“How do you know it’s poison?” Dr. Wyatt asked quietly. He respected me enough not to question me in front of others. With his medical training, I’m sure he saw some of the symptoms of poison as well.
“I recognized the boils,” I stated just as quietly as I handed him a sling without him asking me too. This wasn’t the first limb we had set today, and until we had more time, Dr. Wyatt wouldn’t be taking another x-ray or determining the final course of treatment. “I was hit with the same…poisoned darts.”
I didn’t know any other way to describe the dart-like quills that I had removed from myself almost a month ago when retrieving Hazel.
He nodded with a smile. “I concur with your diagnosis. What is your major? Have you thought about the medical field? You’re a quick thinker, have a great bedside manner, and don’t cave under pressure.”
I smiled at him. “Thanks. I’m studying for general studies right now.” There was no point in explaining that I carried a college workload but never graduated high school. “I may consider it eventually, but I have to say my heart lies in music.”
“Oh yeah?” he asked in interest. “I play the piano myself. You?”
I really liked Dr. Wyatt. He was sweet and never treated me like a child. When he gave me medical care, he never dumbed it down or treated me like I didn’t have the right to know what may be wrong with me. He showed me respect, and I respected that.
I just wished he had more contact with his own daughter. He had all the qualities of a good father.
“Piano, guitar, and violin,” I answered him. “Piano was my first love, though, and I’m still trying to become proficient in the violin.”
“I would like to hear you play one day,” he said with a smile. He had a faraway look in his eyes, and I had a feeling he was thinking about his daughter. If he had a love for the piano, maybe he had taught his daughter, too.
“We can arrange that,” I said brightly.
I heard Stacey muttering behind me, and I almost felt satisfaction at her frustration. She suffered from an overinflated ego, and I really hope she learned how to become humble before she graduated from med school. I guess she finally realized that she was unable to heal him.
“Hey, Blake. You called?” Yaris asked moments later. He stopped short when he saw the patient on the bed beside ours. “Oooh poison,” he immediately saw it.
“We have a few over here too,” Lincoln called across from the beds we were near.
“As I live and breathe,” a cute brunette sighed as she looked over at Lincoln. Her South Carolina accent was thick. She had her hands clasped to her chest. “Are you Lincoln Hudgens?” she asked practically preening under his steady gaze.
He gave her one of his trademarked crooked grins showing off his bright white, straight teeth. “I am.”
“What in the world are you doing here?” she asked breathlessly.
It was kind of cute. And she annoyed me immediately.
I was sure she was used to batting her big blue eyes and talking all breathy to get her way. I tried to tell myself that I wasn’t jealous. I tried to convince myself that I was just aggravated by the constant attention he was getting. It was exhausting.
He continued to smile as he wiped a forearm over his brow. A subtle sheen of sweat was on his forehead. The black scrub top he had slipped on raised slightly, showing off a sliver of his bronzed skin, perfect abs, and his prominent hip bones jutting from the top of his low-slung scrub bottoms. He almost had the same slim and fit build of Drake but not quite.
He was sweating as well. He had hit the ground r
unning as much as we had. He wasn’t lazy, that was for sure, and he shattered all my illusions of him being a pampered prince. It pleased me and displeased me in one fell swoop. I didn’t want to find any desirable traits in him. I tried to continually cling on to all my previous misconceptions of him.
“I’m studying for a possible upcoming role,” he said, twisting the truth slightly. I barely noticed as his eyes swung my way. His eyes were filled with sarcastic humor.
“I feel like the director will still find your performance… wanting, Lincoln,” I said sardonically. “I mean, you have great people skills and aren’t afraid to jump in feet first, but you lack a lot of other required qualities.”
He absolutely, positively incensed me. He made me feel like I was left wanting. Like I wasn’t desirable enough. Not that I wanted to be sought by him, but I didn’t want to feel like I wasn’t either. He made it sound like it would be a favor to me if he made our connection, like he wasn’t getting anything out of it.
I heard some of the girls gasp as if they couldn’t believe I would talk to him that way. Little did they know I wasn’t star struck by him. The more I got to know him, the more I realized he was just a man. I had to grudgingly admit he was a talented man on the screen, but nevertheless, he was still just a man. From what I gathered, he preferred to be treated like just a man, too. All the staff and the volunteers tonight had been doing just that, and it had been a breath of fresh air. No one fawned over him or gave him the ‘easier’ task.
I moved over to the next bed with Dr. Wyatt. This patient looked like she had minor abrasions that needed to be cleaned up and a wicked looking gash that probably required stitches. I immediately slipped on another pair of gloves and started to clean up the minor abrasions as Paula and Dr. Wyatt got to work on the gash.
“Is that what you think, mon trésor?” He tsked with a dramatic pout. “Little do you know, I’m really the only one perfect for the role. The director knows that, and if I decide to take the role, I will blow her mind figuratively and literally.”
I turned around and looked at him with a raised brow, feeling my cheeks warm from all his hidden innuendos. His piercing eyes were unsettling as they slowly scrutinized my body pausing on my hips, stomach, and breasts. He was biting his bottom lip, and I nearly cried out in frustration. I kept having to tell myself that it didn’t matter how sexy he was (no, I wasn’t oblivious) but my heart belonged elsewhere.
“Don’t flatter yourself. Maybe the director has all the main roles filled, and they are the perfect ones, and you’re merely the…understudy.” I snapped at him. I was angry at myself for letting him get under my skin. I heard more gasps and noticed we had gathered a bigger audience.