style="font-size:15px;"> “Can’t a man have both substance and muscles?”
Kami shrugged. “Apparently not.”
“You’re overlooking the obvious.”
Her forehead scrunched. “What’s that?”
He waggled his brows. “I’m substance and bulgy muscles.”
Giving him a critical once-over, she seemed to be debating his claim. “You’re not that gross. You don’t have that no-neck, bulgy-muscles look I can’t stand.”
Gabe wasn’t sure if she’d insulted or complimented him. “That means I don’t count?”
“You don’t count, anyway,” she said flippantly, handing him a piece of paper she’d jotted patient vitals on.
Ignoring the paper, he asked, “Why’s that?”
“We’re talking muscles and substance, remember?” she said matter-of-factly and gestured to the paper she’d handed him.
Gabe laughed. “Right. I forgot. Disqualified on all counts.”
“Exactly. Now, are you going to go see the poor lady in bay three? Her blood pressure is crazy high at two hundred and fifteen over one hundred and thirty-seven.”
“Slave driver,” he accused, glancing down at the numbers on the paper she’d handed him as he headed toward the bay. “But rightly so.”
* * *
Connie Guffrey’s EKG was normal, as were her cardiac enzymes. Fortunately, after Kami administered IV medication, her blood pressure decreased to closer to the normal range, but Gabe decided to admit her for overnight observation due to her having developed some shortness of breath and mild chest pain just prior to plans to discharge her home.
Kami agreed doing serial cardiac enzymes overnight was in Ms. Guffrey’s best interest and arranged the transfer to the medical floor.
“Don’t look now,” Mindy advised, “but you know who has been watching you all night. I think he really does want you to buy his date.”
Kami immediately turned toward where she’d last seen Gabe. He was busy talking to a respiratory therapist who’d just administered a breathing treatment on an asthma patient.
“I told you not to look,” Mindy reminded her.
“Doesn’t matter that I looked because you’re imagining things.”
“Not hardly. And you know what?” Mindy looked absolutely smug. “He’s not the only one who’s been staring.”
Realization dawning as to her friend’s meaning, Kami frowned. “I have not been staring.”
“Sure you haven’t.”
“The only time I’ve looked at the man is when we’re discussing a patient or treating a patient.” She scowled at her friend. “Don’t you have something better to fill your time than making up stories?”
“You just looked at him, Kami.”
She gave a duh look. “Because you told me not to.”
“Exactly, and you immediately seized the excuse to look at him.” Mindy bent forward and whispered, “I think you like him.”
“Of course I like him. He’s a nice guy who I work with. We’re friends.”
Mindy shook her head. “Not buying it. You should be more than friends.”
Kami’s gaze narrowed. “Says who?”
“Me.” Mindy leaned against the raised desk area that provided a divider for the nurses from the examination bays. “Apparently he thinks so, too, or he wouldn’t have asked you to buy his date.”
“The reason he asked me to buy his date is because we’re just friends and I wouldn’t get the wrong idea.”
“Which is?”
“That there could ever be something between him and me.” Kami outright glared at her friend. “This isn’t some television show where doctors fall for nurses and harbor secret feelings. This is reality and the reality is that he and I are just friends and that’s all we want to be. Don’t make this into something it’s not.”
“Maybe you should make it into something it’s not.”
“You sound like a broken record. Let it go,” she ordered, then, frowning, added, “Besides, I thought you planned to bid on him.”
Mindy crossed her arms, regarding Kami. “I should.”
“Good. Buy him. He’s taking his date to Gatlinburg for a fun-filled Saturday of visiting the aquarium, playing laser tag and putt-putt golf, riding go-karts, and topping the night off with a dinner show. You’d have a great time.”
“I should hire you as my press agent. My bid might break records.”
Kami jumped at Gabe’s interruption. “I didn’t hear you come up. I was…uh…telling Mindy she should bid on you.”
“I heard.” He grinned at Mindy. “She convince you?”
“I’m saving my pennies, Dr. Nelson.”
He laughed. “Good to know.”
Mindy looked back and forth between them, smiled as if she was in on a secret, and gave Kami a you-should-go-for-it look. “I hear the receptionist talking to someone. I’m off to see if it’s a new patient and they’re ready to be triaged.”
Kami frowned at her retreating friend. She hadn’t heard anyone registering. Her friend had purposely left her and Gabe alone. Mindy had a distinct lack of subtlety.
“Good to know that since you don’t plan to buy my package, you at least plan to save me by convincing others to bid.”
“What are friends for?”
He met her gaze. “I’ve already answered that question.”
“True.” Still feeling irked at Mindy’s comments, she gave him a tight smile. “And we’ve already established that I’m not bidding on you.”
“I’d spot you the money. Imagine—you’d get a fun-filled day in beautiful Gatlinburg, my company, and you wouldn’t even have to save your pennies.”
“You’re wasting your breath.”
“Talking to you is never wasted breath.”
“Don’t try sweet-talking me, Gabe. I know you better than to buy into that garbage.”
He held his hands up. “Hey, I was making a legitimate observation, not trying to woo you into bidding on me.”
“Right.”
