Her Forever Hero (Unexpected Heroes) (8 page)

Sage began her head-to-toe assessment of the patient, calling out her findings. In minutes, the child was assessed, medicated, intubated, and on her way to the CT scan, and out of Grace’s sight.

“I don’t know how you do this day after day,” Grace whispered.

“We do it because we make a difference,” Spence told her, his hand resting on her shoulder.

They watched Mo walk over to the medic, who was obviously only still standing because of the counter behind him, holding him up. “Listen, kid, you did great . . . Not an easy call, but you managed everything perfectly.” She walked toward Spence and Grace after that. “I think you saw way more than you wanted to see there, darling.”

“Yeah. I really shouldn’t have peeked in,” Grace said, her voice shaking.

“We’re here to help people. Sometimes it’s messy, but at the end of the day we go home knowing we did everything we possibly could have.” Mo walked away without waiting for a response.

“I have to get out of here,” Grace told Spence.

Not paying attention to where she was going, she turned a corner and slammed into a rock-hard wall of flesh. She would have fallen on her butt if strong arms hadn’t shot out and caught her.

“Twice in one day. I’m a lucky man.”

Grace had to crane her head back to look up into Cam’s smiling face. Quickly, he lost the smile and concern took its place.

“What’s the matter?”

“Nothing. I need to get out of here,” she said, her stomach shaking with the control it was taking not to throw up.

“Something’s wrong,” he told her as he took her arm and began steering her down the hallway toward the exit of the building.

“I just watched a trauma patient come in. It shook me up,” Grace admitted as they reached the outside of the building.

“I’m sorry,” he said, but she could see he was just humoring her.

She was silent for a moment while she took some deep breaths. “What are you doing here?” she finally asked.

“I came in to talk to Spence and I saw you,” Cam replied.

“Well, then, I guess I have bad timing,” she told him.

“Or
great
timing,” he answered before he pulled her into his arms.

“Cam, stop,” she said, but she couldn’t seem to pull away.

“It looks like you really need this.” That was her only warning before he lowered his head and captured her mouth. Later, Grace would blame shock for needing five minutes before she managed to wobble away on shaky knees.

“So, not to be nosy or anything, but usually when you kiss a woman, she doesn’t go running.”

Cam turned around to see his brother standing in the doorway, a grin on his face. “She had someplace to be. What are you doing out here?” Cam murmured.

“I was looking for Grace. She was shaken up.”

“Well, luckily I was here to comfort her,” Cam replied.

“Must not have been too comforting by the way she ran away from you,” Spence said.

“There wasn’t an issue with the kiss. The issue was spending time with you.”

“All righty, then. If you say so.”

“Don’t you have lives to save? As a big, bad doctor, I would think you’d have far more important things to do than spy on your brother.”

“Nah, I have a competent staff. Besides, because I’m a married man with a single brother, I’d say your love life is more interesting than babysitting said competent staff who know how to do their jobs well. At least, that’s how I see it,” Spence told him. “What are you doing down here, anyway?”

“I wanted to see you, though I’m regretting that choice,” Cam said before sighing. “I’ve been trying to get Grace to talk to me about her case, and she manages to avoid it like it’s a freaking plague I’m trying to infect her with. I should just give up, but we both know I won’t do that. She thinks if she just runs far enough and fast enough from her problems, they’ll all go away. The law doesn’t work that way.”

“You don’t have to lecture me. You may be the lawyer in the family, but I’m the one with all the brains,” Spence said.

“Ha! I think you bribed your way through medical school.”

“Well . . . Okay, let’s be serious,” Spence said, all traces of amusement gone. “It’s time we talk about who has the better looks.”

It took a moment for Cam to realize his brother was still kidding around. “Seriously, how
did
you get through medical school?”

“My good looks, of course. It’s how I got the girl, too. Anytime you need any pointers, just come see your big brother.”

“You’re a pain in the ass, Spence. I should go see Jackson. At least he’ll say something worth hearing.”

“Ouch. You’re wounding my pride,” Spence replied.

“Yeah, if that were possible, I’d see monkeys taking over the hospital, too. And now you’ve kept me here BS-ing with you for so long that I’m sure Grace is miles away. I’d intended to chase her back down.”

“Since she’s gone, you can join me for some mouthwatering cafeteria food. I’m starving.”

“You
look
like you’re starving. Or not. Have you . . . put on a few pounds since getting married?” Cam mocked as the two began walking down the hallway.

“My wife keeps me well fed,” Spence said with a laugh. “Okay, maybe the cook keeps me fed. Neither Sage nor I have time to mess around in the kitchen. But I’m still hotter than ever.” With that, he lifted the top of his scrubs partway up and slapped his solid abs.

“Humble, too,” Cam said with a roll of the eyes.

“When you got it, you got it,” Spence said. “And boy, do I got it.”

“Your humility is one of my favorite things about you, big bro.” Just when he finished speaking, Sage ran up and squeezed between them as they walked down the hallway, linking each of her arms in one of theirs.

“Mmm, I don’t know why you didn’t run away with me, woman. You smell good enough to eat,” Cam said, and he leaned in and kissed her cheek.

“I smell like urine and blood, but you can try to charm me all you want,” she told him with a smile. “And I would have certainly chased after you, since you’re so much younger and more suave than your brother. Sadly, though, your heart is already taken,” she sighed.

“Ha! My heart will remain intact forever.”

