by Mia Madison
But dinner wasn’t quite the experience I’d hoped. The third member of our trio treated us to a lengthy discussion of which of her many cousins should be bridesmaids.
Owen listened attentively, though after a while, I began to suspect that he was messing the excited nurse. At one point, he assigned her cousins’ names to the salt and pepper shakers as well as other condiments and solemnly suggested that they go down the line, discussing each one’s strengths and weaknesses.
Kristin didn’t notice, though. I truly doubted she’d stop smiling even if someone hit her with a sledge hammer. Not that I was tempted to try that—not yet, at least. But I sincerely hoped she’d cease and desist long enough for me to get a decent night’s sleep tonight.
After our meal was over, Kristin followed her phone into the lobby, and Owen walked me to my room. He was just being nice, but still, walking through the hallways next to him made my pulse spike. What would it be like if we were staying in the same room tonight? I’d trade him for Kristin in an instant, and I’d happily throw in all my worldly possessions, my soul, and my first born child.
When we were at my room, Owen held out a white plastic bag he’d kept on the chair next to him at dinner. Up close, I could see it was from a bookshop.
“What’s this?”
He smiled at me, amusement in his eyes. “Something for you to do while Bridenesia texts away tonight.”
Wow. He’d gotten me something? “Thank you.” I took the surprisingly heavy bag from him.
“You’re welcome, Becca. See you in the morning.”
“You too,” I said as I absently reached in my purse for my key. I was dying to know what he’d gotten me, but then I remembered something. “Don’t forget, we have to leave at six tomorrow. It’s a four-hour drive to Downey Point.”
“Got it,” he called from the end of the hallway. Then I managed to get my door open. Hurrying to the bed, I threw my purse down, kicked off my heels, and opened the bag.
Inside was a thick book that purported to have all the information one needed to become a physician, everything from applying to medical school to choosing a specialty.
Sinking down on the bed, I had to blink back the moisture that suddenly formed at my lash lines. Owen didn’t even know me very well, yet he was already more supportive of my career ambitions than my dad was. Hugging the book to my chest, I thought about it. Maybe I should try to talk to Dad again. But every time I’d brought it up, the conversation had gone badly. Hence I was still a business major. If I ever ended up working in a hospital, it would be as an administrator, not a doctor.
Maybe.
Owen’s gift reminded me that my future wasn’t set in stone, at least not quite. Maybe there was some way I could convince my dad this was right for me.
Setting the book down on the bed, I flipped through it. Halfway through, I saw a flash of white against the cream-colored pages. Flipping back, I found a small square of paper—a prescription. Had someone used it as a bookmark and then returned the book to the store? But the book had looked new.
Quickly, I ran my eyes over the words scrawled on prescription. Years of hospital exposure made it easy for me to decipher the messy writing.
Patient’s Name: Becca
Rx:
1. Read Chapters 1-4.
2. Prepare three questions about the medical school application process to ask me tomorrow.
Prescriber’s Name: Dr. Hottie
Oh my God. He’d signed it Dr. Hottie! Heat flooded my face as I remembered the mortifying moment I’d called him that after my concussion. I was embarrassed, yes, but not altogether upset. This little hand-written square of paper meant he’d thought about me. He’d gotten me this gift. And by signing it Dr. Hottie, it seemed like he was sharing an inside joke with me. Teasing me, even.
And though embarrassing, that somehow seemed like a step in the right direction. I wasn’t entirely sure what that direction was, but I couldn’t wait to find out where it led.
I just hoped it wasn’t a dead end.
Becca
It was a little after six in the morning when Kristin and I dragged our stuff—and ourselves—to the lobby. Owen was nowhere in sight. Once I checked us out of our room, I looked in the breakfast area, but it was empty.
We sank down on the sofas in the lobby. For once, Kristin was too tired to talk about her wedding plans. In fact, we both almost fell asleep. A ping from her phone jolted me back into wakefulness. I checked my watch—it was twenty past. We were going to be late if we didn’t get on the road soon.
