Page 23 of Come Back to Me

Then, I freeze when I seeusup on the kiss cam. I get my bearings and lean over and give Jack a chaste kiss on the cheek. Apparently, that isn’t good enough for hockey fans because the cam stays on us and half the arena is chanting, “More! More!”

Jack leans over, looking so damn delicious, and whispers, “You said Jason is either here or watches every game, right?”

I nod, confused about why he is bringing up Jason right now. I don’t need to wonder long, though, as Jack gets a huge grin on his face that brings out the dimple I find so sexy. He slides his hand into my hair and leans into me.

He lays the absolute best open-mouthed kiss on me that leaves no question in my mind that he wants me, and leaves the hockey fans cheering as loudly as they did when the home team scored.

When he breaks the kiss, I whimper, and he holds eye contact with me for several seconds. I feel like I need to strip naked and go lie on the ice to cool down and unmelt my panties from the inferno that kiss has created in me. Clearly, if Jason is watching the game, it’s left no question that I’m over him.

CHAPTER 12

JACK

As my fists slam into the canvas of the punching bag, satisfying thuds fill my ears with each contact I make and the tension in my body calms. I’m back at work today and I came in a little early so that I could get some time in the gym and get showered before my shift starts.

I pride myself on being a man in control of his baser urges, which usually is not a problem for me. But, damn, it’s been taking more willpower than I’m convinced I have to keep my hands off Annie when we’re together. Especially the more I get to know her.

I keep replaying the kiss cam moment in my head. That fuckingwhimpershe made when I broke the kiss is stuck on repeat in my brain. I’m positive that it’s hottest sound I’ve ever heard in my life. Between that and remembering the way her mouth tasted—like sugar and sin—I’m nearly crazy with need for her. I punch the bag a few more times, putting a bit of oomph behind the hits as I try to think of the least sexy things I can.

I’m lost in my thoughts when Teddy comes into the gym, getting ready to work out himself since his shift is ending.

“Hey, man, fancy seeing you here,” he jokes, getting on the treadmill. “We haven’t seen much of each other since I’ve been back from the honeymoon. What’s that about? You pissed at me or something?”

Guilt slaps me in the face with the reminder about how shitty of a friend I’ve been to Teddy the last few weeks. I want to tell him about Annie so he knows it’s nothing to do with him, but I don’t. I need to respect her wishes to keep whatever is happening with us quiet.

I love Teddy like a brother, but he can be impulsive on even his best days. So, I can’t risk him saying something that will make Annie uncomfortable at work.

“Nah, man. Not mad at all. Sorry, just been preoccupied with prepping for my test for captain and all. We’re both off shift tomorrow, why don’t we head to O’Riley’s in the evening and get dinner and a beer so we can catch up?”

“You don’t have to ask me twice.” He grins. “How about we meet at six?”

“Sounds good,” I say. I clap him on the back as I head to the showers.

ANNIE

Nothing can kill the high I’m riding as I come out of my manager’s office.

Janie sees my grin and grabs me, pulling me into one of my empty patient rooms. “Tell me everything! What did she say that’s got you smiling like a cat that just caught the canary?”

“It was good,” I say. “She said Leah has officially decided not to stay in her Assistant Manager role after she returnsfrom maternity leave, so she’s going to post the position. She needs to open it up to everyone, but she said that unless Florence Nightingale herself applies, I’m her top candidate!”

Janie fist bumps the air dramatically and says, “Yes! Take that, douche-wagon Jason. He may have screwed himself, literally, out of getting to marry you but he couldn’t keep you from moving up the career ladder no matter where you are.”

I laugh at her. I realized after telling Jack about Jason that it was no longer so difficult to discuss. So, I told Janie everything shortly after I told Jack.

She’s been my biggest cheerleader and has found about one hundred different rude names to call Jason—all of them equally amusing. Since moving here, she’s quickly become my ride or die and I’m so grateful she’s in my corner.

The rest of the morning goes well, a steady stream of patients, but nothing we can’t keep up with. Around one p.m., I finish giving discharge instructions to the last patient in my rooms. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the triage nurse wheeling a woman into one of my empty rooms. I make my way across to help get her settled.

When I walk in, the woman is crying, shaking, and holding her arms tight to her chest. The triage nurse gives me a brief report. My patient is twenty-nine years old, twenty-eight weeks pregnant and started bleeding this morning. She drove herself in because she’s two hours away from home for a work convention.

The next hour is filled with everything I need to do to efficiently take care of Elyse, my patient. Drawing labs, getting an IV in place, placing a bladder catheter so we can get an ultrasound, sending off a urine sample, and calling Elyse’s husband and mother so they can come to be with her.

The second hour is the much harder stuff. Holding her hand while she gets the ultrasound and then hugging her and letting her cry after the obstetrics doctor tells her, ascompassionately as possible, that the baby no longer has a heartbeat and that she is miscarrying.

When the doctor leaves, Elyse tells me through her tears that this is the third pregnancy she and her husband have lost in the four years they’ve been trying to have a baby.

Between sobs, she chokes out, “He lived longer than either of the girls did. I was so hopeful he’d be okay.”

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