Dr. Hottie

by Vivian Wood

  “That’s a good sign,” she said.

  “What?”

  “Silence at the dinner table.”

  “Sorry,” he said, his mouth full of the melting fish.

  “No, I mean it. It means the food’s good.”

  “It’s amazing,” he said. “I have to admit I’m surprised.”

  “Why? I told you I liked cooking.”

  “Yeah, but a lot of people say that. Doesn’t mean they’re good at it.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence,” she said, but there was a sparkle in her eye.

  Jack had looked down and realized his plate was wiped clean.

  “More?” she asked. “There are some vegetables left. Or dessert.”

  “If you’re asking me if I want vegetables—which were great, by the way—or that pie you baked, I’m going to have to go with the latter.”

  She’d smiled, pushed her chair back, picked up both their plates and went into the kitchen. He listened as she pulled out the plates that had appeared in their cupboards the day before and cut into the pie.

  “Whipped cream or no?” she’d asked, and leaned against the frame between the kitchen and living room.

  A wicked smile played at her face. She held out a bowl of homemade whipped cream, put a finger into the thick cloud of it, and tasted it while she held his gaze.

  “Wanna try? Tell me if it’s sweet enough.”

  Okay, maybe that part didn’t happen. But if it did—

  “Dr. Stratton?” Mrs. Wood’s milky blue eyes probed his.

  “Oh, uh, sorry,” he said. “What did you say?”

  “I—”

  She suddenly leaned over and vomited blood all over his shoes.

  “Don’t worry,” he said, and his training kicked into overdrive.

  One of the nurses arrived at his side.

  “Free fluid in the abdomen,” he said curtly. “Get Philip—er, Dr. Ruiz.”

  Philip came through the curtain at a brisk clip and helped prep the patient for surgery.

  “I got it,” Philip said under his breath to Jack.

  Philip’s specialty was surgery, and if he was available he always got priority in the ER. Jack didn’t complain—as he moved deeper into internal medicine, he considered this jaunt in the ER a kind of tough initiation with a touch of hazing.

  Something to get through before he dug into what he really wanted to do. At least, what he really wanted to do if medicine was the only option.

  He stepped back from the exam table and looked down at his shoes as Philip and a nurse wheeled Mrs. Wood to the OR.

  “Dr. Stratton?” One of his favorite nurses, Loretta, pulled open the curtains and gave him a kind smile. She handed him a wet wipe and a towel.

  “Thanks,” he said, and leaned against the counter to wipe off his shoes.

  “You bring a spare pair like I told you?” she asked. She crossed her hefty arms across her even more ample chest.

  “No, mum, sorry. I forgot,” he said.

  She tsked at him.

  “I’ve been working the ER for thirty years,” she said. “You oughta listen to me when I tell you to keep a spare pair of shoes here.”

  He grinned up at her, taking note of how her hair wrap perfectly matched her scrubs. How she always wore a different set of oversized, sparkling earrings every day.

  “Yeah, you got style, girl,” he said. “I could use some lessons.”

  “Mm-hmm,” she said. “Save it for the wifey. Those charms of yours don’t work on me.”

  As she turned and left, his thoughts went immediately back to Addy.

  Stop it, he told himself. All this fantasizing at work is what got this blood and vomit on your shoes to begin with.

  Was his increasing interest in Addy getting in the way of his work? It was the third time he’d been caught zoning out while thinking about her instead of actively engaged in working on a trauma.

  She was proving to be a distraction, that was for sure. And that was a lot more than what he’d bargained for. Jack looked at his watch. His shift was up in ten minutes, and there were no signs of a new patient being assigned to him.

  Jack started down the hallway toward the staff lounge—only to have Rosalie emerge from the restroom and almost walk smack into him.

  “Rosalie, hey,” he said. “How’s—how’s it going?”

  “I’m about to start a fourteen-hour shift,” she said. “It’s going as well as it could be. How’s your… wife?” she asked.

  “Addison.”

  “I know what her name is.”

  “She’s fine, thanks for asking,” he said.

