Page 58 of Second Act
Chapter 14
Shareena and Cornell Adams stood in front of the clinic, peering hopefully at the sedan. Jessica swung her door open before the driver could get to it. “How’s Zora doing?”
Cornell lifted the cat carrier he held, from which loud meows issued. “She’s not bleeding so bad now, but she isn’t happy.”
“Her complaining’s got nothing to do with the stitches,” Shareena said. “She just hates being in that case. We probably should have kept her in there tonight, but you can hear how she feels about being shut up. I thought she’d just settle down and sleep with us on the bed, but she woke up and got to jumping around. I heard her and saw the blood and bruises on her little belly. I feel so bad about that.”
Cornell put his arm around his wife’s shoulders and gave them a squeeze. “You can’t stop Zora from being who she is, a high-energy little kitty.”
Hugh had come around the car to join the group. “This is Hugh Baker,” Jessica said. “Hugh, Shareena and Cornell Adams, the parents of our patient, Zora.”
“Pleased to meet you.” Hugh held out his hand, but it took a drawn-out moment for Shareena to stop staring long enough to shake it.
“You’re famous. From the spy movies,” she said before turning to her husband. “Cornell, you love those.”
“Sure do,” he said, releasing his wife to give Hugh’s hand a hearty shake. “I can’t wait for the next one. It’s been a while.”
“I’m pleased to hear that,” Hugh said. “I’m in New York because we’re shooting it right now.”
“I like them, too,” Shareena said, “but Cornell’s a real fanatic. He knows the dates they were released and everything.”
Jessica had been listening with half an ear as she unlocked the metal screen that stretched across the whole storefront of the clinic and stooped to lift it.
“Let me do that.” Hugh’s voice came from right behind her as he reached down to grip the handle. She stood back and admired the way his lean body straightened in one smooth motion, taking the heavy screen upward with him.
“Thanks,” she said, fitting the key into the front-door lock. “Okay, let’s get Zora stitched up again.” She flicked on the lights. “Hugh, can you grab the cat case and come with me? Shareena, Cornell, make yourselves comfortable.” That was a bit of a stretch, since her waiting area held a mishmash of donated chairs, some of them pretty flimsy. “You can make tea or coffee in the kitchen down the hall, if you’d like.”
“We’re good, Doc,” Cornell said. “We’re grateful you’d come in to take care of Zora in the middle of the night.”
“Of course,” Jessica said. “She’s my patient.”
She headed down the hall, hearing Hugh’s footsteps behind her, along with the cat’s continued vocalizations. She pointed to the door into the surgery room. “If you’d put Zora on the floor in there, I’ll grab us both some scrubs. Meet me in my office.”
Rummaging around in the supply closet, she pulled out her own scrubs and then a set of Diego’s, laughing when Geode shot in through the closet’s open door to blink at her indignantly from a dark corner. Although most of her staff wore their scrubs to work, she kept spares for emergencies like this. She carried them to her office to find Hugh inspecting the photos displayed on the wall.
“You have a lot of grateful patients,” he said as he accepted the folded green scrubs and placed them on her desk. He began to unbutton his shirt. “Tell me what we’ll be doing with Zora,” he said, yanking the shirttails out of his trousers and shrugging out of it.
The sight of all that bare skin flowing over the curves of his muscles made her suck in a breath as the low simmer from their earlier lovemaking flared into full-on flames again. Thank God he pulled the baggy top on before he went to work on his trousers. But how on earth could a man look so good wearing shapeless green cotton?
“Um, what?” she said, remembering he’d asked her a question.
A devilish glint danced in his eyes. “I asked you what I’ll be helping you do with the cat. But you seem distracted.”
“That’s because I wasn’t expecting you to do a striptease in my office.”
He looked taken aback. “Sorry. I’m used to changing costumes in front of a waiting camera crew, so I didn’t even think about it.” The turquoise of his eyes went hot. “However, I’d be delighted ifyou’ddo a striptease.”
She gave him a saucy smile as she headed for the door. “Nope. I’ll change in the scrub-in room and meet you in surgery.”
“Don’t I need to scrub in, too?”
“The scrub-in room is just a sink in a closet. It barely holds one person. You can wash your hands when I’m done.”
All the way down the hallway, she got lost in a vision of Hugh pressed up against her back at the sink in the tiny washroom, his arms around her, the soapy water sliding over their skin as they scrubbed each other’s hands.
Oh dear God, she just kept slipping further and further under his spell.
Hugh came back from washing his hands to find Jessica placing a cloth-wrapped package on a table beside some tubes and a syringe, her movements practiced and efficient. Her hair was tucked under a surgical cap, a face mask dangled from her neck, and she wore bright purple scrubs. She looked every inch the brilliant, compassionate doctor, and he felt an odd surge of pride, as though he had some claim on her success.
