Page 37 of Love Everlasting

Chapter Twenty

“You sure it’s not too short?” Sam peered into his visor mirror after he’d parked the Vette near the Mansion on Forsyth Park, brows scrunching over the scalping he’d gotten at the barber. His mouth went flat. On the very day he planned to set the hook with Jazz at the Memorial Awards Banquet. He ruffled the close-cropped curls on top of his head, attempting to rumple them to the disheveled look he preferred. “Closest thing to a military buzz I’ve ever seen,” he said with a heavy exhale, flipping the mirror back down. He offered Shannon an off-kilter smile. “Maybe I should tell Jazz I enlisted, so she’ll beg me to stay.”

Shannon calmed him with a smile, taking the edge off his nerves better than the occasional Xanax and after-hours beers he’d opted for after Jazz dumped him. She reached to tousle his hair, her touch melting his stress. “I like it,” she said with an approving eye. “More professional physician, less shaggy playboy.” She sat back in her seat, an angel in pale chiffon. “Very mature, especially in that Armani suit.” Her mouth squirmed with a smile. “And far less dangerous.”

He grinned. “I kind of miss ‘dangerous,’ but ‘mature’ is a definite plus since juvenile behavior is my hallmark, right?”

“Only on the surface,” she said with a look of affection that warmed him from the inside out. She tapped a finger to her heart. “In here, you’re a changed man, Dr. Cunningham.”

His grin faded to soft. “Only because of you, Angel Eyes.” Emotion thickened the walls of his throat, reminding him how lucky he was to have Shannon as a friend. Soft, kind, supportive, beautiful, and brilliant. He took in the wispy strays of strawberry gold from an elegant and graceful twisty bun, noted the tenderness in eyes soft with affection, and was certain he’d never met a more angelic being. Her creamy complexion glowed in the dim lighting of the streetlamp, and he could no more stop his gaze from trailing down the modest bodice of her dusky pink dress than he could stop the slow thud of his heart. To him, she was purity personified, creating an unsettling tug-of-war between cherishing her as a friend and wanting her as a woman. “Have I told you yet how mind-blowingly beautiful you look tonight, Teach?”

A soft blush settled in those petal-soft cheeks. “At least five times,” she said with an adorable grimace, “but you haven’t convinced me yet, so I’d save those compliments for when they count—with Jasmine.”

“Well, if I can’t convince you, there’ll be plenty of guys gawking inside who will, kiddo, so get ready.” He got out of the car and strode around to open Shannon’s door, surprised as always at how petite she was, even in heels. Placing a protective palm to the small of her back, he guided her toward the elevator. “You should have let me drop you off at the door,” he groused, wishing he wasn’t so paranoid about valet parking. “You look too classy to be hoofing it to the hotel.”

Her soft chuckle sounded like music. “I don’t mind, truly. Especially since I’m wearing sensible heels instead of stilettos.”

His laughter filled the tiny elevator. “Thank you, God,” he said with a devious wink.

By the time he ushered her into the lavish Viennese Ballroom of the luxurious Mansion on Forsythe Park Hotel, he was keyed to the max again. The thought of how close he was to making Jazz his pumped equal mixtures of adrenalin and hope through his veins. Because he was close—he could feel it. And he could see it in Jazz’s eyes every time he met her for coffee or the occasional friendly dinner to discuss her romantic woes with the intern. It had been months in the making, but they had forged a bond Sam had never achieved in all the time he and Jazz had dated. A bond firmly anchored by his initial declaration that she was the woman he loved per Shannon’s suggestion, and the one he was willing to wait for, completely forsaking all others. A solid-gold suggestion to be sure, allowing Jazz the comfort of a close friendship with Sam minus the usual stirring of jealousy over other women he’d dated.

Until tonight.

A slow grin eased across his lips as he escorted Shannon through the sea of linen-clad tables, each resplendent with calla lily centerpieces and candlelight flickering over crystal and china. No, tonight was the night he hoped his friendship with Shannon might spark a little bit of the green-eyed monster in his green-eyed beauty. Oh, Jazz knew Shannon was his friend all right, but she had no idea how close they were, which is why he’d asked Shannon to go with him to the banquet tonight.

“You mean like a date?” Shannon had said, her voice little more than a squeak.

“Not a date,” he’d emphasized, “as friends. So you can lend me moral support when Jazz shows up with Bozo.”

“Oh, I see. And possibly making her jealous when you show up with another woman?” Those “angel eyes” had narrowed as she folded her arms, brows arched in a schoolmarm scold.

But he’d just given her that little-boy grin that always seemed to breach her defenses, and she’d caved as usual. “Admit it, Shan, it’s perfect. Jazz knows I’m committed to her because I’ve given up dating other women. But it can’t hurt to tweak a little jealousy when she sees me dancing and laughing with my new best friend, right?” He winked. “Especially my very beautiful, very sexy, very bright best friend.”

His words had gorged her cheeks with blood, and he hadn’t been able to resist a hug, tugging her close to deposit a kiss to her head. “You are so adorable, you know that? Hands-down the sweetest, most innocent woman I have ever met.”

Which is why she was absolutely perfect as his date tonight. With an easy smile, he guided her to her family’s table at the back of the room, where Cat was wildly waving a napkin. Jazz had already lost one man to a “prude” of a friend when Jack broke it off to marry Lacey, so it only stood to reason that Shannon—Lacey’s equally spiritual sister-in-law—would threaten her too.

If Jazz cares at all.

And that was what Sam planned to find out tonight, hopefully hooking her back into a relationship with him once and for all.

“What took you so long, Ham?” Jack said when Sam seated Shannon at a table with Jack and Lacey, Jack’s mom and Lacey’s father, Cat and her date, and Jack’s cousin Matt and his wife, Nicki. “You almost missed the first course.”

Extending greetings to the ladies and handshakes to the men, Sam took the last seat between Shannon and Jack. Smile faltering, he bent close to Jack to explain his delay, voice low while Shannon chatted with her mother and Dr. Carmichael. “Sorry to run late, man, but I got a call on Sandi Borgens,” he said quietly, quickly taking a sip of his water.

Jack’s brows dipped. “I thought Sims was on call this weekend, not you.” His voice dropped an octave, the thread of concern in his tone matching Sam’s. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, for now. But the little sweetheart had a relapse, so I wanted to check it out and talk to her parents.”

Jack cuffed Sam’s shoulder while Lacey chatted with Cat and her date, Chase Griffin. “You’re a good doc, Ham.”

Heat crawled up the back of Sam’s neck as waiters delivered their salads, and issuing his thanks to the staff, he deflected Jack’s praise with a cocky flash of teeth. “Yeah, well let’s hope it’s enough to kick your butt tonight, O’Bryen,” he quipped, referencing the “Rookie Pediatrician of the Year” award they were both up for.

Which wasn’t the obsession it had been before, Sam suddenly realized as he harpooned a cherry tomato, pretty much blowing him away. At one time winning meant everything, but since his countless sessions with Shannon, it now paled in comparison to winning at love. The deep-down, bottom-line kind of love that lasted a lifetime. “Love everlasting,” Shannon had called it, but she always tacked God onto it, which Sam wasn’t inclined to do.

At least, not yet.

“If Wilson doesn’t kick our butts first,” Jack responded with a stab at an olive, his casual attitude about winning as surprising as Sam’s. He and Jack had been killer competitors throughout residency, Sam’s drive to win meeting its match in the nose-to-the-grindstone resident who was now one of his best friends. Even after Jack stole Sam’s crown as Memorial’s heartthrob their final year.