Page 9 of Protecting What's Mine

She didn’t have to look hard for her flirty firefighter. There was a clump of adoring female medical personnel clustered around a trauma bay.

Chief Sexy Pants, with his broad shoulders and easy grin, took up most of the space between the vinyl curtains. The back of his left hand was bandaged, his right arm was in a sling that she could tell he was itching to get out of. He was hooked to a bag of fluids, most likely for the dehydration that came from battling blazes.

Mack thought of the flowers, wondered if it was true. If it was, it was wildly romantic and irresponsible.

Dr. Ling, according to the fiercely frowning woman’s ID badge, glanced up from the laptop. “Unless you’re family, you’re going to need to stay in the waiting room,” she said without looking up.

“Doc Dreamy here is family. She’s my future wife,” Linc said.

Mack laughed and pretended not to notice the daggers the nursing staff shot in her direction. Holding up her hospital ID, she noted the disappointment that flashed across Dr. Ling’s face. Mack had known doctors like Ling. Territorial, a shade aggressive. But usually very, very good at medicine. “We’re old friends,” Mack said. “Nice to see you again, Lefty. How’s the wing?”

“Good as new thanks to the doc here.”

“That’s not even remotely accurate,” Dr. Ling announced dryly, then reluctantly, for Mack’s behalf, added, “Partial subluxation. It’s back in place and needs to stay stabilized. The chief is under strict orders not to over-stress the injury.”

“How’s our patient?” Linc asked, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and pointing at the IV in his arm. With a nod from Dr. Ling, one of the nurses jumped into action to remove it. Mack was a little disappointed when the woman didn’t kiss the Band-Aid she gently smoothed over the tiny needle hole.

“Not sure,” Mack said, shoving a hand in the pocket of her shorts. “Made it here in one piece. She’s in surgery. No spinal. But that’s all I know.”

“I can find out for you, chief,” one of the younger nurses said, American as apple pie with blonde curls and pretty blue eyes with lashes that were batting a mile a minute.

“I’d appreciate that, Lurlene.”

Oh, she would recognize that hotshot charm anywhere, Mack thought, as Lurlene sprinted for the desk. And not so long ago she’d have had no issues with enjoying a couple of rounds in bed with said hotshot charm. But she was turning over a new leaf.

A new, celibate, boring leaf.

Too bad there was something in those eyes that she liked, that she recognized. The slick, harmless charm. The exhaustion he was keeping tamped down.

He stood, and even the indomitable Dr. Ling took a step back to accommodate him.

Taller than she’d thought. A little broader too. But not soft. Except around the eyes.

His build reminded her of the neighbor she’d accidentally spied over her backyard fence in the early dawn hours putting himself through a punishing workout, a yellow lab delightedly shadowing his movements.

Not a bad way to wake up.

“Feel like giving a wounded man a ride home, doc?” Linc asked.

Mack heard the internal swooning of a half-dozen women.

“Sorry, Lefty. I’ve got plans.”

On cue, RS poked her head around the curtain and held up her pager. “Yo, doc. Caught another one. Next shift pilot’s late. Raincheck?”

Mack sent her a wave. “Happy flying, RS. Next shift.”

Linc’s grin broadened. “Looks like you’ve got time to drive me home after all.”

4

Linc liked the conflict he read on her bare face. Freshly showered—her hair smelled like lavender and honey—Doc Dreamy was as attractive in shorts and a worn National Guard shirt as she was in a flight suit.

“Where do you live?” she asked, chewing on that now naked lip as she gave the idea some thought.

“Little town called Benevolence. I’m sure it’s on the way to wherever you’re headed,” he said, all charm now. The sock-in-the-gut speechless reaction he’d had to her on-scene was going to be chalked up to being distracted by his shoulder. Now that he was trussed up like a damn turkey and rehydrated, he was free to focus on those wary green eyes.

“Honey, I don’t care if he lives in South Dakota.” Janice the RN had twenty years on him and barely topped out at five feet even. But she returned his shameless flirting with an expertise he hoped to someday possess. “You drive our boy home and thank us later.”