Unbreak My Heart (Rough Riders Legacy #1)(27)

“Oh. Okay.” Then she beamed a smile at me. “Where’s your office? I’m between doctors right now.”

No, you’d like to be underneath a doctor right now. “Look, I’m not a doctor. I’m a nurse.”

Another confused look. Then she tittered. “Oh, you are a funny one.”

“What’s funny about that?”

“Everyone knows that men can’t be nurses. That’s a woman’s job.”

Be a waste of breath to try and set this bimbo straight, but I’d try. “I am a nurse. An army nurse, actually.”

Her lips formed a pout. “If you weren’t taking new patients, you could’ve just said so,” she said with a girlish pout.

Sierra sidled up to her. “Okay, Donna Reed. The 1950s are calling. Why don’t you toddle on back there?”

Perky Tits spun around to face her. “My name is not Donna.” She stomped off in a huff.

“Dammit, Boone. Why didn’t you tell her the best way to help you would be to take care of me? Letting me rest my weary, injured face in the soft pillows of her chest?” Hayden said with a whine.

“For shame, Hayden McKay,” Sierra said on a mock gasp of outrage. “You’d take advantage of her giving nature?”

“I would’ve given her back plenty, trust me. Now I’ll be dreaming about those tits, crying in my pillow that they’re forever lost to me.”

“Poor baby.”

Hayden crawled the last ten feet to his room.

The hallway had cleared out, leaving Sierra on one side and me on the other.

“You had quite the little fan group there, Doctor.”

I scowled. “You mean Perky Tits?”

“I mean the half a dozen other women hovering while you examined numb nuts.”

“I didn’t notice.”

“Don’t bullshit me, West. You didn’t feel the lovesick looks they shot your way?”

I locked my gaze to hers. “No. I didn’t notice. Know why?” I started toward her, prepared to tackle her ass to the carpet if she attempted to run. “When I’m around you, Sierra, you’re the only woman I see. And before you toss out a smartass retort, I want you to really think about what I just said. Because you know damn well it’s true. How many hot little coeds were flitting around here tonight?”

“I don’t know.”

“Neither do I.” I paused to let that sink in. “I didn’t come here for them. I came here for you.”

Her breathing had gone choppy. Her face and neck were flushed.

I pressed closer. “How long you plan on playing this game of cat and mouse with me?”

“That’s what you don’t understand; this isn’t a game to me. You blow into my life and act like you have every right to be here.”

“I do have every right.”

“Wrong. You don’t know me anymore. Not like you think you do.”

“I am trying like hell to change that. You shut me down at every turn. Every. Turn.” The way I’d gritted that out sounded as if I’d swallowed gravel.

But my gruff tone put fire back in her eyes. She slapped her hands on my chest hard enough I felt the sting as if I was shirtless.

“Every turn? Really? We’ve seen each other three times. That’s it. Just two days ago you swore that you came to see me in a professional capacity. So you don’t get to act all growly and frustrated with me, f*cker, because I haven’t thrown myself at you.”

“Is everything all right?” Ky asked from the middle of the hallway.

“It’s fine, we’re fine,” Sierra answered. “We’re discussing what came first, the chicken or the egg. It’s always been a hotly contested debate between us.”

Her unique way of deflecting things hadn’t changed—totally smartass. Still made me smile.

“So what’s the definitive answer?” Ky asked.

I said “chicken” the same time Sierra said “egg.”

“You two are so full of shit,” Ky said.

“Some of us more than others,” she retorted.

“Boone, before I kick you out, I forgot to ask if you need a ticket to the game tomorrow? I have an extra one.”

“Wish I could go, but I’m working the day shift tomorrow and Sunday.”

“Working,” Sierra repeated with a frown. “Why are you working when you’re on leave?”

Fuck. Me.

In my peripheral vision, I saw Kyler backing away, shaking his head at me, and Sierra saw it too.

“Answer the question, Boone.”

“Because I’m not on leave anymore.”

“Then why did you tell me you were?”

“Tuesday when I saw you I was on leave. Wednesday when I saw you I’d made some changes so I wasn’t on leave.”

“You can change your military duty status just like that?” she snapped. “Bull.”

“It’s complicated.”

Her eyes turned hard. “Are you even in the army?”

“Yes, I’m in the army.”

“Where do you live?”

“I’m based out of Fort Hood. But as of this week I’ll be living in Phoenix.” I took a step toward her. “This is what I wanted to talk to you about.”