AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He wrapped his stethoscope around his neck. “Pneumonia isn’t going to do a thing to help his renal failure and other health issues.”
“No, but you’re doing all you can.” Why did she feel the need to reassure him? She’d never had that reaction to Levi before. Hot, steamy tingles all over, yes. The need to comfort, no. “Stopping the arthritis medication he was having the adverse reaction to has improved his creatnine and blood urea nitrogen levels. His last basic metabolic profile was almost back to normal.”
Levi’s cellphone beeped and he sighed. “Won’t be for long if we can’t get the pneumonia cleared.”
True. Pneumonia could send an elderly person into organ failure quickly. Unfortunately, with Mr. Ridge already so ill this development was serious. Then again, when wasn’t pneumonia serious?
“If his saturation drops below ninety with the oxygen in place, call me.” Levi opened his phone, clicked to see whom the text message was from. He paused just long enough to send her a quick smile. “Bye, Madison. I’ll see you later.”
Madison watched him walk away, even managed to keep her gaze from dropping to his rear. Mostly. Could she help that he had such a great behind that it demanded a visual perusal at every given opportunity?
Had to be because she was now in the role of a player. That had to be why her hormones were so…so…energized.
“Don’t even think that I don’t see what you’re looking at and that I didn’t hear what he said,” a familiar feminine voice whispered close to her ear. “Tell me everything.”
Face going hot, Madison turned toward her charge nurse, roommate, and best friend Karen. The tall brunette was staring at her with narrowed brown eyes.
“Nothing is going on,” she hedged, knowing Karen only half-heartedly agreed with her “if you can’t beat them, join them” relationship motto. Her friend often vocalized her fear that Madison was setting herself up for great heartache, one much worse than that Simon had delivered.
“Yeah, I believe that.” Karen rolled her eyes, grabbed Madison’s elbow and pulled her into an empty patient room. She closed the heavy wooden door. “Now, tell Aunty Karen the truth. What happened after Dr. Fielding took you to his office on Saturday afternoon? I’ve been dying to know, but had already left with Connor when you got home on Saturday, haven’t had a chance to ask today, and you were vague when I called yesterday.”
“I was at work,” she reminded her friend, still not quite believing Karen had contacted her at work to chat about the company picnic theatrics. She gave her friend a pointed look. “My boss doesn’t like it when I have personal calls at work.”
“Okay, forget your boss. She sounds like a drag, although I’m sure she’s a gorgeous drag.” Karen grinned, not even coming close to pulling off an innocent look as she struck a funny pose. “However, your best friend wants you to give her the scoop because she’s really worried about you dallying with the likes of Dr. Fielding. He’ll eat you alive.”
Now, there was an interesting possibility.
Madison’s hand went to her mouth, glad Karen couldn’t read her thoughts
or her friend would really be worried.
“Fine. I’ll tell my best friend the scoop.” Because Karen wouldn’t let up until she told her. “He X-rayed my ribs, declared them unbroken, and took me home.”
“Nothing else?” Karen stared at her suspiciously. “You’re sure? Because you didn’t answer your phone on Saturday night and I did call to check on you. Repeatedly.”
Yes, Karen had called her cell to check on her several times. After the first interruption, when she’d assured Karen she was fine, Madison had turned her ringer to silent. She had been out with Levi. Surely she’d be forgiven for not being available just this once?
“After my X-rays, he took me out for pizza,” she admitted slowly, deciding she wanted Karen’s opinion. “But just because neither of us had gotten to eat at the picnic.”
“Right. Now we’re getting somewhere.” Karen rubbed her hands together. “So, you and Dr. Fielding went out for pizza. That’s awesome. Why didn’t you tell me this yesterday?”
That’s awesome? What happened to “worried” about her dallying with Levi? Maybe talking to Karen was going to leave her more confused than she already was.
“It’s really not that big a deal.” Madison shrugged. “We went for pizza. End of story.”
“End of story? No big deal? You went for pizza with the hottest doctor at Angel Creek after saying you planned to test drive your new hotrod persona on him, and you expect me to believe it’s no big deal?” Karen lowered her voice to a pitch an elementary school kid might have used during a library session. “Did he kiss you?”
“No,” Madison answered immediately, not liking how her friend’s brows had knitted together. Or maybe it was the heat rushing into her cheeks that she didn’t like. Or the fact that Levi hadn’t kissed her—she definitely didn’t like that. Players wanted to be kissed. “He didn’t kiss me. Despite my plan to seduce Levi for a one-nighter, Saturday night wasn’t a date. Just pizza.”
“Then why did he say he’d see you this evening?” Karen arched her brow and tapped her white tennis shoe expectantly. “For more pizza that’s not a date so you can practice your new I-couldn’t-care-less-about-a-guy motto?”
“You heard that?” Madison hedged. Karen would want a definition of their relationship. How could she explain what she didn’t know herself? They’d had a professional doctor/nurse relationship up until Saturday, one where she’d have thought he’d be hard pressed to give her name despite her having made eye contact enough to let him know she was interested. But he had known her name. He’d saved her life, taken her for pizza, and now he’d asked her to dinner.
But all she wanted was a good time from him. A fun while it lasted and move on to the next before things got messy kind of good time.
So why did her ribcage contract around her insides at the thought of what the night might bring?
“Yes, I heard that and you look guilty as all get-out so you might as well tell the truth. Otherwise I’m going to let my imagination run free and you know how my imagination is,” Karen warned, glancing around to make sure they were still having a private conversation. “Especially since you’ve lost your mind and have been listening to all this crazy modern woman mumbo-jumbo that’s so not the real you.”
