I let out a relieved sigh, causing Dr. Sholly to stare at me again. I felt a flush rising over my cheeks.
“Kennery?”
I gave a start at him saying my last name. “Yes?”
“You almost looked more panicked than our patient did when he first came in. Word of advice for you—if this kind of thing is too much stress for you, then maybe you should reconsider your line of work.”
I blinked and felt a flush spreading across my face again, but this time, it was purely from rage. I cleared my throat. “I beg your pardon, doctor. But as I’ve said before, you should refrain from making assessments you are in no position to make—be in the type of bullet wound, or my competence as an emergency room nurse. So a word of advice for you—stick to what you know.”
The room fell so silent, the beeping of the patient’s heart monitor practically sounded like a siren. One of the other nurses attempted to pass the tablet to another, but dropped it, for her eyes were too busy darting between me and Dr. Sholly.
“Sorry,” she said hastily, kneeling to retrieve it, but the other nurse—Miles—beat her to it.
Gripping the clipboard in his hands, Miles cleared his throat. “No offense, Dr. Sholly—but Tessa really is one of the best nurses we have here. So if she ever left this line of work, it would be a real tragedy.”
Dr. Sholly shot Miles an annoyed glance and then turned back to the patient.
I caught Miles’ eye and nodded in appreciation. “I’ll take that,” I said, reaching for the tablet. “Can someone read out his vital signs, please?”
I proceeded to record the patient’s information, deciding to let someone else take over handing Dr. Sholly the tools he needed because I suddenly wasn’t keen on having more interaction with him than necessary.
“Good work, team,” Dr. Sholly said after a while. “Put out the notice that Nate here can be sent up to a room awaiting surgery. Has his family been contacted?”
I glanced up from the tablet, dumbfounded. Dr. Sholly looked toward me, a challenging gleam within his gaze. “Yes?” he said.
I lowered the tablet. “You haven’t finished examining this patient. His whole body has to be examined, not just the area with the noticeable wound.” I looked around to my fellow nurses for backup, but they remained suspiciously quiet, some of them looking positively scandalized. Only Molly looked at me and nodded, encouraging me to go on. I shook my head and laughed, though I found the situation far from humorous. “Unbelievable,” I muttered, realizing they were all too intimidated to speak. This was yet another reason I appreciated Dr. Nualli; she had taught me to follow my instincts and never be afraid to speak up on a patient’s behalf, even to the doctor in charge.
“What is it that you feel is unfinished, Ms. Kennery?” Dr. Sholly said. “The patient is stabilized. His vitals are good. He is expected to make a full recovery in due time. Surely, you can see that.”
I pursed my lips together and took a deep breath. Perhaps it was just my imagination that made me think Dr. Sholly’s eyes had briefly lowered to my chest…
I swallowed before speaking, staring him straight in those deep seductive eyes of his. “You should be well aware that it is standard procedure to give the patient a thorough whole-body examination, not just solely concentrate on the area of the GSW. Although he appears to be fine otherwise, we have to be certain nothing is overlooked.”
I set the tablet down and approached the patient, ready to complete his examination even if I had to do it alone. All the while, I thought Dr. Sholly’s eyes would burn a hole in my head. But instead, after what felt like forever, he approached the patient again.
“Step aside, Kennery,” he said, and then proceeded to complete the examination.
The other nurses watched with baited breath until it was over.
“He’s just great.” Dr. Sholly glanced at me one last time before removing his gloves and leaving the area without saying another word.
“Good job, Tessa. Nualli would be proud,” Molly said, stepping forward to pat me on the shoulder.
“Thank you.” I cleared my throat, attempting to ignore the obvious tension in the room. “Has Nate’s family been contacted?” I asked, mainly to just fill the silence.
“Yes, I believe they’re in the waiting room…Where are you going?”
“To go talk to them,” I said.
“I’m pretty sure that’s where Dr. Sholly went.”
I paused. “Oh…Okay.”
Molly shook her head and laughed. “Tessa, don’t get yourself in trouble, now.”
