Following Doctor's Orders by Caro Carson

Author:Caro Carson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2015-08-25T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

After the races, Zach had to babysit.

The baby was a red-and-blue helicopter named Texas Rescue One, and its pilots apparently trusted only Zach to stay with their precious machine while they grabbed lunch.

Zach had won the semifinal race after jogging straight up to the starting line, much to Brooke’s relief. If he’d lost that race, she would have felt guilty for accidentally igniting a big relationship talk when she should have been making sure he was preparing properly for the race: resting, reducing inflammation, rehydrating.

Nowhere in the list of sports medicine principles did intense emotional conversations come into play. Neither did kissing. She’d tried to stop him, hadn’t she? She’d tried to redirect his focus to his race, but then he’d told her she was amazing. Sensational. What a thing for a man like Zach Bishop to say. To her.

While Zach babysat the helicopter, letting the crowd pose for selfies but keeping them out of the cockpit, Brooke stood in line at one of the food trucks to buy Texas-sized hot dogs. Standing in the sun, smelling great food on all these grills, feeling secure that dating Zach wouldn’t cause him any regrets in a childless future, it was easy to pretend this Saturday wasn’t a tragic anniversary.

The community fair was helping her keep the grief at bay. When she remembered where she had to go tonight, when she remembered that today was the day the cutest kid sister had ceased to be, the monster took a swipe, but it couldn’t quite get a good swing at her.

“I’ll take two foot-longs, please. Extra relish.”

She made her way back to the helicopter, carefully keeping her hot dogs from falling out of their oblong paper trays. Already, she had her doubts that just one would be enough for Zach after the thousands of calories he’d burned in the morning’s competition.

After winning his semifinal, Zach had lost the final race to a firefighter from Killeen, but his congratulatory handshake to the victor had been sincere, and he’d waved at the crowd to acknowledge their cheers. It was as if there was no room in him for anger or pouting or kicking a dummy in disappointment, as one of the other firemen had done. He wasn’t devastated although he’d come so close and then lost the final round.

How did he manage to shrug off disappointment like that? To switch from the high of winning the semis to the low of losing the finals?

Any moment of happiness could change into a moment of tragedy. Her sister’s death had taught Brooke that life was short. Her career in the ER reinforced that truth too frequently. Zach had to know it as well as she did, but he wasn’t afraid to enjoy the happy moments. Maybe, just maybe, some of that optimism would rub off on her.

If they stayed together long enough, that was.

Ha. She was already anticipating the fall. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Speaking of enjoying things while they lasted, she checked her watch.

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