Fireflies From Heaven (6 page)

My heart jumped
at the printed name on my patient list.
 
Blinking, I looked again but it hadn’t been my imagination.
 
Reed Bentley was my new patient.
 
I sighed, leaning back into my office
chair.
 
I considered switching with
one of the other nurses, but everyone was busy and swapping another patient for
Reed would only disrupt another patient’s recovery.

Flipping
through his paperwork, I realized that I didn’t recognize the address and I
wondered if he’d moved in with Amber. It hurt to think of him living with
another woman, but it would also make it easier for me to squash any remaining
feelings I had for Reed.

Cora was
determined that I move on, and I’d been on three dates last week. Two of the
guys Cora had set me up with. The third was Stephen Hotchkiss, a pediatric
surgeon, and we’d made plans for a second date.

Cora’s reaction
when she heard about the date with Stephen was comical.
 
“You’re going out with Dr. Hot Kiss?”

Dr. Hot Kiss
was what most of the women at the hospital called Stephen, and Isabelle had
talked about him enough that Cora was familiar with the name, not that it was
one anyone could easily forget.

“Hey, Ellie.
 
Heard your new patient is a babe. Sandy
went out to see him this morning and can’t stop talking about him.”

I looked up at
my friend and co-worker, Samantha Diaz, and smiled.

“He’s a
military man. Sandy says he could easily land a job posing for a girlie
magazine.”

A visual of Reed’s
naked body made me start and coffee sloshed over the edge of my mug and onto my
scrubs.
 
I reached for some napkins
on my desk.

“If he’s as hot
as she says, maybe I’ll have to go with you to visit him one day,” Samantha
suggested eagerly.

“You’re
married,” Sandy said, popping her head into my cubicle. “Even with that damned
IIizarov on his leg, he’s sexy as hell, Ellie.”

“I know,” I
told them.

“You’ve already
been out to his place today?”

I shook my
head, still blotting coffee off my scrubs.
 
“I went to high school with him.”

“Think he’ll
remember you?” Samantha asked, curiously.

“His sister is
one of my best friends so I’m sure he will.”

“Lucky
you.
 
You should ask your friend to
set you up with her hot brother,” Samantha suggested wagging her brows up and
down suggestively.

“Hey, I saw him
first girlfriend,” Sandy laughed. “I’ll fight you for him. We could get on one
of those crazy daytime talk shows. I can see the headline ‘Nurses Gone Wild!’”

 
“Ya’ll are bad,” I laughed. Of course,
they were only joking. Everyone I worked with was too professional to get
involved with a patient, but they still liked to have fun.

“We are,” Sandy
and Samantha agreed. “But wait until you get a look at him all grown up, he’s over
six-feet of solid muscle and the bluest eyes you’ve ever seen.
 
He’d been working out when I showed up
and wasn’t wearing a shirt.
 
I just
about fainted at the sight of those glistening muscles.”

“Did you offer
to give him a sponge bath?” Samantha asked with a wicked grin.

“Hell yes.
 
I am his Home Health Care Aid.”

“Lucky you.”
Samantha grinned.

“Not
really.
 
He thanked me but said he
could do it himself.”

“You should’ve
told him that’s what you get paid for.”

Sandy nodded in
agreement.
 
“I thought about asking
him if I could watch—for safety reasons, but he was looking at me with
those intense blue eyes and my brain turned to mush.”

I left to visit
Reed with a visual of him shirtless and sweaty and sexy as hell.
 
Just great.
 
I needed a margarita with a double shot,
but I had to settle for a latte instead, which only put a jolt into my already
edgy nerves.

Typing Reed and
Amber’s address into my GPS, I sipped my latte and listened to a song on the
radio about a love gone wrong.
 
Twenty minutes later, I turned into a quiet North Houston neighborhood
not far from my dad’s house.
 
The
houses were older but all custom built and on oversized lots with shady trees
and large green lawns.

