The Family You Make

by Jill Shalvis

  The guy seemed to shrink. “Ah, man, why do you gotta be so mean? I’ll come back tomorrow.”

  “No. You need a Tdap shot today.”

  “I don’t need whatever that is.”

  “It’s a tetanus shot, and yes you do. You stabbed your thumb on a rusty nail. But I promise, it’s just a little prick.”

  “You’re a little prick,” he muttered, then swiped his hand down his face. “Shit, I’m sorry. That was automatic.”

  “Understood. Now can we . . . ?” Jane pointed at the back again.

  Nick and his mountain-wide shoulders sagged. “I just don’t see why it has to be today. I said I’d come back another time.”

  “Please refer to my earlier answer of no.”

  Nick huffed out a huge sigh and started shuffling into the lab. Halfway there, he turned back.

  Jane was still pointing.

  With a huge sigh, he vanished through the doorway.

  Jane turned to Levi, registering nothing but a quiet surprise. “Tarzan.”

  He grimaced. “Tell me you remember my real name.”

  “Of course I do. But then again, I’m not the one with a head injury.”

  “I’m fine.” He knocked on the top of his head. “Hard as a rock. And you?” He gestured to her wrist, which wasn’t splinted.

  “I’m good.” Her dark green eyes gave nothing away, including how she felt at seeing him again.

  As for what he felt, it seemed a whole lot like relief. “I wanted to thank you for saving my ass.”

  “You’d have been fine if I hadn’t been there. You only got hurt because you were trying to protect me.”

  “I liked the company,” he said, and while she looked to be absorbing that comment, he made another. “You ducked out on me at the hospital.”

  “Hey, I made sure you were going to live first.”

  This made him laugh. “Thanks.”

  “No problem. Are you in need of medical attention?”

  “No.”

  She looked him over anyway. He’d like to think that there was some attraction as well as assessment in her pretty eyes, but she was damn good at holding her own counsel. “Okay then,” she said. “Welp, I gotta get back to work. Make sure the door shuts behind you. The latch doesn’t always catch.”

  He smiled at being so thoroughly dismissed. “Nice bedside manner. Sexy. Only you’re not the boss of me, Jane. I mean . . . unless you ask real nice first.”

  “Now you’re just trying to fluster me.”

  “Didn’t know I could.”

  She rolled her eyes and pushed a few loose strands of hair out of her face. “Like you don’t know you have that effect on most women.”

  “But not you.”

  “I’m not most women. How did you find me anyway?”

  “First, I braved North Diamond’s mountain looking for you, only to find out that you weren’t scheduled at that urgent care today. Or at Sierra North, Homeward, or Starwood Peak . . .”

  That won him a low laugh, but her smile slowly faded. “I’m off rotation at North Diamond for now.”

  He hated the idea that she was afraid to go back up there, but he certainly understood it. “I nearly had a panic attack at the idea of getting on the gondola,” he admitted. “I had to get a buddy from ski patrol give me a ride on his snowmobile.”

  That had her looking at him again, her gaze softer now. “It’s not often people try to find me,” she said. “Usually it’s been the opposite.”

  That effectively swiped the smile from his face, remembering what she’d told him, that she didn’t have family. His family was a huge pain in his ass, but he couldn’t imagine not having them. “Can we talk?”

  Those sharp eyes assessed him, taking in the scar the stitches had left through his eyebrow. “I’m glad you’re okay. But I don’t know what there is to talk about.”

  “Maybe I needed to know you’re okay too.”

  “I’m fine.”

  He smiled at his own usual mantra and his gaze settled on the bruise along her jawline. Very gently, he ran a finger along it. “I’m sorry about what happened that night, Jane.”

  She swallowed hard, then shook her head. “None of it was your fault. And I’m sorry, but I’ve really got to get back to work. So unless you’ve got another of your fascinating facts for me, I’ll see you around—”

  “If you burned all the new data from just one day onto DVDs, you could stack them on top of each other and reach the moon—twice.”

