The Surgeon's Favorite Nurse by Teresa Southwick Read Free Book Online Page B

Not to mention weird. So she toughed it out until everyone had finished their drinks.
    Then she pushed away her wineglass. “I think I’ll call it a night.”
    “So soon?” Karen said.
    Hope slid down from the high chair. “Busy day tomorrow. The fire department is inspecting the building and if we don’t pass they’ll revoke our certificate of occupancy. But you all stay and have fun.”
    “Don’t have to ask me twice. Mom’s got the girls.” Karen looked at Stacy.
    “I’m free. Tim has a late meeting.”
    “I’ll see you both tomorrow. This was really great,” she said. “Good night, Jake.”
    He stood beside her. “I’ll walk you to your car.”
    “I’m parked just across the street.” It was an effort to keep her tone light when her heart was beating like crazy. “Don’t bother.”
    “It’s no bother.” He smiled at the other two women. “See you later.”
    Then he settled his palm at the small of her back, escorting her through the crowded bar and into the chill air of the late-January night. Hope felt the pressure and heat of his fingers. Just that casual touch made her heart pound and her knees wobble. It wasn’t okay and she stepped away from him as they walked side by side across the dark, hardly used street between the strip mall and the recently black-topped hospital lot.
    “My car is by the E.R. entrance,” she said and walked as fast as she could toward it.
    “Do you have somewhere to be?”
    Glancing up at his profile, the lean line of his cheek and jaw she said, “No. Why?”
    “Then you’re cold?”
    His touch had gone a long way to taking the chill out of the dark night. “A little. Why?” she asked again.
    “Because it feels a lot like you’re going for a land speed record. As in running away from me.”
    “No.” It was only a small lie. “But you and I aren’t exactly on the same wavelength.”
    “Really?” He slid his hands into his pockets. “You mean because you accused me of being selfish, self-centered and motivated by power and greed?”
    And he’d accused her right back of taking shots at him to ease her guilt about kissing him. There was enough truth in his words to make her squirm.
    “It’s just been a long day in a series of very long days.”
    “So you’re just anxious to be home,” he guessed.
    “Something like that.” She looked up at him. “Besides, we’re being strictly professional. Your words, your idea. And a good one.”
    “That’s possibly the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
    Fortunately she didn’t have to respond. “Here’s my car.”
    The one with the rental company sticker clearly visible on the bumper. She pressed the button on her keys to unlock it.
    “Thanks for walking me,” she said, then quickly slid inside before he could even think about kissing her. Not because she thought she was all that, but past history and the way he kept looking at her mouth suggested he might.
    He waved once, then disappeared into the dark. Hope sat for several minutes to pull herself together and cursed Jake for the fact that she had to pull herself together.
    When her hands stopped shaking and her heart slowed to a manageable rhythm, she turned on the car, backed it out of the space and headed toward the exit. After rounding a corner of the hospital, she passed the front entrancewhere designated doctor parking was located. Her headlights picked out the only car in the lot and the hood was up.
    A guy was leaning over looking at the engine and she knew that guy was Jake. Even if she hadn’t recognized the suit, the excellent butt was a giveaway.
    In a span of possibly three or four seconds she had a plan and was only surprised her mind could function that fast given its recent workout after exposure to Jake Andrews. He was a perfectly capable male and she sincerely wanted to blow by him, but that just seemed too harsh.
    She pulled into the space beside him and pushed the button to roll down her window. “Trouble?”
    “What was