Jessica smiled back. She knew that team. None of this was just a job to them.
“You need to go home now,” Luke said. “You look ready to drop. We’ll call you with any news.”
Jessica let herself breathe deeply in and out for the first time since she’d gotten the phone call that Mario was missing that morning. The morning that seemed an eternity ago.
Fatigue and relief combined to bring tears to her eyes. “Is he awake?”
“I don’t expect him awake for a while. We’re going to monitor him in recovery a little longer, then ICU.”
She was anxious to see Mario, but she trusted these doctors and nurses to take care of him right now. And she wanted to go find Ben.
“We’ll talk later,” Luke said.
“Thanks again.” Jessica watched him leave. Then she grabbed her purse and the sandals near the couch. “Sara, I have someplace I need to go.”
Sara smiled. “Bring me a white chocolate mocha.”
Jessica knew exactly what she had to do. She’d always been more of a do-er, anyway. Words didn’t mean a lot without action to back them up.
For years she’d put her creativity and energy into showing her father that she was her own person. His actions had always spoken loudly to her as well. He’d told her he loved her, but she was convinced by how he always welcomed her home with open arms. She’d known where his heart was by what he did.
Over the past ten years her actions had been focused on proving that she could be the one to take care of her siblings and the center. It didn’t matter what she said, but what she did that got noticed.
She’d told Ben that she’d love him no matter what.
Now she needed to prove it. Imagination, energy…and a quick pit stop were all she needed.
The same girl was working when Jess rushed through the front door of Tease fifteen minutes later.
The electric blue dress molded to every curve. A two-inch thick strap covered her left shoulder, but the neckline dove dramatically to dip under her right arm, with a sharp point cutting low between her breasts so that a hard sneeze would reveal all her secrets. Not that many were left. The back of the dress plunged shamelessly to end in a V at the base of her spine. The right side of the dress had three inch squares cut out at one inch intervals from underarm to where it ended just short of mid-thigh, letting skin and curves play peek-a-boo with anyone looking.
And they would look. It was like being wrapped in neon saran wrap that screamed Look at me!
It was as far away on the spectrum as she could get from the image she’d been trying to project for the past ten years. Which made it exactly what she wanted tonight.
Jessica had never actually stopped traffic before, but she did stop conversation when she stepped into Dolly’s coffee shop.
But she didn’t notice the attention she was drawing as she scanned the shop for Ben. The only thing that registered was that the faces staring back at her were not his.
“Jessica?”
For a moment her heart skipped, but even before she turned she knew it wasn’t Ben. Instead she found Dooley, Mac and Kevin sitting at a table about five yards from where she stood. They all looked like they’d been kicked in the groin.
“Holy shit!” Mac exclaimed, breaking the stunned silence that let Frank Sinatra perform uninterrupted from the stereo system.
“Oh, my…” Kevin, of course, didn’t finish the expletive. The strong Christian looked a bit guilty around the edges, but he didn’t look away from her as she approached.
“What are you guys doing here?”
Coffee with foam, music from the 1940s and women older than them—and unimpressed with them—were not usual ingredients in an evening out for her brother’s friends.
They all continued to stare at her.
“Where’s Ben?” she asked, growing impatient with the struck-stupid looks on her friends’ faces.
“Where’s Sam?” Mac finally found a voice to ask. “Does he know you’re wearing that?”
She frowned down at the dress. “No. He’s working. Where’s Ben?”
“At the hospital,” Dooley answered. “Damn, Jessica. You sure can make a guy feel stupid for respecting the fact that you’re his friend’s sister all these years.”
She sighed and propped a hand on her hip. “Thanks, I guess.”
Kevin, Jessica was amused to note, was the only one who hadn’t yet blinked. She put a hand on his shoulder and leaned in. She needed to know where Ben was and she didn’t have time to be subtle. Kevin was a Christian man. True love, devotion and sacrifice were right up his alley.
