“I’ll never break your heart, sweetheart,” said the bartender who seemed to be spilling right out of her blouse. Kyle gave her a lopsided grin and then placed a ten inside her tip jar. She nodded her thanks and then turned back to face me.
“Awe, Mattie.” He moved a strand of hair that was stuck to the side of my cheek and tucked it behind my ear. “The right guy is just around the corner. I promise you that. Someday your knight in shining amour will come along and sweep you off your feet.”
“You really think so?”
“I do.”
Did I believe him? I so wanted to because most of the guys I’d dated in the past were complete toads. “Keep telling me that,” I said. “Maybe it will actually happen.”
Crossing my legs, I bounced my foot up and down like one of those political correspondents I saw on television every evening. Women with perfect legs. Perfect eyebrows and fake lashes that were about three inches long. Hell, some of them looked as if toothbrush heads were glued over their pupils. Not that I’m faulting these women. These women were smart. They all had master’s degrees. I could compete with the master’s part, but did men even care if women were educated these days? None of my dates ever had. Maybe I was looking in the wrong place? No. Maybe I shouldn’t be looking at all. Maybe my Prince Charming would find me.
The sound of a guitar accompanied by drums and a banjo rumbled inside my brain. It tapped out a rhythm I found quite catchy. I sipped my drink through a straw, making a slurping sound when the hot guy I’d noticed an hour earlier caught my eye from the other side of the room. He kept dropping his head into that bowl of chips he seemed intent on devouring every time I caught him looking at me. Adorable.
Clean and crisp. That was how I’d categorize this man.. Judging by his preppy clothes, the clipped short hair, and fresh shaven chin, he stuck out from other men in the room. Or was it the fact that I found everything about him, extremely attractive? He had deep-set eyes. The kind a girl could get lost inside and a smile that lit up his entire face. At least it had, the one time I’d caught him laughing with his buddies. I batted my eyes at him and he looked away. Again.
I twirled my hair on the end of my finger. What else was it I liked about this guy? I started to fantasize. Dark wavy hair that appeared soft enough to run my fingers through. Broad muscular shoulders. Full lips I wanted to bite. But the eyes! The eyes were what did it for me. He had stunning eyes, the color of the Caribbean Sea.
Kyle patted my thigh, which startled me for a minute. “What?”
“Honey, you need to slow down on that stuff.”
“I’m having fun. Aren’t you having fun?”
“Well, at least you’re finally in a better mood but, I think you’ve had enough fun for one night, Mattie. I don’t want to have to carry you home.”
I laughed. Kyle was probably all of one-hundred-and-fifty pounds soaking wet. “Like you could even do that.”
Those eyes never left my imagination. I couldn’t be certain of their color, however. Aquamarine. Robin’s egg. Navy. Although I was fairly certain his eyes couldn’t possibly be navy.
I tugged the front neckline of my blouse, something I never would have done had I been sober. Bouncing my foot over my right knee, I turned my back on Mr. Beautiful. “But Kyley...What if I never meet my knight in shining amour? I may never have a baby, Kyle,” My head was suddenly heavy. I propped it up on my hand and missed, clonking it on the bar. “Owe!” I rubbed my forehead. “Kyle, I really, really, really want a baby some day and my clock is ticking. Kyle... Kyle, are you listening to me?”
“Huh? What?” He turned from the waitress he’d just been talking to.
“My clock, Kyle. It’s ticking so loud I can feel it in my itty bitty heart. Can’t you feel it, Kyle?” I grabbed Kyle’s hand, rubbed it over one breast. “Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.”
Kyle laughed, his face heating. He drew his hand away.“You are so wasted,” he announced one more time.
My arm slung around his neck and I whispered in his ear. “Maybe we already made a baby today. You and I.” Slapping a hand over my mouth, I continued. “Whoops. Shhhhh. I forgot. We’re not gonna talk about it, are we Kyley Wyly?”
He groaned. “This was a bad idea taking you here.”
