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“Seriously, Beckman?” I was pretty sure Madelyn was laughing at me. “I set a bone and practically sewed my own leg back on with fucking fishing line. I think I can handle this.”
Where have you been all my life?
The thought took me by surprise, because I knew exactly where she’d been my whole life: growing up. And then as far out of my reach as she could possibly be, traveling the world with the Air Force. Dropped wherever she was needed, and every time she did her job without fear, without complaint, saving people who needed a little extra help to save themselves. She was a PJ. A guardian angel to those who needed her most.
I cleaned the cut and threaded the needle, and when I took out the lidocaine cream she gave me a look that saidReally?so I put it back in the kit.
“Might want a bit of that.” I pointed to the bottle and she grinned at me.
“Don’t need it,” she said, but she uncapped it with one hand because Lucy was getting all the pets with the other one. “Would’ve been nice to have a little nip of something when I was sewing up my guts though, so I’ll take one in memory of that.”
I wanted to hear about that, but I didn’t. The thought of her being alone, in pain, totally on her own…something about that scared me and I wasn’t sure I fully understood why, because it was obvious she was more than capable.
“Where?” I couldn’t stop it.
I meant, where was she when it happened, but she lifted the edge of her shirt, pulling it up almost to her bra line, and the needle shook in my damn fingers when I saw the jagged pink five-inch scar across her abdomen. That looked fairly recent.
“Now you can see why I wasn’t a plastic surgeon.” She smiled, and I remembered I was stitching her up. I tried to keep the stitches neat and tight, hoping to minimize the scarring on her beautiful face. She sat stoically through it, not a single wince or flinch as I sewed.
“Doesn’t matter anyway. It got the job done at the time, though I’d rather not do that again.”
“Knife fight in Nigeria?” I asked, eyeing it up and trying to imagine how she hadn’t died.
“Rocks off the coast of Crete.” Her voice was matter-of-fact. “Mission went sideways. There was a water rescue and a lot of churn. That dive suit was done for, as you can imagine.”
I swallowed hard, carefully snipping the thread. I couldn’t meet her eyes, afraid of what she’d see in mine.
“You’re completely insane,” was all I could say, the words too soft for my liking. I wanted to brush the hair back off her face, tuck the strand that had escaped her ponytail behind her ear, but I was afraid of what that would lead to. I wouldn’t be able to stop there. I’d lean down after that and do the very thing she said she’d wanted to do all those years ago…
“What’s the prognosis, doc?” Her voice shook me from my reverie and I was pretty sure I had been staring at her mouth. “You think I’ll make it?”
Her lips curved up slowly, teasingly, and Lucy blinked up at me as if to sayYou’re such a fucking hopeless idiot.Which I was, clearly, because I couldn’t shake the idea of leaning down and kissing her.
Just one little kiss…it couldn’t hurt anything.
“Adam?” She was looking at me funny.
“Yes, sorry.” I cleared my throat, straightening up quickly and grabbing the bottle to take a chug for myself.
“Thanks for the impromptu surgery.” She grinned at me as I closed up the kit. “Lucy has an excellent bedside manner. Quite the practice you two are running here.”
“Yeah, well…” I moved away from her quickly, tucking the kit back into the cabinet. “You’ll get my bill.”
“Pffft, whatever.” I felt the air shift behind me and turned to see her standing, the cat still in her arms. “I’ll pay you with dinner.” She grinned. “You can’t say that’s not a fair trade, because I’ve seen how you eat. My ER copay would’ve been cheaper.”
It certainly wasn’t a fair trade. There was no way in hell I’d turn her down…and I’d spend that time looking at her and thinking things I shouldn’t.
“Doubt we’ll need any dinner at all after lunch at Kennedy’s,” I said. It was out of my mouth before I could stop it, almost an excuse, like I was telling her I didn’t want to have dinner with her.
She kissed the top of Lucy’s head before setting her gently on the floor and I realized there were goosebumps standing on her arms.
“Oh no, I’m not talking about tonight. We’ll be in a food coma after Kenny’s lunch. No, I meant maybe next week. I have my interview this week and I have to drive to Ithaca to meet with Katsaros.”
She looked so hopeful, I almost forgot to ask her if the AC was too low, and I watched her unconsciously scrub at her own arms.
“I’m an idiot.” It hit me all of a sudden. “You’re freezing, Madelyn. Let me get you something dry.”
“Pffft.” She blew out an irritated breath. “I’ve been through so much worse; I’ve gone soft in the last month.”
