She wondered what he was up to right now. He was already two hours into his shift. Probably busy annoying his fellow firefighters. But all she could think about was his warm mouth on hers. His soft lips. His fingers slicking over the space that needed him most. Damn it. She was in so much trouble.
She turned the corner to the nurses’ station, ready to make her rounds with the patients. Mrs. Gonzalez in room 2 probably needed more saline while they waited on the results of her blood tests.
A flash of blue entered the emergency entrance and snagged her attention. Jake’s expression was tight, and she tried to peer around him to find Reece. And mentally flogged herself for the way her heartbeat quickened.
When she didn’t see him but instead glimpsed Cole, who looked equally as distressed, a wave of goose bumps washed over her arms. Where was Reece?
And then she noticed the yellow uniform on the gurney. Her heart thundered in her chest.
No.
She raced over to the men, and Linda, the other nurse on staff, came flying from the other direction.
Her worst fear was confirmed. Reece lay motionless. The EMTs had already hooked him up to a saline drip. They’d already started a line, which made it easier if she needed to administer any meds.
Oh God. Please let him be okay.
“What happened?” Linda asked in a calm voice.
Sloane didn’t even think she could speak.
“Got knocked over the head. Possible concussion. Vitals are stable.”
“Get him in for an MRI.” Sloane finally found her voice, even if it came out strangled.
Why wasn’t he waking up? How hard had he been hit? There was always a risk with firefighting, but two substantial injuries in less than a month?
“Go. Start the paperwork,” Linda said, giving her a squeeze on the arm. “Clark and I can take him down for imaging.”
Sloane nodded, 90 percent certain that her morning coffee might end up on the linoleum floor. She watched as Reece was wheeled away, her heart in her throat.
She cared about Reece. Like, cared. This went way deeper than just thoughts of him being a warm body to fill her bed. Which scared her, because she hadn’t felt that in years.
Sloane was glad Dr. Schwartz was in the ER today. He was a nice guy in his early thirties. She liked that he wasn’t a dick to the nurses. Treated them like they were capable and important. Forty minutes had passed, and Linda had set Reece up in an empty room. She’d walked by twice as the other nurses tended to him.
Sloane focused back on Dr. Schwartz, tapping her foot, impatiently waiting for the results.
His brows knit together as he studied Reece’s MRI images on the computer.
“How’s he doing, Doc?” Sloane asked.
Please let him be okay. She’d been mentally chanting this ever since he’d entered the ER. She might very well vomit on his white hospital shoes.
“No damage. Looks like he just has a concussion.”
A heavy weight lifted from her chest.
“I’m keeping him overnight for observation.”
She nodded. “Good decision.” It was what she’d order as well.
Sloane wasn’t able to visit Reece again on the sixth floor during her shift. As soon as the clock hit 8:00 p.m., she clocked out and nearly sprinted for the elevator.
Erin and Mrs. Jenkins were sitting in chairs surrounding the hospital bed. Reece was lying down, his skin pale in the florescent lighting. He wore a green-and-white hospital gown. Which was in stark juxtaposition with the tattoos covering his arms. It was all wrong. He wasn’t supposed to be a patient. He was strong and capable, and to see him in here with a dark bruise blooming on his cheek made her stomach clench.
She cleared her throat, and all three of them turned to her in unison. “Hi,” she said, and gave an awkward wave. Which was ridiculous. She’d been part of the family for years. But right now she felt like an outsider in this intimate moment.
“Sloane, honey. Come on in here,” said Mrs. Jenkins. “We were just about to get Reece a little food. Apparently the hospital food isn’t agreeing with him, so Andie said she’d make him a double order of sandwiches down at the truck. Would you mind sitting with him while we go?”
“I think I can manage that.”
Erin eyed her and mouthed, Be nice.
Did her best friend really think she’d kick Reece while he was down?
Okay, maybe she had justification in telling her this. This made her feel even worse. She needed to end this whole charade once he got out of the hospital.
