“Go ahead. You can laugh. It is funny, even though it hurts.”
“I’m sure your pride can handle it. We know you’re always so perfect all the time,” Cori said with mischief in her eyes.
“So you want details, I’m assuming?” Brooke asked with a sigh.
“Of course,” Cori said, rubbing her hands together in front of her.
“OK, Jack was great. I liked him. I’m sorry that Dr. Chen is gone but glad he took her place. He was really professional. And best of all Lucas felt comfortable with him.” She grinned. “I know how silly it sounds, but I’m happy just the same.”
“OK, that’s good. I figured he would be professional, but was he friendly, or cold? Stiff? Anything…details, Brooke. I want to know about him as a person.”
Brooke frowned. “First impression—aside from professional—is friendly, in a controlled sense of the word. He was cordial and considerate, to both of us, even though I was the patient. I really didn’t get much more than that though. Sorry. Besides, aren’t you the girl who always swore off doctors? Too cliché for you?”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. But there is something about him.” She leaned in closer and lowered her voice. “You know that burning feeling you get in your chest when you see someone you are attracted to?”
Brooke nodded, a soft look coming to her eyes. “Yeah, I do. I feel it every time I look at Lucas.”
“See, you do know. But it’s not just his looks, though he’s
really
hot. And big. He makes Lucas and Ryan look small and that isn’t easy to do. You know I like men like that.” Cori winked. “And he has that serious broody look to him. It’s kind of mysterious, which makes it exciting.” She sighed and then started to fan a hand in front of her face. “I’m getting hot thinking about him.”
She dropped her hand. “Anyway, off topic, sorry, I get so distracted when I think of him,” Cori said. “I’ve run into him a few times and every time I do, I catch him looking at me.”
“Everyone looks at you, Cori,” Brooke said with a grin.
Cori followed Brooke’s eyes to her clothing. Today she wore a lime green headband in her hair, which matched the lemons and limes dancing on the top half of her scrubs. Her bottom half was bright yellow. “I know. But I like dressing like this. It’s fun. Anyway, this is different. He doesn’t look at me and smile like most people do.” She tilted her head to the side. “Actually, it’s like he is fighting to
not
smile. Like he wants to and then stops himself for some reason. And you know me. It’s like a challenge now. So that—mixed with the burning in my chest—I just need to find out more. So can you ask Lucas about him? Please?”
“You know I don’t like to gossip,” Brooke reminded Cori.
“I’m not asking for gossip. I’m asking for facts. Please, you owe me.” She brought her hands together in prayer.
“How do I owe you?”
“Remember a few months ago? I got up early on a Saturday morning to help put your life back together. And I did it with no questions asked, and you
know
how nosey I am.” Cori continued to remind Brooke how she ran over to her house bright and early on a Saturday morning at Lucas’s request to check on her.
Lucas and Brooke had gotten in a big fight the night before and he was worried. Like a best friend should, Cori rolled out of bed, drove over, and delivered the message Lucas had asked her to, then watched as Brooke ran out the door looking like a hot mess to fix things.
With a sigh, Brooke conceded. “Fine. I’ll see what I can find out. But no promises.”
“Thanks.” Cori jumped up and made her way to the door. “You’re the best.”
Cori hated working out alone. Before she met Brooke last spring, she would run around coercing other nurses to meet her in the gym later in the day. And that was always hard to do.
Working as a nurse wasn’t an idle job by any means. Depending on where you were stationed, you could end up running around all day barely able to have a hurried lunch. Like in the ER. Or, like her, working in one of the specialty departments seeing patients all day long. Going through the same routine time and again, taking patients’ vitals, asking questions and preparing the doctors before they saw their patients. By the end of the day, most nurses were beat and wanted to go home and put their feet up.
Cori loved working in the doctors’ offices the best. It meant she was able to work first shift and had most of the holidays off, including weekends. First shift positions like that were hard to come by. Because she was so young, her seniority was pretty low. It would be years yet before she received a permanent placement in one office. So for now she rotated between offices, filling in for vacations, sick days or any vacancies.
She actually liked rotating around the hospital. She had always been a people person. She loved meeting new people, making new friends and most of all talking. Some would say she never shut up. But she just considered herself friendly.
