“Damn, this is embarrassing,” Alec complained as they hobbled up the beach together.
“Oh, please,” Mackenzie scoffed. “Like you haven’t embarrassed me before.”
“That’s different,” Alec argued. “You’re adorable when you get embarrassed. I pass out.”
Mackenzie laughed. “Well don’t pass out on me now, big guy, because if you think I’m going to try to drag your heavy carcass all the way to the emergency room, you’re crazy.”
“Emergency room?” Alec protested in what sounded like a squeak.
“That cut is going to need stitches, Alec,” Mackenzie informed him determinedly. “And you’ll definitely need a tetanus shot,” she added, watching a wrinkle form in the center of his handsome brow.
“I’m not real fond of needles, either,” Alec mumbled, causing Mackenzie to laugh again.
“What is it with you big, strong hero types, anyhow?” Mackenzie teased. “I’d think a little blood and the sight of a simple needle would be a walk in the park for a big, tough guy like you.”
Alec tightened his grip on her shoulder, pulling Mackenzie much closer than was needed for their current journey through the sand. “Gee, Mackenzie,” he said, moving his thumb suggestively over the sensitive skin of her collarbone. “I had no idea I was a hero in your eyes.”
“You’re impossible,” Mackenzie told him. “But as soon as I throw something on over my jogging clothes, I am taking you straight to the emergency room, Alec Southerland. And I want my smiling face to be the last thing you see before they wheel you behind that big dark curtain and…”
“Okay, dammit, I get the picture,” Alec groaned, causing Mackenzie to flash Alec one of her toothpaste commercial smiles.
MACKENZIE GLANCED AT THE clock on the waiting room wall, a little worried that a few minor stitches were taking so long.
She had teased Alec about being squeamish, but the fact that he hadn’t pulled some macho it’s-only-a-littlescratch routine had actually endeared him to her more.
If that were possible.
In fact, the more time spent with Alec, the more Mackenzie realized there was nothing put-on or phony about him at all. Alec was his own man. And the fact that he was masculine enough not to hide his emotions was a trait Mackenzie had to admire.
On the way to the hospital he had thanked her a dozen times for coming along, though for some reason Mackenzie got the impression Alec had something else on his mind that he wanted to tell her. Maybe it had only been the thoughtful way he kept looking at her, both in the car and in the waiting room before they took him away for treatment. And that intense stare of his had unnerved her immensely.
Like any look from that man doesn’t turn you inside out, Mackenzie reminded herself, then left her seat and walked to the admitting desk. She was just about to demand some answers about Alec’s condition when the matronly nurse who had wheeled Alec away for treatment suddenly appeared from behind a green curtain and started walking in her direction.
After handing Mackenzie a prescription and several samples of medication, she looked at Mackenzie and said, “The cut was much deeper than it looked, so I’m afraid he’s been sedated pretty heavily.”
“Sedated?” Mackenzie repeated.
The nurse rolled her eyes. “It never fails. These big strong guys come in here with a simple cut and you’d think they were facing amputation. And the fact that he’s a pilot didn’t help matters, either.”
When Mackenzie gave the nurse a blank look, she added, “It doesn’t take much medication to knock out a man who isn’t used to taking drugs. Of course, I certainly don’t blame the airlines for enforcing such a strict drug policy,” she said and winked. “I sure wouldn’t want to be cruising along at thirty thousand feet with a drugged-out pilot, would you?”
“Of course not,” Mackenzie agreed, then followed behind the nurse as the woman led the way to the drugged-out pilot who, at least for the remainder of the day, wasn’t going to be sailing along with his passengers at thirty thousand feet.
Mackenzie found Alec behind the curtain sitting in a wheelchair with a goofy grin on his face and his bandaged foot stretched out in front of him.
“All patched up,” Alec announced proudly, trying to focus on the foot at the end of his leg.
Mackenzie turned back to the nurse when she handed Mackenzie another piece of paper. “The prescription I gave you is for the antibiotics he’ll need to take for the next ten days, Mrs. Southerland, and this sheet gives you instructions on how to care for the wound.”
