Second First Kiss

Chapter 14

Sage

Staff meeting. Ugh. These always ended up being nothing more than an excuse for McGreeley to toot his own horn and tell everyone else what to do. Now that Dr. Parrish was gone, that left McGreeley—of all people—as the senior doctor at Mendon Regional Medical Center.

Insufferable.

“With Dr. Smithers out of rotation for the day, he won’t be covering the ER.” McGreeley talked about Dr. Smithers as though none of them were aware of the real cause of his absence—a nosedive into the comfort of alcohol. “We still have three other doctors available for the hospital today. It’s a shame to be without doctors Babbage and Parrish, as well. A lot of us are picking up that slack. I know I’m putting in more hours than is customary.”

Jasher met her eyes across the conference table, like he wanted to say something about putting in hours together.

She looked away. Not now, dude. You’ll get me all discombobulated. Sage had been scheduled off and hadn’t run into Jasher since their ill-fated forest fire date.

Every day since then, she’d been kicking herself for one terrible segment of their conversation. It had been brief, and they’d definitely moved past it into a near conflagration of near-kissing. But it still lay there, just like the dead corpse of her dead marriage.

I don’t see how you can leave Mendon and the surrounding area without a surgeon. I mean a good surgeon.

He’d probably been running that part of their date on a loop just like she had, and he probably never wanted to see her again. She’d been so pointed with him about her judgment that he was leaving the hospital short-handed by taking the job in Reedsville and not staying on as a surgeon here. Who was she to tell him he was a lowlife for wanting to use the skills he’d acquired while specializing?

How did this make her any different from the rest of the judgy judgers in this town and their sentencing of him to social banishment?

She was the same as every other Mendon resident.

“We have no surgeries scheduled for the day.” McGreeley looked down at his clipboard. “That means Sage, you’ll be in the ER alongside me.”

“Yes, doctor.” Ugh. She should have brought her gas mask. The cologne was strong today.

McGreeley made the other assignments, and across the room, Jasher caught her eye.

Their date didn’t make it okay for her to cross professional lines while here at work.

Except that he’d repeatedly brought up the subject of potentially crossing those lines. In the linen closet.

Maybe he hadn’t noticed the way she’d gotten all toasty warm when he mentioned the possibility of kissing him again.

Her last kiss had been far too long ago. Her last Hotchkiss had been much longer ago than that. Her lips needed a de-icing. Maybe she’d bragged that nothing about herself was icy, but that’d been a bald-faced lie. Her lips were glacial.

“Is that correct, Sage?” McGreeley asked, popping her back into the staff room.

“I’m sorry?” She couldn’t say yes or no. “Could you repeat the question, doctor?”

He smirked. “That the ER will need an additional two nurses on staff because of the holiday weekend coming up. The most accidents occur when the town is celebratory.”

“Yes, doctor. We’ll need additional nurses for the weekend.” Gah! Caught fantasizing about Jasher’s kiss! She could use one of those bucket brigade buckets right about now to quench her shame.

A nurse from the last shift popped her head in the door. “Dr. McGreeley?” She waved him over, and McGreeley got up to leave.

Jasher caught Sage’s eye, and his brow lifted for a split second. Was it a flirtation or a twitch? She was so bad at reading those kinds of things. She glanced around to see whether anyone else on staff had noticed.

They were all on their phones. Whew.

Bless that technology.

McGreeley returned. “I’m sorry. We’ve had a change. I have a personal matter, and we’ll need someone else to cover the ER.”

Jasher stepped forward. “I’ll volunteer. I can probably fit the other rounds of my patients in between emergency cases.”

“Thank you, Dr. Hotchkiss.” McGreeley didn’t look grateful. He looked jealous. “That will cover it.” He dashed out the door.