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Her gaze narrowed, and she held the thermometer in front of his face. “I can either stick this in your mouth, or you can drop those jeans, and we’ll do it the hard way. It’s up to you, buckaroo.”
Surprise made him blink three times in succession, but he hastily opened his mouth. He caught a whiff of something that smelled tropical, like flowers combined with pineapples and coconut, as she stuck the thermometer in his mouth, then turned back to the drawer, extracting a tongue depressor and a few other things he detested but endured at these appointments.
“All right, let’s see,” she said, turning back around and looking at the thermometer. “Hmm. It appears to be normal, despite your flushed face.” The look she gave him left no doubt in his mind that she’d thought him a bad-mannered hothead.
Not that she was entirely wrong. He should have kept his mouth shut, even if he thought she wouldn’t hear what he uttered.
However, he refused to apologize. Not when she left him feeling flustered and mortified to be there. If he’d met this girl years ago before he’d enlisted, his heart had been broken, and life had been forever altered, he wouldn’t have hesitated to ask her out for a date.
Now, though, he couldn’t envision her giving him the time of day if she weren’t forced to interact with him as his nurse.
Still, it rankled and rubbed him in all the wrong directions to have such a pretty nurse, one who looked so full of vitality and energy, seeing him when he felt so vulnerable and exposed. Everything in him wanted to yank on his shirt and leave.
“Levi!” Dr. Charles O’Brien said as he bustled into the room with a broad smile. “How are you feeling, son?”
“Fine, sir,” Levi said, returning the doctor’s smile. The first doctor he’d seen at the Boise VA Hospital had been a distracted oaf who’d barely even acknowledged him and certainly didn’t listen to his concerns. The next time he’d gone in, he’d been given an appointment with Dr. O’Brien and liked him immediately. After meeting him, Levi had requested the jovial man become his primary physician, and so far, he had been.
“Let’s have a look at you.” The doctor peered into his mouth and down his throat, looked into his ears and eyes, felt along his neck, listened to his heart and lungs, then picked up Levi’s left arm and ran gentle fingers over the thick scar tissue. The wounds had all closed, but the scars still ached from time to time. To him, they looked grotesque, like mangled, melted wax instead of flesh.
Dr. O’Brien worked his way down to Levi’s hand, spending far more time on it than Levi liked as he spoke to the nurse, relaying medical terms, which she jotted down in his chart.
“You’re coming right along, Levi. Everything looks good. Let’s see about your range of motion.”
The doctor had him move his arm in a series of exercises that Levi executed twice a day at home. A few pulled against his healing skin with a tautness that made him want to grimace in pain, but he kept his expression neutral and finished the last movement. The doctor then instructed him to move his left thumb and remaining finger, turning them this way and that.
“Excellent, son. That’s excellent. How is the house remodel coming?” the doctor asked as he pushed his glasses back up on his nose.
Levi was both surprised and impressed the man had remembered they’d talked about his work on the house the last time he’d been in for an appointment.
“Coming along, sir. I have new electrical wiring and plumbing, the kitchen cabinets are installed, and the painting is complete. I’m just hoping to finish up before my mother decides I need her help.”
Dr. O’Brien chuckled and thumped him on the back. “Considering the fact that I’ve met your mother, I’ll wish you luck.”
“Thanks, sir.”
The doctor made a few notes in the chart, handed it back to the nurse, then smiled at Levi. “We’ll see you again in six weeks.”
“Yes, sir.”
The doctor left the room, but Levi wanted to argue about the need to return so soon. To insist the appointments were unnecessary. Regardless, it made him feel marginally better to hear the doctor say he was healing well.
The only problem, though, was the fact that he hadn’t counted on meeting a spunky young nurse with soulful eyes. When she smiled, her face transformed from pretty into beautiful, showing off exquisite cheekbones. If life were different—he were different—he sure wouldn’t have hesitated to ask her out.
Now, though, he just wanted to escape her presence.
As though she sensed his thoughts, she reached behind her and lifted his shirt. She held it out for him to slip his arms into the sleeves.
The very idea of having her help him dress incensed Levi. That simple act smacked of him being an invalid. A victim. Weak. Needy.
And he wouldn’t stand for it.
With a fierce glower, he snatched the shirt from her hands and rammed his arms into the sleeves. The hint of her tropical fragrance teased his senses, further infuriating him as he reached behind her for his hat. He stormed out of the office, shirt tails flapping in the breeze created by his fuming stride.
Angry with himself, angry at the world, he got into his pickup and sped back toward Star. He was nearly home before he remembered he needed to go pick up parts for his dad and groceries for his mother.
Checking to make sure no one was coming, he turned around in the road and roared back into town. As he drove, a vision of a lovely brown-haired nurse refused to budge from his head. How dare that woman make him feel like a bumbling fool!
“Youneedtotellme the story again. Start at the beginning.”