  Rosalie nodded and looked away.

  Jack smiled, amused. He hadn’t thought their little deception would work so well, but Rosalie clearly struggled with the whole thing. Rosalie was tough, always had been.

  That was partly what had initially attracted him to her. He never thought he’d be able to get under her skin so well, and so easily.

  “Well, I should let you get started,” he said.

  “Jack—I, this is awkward,” she said. “I think, you know, I have five minutes. Let me just get this out.”

  “Okay,” he said. “Shoot.”

  She looked up and down the hall, but it was deserted save for one janitor who mopped at the far end.

  “I’m… well, it’s pretty obvious I’m not happy about the whole thing.”

  “About me and Addison?”

  “Yeah. I’m bitter, I admit it. It’s hard, you know? I mean, it kind of came out of nowhere. But I’ve been working on accepting it. I’m trying to let it go. If we’re going to work together, I don’t want to have this cloud hanging over us all the time.”

  “Yeah, I agree,” he said.

  “So, that’s why I was thinking… why don’t we double date?”

  “What? You mean, Addy and me, and you and…”

  “Just someone I recently started dating,” she said with a shrug.

  “Oh. Who’s the new guy?” he asked. He could have kicked himself for his interest.

  Rosalie shot him a look. “You aren’t allowed to have an opinion about who I date. You’re married.”

  “I know that,” he said. She had him there.

  “So? Double date tomorrow night? It’s probably one of the few times neither of us have the night shift.”

  “You know my schedule?”

  She rolled her eyes at him.

  “It’s posted in the break room,” she said. “I looked when I got here so I could ask you.”

  “Oh.”

  “So, dinner tomorrow? Maybe at seven?”

  “You’ve got a date,” Jack said.

  She smiled and started toward the ER.

  As Jack grabbed his bag out of his locker and headed toward the Jeep, he ran over the conversation with Rosalie in his head.

  Was she up to something? Or being genuine? He couldn’t tell. The Rosalie he knew, or thought he knew, back in the Congo wasn’t underhanded or manipulative. At least she hadn’t seemed to be.

  Maybe she’s for real, he thought.

  As he walked into the condo, he saw Addy as she prepped for work.

  “Dinner shift?” he asked. “I thought you didn’t work those.”

  “Dawn’s sick,” she said. “I have to cover for her.”

  “Are you working tomorrow night?”

  “No, morning shift. Why?” she asked as she pulled her hair into a ponytail.

  “We’re going to dinner with Rosalie and some guy she’s dating.”

  “We’re what?”

  He shrugged. “She asked, said she didn’t want things to be weird at work so this is supposed to smooth things over.”

  “Okay, sounds fun,” she said.

  “I wouldn’t use that word.”

  “Come on. I thought that’s what this was all about? Getting to our exes. What better place than dinner?”

  He watched her as she left, purse slung over one shoulder with keys that jangled in her hand.


  Sounds fun?

  It wasn’t just what she said, but how she said it. The response was like what a girlfriend would say. And as much as he was attracted to Addy, he had to remember that this whole marriage thing was just to make Rosalie jealous.

  How am I supposed to remind Addy of that? he wondered. Especially without making her mad—and still convincing her to put on a good show tomorrow night?

  Jack poured himself a glass of whiskey and sat on the patio to mull over his approach.

  12

  Why did I agree to this?

  Addy smoothed down her navy blue dress, nervous as Jack steered the Jeep into the only expensive steakhouse in town. She let go of her hair, which she’d loosely braided to keep her rare blowout from turning into a rat’s nest on the drive.

  “Ready?” Jack asked.

  “I’m nervous,” she said.

  “You have to be joking.”

  “I’m not!” she said.

  She pulled down the little mirror to check her makeup. It had been so long since she’d actually put in more effort than lip gloss and mascara that she was rusty.

  “In that dress, you’re making heads turn left and right.”

  “What are you talking about? We haven’t been anywhere except home and this parking lot.”

