Long Simmering Spring (7 page)

“Good,” Cole said, meeting her gaze squarely. “Thank you for your generous cooperation, Dr. Kensington. Not everyone would be so accommodating.” He kept his intense gaze on her face for a few long moments. Then he glanced down at the back of each boy’s head, giving each one a look that could only be described as one of care, sympathy, and disappointment, all rolled together. “Mr. Jackson, Mr. Walsh, please follow me. I’ve asked your parents to come down to the Sheriff’s Department to pick you up.”

Cole ushered the boys out the door.

Julie sank back down into her chair. Cole had been fair—more than fair—given the circumstances. She wasn’t sure why it surprised her that Cole was turning out to be a nice guy, but it did. Would it be so terrible to give him a chance—and to have herself a good time in the process? If anyone knew how to compartmentalize things, it was she. Couldn’t she enjoy some time with Cole
and
keep everything afloat at work? Julie blinked, trying to wrap her head around the fact that her mind-set might have just shifted.

Lexie was right: she deserved some fun, and who better to enjoy herself with than the sexy sheriff?

CHAPTER 7

“What is this?” Julie demanded, holding a sheet of paper in front of Cloris Garwood at the receptionist desk.

“Why, our daily schedule,” Cloris said, blinking a little too fast. “Same as always.”

“
Not
the same,” Julie ground out, pointing to a name. “Why is Cole Grayson on here?”

“As he was walking out yesterday, he made an appointment. Since we had that ten-thirty cancellation, I told him we could squeeze him in.”

Julie groaned. This was not how she’d envisioned her next meeting with Cole Grayson. Though she’d decided she wasn’t opposed to seeing him, she hated being blindsided, and things were happening faster than she’d anticipated.

How unprofessional would it be for her to cancel his appointment?

“You can’t cancel him, Julie,” Lisa said, sweeping by on her way to the nurse’s station.
Was the woman a mind reader?

She sighed, then mentally steadied herself. She could do this. She
would
do this. If only to prove to herself that she was moving forward.

“This will be fine, Cloris,” she said, taking the day’s schedule from the woman. “Thank you.”

For the next few hours, she focused on her other patients. But she never for one second forgot that Cole was coming. The morning went by quickly, and at ten-forty—after Lisa had done her initial workup of the patient—she heard a knock at her office door.

“Come in,” she said, knowing exactly who was next.

“Okay, Julie. He’s all yours. Be nice.” Lisa grinned as she slapped the slim office file into Julie’s hand, along with a thick file held together with large rubber bands.

Julie held up the huge, edge-worn file and gave Lisa a quizzical look.

“Those are Cole’s old medical records. You might want to read his prior medical history before you go in there. That man’s seen a lot of action.” Lisa was almost outright laughing as she made her way back to the nurse’s station.

Julie didn’t dignify Lisa’s words with a reply. Instead, she plopped the big file on her desk and began to skim through it. She was astounded, and then annoyed, by what she saw. Blindsided, indeed! He shouldn’t be in her office. At all.

She was fuming when she entered the patient room. He was sitting on the high metal patient table, his long legs nearly touching the floor and his posture military perfect. His upper torso was encased in a tight-fitting black T-shirt, showing off his flat stomach and narrow hips. In the confines of the small patient room, he looked downright enormous. Who looked that good, even on a patient table?

Closing the door, she turned to Cole. “You’re a veteran, something I completely forgot about when Cloris told me you were on my schedule this morning. That means your health care is covered by the government. You didn’t really come in here because your leg hurts,
Sergeant First Class
Grayson.” Julie slapped the files onto a nearby counter and crossed her arms in front of her chest. “What do you want?”

“Like I said, I’m here for a checkup.”

“Uh-huh,” she said, doubt infusing her voice. Good thing he hadn’t cracked a smile. He’d have been out of her office so fast his head would be spinning.

“All right,” he said, cocking his head, “I admit I came in here for another reason, too.”

That was more like it. “What’s that?”

“I wanted to check on you to make sure that you were all right after the incident yesterday. You’re okay with the solution I proposed?”

“Yes,” Julie said, her anger beginning to defuse. “I thought it was fair.”

