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“Sure,” she giggled.
“I’ve also prescribed something for the pain. The nurse will get your script filled and bring it to you.”
“You got it, Doc. You’re fabulous. My cheek doesn’t hurt anymore, and it feels like I’m flying, so you did good.” She giggled again.
Then she started to sing. “R, E, S, T, C, Respect. Find out what it means to you.” It sounded like Leila, but he’d never heard her giggle or sing. Come to think of it, he’d never really seen her smile. But serious, stoic, kick-ass, he’d seen that often. Now, with her giggling, he couldn’t help but chuckle. The nurse peeked around the corner then looked back at Linc and Kostya.
“It’s fine to go in.”
She pulled back the curtain wide enough for them to walk through. Sitting sideways on a bed was Leila. She was wearing hospital scrubs and in the bed next to her was Katherine Cole.
For just a moment Linc let himself remember how she looked in that wet blouse. She’d been breathtaking.
Shut it down. Focus on the now.
He looked over at Katherine. She was connected to IVs, but she was sitting up, and looking better than the last time Linc had seen her.
“Hi, Linc!”
“Hi, other hot guy!” Leila squealed.
Leila had a bandage around her face, with ice clearly placed against her cheek.
“Remember to only keep the ice on for fifteen minutes every hour, then again.”
“I’m going to remember, nice doctor.”
“Okay, I’m going to check on some of my other patients. You be good.”
“I’m not promising anything.” Leila laughed.
She twisted on the bed so she could see Katherine. “Wanna sing YMCA? We sang that in the hole while you were asleep. I couldn’t do all the moves cause you were in my lap, but now I can.”
Before she started, Linc quickly went to stand right in front of her. “Can we talk instead of sing?”
Leila looked confused, but then her expression brightened. “I really wanted to talk to you when we were in Turkey, but I had to leave for the States. Sometimes I get tangled up in things, you know?”
“I caught on to that.” Linc smiled.
“I thought about you when I got back to the States. You were the prettiest of all the SEALs.” She turned to Kostya. “Sorry, hot guy.”
Katherine laughed from her bed, as Kostya grinned. “I think I can handle not being the prettiest.”
Linc bowed his head. He just knew he was going to get a ration of shit from the guys for months. There was no way that Kostya wouldn’t share what Leila had just said.
Linc looked up. “You’re the beautiful one,” Linc said. She held out her hands, and he took them in his. “What did the doctor say about your cheek?”
“My cheekbone broke. He made me sleep so he could reset it. I’ll be fine, eventually. Oh yeah, I’m not beautiful. I went to the bathroom and looked in the sink mirror. I have two black eyes, and my hair is ratty. I don’t look so good, but most of the time I look okay. Not beautiful, but okay. I’m a solid six on a scale of one to ten. I have good legs.”
Kostya snickered.
Linc did his best not to laugh.
A six my ass.
“Come closer,” Leila said as she pulled on his hands to draw him near. “I’ve got a secret.”
He gave Kostya a helpless glance. His lieutenant just shrugged.
