Rose was angry and afraid. “The sad girl, she took my kitty and I wouldn’t let go, so she pulled me on the floor.”
As Alix soothed her daughter, Cord inspected the room just to make sure there wasn’t some vagrant kid hiding out in the closet. There wasn’t anything suspicious, but he noticed that there was a small door at the back of Rose’s closet. He stepped inside and opened the door, seeing a narrow stairway leading up to the attic. He peered up into the dusty heights of the attic but not wanting to make his way up there, he closed the door and went back out into the bedroom.
He made his way over to the bed where Alix was sitting with Rose on her lap. When the pair looked up at him, he smiled.
“Nothing in the closet,” he said. “The room’s clear. Why don’t we go downstairs and eat some lunch?”
Alix nodded and stood up with Rose still in her arms. She carried the four-year-old downstairs as Cord followed and the three of them proceeded to sit at the kitchen table and eat the delicious spread that Cord had brought. There were turkey sandwiches, potato salad, pickles, olives, and cookies, which Rose got a hold of and chomped into before her mother could stop her.
Cord sat across the table and grinned at the little girl who found the chocolate chip cookies far more interesting than the sandwiches. She was truly an adorable little thing with silky blond hair and big gray eyes. As lunch progressed and Rose came alive, he came to see a very smart and giggly little girl. He thought she was charming, and her mother… well, charming wasn’t the word he had in mind for her. Divine was more like it. He was officially smitten.
Lunch was a sweetly casual setting on a gentle afternoon day as Cord and Alix discussed a variety of subjects. They both liked football and Cord talked about his days as an NFL lineman straight out of college until he severed his ACL and his career was finished. He’d played three years for the New England Patriots and had been, some sportswriters called him, one of the best linemen in the league. Chris and Kyle were following in his footsteps, which explained why both boys were so big and muscular. Cole seemed to be the more quiet, artsy type, a more cerebral brother to balance out all of the sportsmen. Alix listened to stories about brotherly pranks where Cole’s intelligence would win out over brute strength every time. It was touching and hysterical.
Even after lunch was finished, they sat at the table and continued talking as Rose climbed off her chair and wandered away. Alix was listening to a story on Cord’s job about a particularly hairy apartment fire and she countered with some of the things she had seen during her career at Harbor/UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. At one point, it became a contest of who had seen the most disgusting thing and Cord seemed to have the edge. Picking flattened people off the freeway won out over Alix’s tale of a man impaled in the head by a garden implement, so they ended up laughing as the stories turned horror-movie graphic.
At some point during the conversation, Alix got up to see where Rose had gone and found her daughter playing in the living room with the television on. When she returned to Cord, she noticed that he had moved his chair much closer to hers. Fighting off a grin, she resumed her seat. He was bumped right up against her.
“I can’t help but notice either this table has gotten smaller or you’ve moved your chair,” she commented.
He looked completely innocent. “It’s me,” he said. “My size makes everything look smaller. I’ve been sitting right in this spot the whole time.”
She bit her lip to keep from smiling. “I’m surprised I didn’t notice before.”
“Me, too. How much more obvious can I be?”
Her smile broke through. “Obvious about what?”
With a grin, he reached out and took her hand, bringing it to his lips for a gentle kiss. Alix watched him, smile quickly fading, as a tremor of lust ripped through her. It was the single most sensuous kiss she’d ever had and she watched his mouth as he kissed her fingers again. By this time, her heart was pounding and her smile was completely gone.
“Oh, God,” she breathed. “When you do that….”
He didn’t even let her finish the sentence before he was leaning over, slanting his lips over hers. He took her comment as an invitation. It was a sweet, very timid kiss at first, as if just testing the waters, but somewhere in the first few moments she gasped and he lost his control, pulling her against him.
The sweet and timid kiss turned hot and lusty in an instant; it wasn’t slobbery or gross, but as delicious and tender as either one of them could have possibly imagined. Alix wrapped her arms around his big neck, holding him close as he devoured her mouth.