“I’m so glad you’re back,” Cori said as she and Brooke made their way out of the locker room. “This week has really sucked without you. You know how I hate being by myself in the gym.”
“Gee, nice to know I’m good for something,” Brooke replied dryly.
“You know what I mean.” Cori sighed and then bumped shoulders with Brooke on their way to the gym. At least she tried to reach Brooke’s shoulder. Unfortunately, she only reached Brooke’s upper arm instead.
Brooke grinned at her, then looked at the purple and green polka dot bow holding Cori’s ponytail in place. Cori knew her ponytail was swinging wildly, so she grinned back at Brooke. Everyone turned toward Cori when she entered, not only because of the way she dressed—which bordered on loud with a splash of tacky—but also because of her mannerisms. She was practically skipping along. Again, Cori was aware of everything going on around her and delighted in the fact she left smiles in her wake.
“I’m going to do some low impact cardio today. Even though I’m not in any pain, I don’t want to push it,” Brooke said, turning her direction toward the stationary bikes.
“That’s good. I have some energy to burn.” When Brooke looked at her questioningly she explained, “Urology this week. It has pretty much made the days drag. You know how slow everything is there.”
They climbed onto their bikes side by side. “So, any interesting stories for me this week?” Brooke asked.
“Not much, unless you count the little old man who goosed me twice,” she said with a giggle.
“You are joking right? A patient really grabbed your butt? Did you file a report?”
Cori waved her hand dismissing Brooke’s comment. “No, no need. He was a dirty old man. No harm done. It was the most excitement I’ve had all week. Actually, the most excitement I’ve had in months.”
She never had good luck with men. Her taste had always run toward men with the same happy-go-lucky attitude as she had. The only problem was those men never took anything seriously, including a relationship. Maybe she’d been choosing the wrong type.
Just because she liked to be the life of the party, always joking, laughing and flirting, didn’t mean she didn’t want a serious relationship. It bothered her more than she liked to admit that no one ever took her seriously. Most of the men she’d dated were out for a good time and thought she was too. When in reality, she wanted to settle down and start a family. As much as she tried to change those men, she always ended up hurt in the end. Which was why she had been going through such a dry spell lately.
Cori sighed dramatically. “I might need to get myself a new dongle soon. Mine is getting a bit overworked. I think it’s time for some variety.”
Brooke actually choked on Cori’s declaration, causing her to laugh in return. She was never going to let Brooke live down the one time she’d played a joke on her, explaining how she was going to arrange her dongles one night. Brooke knew full well that Cori didn’t know what a dongle was and that it sounded more like a woman’s sex toy than a USB drive. Brooke even pulled one out of her purse letting Cori think she was about to flash a mini vibrator. Once Cori realized the whole thing was a joke she said she would get even with her.
From that point on Cori continued to call her little “friend” a dongle. “Speaking of dongles,” Cori continued on. “Did you find out anything on Jack?” she asked with a bat of her eyelashes.
“Sorry, you know Lucas has been out of town the last few days. When I do talk to him on the phone at night, it’s normally a brief conversation.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot. When does he get home?”
“Tomorrow night. I can’t wait. It’s been kind of lonely, to be honest. And, you know, it never bothered me to be alone before. Guess I’ve changed,” Brooke mused.
“Well, if I had someone like Lucas I wouldn’t want to be alone either. Nor would I have any need for my dongle.” She giggled at Brooke’s frown.
Before Brooke could muster up a reply, her name was called out. Both girls looked around to see the object of Cori’s inquisition.
***
Jack had been swamped all day due to emergency surgery lasting several hours. As a result, most of his patients had to be rescheduled for another day. But unfortunately just as many patients decided to wait him out, which meant he finished his day later than planned. He’d had high hopes of getting out a few hours early today since he had been working so many hours on-call this week. But thanks to that emergency his hopes had been squashed.
He was dressed in his second pair of scrubs of the day—his normal daily work attire.
Most doctors wore suits and ties, or at least slacks and a dress shirt to work daily. But not Jack. He always dressed in scrubs. One, because scrubs were easy: just grab a shirt and a pair of pants of the same color from the dozen or so pairs hanging in his closet. And two, because scrubs were comfortable. Who didn’t like being comfortable all day long?
Once his last patient was out the door, he grabbed the gym bag from his office and decided to get in a quick run. He preferred to run outside, but with fall pushing into winter the days were getting shorter and shorter. By the time he got out of work each night it was already dark.
