Beautifully Awake

I prayed the mortification from last night would disappear. Maybe I dreamt it. If I squeezed my eyes tight enough maybe I would never lay eyes on him again.

“Good morning.” I heard the humor in his voice from behind me. God, I had no luck. He leaned down to hover over my ear. “How you feeling? That sake is some strong stuff, huh, Blue?” The heat from his breath on the back of my neck sent a shiver up my spine. So this was his way of telling me he enjoyed me making a total ass out of myself.

The floor was swarming with people. I wasn’t about to talk about last night. He moved to stand in front of the nurses’ station. His arms rested comfortably against the counter while he studied his tablet. Long chocolate brown eyelashes covered his eyes and his slightly dampened hair hung loosely across his forehead. A crisp white lab coat covered his faded light blue scrubs. This man was going to be the death of me.

“Petit, where’s Hunter? I have cases all day.” He glanced up, catching my eye, before I averted my gaze.

I totally got caught checking him out.

“It’s Friday. I wanna get going,” he barked.

“Oh ... um ... he had to run get something,” Sam stuttered.

“Guy ran to get me some breakfast. I have a little headache and thought food might help. He should be right back,” I interrupted.

“If he wants to operate with me all day he better get his ass back here. Sam, let’s get started, I’m not waiting.” Chase looked pissed.

I cringed and stood from my chair, following them to the first patient’s room. Now it was my fault for Guy’s impending shitty day.

We had already visited two patients when Guy returned. He handed me my tea and a small brown bag and draped an arm around my shoulder.

“How ya feeling? Any better, doll? Do you think you have a fever?” He lightly brushed his lips against my forehead.

“I’m okay. Thanks. I don’t think I’m feverish. He’s pissed though, your day’s gonna suck,” I whispered.

“Whatever. You felt crappy, it’s the least I could do.”

“Dr. Hunter, so nice of you to grace us with your presence. Why don’t you remove your lips from Ms. Porter’s face and present the next patient?”

Holy crap, was he jealous? Maybe Leanne wasn’t wrong. Guy was a touchy feely kind of guy and I had a feeling Dr. Colton just wasn’t feeling it.

“I want details, as well as the proposed surgery.” His eye daggers bounced from Guy to me and back. “I’m waiting.”

Guy rambled on and on about the patient and the surgery. Dr. Colton nodded and agreed. I hoped Guy dug himself out of the hole I created. Or maybe the one he created. All I knew was I needed a reprieve from the intense pounding in my head and constant Sanskrit. I sipped my tea and stood silently, pretending to listen.

Noon came and the headache finally subsided. I met Sierra at our favorite salad place for lunch.

“Look at you, preggers, can you get any cuter?” Sierra always dressed to the nines.

“Look who’s talking, hottie, those are flats I might actually be caught dead in.”

I rolled my eyes.

The restaurant was packed, full of hospital employees. Last thing I needed was someone overhearing our conversation, so we picked a secluded booth in the back. I rehashed every detail of my evening with Chase. Her face morphed into something I rarely saw.

“Lil, I’m being serious right now.” Sierra NEVER did serious. “You deserve something good. You’ve had a whole lot of shitty the last twenty-seven years, maybe this is your something good.”

“Am I just torturing myself? Why should I think this could mean anything? I’m not even sure I want it to mean anything.”

“I’m just happy you actually felt something. I wondered if hormone injections were in your future. This, Lili ... is what it feels like when you like someone and they completely turn you on.” Sierra was blunt. Period, end of story.

“At the end of the night he carried my sleepy ass to the door and eventually tucked me into bed. He totally used my extra set of keys to lock up on his way out. My last memory though is a kiss on my nose and a whispered ‘let’s do this again sometime.’”

Sierra was quiet. Sierra NEVER did quiet. I waited.

“Asspuck, say something.”

“You’re gorgeous, he’s into you, why wouldn’t he be? Let’s ignore the kickass figure and amazing boobs. You’re the perfect package—kind, loving, gentle, smart, sassy, sexy ... I could go on and on, but I don’t need to because it looks like hottie patottie brain surgeon guy figured it out.”

I shrugged. “But it’s just not normal to embarrass the shit out of yourself five times in two days. He must think I’m such an idiot. I need to run. Literally run. Really fast.”

“Go run, hot stuff, clear your head. Maybe you’ll have room for some sexy thoughts.” She giggled.

The awake case at one went off without a hitch. I was in my shit brown scrubs, of course, but luckily my headache was gone. Chase was extremely quiet. Guy, on the other hand, was bitching about the music choice. I happened to love all things acoustic. My Pandora station seemed to be approved by all yesterday. Chase hadn’t balked.

“Leave it, Guy! I like this song.”

If he played Red Hot Chili Peppers one more time, my head was going to explode.

“Leave it, Hunter, or just fucking turn it off!” The tension in Chase’s voice exceeded the level of regular annoyance.

You could have heard a pin drop in the operating room. I held my breath. The agitation and turmoil spinning around in his eyes was disheartening. What the hell was his problem? The circulating nurse made the executive decision to turn the music off. I agreed that was probably the best decision, but that meant we stood in complete silence. For six hours.

Luckily the case ended without complication, I hightailed it out of there and made it to my apartment in record time. A good long run proved to be my go-to stress reliever. I quickly changed into running clothes, grabbed my iPod and headed toward the river. The four-mile loop was beautiful, peaceful, and more importantly, flat. Two miles in, I made a pit stop to tighten my loose lace.

“You’re pretty fast. What do you run, a six minute mile?”

It was a voice I could not ignore and had a tone a lot less harsh than what I heard in the OR. This man seriously bounced from emotion to emotion, it was hard to keep up. I popped the earplug from my ear while balancing my foot on the split rail fence and peeked over my shoulder at him.

I inwardly smiled for a couple of reasons, though. Number one, I was a pretty fast runner, and the thought that he couldn’t catch up to me was pretty funny, even if he was lying. Number two, he looked amazing.

A black dri-fit short sleeve shirt clung to his sweat-drenched body. Was it really possible to see each ab through a shirt? I swear to god I saw all six of them. The black running shorts exposed his sickly defined legs, and the trickle of sweat that beaded up across his forehead made his hair have just the right amount of curl. He ran his hand through his hair at that exact moment. I might have stopped breathing.

“So you’re following me?” I was sarcastic—at least I hoped I sounded that way.

He grinned. The tension from the OR had definitely seemed to vanish. “Why not? The view is something else.” He glanced beyond the fence toward the river. Was this his way of flirting? So much for running to clear my head. “I didn’t know you liked to run; you come out here often?”

“Guess I didn’t spill my entire guts last night; something you don’t know, huh. And yes, I love it out here ... it’s typically very relaxing.” I used the tone that Sierra would refer to as snotty.

“Hmmm, good to know. It’s never been my first choice of a workout, but maybe now it will be.” He wiped his brow with the edge of his shirt and took off without a glance back. Oh my god, he was trying to kill me with the tease of his washboard abs. Damn, he so did that on purpose. I sighed, realizing I was holding my breath. He was a mystery I had every intention of solving. I stood motionless with, I’m sure, my mouth hanging open. What a