Under Her Skin

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Under Her Skin Page 77

by Michelle Love


  “I don’t want a thing from you, Vanderbilt,” she says but her words have lost their hard edge.

  “Suit yourself. I’ll bring you something for breakfast in the morning, then,” I say, then turn to leave.

  “Don’t bother,” she calls out after me.

  “It’s not a bother at all, Nurse Richards. Not one bit.”

  I like her spunk. I think it might be just what I need in my life!

  Chapter 8

  DELANEY

  The egotistical maniac is walking away from me with his broad shoulders swinging casually as he goes. For some reason, my eyes won’t stop looking at him as he walks away. His blue jeans fit him way too well and show off his muscle-bound legs that are thick as tree trunks.

  When he told me if he wanted a piece of ass he would’ve had it, I kind of believed him. A glimmer went through his light-brown eyes that told me as much. His body hardened just slightly, and I could almost smell the testosterone coming off him in waves of undulating pulses that I’m sure have drowned many women.

  He’s never had a serious girlfriend, based on anything I’ve ever seen in the media. I’ve seen him in pictures when he was dressed to the hilt, looking nothing like he did today, at a few events with gorgeous creatures on his arm. Never was one mentioned as anything except his escort for the evening.

  I must admit, he is something to look at. I find myself straining to catch the last glimpse of him before he turns the corner. Then he’s looking at me, and I hurry to look away. Shit!

  “See you tomorrow,” I hear him call out, then, when I look up, he’s gone.

  “Thank God! Now I´ll go find someone to take my shift tomorrow. It’ll mean I’ll have to work double the next day, but I’ll get switched to another department and not have to meet up with him anymore.” I walk over to the nurses’ station and check the schedule.

  Beth comes up behind me and asks, “What do you need, Delaney?”

  “I need to get the hell out of this wing for the next week. What can you do to help me?” I ask the nurse who makes our schedules.

  “Out of this wing? Why?” she asks as she looks over the schedule.

  “A man has a hard dick for me. He’s going to be here most likely every day to see a patient in this wing. I know it’s just to get to me, so I want away from here.” I look over her shoulder and see that Rhonda is working the cancer ward. “See if she’ll switch with me, please. I have to get away from the man.”

  “You sound worried,” she says as she looks at me with concern. “Is he a threat?”

  “Not in the way that’s illegal, no.” I look away and wonder what my problem really is, then find the words coming out of my mouth. “He’s sexy as hell, the most handsome man I’ve ever met, and he’s rich. I’m afraid my good sense will go out the window if I’m around him too much. When you throw in the fact that he’s been pretty damn nice to me, it’s apparent I can’t trust myself.”

  “That sounds amazing,” she says as she looks at me like I’m insane. “That does not sound like a man you should be hiding from in this vast hospital.”

  “He’s the owner of Bargain Bin, the chain that ruined my family’s business. He’s the enemy. Get it now?” I ask as I tap the computer screen to show her Rhonda is on call and in the sleeping quarters. “I’ll go see her, to ask her in person, if you’re cool with the change.”

  “Your enemy, huh? Not a lot of people have enemies, Delaney.”

  “So is that a yes?” I ask as I walk away from her.

  “I guess so. But you should really reconsider this and get to know the rich, handsome man, even if he is your family’s enemy,” she calls out after me.

  I shake my head and wag my finger behind me as I head out to find Rhonda and divert myself from this path Blaine Vanderbilt is right in the damn middle of.

  The break room is full as I turn to go inside to get to the sleeping quarters that are behind it. There’s food set out on the long side table we use when it’s someone’s birthday or when it’s some other special occasion when we all bring in food for a celebration.

  “Wow, who’s birthday?” I ask. “And where’s the cake?”

  “Look, Delaney, lobster bisque,” the janitor, Billy, shows me as he pulls up a spoonful of thick, creamy goodness. There’s a large chunk of lobster right in the middle of it. “And you are the reason for this feast.”