“I’ll go see what’s keeping him.”
Kristin nodded, her thumbs already flying across the tiny keyboard, responding to her text.
I set off down the hall but then paused, went back, and fixed a cup of coffee. I didn’t know how Owen drank it, so I put a packet of sugar and cream on the saucer before carefully walking down the hallway. Then I knocked on his door.
And knocked again.
And then again.
Finally, it opened.
And there he was. Bare-chested. One arm raised, rubbing his eyes. Wearing only blue scrub pants.
Holy crap.
The coffee cup trembled on the saucer as my mouth dropped open. I’d never seen anything like this. Anyone like this. Not outside of a movie. His abs were fully on display, the entire six pack.
Good God. He looked unbelievable. His arms. Those muscles. I wanted to touch his bicep. His pecs. His abs. His lips.
How the hell could anyone look that good in real life?
The coffee cup rattled in my hands again, and Owen zeroed in on it.
“Coffee. Thank God. Come on in, I know I’m late.”
He took the cup from me and headed back into the room, leaving me staring, mouth agape, and the definition of his broad back. Not to mention his delectable ass.
Trying to gather my wits, I brushed the back of my hand over my mouth to make sure I wasn’t drooling. Then I stepped inside and closed the door behind me.
Owen had his duffle bag on his unmade bed and was stuffing his belongings into it. “Sorry, boss. I know I’m throwing us behind schedule. Is Kristin ready?”
“Yes. She’s in the lobby.”
“And so the wedding planning continues.” He picked up his coffee and drained it as I nodded. “I’ll be ready in eight minutes.”
It seemed like a strangely short and specific amount of time, but somehow I didn’t doubt him. Where he’d been the last few years, he probably knew how to get ready in a hurry. Besides at the moment, I’d probably believe him if he said the Easter Bunny was real. His being shirtless had short-circuited most of my brain.
“Take your time,” I said.
“It was my own damn fault. I stayed out too late.”
He had? My mind instantly went to a worst case scenario. That he’d picked up some woman and spent the night with her. Yet his bed clearly looked slept in, and there wasn’t any sign that anyone else had been here.
Owen continued, oblivious to my sudden fears. “Met a guy down at the bar who’d been an Army medic back in the day. We talked for hours.” He groaned, clutching at his head. “We drank for hours. Not smart.”
“Should I get you something? Maybe some aspirin? There’s a medical kit in the car.”
“Actually, there is something you could do.” Owen paused his packing and stared at me pleadingly. “I’ll teach you all four years of medical school myself if you go get me another cup of coffee.”
I couldn’t help laughing. He looked so sincere. Suddenly, I was glad this old hotel didn’t have in-room coffee makers. I liked having him look at me with such longing in his eyes no matter what the reason.
As I returned with his second cup of coffee, my pulse quickened. He’d left the door open an inch, the latch preventing it from closing all the way.
I pushed it open and froze, hearing the sound of running water. Good God, was he in the shower? A quick glance in the direction of the bathroom revealed that yes, he was in the sho
wer and that the door was open a few inches.
“Becca? Is that you?”
It took me several tries to get my voice to work. I was blushing furiously. He was less than ten feet away from me, naked. Not that I could see him, but still… he was just over there, in the shower. Naked! “Y-yes. I brought your coffee.”
“Great. Can you put it on the counter? I’m about to hop out.”
He wanted me to go into the bathroom? Didn’t this man have any concept of how fast my heart was beating at the moment? Or of how I was about to melt into a pile of lust right here in his hotel room?
Apparently, he didn’t.
Screwing up my courage, I inched toward the bathroom door. I knew he was hidden behind the shower curtain, but I was still careful not to look. I’d already seen enough of his bare skin to make my head explode. If I saw anymore of him, I might do or say something really embarrassing. The kind of embarrassment that could only be solved by assuming a new identity, moving to the other side of the planet, and starting a new life there.