Pretty soon there would be snow on the ground. Not that it would stay. But early November in New York could easily drop a few inches of snow at any given time.
When he entered the gym, he noticed Brooke on the stationary bike
and
the little redhead. The doctor in him wanted to make sure his patient was better even though he was off duty at the moment. And maybe get a closer look at her friend. “Brooke,” he called out. “How are you feeling? Any pain?” It was easier to talk to a patient than a friend.
“Hi, Jack. No, no pain. Everything seems to be healing well. But don’t worry, I’m starting out slow,” she said indicating the bike. “Just thirty minutes today.”
“Good. Glad you’re doing better. And glad you’re taking it slow.”
“Not like I have much of a choice. But I figured I would try it sooner rather than later and see how I felt.” The redhead nudged her arm. “Jack, this is my friend, Cori. I don’t believe you were introduced at Lucas’s over the summer. Well, actually we didn’t even know who you were other than a friend of Ryan’s that day. Cori, this is Dr. Jack Reynolds.”
Jack nodded at Cori. “Nice to meet you.”
“You, too,” Cori replied with a bright smile plastered to her cherub face.
“Jack, Cori’s a nurse. She is on the rotation schedule. Some day she may end up filling in at your office.”
Any thoughts he might have had flew right out of his mind as she stared at him with that bright smile. He decided to keep it simple. “That’s good.”
Cori kept silent, and the big smile radiating from her face started to unnerve him. He turned and added a bit awkwardly. “Well, I’ll let you get back to your workout.”
***
Brooke looked over at Cori to see the big grin still surrounding her face. “I can’t believe it,” she exclaimed. “That was the first time you didn’t take over a conversation.”
Cori answered dreamily, “Did you see the way he looked at me?”
Brooke laughed. “Yeah. He looked confused. And scared.”
“He did, didn’t he? Wasn’t it cute?”
Brooke shook her head, teasing. “Only you would think it’s cute that he is confused and scared around you.”
“It is,” Cori explained with a smile. “Especially coming from someone as big as him. It’s like you totally don’t expect it. Which makes it more of a challenge. Oh, and did you see the butt on him when he walked away?”
Brooke rolled her eyes. “How can you tell what anyone looks like under those scrubs?”
“Oh, I can tell. I know a good butt when I see one. You wait. He will be out here shortly after he changes, then tell me if I’m wrong.”
When Jack came out a few minutes later in long athletic shorts and a worn T-shirt that hugged his muscled frame exactly right, every woman in the gym took notice. Not that Jack was even aware of it.
The following Monday, Jack was running late, thanks to a sleepless night. Once he finally fell asleep, he didn’t hear his alarm going off for almost twenty minutes. He could never seem to get used to the dog’s horrible habit of snoring. And no matter how many times he woke Roxy up or told her to leave the room she would lay her head back down and start the proverbial sawing of wood, completely ignoring him. Of course it was Roxy’s snoring that kept him up, not the explicitly detailed fantasies he was having of Cori.
After rushing out the door, he was in desperate need of coffee. So he found himself standing in line at the donut shop before making his way to his office.
“Hi, Jack,” he heard from behind him in line, causing him to turn with a start. He looked down at the sound of the voice. It was Cori, and all thoughts flew out of his head again. Well, most of them. The details of his fantasies rushed forward, but that didn’t count. He wasn’t about to share them.
She must have noticed his shocked expression. “Oh, sorry. Should I have called your Dr. Reynolds? I figured since you are my best friend’s boyfriend’s brother’s best friend that I could call you Jack.” She stood there smiling at him.
Jack was slow to digest what she rattled off, her big green eyes full of humor. Was she laughing at him? He had no clue. He always seemed to be clueless around women. “What? No, that’s fine. I mean, Jack is fine,” he said, stumbling over the words.
There was a hot pink bow on her head. He wasn’t sure how it was staying in place, not that it really mattered. It should have clashed with her red hair but instead seemed to go well with her personality.
His eyes drifted down further. Gosh, she was tiny, he thought. She had to be more than a foot and a half shorter than him. He didn’t think she even reached five foot. But she seemed to have a big personality if her clothes were any indication.
