Reed

  "Do you know what she talked to me about tonight for a solid twenty minutes? How to diagnose appendicitis. I swear, Josie, I almost smashed my beer bottle on the edge of the Cup so I could stab my ears with the broken end."

  Josie laughs again and I'm glad I amuse her.

  No seriously...I like her laugh, so it's all good.

  Right now, it's all good because Kathy ended up running into another doctor friend of hers who's a urologist, and I swear, they both speak in the same dull tone. Last time I saw them they were discussing penile warts or something.

  "And what's the lesson we learned here tonight?" Josie asks me with a smirk.

  "Never to let you set me up on a date," I mutter as I look down at her.

  "Anything else?" she prods, her smirk getting, well...smirkier.

  "That I like them dumb and quiet?" I ask hesitantly, because I'm not sure what the lesson is.

  "That attraction is much more than just looks," Josie says primly as she turns to face me fully. "It's as simple as that. For some reason, women just know and accept that. Men have a harder time coming around to it."

  "That's your backhanded way of saying I'm shallow?"

  "I'm just trying to show you that what's on the inside is more important than what's outside. I think you were already getting that, but it should be drilled home now."

  I chuckle and take a sip of my beer. It's totally drilled home, and yes, I already knew it. But Kathy Krantz proved to me that physical beauty provides that immediate attraction, but it can be completely eradicated if your insides don't match your outside.

  Like Josie for example.

  Beautiful both inside and out.

  "You've made your point," I admit to Josie.

  "That meaningless sex without something deeper isn't very fulfilling," she pushes at me with a sly grin. "I think you're evolving, Reed."

  My eye rolling is involuntary and I can't help but ask, "You talking from experience, Doc?"

  "I am." Her voice is soft and her smile turns so wistful my heart aches a little for her.

  "Want to talk about it?"

  She shakes her head quickly and lets a brighter smile shine through. "Nothing to talk about."

  Movement behind Josie catches my attention and I see Kathy heading our way. I groan audibly enough that Josie looks over her shoulder, then back to me with a wink. "Better buckle up."

  "Please, please don't make me talk to her, Josie," I implore.

  Josie's eyes may be twinkling with amusement, but I also see empathy within them. She knows Kathy was never going to be of interest to me and she succeeded in making her point. She also doesn't want to see me suffer, and that's the mark of a good friend.

  She opens her mouth as if she's perhaps going to say to me, "I got your back," but instead a large hand clamps down on her shoulder and Alex Crossman is there, turning Josie to face him.

  "It's Sutton...something's wrong with her," Alex says in a full-blown panic.

  Alex Crossman is the captain of the Cold Fury and our undeniable leader. He's calm, assured, and anchors the team solidly. Right now, he looks like he's about to splinter into a million fragments, because if something's wrong with his wife, Sutton, it's probably pregnancy related, as she's ready to drop at any time.

  It's amazing to watch as Josie morphs into an almost unrecognizable creature. Those brown eyes of her lose the twinkle of amusement and harden into orbs of pure focus and concentration. Her spine straightens and her shoulders square as she pushes the bottle of water she's holding at me. I grab it without thinking, still mesmerized by Josie's transformation. Her voice is sharp and crisp when she asks, "Where is she?"

  Alex doesn't even respond but turns and pushes through the crowd. Josie follows and I'm right behind her. He leads us through the throng of people spread all throughout his house. No one seems to notice that anything is wrong and I'm guessing that's a good thing.

  I also have to wonder what it is about Cold Fury women going into labor at hockey parties. Just a month and a half ago, Gray Brannon-Evans, our team's general manager, went into labor during a large get-together at her father's house. Brian Brannon owns the team and he cleared everyone out of his house in about five minutes when that happened. Maybe I'll do that for Alex, but for now, I'm just following in case Josie needs some help.

  Alex walks quickly with his head down, and I'm sure he'd throw a couple of elbows if anyone tried to stop him. He leads us down a hallway and through closed double doors that lead into the master suite.