  An intern comes up to me with a card. When I open it, I see the food is a gift from Blaine Vanderbilt for all of our hard work here at the hospital. My name is the only one on the card, as he wrote that I was a special nurse who was aiding his friend’s family in their terrible time of need.

  “What a crock of shit!” I say, making everyone look at me with slack jaws.

  Paul comes up behind me and looks at the card over my shoulder. “Uh, oh. Seems someone is smitten with you, Delaney. Now how did that happen so fast?” I turn to find his hands on his hips as his eyes dance.

  “I’m not sure. I suppose it’s because I hate the man. You all enjoy. I won’t take a bite of the food the evil man who owns Bargain Bin sent. But if you guys want to eat the food from the devil, go right ahead. Much like Eve when she ate the apple in the Garden of Eden and it became her downfall.”

  “Halloween was last month, Delaney,” another one of the nurses I work with calls out to me, then shows me a pretty delicious-looking, tiny cake. “Evil, devil, and words like that have no place in November. It’s a time for thanksgiving. Come on, try some of the food. It’s all fantastic.”

  I make my way through the people and find the woman I’m looking for at the back of the room eating a large plate of food. “Hey, Rhonda, I’d like to talk to you about switching schedules for the next few days or so.”

  “And why is that?” she asks, then places a huge bite of some type of sandwich—it looks like roast beef—into her mouth.

  “I need out of this wing until the Peterson kid is released. So can you help me out?” I ask as I watch her eat.

  She nods, then swallows before she says, “Just one thing, though. I want out of that ward until after the first of January. I hate all the hoops we have to jump through when the hospital lets people come up to visit the cancer patients during the holidays. It just poops me out and the charge nurse over there can randomly stick you as the aid to any one of the crazy celebrities who come in to visit the kids. I hate it.”

  “Deal,” I say without hesitation. “I’ll take that over trying to fend Vanderbilt off any day.”

  “I have to tell you that you are a crazy woman, Delaney. If that hot piece of man-meat was after me, I’d roll over quick and in a hurry for him.”

  The smell of roasted chicken wafts past my nose as Paul comes up beside me, a chicken leg roasted to perfection waving in the air as he says, “Unless a man is willing to drop down on one knee and pledge his undying and committed to love to Delaney Richards, he doesn’t stand a chance. Vanderbilt went wrong when he simply asked her out on a date. Yes, Delaney, I heard about that.”

  Fantastic. I’ll be the laughing stock of the entire hospital now!

  A Chilly Fall

  Book Two

  Chapter 1

  BLAINE

  November 15th:

  “The background check has cleared, Blaine. You can start your charity work at The Children’s Hospital today,” my secretary, Blanch, lets me know.

  “Great,” I answer her over the intercom in my office. “Can you call Kate and Kent in their offices and send them in here, please?”

  “Will do, Mr. Vanderbilt. And would you like me to bring in the coffee service for your meeting with them?”

  “That would be very nice of you. Please do that.”

  I’ve been practicing my please and thank you’s as often as I can. Turning over a new leaf means changing the usual way I talk to people too. I used to think there was no reason to use gratuitous remarks when you are dealing with people in business.

  Kate is the one who is in charge of helping me with my hard ed
ges. Kent is in charge of helping me figure out what I can do to make my business fairer to the local economies. So far, we’ve yet to come up with much.

  The door to my office opens up and my brother and sister come inside, followed by the coffee cart, complete with pastries for our morning meeting. “Good morning,” I say as I sit at my desk.

  “It’s nice if you get up and greet the people who come into your office, Blaine,” Kate tells me.

  I nod. “I’ll try to remember that.”

  She shakes her head and grabs Kent by the arm before he can make himself a cup of coffee. “Wait! Blaine, you need to practice doing that. Then it will become a habit and you’ll do it automatically. Get up, come shake our hands, greet us with a smile, and say some nice words.”

  With a sigh, I get up and go with my hand extended to do her little exercise. I take her hand first. “Good morning. My, don’t you look pretty today? Tell me, how did you sleep last night?”

