Page 16 of Living with Fire
“I could easily go back in there and give these to her, but I feel like they might mean more coming from you,” she tells me, and when I stare at her in confusion, she rolls her eyes. “Nate, she’s about to be discharged and the only thing she had to wear when she came in was underwear. I’m certain she isn’t going to want to walk around in a hospital gown, so I ran down to my locker and got these. I think we’re close to the same size, except I’ve got more boob going on than she does.”
I wrinkle my nose at the last comment, not wanting to think about my sister’s tits, but take the pile of clothes that she hands me, now recognizing them as scrubs, as well as a pair of flip-flops. “You do this for all your patients?”
“My bonehead brother doesn’t have a crush on all my patients, so no, I don’t,” she tells me before whacking me in the arm. “You had to go and offer her your phone, didn’t you?”
I stare at her dumbfounded. “I was being helpful!”
“And I was trying to set you up so you could take her out for a coffee, but you had to jump in there like the hero you always are,” Jordan says, shaking her head at me like I’m the biggest imbecile out there. “We tried to get her to call someone she knew earlier, but she said there was no one she wanted to bother.”
Well shit. Who knew that my need to help would come back to bite me in the ass like that? Now Savanna is in there calling someone to pick her up when I could have been the one to… what? What exactly would I have done with her? She didn’t want to be hit on, and if I offered her a ride somewhere, would she have thought I was hitting on her? Taking her for coffee would seem a lot like a date, and wouldn’t that be a step above hitting on her?
Suddenly I’m irritated with my sister for trying to pry, not only in my life, but in Savanna’s. “She doesn’t want someone picking her up, Jor. She doesn’t want to be taken out for coffee. She’s just had a couple of really horrible days, so while I’m sure you mean well in your meddling, leave Savanna alone, and stay out of my damn love life.”
Turning around, I head back for Savanna’s room. Despite my warning to Jordan, I keep the scrubs, because the hell if I’m letting that beautiful woman walk out of here in her underwear, or a hospital gown.
CHAPTER 7
SAVANNA
I’m not snooping, per se, but I am staring at the background picture on Nate’s phone. I find myself surprised that it’s not of him and his girlfriend, but one of him, and what I’m assuming to be his parents. I can see the family resemblance in the picture, and for some reason it feels familiar to me, but I’m guessing that’s because I’ve been staring at Nate for the past half hour.
It’s hard not to. He’s one of the hottest, if not the hottest man, I’ve ever seen. He screams pure, unadulterated male to me. Just being in his presence has my body buzzing in a way I don’t know I’ve ever felt. It was all I could do not to climb out of this bed and into his lap, something I’ve never found myself wanting to do.
It’s a tad unnerving. Sure, I’ve felt an instant attraction to men before, my ex being one of them. But a zing to my hand? Or the way he’s a magnet for my eyes? Never.
Too bad he has a girlfriend. A really nice, super beautiful girlfriend.
At first, I thought he was here to see me, but then I realized he must have been at the hospital visiting her, and I was an afterthought to him. It was pretty obvious that they knew each other intimately when she touched his arm on her way out of the room when he first got here. Then the way she told me to delete whoever I called solidified that she was putting her mark on her territory. If that wasn’t enough, he’s been very upfront that he’s not hitting on me.
That hasn’t stopped me from ogling him, much like I did the first time I saw him in the elevator. He might be even sexier now, even though I can’t see that wide expanse of a chest very well with his jacket that declares he’s a firefighter.
I’ve noticed other things, though. Like how he runs his fingers through his hair a lot, and how his neck turns redder than his cheeks when he’s said something, and then a second later, realizes what he’s said. It’s adorable.
I also may have taken another peek at his backside when he got up and left, and let me just say, it’s obvious the man works out because his ass is stellar the way it fills out his jeans. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t checked it out when he was walking out of the elevator the other day, but damn it, that was his fault for bringing it up.
“Get a hold of someone?”
His voice comes out of nowhere and startles me so badly I drop his phone in my lap, my head snapping up. I wonder how long he’s been standing there staring at me. Long enough that the drapes are closed, and not swaying, which causes a flush of heat to tinge my cheeks red.
“Yeah, I—” I’m about to offer an explanation, but then stop myself with a bite to my lip before repeating, “Yeah.”
When lying, it’s better to stick to the simplest of answers rather than offer anything needing to be remembered in the future. The truth is, I didn’t make a single phone call. I was going to call my own phone and just listen to it ring until my voicemail picked up, but when I saw Nate and Jordan’s feet disappear from under the curtain, I didn’t bother. It didn’t matter because I told her I would delete the number from Nate’s phone anyway.
There was no number to delete because there was no one for me to call.
I could call home. I considered it earlier. God, did I consider it. I thought about calling my older brother Devin because he’d know what to do in this situation. The responsible one out of my two brothers, Devin would have made fast work of finding me a place to go, ensuring I had a roof over my head until I could get into my apartment.
But then I thought about all the questions that would come with calling him. The disappointment I would no doubt hear in his voice. The hurt and the pain. And I know once I open the door of calling home, there’s no going back. There’s no more protecting my family from the dangers of my ex.
So I decided I was better off figuring things out on my own.
“Good,” Nate nods, reminding me of his presence. It only takes him a couple of strides before he’s at my side. It’s then I notice he’s got something in his hand that he holds out to me. “These are from Jordan. She thought maybe this would be better than anything else for you. The two of you are about the same size.”
I blink a few times, staring at the articles in his hand, recognizing he’s holding clothes and a pair of shoes. Hesitantly I take them, my face turning up towards his, his blue eyes peering down at me with warmth that makes me want to melt.
“Your girlfriend is really nice. She didn’t need to do this,” I smile, trying to be grateful instead of disappointed.
Nate rears back like I hit him, his mouth opening and closing like a dying fish.