Stolen Kiss With The Single Mum / The Nurse's One Night To Forever

“Don’t let those instruments scare you. I’m going to inject some lidocaine to numb the site on your chest where I’ll insert the tube. You shouldn’t feel anything,” he said, and he turned toward the sink in the room and began to wash his hands.

Something crashed behind him and he turned back, expecting to see that Lacey had bumped into the stand that held the instruments. Instead he saw the patient he’d just been explaining the procedure to standing beside the bed, holding Lacey against him. The glint of steel caught his eye and he realized that the man had a scalpel in his hand.

As if he had just stepped through a time warp, he was suddenly thrown back into the war zone of Afghanistan, standing in the quickly thrown-up field hospital…

There was chaos everywhere he looked as nurses and doctors worked on the wounded who had just arrived. He looked up and saw Ben standing in front of him. Another man held a knife to his throat while he shouted to them in a language Scott didn’t understand.

Ben told him that the man had an IED, and then he watched as suddenly Ben went down and everything exploded.

He heard screams coming from all around him, and knew one of the screams was his own. A piece of metal had torn into his leg as he was thrown under one of the operating tables.

Then he heard only silence, and it took a moment for him to realize that the blast of the explosion had damaged his ears.

He crawled through the rubble, dragging his injured leg behind him as he looked for Ben. He could see the wounded as they cried out for help, but still could not hear a sound.

He made it over to where his friend lay, pulling him into his lap and propping the two of them against the side of a turned-over table. As tears rolled down his own face he tried to wipe away the blood from his friend’s face.

Ben turned, his eyes no longer bright with life, And Scott watched as his friend worked laboriously to speak, concentrating on the movement of his friend’s lips as he slowly formed words.

“Lacey and Alston,” his friend said. “Take care of them for me.”

“Always,” Scott answered before his friend’s eyes closed for the last time. “Always.”

The tray stand crashed to the floor and just as quickly as he’d disappeared into the nightmare that still haunted his sleep he was back, watching as the man, now totally out of control, wrecked his emergency room and threatened his best friend’s wife.

He took a deep breath and tried to slow his speeding heart. He didn’t have time to deal with his own demons now. He had to get this situation under control before Lacey was hurt. He wouldn’t let Lacey or Ben down again.

“Whoa, man, you don’t want to do this,” Scott said as he slowly approached the wild-eyed man.

The man’s trembling hand tightened around the scalpel he held against Lacey’s throat.

Scott stopped moving and held up his hands with his palms facing forward, showing the man they were empty, letting the man know he wasn’t a threat. He had to find some way to get through to this guy before he hurt her.

He looked from the man’s hands to Lacey’s pale face. She’d gone so still he wasn’t sure she was even breathing. Her green eyes were wide with a look of fear that he was only too familiar with. He’d seen it on a countless number of injured soldiers. He’d seen it on Ben’s face just before that insurgent had detonated the bomb he’d been wearing. It killed him to see it on Lacey’s face now.

Then her eyes caught his and her lips moved.

Alston, she mouthed, and the word was as plain to him as if she had spoken it. Take care of Alston.

No. He couldn’t live through this again. Nothing was going to happen to Lacey. He wouldn’t let it.

Did she think he was just going to stand there and let this guy hurt her? Kill her? He’d lost too many people in his life already. He would not lose Lacey. There had to be a way to get this man to let her go.

“Look, I don’t know your story,” he said to the man as he moved an inch closer, “but I do know that woman you’re holding, and I know that whatever is going on that has driven you to do something like this is not her fault.”

Scott slowly moved closer to the man. The police officer who had been with them earlier took a step into the room from the other side, causing the man to jerk Lacey up closer to him as he tightened his hand around the scalpel at her throat. One slice to her jugular and she’d bleed out before Scott could save her.

“Don’t come any closer. I don’t want to hurt her, but I’m not going back to jail,” the man said. “I want a car outside in fifteen minutes or…”

Scott watched as the man struggled for breath. Was his color a bit cyanotic? If he could keep the man talking long enough he’d pass out with hypoxia. Only that would still leave the sharp scalpel dangerously close to Lacey’s neck when the man went down…

“Do you see how short of breath you are? You need to stay here in the hospital so that we can treat you.”

“She’s a nurse.” The man gestured with the hand that held the scalpel. “She can take care of me.”

Scott had to get through to this man now. It would help if he knew something about him, but he only remembered the basic information. He couldn’t even remember the man’s name now. All he knew was that Lacey was in danger and he was going to have to get her out of it without her being hurt.

He watched as the man’s hand began to shake again. He had to do something—and now. He would not lose someone he cared about again.

“Her name’s Lacey and she’s one of the best nurses I’ve ever worked with,” Scott said as he moved closer.

