Chapter Eleven
I SAT NERVOUSLY AT A table in the ER break room, trying to pretend I wasn’t at a hospital while I rearranged all the food I’d brought Logan for lunch. I knew it was presumptive of me to show up at his work unannounced, but I wanted to say thank you for saving me from what was probably going to be an awkward date the day before. And I baked some cookies that I wanted him to test before I started taking them to my neighbors, despite knowing he didn’t eat dessert, because I knew he would be honest with me if they were disgusting.
Okay, and I really just wanted to see him. Nothing short of that would have induced me to come to the hospital.
I played with the strawberry charm bracelet I’d made the previous day, thinking of the one I’d tied around Logan’s wrist. Not surprisingly, his was simple, made with a red beaded braid strand with one strawberry charm. Sophie and I went a little crazier, adding several charms each, so they jangled when we shook our hands.
But it wasn’t the bracelets themselves that had me feeling a little fluttery. It was the touch of Logan’s hand as I’d purposely taken my time tying his around his wrist. Something about his masculine hand was comforting and inviting. Like if he ever offered it to me, I would feel at home.
It was a ridiculous thought because at every turn the day before, he’d taken to mentioning his wife. “Erica loved strawberries and grew them on our patio. Erica adored Sophie, and Sophie adored her. Erica was the smartest woman I ever knew. There wasn’t a problem she couldn’t tackle. Erica could have done a better job organizing the layout of the festival to help with the flow of the guests.”
It was sweet and incredibly sad that he loved and missed her so much. It was also a good reminder that I shouldn’t have silly thoughts about being at home with him. I definitely shouldn’t have come to the hospital today, but it was too late to leave now, and honestly, I didn’t want to.
Something drew me to him, even though I knew we could only ever be friends. Maybe it was that new friendship glow. One thing I knew: I would never be a follow-up act to Erica. She sounded incredible. I wished I could have known her.
While I worried about how Logan was going to feel about me just showing up there, the break room door opened. I looked up, expecting to see Logan or one of the nurses on staff. I think all the female nurses had come in to check me out, like I was their competition.
Except for the cute nurse, Lucy, who had shown me back. She was obviously in a relationship, as she was sporting a huge rock on her ring finger and had a definite baby bump. She’d tittered and said, “Dr. Summers never gets visitors.” No doubt Logan was a hot commodity around the hospital and the fantasy of many. But it wasn’t Logan or the nurses who walked in.
An Adonis in scrubs with deep-set amber eyes, a jawline for the ages, and the perfectpompadour haircut strolled in with a credit card in hand. Whoa, hello, Dr. McDreamy. With him and Logan running around the place, it felt like I’d entered an episode of Grey’s Anatomy .
“Hello,” he said debonairly as he stood in front of one of the vending machines.
“Uh, hi. I’m Brooke,” I giggled. Dang nerves were back. Attractive doctors in hospitals were my weakness.
“Hi, Brooke.” He swiped his card and selected an energy drink.
“I just came here to bring Dr. Summers, I mean Logan, lunch. We’re friends. We met here, actually, when I fell off my bike.” I held up my arms like an idiot to show him my healed scrapes. “And surprise, I moved next door to him for the summer. ”
Dr. McDreamy strode my way with his lips upturned, hinting at a smile. Yet, he still said nothing, not even his name.
That really kicked my nerves into high gear. “Do you want a cookie?” I held out the metal tin I’d placed them in. “I’m making them for all my neighbors, and I wanted Logan to taste test them.”
Oh. My. Gosh. What was wrong with me?
The striking man plucked one of the triple-chocolate cookies out and took a bite, chewing slowly and sensuously. Holy Hannah, I’d never seen anything so sexy.
“You’re good at that.” Yeah, I said that. I closed my eyes and scrunched my face. “I’m so sorry; I just get so nervous in hospitals around attractive doctors. Ask Logan—he’ll tell you.”
Dr. McDreamy laughed.
Above his laughter, I could hear him pulling out a chair.
I opened my eyes to find him sitting across from me, nonchalantly tapping a finger on his energy drink.
“There’s no need to be nervous. I’m Sebastian Everett, by the way.” He held up the cookie. “And this is excellent.”
