tiny room and opened one of the metal gym lockers. “Are you done, too?”
She was making small talk, completely unaffected by this change in their routine. Still, he didn’t take his eyes off her, not even to glance at the wall clock. By the time they drove the engine back to the firehouse, it would be seven o’clock and the end of his twenty-four hour shift.
“Yeah, I’m done, too.”
He needed to stick to his plan. Coffee to go. Head for the engine after delivering the line she expected, if he could remember the over-the-top line he’d planned.
He could not. As he picked up the full coffeepot, he thought of the oldest line in the book, instead. He raised the pot in one hand and the cup in the other. “Can I buy you a drink?”
She froze in place. Her back was to him, and since he was watching her every move, he saw her hesitation. He watched her fingertips as she raised her hand to the back of her neck and fumbled for her stethoscope. She pulled a square purse out of her metal locker, keeping her back to him, her head a little bowed. “I don’t think that would be a good idea. We’re not coworkers per se, but we do work together at least a couple of times a week, and...”
Her voice trailed off as she turned around and saw him holding up the coffeepot and the cup in the gesture that had accompanied Can I buy you a drink?
“Oh, it was a joke,” she said, and he felt every bit of her mortification. Her gaze dropped to the floor, and the cool and commanding physician looked for all the world like an embarrassed young girl, standing in front of gym lockers like an awkward teenager.
“My mistake,” she murmured.
He could leave it like that, with her feeling embarrassed, and their relationship unchanged.
But she deserved better, this smart and sexy woman who hadn’t seemed to like him much until today. The truth was, he’d said the line in a different manner than he usually did. Not so tongue-in-cheek. Not laughing as he spoke.
“It wasn’t a joke, Brooke. Can I buy you a drink?”
She was such a fool.
Can I buy you a drink?
He’d said it in that delicious deep voice, but without that good-time cowboy tone. For once, he’d sounded serious.
Still, he’d meant it as a joke. It was always a joke, it had been a joke from the very first, and Brooke was an idiot for having forgotten that for even the briefest of moments.
The stethoscope dangled from her hand. Buying herself a moment, she tucked it into her purse.
Why had she imagined a guy like Zach would have been serious for even a moment? He’d called her by her first name for the first time she could remember, and it made her want to blush like he’d whispered some intimacy in her ear. Maybe that had made her hear something more than he’d meant.
He was only eye candy. A ladies’ man. A fun-loving cowboy, for goodness’ sake.
And she was an emergency medicine professional. She could operate under duress. She’d been trained to keep moving forward, even after a blunder.
She moved forward now, literally, to toss her purse on the counter and take the empty coffee cup from his hand. “Sure, I’ll take a drink. Thanks for pouring.”
His smile seemed to come as easily as ever, but the look in his eyes pinned her in place. “Am I supposed to politely assume that’s a no and drop the subject?”
“It’s a yes. I’d like a drink.” She wiggled the white cardboard cup impatiently.
He covered her hand with his before he began to pour the steaming hot liquid, holding her cup steady with the same hand that had kept poor Harold steady. His palm was warm. His hand was large enough to wrap around both her hand and the cup easily.
Unlike Harold, she didn’t find the touch of his hand calming. She’d been this close to Zach before, but only in passing, for a whisper of silliness—I’m having a hard time finding my way out of this building because I keep getting lost in your eyes—and then he’d be gone and she’d be left alone with a pleasant little shiver of awareness.
He didn’t leave this time. He was still here, still touching her, and she had nowhere to look except at him. His eyes were blue-green and as focused on her as she was on him.
“I expected more from you.” He let go of her hand and put the coffeepot back on the burner.
“More what?” she asked.
“I expected a straightforward yes or no from a woman like you. Can I take you out for a drink after work?”
His casual stance and the trace of his ever-present grin sent all the usual messages: nothing to worry about, no reason to be alarmed. But the look in those blue-green eyes was different.
This wasn’t a game. She was so terribly aware of the height and breadth of him, so much masculinity in a firefighter’s shirt. Oh, it had been a long, long time since pheromones and hormones had threatened her ability to think clearly.
“Why the hesitation? You make a thousand decisions every shift, Brooklyn.”
“It’s just Brooke.” No one here called her Brooklyn. “How did you know my real name?”
“It’s on your license.”
Paper copies of all the physicians’ licenses were displayed on the wall. She was willing to bet no one else had read them in ages. “It’s a frivolous name. I prefer Brooke.”
“It’s a sexy name. Brooklyn Brown. It fits you.”
That deep voice of his was always appealing, but the way he used it now, saying her name as if it were something he could taste...
Oh, no.
She set the coffee cup on the counter.
No, no, no. She was not going to turn into a mush-for-brains puddle of female hormones at the feet of a fireman who said she was sexy.
“I could pick you up in an hour. Are we on?”
Brooke needed to say no. She knew it. Instead, she kept looking at the single most handsome man to ever ask her on a date, and...kept looking. Silent, not moving forward, not functioning at all. Mush for brains.
The door opened again. “There you are. Done for the day?”
That particular voice belonged to Dr. Tom Bamber, a radiologist at the hospital. He was a welcome distraction at the moment, forcing Brooke to stop staring at Zach as she turned to greet Tom. She only had a second to wonder why the radiologist had come to the emergency department before he said, “I was looking for you.”
“You were?” Her surprise was genuine. He must have an unusual report for her. Radiologists typically gave their reports over the phone from their
