Total pages in book: 30
Estimated words: 28637 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 143(@200wpm)___ 115(@250wpm)___ 95(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 28637 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 143(@200wpm)___ 115(@250wpm)___ 95(@300wpm)
“What?”
My friend and fellow neo and prenatal doctor laughed deeply, shaking his head.
“Nothing, you were just blanked the fuck out staring at the wall. The hell is going on with you?”
“Nothing,” I snapped, finishing rinsing and then drying my hands. We were standing outside the operating room, in the dress-down room after a particularly intense job. This was what the call at the clinic had been about — a mother going into labor and the baby inside showing signs of distress. That’s where I came in.
It’d gotten hairy in there, but then, that’s when I worked my best. I’d tuned out the rest — the alarms, the screaming doctors, the screaming parents. All of it. And I’d done what I do best. The little guy wasn’t happy, but I’d gotten him breathing, gotten him stabilized, and gotten him back into his parents’ arms, and he was going to be a-ok.
I’m not gonna lie, it’s days like this when I fucking loved my job.
But Aiden was right, I was distracted. Shit, I wasn’t even here. My mind was firmly back with Ada — back with the girl who’d stepped out of my dreams and into my reality. The girl whose lips I could still taste, and whose sweet moans I could still hear, and whose soft touch I could still feel.
The girl who held my heart.
When I was in the operating room, there was nothing else but me and the job, because that’s just how it had to be. But now that I was out, she’d come rushing back into my thoughts, and I never wanted her to leave them.
“You did a kick-ass job in there, bud.” Aiden raised a brow at me, nodding his strong jaw grimly with that token dark look of his in his eyes. “That kid’s going to be just fine.”
“Thanks,” I grumbled, distracted still.
“But you’re not thinking about that, are you?”
I glanced at him, saying nothing.
He chuckled. “Well whatever her name was, I hope it was fun.”
“Easy,” I growled, snarling as my hands closed to fists.
Aiden looked at me curiously. “Shit, seems I hit a nerve.”
“You didn’t hit anything, it’s just not like that.”
He nodded. “Alright, alright, I hear you.” He furrowed his brow, like he was trying to peer into me.
“Oh what?”
Aiden laughed. “Nothing, Jackson, you’re just…” He shrugged. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you actually look happy. Careful, it might stick.”
I rolled my eyes, flipping him off as I yanked off my scrubs and started pulling my dress shirt back on.
The thing is, I was happy, and it’s something I hadn’t felt in a long damn time. But when I’d seen her in that room the first time, it’s like someone had thrown open the shutters that’d been closed and locked for so long that I forgot they even opened.
“Well fuck man,” Aiden growled. “I know you’re the keeping it to yourself type, but whoever she is, I like this on you. I haven’t seen you like this since before—”
“I know,” I growled quietly.
“What’s the hesitation I seem to hear there?”
I shook my head. “I have no hesitations. Not with her,” I added fiercely. “But, there’ll be complications.”
Aiden raised a brow and I sighed, grumbling.
“She’s a patient.”
He winced, but then shrugged. “Not the greatest PR, but people will live.”
“She’s young.”
Aiden’s brow furrowed again. “How young are we talking here, Brody?”
I gave him a look. “C’mon, don’t look at me like that. She’s almost twenty, it’s not like that. But still…”
“But still, you’re thirty-two.”
“Yeah.”
“Why do I get the feeling you don’t give a single shit about what I or anyone else has to say about the matter?”
“Because I don’t,” I growled fiercely, my heart racing and beating faster as I thought of Ada. “Because she’s it, man. She’s everything.”
Aiden whistled. “This mystery girl who seems to have gotten through the walled-off Jackson Brody have a name?”
“Ada,” I said softly, the very sound of her name making my heart race and my cock throb.
My friend nodded. “Well, fuck man, I guess I just have one question then.”
I raised a brow. “Yeah, what’s that?”
He grinned. “The fuck are you still doing talking to me?”
I was smiling. Me, smiling. It’s not like I hadn’t felt any happiness since, well, before. But I hadn’t ever felt this kind of happiness. Life hadn’t ever felt so purposeful, like everything was clicking into place. Ada was the missing piece I’d always known wasn’t there. Her, and what I saw in our future was what I wanted, and I knew I was going to make it happen with her.
And fuck I couldn’t wait to get back to her.
I was reaching for the door handle to my Mustang, when the voice hit me like a knife in the back. The voice I’d tried to block out — the one I’d have been just fine never hearing again for the rest of my life.