Page 19 of Love Everlasting

He pulled back to pierce her with his trademark Ben Carmichael glare, as if the significance of her statement had just hit him square in the chest. Inhaling deeply, he expelled it again in one long, arduous sigh of surrender. “I just hate to admit when you’re right.”

She feathered his ear with the softest of kisses before her mouth trailed to caress the bristle of his jaw. “I don’t know why, Dr. Doom,” she whispered, her chuckle lost in the sweet depths of their kiss. “I love you so much more when you do.”

Chapter Eleven

“So, Serena … how do you stay busy when there are no patients?” Sam tossed a syringe and empty vial of Glucagon into the disposal receptacle. He glanced at his watch, the six-year-old boy he treated for hypoglycemia long gone to the cafeteria with his teacher for needed sustenance. “Our patient won’t be back for a few hours, so how does Jack kill time?”

Serena paused as she wiped the examination table with disinfectant, eyes sparkling with interest. “Jack likes to stay busy, so he goes wherever he’s needed—the fishing dock, stables, basketball court, or ball field, and then I call him when necessary. He’s even been known to jump in the lake for a quick swim.”

Sam stared at her as if she’d just told him Jack swam buck naked. “In the lake?” He didn’t have to fake the shudder that rippled through him, the memory of almost drowning in a scummy algae lake at the age of ten shivering his skin. He wouldn’t be here today if his foster mom hadn’t finally dragged him out while her creep of a husband laughed and belched his beer. To this day, just the smell of a river or lake tainted Sam’s tongue with the vile taste of dirty water, as polluted as the foster families to whom he was just a paycheck. “No, thanks—I prefer my water with chlorine, if you don’t mind.”

“Well, then …” She paused with a tilt of her head, a definite invitation in her tone. “I play a mean game of rummy if you care to take me on, Doc, or we also have every board game known to man.”

Sam chuckled as he took off his Superman jacket, pretty sure Jack wouldn’t want him playing games with a volunteer nursing student, rummy or otherwise. “Thanks, Serena, but since this is my day off, I’d really like to get outside for a while, so how about a rain check?” Flashing a smile to assuage the disappointment he saw in her face, he strolled to the closet, gaze flicking out the windows to an azure sky tufted with clouds. His adrenalin immediately started flowing at the thought of helping out on a challenging and vigorous activity that would get his heart pumping.

Baseball.

Basketball.

Shannon O’Bryen.

His smile eased into a grin because that was definitely one woman who gave him a real workout in even attempting to be her friend. But Sam had never shied away from hard work or a challenge a day in his life, and he wasn’t about to start now. Even though Shannon made it perfectly clear she wanted nothing to do with him, a fact that only intrigued him all the more. Because she was one of the few single women he actually felt comfortable with and whose company he enjoyed without the thought of anything more.

The memory of their kiss in the car flashed in his mind, and heat scorched through his body with a fury that both shocked and annoyed. He’d been drunk, that’s all, a vice that always enhanced attraction for him, so it was no big deal. His brows dug in, creasing the bridge of his nose as he slipped his coat onto a hanger. Sheer gratitude for Shannon’s help and input on Jazz and nothing more.

The thought of Jazz suddenly dimmed his good mood, and closing the door harder than intended, he vowed to find a way to win her back. His gaze snagged on a volunteer schedule tacked to the wall, and a slow smile curved on his lips as he scanned the list.

Outdoor Basketball—2:00-3:00 PM—Shannon O’Bryen and Lauren Miller.

Basketball? Being petite, gentle, and shy, Shannon hadn’t struck Sam as the killer athletic type, which somehow made friendship with her all the more appealing. Of course, his chest still had dents in it from her stilettos, so he’d obviously misjudged her, no matter how angelic she’d appeared. But a basketball court was the perfect place to forge a friendship with a woman whose brain he could pick regarding Jazz without messy complications. A woman he could trust. A woman who was honest. And a woman who wasn’t attracted to him, a situation that didn’t sting quite so much once he realized how valuable it could be.

“I’ll be back.” He offered a smile and a salute to Serena, then strode down the hall and out the front doors of what he fondly referred to as “the big house.” Relishing the sunshine that soaked into his navy Polo, he followed the distant sound of a basketball. Making a left at the stables, he found her, she and another girl surrounded by a group of pre-teen kids while she demonstrated a perfect lay-up. Fascinated, he watched from a distance, her body poetry in motion as she dribbled several times before bounding off one foot to sweep the ball into the air. It swished into the net as neatly as she’d swished him out of her life with the jab of her heels.

No one noticed when he came closer. Hip cocked to the chain-link fence, he studied Shannon while she demonstrated the shot a few more times. Her instructions to the kids impressed him as much as her skill with omelets—not to mention hot pink basketball shorts that revealed beautifully toned legs, making his mouth go dry.

“Okay, guys, if you can shoot a free-throw, you can easily learn a lay-up,” she told them, “and it’s important to know how because they’re hard to defend, as Lauren and I will demonstrate.” Taking her position, she backed up and took a few dribbles while Lauren—all of four-foot-eleven, maybe—tried to counter, but she was no match for Shannon, whose ball glided in as if the net were calling it home. “See? A good lay-up is really hard to stop.”

“True, but there are ways.” Sam strolled onto the court, fingers twitchy to get his hands on the ball.

Shannon spun around along with the others, her messy ponytail as off-kilter as the look on her face.

“Doctor Sam!” one of the boys shouted, a prior patient who gashed his lip on a slide to home plate last Wednesday. “I’ll bet you can stop her.”

“Well, I’d sure like to try if Miss Miller doesn’t mind?”

A volunteer who looked to be in her thirties, Lauren Miller gracefully stepped aside with a wide smile. “Have at it, Doc, because I need all the help I can get with Slam-Dunk here.”

“Slam-Dunk, huh?” Sam’s gaze met Shannon’s, grinning when her lips pursed in a polite smile. “That’s what they used to call me in college.” He winked just to get on her nerves. “And some nurses at Memorial still do.”

“All right, everyone,” she said, turning her back on him to address the group. “Not only will I demonstrate how easily you can get by the defense with a lay-up, but I’ll show you how to put another ‘player’ in his place.” She got into position, dribbling the ball while she seared him with a look. “And I use the term literally.”

He chuckled as he took his stance between Shannon and the net, body loose while he addressed the group with hands held high in defensive mode to block her shot. “Okay, guys, the trick is to prevent the guy with the ball from getting under or even close to the basket like th—” His words died on his lips when she gave a slight fake to the left and slid by him so fast, the ball whooshed over his fingertips into the net before he could even jump.

“Nice trick, Doc,” she said with a smirk, bobbling the ball back and forth while she resumed her position. “Got any others?”

“Just one, hotshot.” Returning to his position, he pinned her with a narrow gaze, ready to close off the side she favored for her turn, which had been on the right all three times. Before she could get the shot off, he blocked her right side, forcing her to the left. He grinned when the ball bounced off the rim with a beautiful clunk. Snatching it mid-air, he turned back to the kids. “Whenever possible, you want to block whichever side the player favors to make them go in another direction.” He bounced the ball several times before tossing it back to Shannon with a wink. “Because you always make them adjust to you,” he said with a cocky grin, pinning her with a penetrating look.

“Can you play a game with us, Doctor Sam?” his former patient asked, and Shannon cut him off at the pass with a glance at her watch.