His hands ended up in her hair and he inadvertently shoved her back against the kitchen wall, positively consumed with her. She was unbelievably sweet and soft, smelling like heaven, and his male senses soaked it up like a sponge. He’d never had a kiss like this in his life, not ever.
But before he could lose his control completely, they could hear Rose in the living room and he abruptly let her go, sitting back in his chair and just staring at her. Her lips were swollen and red, and when she inadvertently licked them, he snapped again and descended on her, kissing her so forcefully that he ended up driving her teeth into her lip. He could taste the blood. But Rose’s voice reached their ears yet again and he forced himself away from her again, fearful that a four-year-old would see them in a clutch.
Alix sat plastered back against the wall, breathing as if she had just sprinted a mile. She couldn’t catch her breath. She stared at Cord with big eyes, a bit dazed, when he suddenly bolted out of his chair and ended up against the counter over by the sink. As Rose chatted out in the living room, presumably talking to her dolls, Cord stood against the sink with a hand over his mouth.
“Wow,” he finally breathed. “That was… was….”
“Really good,” Alix finished for him. Then she just grinned.
Cord’s hand was over his mouth still, but he ended up grinning in return. “Do you really think so?”
“Uh… yes.”
“Want to try it again sometime?”
“Anytime.”
His eyes widened. “Really?”
She just nodded. Then she cocked her head, quirky. “You don’t greet all the new neighbors this way, do you?”
He broke down laughing. “No, never.”
“Be honest,” she pushed, teasing. “Women? Young or old? Maybe even men if they’re hot enough?”
His laughter grew. “Never in my life, Alix.” He held up his hand as if swearing, his eyes warm on her. “Only you. And I’m trying to decide how I feel about it.”
Her smile faded, thinking he wasn’t so fired up about that kiss like she was. “What do you mean?”
He could see she was bordering on insult. “Nothing bad, honey, I promise,” his voice grew softer and he came away from the counter. “I just… I swear, I’m not a hound and I don’t make it my goal in life to get into women’s pants. My ex-wife and I have been divorced for twelve years and I’ve had a couple of girlfriends during that time, but nothing too serious. I’ve just never met the right woman, someone I clicked with on such a deep level. I… well, I’m not very eloquent, but I want you to know that I have nothing but the greatest respect and admiration for you. I’d never do anything to jeopardize and cheapen that. I’m just coming to know you and even if you weren’t my neighbor, I’d think you were just about the most amazing woman I’ve ever met. Being neighbors has nothing to do with it.”
She was smiling up at him by the time he finished. “I believe you,” she said. “I was just teasing you.”
He nodded, sitting down next to her again and putting a hand on her knee. “Look,” he said, seriously. “We haven’t even known each other two full days yet, but already I can tell you that I am very deeply attracted to you. I knew it from the first. So whatever direction this takes us… wow, that’s getting a little ahead of things, isn’t it? I don’t mean to intimate that we’re going anywhere, but….”
Alix reached out and put her fingers
over his lips to silence him. “I kind of like you, too,” she whispered. “I’m not married, I don’t have a boyfriend nor am I particularly looking for one, but I’m willing to explore the possibilities with you. You seem like Mr. Perfect and I’m kind of taken aback by you.”
His eyes were riveted to her. “I’m not perfect by any means,” he kissed her fingers. “I snore when I sleep, I don’t do laundry as much as I should, I work too much, and I tend to overanalyze things. And those are my good qualities.”
She laughed as he took her gently by the wrists and pulled her towards him. “I’m looking forward to finding all that out for myself.”
“Are you really? You’re not just saying that?”
She shook her head. “I don’t say anything I don’t mean. I realize we haven’t known each other all that long, but I think when you’re attracted to someone, you don’t need days or weeks to figure it out. I think you just know it.”
