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“Like you said, you’re my only brother. Which means you’re also my least favorite.” Obviously relaxed in her brother’s presence, she grinned mischievously. “Now, quit pestering me at work. I’ve got patients to see.”
With that she paused long enough to bestow another uncertain glance on Jared, swished her ponytail with a great deal of sass at her brother, and headed toward the exam rooms.
“Isn’t she something?” Will asked with obvious indulgence.
Not sure how he was supposed to answer, Jared opted for watching Chelsea pause outside the first exam room. Why did she hesitate? Had their reunion left her as shaken as he found himself? Was she recalling how their mouths had felt against each other, how she’d moaned, parted her lips beneath his, granting him sweet surrender?
He winced. Her reasons didn’t matter because Jared planned to keep his distance. No matter that he found himself wanting to lean in and inhale her seductive scent, to know if she still tasted heavenly, to know everything there was to discover.
He turned and found Will watching him with narrowed eyes.
“She’s off-limits.”
Jared snorted. Despite the way he’d once again responded to Chelsea, he didn’t need this particular warning. “It’s not like that.”
“Uh-uh.” Will didn’t look convinced. He pulled him inside Chelsea’s small office. “You’re one of my partners and best friends.” Will’s eyes lost the good-natured humor that usually shone there, replaced by a steel Jared had never seen in his pal’s gaze. “But my sister is not your type.”
Recall of the electricity that had short-circuited his brain reminded him that physically Chelsea was exactly his type, but he kept his mouth shut. He was above acting on physical attraction when that attraction came in the form of something so bad for him.
“No problem.” He spoke slowly, keeping his voice level. “Because I don’t date coworkers anyway.”
Particularly one who was his partner’s baby sister and would turn his life totally upside down if he wasn’t careful.
He’d already been through that scenario once and didn’t care for an encore.
CHAPTER TWO
CHELSEA paused outside the exam room door and closed her eyes, welcoming Jared’s image into her mind.
The deep blue of his eyes stirred her memory. They were just as she remembered them, as blue as the Caribbean Sea and caressing her soul as if she splashed in their seductive depths.
In stark contrast to his eyes was the midnight inkiness of his hair, hair that promised silky smoothness beneath her fingertips. She’d itched to reach out and touch a strand, to see if his hair was really as soft as she recalled. His cheekbones were high, his chin strong with a tiny cleft in the center. Jared’s slightly crooked nose added character, making her think he’d probably broken it as a mischievous little boy.
God, she’d missed him, hadn’t realized just how much until this moment. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and tell him how rarely a day went by that she didn’t think of him, and that never had just seeing someone caused so much chaos to her mind and body.
But her attraction to Jared ran much deeper than the surface. For all his good looks, she’d met more handsome men and not felt the flutters still dancing in her belly.
The whole package appealed, drew her in.
The way he smelled spicy clean. The spark that flickered through her when his warm fingers clasped hers. The heat in his eyes when their gazes met. The way she’d instantly wanted him with an intensity she’d never experienced before or since that spring break they’d met.
She’d looked at him and seen her future.
She’d seen…
Chelsea! Get a grip. Her hot thoughts meant allowing someone to see the Chelsea she kept carefully hidden away from the world, and that’s something she’d only done once. The result hadn’t been pretty, and she never wanted to bare her scars again.
Yet, realistically, she knew that to marry and have children, which she hoped to do someday, she’d eventually have to trust someone to see the real her.
She sighed, reminding herself the first day on her new job wasn’t the time or the place to be fantasizing about the hunky doctor who’d haunted her heart for ten years. Or to be rehashing all the reasons why that particular fantasy wouldn’t ever come true.
Taking a steadying breath, she knocked on the door and entered the exam room.
With tachycardia, bulging eyes, and rapid weight loss, her first patient probably suffered from hyperthyroidism. After giving him a complete examination she gave a lab slip to the nurse and asked him to schedule a follow-up appointment for a few days hence.
Chelsea washed her hands and went to the next patient room to read the chart notation.