Reece shifted in the bed and winced. “Hey.”
“Hi.”
She plopped down into the chair Mrs. Jenkins had vacated, right next to the IV hookups. Her gaze quickly scanned the screen. Blood pressure and heart rate appeared normal.
“How are you feeling?” This was so foreign to her. Snarky comebacks? That she could handle. This? With Reece lying in a bed looking so vulnerable? It scared her and sent a shiver straight to the marrow of her bones.
“Fine,” he said. “Why does everyone keep asking me that?” He went to push to his elbows and winced.
“Because you got knocked over the head and came in the hospital looking like death warmed over. Lay your ass back on the bed before you hurt yourself.”
He lay back. “So bossy.”
“You like it.” Her fingers traced along the skin outside the radius of his bruise. He closed his eyes and leaned into her touch. He was heartbreakingly gorgeous. “What happened?”
His tongue darted out to wet his lips. “Some jackass. Set fire to the place and left a woman there with her head knocked in.”
Whoa. This was so much worse than she’d thought. She hadn’t gotten many details from Jake and had assumed a part of a burning building fell on him. “That’s horrible.”
He nodded and winced. “Yeah.” He swallowed hard and regarded her.
“Reece?”
“Yeah?”
She steeled herself. It wasn’t often she let her shields down, especially not for someone whom she shared such a complicated past with. But she needed to get this off her chest. Life was too short. “Seeing you wheeled in today scared me.”
His lips pressed into a hard line. “It scared me too.”
Her hand slid into his, rubbing her thumb across the tops of his knuckles. His hand was big and warm and calloused. A hand she could picture holding a thousand times. What was she doing here? She didn’t know. But it felt right. Like this was the place she needed to be.
The machine above her quickened with the beeps, his heart rate shooting up.
“Aw, do I make your heart pound?”
“You make my body do a lot of things.” He lifted a brow.
She shook her head and smiled. Even with a concussion, he was still able to be an ass. Typical Reece. Which somehow put her mind at ease. “Try keeping the whole scaring-the-shit-out-of-people thing to a minimum, okay? You’re not a cat—you don’t have extra lives to spare.”
“On it, boss.”
She stared at his lips and debated leaning down to kiss him. To show him just how happy she was that he was okay. And then Erin and her mom came into the room.
“Sorry, Reece. I told Andie extra bacon, but she skimped . . . Oh, sorry, are we interrupting something?” said Mrs. Jenkins.
Sloane pulled her hand away and suddenly found her purse very fascinating. “Nope. Was just telling Reece I had to get going. Great timing.” She stood and awkwardly fumbled with her bag. “I’m glad you’re okay. See you around.”
And with that, she said goodbye to everyone and booked it out of the room.
Chapter Fifteen
“Just clarifying—we’re here to train Peaches, not you? Because I think you could both benefit from the class,” Sloane said.
Smart-ass.
It had been four days since the accident, and he’d had a doctor’s appointment this morning confirming he was fine. The doc had emphasized avoiding another knock to the head but had oth
erwise sent him on his way.
“You must think you’re so funny,” Reece said, getting out of the driver’s side of his Jeep. “Did they teach you that humor in nursing school?” After Reece had been discharged from the hospital, they’d gone back to their usual back-and-forth, the moment they’d shared together never spoken of again. Which was probably for the best. He’d never been that real with a woman before. He didn’t need any more complications in his life.
She smiled over at him, and her brown eyes shone with mischief. “Born with it.”
Everything about this felt off. He still couldn’t piece together why he’d thought it was a good idea to invite her. He needed to focus on his job. One email from her to the chief could screw him over. He had to keep that in mind.
He bent down and gave Peaches a scratch behind the ear—her favorite spot. “Okay, girl, I hope you’re ready for this. I sure as hell am not,” Reece muttered under his breath.
They all stood outside of the pet store, and Reece took a deep breath.
