Page 13 of Every Little Kiss
He crossed his arms and might have flexed a little. “Do I look like a rookie to you?” Liv’s expression said she wasn’t sure. “I’m not a rookie.”
In fact, he had a reputation for being one of the most skilled type-one SAR officers in the Sierra Nevada. Had more successful high-risk rescue cases under his belt than anyone in the country. When shit got real, guys like Harris looked to Ford for direction.
He’d worked hundreds of rescues over the past eight years—most of them dangerous, a few of them suicide missions. Ford never gave up, never backed down, and never doubted his decisions.
Until he was forced to sacrifice one for the safety of many. For Liv, that would be the only decision that mattered. So why did he care if she thought of him as a rookie?
Because it did. And now that he’d met the woman whose life he’d inadvertently changed, her opinion of him mattered as much as fulfilling the promise he’d made to Sam. And wasn’t that one hell of a fubar in the making.
“And for your information, I got stuck with Flash because I assisted in an emergency surgery and missed morning briefing,” he informed her.
She bit her lip. “Oh.”
“Yeah, oh.”
“I’m sorry about making you late.” She sounded genuine, but it was hard to tell since she was still grinning over him getting stuck with Flash Gordon. “Had he gone full monty, or did you get to him before he started singing ‘Flash Gordon’?”
“The boom box was going strong, but he was struggling with a pair of shimmery booty shorts that could double for a headband when I got there,” Ford said.
“The gold ones?” she asked, and he closed his eyes and gagged a little. “You’re lucky it’s not Fourth of July. He brings out the Let Freedom Ring banana-hammock,” she said, and to her credit, she didn’t laugh. “You were Flashed because you were helping me.” Her elegant hand rested on his forearm. “I feel bad.”
Bad was the last thing Ford felt. Not when her soft fingers were touching his skin, radiating through his body and waking up every nerve ending.
“I was Flashed because Harris is a prick,” he said, taking a step closer. “And even if I’d known the consequences for missing the morning briefing, I still would have helped you.”
“Because you like being the hero?” she asked quietly, tilting her head closer until he could smell the light floral scent of her shampoo.
“I go where I’m needed because it’s my job,” he said, delivering the same old explanation in the same oldNo biggietone he used when it came to women.
But he had a feeling Liv wasn’t like other women. She focused on the small things other people tended to dismiss, and she was perceptive as hell. So when she silently studied him, her discerning gaze so intense, Ford felt as if she were filtering out the bits of truth he kept hidden behind the cold, hard facts.
And when he was about to break eye contact, her lips curled slightly and she shook her head. “You picked your job because you need to be needed,” she said, but there was no judgment in her statement. Just a deep appreciation, as if she too understood the calling that drove him. That instinctive response to rush toward the fire when everyone else was running away. “Mr.Gordon is all settled, yet you’re still here.”
And she was still touching him. “I’m here to find out howourpatient fared from this morning.” His answer was light, breezy—and not what Liv was looking for.
Sticking her hands in her pocket, she gave him an equally light and breezy smile. “He made a full recovery, just in time for the first day of superhero camp. Did I thank you?”
“You did. Then there was the rookie comment.”
“An honest mistake,” she said sweetly, leaning closer. And damn she smelled good. Like sunshine, frosting, and hot-woman good. “But I must admit, I’m impressed. Emergency surgery, cupcake extraction, and elderly care all in one day.”
“Don’t forget finding Ms.Moberly’s missing maltipoo, LuLu.”
That got a grin from her. “Is there anything you can’t do?”
“Besides convince a pretty nurse to have a cup of coffee with me?” he asked. “I’m not all that good with open wounds.”
She studied him from those insightful, warm caramel eyes that seemed to hide as much as they revealed. Good thing Ford’s secrets were buried too deep to be found. “Then I guess a career change into medicine isn’t in your future?”
“I’ve been told I give a stellar sponge bath,” he teased, but she didn’t laugh. She was too busy trying to figure out what wounds he was hiding.
“Nurse Preston to exam room six. Nurse Preston. To exam room six,” a voice came over the intercom. “Code Flash in exam room six.”
“Thanks for the cupcake,” she said.
“What about the coffee?”
Liv pushed the button on the coffee machine for leaded and then handed him the cup. “It’s not Shelia’s coffee, but it’ll keep you wired until midnight. And lucky for you, there are lots of pretty nurses here.”
Feeling decidedly put in his place, he watched her scrub-clad backside disappear down the hallway, and he admitted that while that might be true, there was only one Nurse Cupcake.
