Everything You've Got: Anything & Everything, Book 2 (6 page)

“Let’s go away for a few days.”

Something like that.

“Dammit,” she groaned. She tipped her head back, thunked it against the wall and closed her eyes. “Dammit.”

“Kat—”

Her eyes opened. “Sex I can do. But it’s not a good time for a trip.”

“It’s perfect. We’re perfect. We don’t need to do all the normal dating stuff. We know each other, we know where this is going to lead. There’s no reason not to do this right now.”

And there he was jumping in with both feet again.

Words like
perfect
and
right now
were exactly what she was worried about. And his assumption that they knew each other well enough to fast-forward on the dating stuff.

There were things about her he needed to know—other than the obvious I-almost-killed-a-man thing—that she wanted to show him slowly. A little at a time. So as not to spook him.

She
definitely
wanted the normal dating stuff. Well, and the hot sex.

But of course he saw no reason for them to take things slow. Of course, he thought she was the perfect woman for him. She had, after all, been working at it for years.

Luke was a pretty easy guy to understand. The things that were important to him were obvious. He loved this town and planned to live here, work here, play here until he was buried here. She liked Justice too. So, she hadn’t just moved home to live, hadn’t just pushed to open the clinic in Justice, she’d also volunteered and sat on committees and socialized. She was almost as much a part of this community as Luke was, and she knew that was a major draw for him.

Yes, they were friends, enjoyed each other, admired each other and were, obviously, attracted to each other. But she also had to want and to fit into the life Luke wanted.

She’d done a great job being that woman. But she’d had to bite her tongue at times, put on her poker face, not go with her gut every time. Hell, he hadn’t even seen her without makeup in thirteen years.

He didn’t know that the new minister drove her absolutely crazy and she had decided she was not serving on another church committee. He didn’t know that she could be a real bitch when she wanted to be. And a bully. And moody. And that she could hold a grudge. And that she hated celebrating New Year’s Eve at The Camelot. She would have much preferred to ring in the New Year quietly with the people she loved instead of the whole frickin’ town.

But she never showed him those sides of her. She didn’t want him to think she was anything but perfect.

Now the whole perfect thing could really bite her in the ass.

“I just—” Her question was interrupted by her phone. She hadn’t let it out of her hand since leaving the clinic. Her heart tripped and she looked at the display. It was the hospital. Finally. “Sorry, I have to take this.”

She slid out of his hold and stepped into the hallway outside of his office. “Dr. Dayton,” she finally answered.

“Kat, it’s Britney.” Britney was a nurse in the ICU in Alliance.

“Hey, Brit. Are you calling about Tom?” She glanced behind her. Luke was still inside his office and couldn’t hear her conversation.

“Yes, sort of. Dr., um, Brickham asked me to get ahold of you.”

“Oh.” That didn’t sound good. “Should I call him?”

“He’s actually, um, right here.” Britney sounded nervous and that did nothing for Kat’s own nerves. “He wants to talk to you.”

“Great,” Kat said with fake cheerfulness.

“This is a damned mess, Kat,” Henry Brickham said a moment later without preamble.

Frick. She went straight for the info she really wanted. “I understand Tom underwent a CT scan—”

“Massive ischemic stroke,” he said, confirming Kat’s fears. “And worse. There was a previous minor stroke confirmed on CT. The chart says that he came to you with arm weakness.”

Kat’s heart started to pound and she struggled to at least sound calm. “That’s right. Arm weakness and headache after working in the yard.”

“The yard work started the symptoms?”

“He wasn’t sure but that was all he could contribute—”

“No specific incident? No pain?”

“No. He couldn’t recall anything, but he’s an active guy. He could have—”

“Had a stroke,” Brickham said.

Kat closed her eyes and rubbed the middle of her forehead. Yeah, it could have been a stroke. Or not. Fuck. This was bad.

“He could have hurt his arm doing yard work.”

“But he didn’t. He had a small stroke, then a larger one. Had you recognized what was happening, we could have prevented the stroke that now has him hospitalized.”

Which was exactly what she had been afraid of. Her heart pounded hard enough that the pressure felt like it was filling her head too.

“His only risk factor is high blood pressure which has been controlled with medication for over a year.”

“Tell that to his brain,” Brickham said bluntly.

“I’m going to come over right now. I’ll—”

“No.” Dr. Brickham’s tone was firm. “The family has asked that I stay on as the attending and I agreed. Right now we’re trying to get him stabilized and they need someone they know and are completely comfortable with.”

She’d only been Tom’s doctor for two months. She’d only seen him twice. What Brickham said made sense. But it still hurt.

“There may be other injuries from the fall when he lost consciousness. We need more tests. We also need to be sure that everyone there—all his friends and family—know that everything is being handled here and that there’s no need for concern over the care that Tom is receiving.”

She understood where Brickham was coming from. The hospital in Alliance was small and like all small hospitals they had to contend with the idea that bigger was better when it came to health care. Serious conditions went to Denver, but it was important for the communities that AMP served to trust that the Alliance hospital could care for ninety-plus percent of what came to them and would promptly send on what they couldn’t handle.

“I’ll be sure to—”

“So Dr. Davidson will be covering patients in Justice for the next two weeks while you—and we—regroup.”

That sucked the air out of her lungs and a cold lump settled in her stomach. “Dr. Davidson is going to see patients here with me?” she asked, frowning at the pattern in the carpet. She didn’t need a babysitter.

“Dr. Davidson will be covering your time off.”

