Chapter 23

23

Chad was a man on a mission. Friday evening, once his shift in the ED was nearly over—almost everyone rotated covering the small ED—he went hunting.

For the ED nurse he wanted.

He was going to have her, too. Just how to make that happen in a way that no one got hurt, and her brothers didn’t kill him, he hadn’t quite figured out yet. Chad did know one thing: Genny wasn’t the kind of woman a man messed around with.

Not if it was only a casual thing.

He had had two days to contemplate Gunn’s probing question.

Just what were his intentions toward Genesis Hiller?

It had struck him like lightning that very afternoon when she ended up riding over to his parents’ place with her brothers. She’d helped Chantal in the house with feeding everyone, and with his brother’s infants.

It had turned into a party, followed by a barbecue that had had the entire Hiller clan on his parents’ back deck for dinner, along with a bunch of Charlie’s friends from the TSP. Friends who had found Genny and her sisters fascinating. Damned poachers. He’d had to run several off from her side as the afternoon had worn on. He’d never felt this possessive of a woman in his life.

Genny was his.

He didn’t want it to be a casual thing. Admittedly, that had been his way before. But he was thirty-seven years old now. He wanted more . He wanted a woman to look at him the way his sister-in-law Rory had kept looking at Charlie.

Charlie sizzled and turned into a horny caveman, even at his age, when that hot blonde wife of his looked at him like that.

He’d caught Rory and Charlie tangled up together on a blanket in his parents’ barn that afternoon, like they were kids or something. Rory wasn’t quite two years older than Chad—Charlie was more than twelve years older. Far too old for rolling in the hay. Rory had had such a beautiful look on her face when she’d looked at Chad’s brother.

Chad wanted a woman to look at him just like that.

Shortly after, Charlie had bundled his family up and taken them home, a look of happiness in his brother’s eyes that Chad didn’t quite understand just yet. But he’d envied it.

Chad had gone home a few minutes later—after the Hillers had left en masse. He had gone home to…nothing. Not even a cat.

Chad was tired of going home to an empty condo. Of seeing the friends he’d gone to school with like Clay Addy and Jake Dillon having more than what he did. Of envying Caine Alvaro every time his devil of a wife and their five demon children were running around the lower levels of the hospital. Caine came alive when that woman and those kids were near.

Just like Charlie did with Rory.

The way Chad’s father still did with his mother. Those two, even now with his father in his eighties, vibrated when they got close to one another.

Now, ever since they’d gotten Chantal and Gene back, whenever Chad thought of his own future, and the nameless faceless woman he’d thought about being his future before—she had turned into Genesis Hiller. It felt right. Imagining what he wanted with her.

Now, he was going to make that happen.

He just had to find her, first.

It took him a few minutes, but he finally ran her down. In the cafeteria, with Aubrey. They were hush-hush, huddled together, worried looks on their beautiful faces. Chad stayed where he was near the doors and watched them for a moment.

Genny was far fierier than her friend. And more playful. She felt things passionately. Still, even as an adult.

She was a true bleeding heart. And a bit reckless. She’d rush right in, if she thought she was helping someone. Sometimes rushing right into trouble.

That used to irritate the hell out of him. It had gotten her into trouble time and time before. One of her brothers would usually have to rescue her. She’d toned down a bit as she’d gotten older, but that girl who loved and felt deeply was still in there.

He was damned glad of that now.

Chad wondered if that passion for life extended to the bedroom. He so hoped it did. That was a question he couldn’t wait to answer.

He wanted her to love him that deeply, too.

And she would be his world. He was sure of it.

Just like Rory and their twins—and Charlotte—were Charlie’s. He’d seen Genny holding his niece Charis, and he had, for one fast instant, imagined what it would be like if the baby she had been holding so lovingly like that had been his.

Theirs.

He could see her as a mother, easily. It wasn’t hard to imagine at all. He’d seen her with Gene’s son Calvin many times before. Playful, loving, compassionate—all of those things. And so damned beautiful, he ached just thinking about her.

In that brief fantasy, he was going home with them. Home. To a big house somewhere, probably near the hospital, and not a lifeless condo in Barrattville.

Home. A family.

He wanted that.

The idea wasn’t as frightening as it once had been.

He crossed the cafeteria to them, wondering what it was that had them so furtive. Chad couldn’t help himself; he rested his hand on the small of Genny’s back. “Hey, here are my two favorite ladies of BCGH. I’ve been looking for you, Genny, my sweet.”

She yelped and turned, quick. She breathed a sigh of relief when she realized it was him. “Oh. Chad.”

“Oh. Genny.” His gaze narrowed on her face. Her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes a bit glassy. And angry. “Are you okay, sweetheart?”

She shot him a pointed look. “Don’t call me that here. You probably shouldn’t call me that at all, anyway. I haven’t decided if I am your sweetheart at all, you know.”

Chad gave her a wicked grin in return. “Why not? You are my sweetheart. Forever. I’m too adorable to resist.”

He heard what sounded like a choked laugh out of her friend.

“You are such a butt sometimes.”

Maybe, but that half afraid look in her eyes was gone now. He squeezed her waist gently, then pulled her a little closer. “What’s bothering you? Do I need to go kick someone’s ass?”

She bit her lip and just looked up at him, secrets in those big eyes of hers. “Chad…”

His hand tightened on her. He wanted to pull her even closer and promise to make everything better. No matter what it was.

But Genny wasn’t talking.

So he looked at Aubrey. “Care to fill me in?”

“Just a little interlude with Dr. Hodges. He wanted Genny to go to dinner with him tonight.”

Hell, no. Hodges was a whiny little asshole, for one thing. For another—Chad was ready to stake a claim here. He brushed his thumb along her inner elbow. The woman was like silk. And he wanted to touch her everywhere. She shivered at his touch. “How did he take it when you said no?”

He could almost imagine what the asshole had said.

“He got a little upset,” Genny admitted, sending Chad a look and pulling her arm away deliberately. “But it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. He seems to think I won’t go out with him because I’m involved with someone else now. And that makes me a slut, apparently.”

She shot a glare at Chad, telling him exactly the someone else involved.

Well. He was.

Chad was definitely involved with this woman, heart and soul. He just had to convince her.