Five patients later, and feeling good about her morning, she stood outside an exam room, reviewing the nurse’s note. Hannah Belew. Sixteen. Wants to go on oral contraceptive.
“Hi, Hannah.”
The petite young woman on the exam table didn’t appear to be in her teens, much less like she should be asking for birth control. However, Chelsea refrained from pointing out her observation as the girl already looked like her hackles were up.
“The nurse’s note says you’d like to discuss birth control. I’ll need to ask some questions so you and I can decide together which birth-control option is the most appropriate for you.”
“OK,” the girl said with a pink tinge to her cheeks. She didn’t meet Chelsea’s gaze.
“Have you ever had a pelvic examination before?”
Mouth agape, the girl shook her head. “No way.”
“Are you sexually active?”
She hesitated, giving Chelsea her answer.
“You won’t tell my mom any of this? Patient confidentiality and all that, right?”
A sticky question if ever there was one.
“I’m not obligated to tell as long as you’re not threatening your life or someone else’s.”
“I have a boyfriend,” Hannah admitted, apparently satisfied with Chelsea’s response. The young girl shrugged her shoulders. “He likes sex.”
“Do you?” Chelsea asked the obvious question, catching the teenager off guard.
“Like sex?” Hannah averted her eyes and took a moment before answering. “I like my boyfriend.”
Apparently Chelsea wasn’t the only one who could answer with diplomacy.
“Hannah, if your boyfriend really cares about you, he’d like you regardless of whether or not you agree to have sex.”
Regardless of whether or not long scars marred your back.
Kevin hadn’t, and Chelsea often wondered if the scars from his rejection ran deeper than those of the surgeons who’d operated on her scoliosis.
Then again, Jared had also rejected her, without having seen the imperfections of her body. But she’d understood, even respected his determination to do the right thing as she’d been underage.
Hannah didn’t speak, but Chelsea could feel walls being thrown up. The young girl didn’t want to hear what needed to be said.
“At your age,” Chelsea continued, “abstinence is most often the wisest choice, but, regardless, sex is an important step in a relationship. Both parties should be ready for that step and should enjoy making that step when the time arrives.”
“He didn’t force me,” Hannah said pointedly.
“Perhaps you were ready for that step,” Chelsea continued gently, “but perhaps you weren’t and only went along with what your boyfriend wanted because you were afraid of losing him.”
Hannah’s lower lip disappeared into her mouth and the girl squirmed on the exam table, crinkling the protective paper covering the vinyl top.
“It’s my job to help you take care of your health. That means your mental and emotional health as well as your physical.”
“I’m not sick,” Hannah insisted. “I just want to go on the Pill so I won’t get pregnant.”
“Even if you go on the Pill, you still need to make your boyfriend wear a condom. The only way to protect yourself from sexually transmitted diseases is to abstain or have your partner wear a condom.”
“Or to have sex with a virgin,” Hannah added with a touch of irritation. “I know all this already. We went over this stuff during health class when I was in junior high school.” She eyed Chelsea suspiciously. “You’re going to tell my mom, aren’t you?”
“No, but I recommend you tell her.”
“Me tell her? You have got to be kidding me.” The girl snorted, her expression dramatic. “I thought you said your job was to look out for my health, not to get me killed.”
“Your mom wouldn’t kill you.”
“Maybe not,” Hannah admitted. “But she wouldn’t let me see Brett anymore, and that’s worse than dying.”
Having fallen hard for Jared at only a year older than Hannah, Chelsea wouldn’t judge the girl. Neither would she point out that her entire life was ahead of her, whether Brett remained in her life or not.
“Whether or not you tell your mother is your choice. My job is to give you the best information I can so you can make wise health-care decisions. In this case, having an open discussion with your mother is what I believe to be best.”
Ha, like she’d ever had an open discussion with her own mother. These days, she and Iva only saw each other a couple of times a year. Thank God, as she didn’t think she could survive more. Only through Will did Chelsea find contact with her parents tolerable. Sometimes she wondered if they would even include her in family activities if not for her brother.
