Shatter (Unbreakable Bonds 2)

“I’ll come, too,” he said, unwilling to give up a few more minutes with the doctor. He looked over at Julie, smiling though he felt heat creeping into his cheeks over that damn kiss. “If that’s OK with you?”

Julie looked tired and a little pained, as if whatever meds she had been given were starting to wear off, but she nodded. “Please.”

Frost turned and stepped behind the wheelchair. Jude wondered why the doctor was doing this even as he marveled that he’d slept through someone helping Julie into the chair. Jude used to be a light sleeper when he’d still been at home with his mother and brothers—always ready to wake as the man of the house to protect his family. Since he’d moved out, he slept like the dead between shifts. He stood, grimacing at the twinge in his neck from nodding off in a chair.

The entire time the doctor watched him. It wasn’t Jude’s imagination—there was heat in that stare. And with that recognition, an answering spike shot into his abdomen so hard, he had to swallow a gasp. What the hell was it about this man?

Julie made an impatient sound. “Not to spoil the show or anything, but again, I’d like to see my little boy.”

Even Frost looked contrite then and Jude had to smile. Amusement and something like curiosity showed in his expression as he nodded toward the curtain.

Jude pulled it open and got another whiff of the man as he pushed Julie past him. The amused glance the doctor sent over his shoulder after passing let Jude know he’d been caught. He merely shrugged and lifted an eyebrow, let his intent show in his gaze. Now that he knew the interest was returned, he wasn’t letting this go until he had the man naked. Awareness of the taller man beside him tingled along his skin as they walked through the hospital.

Justin wasn’t awake. Frost pushed Julie close to the bed and backed into the hallway, stopping next to Jude who looked through the door. The little boy with the sandy blond hair looked thin and frail in the bed surrounded by beeping machines, but a quick glance at the stats flashing across the monitors revealed that he was in good condition. He had better than a fighting chance thanks to the doctor standing beside him.

“He looks good, Doc,” Jude said, voice low. “You saved him.”

“Snow,” the man barked out even as he looked surprised by his own word.

“Huh?”

“Call me Snow.” He turned and leaned one shoulder against the wall outside the room, gaze once again locked on Jude. “And you’re the one who actually saved him.”

Shock sent Jude’s eyebrow up. Most of the doctors looked at what they all did as a team effort. Hell, they called themselves family. But Doc Frost, or Snow, had always kept himself apart. It was one of the reasons for his surgeon general nickname. But he hadn’t expected this particular doctor to give a paramedic that sort of credit.

“Why do you look surprised?” Snow held his eyes, staring straight at him as if trying to look into his soul. That had always struck Jude when it came to Snow. When he spoke, he always looked a person in the eye, no matter how uncomfortable the conversation might become. There was no escaping him. “You handle trauma. You handle people who are involved in trauma. That first stint of medical help saves lives. Do you love what you do?”

“Very much.” Jude smiled and leaned against the wall. “It’s just that normally that question comes after ‘Why didn’t you become a doctor?’”

Snow merely shrugged and glanced down the hall as a small group of people shuffled into one of the rooms. “I figured you’d be a doctor if that’s what you wanted.”

“I like this job and have wanted it since I watched paramedics respond to a call for my grandmother when I was a kid. They came in, helped her, then calmed my mother down, which was probably the most amazing part. I’ve always known it was what I wanted to do.” Jude rubbed the back of his neck, the crick worsening. He always got one when he fell asleep sitting up. He should go home; get a hot shower—or hope there was enough hot water for one. But he couldn’t bring himself to walk away from this chance to talk to Snow. “Did you always want to be a doctor?”

Snow inclined his head and took a step closer. “What was with the kiss?” he asked abruptly.

Back to barking things out, it seemed. Heat crept up Jude’s neck and he hoped the scruff that inevitably grew by this time on his face would hide it. Blushing wasn’t something he usually did, but neither was licking the lips of a man he hadn’t spoken to before. When Snow’s gaze flicked down and the corner of his mouth lifted, he knew it hadn’t worked. Damn. This man made him stupid. “I thought I was dreaming. I’d apologize but I’m not sorry.”