Page 46 of Rookie Recovery

I felt his initial reaction twitch against my hip, but his eyes took on that pained, inner-war look again. He closed them. Whether to buy himself more time, or in readiness, I wasn’t sure.

“Fellas!” called Phineas from somewhere nearby, obliterating the moment. “Have you boys got lost?”

Jamie pushed a gap between our heads and whipped his round to Phineas’s approximate location. “There’s a running-man sign. Come-on.” He grabbed me by the arm again, and pulled me along with him, giving me no time to adjust the manic rhythm of my heart or catch my breath. “Now!”

And we barrelled through the fire-exit door, bursting into the blinding September sunshine. The dusty, weed-cracked lot unfurled all around us, like an oasis.

Our salvation.

And like a pocket full of stones weighing me down while I tried to run.

I would have killed for one more minute in that godforsaken museum cubby.

We got back into Jaime’s truck. Jamie started the engine, put on his sexy aviators, and pulled out of the car park onto the highway.

Neither of us mentioned the almost-kiss for the entire forty-five-minute ride home.

Chapter 7

Jamie

“Alternate ice and heat.” I stretched the tape across Aaron’s elbow, gave it another gentle squeeze like I’d missed something lurking under the swollen tissue. “Got it?”

“Twenty minutes on, twenty off. Right?”

“You know the drill.” I stepped in front of him as he sat up. “You call me if it feels worse.”

He waved me off, rolling his eyes. But his expression stayed soft, like he realized I was trying to look out for him. “Yeah, yeah. I hear you, Sully.”

“Stay off the ice.”

“Stop mother-henning.” He nudged me out of the way to scoot off the table as Zac appeared in the doorway to collect his shadow.

“He gonna pull through, Sul?”

“He might make it.” I turned away from Aaron to address Zac, because I knew Zac would listen better. “He’s off the ice for three days. And out of the weight room. You hear me, Isaacs?”

Aaron huffed again, but Zac gave me a stern salute. “Loud and clear, Doc.”

They trundled out, and I watched them for a heartbeat, the way Zac paused to wait and Aaron hurried to catch up. The way they fell into stride so close their knuckles almost brushed, and Zac leaned in towards Aaron when he muttered something. Probably complaining about my mother-henning.

I bit down on a smile and turned away to clean up before my next patient waltzed his way through my door. Not that I was eagerly awaiting his presence. Or even thinking about it. Much. Maybe a little—Like how it had felt having his body pressed against mine.

His goddamn thigh between mine.

How he’d tilted his head up, and those words—“Jamie … will you kiss me?”

Will you kiss me?

Would I have? Should I have? It would have been nothing—so very fucking easy—to close the distance between our mouths. To know how those beautiful bowed lips felt, to taste him, feel the softness of his tongue.

And fuck, I wanted all of those things, a whole lot more than I wanted to admit. He was too young. My patient. A hockey player—how could I ever escape my past, the game, if I was dating it?

I was glad we’d been interrupted. I wished we hadn’t.

“You’re awfully chipper.” Katie’s voice jerked me out of my wandering thoughts like a hook through an unsuspecting, idiot fish.

“Hey, Katie. Nice to see you, too.” I didn’t look up from where I was wiping down the exam table after Aaron’s visit. I was suddenly worried I might have been humming. Had I been humming?

---