He made himself look the man in the eyes, all the while thinking about the sharp scalpel lying against Lacey’s neck. His instincts told him to grab her and run, but his training told him that would put her at risk. He had to talk this man down if he was going to have any chance of keeping her safe.

“She’s caring and professional and she treats everyone with respect, no matter what their background. But you’d already know that, wouldn’t you?” Scott said.

The man’s eyes left his and he looked down at Lacey.

Scott took another step—a larger one this time. “She’s also one of the best moms I’ve ever known. She does that thing where she leaves notes in her son’s lunchbox. Not mushy notes. The kid’s eight and she knows better than that. Instead she writes down corny jokes that he reads to his friends every day at lunch,” Scott said, and made a sound as close to a laugh as he could manage.

Yep, there’s no threat here. I’m just a simple doctor having a conversation with his patient…

The man had gone quiet now, though whether it was from listening to him or from the lack of oxygen going to his brain Scott didn’t know. But as the scalpel had moved a fraction of an inch away from Lacey’s neck he really didn’t care which.

Scott saw the police officer behind the man moving closer. The officer had his Taser out, but he wouldn’t be able to use it until Lacey was free. They had the man boxed in now—he wouldn’t be leaving with Lacey—but they didn’t want him to realize that yet.

“The boy lost his dad in Afghanistan, so Lacey’s the only parent he has. He’s got his momma’s red-haired temper, but he’s a good kid and he needs his mom,” Scott said, and took one more step closer to Lacey.

She was within arm’s reach now. The officer behind the man nodded his head. It was time for this to end.

“Like I said, I don’t know your story, but I do know that whatever or whoever you have a problem with, it’s not Lacey’s fault. Let her go and we can talk. Please,” Scott said, as he held out his hands toward the man, “just let her go.”

“I don’t wanna hurt nobody,” the man said, his voice slurred and tears filling his eyes. “I just wanna go home.”

The officer behind the man nodded one more time. It was now or never.

Scott reached out his hand for Lacey’s, felt it tremble as she laid it in his, and with one motion yanked her into his arms.

Police and Security surrounded the man as his body collapsed and convulsed from being Tasered.

CHAPTER TWO

LACEY CLUNG TO SCOTT. Nothing had ever felt as good as being held safe in his arms right then. She’d heard many a trauma survivor talk about having their lives flash before them, but she’d never experienced anything like that until now. With the sharp edge of the scalpel lying against her neck, fear had taken over her body, and with it had come the knowledge that she might have seen her little boy for the last time.

The adrenaline rush she had experienced earlier was gone now and her body had started to tremble. She looked around the hallway Scott had pulled her into. Had it all been real? Her body wanted to crumple there on the floor and curl into itself, protect her from the fear that was flooding through her.

She remembered another time when that had happened—when the chaplain from the base had told her about Ben’s death. She’d sunk to the floor that day and had never wanted to get up. She’d had to fight her way up every day after that, taking it one hour at a time, then one day, one week. At first she had failed more than she’d succeeded, but with counseling, and support from her family and friends, she’d finally gotten to where she was today.

The possibility of becoming that broken woman again scared her more than that scalpel against her neck.

She gave her head a hard shake and pushed away from Scott. “I need some air,” she said, then headed for the exit door.

Outside, the sky was still dark, but from where she stood she could see the city starting to come to life. Lights began to come on all around her as the early shift workers began to prepare for the day.

She leaned against the wall that enclosed the roof and for the first time in her life wished for a cigarette to hold in her shaking hands. The façade she had held on to until she’d been able to make her escape fell, and with it the tears she could no longer hold inside.

Alone in the dark, she let the tears fall as she stared out into the city. She couldn’t let anyone see her like this. She had her reputation as a hard-nosed ER nurse to uphold. Laughter broke through her sobs. Some kick-ass nurse she had turned out to be.

“Lacey?”

She heard a voice call into the shadows where she hid. She mopped at the tears with the sleeve of her jacket, but she didn’t answer—couldn’t speak at all while she worked to hold the sobs inside her. What would Scott the mighty thrill-seeker think of her hiding in the dark, crying like some scared little rookie nurse?

She wiped at her tears again as Scott walked into her hiding place and then pulled her into his arms. The dam broke and she let the tears and the sobs take over.

“I was so scared,” she said, speaking between sobs against his shoulder. “If something happened to me… Alston would be all alone…”

“It’s okay,” Scott said. “You’re okay.”

She knew that, but still she cried.

“I know. It’s just…” she said.

Scott’s hand ran up and down her back, his touch soothing her. Her body began to relax, her breaths becoming less ragged and her heart-rate slowing. Scott whispered in her ear, sweet sounds that calmed her fears. She was safe here with him.

