“We need some more drinks. Why don’t we head to the bar and you two can talk here at the table and catch up?” Shayla said to them.
“You don’t have to leave. My brother Don is around here somewhere, and a few other guys we met with the McCallister brothers,” Cooper told them, but then he looked right at Catalina.
“Here, take my seat. I need to use the lady’s room,” Destiny told him, and her three friends left her standing there all alone with Cooper.
“I didn’t mean to scare them away,” he said, and she took a seat. He took the seat next to her, and his knee bumped her thigh. Their gazes locked.
“They were looking for excuses to go meet some guys,” she told him and then looked around for her friends, but they were nowhere in sight.
“Were you planning on doing that, too?” he asked, scooting closer to her. It was pretty loud in the place and very crowded. She held his gaze and absorbed dark brown eyes and that flirty, sexy expression that made her feel all giddy inside.
“No. I didn’t even want to come here tonight.”
“Why not?” he asked her, and seemed really interested, as though he wasn’t just trying to force a conversation.
“I really don’t like to hang out at bars, and I’m so busy working all the time that I kind of like to enjoy my day off.”
“What do you like to do when you’re not working in the ER and patching up bullet wounds?” He winked.
“How is your brother’s arm? It healed okay? Didn’t leave too bad of a scar?”
“I wouldn’t know,” he said to her and then looked away a moment.
She sensed something was wrong, but she really didn’t know Cooper well enough to ask him. She had helped Jeremy at the hospital that day.
“I thought you guys lived together,” she said.
He leaned back slightly and held her gaze. He had one hand on the table and the other over the back of her chair. He was close enough that she could smell his cologne and relish his masculinity.
“We do now, but with his job and working undercover for the past few years, we kind of drifted apart a little. We’ve been working on getting to know one another again. He was gone for almost three years.”
“My God, that must have been rough on him, leaving his family, his brothers, and having to pretend to be someone else for so long.”
“I guess so. I mean, I understand his job was intense and required him to be secretive, but the four of us have always done things together. We had a plan, and we all chose to stay within New York and around our parents, and then he gets into his profession and is asked to go deep undercover. It was like one day he was there, and the next, we get one five-minute phone call telling all of us to pretend he’s dead and not to look him up or try to find him because of his job. He thought it might take a year, but then one year passed, then another, and one day he calls up and needs our help.”
“And you were there for him. So that bond you have is obviously strong. Three years apart, and one phone call for help and you all leaped into action. That’s damn special.” She felt her heart grow heavy. The tears reached her eyes, and she looked away. She had a sister, and they barely talked to one another.
“Hey, you okay? I didn’t mean to get you all depressed with my frigged-up family shit.”
“Are you kidding me? Your family doesn’t sound frigged up. They sound strong and supportive. My family, on the other hand, is frigged up.” She smirked, and he chuckled.
“That bad?” he asked.
“I have a sister I haven’t even spoken to in over six years.” She played with the stem of her empty wine glass.
“A falling-out?” he asked, and when she went to answer, C.C. came over.
“Can I get you two something to drink from the bar?” the waitress asked.
“Sure thing. Catalina, another white wine?” he asked, and she nodded, and then he ordered a Bud. Catalina smiled at C.C., the new waitress at the Station. She was very sweet and kept to herself.
She watched Cooper say hello and shake some guy’s hand who walked by. He gave him a nod, looked at Catalina, and then winked at Cooper.
“Hey, it’s Catalina, right?” the guy said to her. She nodded.
“You took care of me about six months back when I wound up in the ER with a ruptured spleen from a fall during a fire.”
“Oh, yes, I remember you. How are you feeling? Wait, you also had appendicitis, too, right?” she asked.
He smiled and placed a hand on the back of her chair. She thought she saw Cooper’s expression change. He appeared angry, but then the guy squatted down lower. He held her gaze.