  “And in that time you about gave the old man in the corner unit a heart attack, and those two teenaged boys who are always hanging out on the front steps something to aspire to.”

  “Great, so I excited an old man and two hormonal teenage boys who would hump a fire hydrant.”

  “Wow, learn to take a compliment,” he said.

  The valet opened her door and held out his white gloved hand. She smiled up at him and grasped it.

  Maybe Jack was right.

  The valet’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head as he took in the extremely low cut of the knit jersey dress. Kenzie had nearly forced it on her, and it was more of a skirt with two really long straps at the waist that lifted up and tied around her neck Grecian-style.

  “I don’t know,” she’d whined at Kenzie, and cupped her bare breasts over the fabric. “This is really out there.”

  “Well, I know,” Kenzie had said. “Trust me. You know what I’d give for a dinner at Stovall’s?”

  With newfound confidence, she took Jack’s hand as he reached for hers and pushed her shoulders back as they walked into the restaurant. Massive chandeliers hung overhead and the rich, red velvet of the booths against the intricate Persian rugs offered a type of immediate, luxurious intimacy.

  “Reservations?” the hostess asked.

  “Stratton,” Jack said. The young hostess couldn’t have been older than twenty, too young to be able to control the blatant lust in her eyes.

  “Is this a special occasion?” the girl asked. She completely ignored Addy.

  “Just a night out with my wife and friends,” Jack said.

  The waitress shot Addy a look of pure jealousy and looked down to seek out the ring. Addy had to admit it felt good.

  If this is what being a power couple is like, I can’t complain.

  “The other half of the party is already seated. Follow me,” the hostess said curtly.

  Addy gulped when she saw Rosalie. Jack’s ex was seated next to a handsome man with jet black hair combed back.

  “Jack, Addy, hi!” Rosalie said when she saw them. She offered up that megawatt grin that punctuated her perfectly lined red lips even more. “This is Theo,” she said as the waitress slapped down two cocktail menus and walked away.

  Theo stood up to shake their hands. He was tall, Addy noticed, but not quite as tall as Jack. His sharp face was freshly shorn and when he smiled he revealed teeth so perfectly white Addy wondered if they were veneers.

  “I’ve heard a lot about you both,” Theo said. “Glad we could all get together. It sounds like all of our schedules are hectic.”

  “Theo’s a producer in Los Angeles,” Rosalie said. “He’s just in town until tomorrow.”

  “Wow, that’s … impressive,” Addy said as she sat down while Jack pulled out her chair.

  Rosalie smiled at her, and for a moment it looked almost genuine. She looked stunning, Addy couldn’t help but notice. Rosalie’s alabaster skin was contrasted against her aubergine silk top and showed off arms so slender they looked unreal—beautiful in a nearly skeletal way.

  She shivered as Jack ran his hand across the bare flesh of her upper back as he took his own seat. As the group began to talk, he wrapped his arm around her like it was the most natural thing in the world.

  Jack radiated heat, and she soaked up every bit of it. She didn’t know if the chill in the air was from the awkwardness of the situation or just because this was the first time she’d been in a restaurant without working in months.

  Are all restaurants this cold?

  Addy coasted in and out of the conversation. Jack asked Theo polite questions about his flight and his work, while Rosalie and Jack had the tendency to get caught up in “hospital talk.”

  Theo raised his eyes at Addy and shook his head with a smile when the doctors got too deep into their jargon.

  “So, how did you two meet?” Addy asked. “If you’re in California and Rosalie’s here.”

  “I actually have a cabin in Tahoe,” Theo said. “It’s a convenient getaway from Hollywood, and I love to ski in the winter and enjoy water sports in the summer. That’s how we met—I reinjured my rotator cuff on my new jet ski, and Rosalie is the one who fixed me up.”

  Rosalie laughed.

  “Fixed you up is a bit extreme,” she said. “More like ordered an MRI and referred you to a surgeon in Los Angeles.”

  The waiter approached with a polite smile.

  “Can I get you started with some drinks?”

  “Share a bottle of red?” Jack and Rosalie asked in tandem.