Setting the cup down on the counter, I jerked my hand back as if I were afraid the sink was full of snakes. As I retreated to the main room, the water shut off, and I heard the sound of the curtain being pulled back. “Thank you,” he said fervently as I stared at a really ugly panting on the wall, trying not to imagine the visuals that went with the sounds behind me.
“So what did you think?”
I jolted at the sound of his voice. What did I think of what? His biceps? His abs? His shower noises?
There was a pause and I heard a clink as he set the coffee cup down. “This place may be a dump, but the coffee’s not half bad. What did you think of the book I gave you?”
Oh! “It’s really useful—thank you again. I read all the way through chapter six.”
“Such an overachiever.” His voice was teasing. I tried to imagine what he was doing in there. Toweling off? Pulling on some boxers? Or maybe he was a briefs man. I wondered if I’d ever find out.
“I stayed up pretty late, too. At one point, Kristin complained about the light from my side of the bed keeping her up.”
A warm chuckle came from right behind me. Owen emerged from the steamy bathroom in full Dr. Hottie style. His skin was warm and dewy. His hair was wet, but it looked like he’d taken a moment to shave. His feet were bare, but he had on dress pants and was buttoning up a white shirt. “Told you I could be ready in eight minutes.”
I nodded. I had a feeling those eight minutes were going to be featured in my fantasies for a long time to come.
Owen sat on the edge of the bed to put on his shoes. “Did you think of some questions for me?”
“Yes.”
“Good girl. I know we have to get going now, but I’ll expect to hear them later in the day. And you’ll get another assignment—or should I say prescription—tonight.”
Delicious chills swept through me at his words. He probably didn’t mean them in a dirty way, but that’s how they sounded. Suddenly, I wanted him to write lots of prescriptions for me—the naughtier the better.
The gleam in his eyes made me wonder if it was at all possible he was thinking the same thing. But he couldn’t, could he? A man like him could have any woman he wanted—well, almost any woman. I didn’t think Kristin would be very receptive to his charms at the moment. But pretty much anyone else. Why on earth would he be interested in me?
But damn, the way he looked, and the things he said… I sure as hell wished he were.
For a day that started with a gorgeous, half-naked man, the rest of it didn’t go very well. We were all sleepy, and the drive was long and monotonous. Kristin spent a good portion of it on the phone, and it was obvious that there was some trouble in paradise. I tried not to listen in, but it was pretty impossible not to.
As far as I could tell, the trouble was that her future in-laws were coming to town on Thursday and Friday. Mark wanted her to come home so they could go out to dinner, so that his mother could take her shopping, and so that Kristin could ask Mark’s sister in person to be a bridesmaid.
He seemed to think that this was reason enough for Kristin to come running back to Taylorsville. Though she spoke in a whisper, we could hear her anguished voice saying how much she wanted to, but that she couldn’t. To which he replied that it wasn’t like she was out here saving lives. To which she replied, in a whisper that was nonetheless audible, that Dr. Hawthorne was counting on her.
Apparently, this didn’t sit well with Mark because the conversation was revisited several times during the day until I was pretty sure Owen and I could recite it word for word.
To top it all off, one of our presentations was at a high school where the students were far less attentive than the ones at the school on Monday. And when it was over, a big, stocky senior came over and said something so inappropriate to me that Owen looked like he was about to hit him—which definitely wouldn’t generate the kind of press for the hospital that my father wanted.
To calm Owen down, I asked him questions about his time working with DBW, and that kept him engaged until we were safely away from that asshole student. But when we climbed into the car, I allowed myself a brief moment to imagine how satisfying it would’ve been to let Owen—well, maybe not hit that jerk, but at least tell him off.
Except when she was on the phone, Kristin had been quiet all morning. After lunch, she started coughing every so often, a dry, brittle sound that didn’t seem very real to me. A glance at Owen’s face revealed that he was suspicious as well.
