Despite my best efforts, I feel the heat creep up my cheeks. “No, I’m sorry. We shouldn’t have been —”
“It’s okay, I really should … I can come back later.” He turns, but I stop him with a hand on his arm.
“Please, can we just pretend like that never happened?” I shift nervously from foot to foot as his gaze meets mine. His clear blue eyes search mine for a moment, and my stomach flip-flops.
“I’m sorry, pretend what never happened?” he replies with a small smile.
Some of the tension in my shoulders lift at his obvious out.
“You needed something?” I prompt, but still pretty much just wanting this to be over with so I can go crawl in a hole and die.
“Yes, of course,” he replies, finding himself again. “I wanted to acquaint myself with the supplies, since I needed a few things anyway. I have a catheter angiography this afternoon.”
“Well, I’m happy to show you where everything is, but one of us will take care of all of that for you,” I assure him.
“I’m perfectly happy to, especially at first. It’ll be good for me to get to know where things are and how everything works, just in case.”
Ugh. Seriously? As if his mere presence doesn’t reduce me to an idiotic mess, he’s also willing to do menial work that most doctors, especially surgeons, see as a waste of their time. They almost always expect the nurses to take care of everything that doesn’t strictly require an M.D. I mean, I get it, there are more nurses per patient than doctors, but still. He couldn’t just be smart and gorgeous, he had to be considerate too. And against my better judgment, I want to know more about him.
“In that case, I’ll give you the grand tour,” I reply. I can only hope focusing on explaining everything will help me stay coherent this close to him. So I proceed to show him everything in the room, including a brief description of the sterilization process we use, before suggesting we go to the standard supply closet.
“Yes, excellent, let’s,” he replies, tapping a finger to the side of his jaw. “But just one quick thing.”
I pause, looking up at him expectantly. “Yes?”
“For the record … I’m only thirty-two,” he says, as a blush creeps up his neck.
I suck my lips into my mouth to stop myself from smiling, and my stomach does another little flip-flop. Breathe, Sasha, just breathe. He ducks his head self-consciously.
“Duly noted, Dr. Thompson,” I reply, looking away to hide my blush.
He looks up sheepishly. “After you, then, Nurse Suvorin,” he replies with a stern tone and a mock-serious expression to match.
I’m usually a hard nut to crack, but that does it, and I can’t help laughing. I gesture for him to follow as I continue his tour.
Not long after, we part ways, as he’s off to another consultation, this time with Dr. MacDougall. And Becca is waiting at the nurses’ station, obviously bursting to know what happened.
“You’re dead, Dillon,” I say. “How could you leave me like that?”
She pushes up on the balls of her feet and wrings her hands together. “I know, I’m sorry. I panicked. But it looks like you did just fine.” She gives me a pleading look, inviting me to spill every detail.
“Only because he’s such a gentleman,” I insist. “But I’m still humiliated. God, I can’t believe he heard that.” I swipe a hand over my eyes, not wanting to go full meltdown in case he happens by again. “We need to seriously can it with the personal talk at work.”
“Aw, man. Does that mean you’re not going to tell me more?” Becca pouts.
“Later,” I insist, watching as one of my least favorite medical assistants, Lacey Petersen, heads towards us. Becca catches sight of her and nods understandingly.
“Gotcha. Drinks after work?”
“Dinner. You can drink if you want, but I’m going to need to eat. I’ve got a packed schedule this afternoon and I have to study later.”
“Fine, fine,” she agrees. She waits a moment for Lacey to drop off some paperwork and walk away. “But come on, just give me one detail before you go.”
I’m not normally one for gossip. But remembering the sparkle in his eyes when he was looking down at me in the sterilization room has me hard-pressed to keep from smiling. I inhale and close my eyes, letting myself sink into that moment. Allowing myself just a bit of hope before I squirrel it all away inside, never again to see the light of day.
“He wanted me to know, for the record, that he’s thirty-two.”
Becca squeals as quietly as she can manage. “He likes you,” she whispers gleefully.
“I think he was just trying to make me feel better. You wanted a detail, now you’ve got one. Don’t make a thing of it.” I shoot her a firm look before returning to my rounds. But as soon as my back is turned, the façade melts, and I allow myself my own gleeful grin. Though I almost immediately chastise myself for it. No, Sasha. Strictly off limits. And I keep repeating it in my head every time my thoughts drift where they shouldn’t that afternoon. Eventually I lose track of how many times.
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About the Author
Melanie A. Smith is an award-winning and international best-selling author of steamy contemporary romance fiction. Originally from upstate New York, she spent most of her childhood in the San Francisco Bay Area before moving to Los Angeles for college. After that, she spent almost fifteen years in the Seattle Area, and now lives in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas with her family.
A voracious reader and lifelong writer, Melanie’s writing began at a young age with short stories and poetry. Having completed a bachelor of science in electrical engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a master’s in business administration at the University of Washington, her writing abilities were mainly utilized for technical documents as a lead engineer for the Boeing Company, where she worked for ten years.
After shifting careers to domestic engineering and property management in 2015, she eventually found a balance where she was able to return to writing fiction.
Melanie is also a Mensan and enjoys spending time with her family, cooking, and driving with the windows down and the stereo cranked up loud.
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Books By Melanie A. Smith
The Safeguarded Heart Series
The Safeguarded Heart
All of Me
Never Forget
Her Dirty Secret (audiobook also available on Audible and iTunes)
Recipes from the Heart: A Companion to the Safeguarded Heart Series
The Safeguarded Heart Complete Series: All Five Books and Exclusive Bonus Material
Standalone Romance Novels
Everybody Lies (audiobook also available on Audible and iTunes)