Page 4 of Her Desire (Pulse Medical #3)
“Right?” Holly groaned, rubbing a hand over her face. “And now, thanks to him and his complete lack of boundaries, the entire OR knows about the exact location of my date before I even knew where I was going.”
Gianna frowned, her thick, sculpted eyebrows pulling together over those deep, espresso-brown eyes. “Wait. What do you mean by that?”
Holly explained everything that had happened in the OR—from Caldwell telling her that Brian was planning to take her to a fine dining restaurant, to Caldwell offering unsolicited tips and tricks on how to handle Brian.
She didn’t even have to mention the seafood allergy since Gianna knew all about it.
She was even there that one time when Holly had accidentally eaten a crab cake, thinking it was a savory potato fritter.
By the time Holly’s face started itching, her throat starting to swell, Gianna had already found an EpiPen and jabbed it into her thigh.
She expected Gianna to be outraged, just like Holly was a few minutes ago in that OR.
But she wasn’t. Instead, she laughed out loud. Which, frankly, was the right response. It made Holly feel slightly better, as if she could finally gain some much-needed perspective on the whole situation.
“So, did you text him?” Gianna asked, glancing down at her fingers. Short-cut nails, long nail beds, and cuticles that any manicurist would be proud of.
“Of course I did,” Holly said, catching a glimpse of her own hands.
They weren’t nearly as beautiful as Gianna’s, or as delicate.
Not to mention the fact that Gianna operated on tiny humans made Holly feel like her own hands were clumsy in comparison—like they could barely handle a scalpel.
Not that she often did, at least not since her training as a resident.
“You think I want my airway closing up over shrimp salad?”
Gianna laughed, the sound warm and low. A laugh that had the ability to make other people laugh. “And what did he say?”
“Don’t know yet,” she replied. She’d felt the vibration of a message on her phone right after she’d walked in through the break room doors but hadn’t made any effort to check it out.
It was like she wanted to avoid it. To will it away; as if by not looking, she could delay whatever was coming, keep Friday from creeping any closer.
“So, he hasn’t replied?”
“He has,” Holly said not looking her way.
She knew that if she did, if she caught her eye, Gianna would see right through her and know that pep talk she’d given Holly yesterday had gone in one ear and out the other.
She was still overthinking things. But even Holly knew that if she kept finding reasons to avoid dating, she’d end up alone, stuck in a cycle of long shifts and coffee-fueled conversations with other doctors who focused more on their professions than their personal lives—Gianna included.
Thirty might be young still, but it wasn’t that young. Her biological clock was ticking. It didn’t matter that pregnancy was no longer considered geriatric at thirty-five, she’d feel old if she waited much longer to settle down. She wanted kids, at least two of them.
“Holly,” Gianna said, cocking her head to the side, watching her intently with those eyes, the brown so deep, so rich, Holly often felt lost inside them.
“ Fine ,” she groaned, fishing her phone out of her scrub pocket. She swiped a finger across the screen until it lit up and didn’t react when she saw a message from Brian. She had expected it after all.
Holly read the text out loud. “ Hi Holly. I was going to keep it a surprise. But I guess not everyone likes surprises. Noted for next time. Got a seven p.m. reservation at the Tidal Catch. Reviews look awesome.”
“Well, you better tell him to cancel the reservation.”
“Or,” Holly started. “I can just avoid eating anything with seafood in it.”
But Gianna didn’t seem to agree—Holly didn’t even need her to say anything to know that. The pediatric surgeon opened her mouth to put in her two cents, but Holly beat her to it, “Fine,” she sighed. “I’ll tell him.”
And she did, in the most polite, carefully worded way possible.
Before she sent it, Holly read the text out loud.
“ Hey Brian, that sounds lovely. Unfortunately, I have a slight issue with shellfish, so maybe we can try somewhere a little less…fishy.” She glanced at Gianna for an opinion, but the woman was staring off into space, not really paying her any attention.
Holly nudged Gianna’s knee with hers, which got the pediatric surgeon’s attention. Gianna glanced her way, frowning. “What?”
“Thoughts?” Holly asked, tilting the phone toward her. “You think this makes me seem like a person with the stomach of a small, upset bird?”
“No,” Gianna said, her lips quirking into a faint smile, a smile that seemed far more loaded than it should be. “It’s perfect.”
Something was up. But Holly didn’t have any time to pry it out of her. Her beeper went off. She glanced down, reading the message flashing across the tiny screen. OR 3. STAT.
“Oh, come on,” Holly grumbled, eyeing the coffee pot brewing across the room. “Just five minutes of peace. Is that so hard?”
Gianna, whose attention had also shot to the beeper and was now checking her phone for any messages, shook her head. “You work in a hospital. You know peace is a myth, right?”
Holly grumbled something incoherent under her breath and pushed herself off the couch, but not before giving Gianna’s knee a quick parting squeeze—half a goodbye, half a wish me luck.
“Gotta go,” she said, already walking away, but not before she caught sight of Gianna’s expression—lips parted slightly, brows squeezed together, and something unreadable flickering in those lovely brown eyes.
Not that Holly had time to figure out what it meant. Duty called