Second First Kiss

Chapter 25

Jasher

Jasher couldn’t even think about sleeping, despite the exhaustion of the day with Sage and the night operating on Cade Calhoun. It was like he’d downed five energy drinks.

“Energy drinks. Pah. Stuff’ll poison you,” he muttered as he strode the halls of the Mendon Regional Medical Center working off his residual energy. “Sugar, caffeine, chemicals—”

He lurched to a halt.

Poison.

Chemicals.

“That’s it!” He snapped his fingers and broke into a jog. “Sage. Sage!” Jasher’s lab coat’s tails flew out behind him, and his stethoscope bounced against his chest as he checked the O-R, the hallways, the cafeteria for her. Where could she be? “Hey, Sage.”

He flung back the door to the scrubs room. There she stood, her scrubs in her arms, and only wearing her purple bikini from earlier.

Jasher’s body chemistry lurched him sideways. Wow, she was incredible, from head to toe. He wanted to touch her again, to—

“Jasher.” She clutched her clothes in front of her body. As if he hadn’t seen her in the swimwear earlier. “Is everything all right? Is it Mr. Calhoun?”

“No, no.” Jasher tore his eyes off the dip where her waist was narrowest and looked back at her face. “It’s …” What was it? Oh, right. “It’s Powell Barlow. I think I know what’s wrong.”

“Didn’t you hear?” Sage tossed her scrubs in the laundry and reached for a clean set. “Powell Barlow was flown out to Reedsville. He began having convulsions. That’s where the medical transport was.”

Convulsions! “That confirms it.”

“Confirms what?” She paused, half dressed.

“Do you know which hospital he was transferred to?”

“Reedsville General. Jasher, what is it?” Sage came to him, only her scrubs bottoms on, the top draped over her forearm. “If you have any idea what’s wrong with Powell, I need to be able to tell Anne-Marie. She loves Pal.”

“I should have seen it right away. He’s a lifelong farmer. It’s so obvious—lead poisoning!”

Sage gasped. “We’ve got to call the hospital there, get them to test his blood specifically for lead.” She whipped the scrubs top over her head. “You’re a genius, Jasher. Diagnosis might be your gift. Well, another one of your gifts.” She placed a quick but supple kiss against his cheek.

“I should admit that some of that surgical skill today was luck. Or divine guidance.”

“That I believe.” Sage smiled. “Because I think every single one of us in that room was praying for you. But that’s not the gift I was talking about.” She slipped her arms around his waist and pressed a delicious kiss that tasted of mint and cherries on his mouth, and he didn’t waste a second before deepening it, pressing her to him—but only for a moment before she pulled away. “That’s the gift I meant.”

Guess who else was gifted in the kissing area?

Sage pushed a lock of hair off her brow. “I’ll head down to the nurse’s station and have them research how to contact Mr. Barlow’s physician in Reedsville.”

Reluctantly, Jasher released her from his grasp.

I have to have her in my life. For real. I can’t keep getting closer and closer like this and not make her truly mine. I’ll go crazy.

???

“Cade?” Jasher knocked twice on the recovery room’s door and then headed in. Cade had a private room, despite the high number of patients in the hospital today due to the car wrecks. “Hi. I’m here to discuss your surgery.”

Now that Calhoun was awake, Jasher had a duty to brief him on what had happened in the surgical theater and leading up to it, no matter how little he relished the idea of conversation with the guy.

“I know full well who you are, Hotchkiss.” Cade frowned through his sedatives. “You’re the last person I want to see.”

As a professional, Jasher couldn’t admit the feeling was mutual. “You had injured two of your vertebrae. Those are the bones in your back.”