“Kevin, have pity on me. I’m in love with Ben and need to find him right now. Do you know where he is?”
Kevin pulled his eyes from her breasts, slowly, impressing her with his fortitude. Of course, Dooley and Mac weren’t trying to not look. They were taking in the view like avid baseball fans on opening day. She was sure they’d buy popcorn if a vendor happened to come by.
“He’s at the hospital,” Kevin told her, obviously struggling to keep his eyes on hers.
She shook her head. “Not Sam. I need to find Ben. You know, the guy who works in this coffee shop?”
“I know I should feel bad about picturing you naked, Jessica Leigh,” Mac interjected with a big grin. “But honestly, that dress doesn’t leave me a lot of options. You don’t want to drive clear over to the hospital again, do ya? When I’m right here and very willing to do pretty much anything you want? Or you could debase Kevin there.” Mac gestured at his friend with his coffee mug. “Doesn’t look like he’d mind.”
“And that’s a huge compliment,” Dooley said with a chuckle. “Kevin hasn’t thought about being debased in a long time.”
“I have too,” Kevin muttered, picking up his cup. “I just try not to.”
Jessica rolled her eyes. She loved these guys. They were good guys, even if they were guys in every sense of the word.
She straightened abruptly. “Cut the crap,” she told the men in front of her. “Where’s Ben?”
“I don’t think we’re going to talk her out of going,” Dooley said to Mac, openly ogling her some more. “At least squeeze her ass,” he said to Kevin with some disgust. “She’s right there. How can you stand it?”
Jessica moved a step further away from Mac and Dooley’s side of the table. “Stop it,” she insisted. “Where. Is. Ben?”
“The hospital,” Mac said. “We keep telling you. He’s at the hospital.”
She was stunned. “He is? To see Mario?”
Kevin looked up at her, just at her face this time, with a small smile. “Be sure to tell him you’re in love with him before you tell him you’re glad he’s back to work.”
She stared at Kevin. “He’s back to work? What do you mean?”
“He went in even before he heard about Mario,” Dooley explained. “He was there when Sam called. Working. Reinstated. The whole shebang.”
Jessica vaguely recognized that she was stunned. But her brain did compute that she now knew where Ben was. She could worry about why later.
“Wish me luck,” she told the guys.
“You got him out of that bar in the black dress,” Dooley said, his eyes sliding up and down her body unapologetically. “You’ll have no trouble getting whatever you want in that.”
“Are you going to wear that to the hospital?” Kevin asked, eyes wide.
She certainly wasn’t stopping anywhere between here and Ben. Besides, the thing had cost her over two hundred dollars. And the point was, she had to show Ben that he was the right man for her. Not the super-organized, go-getter ER nurse who had been intent on finding—or creating—the perfect man. But the woman, who now knew that the man for her was not perfect, but was just right.
Ben was pacing the Emergency Room at St. Anthony’s—something he’d never done before. Generally, his time in the ER was filled up with patching holes in people. There wasn’t time for pacing. Of course, that wasn’t the only thing he’d done for
the first time since getting involved with Jessica.
Where the hell was she?
His gut had clenched into a knot of hope and anxiety when he’d come to the surgical waiting area to find Sam alone. He’d instantly decided to go after her, but Sam’s phone had rung before Ben could get his locker open. Sam had run in, telling him that Jessica had showed up at Cup O’ Joe looking for him and was now on her way back to the hospital to find him.
He was nearly climbing the walls waiting for her. He was in love with her. He hadn’t looked for it, hadn’t thought he wanted it, but there was no denying it. Nor was there any sense in denying the fact that it was good for him. Great for him. He was a better person because of her and, if that didn’t scream marry her, dumbass, he didn’t know what did.
The stretch of hallway linoleum ended and he pivoted to go back the way he’d come, but stopped short.
