Free Just Like That by Erin Nicholas Page B

Sam asked, frowning.
    “She’s new on staff here in our department,” Derek said with a friendly smile at her.
    “You’re off my Christmas card list too,” Sam muttered.
    “I’m on your Christmas card list?” Derek was clearly confused.
    “Not anymore,” Sam said shortly.
    “Um, okay.” Derek evidently decided to talk to someone who would make more sense. “Hey, Tommie, ready to go?”
    “Jell-O,” Tommie said simply.
    “He’s waiting on Jell-O,” Danika explained. “Someone went to get it.” Tommie wandered off to peruse the selection of the soda machine, pushing the buttons one by one.
    Sam shrugged out of his jacket and handed it to Danika. She held it as he pulled his sweatshirt over his head. Danika swallowed and tried to look away as the T-shirt underneath also pulled up, revealing a hard, flat stomach and a line of crisp golden hair down the center, but her eyes simply would not obey.
    Once the sweatshirt was off, the T-shirt settled back where it was supposed to be and Danika heard Derek say, “Let me know if you have any questions.”
    She smiled at him. “I will.”
    “I’m interested in what you think of the project.”
    Oh, crap. She was going to have to sound intelligent discussing something about which she hadn’t heard one word.
    “I’m flattered,” she said. She meant it too. She always liked it when someone wanted to know what she thought. But she would have meant it even more if she was completely focused on Derek.

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    49

    Erin Nicholas
    The thing was, as long as Sam Bradford was within one hundred feet of her, she would likely never be completely focused on anything else.
    He had taken a pair of scissors from a drawer behind the registration desk and had cut a small hole on the back of the right shoulder of his sweatshirt and then used the scissors to fray the cuff around each of the wrists. Finally, he picked up a Styrofoam cup and splashed coffee down the front.
    Sam handed the shirt to Derek and took his jacket back from Danika. “Give that to him when it’s dry.
    Tell him some other guy left it here a few days ago.” He handed Derek a twenty dollar bill. “And get him a scarf. He lost the other one.”
    Derek nodded and pocketed the money. “I’ll get a blue one.” Sam clapped Derek on the back. “Thanks.”
    Danika had only one thought at that point. Uh, oh .
    Sam Bradford was a good guy. That was not going to make it any easier to not want to get to know him.
    A young man in a white lab coat appeared from around the corner. “Someone needed Jell-O?” Derek took the three plastic cups and grabbed a plastic spoon from the coffee cart near the magazine rack. “Time to go, Tommie.”
    “Okay.” Now the man was agreeable. “Let’s go.”
    He was whistling “Auld Lang Syne”as he headed for the door. “Bye, Stephanie!” he called as the doors swished open.
    Startled, Danika looked at Sam. “Steffen,” he said with a shrug.
    Right.
    “Bye, Tommie!” she returned.
    “Time for x-rays,” Sam announced, not waiting even for the doors to shut behind Derek and Tommie.
    He escorted her with his hand on her lower back and Danika wished for the hundredth time that they were walking through a romantic, candlelit restaurant instead of a hospital’s emergency department.
    Especially the hospital they both worked for. Everyone would know that she’d been admitted to the ER, for a fractured wrist, with Sam.
    That might be interesting to explain on Monday morning.
    “Oh, crap!” She stopped short.
    “What? Your wrist?”
    His concern was sweet. His guilt, not so much. “No, my sisters. I have to let them know what’s going on.”
    She was able to pull her cell phone from the outside pocket of her purse but she did not want to call them. It would be a long, drawn-out conversation which would likely end in one or both of her sisters storming the ER. Especially Carmen, who worked here.
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