Reed lived on a
cul-de-sac that bordered a park where kids played on slides and swings and ran
up and down a large hill in the center of the playground.
 
I loved the neighborhood.
 
It was homey and charming and perfect
for families.

Pulling into a
large circular driveway, I double checked the address and stared at Reed’s home,
which looked like something off the cover of a home magazine. It was a
one-story, solid red brick house with a large covered porch and arched
windows.
 
My chest ached with
longing.
 
This was what I wanted
someday, a house that felt like a home, a husband and family.

 
I got my bag and walked up the steps and
onto porch and pulled out the key I had to the house.
 
Nurses were given keys to their patient’s
homes so that the patient didn’t have to get up to answer the door.
 
I opened the door but before I went
inside I rang the bell and calling out, “Hello, I’m Ellie with the VNT.” It’s
what I would have said to any of my other patients.

The sight of
Reed walking toward me made my stomach dip.
 
Wearing a black t-shirt, and gray sweats
that had been cut off at the left knee to accommodate the IIizarov device that
encircled the lower half of his leg and slowed his gait, considerably, he
looked good.

Unlike most of
the patients I’d visited who’d worn the same device, Reed was already up and
moving around.
 
The metal rods that
punctured his calf and held his bone in place looked painful but most patients
said that it was tolerable.
 
Reed,
however, didn’t just suffer from multiple bone breaks; the explosion that had
trapped him in a cave in Afghanistan had torn muscle and skin from his calf,
and he had undergone skin and muscle graphs to repair the damage to his leg.
 
He was lucky they hadn’t had to
amputate. My heart ached thinking of all he’d been through.

 
Reed smiled when he saw me, and my
heartbeat spiked. “Come in.”
 
He
reached for the door, opening it wider so that I could enter.
 
“I can’t believe you came.”

He had no idea that
I was his outpatient nurse, must not have heard me call out to him.
 
I started to tell him but my gaze riveted
on a man behind Reed.
 
He was tall
and built like Reed, but his hair was a dark blond and cut shorter.

“This is my
buddy, Jase Ford.” He turned to his friend. “Jase, this is Ellie McAllister.”

To my
astonishment, Jase seemed to recognize my name.
 
“Ellie,” Jase said slowly,
grinning.
 
“I’m glad I get to
finally meet you.
 
The Sergeant here
talks about you all the time.”

Reed clapped a
hand on his buddy’s shoulder.
 
“We
should get out of the doorway and let her come inside.”

“Oh, yeah.
Where are my manners?” Jase replied mockingly, clearly amused.

Reed and Jase
led me into the spacious living room with gigantic windows that overlooked the
wooded backyard and a massive stone fireplace that dominated the center of the
room and drew even more attention because of the huge flat screen TV that hung
over it.
 
It was a simply decorated
room done in earthy shades with overstuffed leather furniture that was set on
thick rugs that covered the hardwood floors.

“You want
something to drink Ellie?
 
I’ve got
coffee, tea, beer,” Reed offered me like I was guest instead of his nurse.

“No thank you.”

Jase came over
and shook my hand, watching me with the oddest expression.

“It’s good to
meet you, Jase.
 
So how do you know
Reed?”

“He was my CO
and still is my best friend.
 
He
also saved my ass enough times that I’ll never be able to repay him.
 
Sergeant Bentley is a hero,” Jase
boasted with obvious pride.

I glanced over
at Reed and found him watching me.
 
“Jase exaggerates.”

“He hates
compliments.” Jase grinned. “I think it embarrasses him.”

Smiling, I
decided that I liked Jase a lot.
 
He
was a charming guy and loyal to Reed.
 

“Did you know
that the Sergeant received a Purple Heart?”
 
Jase clapped his arm around Reed’s
shoulders.
 
“He saved the lives of
more than a dozen soldiers before that bomb took him down.
 
The soldier that he was trapped in the
cave with said he would’ve gone bat-shit crazy under all that rock if it Reed
hadn’t been so calm.”

