Four For Christmas(8)
“Are all my toes still attached?”
He looked confused so she wiggled them experimentally. It felt like they were all still there. It also felt like she was in a dry pair of sweatpants and a man’s t-shirt instead of her original outfit. She kept her tone conversational, though she had to admit she was starting to get a little uncomfortable. “Officer Jimmy said I could lose a toe, so I was just curious. I have a curious nature and an overactive imagination. It’s a curse. Which is why I need to ask—where are my clothes, Doctor Williams?”
Now it was his turn to blush. Goodness, he was a handsome man. A little rougher in appearance and not as perfect as the other two. His nose had a small crook in it and he looked weatherworn, as if he spent a lot of time outdoors. But that only made him sexier.
“Officer Jimmy, huh?” He shifted on his feet and sat back down on the chair beside the bed. “Your clothes are drying by the fireplace. And you’re in my home, Georgia. You’re my houseguest. You can call me Chris.”
She used her other hand to tug the quilt higher against her chest. “Not to be a bad houseguest, but you being a strange man who’s seen me naked? Makes me want to keep calling you Doctor Williams.”
He chuckled in surprise at her words. “You definitely seem to be recovering. That’s a good sign. Now Flynn won’t have to live with the guilt of killing his Christmas angel, and James will stop pacing right outside the door.”
Georgia wrinkled her nose and bit her lip, trying to remember his conversation with Connie. “So Jimmy and Flynn are your brothers too? You all seem so…different.” Other than the hot, giant muscle man thing.
The doctor shrugged, still smiling. “We are in every way that counts.”
He reached for a glass of water on the bedside table beside him and handed it to her. She must have looked confused. He lowered his voice. “It’s a long, boring story.”
“I like stories.”
The doctor studied her a moment longer, then nodded. “Short version? We were in the same foster home when we were teenagers. Sort of made our own family after.”
Georgia’s heart felt like his hand had wrapped around it, squeezing gently. Foster brothers. “And you’re spending Christmas together?” Alone? Where were the adoring, super model wives and the beautiful mountain children they each looked capable of creating?
“It’s an old tradition we’ve recently started up again. This cabin has a lot of good memories. I built it when I was nineteen, the summer before I went to college. We added to it a little bit more over the years, when we could. It always feels like home. You know?” His smile held a trace of sadness that didn’t fit his words.
She instantly felt pathetically sorry for herself. Home. She vaguely remembered what that felt like. Before her father died. Before she’d lost Grandpa Bale. Her flesh and blood sister hadn’t invited her to a holiday in years, her mother barely knew Christmas existed, but these men were spending theirs together. It was a tradition. She took a sip of water. Then another. “I’m sorry, then. For messing up your plans.”
He covered her hand as she handed the glass back to him and she felt it like a jolt of electricity through her body. “You saved Flynn’s life. You don’t have anything to be sorry for.”
For once, Georgia was at a loss for words. Words were her trade, her armor, but not a one was coming to mind. Nothing to break the suddenly charged silence. Or to acknowledge the fact that neither of them was releasing the glass. That he was still touching her.
All she could think about was how blue his eyes were. How kind.
“How fares our patient? I see she’s finally awake. That has to be a good sign.”
Officer Jimmy. Georgia hand dropped from the glass and she glanced up, inwardly drooling. He looked even better out of uniform. His hair was cut short in an almost military fashion, and his white thermal shirt clung to his muscles in a way that almost seemed obscene. Sexual.
Was excessive arousal to every man she saw a side affect of mild hypothermia?
Her handsome doctor sighed and looked over his shoulder. “She’s good, James. No frostbite and no permanent damage. You got to her right on time. How’s Flynn doing?”
Officer Jimmy smirked. “Definitely going stir crazy already. Said he wanted to see his angel. He’s refusing to stay in bed unless he can.”
“She’s going to be here until the weather improves. He’s got plenty of time.”
The other man held out his hands helplessly. “Don’t tell me, Chris, tell him. He’s acting strange, even by Flynn standards. He hasn’t even asked about the snowmobile. You know, the speed machine he saved up his pennies for all year? I’m not sure what’s gotten into him.”