If he was stuck with this dog for longer than expected, he might as well teach her some manners. Ones that were learned, and not just because he whipped out a picture of Blake Shelton, like the one he kept in his wallet. The next owner would be thankful.
Peaches let out an indignant bark and yanked on the leash, her nails clicking against the tile. If she were a larger dog, this might have been a problem. But Reece was able to just sort of drag her along, and she slid across the floor, her legs spread wide like she was trying to resist.
PetShop was the local pet store that offered classes, vet services, and grooming. Huge banks of lights lined the ceiling, gleaming off the checkered green-and-white floor. They passed the rows of dog food and toys. Peaches beelined it for a squeaky rubber hot dog, but Reece continued to pull her along to the enclosed mini-gladiator arena in the center of the store. The perimeter was made of waist-high white walls and Plexiglas from waist level to about a foot above Reece’s head. Posters of dogs on leashes and some chasing tennis balls were plastered to the walls.
A woman wearing a polo with the company logo emblazoned on the front pocket opened the gate to the training area and motioned them to come in. “Are you here for the obedience training?”
“We sure are,” Reece said, glancing around. Chairs lined the perimeter on one side, and on the other was a cabinet and two worn dog beds flopped onto the ground.
“Mandy.” The woman wore her brown hair slicked back into a ponytail.
“Reece. And this is Peaches.”
“What a cute outfit!” Peaches twirled around in her argyle sweater. It was at least a respectable blue and green today. He was sick of the pink frilly things. Mandy pointed to Reece and then the dog. “So we have Daddy and Peaches. And is this your mommy, Peaches?” the woman used baby talk, which grated on Reece.
“Friend,” Reece said at the same time Sloane said, “That’d be a no.”
Sloane straightened and said, “I’m Sloane. Here for moral support.”
Mandy squatted down to Peaches, and that was her first mistake. Peaches got up on her hind legs and started jumping. It happened in a matter of milliseconds but dragged out like in slow motion. Reece tried his best to yank the leash, to get Peaches out of Mandy’s direct path, but he couldn’t before Mandy’s shoe took a direct hit with Peaches’s pee.
“Oh my. We have an excitable girl here.” Mandy didn’t even blink. Just walked over to the cabinet, extracted a faded white towel, and swiped at her shoe and the dribbles on the floor.
“I’m so sorry. She does that when she’s happy to see people. You can fix that, right?” He prayed the answer was a yes, because every time there was a delivery, it had become a problem.
“We can definitely try. It’s harder in smaller dogs. This is a very common problem.”
Great. He was stuck with a pee-er.
Two other couples walked into the arena. One with a German shepherd puppy and one with a bulldog that sounded like it smoked nine packs a day.
Mandy ushered them both in and took her position at the front of the makeshift classroom. “Welcome, class! You’re in Obedience One, which means we will be learning basic commands, like how to heel, and we’ll be making sure your puppy is well behaved in public as well as at home.”
“Hear that, girl? You’re going to be well behaved,” he murmured.
Peaches yipped in response.
What was with the women in his life having attitudes?
“First things first. We will work on sitting. Dogs respond best to hand motions along with verbal commands. You’ll need a nice firm”—the instructor glanced Reece’s way and then cleared her throat—“tone.”
“I don’t see why you need me here,” Sloane said. “Mandy seems more than intent on giving you a one-on-one.”
“Jealous?” His gaze raked over Sloane, who’d sunk back in her seat and crossed her arms over her chest.
She scoffed. “Of course not.”
“And to answer your question, you’re here because you agreed, and you got me into this mess in the first place.”
Yep. That was what he was going with until he could forge past whatever this was he felt for her.
Mandy continued on, walking around to each dog, giving them a scratch on the head. “You’ll need to pick the alpha. This will be the one who the dog listens to.”
Sloane leaned in, and Reece’s eyes nearly rolled back into his skull at her rose perfume. “I’d nominate myself, but since Peaches is staying at your house, I’ll pass that off to you.”
