A Heart Decision

by Laurie Kellogg

“What?” Luke spread his hands, wearing a dumbfounded expression. “Tell them, Sabrina. You wouldn’t want to leave this little lady homeless just to have a pet with a pedigree, would you?”

  “Absolutely not!” she said. “If anything, the dog’s abandonment makes her even more desirable.”

  “Of course it does. You’ve always been a compulsive nurturer. When you were little, all you ever wanted to play was house, hospital, or school.” Luke looked at her brother. “Tell everyone how often she nagged us to pretend we were her children, patients, or students.”

  “It’s true,” Tyler admitted. “It was no surprise she became a nurse.”

  At only fourteen, her inability to help their mother, after she developed a fatal case of viral pneumonia, had set Sabrina on that particular career path. The impotence she’d felt made a lasting impression and gave her a deep need to ease other people’s suffering.

  She’d started college intending to become a doctor, but changed her mind after realizing how much less patient contact she would have working as a physician rather than as a nurse.

  Ironically enough, during her first pediatrics rotation, her deep attachment to a patient with a terminal neurological disease had caused her to seriously consider changing her major. After failing to prevent Ricky Norton from choking to death, she’d watched his parents hold his limp, lifeless body and sob their hearts out.

  The only thing that kept her from withdrawing from school had been the letter Mr. Norton had written to her supervisor, expressing his deep gratitude for the compassion that she, ‘their angel’, had shown them and their sick child and for her devotion to making Ricky’s last days as comfortable and happy as possible.

  After reading that gut-wrenching letter, she became more determined than ever to finish school at the top of her class and make sure every parent felt like their child was the most important patient in her care.

  Shaking off her painful memories, she forced a smile and cuddled the tiny dog close to her chest. “She’s precious. What did you do with poor little Dusty?”

  She’d take the other puppy, too, if Luke hadn’t already found a home for him.

  His mouth curled in a crooked grin as he lifted one shoulder. “I sort of got used to having him around, so I’m keeping him.”

  A belly laugh exploded out of Ben. “That’s priceless. Dirty Harry adopts a powder-puff. I give you two weeks before one of your big Bozo feet squishes Dusty into a hairy pancake with teeth.” He glanced down at Luke’s over-sized loafers and chortled. “I don’t know why you bother buying shoes when any store will give you the boxes for free.”

  Luke crossed his arms over his chest. “Go ahead and laugh. But you know what women say about men with big feet.”

  “All right.” Tyler jumped in. “There are children present, so let’s keep this G-rated.”

  Tipping his head, Luke smirked at Ben. “Just remember, Gigantor, that little fuzz ball is going home with you. And your feet are even less dainty than mine.”

  Sabrina shuddered as she watched Ben’s huge hand close around his water goblet. The correlation between a man’s foot size and his privates was just an old wives tale—wasn’t it?

  Better yet, why didn’t the prospect of sleeping with Luke, who was only a tad shorter than Ben, intimidate her the same way?

  She rubbed her face in the puppy’s soft fur and cooed to her, “Don’t listen to those idiots, sweetheart. I won’t let Ben’s big hooves anywhere near you.” She peered up at him and gave him a playful wink. “And if any of his other parts are as big as the rest of him, you can return the favor and protect me.”

  “If that’s the case,” Ben muttered, “I don’t think I’ll be letting that rag mop into our bedroom.”

  A deep wrinkle furrowed Luke’s forehead right before a smile spread over his face as if he’d had a sudden, pleasing revelation.

  If he had no romantic feelings for her, why did he seem so happy she hadn’t slept with his friend?

  Ben shoved him in the shoulder. “What’re you looking so smug about?”

  “Nothing. I’m just—”

  A loud squeal of skidding tires sliced the air a split second before a child screamed. Luke catapulted from his chair and sprinted toward the front of the house. Sabrina handed the puppy to Mandy and dashed after him, her pulse pounding in her ears.

  A tan minivan sat in the middle of the road. A little girl lay sprawled on her back in the street. A portly, gray-haired man bent over the child, his face twisted in anguish.

  “When the wee lassie’s ball rolled out in front of me, I did me best to stop,” the man explained in a thick Scottish brogue.