He was in love with Jessica and he would never want another woman, but there wasn’t a man on the planet who wouldn’t take a moment to appreciate the female form that had just graced the ER department with the most delicious combination of blazing blue leather and creamy, satiny skin.
Nancy, the receptionist, pointed in his direction and the woman turned.
His heart nearly stopped. It was Jessica.
Love and lust, heat and happiness all raced to be the first thing to register in his mind.
What finally won first place was what the hell is she doing wearing that dress out where other men can see her?
He knew the moment she saw him. Her eyes widened and her mouth formed a little O. He assumed it was from the look of pure, unadulterated possessiveness on his face. Or the fact he was literally stalking toward her.
“Ben, I—” she started when he was within a foot.
He cut off whatever she was going to say by stooping and swinging her up into his arms. He headed for exam room six. It was one of only two rooms in the ER with walls and a door instead of just curtains.
After her initial gasp of surprise, she wrapped her arms around his neck. “Where are we going?”
“Exam six.” He didn’t dare look down at her. The heat of her skin was seeping through the amazingly erotic dress and he was about to strip the damn thing off of her. But they needed those walls and the door. Oh, yeah, and he needed to say a few things first.
“Um, Ben?” she asked, wiggling enticingly in his arms.
“Yeah?” He still didn’t look down, but he definitely felt every curve. When had they moved exam six so far away from the front desk?
“I really want to go to exam six, but I have to tell you something first.”
“In a minute,” he said. After he talked. In private.
“Ben, seriously, I need to say something.” Jessica wiggled to get down.
“Then you can tell me just like this,” he said, still walking, and still holding her. He wasn’t sure he was ever going to put her down.
“But I want you to get the full effect,” she argued, wiggling harder.
He stopped in the middle of the hallway intersection that led off to the cafeteria in one direction, the parking garage in another, the third hallway to the ER and the lab down the fourth.
The trauma team had just shipped a patient up to surgery and was wearily leaving the room to Ben’s left. They also stood in between the nurses’ locker room and the staff entrance. It was time for the next shift to start work, which meant they were in the middle of a crowd of people coming and going. All of them knew Jessica and Ben well. It was the most un-private spot in the hospital.
He loosened the arm under her knees and let her slide down until her toes touched the floor. “Believe me, Jessica, I got the full effect,” he said gruffly. “The first time I ever saw you.”
She smiled, but stepped back, spreading her arms. Ben looked around and noticed that the trauma team looked much less tired suddenly and the nurses on their way home were obviously less anxious to leave. They had an audience.
He smiled at their stunned expressions. They saw a lot of interesting things working in the ER, but their little general in bright blue leather and stilettos, being carried down the hall by their star, recently suspended surgeon was one for the books.
“I’ve spent a long time trying to make things in my life go a certain way. I thought I had it all figured out. I thought I knew what I was supposed to do.” Jessica had tears in her eyes now and Ben reached out, but she stepped further back. “And the funny thing is, I knew you were a part of it, even before I realized that I didn’t even know what it was.”
He reached out again, needing to touch her. The crowd around them was silent, at least as silent as a hospital ever got. “Jess…”
She stepped back again, holding up a hand. “Wait. I’m almost done. And if you touch me, I’m going to start taking off my clothes and not be able to finish what I need to say.”
He felt the heat shoot through him, even as he heard the startled and amused murmurings from the crowd around them.
“Jess, I—”
“I love you,” she interrupted. “And, I don’t care—”
“Excuse me, could I get some help here?” A man of about fifty pushed through the group, holding his forearm against his stomach, a bloody towel wrapped around his hand.
Ben looked around the group of emergency personnel gathered. They all glanced at the man, but no one seemed inclined to leave the mini-drama going on between him and Jessica.
“What happened?” one of the residents asked.
“Lawn mower blade,” the man said. “I think I need stitches.”
