Lynnette took a moment to add a notation to the file, so that future nurses wouldn’t need to waste time re-confirming the allergy question, then hurried from the room to get what was needed.
It took her another forty minutes before she was able to do her first check of the day on Lance.
Not that she was counting.
Lance made a dramatic sound of relief as soon as she stepped into his room. “There’s my favorite nurse. I was getting worried.”
Lynnette eased the door shut and arched a brow at him. “Why on earth would you be worrying about me?”
The smile he offered was even worse than the smirk from her dream. In that it sparked something far too warm, far too deep inside.
“What kind of man would I be if I didn’t?” He made a vague motion to his leg. “Current situation aside, I promise, I know how to step up.”
Lynnette made a show of rolling her eyes before she moved forward to go through her routine of checking the things which needed checking. Aside from the incident during Sheriff Parker’s drop-in, Lance’s readings had been blessedly stable. But she knew better than to ever make assumptions or take one afternoon’s good progress for granted. Out loud, she said, “I can’t tell if that was a terrible dad joke or a not-so-subtle hint that you’ve recently left the armed forces.” She suspected he’d have the room decked out in whatever awards he’d accumulated if the hospital allowed that sort of thing.
And after seventeen years, she had no doubt he’d earned a few.
Lance chuckled. “Well, no kids, so…”
A low, brief laugh escaped her before she could stop it. As did the question that followed. “Is that on purpose? I always thought Marines getting women pregnant was part of the stigma.”
He laughed louder. “I’m savin’ the good stuff for therightwoman, is all I mean. No need to worry.”
She paused, fingers pinched around his blanket as she’d prepared to lift it to inspect his leg, and heat rose to her face at the irony of that alongside their conversation. Yet she still aimed another arched brow at him and managed to ask, “Why would I be worried about your reproductive abilities?”
That earned her the damn smirk she’d almost been afraid to see in person again.
She told herself it did not make her heart beat faster.
“Not making assumptions about your preferences,” he said, still grinning. “Just saying, the option’s still on the table. If.”
Lynnette blinked. “If,” she repeated, her brain attempting to make sense of the single-syllable word.
“Or when.”
Jesus Christ.She ripped her gaze back to the task she’d not completed and swallowed hard as she willed herself not to turn into a tomato. She liked to present herself as a calm, confident,fairly well experienced and educated woman, but the truth was she’d had a grand total of three boyfriends in her thirty-three years. Only two of whom she’d ever had sex with.
She hadnogame. She did not do banter, or flirting. Let alone whatever the hell Lance was doing.
And he’s a patient!Which meant she couldn’t, anyway. Could. Not.
Not that she wanted to. She was just, maybe, a little flattered. Even if his flirting or whatever was almost for certain the result of boredom. He’d forget about her the moment the hospital was behind him.
Her fingers trailed carefully along his wrappings, checking to make sure they weren’t coming apart as much as to make sure nothing had started bleeding or seeping through. But her mind was only half-focused.
Suddenly the strangest thought occurred to her, and she blurted, “Why do you never have visitors?”
He made the low chuckle sound again. “My buddy’s got some other stuff on his plate right now.”
Buddy. Singular.
Lynnette faced him, frowning. “Do you not have anyone else in the area?”
He raised a brow. “Nope. Been in Japan for a bunch of years. Never had family this far west even when I was civilian.”
He was all alone. He had the one friend, who was also recently discharged and apparently swamped withsomething, and so it was just him. Alone. By himself. In the hospital, with a leg so shredded there was no guarantee he’d ever walk right again.
The notion hit her like a baseball bat upside the head and her heart constricted.