What right did she have to advise Hannah to tell her mother? What if Hannah’s mother made Iva look warm and cuddly?
“It’s your call,” she said softly. “But I want you to at least consider talking with her.”
“Sure.” Sarcasm never dripped as thickly as it did off Hannah’s flippant tongue.
Chelsea took a deep breath. She didn’t seem to be getting through to the teenager.
“OK, let’s move on. We’ll discuss the different birth-control options you have.”
Hannah’s gaze narrowed. “What kind of options?”
“Pill, patch, shot, cervical cap, intra-uterine device, all of which require a pelvic examination first.”
The girl cringed. “You have to see me down there?”
“To do the thin prep test that checks your cervical and vaginal cells, I have to physically examine you.”
The girl’s face fell. “I don’t think I can do that.”
“Have a pelvic exam?” Chelsea clarified, wanting to make sure she understood what Hannah was saying.
The girl nodded. “Just the thought embarrasses me and makes my skin feel hot and sweaty.”
“You have to have the test before I will write you any type of prescription birth control.”
Hannah let out a long sigh. “Why?”
“Some tumors grow at an accelerated rate when hormones are added.”
Hannah rolled her eyes. “I don’t need hormones. I just want the Pill so I don’t get pregnant.”
“Many types of birth control are hormones, including the Pill.”
“Oh.” The girl sat quietly, digesting what Chelsea had told her.
“Another thing you should consider having is the HPV vaccine.”
The girl crossed her arms and gave Chelsea a smug look. “I’ve had all my vaccines.”
“That’s wonderful, and perhaps you have had HPV, too, but it isn’t a required vaccine so not everyone has. The vaccine is recommended for girls aged nine through twenty-six. HPV, or human papillomavirus, is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States and causes most cases of cervical cancer.”
Hannah’s eyes became round. “There’s an STD that causes cancer?”
“Yes.” Chelsea was glad to see she’d caught the girl’s interest. “There are around fifty strands of the virus. The vaccine protects against the strands causing cervical cancer.”
“If this HDP is so common, why haven’t I ever heard of it?”
“HPV, and you probably have heard of the disease without knowing it. Genital warts are also caused by human papillomavirus,” she explained.
Hannah’s nose curled in disgust, and she nodded. “I do remember studying those during health class. Nasty business.”
“Let me give you some information to read.” Feeling pleased she’d made a connection with the girl, Chelsea stood. “I’ll come back in a few minutes, and you can decide what you’d like to do regarding your pelvic examination and the vaccine.”
She stepped into the hallway and didn’t see Betty anywhere. Scanning the nurses’ station, she wondered where brochures and handouts might be kept but didn’t see anywhere obvious.
“Problems?” a deep voice asked from behind her. A voice belonging to the man she’d had to force off her mind all morning. Her spirits lifted just at knowing he was near, that he still felt the connection between them and had sought an excuse to search her out, to share a conversation. Perhaps he was a man confident enough to overlook her imperfections and care for her just as she was. Hey, a girl could dream.
She turned, but her heart stalled.
Jared’s eyes would have formed glaciers on the sun. Ouch. Why was he looking at her like that? With something akin to…Chelsea sought the right word and could only come up with loathing.
But he couldn’t loathe her. All she’d done had been to ineptly flirt with him ten years ago. OK, she’d kissed him, too, but he’d kissed her back, so surely he didn’t blame that completely on her?
Jared had left the next day and, despite initially trying to contact him, she’d not seen him since.
Not knowing how she’d clung to his words, Will had updated her from time to time. Jared wasn’t married and, other than the longtime girlfriend she hadn’t known about when they’d first met, there hadn’t been anyone special in his life. Laura. She’d suffered at the name, mourned at the existence of the woman who had held Jared’s heart, but she’d never wished the girl’s fate on her. Later that same year Laura had been killed in a car accident.
Jared was Will’s best friend. He wouldn’t hold a grudge for ten years over something as simple as her foolishly throwing herself at him. Would he?