“That’s enough Jase.”
Reed shook his head at Jase.
 
“She
doesn’t want to hear all that.”

“Yes I do.” I
looked at Reed, fascinated with him.
 
He was brave and strong and amazing, and I couldn’t stop the rush of
pride I felt for how courageous he’d been.
 
I looked up and met Reed’s steady gaze. “You don’t have to convince me,
Jase.
 
I already know that he’s a
hero.”

Something
flashed in his eyes.
 
“Those men
were my responsibility, Ellie. It was my job to see them safe.”

“Not to the
families of the men whose lives you saved.
 
I know that’s not how they feel,” I insisted. “They believe you did
something incredible.”

“She’s right,”
Jase told me with a wink.
 
“They think
he’s a hero too.
 
Sergeant here is
the only one that has a problem with the ‘H’ word.”

“You’re incredible.”
He looked embarrassed. “Congratulations on the Purple Heart.”

“Thanks,” he
said quietly, obviously uncomfortable with the attention.

“Sorry ‘bout
that.
 
I didn’t mean to spill the
beans,” Jase said with a smile that didn’t look in the least bit sorry.
 
He glanced at the watch on his wrist,
and shook his head. “I’m gonna have to bail, Sergeant.
 
I just remembered I’ve gotta hot date
tonight, but you should stay Ellie.
 
He’s already got two steaks and potatoes ready to throw on the grill.”

I smiled at
Jase even though I wasn’t sure about him inviting me to have dinner with Reed.

“Don’t bother
seeing me out.” Jase waved. “You kids have fun.”

“I’m sorry
about Jase,” Reed said when his friend was gone. “He means well.”

“Don’t be.” I
smiled. “I like him.
 
He’s funny,
and he’s also right about you being a hero.”

“If he said anything
to offend you, I’ll —“

“You’ll go beat
him up?” I teased.

Reed gestured
to his bad leg, and smiled good-naturedly. “I think he might be able to kick my
ass right now, so I’m hoping you’ll just accept my apology forget everything he
said.”

“Like I said,
no need. You should sit down and rest your leg.”

“It’s not
bothering me.”

I should have
told him then that I was his nurse and was there to check his leg, but instead
I heard myself say, “So, you’ve been talking about me to Jase?”

“That surprises
you,” Reed observed, watching me with interest. He took a step towards me, then
another. “Let me set you straight on something that you seem to be completely
mixed up about.”
 
Another step
brought our bodies within an inch of each other and my breath hitched.
 
My skin felt tight and tingly and
hot.
 
It was like my body came to
life around Reed.

“What’s that?”
I asked, and was shocked at how rusty and breathless my voice sounded.

“Two years ago
I wasn’t in a position to make promises to you.
 
Hell, I wasn’t even sure if I’d be
coming home. God knows I shouldn’t have touched you, but I’d never wanted
anything more.” He paused, his eyes locked with mine. “The only thing I regret
about that night is leaving you.”

Reed reached
out and slid his knuckles lightly along my jaw and I shivered.
 
He noticed and I think he liked it.

“I told you I’d
never thought of you as a one-night stand, Ellie.
 
If I hadn’t of been going to Afghanistan,
I’d have wanted more.
 
A lot more.”

I stood stunned,
staring up at Reed.

“You’re looking
at me like you don’t believe.”

“It’s not that,”
I said, still processing all he’d said.

“What is it
then?
 
Tell me.” He frowned, and I
felt his body suddenly tense. “Are you involved with someone?”

“It’s Amber.”

Reed just
stared at me. “You’re involved with Amber?”

“No!” I felt my
cheeks flush. “Not that I think there would be anything wrong with that if I
felt that way about Amber, but I don’t.”

Reed rubbed the
back of his hand over his jaw and looked at me as if trying to decide if I was
crazy. “I don’t understand.”

“Aren’t you
getting back together with Amber?”

“I’m trying to
get together with you, but I’m apparently doing a damned poor job of it if you
can’t even tell what I’m doing.”