First Real Kiss

Chapter 22

Luke

This was not how I’d envisioned my next move with Sheridan. I’d imagined she was going to say, I don’t need that rescuer. I’m having a great time with you. Or better, that she was falling in love with me.

Nope.

The next afternoon, when she had finished with her clients, we met at the hospital. Walter saw us together as we entered and got wrapped up in Sheridan.

“You’re her!”

She gave him that smile I’d seen—the one that made my stomach flip—and shook his hand. “I’m looking for records on who was working the ambulance that night. Luke thought there might be something in hospital archives.”

“Come this way.” Walter hardly noticed I was there as we passed his security checkpoint. “You’ll stay on the main floor and follow signs for the cafeteria. The records office is between the cafeteria and the chapel. Tell Maxine I sent you.” He gave Sheridan’s shoulder a squeeze. “All these years …” He gave her a warm, grandfatherly smile. “Your story warmed my heart. Thank you.”

I followed Sheridan into the hospital, keeping up with her gait. She could walk amazingly fast for someone who’d had to relearn to walk. I also sheepishly recalled that first day we’d met, when I’d tried to outpace her—to no avail.

Maxine greeted us, as did the smells of the cafeteria. The women there baked fresh rolls every afternoon. It was a perk of this hospital. I only knew of one other hospital in the network with cooks half this talented, and it was a long way off in Mendon.

“Dr. Hotwell. What are you doing with our Library Rescue?” Maxine took Sheridan by both hands, shaking them and giving her a look of love, a little pool of tears welling. “Sheridan, we prayed so hard for you after that happened, and to know that our prayers were answered, that you lived and have thrived. Look how beautiful you are!” She looked Sheridan up and down.

I looked Sheridan up and down, too. Seriously, the woman was gorgeous. Beautiful was too weak a description.

Finally, Maxine settled us into our task, bringing Sheridan anything she asked for. It turned out, Sheridan probably hadn’t needed me for hospital access. Her celebrity could have carried the day, and I was basically expendable.

“Oh, wow.” Sheridan opened one of the file folders marked ambulance personnel. “This is amazing. There are even photographs!”

She thumbed through page after page, getting slower with each one. “He’s not in here.” She shut the folder, dejected. “Are there other files?”

Maxine had tasked me with guarding the stack of files. “Sure.” I gave her the one marked hospital staff with the year in question.

I leaned toward her, the scent of her shampoo filling my senses. Sue me, I leaned closer and let her pheromones wash through me. We still hadn’t completed our kiss of the other night, and it was everything I could do not to pull her out of there and drag her to the linens closet like my colleagues apparently assumed I was doing all the time.

Finally, I’d found the one woman I wanted for that activity.

“It’s weird, but I keep expecting to see you in here.” She turned toward me, our faces centimeters apart. “But that’s silly.” Her gaze seized mine, and I nearly kissed her right then. “Did you always know you wanted to be a doctor?”

My heart slammed sideways in my chest. “No. Not always.”

“What happened?”

Good question. One I hadn’t ever told anyone. I stood up, walked back and forth a little, then sat on the edge of the desk, beside the open file folders. “I had a brother.”

Lance. I never talked about him.

“Had? It’s not just you and Lola?” Sheridan stood, sat beside me, and placed a hand on my knee. “What happened?”

This was a well I hadn’t plumbed in ages. The wheel to drop the bucket was rusty. It took some effort to turn the crank. “Lance was two years older, between Lola and me, and honestly the best of us. Funny, smart, great at sports, carried me on his bike’s handlebars down to the beach. He could pop a wheelie and keep riding. He could throw a football farther than any other kid in the neighborhood. When he got sick, nobody could believe it.” Well, at least I couldn’t. He was my big brother, invincible.

“Oh, Luke.” Sheridan stood up from the chair and moved to stand in front of me. “Your brother.”

I cleared my throat, which had mysteriously allowed a legion of frogs to move in. “Mom and Dad shifted into high gear. They found the best doctors. They got the best advice, took him to all the experts. He was getting better! Or so they said.”

Sheridan gave slow blinks, as if processing. “They told you he’d improve, and he didn’t.”

I closed my eyes, seeing the struggle all over again—Lance going from warrior to wasted and skeletal. “He didn’t. And after that, I decided I’d try to save anyone else I could.”

“No wonder you’re so intent on never giving false hope.”