“Excellent.Thank you.Do you have blood transfusion capability here?”Not that I thought he’d need one, but depending on what was going on, we needed to be ready.
“I don’t know.You’ll have to ask Dr.Hurst.He’s waiting for you over in room three.”
“Not the office?”I asked.
“I think Dr.Hurst thought it too cramped in the office or something.”
Probablyor something,given the last time we’d been in there.“Bring me the results when they’re done, please.”I marched over to exam room three.
Josh and I in a small room again might not be the greatest plan, but we did have to figure out how to work together without fighting or...
Nope.There would be noorbetween us.
Josh balanced a laptop computer on his lap.He stopped typing to look up.The left side of his face was splotched with blue stain.
I pressed my lips tight to fight the smile dying to break free.“What happened to your face?”
He took off his glasses and shoved them in the white lab coat he wore over a green scrub top and khaki pants.“You’re late.”
“You’re blue.”I bit back a snicker.
His cheeks flushed.
A snort giggle escaped me.“Did you have a Braveheart re-enactment after baseball?I’ve never heard of that kind of kink, but to each his own, right?”
He rolled his eyes.“It’s Blu-Kote.”
“The old fogie wound treatment stuff?Do you use that?”
“No.”He wiped ineffectively at his face.“This morning, a horse owner poured it on the hoof while I was looking at the abscess before I could stop him.The mare kicked it all over me.It won’t come off my skin, and it ruined my shirt.”
“Oh.”I compressed my lips to stop the laughter bubbling.A head duck helped while I threw my oversized purse on the client sofa.I reached for the bottle of alcohol off the shelf above the sink and grabbed a few cotton balls.“Hold still.”
“Stop laughing.”He waved at me when I got close to keep me away.
“I’m going to help you.”I saturated a cotton ball in alcohol and wiped his cheek.It didn’t come off easily since it had set into the skin.I rubbed harder.
“Oww.”He tried to bat me away.“Are you trying to peel off my skin?”
I held up the cotton ball to show the blue coming off.“Stop being a wuss.How many clients did you see like this?”
He put the laptop on the counter and crossed his arms.“A few.”
“You need to come up with a better story than some horse kicking it all over you.”I kept rubbing.
“I’m not going with kink as my story.”
I laughed so hard I had to step away from him and put down the cleaning items.I rubbed my eyes.“You’d have the ladies wondering.”
“I’d rather not be known as the Blue Man of the bedroom.”His lips twitched up just a bit, but he didn’t laugh.
I doubled over laughing with a hand across my stomach.“I got most of the blue off.”
He rubbed his face where it was red from my scrubbing.“Are you staying or not?”
“I’m here for now.Vinny’s back in school.You got your baseball player back.”I replaced the alcohol and sat on the client sofa.“Since I own half this place and owe you money that I never signed my life away for, I’ll work here until we get that sorted out.”
“That’s not a commitment.Are you here for a month, a year, or what?”
