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“Excellent.” Kimberly nodded her approval. The adjective pretty much described everything Daniel touched.
Everything he was.
Time hadn’t changed the parts of him that she found so entrancing.
Oh, how she hated admitting how much he got under her skin, but the more time she spent with him the more difficult it became to deny how he made her body feel. To deny what he did to her heart rhythm without the aid of a three-lead battery-operated device.
“You had an odd look on your face a moment ago,” Daniel said after they stepped out of Mr. Reed’s room. “What were you thinking?”
“Just that you’re an excellent doctor, Daniel.” She wouldn’t humiliate herself again by telling him how proud she was of what he’d accomplished.
As proud as if she’d been by his side the whole way and had crossed that graduation platform with him. Proud that Ryan’s father was such a good man, such a good doctor.
Daniel stared at her long moments that made her wonder if she had something on her face or if perhaps he could read her mind, then he flashed a smile that melted her heart.
“Thank you.” He turned, heading toward the next patient room scheduled for a visit. “I’ve got quite a bit of paperwork to go through after I finish making rounds, but how about grabbing a late dinner?”
Happiness flittered through her, making her feel lighter than she had in ages. She should avoid him. She really, really should.
But he hadn’t said, Let me take you back to your hotel room and strip you naked. He’d offered dinner.
“I’d like that.”
“Me, too.” He grinned and went in to check on another patient, with Kimberly floating behind him.
Dinner with Daniel.
They’d have a chance to talk, catch up away from the hospital, and he wasn’t on call tonight.
Excitement fluttered through her. Crazy excitement that her mind berated her heart for feeling.
At the end of the week, her heart would break.
She’d gone through the pain of losing Daniel from her life once. Did she really think herself strong enough to face that pain anew?
Yet wouldn’t it be much worse to not spend every moment she could with a man she’d given her heart to fifteen years ago and had never got back?
She hadn’t. No matter what she’d told herself over the years, her heart belonged to Daniel. Always had, likely always would.
But minutes before they were preparing to leave the hospital an off-duty police officer took a bullet in the chest and all plans came to a halt.
The cardiologist on call was the injured man’s cousin and he specially requested Daniel to perform the tedious task of removing the bullet from the left heart wall and trying to repair the damage.
Although the task before him offered little hope of success, Daniel, being Daniel, didn’t refuse his colleague’s appeal.
“I’m sorry,” he apologized, pausing only long enough to tell Kimberly he’d see her in the morning.
“Me, too, but I understand.” She bit back her disappointment, feeling ashamed that she dared feel loss when a man’s life teetered in the balance.
“Kimberly?” Daniel’s fingers tipped her chin, making her look at him. “Something changed this afternoon, didn’t it? In Evert Reed’s room? When you look at me now…”
She met his eyes, and could have lost herself in how blue they were.
“We’ll talk later.” He took a deep breath and gave a self-derisory shake. “I’ve got to get into surgery, stat. Wish me luck.”
It wasn’t what he was going to say. They both knew it, but Daniel had already headed to join the surgical team trying to save the police officer’s life.
“Good luck, Daniel,” she said, watching him disappear through a set of double doors without a backward glance.
