“My crew and I found him about a year ago, nearly frozen to death, in front of the library. We wanted to bring him in, but he wouldn’t come. Then he saw my empty Pepsi can in the ambulance. He decided I could be trusted and it’s lasted. I’m always the one to talk him into going to the shelter.” She smiled at him. “Maybe I can help. I’m a social worker.”
“No kidding.” Now that she said it, it fit somehow. “Where?” 44
Just Like That
“Here.”
“At St. Anthony’s?”
“Yes.”
He stopped and stared down at her. “Since when?”
“Two weeks ago.”
She’d been here two weeks? Here? Where he spent most of his day, every day? Where he knew everyone? How had he missed her? “Jack is definitely off my Christmas card list.”
“Jack?” she repeated.
“Jack Conner. He’s a drug counselor on fifth floor. He’s supposed to let me know whenever a beautiful woman joins the staff.”
He knew that she knew he was teasing her, but she said, “I haven’t met him yet.”
“What’s he been
doing
? Your office has to be right down the hall from his. How could he have missed you for two weeks?”
“I’ll make a point of introducing myself on Monday.”
“No, don’t do that,” he said quickly. Jack didn’t have Sam’s reputation, but he was a single guy who would definitely find Danika attractive. He was straight and had a pulse, after all. Worse, she probably had a lot in common with Jack.
“Why not? We have offices right down the hall from each other,” she said with a smile.
“He believes in polygamy.”
She snorted. “He does not.”
“How do you know?”
“Does he?” She put a hand on her hip.
“Yes. Absolutely. And he hates dogs.”
“I’m not a big dog person.”
“He spends every weekend at the racetrack.”
“I love a man who knows how to take chances.”
“He’s killed eight people.”
“I’m sure he had a good reason.”
Sam gave up with a reluctant grin. She was funny. But he couldn’t resist one final quip. “He doesn’t know anything about orgasms.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Something more in common. We’d make a good pair.” Even though they were kidding around, Sam hated that idea. Even though they’d only known each other for a few hours, he hated that idea.
“Hey, Tommie, what’s up?” he asked a moment later as he opened the door to Tommie’s favorite exam room.
45
Erin Nicholas
“My hopes, Brad.”
Sam chuckled. “Good answer.”
Tommie chuckled in return and inexplicably started whistling “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”
.
Which, for Tommie, wasn’t anything unusual.
“Brad?” Danika asked from behind him.
Sam turned and grinned at her. “My last name’s Bradford. That was the first thing Tommie latched on to when we met. I’ve been Brad ever since.” He crossed the room and put a hand on Tommie’s shoulder.
“Derek is going to take you over to the shelter.”
Derek was one of the social workers that worked the night shift in the ER, one of the more…interesting shifts.
“No,” Tommie said simply. Then went back to whistling.
“Just for tonight, buddy.”
“No,” he said again, switching gears to whistle “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad”
.
“It’s a good idea, Tommie,” Sam said.
Tommie held up a pair of socks. “They’re blue.” He seemed very pleased.
“Mine too.” Sam pulled up a pant leg to show his navy blue socks.
“Good.” Tommie seemed even happier with that.
“So how about the shelter?” Sam was used to Tommie trying to distract him from talking about subjects Tommie didn’t like. The shelter was one. Showers, shaving and eating anything even remotely resembling vegetables were also on the list.
“No.”
“What if Sa…Brad and I take you?” Danika offered.
“No.” Then he frowned. “Who are you?”
“This is Danika.”
“So?”
“Be nice.” Tommie was harmless, and lucid, but was known to say some very inappropriate things when he thought it would get an entertaining reaction.
“What’s your last name?” Tommie asked Danika.
Sam had to be thankful to Tommie for that. He was learning more about Danika every second.
“Steffen,” she told him.
“I’m thirsty,” Tommie announced, looking at Danika as if daring her.
Sam slid closer to her and surreptitiously put the Pepsi in her hand.
“Do you like Pepsi?” she asked without missing a beat. She popped the top of the can open and held it out.