“My time off?” she repeated feeling the cold start to seep from her gut throughout her body.

“Tom is well-known and liked in town. There will be a lot of questions, speculation even. Having an objective physician in there to address those questions and concerns will be better. I’m afraid you’re too green, and too close to the community and the situation, to be impartial and handle this appropriately. We have to avoid incriminating…anyone.”

Kat was speechless. Impartial? Of course she couldn’t be impartial. He was convinced there would be speculation. He had no confidence in her ability to handle the situation.
She
would be the one incriminated. What a horrible word.

“What do I tell everyone about my sudden time off?” she asked hoarsely.

“We’ll tell them it was a planned vacation. Everything will be fully covered so it shouldn’t affect anyone negatively.”

No one besides her anyway, she thought bitterly.

“But if I run into someone who asks—”

“I think you should consider getting out of town for the first few days.”

“Won’t it look
more
suspicious that Tom has a problem and then I just suddenly take off?” she asked, her annoyance slipping into her tone.

“Again,” Brickham said impatiently. “We’ll tell them it was planned time off. It won’t look bad if you were already planning the time off before this happened. Tom is out of your hands at this point anyway. And no one’s said anything about a lawsuit or anything at this point.”

A
lawsuit
? Kat worked on not hyperventilating.

Her boss was basically ordering her out of town because she’d fucked up. This was bad. And it might get worse.

She took a deep breath. “Fine.”

“Good,” Brickham said.

“Will you keep me informed on Tom’s status though?” she asked, but Brickham had already handed the phone back to Britney.

“I’ll text or call you,” Britney promised.

“Thanks.” Kat disconnected, a jumble of emotions knotted in her chest.

“Kat?”

Luke.

Something like panic shot through her. She didn’t want him to know. It wasn’t completely rational but she knew it without a doubt—she did not want Luke to know that she’d screwed up. And that she was essentially being disciplined for it. And again, it might get worse.

It had been a mistake. An honest one. But she didn’t want Luke to know even that.

She turned with a bright, fake smile. “Sorry about that.”

Luke came toward her. “Everything okay?”

She breathed deep, trying to force air past the ball of regret that threatened to choke her. “Sure.”

“Really?” He stopped and looked down at her, clearly not believing her.

“Yeah.” And suddenly the only possible solution struck. The news about Tom was going to start spreading any minute now. “So, what were you saying about going out of town?”

“Nashville.”

Kat blinked at him. “Nashville?”

“Let’s drive Marc and Sabrina’s RV to Nashville.”

She looked like she was waiting for the punch line. When he just grinned she said, “Why would we do that?”

“Uninterrupted time alone.”

She tipped her head to the side. “Naked uninterrupted time alone?”

He felt his grin grow. “There will definitely be naked time.”

“Then why can’t we start now?”

Heat seemed to zing between them and Luke thought maybe they should get some practice naked time in before they left. He reached for her, a hand on each hip, and drew her closer. “I love that you want this as much as I do.”

“I do. Definitely. Just not sure I’m RV material.”

She might be right. It was very likely she had no appropriate camping clothes. Kat looked like she always looked—sexy, confident, touchable—if you were willing to lose a finger or two. Her mother was Italian and Kat had inherited her silky, dark hair—that she routinely colored all or part of—dark eyes, olive skin, make-a-man-pant curves and make-a-man-beg lips. In addition, she wore clothes that made people take notice and had an attitude that made a guy have to
really
want to be with her to even think about it.

Luke
really
wanted it.

He wanted to know what it was like to run his fingers through her hair when it was wet from the shower. He wanted to know how she kissed when she was just waking up in the morning. He wanted to hear her sighs, her moans, her giggles, and her whispers—in bed and out.

“Sabrina and the band made it into an amateur music festival. They’re flying down and want the RV to stay in while they’re there. They asked if we’d drive it down. I thought it would be a perfect way for us to take this relationship to the next level.”

“By essentially living together for a week?” she asked.

It was four days down and back, then at least a couple of days in Nashville. Luke grinned. “With our full focus on us.” They both had jobs that regularly interfered with…everything. Kat was on call for her patients in Justice twenty-four seven. Luke’s job wasn’t life and death, but The Camelot—the building, the staff, the clientele—needed a lot of attention. Getting away from all of that seemed the best way to really get Kat where he wanted her.

They didn’t need to date. They didn’t need to eat a bunch of dinners or go to the movies or meet each other’s friends and family to know they were compatible.

There was no woman he’d be more compatible with than Kat.

He was already living the life Kat wanted, in the place where she wanted to be. He was already the guy she wanted. There would be no beating his head against the wall, trying over and over to guess what she wanted and needed, bending over backwards constantly…

He stopped those thoughts as he felt the tension building in his shoulders. That was the past. This was now. This was Kat and it was—perfect.

She was chewing her bottom lip. “That’s a really small space for an extended period of time.”

“And pj’s are optional,” he added.

That got a little smile. Then she sighed. “On a trip like that we’re going to get to know each other really well.”

“We already know each other really well.”

“But I mean
really
well.” She didn’t look especially thrilled by that.

“Don’t worry if you snore or something,” he teased. “As long as you sleep naked, I’ll forgive anything.”

That did not get a smile. “Yeah, snoring,” she said with an eye roll. “Look, I’ve got the time and energy for sex. Not sure about the whole relationship thing. How about we go to Omaha for the weekend or something? I promise lots of naked uninterrupted time there.”