City of Champions (25 page)

"While you're at it, make one to your dad. He called during your rounds yesterday."

"Oh, okay."

"Are you going to call him?"

"Maybe."

"Jenna."

"Back off, Aubrey."

"Why are you acting like that? I think he's a sweetheart."

"Of course he is, and I love him, but he's also exhausting. I swear he's got to be the only parent disappointed their child became a surgeon."

"He just wanted you to follow in his footsteps and stay near him. That's not crazy, girl."

"And, to go to the University of Georgia. Stay with him and run his camps and coach his boys. Now, he wants me to move back there. And none of that is going to happen — he needs to drop it. I don't want to live there again."

He also will want to know about my health and I'm a terrible liar. I need to get through this biopsy, and then I can worry about Dad. It's not fair to him to put him through any of that.

"Easy, Jenna, no need to snap at me."

"Sorry. You're right, I didn't mean to," Jenna said softly, feeling terrible for letting her feelings get the best of her.

"Something's going on with you, girl. I just know it!"

"Relax, Brey, everything is fine," Jenna said over her shoulder, as she went to her room and closed the door.

She'd seen that Wyatt had called her cell phone about a half hour before and she couldn't wait any longer before calling him back. Jenna tried to ignore the butterflies in her stomach as she pressed the contact she'd made for Wyatt. It had been a handful of days since their crazy morning together and her hormones were pinging inside her at the thought of being with him again.

They'd texted and talked some, but both of their schedules over the last couple of days had been packed. She hadn't gotten any time to see him again.

"Hi, Doc," he answered.

"You rang, Wyatt?"

"I did. I'm calling you on your promise. It's time for me to play with your boobies again. You've put me off long enough."

"You've been pretty busy too, you know."

"True, but I'm free now. How about you come by tonight?"

"I'd like that, but I can't make it tonight."

"Why not?" he asked with a skeptical voice. "Are you ignoring me again, Doc?"

"No, it's just that Carol's Christmas party is tonight at her restaurant,
Viola,
on Mt. Washington."

"Who's that?"

"She's Tea's former mother-in-law and Johnny's grandmother. Carol's already really particular about her parties without any added drama, but now that Tea's engaged, things are still a bit tense. Tea will need all the support she can get, so I have to be there."

"Well, that sucks. The team leaves for Oakland tomorrow. It's a Sunday night game, so I won't be back until Monday. I was hoping to see you tonight."

Hearing he wanted to see her sent a shot of warmth through her body, and Jenna could barely suppress a girlish giggle.

"I want to see you, too. We'll have to wait until you get back from Oakland. I'm sorry."

"I understand. You're just going to have to promise to think about me."

"That won't be a problem," she answered, not bothering to hide the laugh of pleasure that escaped her throat. "Good luck on Sunday, Wyatt."

"Thanks, Doc. I'll see you really soon. Good-bye."

"Good-bye," she answered.

After ending the call, she pulled up her calendar and added the appointment she'd scheduled with Dr. Kannan for Friday. It was the soonest the well-renowned oncologist could squeeze her in and she was dreading every minute she would need to wait to learn the truth.

It was going to be a long and lonely few days. For now, she would focus on what was in front of her — and that was getting dressed for a party.

Wyatt exited his SUV and handed his keys to the
Viola
valet. The kid couldn't have been more than eighteen years old, and was trying his damnedest not to be starstruck at the sight of Pittsburgh's starting quarterback. He smiled and thanked him but Wyatt didn't have time for much else.

It had taken some scrambling after his phone call with Jenna that afternoon to get in touch with Aubrey in time to score an invitation to this Christmas party. After all the progress he'd made with Jenna, he couldn't risk letting so much time go by before he saw her again.

If he was being honest, Wyatt really didn't want to wait any longer. His motives for spending time with her may be murky, but he definitely enjoyed her company, especially the company of her naked body. It was more than that, though. He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt this way about any woman, and he was going to make the most of his chances to have more time with her.

He caught sight of her talking to Aubrey and knew he'd made the right move. Jenna looked stunning, as always, but with her long blonde hair falling in cascading waves down the open back of her fitted navy dress, she was damn near perfect. He crossed the room to her, feeling his fingers itching with the desire to touch that smooth, exposed skin of her back in a way that told everyone in the room she was all his.

"Oh, look who's here," he heard Aubrey say loudly as he approached, snapping him back to reality — reminding him he needed to keep his hands to himself, for now.

Jenna turned and her already large blue eyes widened even further at the sight of him.

"Wyatt? Hi. Aubrey, what the…"

"What? He called me a couple hours ago to thank me for the great photo shoot I did."

"I'm sure he did," Jenna said slowly, looking at Wyatt carefully. He could tell she wanted to appear exasperated, but couldn't quite pull it off, especially once she licked her lips slowly at the sight of him.

"
And
he offered to let me take some follow up shots for the holiday posts on the magazine's blog page. Since I was already set up to handle all of the photographs here for Carol's party, I figured it was no big deal."

"Imagine that? How nice of you to do that for Aubrey, Wyatt."

"It's my pleasure, Doc," he answered. Stepping forward, he placed a hand on the smooth, warm skin of her back, letting his fingers slip beneath the draped material slightly. Then he whispered in her ear, "You look great."

A thrill went through him when he felt her shiver slightly at his touch.

"Thanks," she said, raising her eyes to his. He could tell she was both excited and nervous to be so near him again.

He focused his eyes on her, smiling slightly, just waiting to see if she'd break.

"And you look great, too, Wyatt. But you always do, so that's no surprise," she said, stepping away from his touch to grab her cocktail off the high table next to her.