“You can’t have something that you’ve already given away,” she told him with a sassy shake of her hips, then she pulled away from the men and snatched up a tray.

“Dang, woman, you in a hurry?” Cam asked while Sage loaded her tray up, leaving them in the dust.

Turning, she threw them a flirtatious smile. “Do you know how many of my lunches have been interrupted? I grab what I can and fill my pockets for later most of the time,” she said before reaching the register. Cam had only one item on his tray—a tempting chocolate muffin.

“She’s an intern still. She doesn’t want to miss a thing,” Spence said, moving much more slowly than his wife.

“She’s also married to the boss,” Cam pointed out.

“And she would never, ever use that advantage. I think being married to me makes her feel she has more to prove.”

“The competitive world of medicine,” Cam said, sighing, feigning the deepest compassion.

“Oh, like it was any different for you in law school,” Spence said as they paid for their lunches and went to join Sage.

“Fine. We’re both competitive.”

“We’re going to have a small party tomorrow night. Bring the corn and some whiskey,” Spence told him, changing the subject.

“Is Grace invited?” Cam asked before taking a bite of his sandwich.

“Yep.”

“I’m in.”

He stayed for another half hour before Spence was called to the ER. Cam had only one day to think of another approach for dealing with Grace. He wanted to help her with the case—and get the girl.

“I don’t care about your salad. Yes, you’re a genius at making things that don’t actually need to be cooked. I want to hear about the kiss that left you weak in the knees,” Sage said into the phone.

“How in the world do you know about that?” Grace gasped as she looked around for hidden cameras in her apartment. She wouldn’t be surprised to find them there, what with everything else that had been happening lately.

“I know things, especially things that happen in my hospital,” Sage told her. “And don’t think I wasn’t fooled by the fact that you weren’t answering your phone last night.”

“He kissed me . . . again . . . and then I ran like a chicken from a fox.”

“Uh-uh, little girl. I want details. You’ve been so closed up when it comes to Cam, and that’s breaking every code in the best friends’ rule book. I want details—now!”

“What do you want to hear? That his warm lips on mine left me tingling, or that I berated myself all the way home for my self-betrayal? Or how about the fact that I slept horribly last night because that one little kiss raised my body temperature to about a hundred and ten degrees, and I tossed and turned all night?”

“Why don’t you just admit that you aren’t over this man? That you’ll never be over him? Then you can quit suffering and enjoy him to the fullest, or at least he can fill certain parts of your body to the fullest . . .” Sage chuckled.

“You find yourself so amusing, Sage. Look, you know what it was like for me after we broke up. And you know the type of relationships I was in after him. Cam has grown so much more . . . controlling, so demanding. He’s not the sweet teenage boy I fell in love with once upon a time,” Grace said.

“Of course he’s not a silly teenage boy. He’s a man who knows how to please a woman, and his sights are all set on you.”

“I don’t want his sights set on me. I want him to leave me alone.”

“You might be able to lie to a lot of people, Grace, but I’m not one of them—poor saps who think you’re a woman of the world, tough and independent. Yes, you are amazing, and strong, but you love him, have always loved him, and all you’re doing is prolonging the inevitable by fighting against him and yourself.”

“Why, again, are we best friends?” Grace asked with a furrowed brow.

“Because I will always tell you how it is, whether it’s what you want to hear or not,” Sage replied.

“Ugh. That’s not your greatest quality. Your job is to drown yourself in misery with me anytime I need a friend to bash men; it’s not to tell me I’m in love with the one man I shouldn’t be in love with. There are things I can’t tell you—that I won’t tell you—right now about Cam. I don’t want you to hate him. I just . . . I just don’t think I can do this again. Wanting him and knowing he’s not right for me are two different matters.”

“Number one, I wouldn’t be your true friend if I said only what you wanted to hear. Only those who want to please you tell you a bunch of crap. A true friend tells you what you
need
to hear. And number two, you know this will kill me not knowing what you can’t tell me, but because I do love you, I will be patient and wait it out.”

“I do love you, even if you are a royal pain in the ass. Hey, remember what Shakespeare said? ‘The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.’ You know, we could just shoot all the men in the world and live together happily ever after.”

“Trust me, I’ve thought about that,” Sage said, “but I just can’t give up the sex. Now that I’ve discovered it, it’s too damn hot to ever let go of.”

“Fine, you hussy, be that way. But that’s not what I called you about.”

“So speak to me. You know I’ll be honest, Grace.”

“It’s strange, really. I think I’m getting Alzheimer’s or something.” Grace looked around her apartment, trying to see whether anything seemed out of place. Was she just paranoid, or did she have something to be afraid of?

“Um, Grace. You’re only twenty-eight. I don’t think you’re ready for the nursing home quite yet.”

“I don’t know. It’s just little stuff, but it’s making me feel like I’m going out of my mind.”

“Okay, start from the beginning and tell me what’s happening,” Sage said, but something in the background started beeping. “Crap! Hold on.”

Grace listened in, hearing a lot of frantic movement, and the beeping sound grew more intense, making her pull the phone away from her ear. All of which was followed by a few colorfully unladylike words from her best friend.

A couple of minutes later, Sage came back on the line, and the beeping grew softer. “Sorry about that. I was boiling eggs and I let the damn water evaporate again. The eggs started burning and then exploded onto the hood vent, and the smoke detector went off. I don’t know why I attempt to cook. Mrs. Brinkman is going to have my hide when she gets back from her days off.”