Storm Watch

17

THE NEXT DAY, Lizzy went into work. The electricity had been restored, but there’d been significant damage to the east wing of the E.R., plus they were inundated with patients. She’d been running for four straight hours with nothing more than a shot of caffeine in her system when she was paged to the front desk.

She went hustling down the hall. It couldn’t be Cece. Her sister was at home, doing wonderfully, and so was Hope. Lizzy had spent a couple of hours, holding her niece, stunned by the love that bubbled in her heart from just looking at the baby.

Then she’d gone to work, for the first time in her life just a little bit jealous of her sister, who had not only gotten her life together but was moving it forward.

Progress.

She needed that, too. Yeah, she’d had the UCLA thing planned, but she knew the truth now-it was no longer what her heart wanted, and hadn’t been for a long time. She’d turned down the scholarship this morning.

She’d find a new dream.

As she headed to the nurse’s station, she saw Cristina standing in front of the desk with a clipboard. She was in full firefighting gear and looked filthy. She’d probably just pulled someone out of a fire and was checking on them. Cristina’s partner, Blake, was across the hall, downing from the water fountain. Lizzy waved a hello in his direction and went straight to Cristina. “You okay?”

“I am.” Cristina accompanied this with an amused look. “You?”

“I’m fine.”

“Good, because there’s someone here to see you.” She put her hands on Lizzy’s shoulders and turned her forty-five degrees so that she could see the other side of the desk.

Where Jason stood.

Unlike how he’d been almost the entire time she’d spent with him, he was completely dry. The odd thought almost made her smile, but she didn’t. Couldn’t. Not when he was standing so close, watching her, his eyes unfathomable, his hands tucked into his pockets, a pensive look on his face that turned into a smile when he saw her.

Not his full-wattage smile, not his usual confident-in-his-skin smile, but one that said he wasn’t entirely sure of his welcome.

“You two had quite a time out there, I hear,” Cristina said quietly.

“Yeah.” She couldn’t take her eyes off Jason.

“Do yourself a favor, Lizzy, and keep him.”

Lizzy huffed out a breath. “When I suggested that to you about Dustin last year, you nearly bit my head off.”

“Yeah, well, I’m meaner than you.” Cristina accompanied this with a little nudge.

But Lizzy didn’t need a nudge.

She didn’t let herself think, she just did what came naturally, and walked up to Jason.

His arms closed around her, warm and solid. “Hey,” he murmured in her ear.

“Hey.” God, he smelled good. She wanted to bury her face in his neck, but she was extremely aware that she stood in front of the nurse’s station and there were curious eyes on them, so she pulled back, firmly putting her hands in her pockets to keep them off him.

She’d told him she didn’t want to do this, which had just been a way to protect herself, and now seemed dumb.

So very dumb.

In any case, she truly was so happy to be able to lay her eyes on him she could barely keep her heart in her chest. “I’m happy to see you,” she said. “But what are you doing here?”

“I came to ask you out on a date. I was thinking lunch.”

She had to laugh. “Food.”

“Of course,” he said on a smile. “So…? Yes?”

She couldn’t believe he was standing here, looking so good. “A date? Really?”

“A first date,” he clarified. “And why not?”

“Well, because we’ve already been through so much for one thing. The crazy drive, the white water rafting, the Olympic swim, the…um…” She felt her face heat as she thought of the other activities.

Naked activities.

“We’ve done it all,” she murmured, smiling at the wicked gleam in his eye. “A first date seems…superfluous.”

“We could go straight to the important stuff, if you’d rather.”

Lizzy was very aware of everyone’s extreme interest in their conversation, and she pulled him aside a little bit. “What’s possibly left?” she whispered.

“Plenty. The I-love-you stuff for one.”

She went utterly still, except for her eyes, which she felt nearly bug out of her head as she completely forgot about their attentive audience, which had simply moved closer to hear better. “I-You-” She closed her mouth, but she couldn’t breathe so she had to open it again. “What?”

He gave her a knowing look. “Want to go back to just having lunch?”

“No,” Cristina said for her. “She doesn’t.”

Lizzy shot her a look over her shoulder, then turned back to Jason. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m…dizzy.”

“That’s panic.”

“I’m not panicked.”

“Oh, you’re panicked,” he said. “You’re panicked and braced for the I-love-you stuff.”

“Oh my God.” She put her hands to her temples. “Okay, I’m panicked.” Even with the spots and her blurry vision, his grin came through loud and clear.

“Let me put you out of your misery, Lizzy. I love you.”

“I thought we were just-” She held up a hand. “Okay, you know what? I need to sit down.”

So she did. She sat right there in the hallway and leaned back against the wall, staring up at the man who’d turned her world upside down.

He crouched in front of her.

Above them, from the other side of the nurse’s station, came a scrambling sound as her co-workers and Cristina hopped up on the desk for a better view.

“You don’t know what you’re doing, if you’re leaving-”

“Speak up,” Cristina demanded, curling a hand around her ear. “Trying to eavesdrop here.”

“My life,” Lizzy said to her and the others, all now in danger of falling off the desk.

“Hey, if you wanted privacy, you should have gone to lunch.”

“I’m not leaving town,” Jason said.

Her heart caught. “You’re not?”

“I know you are, but I don’t care. L.A. isn’t that far and-”

“I’m not leaving, either.” She lifted a shoulder. “I’m happy here.”

His smile was warm and melting. “Happy is good.” He took her hand. “You were the first person to ask me what I wanted. Hell, I hadn’t even asked myself.” He put her hand on his chest, and beneath his shirt she could feel the steady drum of his heart. “You make me think, Lizzy. You make me remember that I have wants and hopes and dreams for myself. I want to stay. I want to wear a tool belt and renovate houses with Dustin. I want to get a big, slobbery dog. I want a relationship that lasts longer than a couple of hours. I want a future, here. And I want all of that with you.”

“Aww,” came from her co-workers in a hushed whisper.

“Shh,” Cristina said.

Lizzy didn’t take her eyes off Jason. “I’m stubborn, you know. And used to being the one in control. And-”

“Psst.”

Lizzy tilted her head up and met Cristina’s gaze, who was shaking her head and miming the slicing of her throat with her finger. “Ix-nay on the listing of your own faults.”

“I realize you have lots of faults,” Jason said solemnly, his eyes shining, giving him away. “Many, many, many faults-” He broke off on a laugh when she smacked him. “Come on, Lizzy, surely you can come up with something positive.”

She stared at him. “I do like big, slobbery dogs.”

“Atta girl.” His voice went thick with emotion, the same emotion washing over her face and making it all but impossible for her to breathe.

Oh, God. She was going to do this. “I know something else.”

“What?”

“I want to keep you.”

Now that smile curved his mouth. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s a good start.” His arms banded around her and he buried his face in her hair. “A really good start.”

She gave up being tough and threw her arms around him as he pulled her in tight.

“Say yes, Lizzy,” he murmured.

“To lunch?”

He laughed. “Yes, to lunch. To all your lunches. To us.”

She pulled back to see into his eyes. “But I haven’t even said I love you yet.”

“Don’t you?”

She had to laugh, even as she felt her eyes sting. “I do. I love you, Jason Mauer, with everything I’ve got.” She let out a breath and repeated his words back to him. “So be kind.”

“Ah, Lizzy. Don’t you know? I plan on being everything you ever dreamed of.”