Dressed in scrubs like him, only different. His were standard blue, while hers boasted a zebra print. At least he thought it was a zebra print with all the black and white. The top was outlined with a bright pink that he guessed was a match to the bow in her hair. She had simple black bottoms on, but her shoes were also hot pink, the same as the bow in her hair.
His eyes moved back up to her face after noticing her flashy shoes and saw her continuous smile. “It’s your turn.” She pointed to the counter.
“Sir, can I have your order, please?” the girl behind the counter asked for the second time.
“Oh, yes. Large coffee with cream and a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich.”
“Is that for here or to go?” the worker asked, never taking her eyes off the register in front of her.
“To go.” He handed over his money and tried not to cringe when he heard Cori’s order.
“An extra large coffee, light and sweet with five sugars please. And a jelly donut. To go,” she added before the worker could ask. “So, how do you know Ryan?”
“What?” Jack asked her dumbly. She was talking to him again, he thought in a panic. Why couldn’t he get his breakfast in peace? He didn’t understand people’s need to talk all the time. It was an easy enough question to answer, though. “We went to college together.”
“That’s nice. I never did find out where that was. I knew Ryan played football in college.” She paused to look him up and down and must have concluded he might have too. It was a common misconception. “Did you play, too?”
“No,” he answered simply, but as politely as he could. Thankfully his order was finished, so he collected his food and said a quick, “Bye,” before she could ask him another question, forcing him to have a conversation and come off sounding like a fool.
Walking to his office, Jack tried to replay the conversation back in his mind. He hoped he wasn’t rude. He never wanted to come off rude, at least not on purpose. He didn’t understand people that well. He was used to being the guy on the outside looking in. Or at home alone where he was most comfortable.
And frankly, in her presence, he didn’t seem to be able to put more than two words together. Besides, he’d already convinced himself to keep his distance from her. He hadn’t felt any type of attraction for someone in a long time, and his attraction to her was a bit unnerving, if truth were known. And it wasn’t as if he was going to do anything about it. Better to pretend the attraction didn’t exist at all and go on his merry way.
It was for the best, he reminded himself,
again
. He couldn’t ever remember a time where he was this scattered around anyone before. Definitely not a good combination for someone who didn’t like socializing in the first place.
Tracy had always been the talker between the two of them. She’d understood his need for quiet and had gladly let him have it, but only to an extent.
She was all for going out and being around a lot of people. Thankfully when she dragged him along she always kept the conversations around them lively enough that he didn’t need to do more than answer a few questions, thus taking all the attention off of him. It worked well for both of them.
By the time he shut the door to his office and sat down to eat his hurried breakfast, the conversation with Cori was far from his mind.
***
Cori watched Jack walk away. She liked his looks. All big and strong, mixed with an awkwardness that was…sweet. That was about the only sweet thing about him, though. Everything else was plain hot.
He was the total opposite of the type she would normally be interested in. He seemed unable to put more than a few words together at once. She didn’t mind though. She liked to talk and at least she wouldn’t have to worry about someone trying to talk over her all the time.
She wondered what his story was. She knew he was single. Not from a lack of the ring on his finger—as a lot of married men didn’t wear a wedding band—but rather the talk regarding him through the nurse’s grapevine. There was always lot of speculation about a new thirty-something doctor entering the facility, especially one as hot as Jack. But no one seemed to know much about him at this point.
She was counting on Brooke to be able to give her some information. Whatever came from Brooke would be fact, not gossip. And she had to admit she was more than curious about the hunky Dr. Reynolds.
***
“I’m not sure you’re going to like what I found out,” Brooke started to explain to Cori the next night over dinner. The two women tried to have dinner together at least twice a month, usually when Lucas was working late and Brooke knew he would go straight home rather than stop at her place.
“Why?” Cori asked. “Does he have three ex-wives? A bunch of illegitimate children floating around?” She grinned at the disgruntled look on Brooke’s face.
“No, nothing like that. Actually I would think the opposite,” Brooke answered more seriously.
Cori’s grin faded from her face. “Come on, Brooke. Nothing can be as bad as what your face is indicating.”
“I’m not so sure. Let me say—and please don’t take this the wrong way—I’m only looking out for you. But he is not your type.”
“Is he gay?” Cori asked suddenly. “Because that would be a total shame.”
“No.”