Tommie lit up instantly. He took the Pepsi, tipped it back, took a huge gulp, then grinned. “I like her.” 46
Just Like That
Sam chuckled. He’d decided he liked Danika just about as easily. “So how about the shelter tonight?” Tommie frowned at Sam for a moment. “They never have Jell-O.”
“I’ll personally ensure they have Jell-O tonight,” Danika said.
“I like the plastic cups.”
Danika turned, obviously confused, to Sam.
“He likes those individual cups of Jell-O instead of the boxes that they mix up with water.”
“I can do that,” she decided.
Tommie considered that. “Okay.” He slid to the floor, tucked his new socks into the huge pockets of the long coat he wore, and put his ragged New York Yankees baseball cap back on his head.
“Great.” Sam was surprised. Tommie always ended up agreeing with him, but it usually took longer to convince him.
He couldn’t blame Tommie. Danika Steffen was having an interesting effect on him as well.
“They have those individual plastic cups of Jell-O in the cafeteria,” Danika said. “I’ll go get him a couple.”
As she turned, Sam grabbed her elbow. “Whoa. You’re a patient here too, remember? You’re not going to the cafeteria.”
“But I promised Tommie.” Danika liked the way Sam was looking at her. Protective and worried.
Which worried
her.
She hadn’t wanted or needed a man for anything for a long time now.
Not that she’d admit it to him, but her wrist did hurt. Talking with Tommie and using the ice pack had helped, but it was throbbing and she was thinking Sam was right about it being broken.
Which was so inconvenient and stupid that she chose not to think about it. Getting Tommie orange Jell-O was a good distraction.
“Lisa will run down there.” Sam steered her with one hand and Tommie with the other.
Danika started to reach into her right front pocket for some cash for the Jell-O but stopped instantly, sucking in a breath. She’d tried to reach with her right hand.
“What?” Sam stopped immediately, turning worried eyes on her.
His worry was a lot nicer when her wrist was just aching rather than when it was feeling like someone was trying to rip it free from her arm.
She shook her head. He felt bad enough. It wasn’t his fault. “I, um, needed to get some money out of my pocket. But I can’t.” She held up her hand.
“Oh, I’ve got…” Sam started to reach for his own pocket. Then a mischievous twinkle entered his eye. “In your pocket?” He let go of Tommie, who stayed right where he was, happily clutching his can of
47
Erin Nicholas
Pepsi to his chest, checking out the junk food selection in the vending machine and whistling “Camp Town Races”
.
She nodded as Sam moved in closer.
“This pocket?” he asked, hooking the tip of his index finger in the top of her right front pocket.
The throbbing in her wrist seemed to evaporate as she nodded.
“I guess I could help you out with that,” he said, his voice dropping and his body taking up every molecule of air around her.
“That would be…helpful,” she said softly.
Sam turned his hand so that his palm was flat against her hip. The skirt lay against her body but wasn’t at all tight. Still, Sam kept his palm firmly against her as he slid down into the pocket. The heat from his hand instantly heated her skin and she closed her eyes.
He slid back and forth over the area where the band of her panties arced over her hip, covering the lower part of her abdomen.
“I can’t seem to find it,” he said huskily.
“What are you looking for again?” she breathed.
His mouth curled up. “I can answer that, but it’s something other than what I started out trying to find.”
She smiled, the warmth from his hand spreading throughout her abdomen and up through her chest.
“Whatever the answer, just keep doing that.”
“Dr. Mitchell said that if you think she needs an x-ray to go ahead and then he’ll see her,” Lisa said, interrupting the moment.
Sam didn’t jerk his hand free from her pocket. Rather he stayed right where he was, his fingers grasping the edge of the five dollar bill in her pocket and then drawing it out slowly, his hand contacting more of her body than necessary for the simple extraction.
“I’d say get a room, but I already gave you one,” Lisa said with a grin.
“Tommie needs some Jell-O from the cafeteria.” Sam reached into his own pocket, pulled out another five and handed Lisa the money, not taking his eyes from Danika’s face. “Can you send someone?” She sighed. “Yeah, we have an intern that isn’t doing anything.”
“Make sure it’s orange.”
“Of course.”