  I earn another shake of her head, sending her blonde curls bobbing away. “Blaine, that’s too personal. And the pretty remark might be considered flirty or sexist. Stick with the normal, ‘good morning, lovely to see you’ thing. Okay. Now, try to do better with Kent.”

  I turn to find Kent waiting with a tight-lipped expression. “How do you do, sir?” I ask as I shake his hand.

  “Not very well, Mr. Vanderbilt,” he says as Kate and I both look at him with confused expressions. “I’m trying to give you the chance to interact with someone who’s not having a great day, Blaine.”

  “Oh, I see now. Okay,” I say, then take a step back. “What seems to be the trouble, old man?”

  “Not ‘old man,’” Kate corrects me.

  “Fine. What seems to be your malfunction, jackass?” I laugh, but it’s only me who’s laughing.

  “Come on,” Kate whines. “Be serious. Watch me.” She reaches out to shake Kent’s hand. “Good morning, Mr. Vanderbilt. How is your day going?”

  “Terribly,” he says with a fake frown. “I bought a bag of tools at your store today, and when I opened it, I found it was missing three of the tools the label said it had in it. When I went to the customer service counter to return it and get a refund, I was told they don’t issue refunds on electronics. I told them they were tools, not electronics. The lady pointed to the one electric thing in the picture of the tools inside of the bag—an electric screwdriver—and gave me a smile.”

  I start laughing, and then Kent really frowns at me. “That’s crazy,” I say as I pour myself some coffee.

  “And that really happened to me yesterday, Blaine. At the store right here in town, that happened to me. We have real trouble here,” he says, then makes himself a coffee.

  “You should leave the cart, Blanch,” I tell her. “It looks like this is going to be a lengthy meeting.”

  With a nod, she leaves us, closing the door behind her. Kate picks up a cinnamon roll and an apple juice, then takes a seat. “My advice is to make up a new refund policy comparable to any of the other large chain stores. After we get that done, then I will implement a training program for the customer service employees.”

  “That sounds like progress,” I agree as I take my seat again. “And I’ve been cleared by the hospital to do some charity work there for the holidays. Today I will begin. So can I count on you two to work on the refund policy?”

  Kent leans forward and says, “I think we need to stop buying everything so damn cheap, Blaine.”

  “Whoa, that’s my main thing. I buy things cheap so I can sell them cheaper than anyone else does.” I shake my head as I lean back in my chair.

  “Well, the cheap crap shows up in the stores either broken, nearly broken, or missing parts. I know you’re making it all work and the customers keep coming back, but it’s not fair to keep taking people’s hard-earned money for the same crap over and over again,” he says and gives me a little smile at the end. “What if that was you?”

  “Me?” I ask, then lace my fingers behind my head and lay my head on them as I look up. Pops invasion into my dreams hasn’t slowed down one bit. His words are getting easier to recall when I wake up. Some of them are making an appearance in my memory with Kent’s suggestion. What if that was you?

  “You don’t even use the things you place on your stores' shelves, Blaine,” Kate tells me, then takes a bite.

  “I can afford better,” I say as I look at her. “I work hard to get what I have.”

  “So does everyone else, Blaine,” Kent says, and his words hit home.

  “You know, I need to say something to you both. I don’t think I’ve ever told you before. I am proud of you two. I know you both work really hard. Maybe even harder now that you’ve taken consultant positions with my company. I just wanted you to know that.”

  The looks they give me make my heart pump a little faster. This being nice thing really is great!

  Chapter 2

  DELANEY

  “Do you like the green jello better than the red?” I ask a very tired and terrible-feeling thirteen-year-old girl who’s just come back from her daily chemo treatment.

  The dark shadows beneath her pale-blue eyes show me just how tired she really is, and it breaks my heart. I’m trying my best to get her interested in anything. When people space out the way she has been doing for the last week, it means they’re thinking about giving up the fight.

  “I don’t care,” she mumbles as I tuck the blanket in around her.

  “I’ll bring you some of each. I made them into jiggly Thanksgiving figures—turkeys, pumpkins, and cornucopias. I’ll bring you one of each,” I say as I plump her pillow, then lay her back down. “What do you think about that, Tammy?”

