Stitches and Scars (12 page)

“So,” she paused. “Cindy came in today.”

“Oh, really? That’s great.” He tried to act as if nothing had happened between the two of them on the off chance that Cindy hadn’t mentioned the breakup.

“She told us about you two breaking up.” Lisa frowned.

“Yeah, well. It just wasn’t working out. She is a nice woman, though, and I truly hope she finds someone.” He started to walk away in the hope that Lisa would sense his desire to end their conversation.

“Does that mean you’re on the market, then?” She scurried along beside him.

After his experience with Cindy, Ethan wasn’t at all interested in dating anyone that was involved with the hospital. Mixing his personal life with his work life was not a good move. He knew that now. And while Lisa was always a nice enough girl, he just didn’t feel anything there. She, on the other hand, had been hitting on him since his first day. After the first few weeks of shameless flirting on her part, she had asked him out. He’d talked his way out of the date back then and, luckily for him, she started dating someone seriously shortly after.

“On the market?” he repeated her question. “I guess you could say that, but I’m not really ready to date right now. And when I do, I’m going to keep my personal life separate from work, if you know what I mean.”

“Oh.” Her face fell. “Well, are you going to the dinner tomorrow night?”

“Dinner?”

“Yeah, remember, a bunch of us are getting together for dinner to discuss the new hospital policies.”

As she spoke, Ethan suddenly remembered what she was talking about. The dinner was planned a few months ago, and it had simply slipped his mind.

By now, the two of them were standing at the medical records desk, and Ethan was starting to feel a little anxious. He hadn’t actually decided whether he would be going to the dinner or not, but right now he was willing to do whatever it took to have Lisa leave him alone.

“Oh, that’s right. The dinner at Union Trust. We were meeting at five o’clock, right?”

“Actually, we changed the time. We’re meeting at seven o’clock instead,” she said with a smile.

“OK, then. Seven o’clock it is.”

“So you’ll be there?” Lisa asked, twirling a lock of hair around her finger.

“Yeah, it would probably look bad if I didn’t show.”

“Right, well, it looks like you’re in a hurry, so I’ll let you go. I’ll let everyone know that we’ll be there.”

Ethan watched Lisa walk way and felt a wave of relief wash over him. He looked back to the records desk and felt the palms of his hands start to sweat. Realizing that he was only a few feet away from the information he ached to find out, he quickly slipped into the medical records room and began his search.

Chapter 12

Nicknames

E
lle, you have to hurry up! You know that Sophie will freak out if we’re late.” Kate stood in the kitchen, looking at the clock, cursing every second that ticked by.

Elle had been running around all day getting prepared for her weekend away and had returned home only fifteen minutes ago. When Kate had told her they had to leave, she had just stepped out of the shower, hair soaking wet and nowhere near being ready. Now they were sure to be late, and she knew they wouldn’t hear the end of it from Sophie.

With a sigh, Kate walked down the hall to her friend’s room and knocked on the door.

“Come in!” came a muffled yell.

Kate poked her head in and saw Elle pulling a shirt over her head.

She started speaking before Kate even opened her mouth. “I know we’re going to be late and I know Soph will kill us.”

“How much longer do you think you need?” Kate asked with a smile.

“More than she’ll be willing to give.” She let out an exhausted sigh. “Look, why don’t you go ahead and tell her I’m on my way. That way, she won’t be mad at both of us. That’s the last thing we need,” she said as she rolled her eyes.

They were both well aware of the wrath Sophie could cause, and it wasn’t something they liked to experience.

“All right, I’ll go, but I’m warning you, I can only soften her up so much. And you know the longer she has to wait, the more upset she’ll be.”

“I know, I know. I’ll be ten minutes behind you, maybe less. I promise.” She quickly ran off to the bathroom, brushing her fingers through her damp hair.

***

The drive into the city was second nature for Kate. It was as if her car knew the way. She loved watching the towers peeking up in the distance or the skyline etched out against a wall of orange sunset. Even the old warehouses held their beauty.

Most days, her mind was preoccupied with clients and upcoming jobs, but today it was focused on an excuse to tell Sophie. She decided, like always, that honesty worked best. She would simply explain that Elle was out getting ready for this weekend’s fitting and that she lost track of time. Hopefully, it would be enough to appease their impatient friend. After all, this dinner was in celebration of Elle’s new job. And of course, the fact that Ethan was now single.