  They laughed together and shared what Addy swore was a secret, intimate look.

  “Sounds good to me,” Theo said, and Addy shrugged at Jack.

  “I tend toward Bordeaux blends, but I say Theo chooses since he’s the out-of-town guest.”

  “We’ll take the bottle of 2009 Chateau Lafite Rothschild,” Theo said. “To start.”

  Addy pretended to peruse the cocktail side of the menu, but searched for the bottle Theo ordered. She nearly choked at the price—over a thousand dollars.

  I’m the only one at this table who doesn’t have the potential to make six or seven figures, she realized.

  A small part of her deflated. She stared off into space while she partially listened to the conversation around her. Addy didn’t have much to contribute to talks about hospital politics or Hollywood productions.

  Her breath caught when she saw Jeremy with a lithe blonde on his arm being seated just four tables away—a blonde that wasn’t Shannon.

  What, did the whole town decide they had to have steak today?

  Jeremy caught her eye just as he started to sit. With a grin, he rose back up, grabbed his date’s hand, and strolled over to their table.

  “What a surprise,” Jeremy said. “Addy, I didn’t expect to see you somewhere like this. This is Melissa.”

  “Marissa,” the girl corrected.

  She tugged self-consciously at her miniskirt that barely covered her ass.

  “What happened to Shannon?” Addy asked.

  Jeremy shrugged and smiled.

  “I can’t be tied down. Not ready to walk the marriage plank. No offense,” he added, and looked at Jack.

  Jack shrugged, apparently unruffled by it.

  “Oh, hello!” the waiter said as he appeared with the bottle of wine. “Are we adding two more for dinner?”

  Addy opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, Jack jumped in with a resounding, “Yes.”

  Her jaw dropped and she looked to Jeremy, but he seemed up for the challenge. Before she knew what had happened, the table was shuffled around to squeeze in two more.

  Addy squeezed Jack’s knee under th
e table, and he looked at her with a comforting grin. He settled back into his chair, one arm around Addy while he held the wine glass in his other hand.

  Across the table, she saw that Jeremy really piled on the PDA with his date. With his arm across Marissa’s shoulder, he grazed the side of her breast repeatedly with his thumb. Not to be outdone, Addy curled deeper into Jack’s embrace and briefly rested her head on his chest between sips of the admittedly decadent wine.

  Rosalie cleared her throat, and it brought Addy back to reality. She’d forgotten about this ex in her quest to make Jeremy jealous.

  Rosalie was visibly uncomfortable and jealous, but Addy didn’t have time to focus on her right now.

  Besides, it looks like the Jeremy Challenge is working for her, too.

  When the waiter returned, another bottle of wine was ordered but the first glass had made her just tipsy enough to no longer care. Addy was grateful that Jack ordered for her—a bone marrow starter to share and petite filet mignon topped with lobster.

  “Excuse me,” Rosalie said when the waiter left. “I’ll be right back.”

  “Go to the restroom, too,” Jack whispered to her.

  “What?”

  “Go!” he said under his breath.

  “I, um, excuse me,” Addy said. Rosalie was already halfway to the restroom.

  She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do as she followed Rosalie’s retreating back. But as soon as she reached the long hallway that led to the restrooms, she felt a firm hand on her waist.

  “What—”

  She turned to find Jack behind her, a hunger in his eyes she hadn’t seen before. Addy didn’t know what he was doing, but he pulled her close and kissed her in a way that nearly knocked the breath out of her.

  She felt herself melt into a puddle against him as he pressed her against the wall. His tongue invaded her mouth and she let out a whimper as he dominated her.

  Jack pushed himself against her and she was surprised to find he was hard—and very well-endowed.

  It was like she was watching someone else, some other couple. She couldn’t stop herself. Without thinking, she slid her hand between them and felt the outline of his bulge. A growl erupted low in his throat.

  “Excuse me?”

  They both turned to see Rosalie one foot away from them, returning from the restroom. The hallway was so narrow she couldn’t slip past them.