“It’d be me, regardless,” he said. It was in his blood to take charge. Even if Sloane was bossy, it didn’t mean she was in charge.
“Go ahead and tell your dog to sit, alpha man,” she mused.
What did Sloane think she was talking about? She wasn’t the alpha in this wolf pack. Reece was the one to keep his team together. He called the shots. Kept his cool under life-or-death situations. He could command a foo-foo dog to sit.
“Sit,” he said, his voice going an octave lower than normal.
Peaches stared at him defiantly. He stared back. He half expected western showdown music to begin playing over the intercom and a tumbleweed to breeze by.
Seconds ticked by and she was still standing.
“Sit,” he repeated.
The instructor walked over, watching him. He’d never experienced performance anxiety before, but having a dog with a teenager attitude give him the shaft in front of the group was definitely pushing him in that direction.
“It might help if you do the hand movement.” Mandy showed them the motion of moving the hand up, pinching the thumb and index finger together.
This was stupid. He bet if he pulled out the picture in his wallet, she’d sit right away. But he wanted to do this the right way. He wanted the dog to listen to him for as long as he had to foster her.
So he did the hand motion, even if he felt like an idiot, because Sloane was watching him with that knowing smirk.
“It takes time. Don’t worry if you don’t get it on the first try,” Mandy said.
Reece peered around to the other two dogs that were rolling around. One was lying on his back. Even if Peaches wasn’t the only one not listening, he didn’t like the fact that this wasn’t going as planned. Nothing in the past month had been. Between work, his injuries, and whatever this was with Sloane, he’d never felt so out of control, and he was man enough to admit it scared him.
“Sit.” He did the hand motion. Peaches held her ground. “Come on, girl. You know who’s boss.”
“Yeah, she does,” Sloane mumbled as she leaned back against her chair.
“Fine. You want to try it, alpha woman?”
“I thought you’d never ask.” She uncrossed her legs and stood. Her breasts bounced in her pale blue sweater, and Reece bit back a groan. Thoughts of ripping her top off and licking every inch of her skin had plagued his thoughts ever since that day at his apartment. They played in a constant loop in his
mind.
She put her hands on her hips, unaware of the images flying through his mind. “Peaches, sit.”
The dog sat.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Reece said.
“I told you. It’s an alpha personality. Can’t help that I have one.”
“I’m calling beginner’s luck.”
“Says the person who’s never had a dog before. And how many have I fostered?” She made a show of tapping her finger to her lips, pretending to contemplate. “Oh, that’s right. I’ve lost count.”
Damn it. What was it with this woman? He just couldn’t seem to keep his cool. He wanted to shut her up with a kiss. To show her that she might be the ringleader in everyday life, but he’d bet anything he could make her cry out and have her begging for more. The need to do this, to take her, hit him on a visceral level. Pounded in his veins.
Get it together, man.
He was in a pet store trying to teach a Yoranian how to listen without the fear of Blake Shelton. This was the last place he should be thinking about Sloane in that way. He cleared his throat.
He put his hands up in defeat. “Fine. You know dogs. I know nothing.”
“I’m glad you can finally admit that. It felt good, didn’t it?”
She liked to rub it in when Reece wasn’t good at something. He didn’t experience failure often. The last time was when Erin had dragged him downtown to a calligraphy pen convention. His writing was chicken scratch, and most of the people around him had looked at it in horror.
“I think you’re scared,” she said.
“Oh yeah? Of what, oh wise one?”
“To give up control. You don’t like the thought of me taking charge.”
Reece suspected that Sloane had superpowers, because she’d just read his mind. He didn’t think he was that easy to read.
“I don’t like the thought of the dog you foisted on me being a total diva.”
Sloane motioned to the dog. “She can hear you.”
“She’s a damn dog,” he said louder than intended. His words echoed in the small space, and everyone stopped practicing their commands.
Up In Flames (Flirting with Fire Book 2) Page 15