“Hello, ladies,” I tell the night nurses who look up at me.
“You glow,” Gladys says to me, leaning back in her chair.
“It’s this new face cream I’m trying,” I tell her, walking to the room to take off my jacket.
“They sell sex in a container now?” she asks, and I just shake my head while I roll my eyes.
The nighttime shifts are always so long; everyone is usually asleep, and the hours don’t just tick by, they move like a snail. “How is Evie doing?” I say quietly while I grab her chart to see that her vitals have been stable. “I think she can go home next week.”
“Fingers crossed,” Gladys says. “Fingers crossed.”
The rest of the night is slow; no new cases come in and nothing from the emergency room. I roll my neck when five a.m. rolls around, and by the time seven a.m. comes, I’m dead on my feet. I grab my jacket and leave a message for Steve as I walk out of the hospital. I’m shocked to see Zack standing there leaning against the car, wearing a track suit and a beanie hat.
“What are you doing here?” I ask him, walking to him.
“Giving my girl a ride home,” he says. “Get in the car before I maul you on the streets of New York City.”
I laugh when he pushes off the car and walks to the other side. “I’ve never been mauled before,” I say, getting in the car as he takes off for my loft. “Where is Jack?”
“I got Sarah to come in early, so I could come and get you,” he says, and I lean my head back and look at him, smiling. He grabs my hand, bringing it to his lips. I close my eyes, and when he finally puts the car in park, he leans over and kisses my lips. “I missed you,” he says, giving me soft kisses. “I slept with your pillow last night, so I could smell you.”
I open the door and walk out, and he comes around, grabbing my hand. I make it just in the door when he sweeps me off my feet. “I have a couple of hours before I need to be at the rink,” he says, carrying me to my room. “I figured I could lay with you.”
“Really?” I say, putting my head on his shoulder. “Are we going to lay naked?”
“If that will help you sleep better,” he says, dumping me on the bed, then peeling the shirt from his body and tossing it to the floor. “Let’s get naked.” He winks at me, and I scramble to get naked before him, and by the time he leaves two hours later, I’m spent and ready for bed.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Zack
“So you sit at the table and take money?” Jack asks me, sitting in the middle of the bed while I slide on my tux jacket.
“Yeah,” I tell him, walking to the mirror and fixing my bow tie. “A lot of people show up to give money to Dr. Denise and Dr. Steve’s patients.” I grab my wallet and head to the bed. “Now give me a kiss and promise me that you will be good for Mrs. Harris,” I tell him, and he just nods at me. Sarah was called to help her mother this weekend, so I called Mrs. Harris, who Max and Matthew use as their on-call babysitter. She lives just one street over.
“Can we play mini sticks tomorrow?” he asks me, standing on the bed.
“I have to go in and skate a bit, but I think we can do it before or after.”
“Yipeee,” he says, getting off the bed and walking me to the door to kiss me good night. He doesn’t know that Denise is coming home with me, and she is spending the night.
I make my way over to Denise’s loft. I ring the bell, and she buzzes me up right away. The door is open when I finally get there. I walk in, looking around. “Denise?”
“Coming,” she says from her bedroom, and nothing would have made me ready for this moment. When she walks around the corner, my heart stands in my chest. Her dress is an off-the-shoulder black mermaid-style dress with little cap sleeves. It molds to her like a glove. She is tying her earring when she stops. “Sorry, I forgot earrings.”
“You,” I say breathlessly. “You look stunning.”
“Oh, this old thing,” she says, turning around, showing me that the back goes down into a V with see-through lace. Buttons are all down the rest of her back till the curve of her perfect ass.
I walk to her, grabbing her hips in my hands, then bend down and kiss her neck. “You look so hot,” she says, putting her hand on my chest and laughing. “I’m going to have fun getting you out of that tux.”