Date Next Door
“A pediatrician’s office? I don’t think so. What if someone had seen me?”
“Afraid of ruining your tough-cop rep?”
“Heck, yes. I’d never live it down.”
“Darn it, Nic, stop wiggling. You want me to snip you instead of the stitches?”
“I should have just taken them out myself,” she muttered, forcing herself to be still. “I have manicure scissors.”
“If you’d have even tried that, I’d have made you get new stitches.”
She laughed at his ridiculous threat. “Oh, real tough guy. I’m shaking.”
Sitting beside her as she lay on her bed with her chin tilted toward him, Joel sighed. “Seriously, Nic, lie still, okay? I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Okay, I’ll try. How many have you gotten out?”
He sighed. “One. We just started.”
“Oh.” Somewhat chastened, she dug her fingers into the bedspread beneath her to hide the apprehension she refused to allow him to see.
They’d already had an argument that morning about the stitches. Nic had asked him to remove them, since she wanted to report to work the next morning looking mostly healed from her freak accident. Joel had agreed that she’d healed well enough to remove the stitches, but he’d wanted to do it at his office, a suggestion she had vetoed.
“My brother took out his own stitches when he sliced his hand on a fish-gutting knife. He said it was no big deal and he sure wasn’t going to pay a doctor to do it.”
Joel hadn’t been impressed by her argument, but he had reluctantly admitted that he could safely remove her stitches without going to the clinic. Now that she had nagged him into it, she was determined not to show him that it made her a little nervous.
She managed to remain still for the rest of the procedure, though she had to bite her tongue a couple of times when the slightly crusty stitches pulled as he removed them. To give him credit, he was amazingly gentle. She found that gazing up into his face helped take her mind off what he was doing.
He really did have a handsome face. She wondered now why she’d ever thought of him as just an average, pleasant-looking guy.
He met her eyes for a moment and smiled, making his face even more appealing. “You’re doing great now,” he assured her. “Maybe you’ll get a reward after all.”
“I’m counting on it,” she purred.
He cleared his throat. “Not a good idea to distract the doctor when he’s holding scissors.”
A few minutes later it was over. With a last swab of antibiotic over the mending wound, Joel pronounced it well on the way to being fully healed.
“It’s actually a very dashing scar,” he assured her with a smile. “Makes you look bold and adventurous.”
She laughed. “That’s always been my goal, of course.”
“Of course.”
She reached up to catch the collar of his shirt in both hands, drawing him down toward her. “I haven’t thanked you yet for your expert care.”
His mouth hovering just over hers, he replied, “It was entirely my pleasure.”
“It will be,” she promised and closed the gap between them.
It had been an amazing week, Nic thought as she lay against Joel’s shoulder some time later. They had spent every evening together from the time Joel got home from work until he left late each night to walk next door.
They had talked as easily as they ever did, laughed as much as before, but with a new awareness now of the attraction simmering between them. They talked about their work, about the TV programs they watched together, about music and movies and sports. They talked about everything except their relationship. Or their past relationships. Or the future.
Okay, she thought with a wince, so maybe they had carefully avoided talking about the really important issues between them. That wasn’t so bad, was it?
It was still early in their relationship. They didn’t need to get all