Mackenzie started to explain that she was only Alec’s neighbor, but the woman quickly cut her off. “I’ve already sent the orderly down to medical supply for some crutches, and you can take the wheelchair home on loan today and return it later. Just make sure he comes back in seven to ten days to have his stitches removed.”
“And when will the sedative wear off?” Mackenzie asked, deciding details about her relationship to Alec wouldn’t mean a hill of beans to a nurse with a waiting room full of patients to be seen.
The nurse and Mackenzie both turned and looked down at Alec who immediately rewarded them with a stupefied grin.
“It’s hard to tell how long the sedative will last,” the nurse said, but when Alec reached up and blew the woman a rather noisy kiss she added, “but I sure wouldn’t give him any more pain medication unless I had to. It looks like he could be a real handful, if you know what I mean.”
“Oh, he’s a real handful all right,” Mackenzie agreed, and as if to prove it, Alec reached out and patted Mackenzie possessively on the bottom. “Keep that up, and you won’t even get an aspirin later,” Mackenzie warned as the nurse hurried on her way.
Shoving the papers and the free samples into her purse, she walked behind Alec to take control of his wheelchair. Alec grabbed one of her hands and immediately delivered a series of sloppy kisses up the full length of her arm.
“Behave yourself, Alec,” Mackenzie scolded, wiping at her sticky arm.
“I wuz jus’ tryin’ to thank you,” Alec slurred, and pulled her other hand down for another soggy kiss as a young male orderly with a deep tan and the spaced-out look of a serious surfer walked up and placed a pair of crutches across Alec’s lap.
“Yep, you’re my own sweet l’il nursy, Miz Malone,” Alec said, running his hand up the length of her bare leg. “You got me all patched up and now you’re gonna take me right home to that big canopy bed of yours and crawl on top of me like you did last night and…”
“I’m afraid he’s having a drug-induced fantasy,” Mackenzie lied, feeling the heat creep up her neck.
The orderly stepped back and openly appraised her from head to toe, then slapped Alec on the back. “I say go for it while you can, dude. Drug-induced fantasies are sometimes the best kind.”
“Would you please not encourage him,” Mackenzie told the orderly at about the same time Alec grabbed her from behind and forced her into his lap.
“Did you know how great you looked in that lacy little black thong?” he whispered in her ear loud enough for the entire emergency room to hear. “Man, you were killing me, Mackenzie. I knew it, you knew it and you knew I knew it.”
“You’re babbling, Alec,” Mackenzie said, trying to pry his arms from around her waist.
When she finally did manage to pull herself out of his lap, he pooched out his bottom lip and said, “I’m not babblin’. I’m fallin’ for you, Mackenzie. Don’t you get it? I’m really, really, really fallin’ for you!”
“Hey, he’s falling out of his wheelchair,” the orderly warned and Mackenzie and the orderly both rushed forward in time to keep Alec from hitting face-first in the floor.
While Mackenzie pushed Alec back into his chair, the orderly bent down and picked up Alec’s wallet that had fallen from the pocket of the lightweight sweatshirt he’d grabbed before they left for the hospital. It was flipped open, showing Alec’s driver’s license. “Hey, that’s me,” Alec said with a silly grin when the orderly ha
nded it back to him. “I’m gonna need this when I drive home, right?”
“Hey, dude,” the orderly said, obviously disturbed by Alec’s statement. “Anybody who thinks he looks like his own driver’s license photo, really shouldn’t get behind the wheel of a car.”
“Don’t worry, he isn’t driving anywhere,” Mackenzie said, glaring down at her unruly patient.
“Yeah, but it sure looks like you’re gonna need some help getting him in the car.”
“I’d really appreciate that,” Mackenzie told the kid, and ten minutes later she and her now snoring patient were out of the emergency room parking lot and on their way home.
Unfortunately, Mackenzie soon found trying to hold Alec in his seat with one hand and drive with the other was an exhausting task. She was even relieved when Alec suddenly roused again and forced himself back into a sitting position. Her relief was short-lived, however, when Alec raised an eyebrow suggestively and sent her another moronic grin.