  Josie walks in right behind him, and when I step over the threshold, I come up short as I see Sutton on the carpeted floor. She's on her hands and knees, back hunched and moaning in pain. I stop so suddenly that someone runs right into my backside. I see it's Kathy, who must have followed along, sensing something was wrong.

  I step aside to let Kathy in, and that's when I see blood all over the back of Sutton's peach summer dress.

  "Fuck," I hiss out under my breath. I note that Sutton's cousin Olivia is kneeling down beside her with her hand resting lightly on her back. Olivia's fiance and my teammate, Garrett Samuelson, is standing a few feet away with a matching look of panic on his face.

  Josie surveys the situation and jumps into action.

  She points to Garrett and then looks at me. "You two, out of here. Reed, call 911 and get an ambulance here."

  She then turns to Alex. "Get some clean towels."

  Not bothering to look her way, she merely commands, "Kathy, come over here and help me get her onto the bed."

  Everyone moves at once. I turn from the doorway as my hand dives into my pocket. I grab my cell phone and place the call to 911 as I step a few feet into the hallway. The low din of the party noise fades as I put a hand to my other ear so I can hear the dispatcher. Garrett steps out behind me and shuts the door.

  He shoots me a worried look and I tell him, "It will be fine."

  Then I'm connected to emergency dispatch and ask for an ambulance.

  --

  "You shouldn't have waited," I hear Josie saying before I see her. I'm sprawled in a chair in the labor and delivery waiting room, my legs stretched out while I play Angry Birds to pass the time.

  I glance up and she looks exhausted and exhilarated at the same time. I know that feeling. It's how you feel after winning the Stanley Cup.

  She gives me an admonishing look. "I could have taken an Uber home."

  I push up from the chair as I grin at her. "Look at you, all worldly now and using Uber."

  Her hand flies out and she pops me in my stomach with the back of it. I make an exaggerated ooph and she laughs.

  "Ready to get out of here?" I ask her.

  With a tired nod, she drawls. "Am I ever. That was intense."

  So fucking intense. After I called for an ambulance, I sat outside the closed doors to Alex and Sutton's bedroom in case something else was needed. Garrett went out to advise people what had happened and to wind the party down, as well as direct the ambulance attendants where to go. He managed to get most everyone dispersed before the ambulance got there about five minutes after my call.

  After they arrived, they went into the room without closing the doors behind them. I kept my back turned and guarded the door from a few feet away, but I could hear everything that transpired.

  It appeared that Sutton was having what was called a precipitous birth and things were moving very fast. Luckily her labor wasn't so far along, so Josie and Kathy felt she could make the short trip to Raleigh Memorial Hospital and be well settled in before the baby crowned. I winced, though, when I heard Josie tell her it was too late to get an epidural.

  Josie rode in the ambulance with Kathy. I brought Alex to the hospital and Garrett and Olivia followed in their car.

  I knew the baby arrived safely and in excellent health because Josie texted me that she did about forty-five minutes after they arrived. She had stayed in there for the birth after Sutton's OB-GYN arrived. Sutton was doing well and the night would be considered
a rousing success.

  Glancing down at my watch, I say, "It's only 11 P.M. Still plenty of night left. Want to go do something?"

  It's not that I want to go out and do something in particular, I just don't want the evening with Josie to end. But Josie yawns and says, "I'm whipped."

  I tamp down the disappointment and refuse to give up. "Come on...how about at least a beer and we'll work on the Grand Canyon puzzle."

  Josie tilts her head at me, her brown eyes shining at me speculatively. "Reed, why would you want to spend a Friday night doing that? You're turning into a lame ass like me."

  "Shut up," I say as I hook an arm around her neck and turn her toward the elevators. It's a brotherly sort of move, but it also puts her closer to me than she's ever been for an extended period and I'd be lying if I said I didn't like it. "I've found that you're actually kind of fun to hang out with. I mean, where else can I go and watch a hot, sexy doctor perform the miracle of childbirth?"

  "Technically you didn't watch me do that," she points out with a laugh.

  I slap the button to the elevator and refuse to move my arm as we wait for it. "Yeah...but you have the hot, sexy doctor part down."