  She blinked, then looked impressed. “Okay, that’s a good one.”

  “Also, I brought you something.” He reached into his pocket.

  “At least you didn’t ask me to get it out for you this time.”

  He grinned, and that felt good. Too good. He held his hand out to her, palm still closed, and her eyes narrowed. “What is it?”

  “Suspicious much?” Reaching for her hand, he dropped her necklace into her palm. “One of the search-and-rescue guys found this that night, but they missed you at the hospital. I promised to get it back to you.”

  She stilled and stared down at the necklace, her eyes going shiny before she closed her fingers around the locket and brought it up to her chest. “Thank you,” she whispered, voice thick. “You have no idea how much this means to me.”

  Looking at her stare at the necklace again, he thought maybe he did. “I’m just glad you have it back. Jane . . .”

  She lifted her face.

  “Do you want to talk about it? About what we went through?”

  “No. We’re both okay, there’s no need.” She took a step back. “But I owe you one.”

  “Actually, you saving my life trumps me getting the necklace back to you. Can I buy you lunch on your break?”

  “I’m not hungry.” Then her stomach growled and she grimaced, looking embarrassed. “Okay, fine. I’m starving. After I finish with my patient, I get a break. Meet me at the hospital cafeteria. It’s in the next building over, ground floor.”

  He smiled. “It’s a date.”

  “It’s not a date. I don’t date.”

  “Never?” he asked.

  “Well, maybe once in a blue moon.”

  His eyes twinkled with mischief. “Then here’s hoping for a blue moon. See you in the cafeteria, Jane.”

  She nodded, then watched him walk out of the urgent care—which he knew because he looked back and caught her at it.

  With another grimace, she vanished into the back, and he smiled all the way to the hospital cafeteria.

  Chapter 7

  Fifteen minutes later, Jane walked into the hospital cafeteria. This was a bad idea. Like, a really bad idea, mostly because while she could say she wasn’t interested in starting anything with Levi, she seemed to conveniently forget that when looking in his eyes.

  Stupid, sexy eyes.

  Sandra, a fellow traveling nurse, caught her at the entrance. “Jane! Hi, what’s new?”

  “Not much,” she said neutrally.

  “You sure? ’Cause there’s a really hot guy waiting for you.” Sandra tilted her head in the direction of a table off to the right and waggled her eyebrows.

  “And?” Jane asked.

  “And . . . there’s a really hot guy waiting for you.” The unspoken question was clearly Where did you find him?

  The medical network here in Tahoe was impressive, but behind the scenes, it was like high school. High school with really smart kids who practically lived the job, so they were all far too tangled up in one another’s lives.

  And Jane didn’t plan to be the latest watercooler story. A quick peek over her shoulder revealed Levi leaning back in his chair, scrolling through his phone. And damn, Sandra was right. He was sexy as hell, maybe even more so now with that new scar line through his right eyebrow.

  “Are you really going to give me nothing?” Sandra asked. “Come on, my day’s sucked so far.”

  Jane laughed but shook her head. “Did you really come all the way down from Labor and Delivery to get
gossip?”

  “No, actually I came looking for you. I was wondering how long you’re staying at Charlotte’s this year. The hospital offered to extend my contract by another couple of months, but there’s no available housing. And you’re always saying you’re going to be gone soon, so I guess I’m wondering if that’s true?”

  Jane had spent the first part of her life being asked to move along. It was always done in a roundabout way, starting from when her grandpa hadn’t been able to take care of her on his own. She’d been handed off from one distant relative to the next. Jane, wouldn’t you like to go stay with cousin so-and-so for a while . . . ?

  But this wasn’t that, she reminded herself. “Have you spoken to Charlotte?” she asked Sandra.

  “Not yet. Thought I’d check in with you first.”

  The thing was, Charlotte was such a bleeding heart, Jane knew the woman would sleep on her own couch to make sure Sandra had a place to stay.

  And then there was the fact that Charlotte would make more money off Sandra, a lot more, because she never took enough money from Jane to begin with.