"He'd better look great," Aubrey exclaimed. "I'm not waiting for long — I'll be tormenting him with that photo shoot any minute now."

"That's the only reason why you're here, Wyatt? For more pictures?"

Wyatt leaned forward, closing the space between him and the peaches and cream skin of her face.

"I must confess, I was wrangling for an invite," he said quietly to her.

"I'm sure we can get some good shots here," Aubrey interrupted. "Though you two really do look good together. I might have to sneak you under the mistletoe and take some pictures of you together."

"Oh, I don't know about that," Jenna muttered out.

"I do. I'm going to get you to hook up someday, I promise," she added, and Wyatt had to hide a chuckle behind his hand at the sight of Jenna choking on her cocktail.

"Are you all right, Doc?"

"Never better. I just don't think it's wise to push two people together."

"It's fine by me. I'm in favor of Aubrey's plan. You can keep it up, Aubrey," he said, carefully monitoring Jenna's response.

"I will! I wish I could harass you both some more right now, but I have to test the lighting and I have some last minute decisions to make on the shot location. That means I'm leaving you crazy kids alone."

"Aubrey, wait. Aren't you worried he'll screw up Carol's party? Wyatt’s celebrity status has a way of getting attention."

"Nope. I gave everyone the heads up and asked them to behave. Carol seemed thrilled at the idea of the restaurant getting all this attention."

"You told everyone, but nobody warned
me
?" Jenna asked, with more than a hint of annoyance in her tone.

"What would be the fun in that?" Aubrey asked with innocent looking eyes, that elicited a slow eye roll from Jenna's perfect blue ones. "But I really do have to run and get everything set up. Have fun, you two."

Once Aubrey scurried off, Wyatt moved closer to Jenna.

"You really do look great, Doc. I love this dress."

And he did. On anyone else it might have been conservative, but with its snug fit and her large breasts and small waist, it was practically indecent.

"Thank you, Wyatt."

"But you know how much I like you in…and out…of dresses."

"I thought you liked me in a lab coat, too?"

He stifled a groan at the image of her in a lab coat with nothing else underneath.

"Are you trying to make me hard before I have to go get my picture taken?"

"I'm not putting that much effort in…yet. I could try
harder
if you’d like," she added, whispering against his ear, and he could have sworn she licked his earlobe. It shocked him how much she was teasing him, but he definitely liked it — a lot.

"Do you think she knows about us?" he whispered in to Jenna's ear, then turning to watch Aubrey scurry around with her photography equipment.

"Aubrey? No, she can't know, or else she'd be too busy taking all the credit."

"She likes me, then?"

"She likes that you're hot and you get me all worked up. I'm not sure if her devious plans go much further than that."

"So, Doc, does that mean you aren't mad at me for being here? This party sounded fun, I didn't want to miss it."

"Right, that's why you're here? It's one wild night in here for sure," she said, with a smile that convinced him she might actually be happy to see him.

"I told you I wanted to see you again before I had to leave, so here I am. Though, Aubrey did technically propose the idea when I called."

"Sounds to me like you planted it in her brain…but it's fine. I'm glad to see you. Oh, don't look so surprised. You should know by now I can't hide how much I like to be near you. I just thought we were past you ambushing me at places."

"I never agreed to that. It's too much fun to see you so surprised."

"Right, well, you probably should get those pictures over with."

"Running me off already?"

"No. Just looking out for you. Aubrey can be very insistent about these things."

"All right then, but I'm not giving up on her mistletoe idea."

"We'll see," she said, lifting her drink to her lips as her light blue eyes peered seductively at him over the glass.

"Wyatt, over here!" he heard someone yelling out from behind him.

"That would be Aubrey that's braying at you right now like an old mule. I told you — she's insistent."

"Yeah. It looks like I've asked for it, haven't I?"

"You sure have. You'd better head over there before she comes by and drags you away," she informed him.

She threw him one last sly smile that gave him a bit of a thrill before he walked away.

Wyatt settled in with Aubrey and followed her many orders and incessant picture taking, all the while never losing sight of Jenna from the corner of his eye.

He could tell she was having a field day with his quiet monitoring of Jenna, because she used every chance she could get to mention Jenna's name or tease him about watching her. That was fine with him. Getting closer to Jenna meant winning over her friends and he could do that.

It was no hardship keeping Jenna in his view, either. Whether she was mingling and talking to other people, or playing with young Johnny, she always had the most honest and kind face. He was enjoying spending time with her, even if that hadn't been his original goal.

Yet, all those warm and fuzzy feelings immediately disappeared when he caught sight of Jenna laughing with lighthearted glee with some dark-haired, tattooed asshole. He was leaning over her, whispering in her ear — and she was letting him. Wyatt couldn't be sure, but it looked like he might've touched her bare shoulder. Just the thought of his hands on her was making Wyatt feel hot with irritation. Jenna should be waiting for
him
to come back and talk to her, not letting that jackass hold her attention like that.

"All right, McCoy, I'm gonna need to ask you to lay off this scary, angry thing you've got going on here. This is a feel-good Christmas piece we're going for — so I'm really not looking for shots of you going all 'Hulk smash,' okay?"

"What? Oh, yeah, sure. I'll try."

"What are you looking at anyway?"

She turned to follow his eyes and immediately started laughing.

"Oh, I get it. She's over there talking to our resident mystery man."

"Your what? Who is he?" Wyatt even felt angry at jokes about this guy.

This doesn't mean anything, I just can't have her distracted if she's really going to come around and see how wrong her diagnosis was. That's all.