  Josie laughs again and it's adorable that I can hear some embarrassment within it. Josie is a fun woman to tease, even more so when you push her way out of her comfort zone. I don't know what her past romantic life has been like, but I don't think it was filled with someone telling her those things.

  That makes me sad for her, because she is the type of woman who deserves to hear it.

  "Are you hungry?" I ask as the doors slide open. I reluctantly let her go so she can precede me into the elevator.

  "I could eat something," she says as she taps the lobby button.

  I step back and lean against the wall. "Let's stop at Five Guys and grab some burgers. I've got beer at my house. We'll work on the puzzle until you're too tired to see straight, and then we'll call it a night."

  Josie turns to face me, leaning her shoulder against the wall. She shoves a hand down into her pocket. "This is sort of weird and also not weird, you know?"

  "Granted, it's a little weird someone goes into labor--"

  "Not that," she says with an eye roll. "You and me. Our friendship. It's really sort of weird, and not weird."

  "Why would it be weird?" I ask her.

  I don't get an eye roll, but a spectacularly cocked eyebrow that's fully loaded with skepticism. "Name one other good friend that you've hung out with that is a female."

  My mind whirs and flits, mentally flipping through all the women I've been with in the last few years. Every fucking one of them has been a loose, casual sexual relationship. I even push back further in time, all the way to high school. I've never been one to have platonic female friends. I was always the jock who hung with my buddies, much as I do now with Marek and Holt. Women were, I'm ashamed to say, not worth much of my time.

  Until Josie, that is.

  "Okay, maybe it's a little weird," I admit in defeat.

  "It's weird," she says staunchly. "For me too, though. I've never had just a guy friend. It's kind of cool."

  "So you're saying sex is off the table?" I ask her with a lewd smile.

  Josie looks me up and down, giving an exaggerated grimace as she takes me in. "Yeah...not going to happen."

  "Whatever," I tease her as I motion with my hand to my fabulous body. "You'd fall down in worship if I let you have a crack at this."

  "I think we need to make a stop in the neurology department," she quips as she turns away from me. "You need an MRI of the brain or something."

  The doors to the elevator open up to the lobby, and I laugh at our easy bantering, knowing deep in my heart that there's something underneath all this friendly ribbing. I loop my arm back around Josie's neck, again the way a brother might do to show affection to his sister, but only I know that I'm doing it because I happen to the like the way she feels against me.

  Chapter 6

  Josie

  "Dr. Ives," I hear from behind me, and turn to see one of the nurses poking her head into the on-call office.

  "What's up?" I say with a smile. While most nurses are all about brisk efficiency in their communications, I always make sure I have a welcoming tone when they need something. I've seen too many asshole doctors cause undue stress on nurses with their attitudes.

  "Dr. Mills asked for your assistance in exam number two," she says. "Six-year-old needing some stitches."

  I nod and push up out of my chair, bending over to lock the computer screen on the keyboard. I head over to exam two with my shoulders squared, because putting stitches into a kid is often a job for two doctors.

  Kevin Mills smiles at me when I walk in. He's sitting on a stool next to the bed, a little blond boy lying there with a piece of gauze taped to the top of his forehead. On the other side of the bed is a young woman in her midtwenties whom I presume is the boy's mother.

  "Ahhh, here's Dr. Ives now," Kevin says to the little boy as I walk in. "She's the best doctor in the entire emergency room, next to me of course, so she's going to help me make you all better."

  The little boy looks at me dubiously with the threat of imminent tears shining in his eyes.

  "Dr. Ives, this is Peter. He took a little fall off the monkey bars and has a bit of a cut on his head."

  I give Peter a warm, reassuring smile as I step forward to take a look.

  "Hi, Peter. My name is Dr. Ives, but you can call me Josie. I'm going to take a quick peek at the cut so we can decide how to best fix you up."

  More tears well up in the little boy's eyes. A quick glance at his mom and I see she's got matching ones in hers. I smile confidently at her and turn back to Peter. When I pull the bandage back he asks me in a tremulous voice, "Are you going to stick a needle in me?"

