“This was amazing,” he said. “You are amazing, and now I want you even more.” He brought me to his lips, kissing me passionately, and everything tightened in me.
I also wanted him more—more than ever.
I knew he had a dark past, but we all had secrets. We had one together.
To Hell with the no fraternizing policy.
I needed Dr. Evan Sholly, and there was nowhere else I would rather be right now than here—in his strong, safe arms.
CHAPTER 16
Tessa
When I woke up the next morning Evan was gone. He probably needed to shower and get new scrubs from his place, I told myself.
But Evan had been right; I certainly needed that mental-health day off from work. Not to mention all the wild sex. That certainly worked my stress away.
When I returned the following day, I felt a lot more refreshed and focused. I arrived early, having made the decision to pay the woman from the day before a visit.
Outside of her room, I knocked on the door a few times before pushing it open. The woman—Louisa—was inside, lying in bed, watching television.
“Good morning, Louisa,” I said.
She smiled. “Good morning.”
I approached her bedside. The side of her head was bandaged, but otherwise, she looked fine. “You may not remember me, but—”
“Tessa Kennery?” she said, sitting up in bed.
“Yes.”
She smiled wider and extended her hand. “Looks like a thank you is in order. A handsome doctor told me yesterday that a highly skilled nurse named Tessa Kennery had been in the right place at the right time, and had saved my life.”
I clasped the woman’s hand. “I was just doing my job. I’m so happy to see that you are doing well.”
“All thanks to you.”
We chatted for a moment longer and then I excused myself, seeing that it was almost time for me to start my shift. I wanted to see Evan first though, yet, he was nowhere to be found.
I decided to check the on-call room. When I saw that he wasn’t there either, I headed to the break room. Visions and memories of the day before with him danced through my head, making me quiver. I honestly couldn’t remember the last time anyone had made me feel this way. It was simultaneously exciting and terrifying. I couldn’t help thinking that things had moved entirely too fast between me and Evan, but the passion and connection we felt for one another just couldn’t be contained.
It couldn’t be controlled.
It couldn’t be slowed.
The time between our awkward introduction, up until now, had been something of a whirlwind for both of us.
The door to the break room swung open, and for one hopeful moment, I thought it was Evan. But instead, Molly walked in.
“Morning, doll!” she said.
“Hey Molly.”
“So, I heard you got a day off yesterday for playing hero.”
I smirked. “It was nothing.”
“Ever so modest.” Molly got a pop-tart from the vending machine and then turned to me with an all-too-knowing gleam in her eyes. “You catch up with Evan?”
I pressed my lips together, trying hard to fight back the smile that naturally wanted to present itself at the sound of his name. Molly laughed and clapped her hands together.
“Shh!” I said, casting a panicked look around the room although we were alone.
“Shh, nothing!” Molly said. “I want some details! I heard he all but caused a scene over you yesterday. I was busy with Dr. Newman, so I missed it all. Had to hear it through the grapevine. When I heard you’d taken the day off, I almost decided to call you. But then someone told me that you’d left with Evan, so I figured you might have been busy.”
“So busy,” I laughed.
Molly pulled out a chair and motioned for me to sit beside her as she opened her strawberry pop-tart. “So—what’s the verdict? First impressions aren’t always lasting impressions, eh?”
I shook my head. “I guess not. I’ve never had a first impression proven so wrong in my life. Evan is…intense. And wonderful.”
“Look at you, sounding all smitten.”
“I am,” I said, feeling another blush coming forth. “It’s scary, actually.”
“Scary? What’s scary about it? Tall, dark, and handsome. NAVY Doctor. Girl, that’s what you call the jackpot!”
“But it’s all happening so quickly.”
“Feels too good to be true, huh?”
“Exactly. But us working together.”
“Well, the only thing to do is wait it out and see what happens. Think of it like an amusement park—sometimes the best rides are fast!”
Molly and I descended into a fit of giggles. “You are a mess,” I said.
“So I’ve been told. And don’t worry about this place, your secret is safe with me.” She took another bite of her pop-tart and then checked her watch. “What are you doing here so early anyway?”
“I wanted to check on the woman from yesterday. She’s doing good. She’s in recovery now.”
“What exactly happened with that again?”
“I was taking Lucy for an early morning run and she took off after a stray cat. By the time I got her to stop, there was this woman. I saw her just as she fainted and bashed her head on a metal fence.”
“Goodness, honey.” Molly reached over to briefly take my hand. “I know that had to be scary.”
I nodded. “I thought she was going to die.”
“Well, thank goodness you were there. Not everyone can stay as calm under pressure as you.”
I laughed humorlessly. “That’s the thing I struggle with most. I always feel like I’m on the brink of panicking during emergencies. You’d think that in all my time working in this field, especially in this department, I’d be better at it.”
“That’s interesting. Because in my time working with you, I’ve never seen you lose your cool during an emergency. Maybe you freak out on the inside, but it doesn’t show. And it definitely doesn’t impair your judgment. You’ve got amazing instincts, Tessa. Knowing that you panic on the inside just makes what you do all the more impressive. You’re going places, honey. Mark my words. There’s only great things in store for you.”
