So maybe I’d stayed with her a few hours, making sure she didn’t puke or need anything. Maybe I’d snuck out of her room at 4:30 in the morning, finally convinced she’d be okay, but wished I could’ve stayed longer just to watch her sleep. And maybe she didn’t seem to remember any of it the next day, staring at me blankly during warm-ups. No softening in her expression, no mouthed thank you, no pulling me aside to acknowledge my help.
Yeah, that realization had burned and festered in my gut, but I wouldn’t have changed a moment of it. Because, for the first time in a long time, I’d liked the responsibility of looking after someone other than myself. But more than anything, I’d liked looking after her.
“Because,” Eli drew out the word like I was an idiot for not understanding the obvious, “Dad said you can’t get any action with a girl until she’s your girlfriend.”
Well. Not technically true, but also not a point I wanted to disagree with his dad on in front of Eli, either. “What do you know about ‘getting some action?’” I arched an eyebrow at him. “You got your sights set on a babe somewhere?”
He blushed all the way to the top of his bald head, and looked around to make sure the room was empty. “There’s this new girl on the floor, osteosarcoma, and, Laird… she sets off my heart monitor. It starts going really fast and I watched it the other day, the line jumped funny and Mom got scared, but the nurse said it was just a skipped beat.” He paused, his eyes unfocused behind the thick blue plastic frames. “I want her to make it skip more.”
I wrapped an arm around him and tugged him gently to my side, careful of his wires and tubes, to hide the way he was breaking my damn heart. This kid. This fucking kid. I think he knew more about love and life at age eight than I did at twenty-two. “What’s her name, bud?”
“Amelia. Isn’t that the best name ever?”
I nodded, although he couldn’t see it with his head against my chest. “It is. It really is.”
He pushed me away, his thin shoulders set with determination. “So you gotta teach me. She’s a year older than me, and I need some game so I can get her. I think Jaxon across the hall has his eyes on her too.” He scowled. “He’s only Stage II, so he gets more time in the game room with her.”
My forehead wrinkled like I was heavy in thought. But, really, what was I supposed to tell him? The kid was eight and trapped in a hospital for the foreseeable future.
A flash of yellow passing the open doorway—the ripple of a dress over textbook perfect curves—caught my attention and we both craned our necks for a longer look.
“Damn, Laird,” Eli whispered. “Did you see those legs?”
I raised my eyebrows, although I had to agree with his assessment of the glimpse of thigh I’d seen. “What happened to Amelia?”
“Amelia’s a babe. But her legs don’t look like that.” He said it matter-of-factly, giving me a shove toward the door. “Go look. Maybe take a pic on your phone. Quick, before she’s gone!”
Humoring him, I ambled toward the doorway, making a show of pulling my phone out of my back pocket and wiggling it at him. “Be right back.”
“I call dibs!”
I stepped out into the hall and looked to the right, the direction the legs had been headed.
At the nurses’ station in the middle of the floor, five doors down from where I hovered in the doorway, were the sexiest legs I’d seen all summer, peeking out from beneath a yellow sundress.
But what the fuck was Reese doing here, on the pediatric cancer wing?
I eased down the hall, both Eli and the phone in my hand forgotten. Her dark hair was pulled back in some kind of loose braid, and her bare arms were tan from all our practices in the sun this week. Eavesdropping shamelessly, I caught the tail end of her conversation with Martha, my favorite nurse.
“… so, Wednesday mornings would be good?” Reese asked, glancing down to check something on her phone. “I could do that. At least this semester.”
Martha smiled and reached out to squeeze Reese’s hand, happiness smoothing the multitude of wrinkles etched into her face. Fuck knows, Martha didn’t have a lot to smile about on this floor, but she was always quick to share a grin with the patients and crack a joke. Cancer humor was dark, and it took a special person to embrace it, to understand why it was so desperately needed sometimes.
“And you said something about music?”
Reese nodded. “It worked out well for me back home. Bringing in drumsticks and letting them beat their pillows—or the side rails of the beds, if y’all don’t mind the noise.”
Martha winked. “Depends whose shift it is. I wouldn’t mind though.”
“Do y’all have a group activity room? Or do you prefer one-on-one in the patient rooms? I’m comfortable doing either.” She paused, set down her phone, and rubbed her upper arms. She was probably cold in that dress. The hospital was always freezing. “To be honest, I feel like I get better results doing it one-on-one, but I’m flexible to whatever works best for you guys.”
“Honey, if you’re offering to help, we’ll take it any way we can get it. If one day, you want to do a group activity, do that. If you want to meet them and have solo time, that’s great too. I’m just pleased as punch you want to be here.” Martha caught sight of me over Reese’s shoulder, and her coffee-colored eyes twinkled at me. “In fact, here’s just the young man to show you around. Do you mind, Laird?”
At the mention of my name, Reese’s spine straightened until I worried it would snap. She turned around slowly, almost suspiciously, as if she was hoping it wasn’t really me standing there.
No lie… that hurt.
But I pushed it away. I was more interested in the why behind her visit today. Did she know I came here? Was she somehow following me?
Snagging her elbow in a loose grip, I pulled her to my side, and then tossed my arm around her shoulders. “No worries, Martha. I got it from here.” I tipped my chin at her, and not-so-calmly guided Reese down the hall to a vacant alcove near Eli’s room.
Irritation and morbid curiosity warred inside me. While I was flattered she put in the effort to locate me here, of all the places in Rodner she could track me down, this was my thing. The part of my weekly routine that had actual meaning. And as hot as I found her sexy little body, and as much as her smart mouth seduced me, nobody followed me to my place.
Dropping my arm, I spun her to face me none too gently. “What are you doing here, Reese Holland?” I demanded bluntly.
She rubbed her arms again, and, sure enough, there were goose bumps. I nudged her a foot to the left, so she wasn’t standing directly under the chill of the vent, ignoring the instinct to take her in my arms and warm her up. Glowering at her, I waited impatiently for her response.
“What are you doing here?” She threw my own words back at me.
“I come here every week to spend time with the kids,” I answered steadily. “You?”
Reese shivered, and looked down the hall both directions, then at her feet. Anywhere but me. Biting back a growl of frustration, I took her chin in my thumb and forefinger and lifted it until she had no choice but to meet my eyes.
And I paused.
Her coffee-colored gaze was wary, not triumphant. Shadowed with hidden secrets, not blazing with righteous indignation.
This was not the Reese I was used to.
I stepped closer, crowding her back against the wall. Softening my voice, I asked again, “Why are you here, Reese?”
Wrenching her chin from my grasp, she stood tall and squared her shoulders, her breasts brushing my chest with the action.
“I’m sorry,” she clipped out, “but I didn’t know I had to explain myself to you. Hell, I certainly didn’t expect to find you at the children’s hospital.” She slipped out past me, her body rubbing against mine in the process, and put several steps between us. I burned where she’d touched me. “Now, do you have time to show me the activity room? If not, I’m sure I can find it myself.”
“Laird!” It was Eli, his voice carrying down the hall. “Who’s the hottie? Remember, I have dibs!”