“It’s Michael, and yes, you figured that out pretty damn quick or I could have died. There were, like, six burn victims in the ER at the time and chaos everywhere, but you stayed with me. I never got the chance to thank you, honey. You were amazing.” He took her hand, brought it to his lips, and kissed it. She felt a bit embarrassed, but then Cooper cleared his throat.
“Well, you said your thank-you, but Catalina and I were in the middle of a conversation, so if you don’t mind?” Cooper told him.
Michael stood back up and nodded. “See ya around, Catalina. I’ll see you tomorrow, Cooper.” He then took off.
“That was weird,” she said to Cooper, who took a slug from the beer CC had just dropped off along with the glass of white wine for Catalina.
Cooper looked her over. “Ever date any of the people you helped to save?” He sounded kind of annoyed or something.
“No, how about you?” she countered, giving it right back to him.
He leaned closer and held her gaze. She felt her belly twist and tighten. Even her nipples hardened he was so close, his breath warm, his gaze sexy.
“No.”
She raised one of her eyebrows up at him. “Really? You expect me to believe that you’ve never hooked up with someone you helped save from a fire or from danger?”
“The question was date, not hook up with.”
“Oh, so there’s a big difference there, huh?”
“Well, hooking up is quick and easy. Dating involves a bit more commitment.”
“That’s true.” She gave a small smirk before she took a sip from her wine. He just stared at her.
“Ever date or hook up with a soldier or a firefighter?” he asked.
“Nope.”
They were silent a few moments, and she couldn’t help but wonder what he was thinking. Then he smirked.
“Aren’t you going to ask me if I’ve ever hooked up with or dated a nurse?”
She was taken back at his flirty forwardness, and her cheeks felt warm. She was suddenly so embarrassed. She shook her head.
He reached out and ran his finger along her jaw then clutched her chin.
“Well, I never did. Never knew someone for such a short time and felt so instantly attracted to her.”
“Hmmm, use that line a lot?” she asked, but it came out sounding breathless instead of strong and confident.
“It’s not a line. I’ve never said anything like that before. Does my honesty scare you, Catalina?” he asked, moving his lips closer.
“You don’t scare me at all, Cooper.” But as she said his name, he kissed her, and she was intrigued that it was so good she forgot they were in the middle of a crowded room, and at the Station, no less. He ran his hand along her shoulder and neck, deepening the kiss and then slowly pulling back as she began to pull back.
Speechless, they stared at one another, and then they both smiled.
“Damn, baby, I wanted to do that months ago when I first laid eyes on you in the ER waiting room.”
She pulled back and then looked around, wondering if anyone saw them kiss. Sure enough, her friends had, and they were high-fiving one another then toasting her as they waved and winked. Cooper took that second to turn and look, and they all waved and hollered.
“Oh God, they’re so embarrassing.”
Cooper chuckled, but then covered her hand and caressed it.
“Maybe I get their approval.”
“Or they’re just a bunch of goofballs that had a few too many shots.”
“I’m leaning toward the approval thing.”
She chuckled. “Confident, huh?”
“Not confident enough to believe you’d make my fantasies come true and you’d come home with me tonight.”
She was shocked, not only about him saying that to her but how easily her mind and body said yes.
“Oh, trying to fulfill the whole hooking-up-with-a-nurse thing so you have that covered, too?” she asked, and his eyes widened, and then he got very serious.
“Shit. That did sound like that, didn’t it? Frig. I didn’t mean it that way. I was just teasing. I’m sorry if I offended you.”
She chuckled and covered his forearm with her hand. “Hey, forget about it. We were teasing one another.”
“Cooper, there you are. I was looking all over the place for you.”
Cooper looked up and smiled as Catalina turned around to see who it was. Her heart hammered, and she couldn’t help but to stare in awe at Don, Cooper’s brother. They looked like twins. His eyes widened, and then he smiled.
“Holy crap, you found Catalina.”
He leaned down and gave her a kiss hello. “How are you, honey? Damn, you look good. No wonder he never came back to the table with the beers.”