  “I think I’d like to be left alone.”

  The poor girl only has her mother for support, and I’m afraid that’s just not cutting it. She is the first person on my list if a good-looking celebrity decides to come in and visit.

  Since the last of her hair fell out, she’s been a shell of her former self. So I decide I’m going to go find her a wig that looks like the hair she used to have and bring it to her this afternoon. Maybe that will perk her up.

  “I’ll let you take a nap, then I’ll be back at lunch time with a surprise for you, Tammy.”

  “Why?” she asks with a bland tone.

  “Because I love you. You’re my most favorite patient. You’re nice and quiet. I really think you just need something to look forward to. So I’m going to surprise you every day.”

  Just as I turn off the overhead light so she can sleep, I hear her whisper, “I just want my mom.”

  Her mother has been so busy working—trying hard to make enough money to pay her ever-growing hospital bills—that she’s had very little time to spend with Tammy.

  “I know, baby,” I whisper, then leave with a heavy heart. I wish like hell there was something I could do to help her.

  I have to wipe a tear that’s managed to escape me as I walk down the hall toward the nurses’ station to see who’s next on the list for me. “Use me where you need me the most.” I hear a familiar man’s voice.

  When I go around the corner, I see him. “You!”

  “Hey, you!” Blaine Vanderbilt greets me with a huge smile. He has on dark-brown scrubs, like he’s a nurse or doctor or some shit, and a pilgrim hat. I don’t know how he’s managing to still look so damn handsome in that stupid hat, but he’s pulling it off.

  His hand moves with ease to the small of my back as he moves us away from the nurses’ desk. “What are you doing?”

  He looks at the charge nurse over his broad shoulder. “I’ll follow her around today.”

  “No, he won’t!” I say and try to stop, but his hand moves around to hold my elbow, and somehow, he manages to keep me moving.

  “Room 536 is next, Delaney. And stop being so hard to get along with. Mr. Vanderbilt is here to make the kids happy. Put your happy face on, Nurse Richards. It’s about the kids, not you!” Sheila, my boss, tells me.

 
“Yes, it’s about the kids, Delaney,” he says with a low voice that’s creamy and rich. “Not you. Now I know where you’ve been hiding from me. I’ve missed you as I’ve visited Sammy and his family every day. He’s doing much better, you know.”

  “I do know. I’ve asked about him. And I heard that you ask where I am every day. How did you find me here? Who is the rat who told on me?”

  “How sweet that you think I’d resort to stalking you,” he says with a chuckle. “No one told on you. I had no idea you were working with the cancer patients. Just good luck, I guess. I filled out a form to come and visit the kids here and help make their holidays better. My background check cleared, and I started my work here just now. I think it’s more than just a happy coincidence you’re here too.”

  “I don’t believe you,” I let him know. “I’ll find out who told you.”

  “Paranoid?” he asks as he opens the door to my next patient’s room.

  I give him a go-to-hell look, then step in past him as he holds the door open. “Hello, Terry, how are you doing today?” I ask the fifteen-year-old boy with stage-three cancer in his leg.

  His eyes go straight to Blaine as he answers me, “Not too good. It really hurts today. Can I have more pain meds, boss?”

  “Hello, Terry,” Blaine walks past me to introduce himself. “I’m Blaine. I’m here to help get you kids into the spirit of the holidays.” He reaches into one of the pockets of his scrubs and produces a pumpkin lollipop.

  Terry smiles as he takes it from him. “Yum. So, about more pain meds.”

  Blaine looks at me, and I assume he notices my frown. This kid has asked for more pain medication every day. He takes the chair on the other side of the bed. “So, tell me what has you cooped up here.”

  Terry turns his attention to Blaine as I busy myself with checking his vital signs and tidying up his mess. “I was swimming at the end of the summer and felt a pain in my leg. I thought it was just a cramp, but it didn’t go away. Four days later, I couldn’t take the pain anymore and told my parents about it.”

 

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