Summer Wish

by Jill Sanders

  Wasn’t that what friends did? She’d known for a long time that he’d wanted to be a cop. But hadn’t most of his friends? After all, Brett hadn’t necessarily been quiet about it. Nor had he been mysterious about the reasons. Most everyone in town knew who and what his father was.

  She hadn’t realized they’d grown quiet until he snapped his fingers, jolting her out of her thoughts.

  “Snap, Crack, and Snot Clinic,” he said with a chuckle.

  “That has to be, by far, the worst name I’ve heard.” She laughed.

  He smiled. “Cutting Edge Clinic?” He chuckled.

  She thought for a moment. “Give Us a Shot Clinic?” she added with a grin.

  “Hurts a Lot Clinic.”

  “It might be better if I just sick with Pelican Point Medical Clinic,” she said after a few more ideas that had them both laughing.

  “PPMC.” He nodded. “So, Zoey is due any minute now.”

  “One of the reasons I’m sticking around the camp a lot lately,” she said quickly. A look crossed his face, one she knew all too well. Instantly, she added, “And so I can keep an eye on you.” His look changed and relaxed.

  “I don’t mean to be a burden.” He leaned back and pushed his empty plate away.

  “You aren’t.” She stood up and took their empty plates to the tray where she knew they’d be picked up the following day. “Besides, I enjoy spending my time here.”

  “What are they going to do when you leave?” he asked.

  “Leave?” She frowned. “Why would I leave?” She turned around and leaned on the countertop. He stood up and, using one crutch, moved over to her.

  “You’re opening your own practice,” he reminded her. “You don’t plan on working here and running your own clinic, do you?”

  “Why not?” She shrugged. “I’m working here and at the hospital at the same time.”

  “Yes, but…” He shook his head and leaned against the counter next to her. “I should have guessed. Overachiever. Don’t you work hard enough?” He nudged her shoulder as he smiled.

  “Me? I’m not the one who got shot when I was off duty.” She meant to tease him, but his smile fell away, and she reached out to touch his arm when she noticed the concern flood his eyes.

  “They were a family, just trying to get gas.” He shook his head and glanced out the dark windows. “I couldn’t let them get hurt.”

  “Of course not.” She moved in closer. “That’s what makes you such a great cop. And a great person.”

  He turned towards her, and she realized suddenly just how close they were.

  His hand moved up to her hip. “I really wish I was one hundred percent,” he said as his eyes moved down to her lips. “If I was, I’d pick you up and carry you over to the bed.”

  She felt her knees go weak and leaned against him. She could feel his heart beating in his chest, against her palm, as he dipped his head and brushed his lips across her.

  “I never imagined…” he said, in between kisses, “just how good you’d taste and feel.” He held onto her as he pulled her body against his. She was plastered against him, desperate to get closer to him, no matter what.

  His hands moved up and down her lower back and when he gripped her butt, she pushed herself against his hardness and desperately wished for him to carry her to bed. But, knowing he was still very much not one hundred percent, she took a slight step back until she could look up into his eyes.

  “Soon,” she promised.

  “Not soon enough for me.”

  “For now, we can enjoy sitting on the sofa and making out.” She smiled.

  “Sounds like a wonderful night.” He kissed her again. “There will be pie too, right?”

  She laughed and helped him over to the sofa. “Yes, apple a la mode.”

  He sat down and sighed. “Perfect.”

  Chapter 10

  Days seemed to fly by after that night he’d spent making out with Lea on the sofa in his cabin. He was thankful that whatever infection he’d fought off that day hadn’t come back. Somehow, he felt more like himself after it had gone. It was as if his body had flushed out whatever toxins it had been holding onto after he’d been shot.

  Even his muscles didn’t ache as much. Of course, his left leg was still hurting like crazy, but at least the rest of him was back to normal.

  He and Lea spent at least an hour in the pool each day, working on his mobility, and he worked on keeping the rest of his body from going too soft.

  Lea had removed his stitches and bandages and claimed that he no longer had to keep the area dry, which was a relief. He was spending a lot of time in the water and hated putting on the waterproof bandages.

  He was getting around a lot better on the crutches and had even tried out one of those boot scooters Lea had been talking about. The thing allowed him to go faster on the pathways but slowed him down and caused a lot of issues on the rocky pathways. He opted to stick with the crutches for the most part.

  The rain cleared up just in time for Hannah and Owen’s wedding. He’d pulled on his best suit and enjoyed sitting next to Lea in the field between the main building and the bay to watch the exchange of vows.

  He was thankful he’d asked her to go with him to the event and enjoyed seeing her in the sexy soft teal sundress she’d worn.

  At the reception, he had wanted to dance with Lea. Instead, he’d had to sit by while she and the rest of the Wildflowers danced around the floor together.

  Thankfully, however, he was able to enjoy a couple of beers since he’d finally gotten off the pain meds.

  He had to admit, Hannah and Owen’s wedding was just as nice as Zoey and Dylan’s and Elle and Liam’s had been. All three events had been unique, even though they’d all been held on the grounds.

