw Zoey . . .”
I swore his eyes were watery. Fuck me.
&nbs
p; “I knew I loved Zoey and that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her a week after meeting her.”
Holy shit. A week?
“Thanks for telling me, man,” I said to Andy. “You have to swear to me this conversation will go no further than this truck. Don’t even tell Z, please.”
“Sure thing, mate.”
He pulled around to the back entrance of the shop and parked. As soon as we were out of the truck, Zoey came out with Hannah to check on me.
“How’s the head, Jer?” she asked as Andy kissed her cheek then took Sweet Pea from her.
“I had to get stitches!” I groaned as my sister pushed my hair back to inspect my head. “I gotta go guys. I am already late for fight night. Now I’ve gotta show up with this stupid thing on my head.” I pointed to the small piece of gauze that Red had taped over my stitches.
I hugged Z and told her goodbye. When I kissed Sweet Pea on her cheek, I was close enough to Andy to talk without my sister hearing me. “Not a word man. I swear if you tell my sister, I will kill you in your sleep.”
Andy let out a loud laugh and nodded. “Understood.”
I jumped into my car and hauled ass back to my apartment to shower and change.
After removing the bandage from my head, I inspected my stitches, and hoped the scar wouldn’t be too noticeable. I stepped into the shower, careful to keep the cut dry, and let my mind drift back to my encounter with Red in the ER.
When she had come in the room, my heart had freaked out on me and I could not take my eyes off her. She was gorgeous. I didn’t normally date redheads because of a bad experience, but I’d sure as hell date her if given the chance.
That’s when I remembered I was already dating someone—and she worked at the same hospital as Red, just on the fourth floor. I hoped they weren’t friends.
I thought about my relationship with Cammie and felt guilty for being attracted to Red, but I couldn’t help it. Every time she’d touched me, my heart had pounded faster and my palms had gotten all sweaty.
When I thought how I would love to see all her pretty, red hair spilling around us, while naked in my bed, my dick had betrayed me and pitched a tent in my pants so I’d had to sit up.