I recalled the way Dr. Sholly looked at me before he left. “I think it’s already too late for that.”
Shit.
CHAPTER 2
Evan
It was already lunch hour, and I still felt disoriented. Dammit. I felt like my time working the night shift had turned me into a vampire. All it took was one day to recall why I had previously vowed to stick with the night life.
One day and one nurse…
“Good job earlier today, Dr. Sholly,” one of the emergency department nurses said to me in the break room as I fixed myself an umpteenth cup of coffee. I glanced up at her, not recognizing her name or face. She blushed under my gaze, and I had to wonder if her compliment was genuine or sarcastic, given that my performance earlier had been far from my ordinary standards. When I offered her no response, she quickly got herself a bottle of water from the vending machine and made her exit.
I sighed, flopping down in a nearby chair and taking a sip of my coffee that was too hot and burned the roof of my mouth. I swore under my breath. All the whole, one face floated through my mind.
Tessa Kennery.
I’d never had the pleasure of working with her before, and frankly, that morning’s experience hadn’t exactly been a pleasure. Or perhaps in some ways, it had been too much of a pleasure—I couldn’t really figure out which was the case.
There was no denying that Nurse Kennery was an absolute knock-out. I couldn’t recall the last time I’d seen a woman so attractive. Even nurse scrubs and a sloppy hair bun couldn’t hide the natural sex-appeal that oozed from her. That silky blonde hair. Those stunningly bright blue eyes. Those amazing curves, which she had unfortunately caught me staring at…
Way to go, Evan, I thought to myself with a humorless laugh. I took another sip of coffee, thinking about how not only did the living Aphrodite think I was an unfit doctor, but she likely thought I was a sexist pig as well. I squirmed in discomfort at the thought.
The door to the break area swung open. I reached for a magazine, pretending to be interested as I sipped more of my coffee.
“Hey, Evan. How’s the daylight hours treating you?”
I looked up to see Morris, one of our surgeons.
“Makes me remember why I resigned to the night life,” I answered.
Morris chuckled. “Oh, so you’re not fond of being here with us mere mortals?”
I smirked. “No, that’s not it. It’s just that my brain doesn’t always kick in until the AM hours are over.”
“Well, you’re in luck,” he said, pulling a paper bag from the staff refrigerator. He crossed the room over to the table, took a seat, and pulled a sandwich from his bag. “It’s past noon now.”
I gave a strained smile. I had nothing against Morris. He was a great doctor and someone I could have even considered a friend. I just wasn’t in the mood for small talk, which was clearly lost on him. He beckoned me over to the table with him. “Come and keep an old man company, will you?”
I’d been staring down at the magazine in my lap, trying to appear engrossed by it, but apparently I hadn’t been convincing enough. I glanced up at Morris again.
“Anything interesting in there?” he asked, nodding toward the magazine.
“Not really,” I said, although I hadn’t actually been reading anything.
“So you’re filling in for Dr. Nualli, I hear?” Morris asked around a mouthful of his sandwich.
“Yeah. Just
for a little while. No offense, but I’m not trying to make mortal hours a permanent thing.”
Morris laughed heartily, once again beckoning to the table with him. “Well, in the meantime, I hope you’re having something more than just coffee for lunch, doc. You’ll be a jittery mess by the time your shift ends. Those of us working in the daylight have to refuel properly.” He held up his sandwich as if offering me a bite. “You should know that.”
I smiled tensely again, not liking the sound of anyone telling me what I should know, even jokingly. Yet, right on time to save me, Dr. Morris’ pager went off. He swore under his breath. “Can’t catch a break around here these days!”
“Another day, another dollar,” I said, gratefully resettling into my seat now that Dr. Morris was rising from the table, being called for duty.
“You’ve got that right. See you around, Evan.”
“Yeah. See you, Morris.”
The instant I was alone again, I almost regretted it. Morris’ brief appearance had at least managed to push Tessa from my mind. But now that I was in solitude once more, I no longer had a distraction.
