Page 14 of The Girls of Pearl Harbor
April raised her eyebrows, grinning at the compliment, and Poppy was about to introduce herself to her patient when her gaze landed on a familiar pair of dark-brown eyes.
‘Teddy?’ she gasped.‘Teddy!’
He groaned and covered his face.
‘Theodore Banks, what on earth are you doingfightingon the sidelines at a football game!’ she demanded.
‘Teddy?’ April echoed beside her. ‘It’sTeddy?’
‘Can you take me to another hospital?’ he begged the driver. ‘Please, anywhere but here!’
‘You’re not going anywhere,’ Poppy muttered. ‘Take him through. And don’t eventhinkof getting all hot under the collar in our ward.’
She marched after them, trading glances with April as she passed her. When he was in a bed, she glared at him and sat beside him, studying his face. ‘You’re going to have a black eye, you fool. You’ll be lucky if it doesn’t close over completely by morning.’
He groaned. ‘You wouldn’t understand.’
‘How men can get so worked up over a game that they attack one another?’ she asked, reaching for antiseptic cream and dabbing some on a cloth. ‘Because you’d be right about that—I don’t understand at all.’
‘It was a bit more personal than that,’ he said.
She hesitated, her hand hovering over his eye, before pressing the cloth gently to his skin. ‘Personal like what?’ she asked.
‘Well, it started over the game. We disagreed about a call the referee made,’ Teddy said, wincing as she pressed harder, ‘and then that idiot over there claimed he’d have you in his bed by the end of the month.’
Poppy dropped the cloth, her cheeks burning. ‘Why would he say that?’
Teddy’s fingers danced against her wrist, and she swallowed, embarrassed as he stared into her eyes. ‘He was just trying to get under my skin. You’re one of the prettiest girls on the island, and the guys are always hassling me. But no one’s stealing my girl from me, Pops. No one.’
She didn’t move, unable to resist when he rose up on one elbow and cupped the back of her head. She should have pulled back, but instead she dipped lower and let him press his lips to hers, sighing into his mouth and wishing she had more willpower.
‘You’re a big idiot, Teddy, but I’m not taking up with any other man.’
He laughed and sat up, looking over at the other bed and making a face at the other guy.
‘Teddy! You just did that so he’d see, didn’t you?’
He gave her an innocent puppy-dog face, and she swatted at him, pushing him back down.
‘Honestly!’ She dabbed more antiseptic onto the cloth and pressed it hard to the skin beside his eye this time, taking pleasure in the short gasp that hissed from his lips. How dare he lure her in all sweet as pie, for the benefit of someone watching on! ‘You deserve a black eye, Teddy; in fact you’re lucky I haven’t given you another one. Now let me look at the rest of you. What hurts?’
He held up his right hand, and she started to dab cream into the raw bits on his knuckles, wondering why he was brought in on a stretcher if he just had some superficial wounds to his upper body. But just as she was about to ask him, he bent and lifted his pant leg up, and she realized he was only wearing one boot.
‘What happened here?’ she asked. But as the words came out, she saw the beginnings of an angry purple bruise spreading around his ankle.
‘I was winning the fight until the dirty bastard tripped me up. I went over pretty heavy on it.’
Poppy slapped at him again, this time for swearing, but she touched his ankle carefully, sitting beside the bed and inspecting every inch of his lower leg and foot as well.
‘You’d better hope this is just a bad sprain,’ she said. ‘You’re a fool, Teddy. Honestly, I have no idea what I see in you sometimes.’
But as his hands brushed her shoulder and stroked down her hair, she remembered exactly why she loved him so much. The man might be a rogue, but he was one hell of a sweet-talker, and the second his fingertips touched her skin, she melted. Always had, always would.
‘I love you, baby,’ he whispered.
She stood and folded her arms, trying to look cross with him. ‘I love you too,’ she whispered, before shaking her head and setting off to find the doctor. The last thing he needed was a broken or fractured ankle. She glanced at Don as she walked down the row of beds, waving to him as she passed.
The only bonus of having Teddy in her ward was that he’d be able to join them for poker night, and she loved the idea of snuggling up beside him and letting her man teach her how to bluff and deal cards with the boys.