None of the staff’s eyes had left Jessica and Ben. One nurse took a long pull on the straw sticking out of a paper cup from the cafeteria. Another was passing out sticks of gum. It was a real-live soap opera and no one seemed inclined to miss even a minute.
“Everything still attached?” the resident asked.
“Yeah.” The man shrugged.
“You in a lot of pain?”
“I have ice on it so I’m doing okay.”
“You think you could wait a bit?”
“What’s going on?” the man asked, looking at the middle of the semi-circle formed by hospital staff, with Ben and Jessica on display. He did a double-take as he noticed Jessica, his shoulders turning to face her more squarely.
“Jessica is talking about taking her clothes off and—”
“The one in the blue dress is Jessica?” the man asked.
“Right.”
“Yeah, it can wait.” The man took a place next to one of the med techs leaning against the wall.
Jessica turned back and smiled at Ben. “I don’t care what you do for a living. I don’t care if you do nothing for a living. You’ve helped me realize what living is.”
“Jessica!”
Ben nearly groaned in frustration as the small crowd of co-workers parted to let the latest addition to the chaos through.
It was Sara.
“Jessica, I’m—” Sara stopped dead in her tracks, taking in her sister’s dress and heels. “What in the world…”
“I’m trying to propose to Ben,” Jessica explained, obviously exasperated. “What’s going on? Why aren’t you upstairs with Mario?”
“Oh.” Sara’s eyes darted between the two of them. “I wanted to tell you that he’s awake and Sophie’s with him.”
“Great news.” Jessica smiled and once again turned back to Ben. “I love you. I want you to be happy. Whatever that means, whatever you need to do, is good with me. As long as we’re together.”
Ben smiled down at her, knowing exactly what he wanted and where he should be for the first time in a very long time. “Isn’t there something you were going to ask me?” he asked, moving forward.
“Will you please take me to exam room six?” she asked promptly.
Ben smiled, but shook his head. “Everyone’s already heard everything else. They might as well hear the proposal too.”
A cheer of agreement went up from the group around th
em.
Jessica’s smile was sly as she said, “Oh, the proposal is a given. Like the answer. But we still need exam six.”
He liked the look in her eyes. “Oh?”
“Yeah. It so happens that I have a very specific fantasy about you in surgical scrubs, in this hospital’s ER department.”
“Thank God.” He swept her up in his arms and strode quickly down the hall even as their crowd of fans booed at being left out. Jessica laughed as he fumbled with holding her and turning the exam room’s doorknob at the same time.
She reached down and turned it for him.
“You will marry me, right, Ben?” she asked as he set her on the edge of the exam table and kicked the door shut behind them.
“You’re damn right, I will,” he said, his fingers already on the zipper at the back of her dress. “But for the next several minutes, I’d prefer it if you called me Dr. Torres. It makes me think of all those times you were bending over in that thong.”
“Hey, I thought this was my fantasy.” Her protest was weak as Ben’s lips traveled from her ear to her collarbone.
“You’re right,” he said, lifting his head. “Sorry. Go ahead. Tell me your fantasy. In detail, please.”
“You,” she said, her eyes tearing up in spite of her smile. “You’re my fantasy. You loving me no matter what.”
“Done,” he said, looking into her eyes. “I love you. More than anything. No matter what.”
“Then maybe you are perfect after all.” She sniffed and grinned at the same time.
“Nah.” He kissed her. “That’d be no fun.” He kissed her again, longer this time. “But with you, Jessica, I am perfectly happy. Finally.”
And she knew just what he meant. Finally.
About the Author
Erin Nicholas has been reading and writing romantic fiction since her mother gave her a romance novel in high school and she discovered happily-ever-after suddenly went a little beyond glass slippers and fairy godmothers! She lives in the Midwest with her husband who only wants to read the sex scenes in her books, her kids who will never read the sex scenes in her books, and family and friends who say they’re shocked by the sex scenes in her books (yeah, right!).
Just Right: The Bradfords, Book 1 Page 29