I bit my lip, trying not to drool over him or his charming name. “Really? It’s good? I’m not much of a baker.” That was semi-normal. Please don’t say anything else, I begged myself as I felt the nerves bubbling to the surface again.
“I wouldn’t lie.” He said it so smoothly, it almost made me think it was a lie.
“Thanks.” I giggled. Seriously, I had issues.
“So, you’re friends with Dr. Summers?”
“Yep. Just friends.”
“Hmm. Just friends, ” he said with intrigue.
“Well, basically, I think I just annoy him as much as possible, and he puts up with it.”
Sebastian leaned forward, his eyes dancing with amusement. “Somehow, I don’t think that’s the case.”
A wash of heat swept over me. “Well, you’re underestimating me.”
He tilted his head, studying me.
It was a little unnerving.
“I would hate to underestimate you. ”
Why did every word out of his mouth sound like a temptation?
“Believe me, it’s in your best interest not to. Once my nerves take over, there’s no telling what will come out of my mouth. Logan can vouch for that. The first time I met him, I asked if he wanted to be my summer fling.” My hand flew over my mouth. “See,” I mumbled through my fingers, “conversations with me are a disaster waiting to happen. Major word vomiter here.”
But Sebastian didn’t appear horrified. Instead, he looked intrigued. His eyes raked over me. “Did Logan agree to be your summer fling?”
“Uh, no. Definitely not.”
“How unfortunate for him.” Sebastian stood with cookie and energy drink in hand, his gaze penetrating my own. “I hope to see you around.”
His hypnotic eyes had me replying, “Yeah, me too,” before I even knew what I was saying. It made me wonder if they hired people at this hospital based on how beautiful they were. Someone in HR definitely had good taste.
“Thanks for the cookie. See you around, Brooke.” He turned and walked out just as Logan was walking in.
“Dr. Everett,” Logan said formally, eyeing him and his cookie carefully.
“Dr. Summers,” Sebastian matched his serious tone. “I just met your friend .”
Logan wrenched his head my way, looking half exasperated and half amused that I was waiting for him.
I waved. “Hey, there.”
“Hi,” he breathed out.
“I brought you lunch.”
Logan headed toward me, shutting the door behind him and unceremoniously leaving Sebastian on the other side.
“Do you not like him?”
“Dr. Everett is a competent physician and well liked among the staff.”
I bet he was.
“Just not by you?” I questioned .
“I didn’t say that.” Logan sat in the chair Sebastian had just vacated.
“What do you say?”
“I don’t know him well enough to judge yet. He’s only a floater in the ER, so I don’t see him all that often.”
“Oh. Well, anyway. Surprise.” I waved my hand over all the food I’d bought at the Moon Café. “Your favorite sandwich is right there.” I pointed at it in the middle of the table. “I hope you don’t mind that I dropped by. Eden told me you barely eat while you’re working, so I thought I’d bring you some nourishment. And I wanted to thank you for yesterday. You saved me from what was probably going to be an awkward date. You and Sophie made it a great day.”
Logan’s lips twitched.
“Go ahead and smile,” I encouraged him.
He shook his head and offered me a half smirk.
“I’ll take it, but one day I’m going to see you really smile.”
Logan’s ears pinked while he hastily reached for his sandwich. “Thank you for lunch.”
“You’re welcome. By the way, I kind of word vomited again in front of Dr. Everett. You dang gorgeous doctors are going to be the death of me.”
Logan ripped off the paper covering his sandwich a little violently. “You think Dr. Everett is gorgeous?”
“Well, yeah. I think anyone would.”
Logan shrugged. “I don’t see the appeal.”
“We will have to agree to disagree.” I grabbed the Caesar salad and opened the container. It was then I noticed Logan was wearing his charm bracelet. “Look how cute you are wearing your charm bracelet. Sophie will be so happy.”
He shifted uncomfortably in his seat while chewing a bite of his sandwich slowly. Once he swallowed, he redirected the conversation. He was good at that.
“How much did you word vomit?”
“Enough,” I sighed. “Nothing like the exorcist event I had with you, but enough for Dr. Everett to think I’m odd, just like you do,” I teased .
