Drop Dead Sexy(49)

“Olivia Sullivan from Sullivan’s for a pickup.”

The door buzzed open, and I rolled the gurney in with Catcher on my heels. After following the maze of hallways to the elevator to the first floor, I picked up Mr. Marvin Delaney—a stroke victim who had been brought in to the ER earlier that day.

I was greeted by Marco—one of the orderlies. He had started work about six months ago, and he had always been really nice to me. He was probably what you would call nerdy cute with his thick glasses but a built body.

“Hey Liv, what’s shaking?” he asked, flashing me a grin.

“Not much, Marco. What’s up with you?”

“Same old, same old.” At the sight of Catcher standing behind me, his smile faded. “Got a new apprentice?” he questioned, a hopeful lilt to his voice.

When I opened my mouth to introduce Catcher, he stepped in front of me. He thrust his hand out a little too forcefully. “Catcher Mains.”

“Marco D’Angelo.”

“And I’m not a new funeral home apprentice—I’m Olivia’s boyfriend.”

What. The. Fuck. I stared at Catcher in absolute shock at the fact he had referred to himself as my “boyfriend.” I mean, we hadn’t actually been on a real date yet. I couldn’t bring myself to consider our meeting at The Rusty Ho as a date. Sure, we’d spent a lot of time together in the last two and a half days, but it was in the pursuit of a murderer.

I wasn’t the only one staring at Catcher in shock. Marco wore the same deer-in-the-headlights expression as I assumed I did. Finally, he shook his head like he was shaking himself out of a stupor. “Hey man, that’s great.”

“I like to think so.”

As the tension grew in the air, I put the brake on the gurney. “I guess I better get Mr. Delaney.”

When I started to slide the sheet under Mr. Delaney to do the transfer from the bed to the gurney, Marco jumped forward like he usually did. “I’ll get that, Liv.”

Before he could, Catcher knocked him out of the way. “I got it.”

Once again, tension crackled in the air so thickly that you could almost hear the hum. Although I didn’t think Catcher had any experience with body transfers, he managed to do a great job getting Mr. Delaney on the stretcher. After buckling him and putting on the drape, I turned to look at Marco who was staring daggers at Catcher with his arms crossed over his chest. “Um, I guess that’s it. Good seeing you again, Marco.”

Instantly, his expression changed from sullen to smiley. “It was good seeing you too, Liv. Always a pleasure.”

At the word “pleasure”, Catcher stiffened next to me. I decided it was time to get the hell out of there. “Okay then. Bye,” I said before promptly banging the gurney and poor Mr. Delaney into the wall. “Oops.”

It then took me a few seconds of maneuvering to get myself out of the corner. “You got it?” Marco asked.

“Oh yeah. I’m fine,” I quickly replied before he and Catcher had a chance to trade evil looks.

When I got out into the hallway, I exhaled the breath I had been holding. “Need me to get that?” Catcher asked when I once again banged the stretcher into the wall.

“Nope. I’ve got it.” Get a grip, Sullivan. You’re making an ass out of yourself. You haven’t done the stretcher shuffle since the first summer you worked for your dad. After inwardly berating myself, I was able to make it down the rest of the hallway without any further incidents.

After rolling the gurney onto the elevator, I turned back to see Marco standing outside Mr. Delaney’s room. He threw up his hand and smiled.

“Bye,” I replied, which caused Catcher to growl.

When the elevator doors closed, I turned to glare at Catcher. “What the hell was that about?”

Catcher stared straight ahead. “What do you mean?”

“Um, the fact that for a minute, I thought you might go all Motown on me by pissing on my leg to show possession.”

Catcher snorted before cutting his eyes over to me. “I was not as bad as your dog.”

I cocked my brows at him. “Seriously?”

“That douchebag was totally scamming on you.”

“Marco was not scamming on me.”

“Get serious, Olivia. The guy is probably going to jerk one out in the bathroom over you.”

Wrinkling my nose, I replied, “Ew. I seriously doubt that.”

“Are you really that blind?”

I shrugged. “He was just being nice. Marco’s always been very friendly and helpful.”

“Yeah, so he could get in your pants.”

I widened my eyes. “No. He so doesn’t think of me that way.”

“Oh yeah, he does.” Catcher shook his head at me. “No wonder you were in such a sex drought. You can’t pick up when a man is coming on to you.”

“I hardly think that Marco was trying to come on to me when I was picking up dead guys.”

Catcher snorted. “Babe, as long as we’re not dead or our dick’s not dead, we’re going to pick up a woman regardless of the situation.”

The elevator door dinged open. “And that’s why men are pigs.”

“Hey, don’t shoot the messenger.”

Ignoring him, I then rolled Mr. Delaney through the hallways and out to the hearse. Catcher stood by ready to lift a hand, but it was as if he sensed I wanted to do it on my own, so he didn’t interfere. The fact that he got me—the real me—was very endearing. For the first time, I felt like I had a met a man who was strong enough for me. As the strains of Sheryl Crowe’s Strong Enough played in my head, I closed the gap between Catcher and me.