Just One Night Together (Flatiron Five Fitness #3) - Deborah Cooke Page 0,3

in his tone. He eased the sheet aside and worked on her thighs, his movements slow and reverent. “And then one day, you asked if I was gay.” He leaned a little more into the massage as he worked higher. “And I said yes.”

“I remember,” his mom said mildly.

“But I was lying,” he admitted, bending to drop a kiss on her shoulder. It was a tender gesture, one that made Haley’s tear threaten to break free. The love between mother and son was almost palpable. The heart monitor beeped steadily as his hands bracketed the back of his mother’s waist. “Breathe now, Mom. Breathe in when my hands are here, then out when I move them. In and out. In and out. Slowly. Push out the pain with each breath.”

Mrs. Perez did as she was told, and Haley found herself breathing the same rhythm. It would have been meditative, if she hadn’t been so fascinated by the patient’s son.

“I was lying because I didn’t want you to be disappointed anymore,” he continued in that velvety voice. “I didn’t want you to be waiting for something I wasn’t sure was ever going to happen.” He was silent for a long moment. “I wasn’t sure the right woman really was out there, and so I lied.”

“I know,” his mother said softly.

“You knew?” His hands froze for a moment, then he resumed his massage.

His mother laughed softly. “I knew, Damon. I always knew.”

Damon. His name was Damon.

His mom’s voice turned sleepy. “You always make it feel better,” she murmured as he worked down her arms to her fingertips. “What would I do without you?”

“You don’t have to do without me, Mom.”

“But you’ll have to do without me.”

He was startled, Haley saw. Not surprised, so he knew the truth, but he thought his mom didn’t. Haley could have told him that patients always understand their situation more clearly than their doctors and family realized. “Don’t think about it, Mom. Just relax.”

“But I do think about it. I think about you.”

“Mom!” Damon shoved a hand through his hair, and Haley caught a glimpse of his profile as he glanced at the monitors. Natasha’s pulse was increasing again, her agitation undoing all that he’d accomplished.

“I don’t want you to be alone.”

“So, stay,” he said, his tone reasonable.

“It’s not a joke, Damon.” She grasped his fingers with urgency and he paused to look up. “You’ll find her,” his mom said with quiet conviction. “You’ll find her, Damon, if you let yourself look for her, and then you won’t be alone after I’m gone.”

“You’re not going anywhere anytime soon, Mom,” Damon began, and Haley knew he was wrong. She didn’t want him to be misled. In her experience, people did better if they had time to prepare themselves for the truth. She’d checked his mom’s charts. Her leukemia wasn’t responding to treatment. If anything, it was getting worse and spreading faster.

Haley must have made some slight sound, the merest protest, but Damon heard her. He spun and his gaze locked with hers. He was even better looking than she’d expected, and he was annoyed. She saw anger flash in his dark eyes and his unblinking stare made her fully aware of her transgression without him saying a word.

She flushed, hating that she’d been caught, but not regretting what she’d learned. She took a step back when he frowned, then pivoted in the hall and leaned back against the wall of the corridor, her heart leaping. She closed her eyes and saw him again, and her heart raced.

Damon.

Not gay.

Very intense.

What would he look like when he smiled?

She’d guess that he’d be transformed, from a dark angel into an irresistible hunk. She closed her eyes, trying to catch her breath before she went back to her shift.

And those hands. What would it be like to feel them on her own skin? She’d be like butter in no time at all, warm and soft, and then...

No. She would not fantasize about Mrs. Perez’s son.

At least not when he was only fifteen feet away.

Haley had to pull herself together and get back to the cardiac ward.

She stood with her eyes closed for just a moment longer. The corridor was quiet, just the low murmur of voices carrying from the nurses’ station at the far end of the hall. She could hear patients snoring and sleeping, more than one murmuring, the heating pipes creaking and the sound of traffic far below. An ambulance rolled into the ER and Haley heard the familiar sounds