Everything You've Got: Anything & Everything, Book 2 (3 page)

“Now what?” Kat asked. “Sex?”

He loved that about her so much. There was no guessing, no games. Kat was straightforward in everything.

“Definitely sex,” he told her. “But everything else too.”

“Everything?” she asked with wide eyes. “Like wh—” Her reply was cut off by a shriek as the door behind her swung open without warning, pitching her into the hallway—and Marc.

The only other person with a key to Luke’s office.

“Whoa,” Marc chuckled looking from one of them to the other as he set Kat back on her feet. “You two okay in here? Nobody’s answering my calls.”

“You’re interrupting,” Kat said, straightening her skirt.

“I’m thrilled to hear it,” Marc said.

“So get out,” Luke told him.

“Can’t. I need you out in the dining room.”

“No way,” Luke said. “When I leave this office it’s only to go home. With Kat.”

“Again, thrilled,” Marc said with a grin. “But there’s something you have to do before you can leave.”

“Handle it,” Luke said through gritted teeth.

“This has to be you,” Marc told him.

“Dammit, Marc. I don’t ask you to do this. Ever. This time I want you to handle the restaurant.”

The Camelot was Luke’s life. He didn’t mind staying, he was doing what he loved most. Until now. Now he wanted to leave early—well, early for him—with Kat. It was unprecedented and both his friends noticed.

Kat’s eyes were wide. So were Marc’s.

“Why don’t you check on whatever’s going on in the dining room and then we can leave together?” she offered.

“I’d rather do what we’ve been doing.”

“Which is what, exactly?” Marc asked, eyebrows up.

“Discussing our love lives,” Luke said smoothly.

“Is that right?” Marc answered. “I wasn’t aware either of you had a love life.”

“Hey, I date,” Kat said.

“I said
love
life, not sex life,” Marc told her.

“Hey,” Kat said again, swatting Marc’s arm. “What is with making me out to be the town slut?”

“Not slut,” Marc said. “Girl to hang out with, without any strings attached.”

She started to protest, then must have realized that wasn’t completely inaccurate. There were no strings in her relationships.

“Well, there are strings now,” Luke said. “And we’re both about to have a love life.”

“You’re getting a girlfriend?” Marc asked with a smirk.

“Yep. Terrific gal. You’ll love her,” Luke said.

“And Kat’s getting a boyfriend?”

“Guy who’s crazy about her.”

Marc chuckled and Kat rolled her eyes as she took Luke’s hand. “Let’s go. Dining room.”

Luke sighed and followed her into what could only be his surprise birthday party.

The crowd of people who loved Luke was large and enthusiastic about celebrating the day of his birth. Kat barely had time to wipe the lipstick smudge from his bottom lip before he was surrounded and carried away from her.

She took the moment and space to take what felt like the first true, deep breath since she’d approached Luke with the blindfold.

Wow.

Her life had totally changed in the past thirty minutes.

Luke Hamilton had kissed her. He’d
kissed
her. And he wanted more. Sex—oh, thank god he wanted sex—and more. She wasn’t
exactly
sure what that meant except that he’d said he wanted strings attached. He’d called her his girlfriend. She took another deep breath. Luke Hamilton always knew what he wanted. He always had a plan.

Apparently
she
was now what he wanted. She was his plan.

Watching Luke work a room was something to behold. He moved and smiled and talked with a natural, easy grace and sincerity that made every person feel like
they
were important and that he had all the time in the world to hear their stories. It was impossible not to like him, not to want to be near him.

She’d watched it for years. Even before owning The Camelot, Luke drew people. He wasn’t easygoing or laid back. He was driven and determined. He didn’t like when things didn’t go according to his plan. He was a problem solver. He’d point out what needed to be done and then jump in to do it. But that was what people liked. They liked knowing that someone would always take charge and do it right.

Marc had more charm and humor to his style. They balanced each other out. Where Marc wanted everyone to be happy and smiling, Luke wanted everyone to take responsibility and get stuff done.

Together they could accomplish anything.

Her phone rang and she answered it without looking, her eyes on Luke. “Dr. Dayton.”

“Tom Martin’s in the hospital.”

It took Kat only two seconds to focus on the phone call instead of Luke’s butt. “
What
?”

“Tom Martin was just taken to the hospital by ambulance.” The voice on the other end of the phone belonged to Nancy, the nurse who worked with Kat in the Justice medical clinic.

“
What?”

“I’m on my way to you. Don’t move.” Nancy was on the other side of the room. Ten seconds later she was right in front of Kat.

“What did they say?” Kat asked with trepidation. “What happened?”

“Jeff didn’t give me details other than the fact that they picked him up and he’s unconscious.”

Kat closed her eyes and rubbed the spot in the middle of her forehead. Jeff was one of the volunteer EMTs in Justice. He was also Nancy’s son-in-law. He probably shouldn’t have told Nancy even what he had, but Nancy was one of Tom’s health-care providers. Health-care privacy acts kept information from people who didn’t need to know it. Nancy and Kat needed to know this.

Just then Nancy’s phone chirped with a text message. She looked at it, then up at Kat.

Kat braced herself. “What?”

“Julie found him unconscious on the kitchen floor and called 9-1-1,” Nancy reported, referring to Tom’s wife.

“Shit,” Kat said softly.

“Let’s go into the lobby.”

The restaurant was closed, the lobby empty when Nancy led Kat to one of the wingback chairs by the window.

“Breathe,” her friend ordered.

Kat tried.

Nancy’s phone beeped again.

“Taking him in for CT scan. Still unconscious,” Nancy read from the screen.

“Arm weakness and a headache,” Kat said. “That was all he had this morning.”