  The smell of burnt rubber and the skid marks behind the van testified to the fellow’s claim.

  “We understand, Mr. uhh....”

  “McKinnon. Innes McKinnon.”

  “Somebody get a blanket and call 911,” Luke shouted

  “I feel terrible, the old man said. “I have a granddaughter not much older than this sweet lassie.”

  “Accidents happen.” Luke scanned the people gathered at the curb. “Where’s Sabrina?”

  She pushed her way through the crowd. “I’m right here.” She dropped to her knees and pressed two fingers to the child’s neck, holding her breath until she found a strong pulse. She, then, pulled up the unconscious little girl’s eyelids. “Her pupils are even, but at the very least, she probably has a concussion.”

  Adam Chase knelt beside her. “Her labored breathing suggests she may have a broken rib or a punctured lung.”

  Mr. McKinnon released a tortured groan.

  “Whose kid is she?” Luke hollered.

  Long russet waves streamed behind a woman who had bolted out of the house across the street, sobbing. “Oh, my God, Jillian! She’s mine. I’m Mary Cooper.”

  Luke held the woman back as she lunged for her daughter. “No. We don’t want you to move her, Mrs. Cooper. I’m a police officer,”—he gestured toward Adam and Sabrina—“and this gentleman and lady are a doctor and a nurse.”

  “She’s only six. Please help her,” Mrs. Cooper pleaded.

  Annie handed Luke a quilt. “I called for an ambulance. The squad is out on another emergency, so they’re scrambling a team from another town. It’ll be at least twenty minutes before they get here.”

  “Oh, no.” The child’s mother wrung her hands. “We could be at the hospital by then. Can’t we take her?”

  Luke looked at Adam. “What do you think, Doc?”

  “If we secure her to something flat, and I come with you, I don’t see a problem.”

  “You can use Annie’s Navigator,” Tyler suggested. “I took it to pick up a new lawnmower yesterday, and the rear seats are still stowed.”

  “Good plan.” Luke covered Jillian and glanced over at Tyler. “You got anything flat and rigid enough to use as a backboard?”

  “How about one of the kids’ boogie boards?”

  Nodding, Luke barked out a string of orders, “Noah, go get one of the boards. Annie, get me a bunch of dishtowels. Tyler, find some duct tape.”

  “How can I help,” Ben asked.

  “Get Annie’s keys and pull the Navigator out of the garage.”

  A silver-haired woman hurried down the sidewalk with a portable canister of oxygen under her arm. “My husband has emphysema. We thought this might help. It’s one of his spares.”

  “Thank you, ma’am, it will,” Adam told her.

  Sabrina took the tank from the woman and turned the nozzle on before fitting the plastic tubing to the child’s face and pressing it to her nose. By the time she finished, Noah had returned with the Styrofoam raft.

  She silently prayed the child would regain consciousness as she and Adam transferred her onto the makeshift backboard, padding and immobilizing her head and neck with the towels and duct tape.

  As they carefully loaded the child into the rear of Annie’s SUV, a police cruiser rolled up. Luke explained the situation to John Gilbert, Redemption’s police chie
f, and requested an escort.

  When they were ready to roll, Sabrina and Adam climbed in back with Jillian.

  “You ride up front, Mrs. Cooper,” Luke called as he carefully closed the rear of the SUV.

  “But my husband is—”

  “He can follow in your car or one of the neighbors can drive him.” As Luke slid behind the wheel and started the engine, the cop’s radio squawked as Chief Gilbert called dispatch to inform the hospital they were en route and cancel the request for an ambulance. He told Mr. McKinnon another officer was on his way to take his statement.

  Before Luke even pulled out of the subdivision behind the police car’s flashing lights, Jillian stirred. Sabrina heaved a relieved sigh. “She’s coming around.”

  “That’s a good sign, right?” Mrs. Cooper asked, panic rising in her voice.

  “It’s a very good sign,” Adam said.

  Luke winked at Sabrina in the rearview mirror. “Your daughter has an excellent nurse, so relax. If you’re upset, Jillian will be, too.”