“Hey,” he muttered, as if he were Sleeping Beauty and had just awakened him from a hundred year sleep. “You gonna let me go home with you and sleep in that big bed with the fancy curtains again?”
“We’ll see,” Mackenzie said, turning her attention instead to maneuvering through the early morning traffic as she picked up her cell phone. “Karen,” she said when a voice answered. “Cancel my appointments. Something’s come up. I’ll call you later this afternoon.”
“No, no, no,” Alec said, shaking a finger in her direction. “My nursey can’t leave me alone, alone, alone.”
“I didn’t say I was going to leave you alone, Alec,” she told him and Alec grinned so wide Mackenzie saw a silver filling flash back at her from one of his molars. “Right now we’re going to stop at the drive-through pharmacy window and have them fill your prescription.”
He contemplated her words for a moment, then began fumbling through the pocket of his sweatshirt. He seemed rather pleased when he brought his hand out of the pocket and found he was actually holding on to his wallet.
“Take what you need,” he said, his tongue still thick, then attempted to hand over the wallet but his groggy movement resulted in his hand ending up on Mackenzie’s bare leg.
Even in his current condition, his touch was as potent as a bee sting.
Mackenzie quickly pried his fingers from around the wallet, then placed Alec’s hand gently back in his own lap, almost thankful he’d dozed off again. She’d felt like strangling him back in the emergency room, but seeing him so defenseless was a completely different story. And she certainly wasn’t going to leave him alone to fend for himself in his compromised condition.
Not for a minute.
Slipping a twenty from Alec’s wallet, she paid the drive-through attendant, then headed back down the Battery, thankful they were now only a few blocks away from their complex. She was already ticking off in her mind how she was going to handle the situation. Alec had been right about it making more sense if he did stay with her. She could take care of him properly then and keep a close watch on his progress. After all, Alec had been barefoot. And God only knew what type of infection might set in with the kind of filth the ocean held these days. He might even develop a fever. He could possibly even wake up in the middle of the night and need her.
And besides, she decided with a smile, that sedative wasn’t going to last forever, now was it? And if Alec did happen to turn to her in the middle of the night with a raging fever of a much different nature…well…
“What the…!” Mackenzie yelled and slammed on her brakes, stopping only inches away from a fancy little sports car that sat parked in her reserved parking space.
Instinctively, she had reached her arm out to keep her limber patient from sliding from his seat, but she hadn’t been fast enough. Mackenzie was still trying to help a befuddled Alec adjust the seat belt that was threatening to choke him to death when the driver’s side door of the sports car popped opened and the tall redhead Mackenzie remembered from the towel incident jumped from the car with a scowl on her face.
“Hey! You almost ran into me,” the redhead shouted, but the minute she recognized Mackenzie’s passenger she literally dashed to Alec’s side of the Mercedes.
“Oh, Alec,” she gasped when she saw his bandaged foot. “What on earth has happened to you?”
When Alec failed to respond, her eyes immediately darted in Mackenzie’s direction as if Mackenzie had personally crippled her precious Alec.
“He cut his foot jogging on the beach,” Mackenzie said as she unsnapped her own seat belt and left the car.
“Oh, you poor, poor baby,” the redhead cooed as she smoothed her groggy darling’s hair back from his forehead. “But everything’s going to be okay now. Gail’s here, and I’ll take very good care of you, Alec.”
Like hell you will, Mackenzie thought, but she said, “Then you can start by helping me get baby’s wheelchair out of my trunk.”
The redhead shot her a mean look, then followed Mackenzie to the back of the Mercedes. Mackenzie opened the trunk, but when she motioned for Alec’s new nurse to pick up the opposite end of the wheelchair, the redhead’s perfectly painted face took on a rather worried look.
Wiggling her three-inch fingernails in Mackenzie’s direction she grimaced and said, “Gosh, I just had these done. I sure wouldn’t want to break one.”
“Oh, forget it,” Mackenzie told her disgustedly, “just try to keep Alec from falling out of the car until I can get his butt in this wheelchair.”
