Page 15 of Dr. Alaska
Mav opened his mouth, but no words came out.
The HUC watched with an avid expression, dropping all pretense of doing work. Mav had an audience. More grist for the rumor mill.
Deirdre moved into his direct line of sight. “Nice move there, bud.” She smirked as she slinked away with a wave.
With a swallow, he turned to Lee. “I didn’t mean what you think I—”
“You meant whatever you meant.”
A pulse jumped in her neck, visible above the dark green shirt with a maroon stethoscope draped around the collar. For a split second, he wanted to rest his fingertips against the smooth skin visible above the subtle V-neck. What would her skin smell like, right there? Would it taste tart and sweet, like her scent?
Then she threw virtual ice water on him. “Your opinion of my staying power doesn’t matter. For the record, you have no idea what I’m capable of surviving.” She pointed, her finger trembling.
Damn. That statement, combined with a flash of pain in her eyes, made for an interesting tidbit he wanted to explore. If she ever spoke to him again.
He managed to unstick his tongue. “What are you doing here?”
She waved a hand in a one-hundred-eighty-degree arc with a dry laugh. “Literally, I work here. You brought in a patient. I’m on call for the ED. Here I am. In the ED. To do my job, which you can bet your booty isnotto seek a husband.” Her features twisted into another brief rictus of anger that knocked the air out of him for a second. She clenched and unclenched her hands, then stepped forward. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to do my job.” Her nostrils flared as she glared up at him. “Which makes one of us. You’d best go do yours instead of jawing.”
Oh crap.
The time had come to eat crow yet again. This apologizing had become a bad habit. “Dr. Tipton. Lee. Hey, I was… way out of line.” Out of the corner of his eye, Mav spied the HUC tilting her head.
That lady watched them like a wolf tracking prey. This story was going to make the rounds before Mav returned the EMS rig to the garage on the other side of the hospital parking lot.
“Out of line? You think?”
Geez. She didn’t have to rub it in. Why did every interaction with this woman begin with him stepping in a pile of moose droppings and end by her chopping him down to size?
“My sister ribbed me, that’s all. About me being a dumb bachelor and all.”
“Didn’t seem that you were the target of ribbing.”
“That’s not fair.”
“That’s what I heard.”
He peeled off the beanie, ran a hand through sweat-dampened hair, paused, and crammed the beanie back on. “We’vereallygotten off on the wrong foot, Lee.”
“Dr. Tipton.”
He swore that the HUC gasped.
Hell. “Can I make it up to you? Take you out to dinner”—the next few words flew from his head and straight out of the hole in his face before he could stop himself—“since you don’t know anyone here.”
She took that moment to smile, turn, and greet by name the two ED nurses leaving Bruce’s room and wave at the HUC. “You were saying?”
Shoving his hands into coat pockets, he heaved a big lungful of air. “I mean, it’s neighborly of me to invite you for a meal.”
A snort escaped her. “Now you’re the Welcome Wagon?”
“Would it help me get out of this grave I dug myself?”
A faint smile curved her lips as she studied him. A blush climbed her neck and washed onto her cheeks. The world tilted, and he couldn’t catch his balance. He stood up straighter and tried to appear unassumingly dashing or handsomely friendly, whatever that entailed. With Mav’s luck, he’d appear constipated.
Lee blinked, breaking whatever spell she had on him. “Okay. I’m not doing this back-and-forth stupidity. I have a patient to see, and you surely have an ambulance to drive.” She turned on her heel and clomped about ten feet before grabbing a dollop of antiseptic foam as she entered the trauma bay and greeted Bruce.
Mav shook his head. So, she hadn’t said no to dinner. Right?