“You make it sound so impressive.”
“You are impressive.” Molly nudged my arm. “No wonder he likes you.”
“Does…does everyone know?”
Molly shook her head. “No. I’ve only heard muttering from the people that saw Evan snap at the security guard who was giving you a hard time yesterday. But it’s just speculation. I don’t know what you’re worried for though! As gorgeous as Evan is—if I had anything going on with him, I’d probably get a t-shirt made, declaring it to the whole world!”
I laughed outright again. “You are crazy, Molly. The policy. I don’t want my job at risk.”
“And you are crazy lucky! Now stop, Human Resources could care less about that handbook, hell if they opened it once in a while themselves, maybe they could use it. Stop worrying!”
I sighed. She was right, no one would probably even notice our little affair. I needed to relax, and enjoy what I had.
“Have you seen Evan today, by the way?”
Molly wrinkled her brow. “Come to think of it—I haven’t.”
I pouted. He hadn’t said anything about taking the day off.
“He must have taken the day off. Maybe you wore him out too much.”
“Molly,” I said, slapping her arm and causing her to give another hearty laugh. She pulled away from the table. “Well, it’s time to report for duty.”
“Yeah,” I said, standing also. “I’ll talk to you later.”
“Sure thing,” Molly said, throwing away her pop-tart wrapper and heading out the door. I left shortly afterwards, deciding to head back to the on-call room to make a cup of tea as I waited for my help to be needed.
When I entered, a few nurses were inside—two making coffee and one watching the news on the tel
evision overhead. They all smiled and nodded at me as I came in.
“Slow day today, huh?” I said. It was unusual for there to ever be more than two people in the on-call room at any given moment.
“Yeah,” one of them responded. “Let’s hope it stays that way!”
“I hear you,” I said with a chuckle.
“Good job yesterday, by the way,” she said. “I heard you helped paramedics save a woman’s life, and you weren’t even officially on-duty.”
I waved my hand dismissively. “It was nothing. Just doing my job. The way I see it, when someone needs help, I’m always on-duty.”
“You should totally think about teaching nursing students. Or at least mentoring them,” one of the other nurses said.
I retrieved a tea bag and a mug. “Who knows.” I shrugged my shoulders. “Maybe one day.” I finished making my tea and then took a seat, using the down time to check my email, text messages, and voice messages to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. While I wanted to pretend I was looking for work-related messages, I was really checking to see if I had anything from Evan. My heart sank a little upon seeing that he hadn’t called or messaged me at all.
Exasperated, I ran my hand through my hair, recalling the silky feel of his hair and how in contrasted to the rough stubble on his cheeks. I raised my cup to take a sip of my tea, wanting to hide any indication of how hot I felt at the thought of him.
“You used to work with Dr. Nualli, right?” one of the nurses suddenly asked.
I lowered my cup. “Yeah.” I leaned forward. “Have you heard from her lately?”
She shook her head. “No, I was going to ask if you had. Rumor has it that she may be transferring to another hospital, somewhere offering her more money.”
“Ahh,” I said, leaning back in my seat and feeling vaguely disappointed. Regardless of what was going on between me and Evan, Dr. Nualli remained my favorite doctor to work with. I had learned so much from her. On the other hand, I knew she deserved to be properly compensated for her skills, so if the rumor was true, good for her.
“I never got a chance to work with her, but I heard she was a really good doctor. A lot of staff seem bummed out about the possibility of her leaving.”
I nodded. “Yes. She was the best. I’ll be forever grateful for the time I got to work with her. She really taught me a lot about caring for patients, and for being an advocate for the people we treat. Doctors like her are few and far between.”
Another one of the nurses sighed. “Looks like all the good doctors eventually move on. Like Sholly.”
I almost dropped my teacup at the sound of his name. My eyes widened. “Pardon?”
“Dr. Sholly. I heard he’s leaving too, right? Did he find another hospital that’s offering him higher pay?”
“No, that’s not what I heard,” the nurse who’d been watching TV chimed in. “He was in the military before. I heard from Miles that Sholly was thinking about re-enlisting. I guess he misses it. Maybe he’ll be a military doctor or something.”
There was more to the conversation, but I could no longer hear. My ears were practically ringing with shock. The tea had suddenly turned sour in my stomach. I set the cup down.
Evan, re-enlisting without telling me? He couldn’t. He wouldn’t…
The previous day, it felt like things had officially changed between us—like we had both decided to officially give in to the undeniable connection between us.
Or maybe he was just stringing me along, a voice in my head said. He got what he wanted, and now he’s free to go.
The thoughts created a bitter taste in my mouth, and I felt like my blood was literally starting to boil. It was a moment before I realized the other nurses were still talking to me.
“Tessa, are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” I said, though my voice came out harsh. I stood, recognizing the tale-tell stinging in my eyes indicating that angry tears were not far. “Excuse me.”
I bolted from the on-call room and headed straight for the women’s bathroom, were I locked myself in and stood before the mirror. My eyes swam with tears and my face looked a shade too pale.
