Page 30 of Paging Doctor Grump

Her eyes shine with happiness as she smothers the laughter and focuses back on the airway check that’s being demonstrated. Patrick then opens up his first aid kit and pulls out the one-way CPR mask.

Jessie follows along with him, pulling out the mask and fitting it over our dummy. She nods to the dummy’s chest as she kneels near its head.

“I see how it is. You want to kiss the doll and have me do all the hard work.” I kneel beside the dummy’s chest and position my hands over its sternum.

Jessie winks and leans over the dummy. “Just thought you should put those muscles to use.”

I smirk and flex at her. “I knew you were looking at my muscles. I bet you couldn’t stop yourself from drooling over me, could you?”

“Alright, everybody. I’m going to come around while you’re doing compressions. This first round we’ll go for two minutes and then the next round we’ll be going for five.” Patrick gets up and dusts his hands off on his jeans.

Jessie gives the dummy two breaths before I start the thirty compressions. I lean over the dummy, pushing down with each compression until the chest sinks in. My pace is steady and strong, only stopping when it’s time for Jessie to give another two breaths.

“Very good,” Patrick says as he stops beside us. “Although, I don’t know if it was necessary for you two to participate in the training course when you’ve been doing this for years.”

Jessie grins as she sits back on her heels. “It’s always good to brush up on my skills.”

Patrick nods, watching my compressions. “You’re both good. For the five-minute round, would the two of you mind grabbing lunch out of the fridge and putting it on the platters on the counter?”

“Sure.” Jessie gets to her feet and brushes off her skin-tight jeans.

I stop doing compressions, my gaze landing on the curve of her ass before drifting higher. She smirks as she looks down at me and shakes her head.

“You just killed our victim.” Jessie clicks her tongue as I pack away the supplies and hand the mask to Patrick for a new valve.

“It’s a patient,” I say as I stand and take the dummy over to the cupboard to put it away. I slide it inside before shutting the door and following her to the kitchen. “You can’t just call the dummy a victim before I kill it.”

Jessie tosses her head back, laughing as she makes her way to the kitchen. “You just admitted that you did kill the dummy.”

“There’s no point denying that I murdered the thing.” I grab the stack of platters and spread them out on the counter. “You have to admit though, this is a lot better than being in the room with all those other people.”

Jessie laughs and leans against the counter, crossing her arms and pushing up her breasts slightly. “Oh, is it?”

My cock swells as I stalk toward her. My arms bracket her body as I lean forward and brace myself against the counter. Her breath hitches as my face hovers inches from hers.

“You know, Mark came to pay me a visit at work two days ago. Cornered me in the break room to talk about you.”

“What did he say?” I ask, my heart plummeting to my stomach. Although I’m sure Mark didn’t say anything awful, the thought of him talking to Jessie about me sets me on edge.

Mark knows too much about the worst parts of my life. In his efforts to connect me and Jessie—or at least I’m guessing that’s what he tried to do—would he have told her the things I don’t talk about?

Like the reason I left her that night? Or how I was unable to move on from her? Maybe he told her about the way I was convinced a woman I’d shared one night with had changed my life forever.

I push back from her and take a deep breath. “Please tell me he didn’t tell you anything too embarrassing.”

“Not really. You should be more worried about what he said to me later in the day.” She grins, that impish smile lighting up her entire face. She’s enjoying teasing me, and that almost makes the fear tearing through my body worth it.

Jessie slides away from me and grabs stacks of sandwiches out of the fridge. She hums to herself, her smile still in place as she looks at me from the corner of her eye. She’s waiting for me to crack and ask her about what Mark said. I know she is.

I like this playful side of her. Even if it is at my expense.

“I know I said that I was surprised you weren’t showing off,” Jessie says as she lines up the sandwiches on the tray. The parchment wrapping is still on the sandwiches, the contents of each one scribbled in black ink. “But now you’re too quiet. You have to say something to me, otherwise the rest of this training day is going to be pretty awkward.”

“Tell you what,” I say, grabbing one of the full trays and heading for the door back into the main section of the Barn, “I’ll tell you what’s on my mind once we start the navigation training again this afternoon.”

When I look over my shoulder at her, the smile is gone, but the curiosity in her eyes is still there. She gives a slight nod and finishes stacking sandwiches on the other two trays.

What the hell am I going to tell her when she asks?

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