“I know.”

“He was laughing and joking when he left. He told me he liked my new belt and he gave me a hard time about my golf game.”

“I know.”

“His blood pressure was within normal range.”

“Right.”

“He’d been working in the yard just before his arm started bothering him.”

“Yep.”

Kat looked up at her nurse and friend. “I missed something.” Her stomach pitched as she said the words out loud.

“You don’t know that,” Nancy protested, straightening and putting her hands on her hips. “There are a dozen causes of arm weakness and headache.”

Kat had to make herself breathe normally as she pressed her hand against her stomach. “I thought it was his rotator cuff.”

“It could easily be his rotator cuff,” Nancy said with a frown.

“It could also be…” Kat actually felt her voice wobble.

“You don’t know that,” Nancy insisted. “And this morning could be unrelated to tonight.”

Of course it could. Kat knew that. Tom was a healthy, active sixty-seven-year-old man with a dry sense of humor and a generous streak. He had the reputation for buying the most Girl Scout cookies in town and having his Christmas lights up before anyone else. He also had the best garden in Justice and worked hard in his yard, which could have hurt his shoulder and caused a headache. Hell, there were twenty possible reasons for a headache today.

Including built-up pressure in his brain.

Kat slumped back in the chair and rested her head back against the wall behind her. “Crap, Nancy. He had a stroke. The day he saw me with symptoms.”

“Katarina Dayton,” Nancy scolded. “You don’t know that. And even if it’s true, it isn’t your fault.”

But it might be.

Early detection of stroke allowed early treatment. Oftentimes very effective early treatment. But there was a small window of opportunity.

Nancy’s cell phone chimed with a new text message and she looked down with trepidation.

“Crap,” she said softly.

Kat sat up straight. “What?”

“Brickham just got there.”

Awesome.

Dr. Henry Brickham was the senior partner of the Alliance Medical Partners, otherwise known as AMP, a group of physicians serving Alliance and the surrounding communities, including Justice. He had also been Tom Martin’s physician for close to twenty years. Though Kat worked for AMP in the new clinic right in Justice, the people of Justice had grown used to driving for their medical care and it was going to take some time for them to feel comfortable turning their health over to a new doctor. Even if she was a hometown girl.

It was happening slowly. They were testing her out with sore throats and sprained ankles and the like now. But she was winning them over, and she and AMP were confident that eventually they would trust her with everything.

But Brickham was the guy she had to impress. She’d done her residency with AMP and had experience in all of the other AMP clinics in the area, but the clinic in Justice had been finished earlier this year and she was the primary physician there now. The AMP partners had been thrilled to have a hometown girl so obviously excited and capable of taking on the Justice clinic. But she knew Brickham had some qualms. He’d arranged for there to always be another physician with her for the first few months to ease the transition for everyone. She’d only been left completely on her own for about three months now.

Kat knew he liked her, and her transcripts and resume spoke for themselves. But Dr. Brickham had cared for the people in this area for a long time. His reluctance wasn’t so much about her and her skills as about his patients. He cared about them and letting someone else take over wasn’t easy for him either. Still, the area needed another physician. It was a great business move and Kat was unquestionably the right choice.

But he was going to be pissed now.

Tom Martin and his wife Julie had only switched their care from Brickham’s office in Kingston to Justice two months ago. She’d only seen Tom one other time—for a sinus infection—and had yet to treat Julie.

Nancy’s phone chimed with another text and Kat held her breath.

“Luke’s looking for you,” Nancy said.

Luke.

The man she’d
finally
kissed. The man who said he wanted sex. And more.

Dammit.

She couldn’t let him see her shook up like this. Then he’d want to know why and…she just couldn’t tell him. For one thing, she really couldn’t tell him. Tom’s condition was definitely not something she could speak to anyone about other than his family and the other health-care providers involved in his case.

But more, she just couldn’t tell Luke—or anyone—that she might have screwed up like this. Not until she knew more. If then.

The idea of Luke Hamilton thinking less of her made her want to throw up.

Kat pushed up out of the chair. “I’m going over there.”

“Over where?” Nancy asked, looking concerned.

“To Alliance, to the hospital. I want to see what’s going on.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Nancy shook her head. “There’s nothing you can do right now and it’s just going to upset you.”

“I’m already upset.”

“You have other patients, Kat. Tomorrow. Bright and early.”

Oh, yeah. Patients. Who hopefully weren’t having a stroke.

Her heart thundered in her ears and she had to force herself to swallow. What if she missed something else? What would happen when people found out that she’d missed this in Tom? What if…

“Nancy?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m freaking out a little here.”

Nancy grasped her upper arms in gentle but firm hands. “Listen to me. I know this is making you crazy, but rushing over there isn’t going to solve a damned thing. He’s in the right hands there and you need to be here to see your other patients. I hate to point this out but…”

She really did look worried, which further freaked Kat out. She never saw Nancy worried. Nancy had been a nurse for twenty-two years. She’d seen it all. She was a wonderful, steady presence in the clinic for both the patients and for Kat.

“Point it out anyway,” Kat said, bracing herself.

Nancy took a deep breath, then said gently, “Everyone’s going to know about Tom soon enough.”

If they didn’t already. Justice was a small town with a grapevine that spread news faster than Twitter. Kat had to breathe deep again.

Nancy went on. “If you suddenly cancel everyone and go flying over there,
they
are all going to freak out. What everyone needs to know is that yes, sometimes bad things happen, but that’s why we have our ambulance and paramedics and that you trust the ER in Alliance, and the doctors there to take care of things. You have to send the message that it doesn’t matter who’s on call, that any of the doctors who might end up caring for us will do a great job.”