“Wouldn’t that be fabulous though? An itty bitty Mattie Kyley Monster.” I sighed dramatically then noticed Mr. Beautiful was crossing the room in my direction. Or was I just in his line of travel? For a moment, I froze then my stomach did sort of a flip.
“Mattie...you alright?”
“Yeah, um...No. I don’t feel so well. I need to go to the little girls’ room.”
“Okay.”
“Now!” Pushing myself up off the bar stool, I took a step, forgot there was a raised platform, twisted my ankle, screamed, and then crashed into the handsome stranger, knocking him off his feet into an empty chair.
With me in his lap.
Chapter 5
Steven
Talk about being in the right place at the right time.
She fell into my arms so heavily, I let out a startled, “Oomph.” Thankfully, I caught her before she hit the floor.
Holy shit! It was just like Harvey said.
“Are you alright...Miss. ...?” She looked dazed, but then again who wouldn’t although it did nothing to erase the gorgeous fire in those baby blue eyes of hers.
“I... Oh. Oh, I’m so sorry,” she said, staring up at me. “I didn’t mean...” Her arms swung around my neck. I suspected that may have been because there was nowhere else for them to go. Or she was trying to keep from falling again. I didn’t want her to remove them however.
Up close, she was even more beautiful than from afar. Her blonde hair smelled of oranges and if I’d been any other kind of man I would have bent my head and kissed those lovely full lips. I swear she knew what I was thinking. There was a playful look hidden in the corners of her smile. “I’m Steven,” I finally said. “Nice to meet you. “
“Hi,” she breathed. “Oh. I’m Mattie. Oh God, I’m so embarrassed.”
“Don’t...” I started to say but a little too late. She’d already risen from my lap and was trying to stand, which proved to be impossible. She fell back into my lap and I helped her to her feet, holding her steady.
“Oh God, I can’t believe this.”
“It’s okay. You probably sprained your ankle.”
“Probably.”
She gazed up at me with the most tantalizing eyes I’d ever seen. Exotic. Like clear jewels sparkling in the sun. The rest of her appeared fragile and small, like a small bird needing to be rescued. A tiny bird with perky firm breasts, and clean citrus-smelling skin. My arms curled around her slim torso holding her up. “Try to put some weight on it,” I said.
“Owe, owe, owe! I think I broke something or...Shit.”
“Here...” I set her in the chair. “I’m a doctor. I’ll take a look.” I peered down into her almond-shaped eyes, loving how she was trying to hide the smirk in those lovely bowed lips of hers. I was smiling too. Like an idiot.
I sat opposite her, setting her foot in my lap.
“So you’re a doctor, huh? Convenient.” It was then that all the other doctors I’d come in with—the bastards—rushed over at once. Harvey, the pediatrician, three cardiologists, and a dentist. Ironically, it was Doctor Evens, the dentist, who insisted on taking off her boot. Stupid bastard.
“No, leave it on,” I said. “It will contain the swelling, at least until the ambulance gets here.”
“Ambulance!” shrieked Mattie. She dropped her foot on the floor with a thud, tried to rise but then dropped back down with a screech.
“I’m pretty sure it’s sprained,” I said.
“I called the ambulance,” said the guy she came in with. “Mattie, what the hell did you do?”
As if this was her fault. Okay, I guess it was but that comment reconfirmed what a douche this guy was.
“I...I just took a step,” Mattie said.
“W
ell, looks like you took a doozy of a step,” said her date. His eyes lowered as he studied me with his date’s foot in my lap. “And you are...?”
“Doctor Steven Russo.” I thrust my hand forward but the asshole didn’t shake it.
“Ah, just what we need. Thank you so much for taking care of Mattie.”.
“I’m not feeling all that great,” Mattie complained. By now, half the people in the bar had gathered around us.
“No need to crowd the woman,” I bellowed above the music. “Can we have some air?” I glared at my peers. “One doctor is enough; don’t you think?” I stood up. At six-four, I also had a way of getting what I wanted. Now was no exception.