“Well, if he isn’t gay and he doesn’t have a bunch of ex-wives or children floating around, then what could be so bad about him?” Cori placed her elbows on the counter, propping her chin in her hands.
“I didn’t say bad. I said not your type. There’s a difference.”
“OK, so tell me. Why isn’t he my type? You’ve got me on the edge of my seat here,” Cori said as she sat up straighter.
“Well, for one, he’s a loner.”
“I think I could have figured that out myself,” Cori answered with a snort and a roll of her eyes.
“From what Lucas said, he likes it that way.” Brooke paused to check on the pan of lasagna in the oven. Once satisfied, she shut the oven door and turned back to Cori, who was sitting on a stool against the kitchen island swinging her feet to some imaginary beat in her head. Cori always moved. “You know how much I hate to gossip,” she reminded Cori.
“It’s not gossip if it’s a fact. I want facts.”
“OK. Facts it is.” Brooke started out slowly. “He was married to his high school sweetheart. Not sure how many years they were married, but they dated all through high school, even went to Duke together. Ryan knew Tracy. That was Jack’s wife.” Brooke hedged a bit, looked Cori in the eye.
“Was?” Cori asked.
“Yes. She died about two years ago. I don’t know the details, just that she was sick and everything happened really fast.”
Brooke went on to explain that when Ryan found out Tracy was dying and was near the end, he handed all his cases off to another lawyer in the firm and flew down to North Carolina, where Jack and Tracy were living at the time, to be by Jack’s side. Jack had never even told Ryan that Tracy was sick. He kept the information from everyone until the very end when they realized there was nothing left to do for her.
Cori stuck her bottom lip out. “That’s sad.”
“Yes. I don’t have any other details on that. Ryan never really talked about it with Lucas. It affected him too, though. Ryan was the best man at their wedding and he loved Tracy like a sister. Even though Lucas had never met Jack before this summer, he knew
of
him. And knew how close Ryan was to the both of them.”
“Aside from all of that,” Brooke continued on, despite the sadness that had come over Cori, “it seemed that Jack was always a shy loner type of person, even when he was with Tracy. Ryan and Tracy were about the only ones who were ever able to get Jack to loosen up and relax, to have fun. He has always been the serious type. And when Tracy died, it seems Jack reverted back to his old ways, and worse than before. According to Lucas, from the bits and pieces he has heard from Ryan.”
“He does seem withdrawn around people. Even awkward, almost like he can’t get away fast enough,” Cori added thoughtfully. “I saw him the other day getting coffee and started to talk to him. I could see he was uncomfortable, but I thought he was shy. It was cute, you know? At least I thought it was.”
“Well, from the little Lucas knows now, I guess it took some serious convincing on Ryan’s part to get Jack to relocate here. Seems Jack was burning himself out, working seventy-eighty hours a week, most likely running on fumes and not returning any of Ryan’s calls. You know Ryan, for as much of a playboy as he is he is loyal to a fault with those he cares for.”
Brooke went on to explain that Ryan had been worried and decided to pay Jack a visit without notifying him in advance of the trip. Ryan hadn’t liked what he saw when he got to Jack’s. The house was practically empty. Only a few pieces of furniture remained scattered about and no remnants of Tracy to be seen.
Jack had lost weight, making him look years older than his thirty-two at the time. He seemed to be working himself into an early grave, staying away from home and any memories of Tracy.
“Somehow Ryan managed to get him to move here and try to start his life over. However, he’s still very much a loner. He doesn’t like to go out and works a lot of hours,” Brooke added.
“Well, I think that makes him more of a challenge,” Cori decided.
“Did you not hear what I said? Not only is he your
total
opposite, but it also seems he’s still mourning his wife. Trust me. You can’t change someone like that. You can’t fight a ghost. Chalk him up to a lost cause and move on. You will be better off.”
“I can’t. I don’t know. There is something about him. I can’t explain it. When he looks at me my heart starts to race. And I get all these tingly feelings in my limbs. I’ve never felt that before. That with the heartburn, I have to at least try, don’t you think?”
“Heartburn?”
“Yeah, that burning in my chest when he looks at me,” she replied with a grin.
Brooke shook her head. “You’re going to do what you want regardless of what I think. You always do. But just remember one thing. You can’t save the world. Cori, not everyone wants to be as happy as you are.”