While her looks were undeniable, her skills had left me rather stunned as well. It was obvious that she was light-years beyond the other nurses. The way she worked around the GSW, she could have been a doctor. It’s not every day—or ever, in my case—that a nurse catches and calls out a doctor for making a mistake. Something about the way Tessa spoke to me while treating that gunshot patient had made me feel like a scorned child. It was like I was 14-years-old all over again, getting scolded by my algebra teacher in front of the whole class about “being too smart to be so careless.”
On the other hand, I didn’t even have legit reason to be upset with Tessa. She had every right to call me out on my mistakes because she was one-hundred percent right. If something had been overlooked with that patient, the blame would have ultimately been on me. Yet, this realization did nothing to alleviate my conflicted feelings about her.
And it was just barely past noon. Dammit.
With a sigh, I drank the last of my coffee and tried to mentally prepare myself for the long hours ahead.
CHAPTER 3
Tessa
In the break room, I drank the last of my water and threw the plastic bottle into the recycle bin just as Molly walked in.
“Long day,” she said.
“Tell me about it.”
“Are you okay?” She tilted her head in concern. “You seem a little annoyed.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m fine..”
She pursed her lips and folded her arms. Molly had known me for a long time, and we had started working at the same hospital within a week from each other. We went through our adjustment phase together, and both of us had been mentored by Dr. Nualli. Hence, she knew me well enough to know when I was bluffing, or hiding my frustration.
“You in a hurry, Molly?”
She placed a finger on her plump chin. “Hmm…At home, I have a tall, dark, and handsome stranger waiting for me. But he’s on my DVR, so I guess he can wait.” She smiled. “What’s up?”
Together, we took seats at the table.
“I guess I’m just worried about Dr. Nualli. Do you know where she is? She hasn’t left us, has she?”
A wrinkle appeared in Molly’s brow. “Honestly, I’m not sure. Maybe she’s just taking some time off, you know? It can’t be anything serious, otherwise, I’m sure we would have heard something. She’s a busy woman. She deserves some time off. Hopefully she’s on an island somewhere with a big fruity drink in her hand and some handsome company.”
I laughed, though the word ‘handsome’ immediately sprung thoughts of Dr. Sholly into my mind. I suppose it showed on my face too, considering the way Molly narrowed her eyes at me. I tried to rearrange my expression into something more neutral, but it was pointless. Sometimes I was sure Molly was psychic.
Although Molly and I had started working at nearly the same time, she was at least fifteen years older than me. She often felt like a cross between a big sister and a surrogate mother. She had a few children of her own, so her maternal instincts were strong. I presumed that had to be why she was so good at reading nonverbal cues.
I cleared my throat and tried to keep my voice as nonchalant as possible. “So, do you have any idea if we’ll be stuck working with Dr. Sholly until Nualli gets back? Or was this just for today?”
“Stuck working with him?” she said with a smirk. “I’m not sure the other young nurses around here would describe it that way. They all seem pretty pleased to have him around.” She laughed.
I shrugged my shoulders. “Yeah, well…” my voice trailed off, momentarily not knowing what else to say.
“I do believe he will be filling in for Dr. Nualli for however long she’s on break, or wherever she is. Why do you ask?”
I shrugged my shoulders again. “No reason, really.”
“Oh honey, you are such a terrible liar! That’s why you’ve got to meet my kids. They’ll give you some pointers.”
All I could do was shake my head and laugh.
“Handsome, isn’t he?” Molly said, wiggling her eyebrows.
“He’s all right,” I said. But the words even felt dishonest to my own tongue. The accurate words to describe Dr. Sholly’s looks were ‘perfection personified.’ ‘Drop dead gorgeous’ worked as well. My heart had practically stopped when I first laid eyes on him.
“Just all right, eh?” Molly said. “Maybe you need your eyes checked. Honey, Lord knows if I was just ten years younger at least!” She sighed.
“Okay. So he may be decent eye-candy, but his personality leaves a lot to be desired.”
Molly nodded. “Yeah well, you can’t always have it all.”