  Sabrina hated to think how everyone would’ve handled the crisis if Luke hadn’t been there. His levelheaded, take-charge demeanor stirred her nesting instincts and made him seem even more desirable as a mate.

  When the little girl began to cry, Sabrina stroked her cheek to keep her calm. “I know it hurts to breathe and your head aches, sweetie. Try to take little, baby breaths. We’ll be there any second.”

  She sang to the child while the police siren blared ahead of them, allowing Luke to make the normally twenty-minute trip in slightly more than ten.

  Blessedly, when they pulled in at the emergency entrance, the trauma team was waiting outside. David Lambert, a pediatrician Sabrina knew well, took charge.

  While Luke gave him the rundown on what had happened, the team quickly transferred the boogie board onto the hospital’s gurney. Mrs. Cooper squeezed Sabrina’s hand. “I don’t know how I can ever thank the three of you.”

  “You don’t have to. We just want Jillian to be okay,” Sabrina assured her. “She’ll be in good hands with Dr. Lambert.”

  “I know. He’s Jillian’s doctor, and he’s wonderful with her.”

  Adam offered Mrs. Cooper his arm as they followed the gurney into the hospital. “I’ll sit with you until your husband gets here.”

  “You two might as well go back to your party,” Chief Gilbert told them. “I’ll give Dr. Chase a ride back when he’s ready.”

  “Thanks.” Sabrina waved and turned back to Luke, catching a pretty triage nurse giving him the eye over her shoulder. The petite woman was exactly the type Luke had always dated—everything Sabrina wasn’t.

  She couldn’t recall him ever getting involved with a blond. His tiny dates all had dark hair and eyes and boobs big enough to serve as personal airbags in a car crash.

  Aside from the requisite centerfold breasts, Sabrina’s sister-in-law exemplified Luke’s taste in women. When they’d met the previous fall, his teasing threats to steal Annie from Tyler had made Sabrina insanely jealous.

  As the busty Florence Nightingale hurried inside after the rest of the trauma team, Luke slung his arm around Sabrina’s shoulder. “Maybe we should start an ambulance service together?”

  Being rescue buddies wasn’t at all the kind of partnership she wanted with him. She turned into his chest and buried her face in his knit shirt. The overpowering smell of laundry soap masked his usual masculine scent. Someone needed to teach the idiot not to put so much detergent in his wash.

  “Truthfully, working at the hospital was less stressful. I don’t think I could handle this much excitement every day. I have no idea how you do it.”

  “You get used to it.” Luke wrapped his muscular arms around her and pressed his cheek to the top of her head.

  “I guess it’s easier for an adrenaline junkie, huh?”

  “Mmm....” He rubbed his face in her hair and whispered, “You were great with Jillian, Princess.”

  Taking care of the little girl had only driven home how much she missed caring for sick and injured patients. This past year, working as a school nurse and then at a summer camp, treating mostly healthy children, had been much less rewarding.

  As he stroked her back and shoulders, left bare by her sundress, a warm shiver tingled down her spine. Every inch of flesh he caressed begged for him to touch her like that all over.

  The orange sun dipped below the horizon, painting the sky a wide spectrum of pinks and lavender. Endless seconds ticked by while they stood outside the emergency room, bathed in the glowing sunset, locked in a less-than-platonic embrace.

  Ben had been right. Before she could marry him, she needed to tell Luke how she felt. If there was ever a perfect time to do it, it was now.

  Unfortunately, the words stuck in her throat like a thick glob of ketchup refusing to budge from the neck of its bottle. If she couldn’t verbalize her feelings, at the very least, she needed to show him. She drew back a few inches and slid her palms up his hard chest while each muscle she grazed rippled under her fingers.

  Winding her arms around his neck, she stared into the depths of his dark eyes for several breathless heartbeats. Her stomach flip-flopped at the intense desire flaring in his half-lidded gaze. He dropped his arms to his side and squeezed his eyes shut. “Brina, please.”

  “Please what?” she whispered.

  His sexy bedroom eyes popped opened and stared down at her with a helpless expression.

