Page 16 of Lush Curves

“I thought his name was Mac The Blond Sex God.”

“That was theotherhot young doctor,” Annie explained. “Jax’s friend. This is Sam. The trauma guy.”

“Oh, yeah. OK. Can’t keep ‘em all straight.” Talia twisted a blonde curl around her finger. “So many damn hot young doctors roaming in and out of your life, girl.”

“One or two, and believe me, it’s not a great thing, seeing what brings them into my life in the first place,” Annie said, moving on to a table, starting to sweep off the toast crumbs. “Hey, you want to help me out here?”

“I’m on break,” Talia said. “And I’m gonna spend it wandering around after you asking questions.”

“Knock yourself out,” Annie said dryly. “I don’t really have anything else to say.”

“Wait… what are you going to wear?” Talia said suddenly. “Chorus is high-end, and I mean sincerely. What do you have hidden away in your closet?”

“Nothing.” Annie stared at her shoes. “Not one damn thing.”

“Shit.” Talia looked horrified. “Girl, youcannotshow up at one of Joe Carlisle’s places looking anything less than drop-dead amazing. Youknowthis.”

“I know,” Annie said in a small voice. “Maybe I should cancel?”

“Oh,hellno.Nocancelling. We’re gonna figure this out.”

“How?” Annie exhaled, suddenly feeling like this was all a huge mistake. “We going to rob a bank? Win the lottery? Earn buckets of money cleaning up hamburger juice on the floor?”

“No.” Talia’s green eyes narrowed in thought. “We’re going to get creative.”

“OK.” Annie shook her head. “How?”

“I have no goddamn idea!” Talia exclaimed. “But I’mnotletting you cancel, babe, so I’d better think fast.”

“Maybe I should – should ask Sam to pick another place?”

Just then, her cell phone rang in her uniform pocket. Noah always called her at ten o’clock every morning, bang on the hour, so she had her phone on her. But it was still eight minutes to ten, and no way he’d call early.

Annie took her phone out, almost threw it across the diner when she saw the caller ID.

“Argh!” she said, suddenly seriously considering ducking under a table and hiding, for some reason that made zero sense. “It’shim!”

“Hot young doctor?” Talia was delighted. “Answer, you fool!”

“What if he’s come to his senses and he’s cancelling?”

“Then I’ll kill him,” Talia announced darkly. “I’ll be really nice and do it in the E.R., though, so he’ll be close to the hospital morgue. Nowanswer.”

“Argh,” Annie muttered and swiped ‘accept’ as gingerly as if she was replacing the pin in a live grenade. “Hello?”

“Annie?” Sam’s sexy-as-all-hell voice was in her ear, and had the sudden urge to squirm where she stood. Oh,man… she had it bad for this guy. “It’s Sam.”

“Yes. Hi, Sam.” She caught Talia’s eye, and Annie’s friend gave her the ‘thumbs up!’ sign. “How are you?”

“Actually, Annie…” She felt his hesitation even through the phone, and she tightened her grip on the cell. He was cancelling, and even though she’d considered doing that exact same thing not even five minutes before, her stomach plummeted. He regretted asking her; he’d found someone younger and smarter and hotter; he’d finally had a nap and been horrified about what he’d done in a sleep-deprived manic episode. “Actually, I need to apologize to you.”

“It’s fine,” she said in her briskest tone, the ‘lalala’ one that she used when she truly didn’t give a flying fuck, or was trying very hard not to. “I totally understand and I don’t blame you for backing out. Take care.”

“Wait! Annie, wait!”

“What?” She shifted her weight onto her right hip, a habit started when carrying both screaming babies for hours and hours on end, and perfected after years and years of waiting for customers to decide on their order. “What is it?”

“I’m not backing out,” he said, sounding perplexed. “Why on earth would you thinkthat?”

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