Page 36 of Hearts on the Table
I shrugged off the compliment. “Product of being an only child with busy parents. Kinda selfish, kinda bossy. I’m not sure what Will’s excuse is. Sometimes I wish I were more introspective, though, or more considerate, like you.”
“Considerate. Doormat. Same concept.”
“That’s not true. You got that one nurse fired.”
“Well, he was lying about dosages.”
“And you’re a total ball-buster with the Fellows.”
He shook his head. “You walk all over me.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, mister ‘OR request denied. Jones can take you down a few pegs till you remember patients are people, too.’”
Sam grimaced, gazing at the skyline again. “That’s not how I meant that.”
“That’s exactly what you meant!” I laughed. Now that I had some distance from the moment, Sam’s approach made sense to me. I’d lost sight of the patient. I was a surgeon, but I wasn’t so egotistical that I couldn’t see my own mistakes. “And it’s fine, because you handled it like a total badass. You know how to get people’s best out of them. You should be proud of that.”
“A badass,” he repeated, the sides of his mouth tilting up. The concept seemed novel to him, like he’d never considered himself that way before. “The resident stuff is fun. Teaching. And if it makes you feel better, I spent nearly half of my next meeting with Caplan talking about how amazing you are.”
“Oh? Tell me more.” I batted my eyes and swirled the ice in my cup.
“That surgery with Cooper last month? Incredible. All the nurses love you.Allof them. Even the cranky ones.” Sam mirrored me, sitting back with his mug. “Your sutures make me want to weep.”
I clutched my chest, acting like the compliment had taken my breath away. It had. “No one’s ever complimented my sutures on a date before.”
“So clean. Minimal scarring. Perfect consistency.” Sam’s voice raked, raising goosebumps across my arms that had nothing to do with the chill still hanging in the air. I’d never considered discussing stitches to be a form of foreplay.
More.More of him. More of this.
“I hope you know I’ll be thinking of this conversation the next time I have to stitch someone up.”
Sam’s grin chased away the last of the fog.
Chapter 14
Lainey
A few streets from the cafe, a park had opened up a seasonal market. Sam led me through the stalls, only dropping my hand when he sallied up to a local farm stand. Turns out Sam had a thing for organic produce.
It should have been boring to spend the better part of an hour discussing tomatoes, but this man continued to amaze. Getting him riled up about vegetables was the highlight of my week, and he humored me by creating an in-depth pro/con list for pesticides. (Virtually all cons, he informed me with a disappointed shake of his head, “Lainey, thebees.”).
He waited patiently while I chatted with a woman selling hand-painted glassware after I noticed her sign said she was based out of Houston.
As we walked and the sun rose, he stowed our jackets in his backpack. It meant that when he brushed his fingers across my bare back to point at a painting, I felt it in every nerve in my body. When he gestured to the canvas, the backs of his fingers stroked up and down. I mumbled some sort of response. His hand dipped an inch or two lower when he directed me to the pop-up booth with the Molido logo splashed across it. Jordan pushed two mango lemonades and a box of cookies our way before shooing us off without taking Sam’s card.
“I’m so jealous of that, you know.”
He glanced at me as he took a cookie out of the wax paper. “My pastry supplier? They’d hook you up, too.”
“Yes, because ofyou.” I frowned down at the box, picking wisely. “You’re beloved.”
He grunted. “We’re a close crew. You’re beloved, too. You have more friends in the department than I’ve had in my life.”
“Eh. I have people I’m friendly with. I’m good at my job and people like that.” I shrugged. “I don’t have anyone who’d notice my tire pressure is low, you know? Mmph thith ith amathing.” I held up my half-eaten cookie for him to see. I washed it with some lemonade while he looked at me curiously. His cookie remained uneaten. “What?”
“That seems hard. Not having close people around.”
I took another bite, squirming under the gaze that was suddenly too perceptive for comfort. “You’re used to having the crew. I’m not, I guess.”
