ten to fifteen stitches.”
He thought of the patients still in the waiting room and considered sending her to the hospital for the procedure. Now that he’d examined her injury, he was confident the repair was something any ER doctor could handle.
But she was already here and he had everything he needed on the premises to get the job done, and he would take care to minimize, as much as possible, any scarring.
“I was afraid you were going to say something like that.” She sighed. “Okay. Let’s just do it.”
“Well, Ashley Roarke, I never thought I’d hear you say those words to me again,” he teased.
That remark brought color to her too-pale cheeks and a flash to her lovely violet eyes.
Eyes that had haunted his thoughts and his dreams for longer than he was willing to admit.
“The stitches, doctor.”
He grinned, unrepentant. “Of course.”
He released her hand and went to the door, poking his head out to ask Irene for a suture tray.
She must have anticipated his request, because she came in with the necessary equipment less than a minute later.
Her eyes grew wide when she saw Ashley’s injury.
“Oh, honey, what have you done?”
“I lost a fight with a piece of broken glass,” Ashley told her.
“Well, don’t you worry. The doctor will have you fixed up in no time.”
“But you’re going to jab me with that first, aren’t you?” she asked, warily eyeing the needle that the nurse was prepping.
“Actually, the doctor is going to jab you with it,” Irene told her. “But you won’t feel him poking at you after that.”
Cam fought against a smile as Ashley’s cheeks colored again.
He’d remembered so many things about her, but he’d forgotten how easily she blushed, how much he used to enjoy making her blush. But that was a long time ago.
Now he had to forget that they were ever lovers and concentrate on doing his job.
“There now. That wasn’t so bad, was it?” Irene said.
“You wouldn’t be asking that question if you’d been on the other end of the needle,” Ashley told her.
The nurse chuckled. “You never did like getting shots,” she remembered. “And your sister wasn’t any better. How’s she doing, by the way?”
He didn’t know if Irene had asked the question because she was anxious to catch up on Roarke family gossip or if she was trying to distract Ashley from what he was doing, but since the patient wasn’t paying any attention to him or the needle sliding through her skin, he was grateful.
“Meg’s great,” Ashley responded. “She seems to have adapted to marriage easily and blissfully.”
“Good for her,” the nurse asserted. Then her voice gentled when she said, “But I imagine it must have been difficult for you.”
Ashley didn’t move, but Cam sensed her tension.
“Megan getting married so soon after you ended your engagement, I mean,” Irene clarified.
“I was—am—happy for her.”
“Well, of course you are. And I have no doubt that someday you’ll find a man who’s perfect for you, too.”
“I’m not looking for a man—perfect or otherwise,” Ashley said.
She spoke with such conviction, he found himself wondering about the details of her broken engagement, and whether he might be able to subtly pry them out of the nurse at another time. Because he had no doubt that if there were details to be known, Irene would know them.
But for now, he clenched his teeth together to hold back the questions he wanted to ask. He had no business asking any questions, no business feeling anything for the woman who had once meant everything to him.
“Are you up to date with your tetanus shot?” he asked instead.
Ashley shifted her attention from the nurse to him. “I had a booster two years ago.”
“Then you don’t need another one.”
“Must be my lucky day.”
He smiled, appreciating that she could find humor in the situation.
“Since you’re just about finished up here, I’ll go check on Mrs. Kirkland,” Irene told him. Then to Ashley, “Take care of yourself, hon.”
“I will.”
“How do they look?” he asked, after Irene had gone.
Ashley glanced down at her hand, at the dark thread that stood out in stark contrast to her pink skin. “It looks … good?”
He smiled again. “It looks raw and ugly, but it will look good when the wound has healed.”
“How long?” she asked.
He tore open a sterile gauze pad, affixed it to her skin. “Seven to ten days.”
“At least they’ll be out before I go back to school.”
“Too bad,” he said. “I imagine fifteen stitches could be the object of intense fascination for a bunch of first graders.”
She looked up, surprise evident in those stunning eyes.
He was suddenly aware of how close they were sitting. That he was still holding her hand. And that she had made no effort to pull away.
“How did you know I teach first grade?”
He shrugged. “It’s what you always said you were going to do.”
“I didn’t think you would have remembered something like that,” she murmured.
“You’d be surprised what I remember,” he said. “What I couldn’t forget.”
Her gaze dropped away, and he cursed himself for speaking aloud a truth he’d only recently acknowledged.
He wrote her a prescription for some painkillers, tore off the page and handed it to her.
“Try to keep your hand elevated as much as possible, keep the stitches dry, and set up an appointment with Courtney to have them checked next week.”
“I’ll do that,” she said. “Thanks.”
Cam nodded and moved to the door, pausing with his hand on the knob.
“I never forgot you, Ashley. And I don’t
