Page 28 of Imperfection is Beauty

If I could get up and hug my brother, I’d do it.

The look Scarlett gave him, the way her shoulders loosened, the way she nodded, then moved closer to me... I vowed then and there, I would always put my body between hers and any danger.

Neither one of us spoke until the door closed, and then, I heard that husky rasp that was all hers, “You didn’t have to make him leave.”

I shook my head, “Nah, I didn’t. You're right. But darlin’, no one sees you blushing but me.”

She chuckled at that, “Really? You remember me?”

I nodded, “Yeah, Shortcake. I do.”

She wrinkled her nose again, “Shortcake?”

Smirking, I said, “Make you a deal.”

Her icy blue eyes I had fucking missed narrowed, “Explain.”

“I’ll tell you why I called you Shortcake if you can manage to find me some strawberry jello. Told the other nurse, but all she brought me was orange.”

She tilted her head, “You don’t like oranges?”

“I do, the fruit and the juice, but the jello… fuck no.”

She nodded, “Yeah, I get that. Like, I love grapes. But anything grape flavored, yeah, no thank you.”

I grinned, “Yeah, I get that. So, how have you been?”

She smiled, then started checking the machine and doing her checks, “I’ve been doing okay. Six more months of residency and I’ll be able to work where I really want to.”

“And where is that?”

“In the NICU. I know it’s so common to hear this. About why people want to work in the NICU, but it’s the truth. I want to be the first line of defense to the miracle babies and help them make their gigantic mark on the world.”

“I can understand that. I like it.”

She smiled and then asked, “You still loving football?”

I smiled, “Living the dream, baby.”

She smiled, “Well, seeing as you're living the dream, and you want to keep doing that, I’m going to remove your catheter. You need to be up and walking.”

I lost the smile I was wearing.

The thought of her seeing my dick, the hardness of it because of her… well… shit.

And I hadn’t realized I had let out a growl, not at her taking the catheter out, but because she was going to have her hand onhim.

Somethinghereally wanted, and it would be a pleasure.

Hello, blue balls.

“Really?” she asked, and then she did something I totally wasn’t expecting.

She raised her perfectly trimmed eyebrow that matched the color of her deep-toned copper-red hair and said, “Excuse me?”

I wanted to laugh, dear god I wanted to laugh.

She was cute as fuck, feisty, sassy, and… What she didn’t know. And something I just found out, all she would ever have to do was to ask me for something and I’d do it.

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