Pity. I felt nothing but pity for the woman staring back at me. She just couldn’t stop getting hurt. She had ignored the signs that things had been moving too fast, and now she was going to pay the price.
In the little bit of time I’d known Evan, strangely enough, it felt like he had already hurt me more than Tyler had.
Annoyed, I stormed out of the bathroom. A slow day no longer seemed desirable. I needed to keep busy to keep myself from thinking about how badly I wanted to ring Evan’s neck.
CHAPTER 17
Evan
The last foster family I stayed with, the Vicents, had been fairly decent. In fact, after the several rounds of Hell I’d been through with the previous families, the Vicents had practically been like The Brady Bunch. By the time I made it to their household though, I was already in my late teens, on the brink of adulthood. While the Vicents had treated me kindly enough, I had always harbored resentment toward them and it took me the longest time to figure out why. Logically, I knew I should have been grateful to have finally ended up with a family who didn’t treat me like a second-class citizen. Yet, it wasn’t until I reached legal age that I realized my issue with the Vicent family; I had simply resented them for not coming into my life sooner. I lamented about how my life could have been different had they been the first household I ended up with. I often wondered how much pain and suffering I could have potentially bypassed.
As I got older, I eventually learned to let go of the resentment and accepted that the Vicent household was the only place I could somewhat call home. Whenever I got a break from the military, I wound up on the Vicents’ doorstep. Yet, the military quickly began to change me. It got to the point that when I returned to visit the Vicents, it felt like coming home to a place I truly didn’t belong to anymore despite my sense of loyalty to the only people who had actually treated me like family. I had simply changed too much to fit into their world.
That was precisely how I felt when I returned to the night-shift. Entering the hospital during night hours felt like home, but it also felt like I didn’t entirely belong there anymore. The day shift had changed me—or more accurately, Tessa Kennery had changed me.
“Dr. Sholly, are you all right? You seem a little distracted tonight.”
“I’m fine,” I said to the nurse before me. Sheryl was her name. She was nice, skilled, pretty—but no comparison to Tessa.
Stop it, I said to myself.
“Dr. Sholly!” I turned around, seeing another nurse running toward me, out of breath. “You’re needed to fill in for Dr. Hans. We have a GSW. We have him stabilized, but you need to do the final assessment before surgery.”
I hurried off after her. She led me to a young man with a gunshot wound to the side that had broken a rib. When I got there, the other nurses and technicians stood around as if their job was done.
“He’s all set, Dr. Sholly,” one of them informed.
“Was a full-body examination conducted?” I asked.
They all paused to look at me. “His only injury was in his side and we’ve—”
“Standard procedure is to do a full body examination. You all should know that,” I said, feeling mildly agitated. They all muttered awkwardly around me, apologizing as I finished the full body examination and then sent out a request to get the patient to roll up to surgery.
Sheryl stayed behind to help me organize the patient’s files and waited to accompany me in updating his family.
“Are you sure you’re feeling all right, Dr. Sholly? I can tell something is up.”
“Do you know Nurse Kennery, Sheryl?”
She titled her head to the side and glanced up at the ceiling, jogging her memory. “The name sort of rings a bell…”
“Tessa,” I said. “That’s her first name.”
“Tessa Kennery…Oh! Is that the one who just saved tha
t woman a couple days ago? Rode in the ambulance with her, administering CPR?”
“Yes.”
Sheryl nodded. “Yes, I’ve seen her a couple times. She’s really pretty, and a damned good nurse from what I’ve heard. I don’t know much about her though. I think she only works the day shift. Why do you ask?”
I stared at Sheryl for an instant, no longer sure why I had asked. What did I expect? For someone to fill me in on Tessa’s whole life story? For someone to let me know if she had a serious boyfriends in the past and whether I stood a chance with her, or if I was nothing more but a passing fling?
I shook my head. “Never mind. No reason.”
Sheryl narrowed her eyes suspiciously at me, but didn’t push it. She knew me enough not to.
Naturally, for the rest of my shift, I hadn’t been able to get Tessa out of my head. It occurred to me once and for all that walking away from her just didn’t seem like a viable option, no matter how much I wished it was. It wasn’t just physical, as it had been with so many others before her. Those, I had easily been able to walk away from afterwards without a fleeting thought. But Tessa—she had a hold on me that I just couldn’t shake no matter how much I wanted to.
I needed to see her again.
To be with her again.
Although I was so tired that I bordered on the point of delirium, I decided to stick around until the day shift came in so that I could see Tessa. I didn’t know what I planned to say to her, but I knew I wouldn’t be satisfied until I saw her face. If I didn’t see those baby blue eyes of hers, I thought I might go crazy.
But as the day shift continued to roll in, Tessa wasn’t amongst them. I watched the steady shift of doctors, nurses, technicians, and interns. Each time someone entered the hospital, my heart gave a hopeful leap, only to be disappointed again when each face I saw did not match the one I was craving to see.
Nearly an hour after the day shift began, and unsuccessfully dodging questions regarding why I was still there, I decided there was no use in sticking around. So I left with another plan brewing in my mind.
CHAPTER 18
Married to My Enemy Page 31