“How much do you know about him? Have you ever worked with him before? How come this is my first time seeing him?”
“He typically works the night shift. Every once in a while, I work the night shift, so I’ve encountered him a few times.”
“Is he always so careless and uptight?”
Molly shook her head. “Not all at. I think you just got the wrong impression of him, really. He’s a nice and decent man, from as far as I can tell. Give him another chance. I think the daylight hours just have him a little discombobulated.”
I huffed. “What do you mean, ‘give him a chance’? I’m not looking to date him or anything. I was just asking a question, that’s all.”
“Uh huh.” Molly paused for a moment. “So, just how are things going in your dating life, missy?”
I fought hard not to roll my eyes. “I don’t have time. I’m—”
“Dedicated to your work,” she finished my statement for me.
“Well, I am. It’s true.”
“And you know what that’s going to get you? A whole bunch of loneliness.”
“I’m not lonely. I have Lucy.”
“I love Lucy, but she’s not as handsome as Evan.”
“Evan?”
“Just rolls easily off your tongue, doesn’t it?”
“Doesn’t change the fact that he seems to be kind of a jerk.”
“I don’t think he means to come off that way. He really does care a lot about his job and his patients. His personality just seems a bit—what’s the word? Strict? I’m sure it has to do with his background though.”
“What’s his background?”
“He used to be in the military.”
“Ahh,” I said, nodding. “Yeah, I’ve known quite a few military. Had some in my family. They can be a bit rigid, but that never made them outright rude.”
Molly chuckled. “I think you just caught him off guard. You know how doctor egos can be. Not all of them are Dr. Nualli.” She leaned forward and whispered, “They can’t always take it when we’re smarter than them.”
I laughed. Suddenly, my day felt a lot better.
“Well, I don’t know about you, Tessa, but I’m going to get on out of here. My presence inside these walls is no longer cont
ributing to my bank account at this hour.”
“All right, Molly. See you tomorrow.”
CHAPTER 4
Tessa
“Hey, there girl! How’s my girl?”
Lucy eagerly greeted me with a wagging tail as I walked through the door to my home. Lucy was a pit bull with a heart of gold who I had adopted from a local animal shelter four years ago despite everyone trying to talk me out of it.
“Do you know how dangerous pit bulls are?”
“That’s no dog for a pretty young woman like you. Get something a little more classy, like a poodle or a Yorkie.”
“Pit bulls are a lot to handle. Do you plan on having children someday? Do you want to bring them into a household with an aggressive animal?”
And on and on the criticism went. Yet, I couldn’t be deterred. From the moment I met eyes with Lucy, whose eyes were nearly the same shade of blue as mine, I knew she was my doggy soulmate. The moment the papers were signed and I brought her into my home, she had been nothing but a bundle of love and joy. And although she can be protective when necessary, I had yet to have any serious aggression problems with her. Lucy was living proof, as far as I was concerned, that with proper love and care, there was no such thing as a bad dog. The worst she had ever done was chew up a couple pairs of my old sneakers when she’d been left in the house too long while I was at work.
After jumping up and down and covering me with doggy kisses, Lucy spun around in a circle exactly three times before running to the back of the house to retrieve her leash. She seemed particularly eager to go for her run, or perhaps she sensed my need to blow off some steam. The day’s shift at the hospital had not only left me exasperated and irritated, but with plenty of pent-up frustration as well.
“Just give me a second to change clothes, Lucy,” I said, heading for my bedroom. She skipped behind me, her nails clicking on the wooden floor.
I pulled a t-shirt and shorts from my drawer and gratefully shed my hospital scrubs, kicking them into the corner of the room with the rest of my clothes that needed to be washed. Seeing how tall the pile had grown, I felt a twinge of embarrassment. Living alone had changed my habits quite a bit. Back in my younger college days, when I regularly had roommates and occasional booty calls, I wouldn’t have been caught dead with a pile of dirty clothes lying in a visible spot. But now, especially after particularly busy shifts in the emergency department, I would shed my clothes and sometimes could barely muster the energy to kick them into the pile.
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