  But the real truth was that Jane wasn’t sure she could handle Charlotte asking. She’d rather leave on her own than face that ever again. “I’m contracted for work until the season is over, but maybe we could work out a shared-room situation. See what Charlotte wants to do and let me know.”

  Sandra squeezed her hand. “Thanks, hon.”

  When Sandra walked away, Jane drew a deep breath and headed toward Levi’s table. He looked up, smiled in a way that pushed the lingering bad memories away, and stood. “Hey.”

  “Hey.”

  He pushed a tray loaded with food to the center of the table. “I know you’re short on time, so I got one of everything.”

  It was ridiculous how much this charmed her, and she laughed as she grabbed a grilled cheese and a cup of soup, and then on second thought, also the French fries.

  Looking pleased, Levi took the burger and small salad. “I really enjoyed watching you handle the big guy today.”

  “Nick?” She smiled. “He’s okay. He’s really just a gentle giant.”

  Levi laughed. “Whatever you say.”

  They were eating their food when Levi leaned in. “We’ve got an audience. Your three o’clock.”

  She turned and looked and found Sandra, along with a few other nurses, watching them with avid interest. She gave them the shoo gesture and they scattered. “Sorry,” she said. “It’s like they’ve never seen me with someone before.” She paused. Grimaced. “Okay, so they’ve never seen me with someone before. They have no idea this is just a lunch between two people who nearly bought the farm together.” She laughed.

  Levi didn’t.

  She paused with a French fry halfway to her mouth. “It is just a lunch between two people who nearly bought the farm together, right?” she asked.

  “It’s whatever we want it to be.”

  For some reason, this kicked her heart into gear.

  He pushed a white box across the table. It had a pretty red bow on it, and she stared at it like it was a coiled snake. “What is it?”

  “It’s a Thanks-for-Not-Letting-Me-Die present.”

  “No. I don’t do presents.”

  “Would it change your mind to know it’s a cookies ’n’ cream cupcake from Cake Walk?”

  She gasped. “Don’t you tease me.”

  “Wouldn’t dream of it.”

  She practically tore off the bow, making him laugh, but she didn’t care. Calk Walk’s cupcakes were the gold bar of cupcakes. They were better than a day off. They were better than sex—at least she was pretty sure. It’d been a while. “You actually remembered,” she said as she sat staring down at the huge perfect cupcake, lunch forgotten, mouth watering.

  “Yeah. You moaned a little when you were talking about it.”

  Well, that was embarrassing. And true. “So you wanted to hear me moan again?”

  “You already did.” He smiled a bit wickedly, and . . . damn. It was a good smile. The kind that could give a girl some seriously dirty thoughts, which she also hadn’t had in a while. Uncharacteristically ruffled, she grabbed a knife, carefully cut the cupcake in two, and handed him half.

  “You absolutely positive they’re even?” he asked.

  She eyeballed them again. “Yes,” she finally said and caught his grin. “You’re still teasing me. But you should know, I take these cupcakes very seriously.”

  “Then I’m seriously touched that you’d share.” He held up his portion in a cheers. “To not dying.”

  “To not dying.” She took a big bite and moaned again. “I can’t help it!” she said when he grinned at her.

  “Not complaining.” He took a bite as well and . . . let out a very male moan himself.

  Laughing, she pointed at him. “See? Better than sex, right?”

  His smoky eyes heated. “I’ll admit, the cupcake is amazing, but nothing’s better than sex. Not if it’s done right.”

  Well, you walked right into that one. Determined to get out of the danger zone, she concentrated on her next bite, not even realizing that her free hand had gone to her necklace, back around her neck where it belonged.

  Levi’s gaze went there too. “Looks good on you.”

  Earlier when he’d dropped her grandma’s necklace into her palm, she’d had to fight tears. He’d noticed, she knew he had, but he hadn’t pushed her to talk. Instead he’d remained quiet, letting her recover. “Thank you again,” she said softly.

  “The way you touched it when you got on the gondola, I figured it was important to you.”