Most of the patrons, including the doctors, strolled back to their tables. I heard the click clack of coins dropped into a jukebox and a few minutes later...
Thought I’d go crazy
Just having one of those days.
Didn’t know what to do.
Then there was you.
Fitting, I thought, grinning. “Mattie is it? As in Margaret or Matilda?”
“Matilda but if you call me that I’ll have to kill you.”
I laughed. “Point taken.”
The conversation came easily. There was something special about her. It was like we’d known each other our whole lives. Either that or we’d been looking for each other. While we waited for the ambulance, I learned Mattie was Jewish, with three brothers and one or two sisters depending on which one she was talking to at the time, plus lots of extended family as well, a sharp contrast from my absent father and nearly absent mother with no siblings whatsoever. She appeared not to like people fussing over her either. She was embarrassed, which I found sweet. She was more worried about the ambulance being taken away from a real emergency than what was happening to her foot.
“I don’t usually come to places like this. Or drink much,” she said as they loaded her into the ambulance. “I’m sorry I took you away from all your friends.”
“It’s fine, Miss Goldwater.”
Miss Goldwater? Way to be sweet and charming, Russo.
“Mattie. Call me Mattie.”
“Okay. Mattie. Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“Your boyfriend back there called the ambulance. Seemed like you didn’t want him to do that.”
“Boyfriend? Oh, you mean, Kyle.” She let out a strangled breath. “If he called an ambulance, you can bet one of my uncles will let my mother know because they all have scanners. My mother will go crazy when she finds out I’m hurt. Doesn’t matter how trivial. Like really, really crazy.”
“Families can worry too much sometimes. I get that. Just their way of showing how much they care.”
“You don’t understand. My family...They’ll be at the hospital camping out and giving orders to your staff. And my mother will call everyone and anyone. I guarantee you one thing, they’ll be there before we are. And they’ll make it their home. Like camping out home.”
“So they can be a bit overprotective.”
“You could call it that. I call it nuts.”
I let out a chuckle. “Okay.” It sounded pretty good compared to my own upbringing. I doubted either of my parents would even worry if I was at death’s door, much less have something as simple as a sprained ankle make them sprint to my side. “Well, you just let my nurses deal with your family. They’re used to that sort of thing.” I patted her hand. “Won’t be long now.”
Her eyes watered as she nodded, and she bit her bottom lip.
I tried not to, but I couldn’t help noticing how different she was to my ex-wife who always said the right thing, laughed in just the right places, and dressed like a runway model. My parents set us up when I was eighteen. By nineteen we were married. Divorced by age twenty. Mattie was nothing like my Ex. She wore jeans and high leather boots, and the only makeup was a bit of mascara. She appeared to have the habit of talking nonstop when she was stressed whereas my Ex usually went into silent mode. It drove me fucking nuts and I still don’t know what went wrong between us. Harvey said we were too much alike. Both quiet and reserved. He said I needed a woman who could talk.
Well, here she is. Long slender legs. Silky blonde hair and lips so full I yearned to fill them with everything I owned. My tongue. My dick. All of it. Totally inappropriate for a doctor to be thinking.
“What’s that grin for?” Mattie asked.
“If I tell you I have to kill you.” I gave her a cheeky grin.
She giggled. “Touché.”
I wasn’t completely inept, but I certainly wasn’t the life of any party either. As a doctor, I knew medicine inside and out, even spoke at medical conferences, but social niceties were not my thing. So why were the words coming so easy with this woman? Easy although I’d not told her very much.
“I don’t know much about you, Doctor Russo.”
“Not much to know,” I said. “I’m as boring as they come.” I gave her a thin smile.
“Then we’ll just have to peel back a few layers,” she replied. “I’ve got time.”
“Layers?”
“Of the onion you’re crawled up inside.”
“Looking forward to that little experiment,” I said with a grin.
“Oh, it’s not an experiment, Doctor Russo. I’ve got a feeling you’re much deeper than you give yourself credit for.”