Just thinking about him brought a smile to her face. She spent most of last night laying in bed, thinking over the day’s events. She still couldn’t believe she was as brave as she had been. Never in her life would she have pictured herself doing something like that. There was just something about him that brought out a side of her that she’d never seen before. It was refreshing and exciting. There was only one problem. As much as she enjoyed all the new feelings that he stirred up within her, she couldn’t help but feel scared at the same time.

She wasn’t sure if she was ready to fall for someone again, to take that step and open herself up. She was just finally starting to heal from Scott, and she assumed the first guy she’d meet after him would be the re-bound guy. Someone who would take her out and help get her back in the dating world. She never expected to meet someone like Ethan and feel such an immediate connection. There was something special about him, and she recognized it the first time they’d met. It was like her body and soul recognized his. She knew it sounded strange, but that was the only way she could describe it and make sense of it. Either way, she knew it wouldn’t matter how she felt unless he called her.
He’ll call. Don’t worry, he’ll call,
she assured herself.

Kate pulled up to the restaurant and climbed out of her car, giving the keys to the valet. She took a moment to admire the beautiful marble exterior of the restaurant. Taking a quick glance around, she couldn’t spot Sophie or Logan anywhere. Hoping that maybe she’d beaten them there, she pulled her coat tight around her and headed into the restaurant.

***

Ethan spent most of his morning working out and strategically planning how he was going to contact Kate. Finding her phone number and address turned out to be easier than he thought it would. As it turned out, plenty of doctors made follow-up calls to check on their patients. But no matter how many times he told himself what he did was okay, he still saw the words ‘HIPAA violation’ flash in his mind.

After hours of contemplating his next move, he finally came up with two strategies. The first was to call her and ask her out. The other was to stop by her house and drop off her shirt, which he was hoping would also result in a date. The more he thought about it, the more the second option appealed to him and that was simply because he wanted to see her. He didn’t want to wait another few days to see her face. He wanted to see her smile and feel his heart race the way it did when he was near her.

Since his work schedule kept him busy all day and he had the employee dinner that evening, he planned on stopping by tomorrow.
Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow,
he kept repeating to himself in order to bring him even the slightest bit of comfort.

His day flew by quickly, and before he knew it, he was fighting traffic on his way to the restaurant. Not wanting to be late and owe everyone a round of drinks, he quickly parked his car and ran into the restaurant.

The hostess greeted me with a smile. “Hello, how can I help you this evening?”

“I’m meeting a group here. It may be under Henry Williams, or Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, I’m not sure.”

The girl looked over her list with furrowed brows. “I don’t see any reservations by that name, Could it be under any other?”

Ethan thought quickly, running through other possible names. Before he had a chance to say anything, someone spoke up from behind him.

“It’s under Lisa, Lisa Connelly.”

He felt her hand slip around his waist and he paused.
Please for the love of all that is holy do not let this be what I think it is,
he thought with a groan. He put his hand on top of hers and lifted it off his waist.

“Lisa. What’s going on? I thought we were meeting everyone here for dinner.”

She looked at him with a smile and shrugged. “Well, we
were,
but after I found out about you and Cindy breaking up, I couldn’t resist.”

“Resist?” he asked puzzled.

“Come on, Ethan. I know your rules about dating people you work with. I knew I’d never get you to ask
me,
so I kind of found a way around it.”

He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He thought his excuse was good enough, but Lisa was determined to find a way around it.

“Lisa, as much as I’m flattered that you planned this whole thing out, I don’t think—”

“I knew you’d be happy,” she squealed, cutting him off and throwing her arms around his neck. “I knew that working together was the only thing keeping you away from me.”

Ethan closed his eyes in exhaustion. He couldn’t understand why when he spoke to girls they always took every word out of context. First Cindy and now Lisa.

Just as he placed his hands over hers in an attempt to remove them from him, the restaurant door opened. The street light from outside framed the silhouette of someone standing in the doorway. It took four seconds for Ethan to recognize who it was and when he did, he froze.

Kate’s eyes immediately caught his, and the puzzled look on her face quickly changed to one of hurt as she dropped her head. Her purse slipped from her shoulders and Ethan’s mind went blank. He pulled Lisa’s arms from around his neck and took a step in Kate’s direction.

The closer he stepped, the more Kate’s hurt turned to anger. She couldn’t believe she’d been stupid enough to believe that Ethan had told the truth about his breakup. And even if he had told the truth, he obviously wasn’t interested in her if he was going out on dates with other girls.