It was almost five when we got to the new hotel, and it was even smaller than the last one. Kristin’s cough increased after I checked in and handed out keys.
“Want me to find you some cough drops?” I asked her.
“No,” she said. “I mean yes.” She hesitated, then continued. “I hate to be a party-pooper, but I’ve been feeling pretty lousy today. My sinuses are acting up, and this cough is getting worse, and I don’t want it to spread to you two or the other clinics…” She sat down on the arm of a chair in the lobby.
Owen’s voice was neutral. “Do you think you can complete the trip?”
I noticed that he’d made no move to feel her forehead and no offer to get her any medicine. He probably knew what was going on as well as I did.
But then Kristin sighed. Instead of taking the opening Owen had given her, she leaned her head against the back of the chair, collapsing against it. “I guess I have to. You all need a nurse, and it would take half a day to get someone else out here.” A tear slipped down her cheek. “So even though I’m really not feeling all that well, I have to stay here. I can’t leave you guys in a lurch.”
I stared at her for a long moment. For all her happiness, it had also been a stressful few days for her. To become engaged and then immediately separated from her loved. And we’d put in two pretty long days. I knew for a fact that she hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep. Making a decision, I spoke up. “You’re not.”
Her voice was shaky. “I know. I thought for a moment that maybe I—but I know I can’t.”
“No, I mean you’re not leaving us in a lurch. We can handle this.” I looked up at Owen.
He gazed at me for a long moment and then nodded. “Absolutely. I’ll be good and do a better job of sticking to the script, and when I get tired of hearing myself speak, Becca can jump in.”
Kristin’s face was alight with hope, but she wasn’t ready to completely believe it just yet. “But… but… I can’t just…”
“Sure you can. You’re exhausted, mentally and physically. That’s something your body needs time to recover from.”
I nodded, agreeing with Owen. “Maybe Mark can drive out and pick you up in the morning.”
“Are you sure?” Kristin looked back and forth between Owen and me.
“We’re sure,” Owen said.
“Thank you!” Kristin sprang to her feet as if fifty pounds had been lifted from her shoulders. “Thank you,” she said again, somehow capturing us both in a
gigantic hug. Finding myself suddenly pressed up against Owen’s muscled torso, I sent a silent thank you right back to Kristin.
She released us and then called Mark while Owen and I chatted for a few minutes. I hoped we could get this settled and head to our rooms soon—I was pretty tired.
A few moments later, Kristin was back. “He’s on his way.”
“Wow, that was fast,” I said.
“Long drive at night,” Owen observed.
“No, he left a few hours ago. He was going to come here to convince me to come home with him. So I’m going to get us another room. You don’t mind being on your own tonight, do you Becca?”
“Of course not.” I glanced up at Owen as I said this and then quickly looked away, embarrassed that my first impulse had been to check his reaction.
“Then it’s settled,” she said, looking pleased. “Oh… but should I call the hospital and request another nurse?”
Owen looked down at me, one eyebrow cocked. I shrugged.
“I think we’re good. If Becca can keep getting me from place to place on time, then we’ve got this.”
“I think we do too,” I said, and then winced as Kristin engulfed us in another bone-crushing hug.
Dinner was a subdued affair. We were all tired. Kristin was still excited that Mark would be arriving soon, but she didn’t eat very much. None of us did. She disappeared to her new room as soon as we paid the bill.
I was about to head up to my room when Owen stopped me. “I have to type up a few notes now, but want to meet later? Say about nine? We can go over your questions about the application process for medical school.”
“Sure,” I said. “I mean thanks. Where should we meet?”
“The hotel bar?”
“Okay,” I said glancing in its direction. I wasn’t much of a drinker.
Owen put his hand on my arm. “You’re twenty-one, right?”
“Of course!” I’d been twenty-one for seven whole months now.