Page 74 of The Hard Hitter

She checked temperature, pulse and respiration before evaluating Charlie’s gums. She shot Victoria a look as her assistant secured the blood pressure cuff and waited for the go ahead on the pre-surgical sedative.

“He’s already trying to crash,” Gemma said. “We have to go straight to surgery.”

Working quickly, Gemma hooked the dog to an I.V. catheter and induced anesthesia while Victoria began the three-scrub process to shave and sterilize Charlie’s skin.

Once the dog was clipped and scrubbed, Gemma reassessed. “He’s lost a lot of blood, but I’m not seeing any visible organ damage. We’ll have to flush the cavity to clean out the debris before we stitch.”

As Gemma sprayed the area with warm saline, Victoria called out, “Pulse ox dropping, heart rate down to forty-five.”

Damn, this was not good. Fearing she was missing something, she sprayed the area again and gave the cavity another assessment. That’s when she noticed the tree had nicked a vessel on the liver. Gemma’s heart leaped and worry moved through her as she exchanged a look with Victoria. Keeping her fingers steady and her face expressionless for Cole’s sake, she worked quickly to tie the vessel off before it was too late. Once complete, she rinsed the area, and when the bleeding came to a halt, she exhaled a relieved breath.

She turned her attention to her suture. A long while later she glanced at the clock, noting that more than an hour had passed since Cole had first stepped foot in her door. Gemma secured the last stitch, wiped her brow and stood back to examine the dog.

“Vitals are good,” Victoria informed her. Gemma gave a nod and took off her surgery garb. She quickly washed up and let loose a slow breath, confident that the dog would recover.

“Will he be okay?” Cole whispered.

Gemma’s skin came alive, Cole’s soft, familiar voice sending an unexpected curl of heat through her tired body. She turned to him and he stepped closer, the warmth of his body reaching out to her and overwhelming all her senses. As he looked at her with dark, perceptive eyes that knew far too many of her childhood secrets, she jerked her head to the right. “Let’s go into the other room.”

She pushed through the surgery doors and Cole followed her into the lobby where she could put a measure of distance between them.

“Is Charlie going to be okay?” Cole asked again, raking his hands through short, dark hair that had been cut to military standards.

Gemma rubbed her temples and leaned against the receptionist’s counter. “He’s lucky you got him to me when you did.”

For the first time since stepping into her clinic, his shoulders relaxed slightly. “He’s going to be okay?”

“Yes. He’s going to be fine.” She drew a breath and stared at the man before her, hardly able to believe that he was here in her clinic. Shortly after her botched seduction some ten years ago he’d enlisted in the army and had gone out of his way to avoid her.

As she considered that further, she decided to brave the question that had been plaguing her since he’d darkened her doorway. She waved her hand around the front lobby. “Why did you bring him here? There are other clinics closer to Sherwood Park.”

Silence lingered for a minute, then in a voice that was too quiet, too careful, he said, “Because you were here, Gems, and I wouldn’t trust Charlie’s care in anyone else’s hands but yours.”

Her throat tightened at the use of his nickname for her, and while her heart clenched, touched at the level of trust he had in her, her brain cells made the next logical leap. “You’ve been back for a while, then,” she stated in whispered words.

An expression she couldn’t quite identify flitted across his face as he said, “A week now.”

“Oh.” Gemma shifted slightly, trying not to feel wounded that he’d been home for seven long days and hadn’t even bothered to say hello.

She averted her gaze to shield the hurt but when he added, “I wanted to come sooner,” she knew she could never hide anything from him.

She held her hand up to cut him off. “I understand how difficult this must be for you,” she assured him, her mind going back to the last time they’d seen each other. Even though he’d been in a tremendous amount of pain at Brandon’s memorial service, suffering as he said good-bye to his lifelong friend and fellow soldier, Cole had tried to console her, watching over her and taking care of her the same way he used to when they were kids.

It warmed her heart to know her brother hadn’t died alone in the line of duty and that Cole had been there to care for him until the end. Her gaze panned his face. She took in the dark smudges beneath even darker eyes and couldn’t help but wonder, who was taking care of him?

His eyes clouded as they stared blankly at some distant spot behind her shoulder. Hating the unmasked hurt on his face, as well as the awkwardness between them, she touched his arm. The air around them instantly changed. Cole flinched, his entire body tightening as if under assault. Gemma snatched her hand back, his rejection all too familiar. Even though she was all grown up now, a woman who wanted him as much today as she did all those years ago, he’d never see her as anything more than his friend’s kid sister.

Just then the puppies broke out into a chorus of howls and Gemma couldn’t help but wonder if they were on to something. Maybe the big, bad wolf did exist, and maybe she was staring at him. Perhaps she should heed Victoria’s warning and arm herself with silver. There was no doubt that if she wasn’t careful the man looming close could shred her heart into a million tiny pieces.

The second Gemma had touched his arm she lit a dangerous fuse inside him. Cole had immediately disengaged, knowing it could only end up backfiring and blowing up in his face. He hated the familiar hurt in her eyes when he recoiled, hated that he’d put it there—again—but he knew nothing good could come from the firestorm inside him, one that had been brewing since their youth. Gemma had tried to hide the pain, the hurt on her face, and she might have succeeded with someone who didn’t know her the way he did.

“Gems,” he whispered. He clenched his fingers and fought the natural inclination to pull her to him and comfort her like he did when they were younger. But if her body collided with his—one part in particular—she’d know how she affected him. And he couldn’t let that happen. He had to stay strong.

Instead of acting on his needs, he took that moment to pan her pretty features, noting the way she’d tied her long, chestnut hair back into a ponytail. His gaze left her face to trail over the supple swell of her breasts as they pressed against her V-neck top. He shifted, uncomfortable as he perused her slim waist and the way her sensuous curves turned a pair of green surgery scrubs into a Victoria’s Secret spread. Christ, she was even more beautiful now than she was when they were kids. But no matter what, and no matter how he felt about her, when it came to Gemma, there was a line he wasn’t going to cross.

Her assistant came out from the back room. “He’s stable and ready to go to ICU.” When her words met with silence, her gaze tennis balled between the two, a sure sign that she felt the tension in the room every bit as much as Cole did. “Ah…Danielle will be here shortly. If you guys want to go, we can finish up.”

Gemma exhaled slowly and pushed off the counter. “Thanks, Victoria. I’ll come in early to check on him.”

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