“So you’ll let me take you out to dinner sometime?”
“The sooner, the better.”
He grinned at her, moving over to kiss her again just as the sound of an engine pulled up the driveway. Rose began hooting that there was a truck in the driveway so Cord kissed her soundly on the cheek and stood up, pulling her to her feet.
“The boys are back,” he said, still holding her hand as he peered out the kitchen door and to the driveway.
Alix let him hold her hand, relishing the feel of romantic human contact. She hadn’t felt that in a long time.
“Do we keep this on the down-low from them?” she asked quietly.
He turned to look at her. “I’ll do whatever you’re comfortable with.”
She shrugged. “I’m kind of a discreet character.”
“Then I am, too.”
They smiled at each other and he kissed her hand one last time before letting it go. The boys were climbing out of the truck and lumbering up the driveway, laughing and talking about things. Alix couldn’t even hear what they were talking about, but she could hear Sean’s voice and he sounded happy. She loved that. All four of the teenagers came in through the kitchen door, the life and energy filling up the house. From her son’s excited chatter, Alix gathered that he had loved the movie and was having a good time with his new friends.
She couldn’t ask for better, for any of them.
CHAPTER FIVE
Friday came around all too soon.
Alix started her shift at North Shore Medical Center at two in the afternoon, working a swing shift that would see her off at midnight. She had officially been hired by the group of surgeons who worked for the hospital, a medical group specialty that was its own corporation which was fairly normal in the larger hospitals. There were four men in the group and she was now the fifth surgeon, a junior partner at the moment because she was a new hire. She had met all of the doctors at some point and the day she started, the head of the group, Dr. Levenger, was there to indoctrinate her.
She was anxious to get to work, to get into the swing of things, but she found herself struggling to keep her mind on learning her new routine because her thoughts kept drifting to Cord. Since she’d met the man, the subsequent days could only be described as magical.
Cord was in the middle of a work rotation so he would work twenty-four hours on and twenty-four hours off, so she’d really only seen him one day since that pivotal afternoon in her kitchen. However, he’d spent the entire day with her, following her around while she supervised the construction workers and then taking her and Rose into town to get burgers while the boys went off and did their own thing. Sean was assimilating into the group of Trevor boys without issue and they seemed to all get along.
Rose, however, was another story. She’d never spent an inordinate amount of time with her father and was, therefore, very attached to her mother, which made her very shy around men in general other than her brother. Cord took every opportunity to talk to her, but she was very shy and standoffish, and he didn’t push. Still, Rose was intrigued with the big, blond man, Alix could tell. Like mother, like daughter.
He never had the opportunity to take her out to dinner, however. Work schedules gotten in the way. But when she left for work on Friday, there had been a card and a bouquet of supermarket flowers on her windshield to wish her luck. It had been one of the sweetest things Alix had ever experienced. The flowers were still in her car. She had smelled them all the way to work.
So this Friday afternoon was more just getting acquainted with the hospital, the layout, the personnel and the policies, but Alix was a sharp learner and took to it easily. By late afternoon, there were two surgical consults, which Dr. Kelly let her perform, and he was quite impressed with the results. Alix scrubbed up for surgery by dinnertime and performed a laparoscopic procedure on a car accident victim, a flawless procedure that had Dr. Kelly thoroughly awed with her talent.
Alix was feeling pretty good with her first day so far, but it began to grow hairy during the evening. After a twenty minute dinner break, the emergency room seemed to fill up with all kinds of cases and Alix was called in to consult on two appendicitis patients, a ruptured bladder, and a bad car accident that had four victims headed for intensive care. Alix and Dr. Kelly split up to assess the surgical cases and by nine o’clock, Alix was scrubbing up for a lacerated liver. The teenage girl was only fifteen and crying about the scar she would have, but Alix promised she would only have a couple of tiny scars and nothing more. Alix was able to keep her promise.