  After sending the couple off on their honeymoon, Lea had come back to his place, and they’d fallen asleep watching another movie.

  He was growing tired of not being able to be with her the way he wanted. The way they both wanted.

  It was just over a week later when he overheard Damion Wells, the guy in charge of all things aquatic at the camp, talking about a beach party for employees later that next weekend. He’d headed to Lea’s office and invited her to join in the fun.

  She’d reminded him that Friday night she would be at Zoey’s baby shower in the main dining area. He remembered her talking about the party several times in the past few days. Zoey was eager for the baby to come, and it seemed so were the rest of her friends. Hannah was coming back from her honeymoon just in time for the party, which had been planned out perfectly, just like everything else the friends did around there.

  He liked seeing Lea in her scrubs and white lab coat with her stethoscope hanging around her neck. The look was somehow sexier than the sundress she’d worn to the wedding the week before.

  He hinted to her that she could sneak away from the party and join him on the beach after the baby shower had gotten started.

  “It’s a baby shower.” She giggled. “Not a raging drunken party. Everyone will notice if I sneak away.” She held onto him as he rained little kisses down her neck.

  “God, you smell so good,” he said against her skin.

  “I smell like antiseptic.” She laughed. “One of the guests stepped on a broken bottle on the beach.”

  “Under that, you smell like flowers and sin.” He trailed his tongue down to her shoulder and pushed her lab coat and scrubs aside to expose more of her skin. “Are you sure we can’t lock that door and…”

  Just then there was a knock on the closed door, and he sighed.

  “Sorry,” she said with a smile and pushed away from him. “Duty calls.”

  He was sitting on her examining table, even though he hadn’t been there for a checkup.

  “Later?” he asked, sliding off the table.

  She glanced down at her watch and sighed. “I’m on shift at the hospital tonight.”

  He wanted to ask her to call in sick but knew better, as she h
ad hinted that she was trying to work as many hours as she could until she officially quit to open her clinic.

  Instead, he took his crutch, kissed her once more, and opened the examining room door.

  “I’m heading to the pool to work out. Maybe we can do lunch before you leave?” he asked.

  “I can meet you at the pool in an hour,” she said as she greeted the older man and woman sitting in the waiting area.

  The couple looked slightly embarrassed to see someone else with the doctor. As he strolled past them, the woman blushed and averted her eyes.

  He was curious about what kind of ailments Lea saw people for most of the time. He knew that cuts, bruises, and twisted body parts took up most of her time. But did people come to her for other things? Things that their normal doctors should handle when they were at home? He made a mental note to ask her what other issues she dealt with at the camp.

  After all, even though most of the guests were older, they weren’t ancient. There were all sorts of fun games and activities on the grounds and most guests were very active. He’d heard the rumors of some of the swinger parties that had initially caused some havoc until some simple rules had been implemented.

  Just how active could older people be? His parents didn’t do anything like hiking or horseback riding. Hell, they had hardly ever talked to one another when he’d been living under their roof.

  Which reminded him that he’d been thinking of asking Lea if he could try horseback riding or maybe sailing. Something to keep his mind off his pain and his recovery.

  Since the other more adventurous activities were readily available at the camp, he might as well enjoy them. He didn’t know how much longer he was going to stick around here now that he was on his feet and could fend for himself. Not that he was eager to return to his two-bedroom apartment.

  Stepping outside from the medical cabin where Lea had her office and examining rooms, he took a deep breath and realized that he was thankful he had someplace like the camp to recover. He doubted he would have enjoyed his recovery as much if he’d been stuck at home, alone.

  Being around the camp while he recovered was like taking a vacation instead of just medical leave. Even a few of his buddies from the precinct who visited him told him how lucky he was to get to stay there. Surrounded by nature, not to mention hot women, guests and workers alike.

  He was thankful that Kara had made a point to hint to Lea that she knew he was off-limits. Since that night after his fever, the two women had seemed to grow a very strong friendship with one another.

  He’d even stumbled upon them having lunch the other day. They’d been laughing together and when they saw him, they’d instantly grown quiet and smiled in his direction.

  Lea had suggested that he continue to get massages when he could schedule time. Both Kara and Andrea were great at working out the rest of the tension his injury caused in his body.

  For today, the water would have to do the trick since Kara was not on shift and Andrea was completely booked.

  As he slipped into the water, he figured he’d swim a few laps instead of trying the exercises Lea had taught him. This pool was half the length of an Olympic-sized pool and had two designated lap lanes.

  He started slicing through the water, letting his right leg do most of the work.

  He’d been on the swim team when he’d been in high school and had been one of the top athletes in his class. Actually, if he would have chosen to, he was pretty sure he could have gone on to compete professionally.

  But he had felt another calling. One that he had thought would help protect women like his mother. His first year on the force, he’d gotten a wake-up call.

  He and his then partner George had gotten a domestic dispute call. When they’d shown up at the trashed mobile home, they’d heard yelling and the sound of a crash as they approached the door.