She knew she needed to move away from him, in case someone saw them and took what was simply the act of comforting a friend as something less innocent, but she couldn’t move, couldn’t leave the warmth of his body. A body that was strong and safe…one that fit so perfectly with hers. A hard body that was starting to send all kinds of tingles through hers.

Wait. Something was wrong. This was Scott. Her friend. Her late husband’s best friend. There could be no tingles between the two of them.

Lacey started to push away, but Scott only pulled her closer. One of his hands cupped her face, turning it up toward him, his green-gray eyes captured hers filled with desperation.

“I would never let anything happen to you, Lacey,” he promised as he looked down at her.

She knew he was going to kiss her a second before he lowered his head. She could have turned her face, could have pushed away from him, but his eyes—so earnest—seemed to hold her in place until his lips were on hers and then it was too late. There was no fighting the warm touch of his lips as they met hers.

She had felt so cold and alone before Scott had found her. Now the heat from his body drove the cold away and his arms around her reminded her that she was no longer alone. Her mouth opened and his tongue swept in, scattering all reason from her mind as desire crowded out the fear that had held her prisoner earlier.

In the back of her mind an alarm warned her. But of what she could no longer remember. Right now there was just her and this blessed kiss, which reminded her that she was alive and safe as long as she remained in the strong arms that held her.

She tasted of sunshine and hope and everything that he had been afraid of losing as he’d watched her stand there so still with that scalpel held against her throat. If that man had hurt her…if he had lost her…there would have been no hope left in his life.

He poured everything he had into the kiss, trying to reassure himself that she was real, that she was alive and safe. Her body relaxed into his, melting into him, and then he felt himself harden against her and realized he had taken things a little too far. What had started out as a need to confirm that Lacey was alive and safe had turned into a desire that he had never let himself acknowledge before.

He felt her stiffen against him and knew she had felt the change too. He eased out of the kiss, withdrawing slowly until there was a small sliver of space between them.

She blinked up at him with eyes that went from startled to horrified in a second then stared at him as if she had never seen him before.

But then she had never seen this side of him, had she? Even though the two of them were close, they’d always been careful to keep their relationship free of anything that could be interpreted as something other than friendship.

“This never happened,” Lacey whispered, then backed away from him.

“Wait,” he said as she continued to put space between the two of them. “We need to talk.”

“No, I have to go. I’ve got patients. I need to call the lab.”

He started toward her as she stumbled, but she held her hands up to stop him.

“Don’t. I just need to go,” she said, and she turned away from him and hurried toward the stairs.

He watched as she all but ran from him. What had he been thinking? He’d crossed that invisible line that lay between friends and lovers—a line that no one ever crossed without there being consequences to their relationship. A line he had never dreamed he would cross.

For the second time that day time stood still for him—except that this time, instead of a nightmare, it had felt more like a dream come true.

But nothing could happen between him and Lacey. He’d promised her husband that he would take care of her and Alston and that promise had never included anything but friendship. A friend didn’t make moves on his dead friend’s wife. That was just not done.

He turned east and watched the sun as it rose across the sky, creating a work of art with its blend of pinks, purples and blues that no human artist could ever truly copy. The night was over and a new day was beginning. Each day was as unique as its sunrise, and he’d learned the hard way that no one knew when a day began how it would end.

He lived his life with the motto that you had to live each day as if it was your last. There were no promises of tomorrow. You had to make the life you wanted now, because today was all you could count on till the sun began to rise again.

Only sometimes life came with unexpected complications that you weren’t prepared for—and the kiss he had just shared with Lacey was one big complication.

He headed back to the ER. Maybe he should have fought off the need he’d had to kiss Lacey, but he’d needed to reassure himself that she was alive and with him at that moment.

He’d explain it to her. They’d been friends for a long time and he would never have purposely done anything to threaten that friendship. Surely she wouldn’t let one kiss in the heat of the moment ruin what they had between the two of them? They were both adults and it had only been one kiss. Just one kiss.

But what a kiss it had been.

Lacey tried to pay attention to the convoluted story her eight-year-old was telling her, but her mind kept wandering back to the last shift she’d worked. She’d been able to throw off the fear that had seized her the night before after she’d gotten some sleep, thank goodness. And she’d mostly managed to file the experience with the intoxicated patient in the back of her mind, with all the other memories she hoped to forget someday.

Now she found that it wasn’t the fact that she had been held hostage with a cold scalpel against her neck that occupied her mind. Instead it was what had happened later, between her and Scott. What had he…she…they been thinking?

They’d both been recovering from a flood of adrenaline. They’d both been scared and had needed reassurance that the two of them were safe. She could even have pushed the line a little, with the two of them sharing a hug, a kiss on the cheek, but that kiss…

That hadn’t been the kiss of two friends, sharing their fear of what might have been. No, that kiss had definitely not been a kiss between two friends.