The emergency room was a wild ride by eleven at night and Alix suspected she wouldn’t be getting off work at midnight. She managed to text Sean to let him know, heading back into the emergency room to help the overburdened staff. Nearing midnight, she had her head down suturing up a man who had stripped off most of the flesh of his index finger trying to do some home plumbing when one of the nurses came for her.
“Dr. Hendry,” the young woman said, catching her attention. “You’re needed in Exam One.”
Alix had her bifocals on, looking up from the sutures to acknowledge the nurse, before turning to the Physician’s Assistant standing next to her and asking the man to finish up the sutures. Stripping off her gloves and washing her hands, she emerged into the main corridor of the emergency room only to see several firefighters standing around further down the hall, mingling with medical personnel.
She didn’t give them much notice as she headed for the examining room at the end of the corridor, but the closer she drew, the more she could see that a couple of the guys had bloody cuts on their heads or bloodied hands. But she reached the exam room before she could give their injuries further thought, entering the room to find a firefighter on a gurney, hooked up to IV drips and monitors. More than that, Cord was standing beside the man, his face registering surprise and pleasure when he realized Alix was making an appearance.
Alix registered surprise and pleasure as well, quickly doused when she saw that Cord had a bloody cut above his right eye and the beginnings of a huge bruise on his right cheek. All but ignoring the man on the gurney, she went straight to Cord.
“Hi,” she said with concern. “What happened to you?”
He was so glad to see her that it was all he could do not to take her in his arms and kiss her. He wanted to so badly that his hands started to tremble.
“I’m okay,” he assured her gently. “We were rolling on a call and got broadsided by a guy in a pickup truck who just wasn’t paying attention.”
“That’s awful.” She peered up at the cut on his forehead. “Sit down so I can take a look at that, okay?”
Cord did as he was told; his eyes riveted to her as she squeezed around him and took a look at the computer monitor on the counter that held the patient’s chart information. After a few moments of reading the notes, she turned to the firefighter on the gurney.
“Hi,” she smiled at the man as she peeled back his uniform shirt. “I’m Dr. Hendry. How are you feeling right now? Can you breathe okay?”
The firefighter
, a young Hispanic man with a painful expression, nodded. “Better now,” he said. “I think I cracked some ribs.”
A couple of nurses entered the room, one of them helping Alix pull back the man’s undershirt which someone had cut right down the middle. Alix put her hands on the man’s belly, very gently.
“I think you did more than that,” she said. “Tell me where it hurts, please.”
He did. As Alix gently prodded, Cord watched from behind, so enamored by the woman that he couldn’t focus on anything else. The way she moved, the way she spoke, was mesmerizing. She was sweet, gentle, and knowledgeable. Add that to her gorgeous looks and it was a wonder she didn’t have a line of men following her around day and night.
Finally, she finished examining the man and determined that a broken rib had punctured a lung. As he was wheeled out to x-ray, Alix turned back to Cord.
“All right, now,” she said as she washed her hands and dried them off, pulling on another pair of surgical gloves. “Let’s take a look at you.”
He was still sitting on the stool and she got up right next to him, her body against his as she examined the cut above his eye. Cord had to sit on his hands to keep from grabbing her. The last time she was this close, he had kissed her like he had never kissed a woman in his life. Having her so close and not being able to touch her was like torture.
“Will I live, Doctor?” he asked.
She grinned, inspecting the cut. “I think so,” she said. “I don’t think you need any stitches. Just let me clean it up and you’ll be as good as new.”
“In your hands, I’m sure I couldn’t be anything else.”
She stopped in her professional duties, smiling at him. The warmth was there, the flirtatious twinkle in her eye, and he smiled in return.
“You’re sweet,” she said. “And thank you for the flowers. I love them.”
“You’re welcome,” his voice was quiet. “I just wanted you to know I was thinking about you.”
“I do,” she nodded, putting a hand to his cheek, just as quickly taking it away. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
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