Ethan was only a few feet away, when the door opened once again and in walked his past. The woman who just arrived bent down to get Kate’s purse, and when she stood back up, she noticed Ethan. Her eyes went wide with recognition.

“Bones?”

“Squish?” he asked with a disbelieving tone. Ethan couldn’t believe his eyes. Standing before him was Elle McLean, his childhood friend.

Kate looked in confusion from Elle to Ethan, not quite believing what she heard.

“Oh, shut up, Bones, you know I hate that nickname,” Elle spat.

“Yeah, well, I believe I told you on more than one occasion that my name was Ethan and not Bones,” he said while giving her a knowing look.

A sudden rush of panic hit Kate. If Elle knew Ethan, then it meant only one thing. They dated. As if confirming her biggest nightmare, the two of them hugged. Sparks of jealousy burned inside of her, but she kept her mouth shut. After all, Ethan wasn’t hers to claim.

“What are you doing here? I thought you were still in San Francisco.”

“I was there until medical school. Then I moved east. I had a connection with some family friends that moved here to Philly and it was too good for me to pass up. What about you? I thought you guys moved to Detroit?”

“We did initially, but then my parents separated. We moved with my dad to Virginia right before high school and made the move up here a few years ago. It’s close to New York City, so it’s perfect for work.”

“That’s right, you’re modeling. Didn’t you do something for Coors Light a while back?”

“Yeah, I was the ‘Tap the Rockies’ girl for a little while.” She waved her hand around.

“What are you up to now?” Ethan asked, honestly interested.

“I actually just landed a great job. And I did a spread for the swimsuit issue of
Sports Illustrated
a few months ago. I’m hoping I get the cover,” she said with a huge smile.

“You did? Squish, that’s awesome. Congratulations. My roommate would flip out if he found out that I actually knew a model in that issue.”

“Really? I’ll have to meet him sometime and make his day,” she said with a sly wink.

“He would definitely enjoy that.” Ethan laughed. “So how is Logan doing these days? Is he still in Detroit?”

“No, we wouldn’t separate from each other like that. He’s my lifeline. There was no way I was moving without him.”

By now, Kate was completely floored. She couldn’t believe that the guy she’d been obsessing over for the past week was an old friend of Elle’s. The only thing she feared was that, at one point, they were more than friends. Kate considered herself a fairly confident woman, but being compared to someone like Elle was sure to make even the prettiest of women doubt their appearance.

There was a break in conversation, and Elle finally noticed her friend standing silently beside her.

“Ethan, I want you to meet my best friend, Kate Thomas.”

Kate looked at Ethan, and even though her heart started to pound loudly, she still felt a little angry. He’d lied to her.

He stretched out his hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Kate,” he said with a smile.

“I wish I could say the same,” she said under her breath.

Elle tensed and turned to look at her friend, attempting to read her harsh expression. Then without saying a word, she relaxed and looked at Ethan, who was still watching Kate with intense eyes.

“Sorry, Ethan. Kate’s has been a little snappy lately. You’ll have to forgive her.” She raised her perfectly formed eyebrow.

“I haven’t been snappy, Elle,” she retorted.

“Yes, you have been ever since you met that ‘Dr. Hottie’ of yours a week ago,” she argued back, under her breath.

Kate glared, but Elle didn’t notice. “She’s been a bit of a witch lately,” she said to Ethan. “It’s the effects of being sexually frustrated beyond a normal capacity.” She nodded matter-of-factly.

Kate’s eyes went wide and her cheeks flushed red. “Elle,” she said in a whisper through clenched teeth. Her friend still hadn’t noticed her apparent mortification and continued talking.

“See, this doctor she met a week ago has made her crazy. She even did this whole ‘produce porn’ thing—which, to be honest, made me quite proud. But that’s not the point. The point is that this guy she met has her panties in a twist. And she’s taking it out on everyone around her. And she keeps having these dreams where she—”

Kate reached out and clamped her hand over her friend’s mouth. Heat radiated from every inch of her body. She was mortified. But she didn’t care how embarrassed she was. She was determined to stop Elle from speaking another word.

Just as she was about to push her outside, the door opened again and in walked Sophie and Logan, linked arm in arm. Kate was immediately thankful for the distraction and felt herself relax for the first time since she’d walked in the restaurant.

“Man, Ethan, it’s been what … sixteen, no, eighteen years?” Logan hugged his friend and had a smile that stretched ear to ear. “You haven’t changed too much, except you’re not skin and bones anymore.”

“Neither have you. And I see you still can’t get rid of this sister of yours,” Ethan joked back.