Lisa moved off and Sam said, his eyes suddenly serious, “Tell me you’re okay. I know it isn’t completely true, but just tell me anyway.”
For some reason, Danika felt a lump in her throat. She lifted her uninjured hand to his cheek. “I’m okay. Very okay, in fact.”
“Your wrist…”
48
Just Like That
“Is just one part of my body, and I can assure you that you’re making the rest of it feel
very
okay.” His eyes darkened. “I wish, with everything in me, that I had a chance to make it feel even better than very okay.”
“Me too.” She hoped that maybe he would have, and take, that chance in the future. But she couldn’t say that. This was supposed to be a one-night stand. That was all he signed up for…or whatever he’d done.
She couldn’t make it into more than that. Even though she hadn’t really had everything that a one-night stand entailed.
Tommie’s whistling changed to the theme from
Star Wars
and Sam stepped back with a rueful grin.
“Let’s get him with Derek and then you into x-ray.”
Yeah, that was what they should do.
Derek Stevens was at the front desk flirting with Kaylee. Flirting seemed to be something that went on around St. Anthony’s a lot.
Derek pushed away from the counter as they approached. “Danika? Hey.”
“Hi.”
“You know her?” Sam asked, frowning.
“She’s new on staff here in our department,” Derek said with a friendly smile at her.
“You’re off my Christmas card list too,” Sam muttered.
“I’m on your Christmas card list?” Derek was clearly confused.
“Not anymore,” Sam said shortly.
“Um, okay.” Derek evidently decided to talk to someone who would make more sense. “Hey, Tommie, ready to go?”
“Jell-O,” Tommie said simply.
“He’s waiting on Jell-O,” Danika explained. “Someone went to get it.” Tommie wandered off to peruse the selection of the soda machine, pushing the buttons one by one.
Sam shrugged out of his jacket and handed it to Danika. She held it as he pulled his sweatshirt over his head. Danika swallowed and tried to look away as the T-shirt underneath also pulled up, revealing a hard, flat stomach and a line of crisp golden hair down the center, but her eyes simply would not obey.
Once the sweatshirt was off, the T-shirt settled back where it was supposed to be and Danika heard Derek say, “Let me know if you have any questions.”
She smiled at him. “I will.”
“I’m interested in what you think of the project.”
Oh, crap. She was going to have to sound intelligent discussing something about which she hadn’t heard one word.
“I’m flattered,” she said. She meant it too. She always liked it when someone wanted to know what she thought. But she would have meant it even more if she was completely focused on Derek.
49
Erin Nicholas
The thing was, as long as Sam Bradford was within one hundred feet of her, she would likely never be completely focused on anything else.
He had taken a pair of scissors from a drawer behind the registration desk and had cut a small hole on the back of the right shoulder of his sweatshirt and then used the scissors to fray the cuff around each of the wrists. Finally, he picked up a Styrofoam cup and splashed coffee down the front.
Sam handed the shirt to Derek and took his jacket back from Danika. “Give that to him when it’s dry.
Tell him some other guy left it here a few days ago.” He handed Derek a twenty dollar bill. “And get him a scarf. He lost the other one.”
Derek nodded and pocketed the money. “I’ll get a blue one.” Sam clapped Derek on the back. “Thanks.”
Danika had only one thought at that point.
Uh, oh
.
Sam Bradford was a good guy. That was not going to make it any easier to not want to get to know him.
A young man in a white lab coat appeared from around the corner. “Someone needed Jell-O?” Derek took the three plastic cups and grabbed a plastic spoon from the coffee cart near the magazine rack. “Time to go, Tommie.”
“Okay.” Now the man was agreeable. “Let’s go.”
He was whistling “Auld Lang Syne”
as he headed for the door. “Bye, Stephanie!” he called as the doors swished open.
Startled, Danika looked at Sam. “Steffen,” he said with a shrug.
Right.
“Bye, Tommie!” she returned.
“Time for x-rays,” Sam announced, not waiting even for the doors to shut behind Derek and Tommie.
He escorted her with his hand on her lower back and Danika wished for the hundredth time that they were walking through a romantic, candlelit restaurant instead of a hospital’s emergency department.