Alec’s newest angel of mercy hurried back to her patient while Mackenzie wrestled with the steel contraption, breaking one of her own fingernails before she finally got the blasted thing out of the trunk. She could still hear the redhead murmuring soothing words of comfort in her phony Marilyn Monroe voice. And though Mackenzie knew full well that nurse Gail would be ready and willing to administer much more than Alec’s stupid medication once he awoke from his drug-induced state, she couldn’t very well ask her to leave, now could she? No, that would have to be Alec’s job. That is, if Mr. If I Only Had You really did have the ability to finally say no.
“I think he’s waking up,” Gail called out.
Mackenzie jerked the wheelchair open with a pop, gripped the handles as if they were Gail’s slender neck she was squeezing, and reached the passenger’s side door in time to see Alec’s eyelids flutter and finally open.
“Try to help him up so we can sit him in the chair,” Mackenzie instructed.
Gail sent her another grimace. “Maybe you should do it,” she suggested.
Mackenzie swallowed a smart remark, fastened the locks on the wheelchair to keep the chair from rolling backward, then waited until Gail stepped aside. “Do you think you can stand up if I help you, Alec?” Mackenzie asked when he tried to focus in her direction.
Alec nodded, but when Mackenzie bent down and put his arms around her neck to give him an upward boost, the last words she heard as Alec leaned his regal head over her shoulder were, “I think I’m going to be sick.”
“Gross!” Gail squealed as she sprinted out of the way to safety.
By the time Mackenzie dropped Alec into the wheelchair and jerked off the T-shirt she had put on over her skimpy jogging top, Gail was standing at the far end of the parking lot where the dimwit should have been parked in the first place.
Way over being nice even one second longer, Mackenzie glared in her direction. “What happened to your ‘I’m going to take very good care of you, Alec?”’ Mackenzie shouted. “Now, get yourself back up here and help me get him inside so he can lie down!”
“I am going to take very good care of Alec,” the redhead insisted as she prissed back in their direction. “I just don’t do sick very well.”
“Like I do,” Mackenzie tossed over her shoulder, then wheeled a green-faced Alec decidedly across the parking lot.
To her surprise, Gail did have enough sense to open the door to the building without having to be told, but it was Mackenzie who push
ed the wheelchair down the hallway until they reached Alec’s front door.
“His keys are in his jacket pocket,” Mackenzie volunteered, having now vetoed her big idea of letting Alec stay with her. Unless, of course, nurse nitwit decided to abandon her new career. And since the red-haired vulture was already drooling over her lifeless victim, Mackenzie decided the odds of Gail giving up and going home were as likely as her winning the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes.
“But his jacket is all messy,” Gail whined, wrinkling her nose in disgust when she took a few steps closer to the wheelchair.
“Oh, for God’s sake,” Mackenzie complained and practically pushed Alec out of the wheelchair as she searched through his jacket pocket for his keys.
“Am I home yet?” a feeble voice asked as Mackenzie turned Alec’s key in the lock.
“Yes, sweetie, you’re home now,” Gail said, hurrying inside ahead of them. “And we’re going to get you all cleaned up and get you straight to bed.”
“Who’s ‘we’?” Mackenzie wanted to know, but Gail ignored the question and motioned for Mackenzie to follow as she headed directly for the master bedroom.
“You seem to know your way around pretty well,” Mackenzie told the flashy redhead when she wheeled Alec into his bedroom behind the witch.
Gail giggled. “Alec’s such a peach. I stayed over a few weeks ago when my flights were too close together for me to go all the way home to Columbia.”
Yeah, he’s a real peach, that Alec, Mackenzie thought, slightly pleased when he groaned again.
Gail heard the groan too and rushed forward to squat down in front of Alec’s wheelchair. “Alec,” she cooed. “Alec, honey, look at me. Look at Gail.”
Alec’s head jerked up and Mackenzie felt like pulling him bald when he said in that sleepy, sexy voice of his, “Hey there, Gail.”
“Hey, yourself, you little cutie,” she said right back. “You’ve been hurt Alec, and I’m going to stay right here and take care of you. Would you like that?”
“Uh-huh,” Alec said before his head dropped back to his chest again.
Driven to Distraction & Winging It Page 24