“Odd isn’t necessarily a bad thing.” Logan took another bite with a vengeance.
“Wow, you really know how to make a girl feel good.” I grinned.
Logan offered me a smirk and nothing else.
“So, how’s your day been?” I asked.
Logan wiped his mouth with a napkin. “It’s been pretty quiet for a Sunday.”
“I’m glad.” I looked around at the basic break room with a few tables and a couple of couches with some blankets folded up on each end. Perhaps the staff caught a few z’s when they could. What was of most interest were several well-loved pirate books with tawdry covers. The titles all included references to a rogue pirate. I wasn’t sure what a rogue pirate was, but I wanted to find out.
“What’s up with all the pirate books?”
“All the nurses here are obsessed with them. Apparently the author, Josie Cavanaugh, is a local celebrity. She and her husband recently bought a house in Aspen Lake. It’s all the nurses can talk about.”
“That’s fun. So, tell me what your pirate name would be. For me, I’d have to go with Siren Seraphina Scoundrel or maybe Captain Scarlet Storm,” I said dramatically, with a pirate accent. “What do you think?”
“I think you’re crazy, but I like it.”
“Aww, that’s so sweet.” I batted my eyelashes at him. “So, what’s your pirate name?”
He thought for a moment before his beautiful eyes lit up. “How about the Dreaded Blade Blackwell?”
“Wow. That’s impressive. You’re good at these games. I like this side of you.”
“I like it too,” he admitted. “It’s more me.”
“You mean you’re not naturally broody?”
“No.”
“I’m not surprised.”
“Is that so?” he said, pleased.
“Yeah. I don’t know why, but I get this feeling whenever I’m around you that you’re holding back. I think when we lose the people we love, it’s easy to lose ourselves too. ”
“Do you feel like you lost yourself after your mom died?”
“I think I slowly lost parts of myself as I watched her deteriorate, even though she was a rock star until her final breath. Her last words to me were, ‘ Life is like a tube of toothpaste; be sure to squeeze every drop out of it. By the way, I think we’re out of ice cream.’ ” I laughed as tears welled in my eyes. That moment was still raw in my memory and agonizingly beautiful in a way that left me needing to catch my breath.
“She sounds amazing,” Logan said sincerely.
“She really was.” I dabbed my eyes.
“I wish Erica and I would have had a moment like that before she died. But she was thousands of miles away from me. And our last words ...” He cleared his throat and looked anywhere but at me. “They could have been better,” he trailed off.
His admission threw me for a loop. Hadn’t he told me they never argued? Maybe it wasn’t an argument. Whatever it was, it didn’t sound good.
“Oh. I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. We weren’t perfect,” he reluctantly admitted.
“No one is. Perfect is boring.”
“Maybe.” He didn’t sound too sure.
“Well, if you ever want to talk about it, I’d be happy to listen or recommend a song that might help.”
Logan’s eyes captured mine unexpectedly, and I suspected it caught him off guard too. “Your podcast is good.”
Why did that make my heart pitter-patter so much? It wasn’t in my best interest to feel that way.
“You listen to it?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “While I’m running,” he admitted.
“I’m honored. Thank you.” I wanted to jump up and hug him, but I refrained. I’d touched him way too much the day before, to my detriment. It had stirred up too many thoughts. Dangerous ones.
“I have to listen to something,” he replied playfully.
“For that snarky comment, you have to eat one of my cookies and tell me if they’re good enough to take to all our neighbors.” I opened the tin and offered him one. “I know you don’t do dessert, but a bite or two won’t hurt. Well, at least I hope not. I’m an amateur baker. But Dr. McDreamy seemed to like them.”
Logan looked over the tin to peer at me. His knitted brow seemed to imply I’d ruffled his feathers.
“You gave Dr. Everett a nickname?”
“Not to his face.” I giggled. “Do you want one? What do you think of the Stethoscope Wizard or Dr. Heal-Me-Quick? Wait, that sounded like an X-rated film ... or a questionable medical drama. How about Dr. McCure?”
He rolled his eyes and grabbed a cookie.
“What? You don’t like any of those?”
“Let’s just stick with Logan.”
“I like Logan.” Unfortunately, I was starting to like him too much.