  I take in the laceration, which is only about a centimeter long, but it's deep. It's near his hairline, so scarring won't be much of an issue.

  Pressing the bandage back down, I bend over and give him a tiny tap on his chest. "Peter, we are going to have to put a few stitches in your skin to close the cut. But you won't feel it because we're going to give you some medicine first."

  Apparently this is not Peter's first rodeo because he says, "But you have to put a needle in me to give me the medicine, right?"

  I look at him knowingly. "Have you done this before?"

  He shakes his head and the first tears slide down his face. "No, but my big brother had to have them once."

  Peter's mother leans over and strokes his face. "It won't hurt very much, honey, and then you won't feel anything."

  Little Peter isn't having any of it. He starts shaking his head and crying in earnest. "I don't want to. Please don't make me, Mommy."

  A slight glance over to Kevin, who shoots me back the same knowing look.

  This is not going to be easy.

  But with kids, it never is.

  --

  "I owe you one, Josie," Kevin says as we walk out of the exam room. Helping him put stitches in the little boy put me forty-five minutes over my shift. But that's okay. I can't remember a day I ever left the emergency room on time, and that's just the nature of the beast.

  "Not a problem," I tell him as we walk down to the medical staff's locker room. "It will be less than two weeks before I will need your assistance in the same exact way."

  Kevin laughs as he follows me into the locker room. "How is it that either you or I could single-handedly work on a traumatic brain injury case or a gunshot wound to the chest, but give us a little boy with tears and we can't do it alone?"

  "That's why pediatrics is a specialty all unto its own," I say with a chuckle. I go to my locker, unlock and open it to pull my purse out. Most doctors bring in a gym bag with a change of clothes, but since I never go anywhere but home, I'm comfortable wearing my scrubs out of here.

  Kevin's also off shift, so he pulls his stuff out of his locker at the end of the row. He gives me a quick glance and says, "We never
had that golden touch that Aiden had with patients. He could calm a snarling, drunk beast with a broken leg or have a kid smiling as he stitched him up."

  A simultaneous feeling of fondness and bitterness hits me all at once at the mention of Aiden's name.

  Kevin doesn't notice and continues to ramble on. "Remember in residency? Most people felt he was just cold and detached, but he really wasn't. He just projected such utter calm that people were naturally put at ease by him."

  My throat closes and I have to cough to open it up. "Yeah...He had that special gift."

  "Oh shit, Josie," Kevin says apologetically, and I turn to look at him. His expression is regretful. "I wasn't thinking. Just memories came flooding back."

  Boy, did they come flooding back. I can go most days without ever thinking of Aiden. Three years of residency at Duke together where we fell in love and planned to conquer the world together. Kevin and Aidan were pretty tight during those years, and the three of us hung out a lot along with a fellow colleague that Kevin had been dating at the time.

  "It's all right," I assure him as I hitch my purse over my shoulder while giving him a lackluster smile. "Those were good memories."

  His eyes are doleful as he returns my gaze.

  Knowing.

  I hate myself for it, but I clear my throat, fiddle with the strap on my purse. Not able to look him in the eye, I ask, "Have you heard from him lately?"

  Kevin's silent a moment and it forces me to look up at him. He thankfully wipes his face free of sympathy or pity, and shakes his head with a wry smile. "Nah...he's too much of a globetrotter to stay in constant contact. I got an email from him about six months ago. He was in Yemen. Battling a cholera outbreak in the middle of a war."

  My stomach flips and threatens to hurl on me. The thought of Aiden in so much danger, all while still being pissed at him for choosing that life over one here with me, causes extreme emotions within me. That's why I try not to think of him most days, and most days I'm pretty damn successful.

  "Saving the world," I mutter under my breath, then I change my expression to one of cool indifference. "Well, I got to get going. Lots to do tonight."

  New puzzle of kittens playing in a basketful of yarn.

  God...no wonder Aiden chose a dangerous, exciting life working in impoverished war-torn countries. How could I have possibly kept his interest for the long term?