  It took her a minute to be able to speak. “Very. It was my grandma’s.” She opened the locket and looked at the picture of herself, the happiest she’d ever been in her life up to that point because they’d just gone to see The Nutcracker. “It’s the only thing I have of her.” She paused. “Actually, it’s the only thing I have of my childhood.”

  “I’m glad you’ve got it back.” Reaching out, he gently touched the fading bruise on her jaw. “You’re really okay?”

  “Yes.” She looked at the healing cut slicing through his eyebrow. “I should have asked you before how you are feeling.”

  “Same as you, I imagine.”

  She drew in a deep breath. She hadn’t wanted to discuss what had happened up there on the gondola with Charlotte when she’d asked, saying she couldn’t go there yet. She hadn’t wanted to have to admit she’d pulled herself off the North Diamond’s clinic rotation schedule, how she’d had more than one nightmare about that night, how ever since then she’d felt . . . she wasn’t even sure. Lost? Until now, anyway. With her necklace back, she could face anything. “I’m a master at shoving my hot-mess-ness deep.”

  A rough laugh rumbled up from Levi’s chest. “Same.”

  Their eyes met and locked. Maybe she hadn’t been able to talk to anyone else about what happened, not wanting to relive it. But Levi had been right there with her, so he already knew. She didn’t have to tell him any of it. There was an odd comfort in that, and she went back to her cupcake, trying not to inhale hers, trying to savor it. “I’m sort of regretting giving you half,” she said around the next mouthful.

  He hadn’t devoured his. He was taking his damn time, and while he was doing so, he casually sucked a dollop of frosting from his thumb.

  Jane looked at her thumb, hoping for her own dollop to lick, but no go. She took her last bite and eyed the baking paper, wondering if she could lick that without embarrassing herself.

  “You ever going to tell me why you disappeared on me that night?” Levi asked.

  “I didn’t disappear.”

  He gave her a look.

  “All right, fine. I took off because I knew you were in good hands and that you’d be okay. There was nothing left for me to do.” Plus, the longer she sat at his bedside, the longer she’d wanted to stay. She played with the cupcake paper until she felt his hand on hers.

  “Hey,” he said qu
ietly, waiting until she looked at him. “Just so you know, it’s normal after a situation like that to bond with the person you survived it with. I never knew how true that was until a week ago. We’re the only two who know what we went through. After you left, in the days after, I was just . . . worried, I guess, thinking about you out there, maybe going through a bad time because of it and not having anyone who’d understand.”

  She didn’t want to be touched, but she was. She was also unwilling to admit she’d been indeed having a hard time. “I face life-or-death situations all the time for a living. If I formed an attachment to every patient, I wouldn’t last long.”

  He looked at her for a long moment. “You and I both know that what happened up there that night was far more than a patient/practitioner relationship.”

  She looked into the cupcake box, but a second cupcake did not appear.

  “And you face life-and-death situations every day at work?” he asked.

  Clearly, the sugar high had loosened her tongue, and he was too damn smart because he’d caught the one little tidbit she hadn’t meant to let loose. “I told you I’m only in Tahoe for the ski season. The rest of the year I’m out working for Doctors Without Borders and other organizations like them.” She genuinely loved helping others, loved helping to make people feel safe—ironic since she’d never felt particularly safe growing up, or . . . ever. But mostly she loved the temporary nature of the contracts she took. Loved knowing she got to leave on her own terms. That the end date was decided going in. No one had to ask her to leave because she’d become inconvenient. She couldn’t be returned.

  And yeah, that was her deep, dark, sad, secret truth . . . she was terrified of staying past her usefulness.

  Levi was looking at her like she’d surprised him, but he didn’t comment, for which she was grateful. She never knew what to say when people responded with wow, or that’s amazing, or thank you for giving back . . .

  She realized he still had his hand on hers, and he was rubbing his thumb back and forth over her palm, a look of fascination on his face. “You keep surprising me, Jane.”

  “Yeah.” She pulled her hand free. “I get that a lot.”