4th & Girl

No shit, I had to blink three times just to make sure they were real.

Once I realized what I was seeing was, in fact, reality and not some fantasy born out of medical assisting boredom, I couldn’t stop myself from taking further inventory of the very fine specimen of a football player standing in the doorway of the lab.

Thick, dark hair.

A faint little scar resting just below his right eye.

Strong, chiseled jaw.

Broad shoulders.

Trim waist.

Toned thighs.

And what I could only assume was the kind of tight ass that would’ve had Grandma Louise doing a double take. She might’ve died ten years ago, but I felt like this guy’s heady gaze held the power to summon her from the dead.

Which, yes, I can see where that last bit of commentary may have been a bit disconcerting. But if you knew Grandma Louise, you’d understand. The woman’s bucket list included Thunder from Down Under and meeting Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

May she rest in peace.

“Hi, I’m Leo,” the guy introduced, and holy hell, even his voice was stupid sexy. “Leo Landry.”

“Hi, Leo,” Lisa greeted, apparently too focused on, you know, doing her job to realize we’d just been graced with the sexiest player on the Mavericks’ squad. “Give us just a minute, and we’ll get you in and out of here quickly.”

I, on the other hand, was otherwise mute and busy wiping drool from my chin.

Lisa looked at me. I looked at Lisa.

And we repeated that circuit a good three times before a scowl started to form across her thin lips.

Shit. This is my part of the job…

“Oh!” I muttered. “Right.” I hopped up from my seat and grabbed a cup from Lisa’s Leaning Tower of Pee-sa. “You’re obviously here for a reason, and that reason is to pee in one of these here cups so we can collect it,” I joked as I made the cup do a little dance across the counter.

Leo tilted his head to the side and watched the cup tip-tap across the surface before bringing his curious eyes back to mine.

A dancing urine cup? Really, Gem? Could you be any more awkward right now?

“For drug testing, obviously,” I added. “Not for, like, selling your urine on eBay or something weird like that.”

I didn’t even bother looking over at Lisa after those words left my lips. It didn’t take a genius to anticipate a bulging forehead vein from Ms. Medical Assistant when things like illegal urine auctions were mentioned.

Leo’s crystal-blue eyes went a little wide at my words, and it was pretty damn obvious I, Gemma Holden, could be more awkward.

Hell, if I had five more minutes, I’d probably win some kind of Guinness World Record for the mind-blowing ability to shove my entire foot into my mouth. Make it ten minutes and I might’ve been able to fit both feet.

“So, uh, let’s get that urine!” I exclaimed, which, ironically, sounded exactly like a psychopath who was, in fact, attempting to collect a football player’s urine to sell it on eBay.

Just shut up and take him to the bathroom before you can make this any more uncomfortable…

“Just follow me,” I said and cleared the nerves from my throat. “And I’ll get you out of here lickety-split.”

Lickety-split? Jesus Christ. Just stop talking.

With my lips firmly closed, I gestured for Leo to follow me into the small hallway off the lab and led him toward the bathrooms.

He followed with only slight hesitation, and once I spotted the bathroom door, I quickly remembered I hadn’t really finished reading the whole “How to Collect a Urine Sample” manual.

Shit. If I screwed this up, Lisa would call the National Board of Medical Assistants and find out I was a fraud.

Could you go to jail for medical assistant fraud?

It wasn’t exactly my fault I’d ended up at a job I wasn’t qualified for, but Lord knows, Mable would’ve had my ass if I’d inadvertently let word get out she’d done the sending. She seemed like the kind of woman you found at the temp agency during the week and burning herself with a lighter at a motorcycle rally party on the weekend.

Okay, just focus and keep it short and sweet, I mentally coached myself. Less is definitely more in this situation.

“So, uh, here’s the place that you pee,” I instructed…like a moron.

“It looks familiar,” Leo said, and a small smirk crested one corner of his mouth. “Pretty sure I’ve been inside one of these a time or two.”

God, even his smirk is sexy…

Stop gawking, Gemma, and give the incredibly handsome man the damn instructions.

“Uh…so…you just pee in this,” I said and awkwardly shoved the cup toward his chest. “And when you’re done, you’re supposed to bring it back out to me without the lid on it so I can ensure it’s a proper urine specimen,” I repeated the words from the manual.