  Standing on tiptoe, she pressed her mouth up to his. He stiffened and remained as unflinching as a Buckingham Palace guard. The tension in his body proclaimed his hesitation to let her kiss him, but the hard shaft pressing into her belly told her he also didn’t want her to stop.

  As she traced the crease between his lips with her tongue, heat spread through her like liquid fire. She wanted him so much.

  His breath hitched in his chest as his mouth relaxed, giving her access to its inner recesses. A millimeter at a time, his head gradually dipped, allowing her to maintain contact with his lips without stretching so far.

  Her nipples puckered into two tight nubs against his heaving ribs. If only she felt this way when Ben kissed her....or, for that matter, when any other guy kissed her. She flicked her tongue between Luke’s lips in a seductive invitation, receiving only a sharp intake of air from him in response. He stood motionless, letting her enjoy the luscious taste of the chocolate after-dinner mints he’d eaten.

  His refusal to respond didn’t surprise her. She was engaged to one of his best friends—a man to whom he owed a great deal. If nothing else could be said about Luke, he was intensely loyal.

  He could’ve pushed her away—yet he hadn’t.

  His erratic breaths and fierce trembling suggested he ached to return her kiss—but he didn’t.

  The contradictory nature of his actions said he must be torn between wanting her and remaining true to his friend. And if he gave in to the passion between them....he wouldn’t.

  What kind of woman tempted such an honorable man to betray every principle he possessed? She was pathetic—and deeply, passionately in love with Luke Marino.

  ~*~

  Please, please don’t let her stop. He wanted this moment to last forever—or at least another few moments. As Sabrina’s hands moved over his chest and shoulders, Luke groaned inwardly and dug his fingernails into his palms, reminding himself to keep his paws to himself.

  Damn she tasted good. Better than he ever dreamed. And the skin on her back had been so smooth—silkier than any other woman’s.

  The pressure in his groin intensified, urging his hips to press into her soft belly. He ached to push her into the back of the SUV, strip off her panties, and take her right there in the parking lot in broad daylight. He wouldn’t care if the whole damn hospital watched.

  If he had even a speck of honor, he’d stop her before this went any further.

  Luckily, he didn’t have to. As she stepped away, it took every bit of his willpower not to yank her back again
st him and ravage her. He never should’ve put his arms around her to comfort her.

  Sabrina cupped his cheek in her palm and caressed his jaw. “Oh, Luke, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”

  He sucked in a giant breath, trying to slow his breathing and heart rate. “You’re damn straight you shouldn’t have.” Turning away, he stared at the ground. “But worse than that, I should’ve stopped you.”

  “So why didn’t you?”

  What could he tell her? That he’d spent every moment of his adult life dreaming of doing a lot more than just kissing her?

  As a teenager, he’d loved her hero worship and felt as fiercely protective of her as he had his own sisters. But, then, his freshman year in college, everything changed.

  When he came home for Christmas, after not seeing Sabrina since summer, the spunky little girl he’d always had a soft spot for had transformed into a long-legged hottie with dangerous curves.

  His sudden longing for his best friend’s younger sister suggested he might be an even bigger deviant than his father had accused him of being the night before he died—only a few weeks shy of Luke’s fourteenth birthday.

  He was no damn good and didn’t deserve someone as sweet and pure as Sabrina. But knowing that still hadn’t kept him from wanting her.

  She tugged on his chin and turned his face toward her, yanking him back to the present. “Well? Why didn’t you stop me from kissing you?”

  “Because I’m a bastard. I should have the crap kicked out of me for letting my hormones talk me into betraying a man I care about as much as one of my brothers.”

  “You’re going to blame this on hormones?” Tears shimmered in her eyes. Obviously, she wanted him to admit something he didn’t dare put into words.

  “What else would you call it?” He shrugged. “When a beautiful woman lays a wet one on me, my brain stops functioning and my body goes on autopilot. You’re lucky I didn’t toss your skirt up and nail you right here. Or maybe that’s exactly what you wanted. Were you tryin’ to get me to shove you up against your sister-in-law’s car and bang you hard enough to rattle your teeth?”

  “You don’t have to be crude.” She swiped away the tears glistening in her eyes.