  The woman had answered the door, her eyes red from crying. Her husband, a man easily twice her size, stood behind her, anger contorting his face and making his cheeks red.

  Half an hour later, George and he had walked back to the patrol car, empty-handed.

  “Having no proof sucks,” George had said, wiping his hands over his face.

  “We both know he hit her,” he’d replied.

  “There wasn’t a red mark on her, and she refused to press charges or even say that he hit her,” George had added.

  “She was afraid of the bastard. Of course she wasn’t going to say he hit her,” Brett had pleaded.

  “Until we have probable cause or proof of abuse, we can’t do anything but wait,” George had reminded him. “It sucks, but it’s the law. We’re only here to enforce it.”

  “We’re here to protect people like her.” Brett had pointed towards the trailer and noticed the man standing in the doorway, smiling at them with his arms crossed over his chest, as if he knew that he’d just won the entire war instead of just one battle.

  “Until the wife finds the courage to stand up to him, or to run, there’s nothing we can do,” George added. “In my twenty-some years on the force, I’ve seen it more times than I can count.” He shook his head. “It’s not always the woman who is being abused, but the look in their eyes is always the same. Broken.” George looked towards the trailer and narrowed his eyes. “As is the look on their faces.” He nodded towards the husband. “All this did was empower him. He feels untouchable now. He’ll take his anger out on her even more after we leave. This won’t be the last time we get called out here. Mark my words.” He sighed.

  “Why?” Brett had asked the older man. “Why does she stay?” He hadn’t realized at the time that he hadn’t been talking about the man’s wife but his own mother.

  “I don’t know for sure. I guess for some it’s fear,” George had answered. “Others, it’s the lack of belief that there is anything better out there. Some stay for the kids, if there are any.”

  Brett had rolled those words in his head while he waited for the next call.

  George had been right; over the next few months, they were called back to the small trailer more than a dozen times. Each time, the woman refused to press charges against her husband and there had never been so much as a red mark on her. None that they could see.

  Then, one day, they’d gotten the call that there had been an accident. When they’d shown up, the woman had answered the door. Her hands were covered in blood, and she was hysterical.

  Her husband of less than a year lay on the living room floor covered in blood with an eight-inch kitchen knife sticking through his neck.

  The same system that had turned its back on her all of those months during her abuse was now the one that locked her up for the rest of her life for her abuser’s murder.

  The system failed in that case. He had failed her.

  That moment defined the way he handled calls like that from then on. Sure, he still stayed within his legal limits, but that didn’t stop him from taking extra time on calls.

  He studied all the Prevention of Domestic and Sexual Violence policies on how to handle such cases. The PDSV had a lot of good information that he wished he and George had followed to the tee in that first case. The PDSV guidelines had been required reading before he’d gotten his badge, but he’d only really skimmed through it.

  It seemed difficult to do your job when criminals knew all the loopholes in the law more than the officers did. After that first case, he made a point to know all the ins and outs of everything he could do. That had helped in the future cases he’d dealt with.

  Thinking about work kept his mind off the fact that his left leg was on fire. Instead of pulling himself out of the water after his last lap, he floated there for a while. Watching the white puffy clouds float slowly through the blue sky, he thought of all the good he could continue to do if he was allowed to get back on the job.

  Would his leg ever be the same? Could he recover completely? Lea had mentioned that he’d need to continue therapy for a long time and, at this point, he knew that on
ce his month of medical leave was up, he’d have to reassess his own desires. Sure, a desk job would be waiting for him. He knew that.

  He could possibly even talk his chief into letting him hit the streets sooner than he was capable of doing. Of that, he had no doubt. But the question was, did he want to?

  Being shot had put a damper on more than just his career goals. It had changed the way he looked at life. The longer he hung around his friends here at the camp, the more he realized that there was more to life. There was a lot more he could do to help people, especially the ones he cared for.

  After all, in the past three years since the camp had opened its doors, they’d gone through more than most had—a shooting where luckily no one had been shot, a stabbing, a kidnapping, an attempted murder, and even a hurricane.

  Maybe River Camps did need his help. He’d never really thought about going into private security before. He didn’t even know what they would pay, since he’d always brushed off Aiden or Elle any time they had suggested it to him.

  Maybe after lunch with Lea, he would swing by Elle’s office and have a chat with her. It couldn’t hurt, right?

  He felt the water splash as a body cannonballed right next to him, sending water into his eyes and mouth.

  When Lea surfaced, smiling and laughing, he reached for her.

  “Minx.” He held onto her close.

  “You looked like a river lily.” She laughed and splashed him.

  “A… what?” He shook his head.

  “A river lily. The flowers.” She held onto his shoulders.

  “Yes, I know what they are, it’s just… I’ve never been compared to a flower before.” He smiled down at her.

  “Well, now you have. You float in the water just like one. Bobbing around with no purpose,” she teased, causing his smile to grow.

  “You’re trying to get under my skin.” He pushed her body against his.

  “Is it working?” she said, a little breathless.

  “One surefire way to rile a man is to compare him with a flower.” He kissed her.