“Good,” Cole said. “I sent Hank out on patrol to cover the rest of my shift, and then I talked with the boys for a long time. Found out that Chris’s dad just got laid off. Seems like he roped Ben into working out some of his frustration. Wrong way to go about it, but still, those boys deserved a second chance. They’ll make things right with you, and thanks to this lesson they’ll sure as hell stay out of trouble from here on.”

“It was . . . kind of you to do that,” she offered.

“Hank was pleased with me, of course. He’s all for forgiveness and atonement.”

Julie had heard the talk about Hank Jacobs. He’d entered divinity school, but dropped out after a year to attend the police academy. Hank was rock solid, and she was glad Star Harbor had been the beneficiary of his decision. Still, Hank hadn’t caught and disciplined the boys; Cole had. “You had a lot of discretion. That situation could have ended very differently.”

“It could’ve, but it didn’t.”

No, it didn’t. He had done those boys a huge favor and he knew she knew it. But had he done it for them—or for her? “You could have called me to tell me that instead of showing up in my office under false pretenses.”

“I’m not messing around with you, Doctor. My leg is killing me and I don’t want to haul up to the VA so some geriatric geezer can take a look at me.”

Julie smiled, despite herself. “Geriatric geezer, hmm? They have some young doctors working there too, you know. One of my best friends did her orthopedics fellowship at the VA.”

Cole gave a little snort. “I’d have liked seeing a doctor under sixty, but the problem’s not with my bones. It’s actually an old wound that’s scarred over pretty badly.”

“I see,” she said, though she knew there were any number of specialists at the VA Hospital who would be much better equipped to handle this kind of injury. “Are you sure you want me to look at you?”

“Yes,” Cole said, an intense, unreadable expression on his face.

They weren’t talking about the scar anymore. And once she went down that path, she knew by the serious fireworks between them whenever they were around each other—let alone the few instances when they’d touched—that there’d be no going back.

“C’mon, Doc,” Cole said softly, his expression fierce and hot. “Please.”

There was that word. This man—this dangerous man with a hell-raising past—was humbling himself for her. For a moment, neither of them breathed.

“All right,” Julie assented. “I’ll take a look.”

For a split second, something flashed in Cole’s eyes. A satisfied, primal look. And then, just as Julie blinked, his fierce expression faded. She’d made her choice. She only hoped that she wouldn’t live to regret it.

“I’ll step outside so you can get your pants off.”

“No need,” he said, and before she could even move, he jumped down from the table, undid his pants, slid them down his legs, tossed them on a chair, and hopped back up. “Ready when you are.”

“Hmm,” she said, narrowing her eyes at the breach of protocol. Then she focused her gaze on his leg and saw the web of scar tissue that started halfway up the side of his left thigh and disappeared beneath the edge of his boxer shorts. Though she’d seen plenty of serious injuries during her med school rotations and residency, she’d never seen one like this—utterly devastating in its size. The skin was healed but still looked stretched and dry, despite the fact that the damage had obviously happened years ago. It was a wound of war—jagged and angry. “How—”

“Roadside bomb.” The tone of his voice left no doubt that any line of questioning would be shut down.

“So let’s see what we’ve got.” She crossed the room in two long steps. “Do you mind?” she asked, holding her hand over his leg.

“Not at all, Doc.” Was it her imagination or were his lips curling up at the edges?

Julie reached down and put her hand lightly on his thigh. As she touched him, he hissed through his teeth.

Julie probed the scar tissue on his leg experimentally, pushing up the edge of his boxers nearly to his hip to see the extent of the scarring. “Shrapnel sure does a lot of damage and the scar tissue is tight. Does it give you much pain?” she asked.

“Only when it rains,” Cole said wryly. “Seriously, it always aches more during the spring. Itches, too. Not sure why.”

“Who put your leg back together?” she asked, probing the edges of the scar.

“Army medics. Had to have a skin graft,” he told her.

“You’re lucky they did a really good job with the graft.”

“Yeah,” Cole said, bitterness infusing his voice. “Luckier than the guys who didn’t make it, that’s for sure.”

“Did they do a silicone wrap?”

He nodded. “At six months. It helped a lot.”