Deep? She had no idea just how deep I wanted to go with her. If I thought about it any longer, something really inappropriate was going to show through my trousers.
I needed to think of something else so I gazed out the window as I held her hand on the ride to the hospital. A simple gesture. Something I often did when a patient was having difficulty with pain we couldn’t control right away. I can’t say I knew if it helped her, but her touch was doing just the opposite to me.
That wasn’t why I held her hand exactly. I couldn’t let her ride alone in that ambulance with him. Call it a doctor’s intuition. Call it jealousy. Whatever it was, I needed to see this woman again and if I had competition, I wanted him to know I was a formidable opponent. Only one of us could ride along so I played the doctor card.
“I cannot believe I just fell into you like that,” Mattie confessed. “I’m completely mortified.”
“I didn’t mind,” I said, unable to keep the shit-eaten grin off my face. God, she’d felt heavenly in my arms. All warm and smelling sweet. Soft in just the right places.
“And I don’t usually drink like that. I haven’t mixed my booze since I was... Well, it was stupid. Just plain stupid.”
Stupid? Not a chance. She’d fallen into my arms because it was precisely the right moment to do so. Just like I’d decided at that precise moment to pass her on my way to the rest room. Was it Karma? Or destiny? I wasn’t sure if I believed in that, or in love at first sight for that matter, but the minute our eyes locked across that crowded room I’d felt changed. Something extraordinary and amazing was about to happen. I could feel it. Something a man seldom feels when he’s out with a bunch of guys ogling girls in a bar. Especially this guy.
“You have nothing to be ashamed of,” I said.
She giggled. “Oh, I’m not ashamed. Just can’t believe my luck.”
“Luck?”
“Yeah. You’re just about the sexiest doctor I ever met. Oh God! Did I say that out loud? Must be the painkillers they gave me. Sorry.”
I laughed. “It’s okay.”
“You should know I always talk nonstop when I’m nervous. Like now.”
“I noticed.” She smiled back at me. “But it’s okay. I don’t mind. In fact, I’m actually enjoying myself.”
“Weird place to be having fun. We’re in an ambulance.”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“Not a fan of hospitals actually. Makes me more chatty I guess.”
“Well, you’ll be fine. There’s nothing to be nervous about,” I assured her. “Sprained ankles aren’t life threatening. Honest.”
“Oh I know th
at.”
“You do?”
“Sure. I’m a nurse.”
“You are,” I said surprised.
“I’m not practicing at the moment but I did pass my boards and all that.”
“And you hate hospitals. Why...? Never mind. Not my business.”
“No. It’s okay. I love medicine. I love helping people, and I loved school but....”
“You’d rather be out in the world helping people instead of a structured environment. Is that it?”
“How did you know?”
I shrugged. “You fit the profile. Sort of.”
“You don’t even know me.”
“Am I right or am I wrong?”
“No. You’re right. I don’t need the money so at the moment I’m volunteering at the Mission over on Maple.”
“Very noble thing to do. So what do you do over there? First-aid? Stuff like that?”
“Not really. Most of what I do is teach life skills. I started a class recently to teach reading.”
“Not exactly medical,” I said before realizing what was coming out of my mouth.
“Oh I know. Sometimes I run an immunization clinic too.”
“Nurses can do that.”
“True. I guess what I’m trying to say is I have a finger in a lot of different pots.”
“And how did your parents feel about that? They put you through school, I’m assuming.”
“My father used to say all education is worthwhile whether you make money from it or not and that I should do what makes me happy.”
“Hmm. Sounds like a great dad.”
“He...was.” Her eyes watered up and I almost wished I hadn’t asked.
“You miss him, don’t you?”
“Wouldn’t you, if you lost your dad when he was fifty-five?”
“I guess so but we weren’t all that close.” Not close didn’t begin to explain our relationship. We were more like strangers than father and son.
“And your mother? How did she feel about you not practicing in your field?”
“Pretty cool, actually. She said as long as I’m giving back to the community somehow, she’s supportive in whatever path I choose.”
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