She smiled and exhaled a breath of relief.
“Rat you out? No. Tease you mercilessly until the end of time about it? Yes.”
“You tease me? That’s rich.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and settled into a grin. For the first time ever with Mel, I thought I might actually manage something other than acting like a bumbling idiot.
“Right? Seems like it might be refreshing, though. You know, spreading some of the office ridicule around.”
“Uh…Load-y? I think Melissa’s got that covered.”
“She’s just jealous because she’s the lesser Mel.”
Her breath caught a little, and I knew I had to get out of there. If I didn’t, I’d end up doing something I’d regret. Or she would. Because, yeah, I probably wouldn’t regret it.
I forced myself to move away and over to the door. The cardboard in my hand flexed under the overall pressure running through my body and reminded me to turn around.
“Hey,” I called. “Think fast.”
I tossed the box of tongue depressors, and she caught it adeptly.
“Come on,” I told her when she didn’t move. “Haven’t you heard? We’ve got a lady doing her best to become a lady with a baby.”
“Feel like taking a walk, Load-y?” Will asked with an amused smirk.
I glanced up from my comfortable perch in the break room where I was currently browsing through the pictures of the newest issue of Vogue. “Not if you keep calling me that.”
“But I thought you loved that nickname?” He feigned confusion, and I scratched the side of my face with my middle finger. He moved closer to my chair and peeked over my shoulder. “Oh. Wow. You’re probably too busy, huh?”
I smiled and dramatically turned the page of the magazine, demurring, “I’m so busy right now doing my best impression of Melissa.” But my heart didn’t protest, not even in jest. It jumped in my chest.
A few days ago, Will had asked me to come over to the hospital for the first time. Of course, it wasn’t like he’d asked me on a date or anything. Just the hospital…for work.
And I’d been running late anyway, so really, Melissa had sniped the direction toward me as soon as I’d walked in the door.
But I wasn’t surprised half of my brain was trying to twist it into something it wasn’t. See, labor and delivery was a hella messy job. Sure, we suit up with protective gear, so to speak, but by the time one of our patients had gotten to the hospital that afternoon, she’d been crowning. Will had done nothing more than don a pair of gloves and get right in there.
A twisted part of me wondered if she was one of the ones Marlene had threatened with death if she came to the hospital before she was actually in active labor.
Still, all of the fluids had done a number on his shirt, and I’d walked in on him changing. He was surprised to see me—to be fair, I had walked into the men’s locker room by mistake—but I wasn’t surprised at what I saw. No, I’d been fantasizing about it for an embarrassing number of days now. Sleek, toned muscle, tan, smooth skin, and some of the best obliques I’d ever laid eyes on were just the beginning.
It made me wonder about the things I couldn’t see. Mainly, his penis.
He grinned. “Hey, she’s a good kid. Maybe a little lazy at times, but she works hard.”
I raised a pointed brow. “Define hard, please,” I joked, but honestly, the joke was on me. My brain went straight to the dirty.
Will…hard.
Holy hell. My penchant for thinking about Will’s penis was starting to get a little creepy. It wasn’t normal to think about one penis this often. Especially when the owner of said penis was my boss. For some reason, his penis had become some kind of phallus-shaped mythical character in my brain. I had to find a way to stop it.
Find a way to see it. If you see it, then you’ll know.
Yeah. I’d have to keep brainstorming…
Will’s grin grew wider, and my cheeks flushed pink. I’d veered way too far off the path of what was considered normal. It was one thing to understand the sexual innuendo with the word hard, but it was another to bypass hard and speed toward imagining Will’s penis naked and hard.
I needed help. A shrink. Brain surgery. Something.
His grin was so perfect, it looked like an artist had etched it directly on his face. I sighed.
“Oh my God. I didn’t mean that kind of hard.” If he only knew.
He waggled his brows. “You said it, not me.”
“The expression on your face said everything I needed to know.”
Will winked, and I immediately wondered, was Will flirting with me?
Yes, please. Flirt me so hard, Will.
Whoa. Pump the brakes. There was no way he was really flirting.
Ugh. Sometimes, I really hated my brain. It was like it had gone all haywire since I’d broken up with Eli. Maybe I was too sex-deprived? I mean, the last time I’d actually had sex was starting to get further and further away, and a girl only had so much time to masturbate when her bed was located in the same room in which her mother loved to do jazzercise at all hours of the day.
Yeah. I probably just needed sex.
Sex with Will’s penis.
Oh, for fuck’s sake. I had to steer this conversation somewhere else. Medical questions. Patient updates. China. Sweater knitting. Anywhere else.
Listen, I swear my brain isn’t generally a kaleidoscope of dicks and cocks.
Seriously. It isn’t.
“Where are you taking a walk to?” I asked in hopes that it would help me not feel like such a pervert.
“Since Dr. Meadows is slammed with inpatient deliveries, I offered to head over to the hospital for an hour or two and handle some of the triage patients while she finished the deliveries.”
My brow pinched in confusion. “So, you just want me to walk over to the hospital with you?”
“Well, I’d actually like you to see the patients with me,” he explained with a grin.
“Oh boy, I’ve got you spoiled, huh?” I teased. “I’m such an awesome nurse, you don’t even want to go over to the hospital without me. What do you do now when it’s your turn to be on call for twenty-four hours?”
“I generally just cry,” he jested. “Hell, sometimes I even cry during the deliveries.”
I giggled. “You’re going to start losing patients that way.”
“See? Now you have to come. My career is on the line here.”
“Ugh,” I groaned. “You’re not going to leave me alone until I say yes, huh?”
He shrugged. “Probably not.”
“And who’s going to see your patients? You still have four more appointments before the day is through.”
“Surprisingly enough, Dr. Elders agreed to man up and do some extra work.”
I grinned. “Color me shocked.” What Will’s disposition had in spades, Dr. Elders’s lacked completely. It was amazing how different two doctors in the same practice could be in virtually every way. I also doubted Dr. Elders’s penis was anywhere near as nice as Will’s.
Dammit!