Chapter 3 #2
She was laughing as we entered the hallway and my world was definitely brightened when two tow-headed little kids caught sight of her and raced to show off their very colorful turkeys.
If I had any plans on pulling Hazel into the exam room, they were nixed when I saw the people seated in the waiting room.
I faced the reality that it was going to be a busy day, but furthered my resolve that it wouldn’t end until Hazel and I completed our appointment as well no matter how many times she busied herself whenever I stepped out of an exam room before stepping into another.
My day ran a half hour late, but finally, the last of the scheduled visits were done and though the clinic remained open 24/7 just in case of an emergency, I was off-duty unless someone went into labor.
I scrawled my name at the bottom of the last file and flipped it closed.
Taking the stack with the intention of returning the files to the front desk, my mouth opened to inform Hazel I’d see her only to realize that was going to be rather difficult when the person seated at the desk wasn’t my girl. In fact, it wasn’t a girl at all.
“Hi, late day?”
“Feels like I’ve been running behind for quite a while now,” I said, realizing that covered far more than his simple question. “How are you doing, David?”
“No complaints. Anything I should know or any one about to pop I should be aware of?”
He was one of the calmest people I’d ever met.
From his hair pulled back into a rather messy bun to his Hawaiian button-down shirt featuring tiki torches and thatched-roof huts, it was so easy to picture him riding a surfboard into the white sands of some tropical beach rather than riding the desk at a clinic in the middle of Montana.
But looks were so often deceiving. David Braxton was not only certified in physical therapy, he’d earned a list of qualifications longer than my arm. And he was very, very good at his job.
“No babies due for a couple of months still, and then Rawhide will have a bit of a baby boom, but tonight looks like it’ll be calm.”
“Sounds good, I’ll get some reading in.”
I was about to ask what latest bestseller he was reading, when he held up a thick textbook with a title that took up the entire cover. “I’d tell you the butler did it, but don’t want to spoil it for you.”
He chuckled and I accepted the fact that Hazel had indeed escaped.
Which left me not only a bit upset, but meant I’d be walking home as well.
I was just about to consider it as stocking up expended calories for tomorrow’s breakfast when a shadow shifted against the clinic’s facade.
My relief didn’t come from the fact I wouldn’t be walking or that the shadow didn’t have protective instincts flaring. It came in the softly spoken, “Hi.”
I pretended to look around as I walked toward her. “Funny, I don’t remember moving my desk outside.”
She looked from me to the parking lot where just two cars sat side by side and back again. “Really? I must have mistaken David’s Nissan for your desk. I mean, it sort of resembles a cube.”
Chuckling, I felt the tension of the day finally drain out of me as I opened my arms. “I could use a hug, how about you?”
The fact that she practically flew into my arms gave me more hope than any words she could have spoken.
And the wrapping of her arms around my waist warmed far more than my body.
Lowering my head, I nuzzled the pom-pom of her knitted hat and simply held her.
Finally, she made the first move and that was only to tilt her head back to look up at me.
“Why do you think it is that you’ve never spanked me?”
Seemed the day’s surprises were not yet done after all.
Not only had she beaten me to the punch, she’d asked a question I’d been asking myself for the past two months.
Had there been times when I’d wanted to pull her over my lap and redden her arse?
Yes, countless times, and not to discipline her for some error or misstep on her part.
In fact, my palm had itched to spank her in the context of showing her how a bite of pain could enhance our lovemaking.
But while I might have popped her butt, it had never been more than a couple of swats and those had never had any true oomph behind them.
Why was that?
That was just one of the questions that needed answering.
When her gaze shifted from mine and I felt her hands loosening their hold, I just tightened mine.
“Look at me, Zellie.” Once she had, the light I’d seen had dimmed a bit which made me want to kick myself in the arse.
“I’m not evading the question because it’s a really good one.
It’s just not one I feel needs discussing out in a parking lot in the cold.
Let me get some food into you and then I promise, I’m yours to answer whatever questions you have. Deal?”
Expecting her to nod or parrot, “deal,” I was taken aback when instead she asked, “Do I have to answer yours?”
Forget shooting webbing from my wrists, that question had me wanting to pull on the entire skin-tight black and red body suit with a giant spider on the chest. But I wasn’t a comic book character and this wasn’t some fantasy world.
This was a place that had come to mean the world to me because the woman in my arms was a huge part of that world.
“Not until you’re ready, but, Hazel, I want you to know that whatever it is you’re too frightened to tell me isn’t going to change the way I feel about you.”
The disbelief was clearly visible in her gaze, but she didn’t comment on it. Instead, she simply remained silent until I slid one arm free in order to cup her chin with my fingers to keep her eyes locked on mine.
“It’s okay. We can take it one step at a time,” I said and then bent to kiss her forehead. “Starting with dinner. What do you fancy?”