The feel of her fingers against her lips broke through her daydreaming and she jerked them away. Scott would be here at any minute, to take Alston to soccer practice, and she didn’t need him to think she was obsessing over a kiss that had meant nothing to either one of them.

“And then Ms. Little told me to leave the class and never come back,” Alston said.

“What?” she said.

She caught the glass of milk her hand had hit before it toppled over, then sent her son her most intimidating Mommy stare.

“Alston Benjamin Miller—what did you say?” She watched as Alston’s face broke out into a grin.

“Gotcha!” he said, then jumped down from his seat and began dancing around in a circle, making sounds that reminded her of an injured cow.

Marching around the corner of the counter, she grabbed her son up in her arms and squeezed. He was her life, her everything. If anything ever happened to him…

She squeezed him tighter as he made fake choking sounds. He looked up at her and she thought her heart would stop. He’d been born with her red hair and green eyes, but that mischievous smile with its pair of dimples had come straight from Ben. He was growing up so fast and there was nothing she could do to slow the time down.

She gave him another squeeze, then put him back down. “I’m sorry,” she said, “I should have been paying more attention.”

“It’s okay,” Alston said.

“Tonight we’ll order pizza and you can tell me the whole story again.”

The doorbell rang, which sent him running for the door.

“Slow down!” she called after him.

She caught herself questioning her choice of shorts and an old hospital T-shirt. What was wrong with her? One kiss with a man and all of a sudden she was making a fool of herself. This had to stop now. She’d been kissed many times before she’d met Ben.

But you’ve haven’t been kissed since Ben.

Her mind froze on that thought. Was the problem she was having with the memory of kissing Scott as simple as that? If so, then this strange quiver she had in her stomach at the thought of seeing him would surely go away soon.

She had just loaded the last glass into the dishwasher when Alston and Scott came into the room.

“Hurry and grab your shoes,” she said to her son. “You don’t want to keep Scott waiting.”

She tried to make her eyes look up at Scott, but instead she busied herself wiping down the counters. She turned her back to him to clean the stove top, and then stopped. She was acting like an immature teenager instead of the mature single mom that she was.

Turning around to face Scott, she pasted her most friendly smile on her face—the one she used when a patient was really annoying, but she knew she had to play nice.

“You okay? I’m sorry that happened yesterday,” Scott said as he moved over to where Alston had dropped his soccer bag. He grabbed the bag, then moved to the counter. “I started to call last night, to check on you, but I didn’t want to wake you. I figured you’d have had a hard time sleeping. I know I did.”

Did he really want to talk about this now? Where did they start?

You shouldn’t have kissed me?

I shouldn’t have kissed you back?

What did he mean, he’d had a hard time sleeping? Had thinking of that kiss kept him awake like it had her? Did he have the same strange quiver in his stomach that she had? And he wanted to talk about it now? No, that couldn’t be what he meant. They had to put that kiss behind them. They had a great relationship and they couldn’t afford to lose it.

“We can’t do that again,” she said, then squeezed her eyes shut. Why couldn’t her mouth get on track with her mind? She took a deep breath, then opened her eyes. “What I meant to say is that I think it would be best if you didn’t kiss me again.”

“Um… Lacey, I was talking about that patient grabbing you and trying to take you hostage,” Scott said, his eyes now looking away from her.

Of course he was talking about the patient with the scalpel. He probably hadn’t given the kiss they’d shared another thought. The man probably went around kissing women all the time. What would one kiss shared with a friend mean to him?

They both looked up as Alston came back into the room.

“Why’d someone grab you?” Alston asked, hands on his hips as if he was preparing to interrogate her.

Scott gave her a guilty smile, then ran his hand over her son’s ginger hair. “Nothing for you to worry about,” he told the boy, who was now making a show of studying the two of them.

“If someone hurt my mom I’ll punch them in the nose,” Alston said, and he brought his small fist up and shook it.

She watched as Scott’s lips twitched and they both held back laughter.

“Mikey said his big brother punched his sister’s boyfriend in the nose. He said there was blood everywhere. Mikey’s mom got mad about the blood and made his brother apologize to the jerk.”

“Jerk?” she asked.

“Yeah, that’s what Mikey called him. Was it a jerk that grabbed you?” he asked her.

“It was definitely a jerk,” Scott said. “But the cops took care of him so you don’t need to punch him.”

She could see that her son was ready to argue the point and she wasn’t prepared for that now.

Alston took his position as the “man” of the house very seriously. He’d begun by taking out the garbage, though at first that had been more of a mess than if she had done it herself, but she’d known it made him feel like he was helping out so she’d watched him drag the trash bag out through the back door and then hurried to clean up the mess he’d left on the floor before he could return and see it.