“Hmm,” Julie said under her breath as she continued to press Cole’s scar, checking for tightness and give. “There are specialists who could probably do a better job with you. You’re a couple of years out from having any additional silicone treatments—they usually do those within the first year—so you really have only a couple of options for the dry scar tissue and surrounding skin. My suggestion is to rub some moisturizing ointment into your leg at night. Massage is great for taking care of scar tissue—it helps to break it up—and the ointment would help keep the skin moist. It might ease some of the tightness and aching. You can buy some over the counter, and I’m happy to write down which ones I think are best.”

Cole placed one of his large hands on hers, trapping it between his hand and his thigh. Julie jerked her head up. The warmth from his body seeped into her. She felt a steady pulse tick in his wrist, in sharp contrast to the wild beating of her own heart.

“You want to thank me for giving your boys another chance, don’t you?” Cole asked softly.

“Thank you,” Julie responded calmly, automatically, even as her senses began to spiral out of control. By trapping her hand, he’d pulled her closer to him. She hoped he couldn’t feel her racing pulse and she tugged experimentally to free her hand. Although heat rushed from where he touched her and diffused through her entire body, filling her with a delicious warmth, she didn’t break eye contact with him.

“You could take me out to dinner as a thank-you,” Cole suggested.
Insisted
.

“Could I?”

“Yeah. You could.”
You should
.

This was him, declaring himself to her. And she wanted it. Lord, she wanted to see what it would be like. To feel his arms around her. To taste his lips pressed against her mouth. To trace her fingers over the intricate tattoo over his ribs. To see what lay beneath his rough, hardened exterior. This man did something to her—he always had. But she wasn’t a girl anymore. She was a woman, with a career and a life. She needed to protect herself, both personally and professionally.

She waited just a fraction of an instant more before she spoke. “I’ll agree on one condition.”

“And what’s that?” he murmured, his voice low.

“I don’t date my patients. So as of this second, you’re no longer under my care.”

Cole stared into her eyes for another long moment. Slowly, Julie saw the corners of his eyes begin to crinkle and a corner of his mouth turn up in a half-smile. And she saw something in his eyes she hadn’t yet seen when he was looking at her. Admiration.

“Doctor,” he said, releasing her hand just enough to allow her to slowly slide it out between his thigh and his palm. He clenched his jaw as she did so, as if it were a struggle to keep himself in check. “You have yourself a deal. How ‘bout tomorrow night?”

“Tomorrow is fine,” Julie said. The heat that had been suffusing her body began to dissipate as she stepped away from him. She felt something like relief, and also, curiously, something like disappointment.

“You are one cool customer, I’ll give you that.”

“You have no idea,” she replied. If he could feel the crazy pattering of her heart or get even a sense of her most intimate thoughts, he’d definitely think differently.

Cole gave her a slow, sensuous smile. “Tomorrow night. Eight o’clock. I’ll pick you up at your place.”

“Fine. I’ll send Lisa back in to finish up and get you checked out,” Julie said. “Oh, and Sheriff?”

Cole raised his right eyebrow.

“I’m transferring your records back to the ‘geriatric geezers’ at the VA hospital in Boston. I don’t want to see you in my office again unless you’ve split your head open.” She gave him a slight smile. “And even then I’m not so sure.”

Before he could say anything, Julie opened the door, slipped through, and shut it firmly behind her. Briskly, she walked back to her office, sat down in her chair, and placed her elbows on her desk in a vain attempt to compose herself while she waited for the inevitable visit from Lisa. She didn’t have to wait long.

“Julie?” Lisa knocked softly on the door frame. “I heard you in the hall. Is everything all right?

Julie looked up at Lisa. “Everything’s just peachy. Please finish up with the sheriff, and when you’re done, close his file. We’re transferring everything to the VA.” Lisa just stared at her. “I have a date for tomorrow night. With Cole.”

Understanding dawned in her nurse’s eyes. “That’s great!”

“Great?”

Lisa looked behind her, checking to see if anyone else was listening. “I wasn’t going to say anything, but I’ve been really worried about you lately.”

“Worried?” Julie echoed. She was beginning to sound like a broken record.

“You’ve been working like crazy, and I don’t want to see you make yourself nuts. The practice is doing really well, and we’re in good shape for the rest of this year. I know you were concerned when some of Dr. Anderson’s patients left when you took over the practice, but you’ve more than made up for it this year. It’s time to focus on yourself now.”