“They’re backed up down there—this could take a while, a few hours even,” the nurse informed Mia as she began pushing Frisco out of the room. “You can’t come with him, so you’ll just be sitting out in the waiting room. If you want to leave, he could call you when he’s done.”
“No, thank you,” Mia said. She turned to Frisco. “Alan, you are so wrong about—”
“Just go home,” he said again.
“No,” she said. “No, I’m going to wait for you.”
“Don’t,” he said. He glanced up at her just before the nurse pushed him out the door. “And don’t call me Alan.”
FRISCO RODE IN the wheelchair back to the E.R. lobby with his eyes closed. His X-rays had taken a few aeons longer than forever, and he had to believe Mia had given up on him and gone home.
It was nearly eight o’clock at night. He was still supposed to meet with the doctor to talk about what his X-rays had shown. But he’d seen the film and already knew what the doctor was going to say. His knee wasn’t broken. It was bruised and inflamed. There may have been ligament damage, but it was hard to tell—his injury and all of his subsequent surgeries had left things looking pretty severely scrambled.
The doctor was going to recommend shipping him over to the VA hospital for further consultation and possible treatment.
But that was going to have to wait. He had Natasha at home to take care of, and some lunatic named Dwayne to deal with.
“Where are you taking him?” It was Mia’s musical voice. She was still here, waiting for him, just as she’d said. Frisco didn’t know whether to feel relieved or disappointed. He kept his eyes closed, and tried not to care too much either way.
“The doctor has to take a look at the X-rays,” the nurse told her. “We’re overcrowded tonight. Depending on how things go, it could be another five minutes or two hours.”
“May I sit with him?” Mia asked.
“Sure,” the nurse said. “He can wait out here as well as anyplace else.”
Frisco felt his wheelchair moved awkwardly into position, heard the nurse walk away. Then he felt Mia’s cool fingers touch his forehead, pushing his hair back and off his face.
“I know you’re not really asleep,” she said.
Her hand felt so good in his hair. Too good. Frisco reached up and caught her wrist as he opened his eyes, pushing her away from him. “That’s right,” he said. “I’m just shutting everything out.”
She was gazing at him with eyes that were a perfect mixture of green and brown. “Well, before you shut me out again, I want you to know—I don’t judge whether or not someone is a man based on his ability to beat an opponent into a bloody pulp. And I wasn’t running away from you on the beach today.”
Frisco shut his eyes again. “Look, you don’t have to explain why you don’t want to sleep with me. If you don’t, then you don’t. That’s all I need to know.”
“I was running away from myself,” she said very softly, a catch in her voice.
Frisco opened his eyes. She was looking at him with tears in her beautiful eyes and his heart lurched. “Mia, don’t, really…it’s all right.” It wasn’t, but he would have said or done anything to keep her from crying.
“No, it’s not,” she said. “I really want to be your friend, but I don’t know if I can. I’ve been sitting here for the past few hours, just thinking about it, and…” She shook her head and a tear escaped down her cheek.
Frisco was lost. His chest felt so tight, he could barely breathe, and he knew the awful truth. He was glad Mia had waited for him. He was glad she’d come to the hospital. Yeah, he’d also been mortified that she’d seen him like this, but at the same time, her presence had made him feel good. For the first time in forever he didn’t feel so damned alone.
But now he’d somehow made her cry. He reached for her, cupping her face with his hand and brushing away that tear with his thumb. “It’s not that big a deal,” he whispered.
“No?” she said, looking up at him. She closed her eyes and pressed her cheek more fully into the palm of his hand. She turned her head slightly and brushed his fingers with her lips. When she opened her eyes again, he could see a fire burning, white-hot and molten. All sweetness, all girlish innocence was gone from her face. She was all woman, pure female desire as she gazed back at him.
His mouth went totally, instantly dry.
“You touch me, even just like this, and I feel it,” she said huskily. “This chemistry—it’s impossible to ignore.”
She was right, and he couldn’t help himself. He pushed his hand up and into the softness of her long, dark hair. She closed her eyes again at the sensation, and he felt his heart begin to pound.
“I know you feel it, too,” she whispered.
Frisco nodded. Yes. He traced the soft curve of her ear, then let his hand slide down her neck. Her skin was so smooth, like satin beneath his fingers.
But then she reached for his hand, intertwining their fingers, squeezing his hand, breaking the spell. “But for me, that’s not enough,” she told him. “I need more than sexual chemistry. I need…love.”
Silence. Big, giant silence. Frisco could hear his heart beating and the rush of his blood through his veins. He could hear the sounds of other people in the waiting room—hushed conversations, a child’s quiet crying. He could hear a distant television, the clatter of an empty gurney being wheeled too quickly down the hall.
“I can’t give you that,” he told her.
“I know,” she said softly. “And that’s why I ran away.” She smiled at him, so sweetly, so sadly. The seductive temptress was gone, leaving behind this nice girl who wanted more than he could give her, who knew enough not even to ask.
Or maybe she knew enough not to want to ask. He was no prize. He wasn’t even whole.
She released his hand, and he immediately missed the warmth of her touch.
“I see they finally got you cleaned up,” she said.
“I did it myself,” he told her, amazed they could sit here talking like this after what she’d just revealed. “I went into the bathroom near the X-ray department and washed up.”
“What happens next?” Mia asked.
What had she just revealed? Nothing, really, when it came down to it. She’d admitted that the attraction between them was powerful. She’d told him that she was looking for more than sex, that she wanted a relationship based on love. But she hadn’t said that she wanted him to love her.
Maybe she was glossing over the truth. Maybe she’d simply omitted the part about how, even if he was capable of giving her what she wanted, she had no real interest in any kind of a relationship with some crippled has-been.
“The doctor will look at my X-rays and he’ll tell
