An Informal Introduction (Informal Romance Book 3)

by Heather Gray

  “You!” She sputtered.

  Okay. Not so delicate, after all.

  Her cheeks bloomed bright red as her hands fisted at her sides. Those eyes of hers, so big he could go swimming in them, no longer gazed at him with apprehension as they had that morning. In fact, if he wasn’t mistaken, her eyes were downright murderous.

  Why was she mad? He’d let her off with a warning.

  “Oh, this is wonderful! You two know each other. Caleb’s lived here such a short time, and I’ve been worried about him making friends. Tell me how the two of you met.”

  Her smile looked forced as Lily filled the silence. “It was an informal introduction, really. I’m not sure you could even say…”

  He swallowed the lump in his throat and cut her off. “Uh, on the job, Ma. We met on the job.”

  His mom eyed him speculatively. “You didn’t bully her, did you?”

  A groan escaping his lips, Caleb dropped into the room’s only chair. “No, Ma, I didn’t bully her. Why would you think that?”

  “I wasn’t born yesterday, son. I know an evasive answer when I hear one. Informal introduction. On the job. Hmph. Your job is arresting people.”

  Was it him, or was the temperature climbing? If only he could open a window. Lily smirked, and he resisted the urge to fan himself. The little minx was enjoying this!

  She pivoted back to face his mom, thank goodness. He closed his eyes and propped his head back against the wall, hat in his hands. As soon as the ER doctor had assured him Ma would recover, his adrenaline rush had begun to ebb. Between that and the long night at work, Caleb had little motivation to do anything more than sit and listen to the conversation.

  “We’re going to keep you on a saline drip with some potassium in it to help you stabilize, but I need you to drink as much as you can to nudge the process along. You’ll get an insulin drip, too, as soon as the pump for that gets here.”

  “Do I call you Lily or Nurse Lily? I’m never quite sure.”

  Her face was hidden from him, but he heard the smile in her words nonetheless. “You can call me Lily. I’d prefer it, in fact. I’ll bring you a cup of water. Drink as much as you can.”

  “Of course, dear. I’ll do whatever you say. I want to get well and go home again.”

  Lily went to fetch the water, and silence wrapped itself around Caleb. He was almost afraid to open his eyes. His mom was staring at him. He could sense it.

  “You can’t fool me, son. I know you’re awake.”

  He cracked one eye.

  “You need to go home and sleep. I’ll be fine.”

  “I’m not leaving, Ma, so forget it.”

  Lily walked back into the room with an industrial-sized cup of water that sported a corrugated plastic straw sticking out through its lid. She rolled a table close to the bed and set the drink within easy reach of his mom. “I’ve been instructed to check your blood sugar every hour, too, until the readings become more consistent.”

  Caleb noticed the device in her hand. He hated those things.

  She continued without sparing him a glance. “I fetched the unit’s glucose meter, but the lancet is kind of big. We can use yours instead if you have it with you. Home models tend to use a smaller needle, which means a smaller poke.”

  Ma frowned. “I wasn’t conscious when the ambulance came for me. I couldn’t grab anything.”

  “I brought it.” Both women turned to him, eyebrows lifted. Maybe he should be offended that they looked so surprised. Reaching beneath the chair, Caleb extracted the small overnight bag he’d brought. “I grabbed some things for you, Ma. All your prescriptions, your glucose meter, toothbrush, a fresh set of clothes for going home, and some other stuff. I don’t remember what all I jammed in here, but that was one of… Aha!” He waved the small vinyl satchel in the air. It held Ma’s meter plus the lancets and the test strips.

  Lily didn’t smile at him, but her eyes shone with approval. Either that, or he really needed some sleep.

  She took the device with a soft “Thank you,” and went about her business, checking his mom’s blood sugar. “How long were you unconscious?”

  “Not very long, I don’t think. I remember getting up when my alarm went off. I started for the kitchen to make some coffee. The next thing I recall is being in the ER.”

  “Ma gets up at seven and makes it downstairs by half past. I arrived at a quarter to nine and found her.”

  Lily nodded. “That’s not nearly as bad as it could have been, then. Imagine if nobody stopped by this morning to check on you.”

  “Oh, he wasn’t visiting. Caleb lives with me. Moved in a couple months ago.”

  He cringed. Fantastic. What every woman wanted. A grown man who lived with his mother. Just in case the first impression he’d made wasn’t bad enough, he got to repeat it all with a second, even less favorable impression.

  Closing his eyes again, Caleb leaned his head back and decided to focus on the sound of Lily’s voice. It was soothing. She had a way about her. Ma was in good hands…

  “Drunk driving? He didn’t!”

  His mom’s incredulity filtered through the veil of sleep and pulled Caleb back toward consciousness. Remaining still, he assessed the situation.

  “He wasn’t a tyrant, was he?”

  Why did Ma always assume he went out of his way to frighten people?

  “Not exactly.” Lily was still in the room.

  Or in the room again. How long had he been asleep?

  “Just… a little intimidating.”

  Caleb listened to his mom’s harrumph and waited for her to ask what he’d done wrong. He’d let her off with a warning. That had to count for something. What could she possibly be holding against him?

  “Tell me what he did, and I’ll talk to that boy of mine.”

  Lily’s soft laughter filled the room. “You don’t have to do that. I’m sure he doesn’t even realize what he did.”

  “All the more reason for me to point it out to him.”

  Good old Ma. He might be a grown man, but that was no cause for her to stop trying to correct all his character flaws.

  The petite nurse’s voice still rang with humor. “Now it seems silly, but at the time, when he made me get out of my car, he stood between me and his cruiser. I never got a look at his face the way he was backlit by the headlights. It was a little disconcerting at first, but I’m a sucker for a Southern drawl. I figured no man could retain such a charming accent and end up being a crazed rapist, right?”

  Caleb started two simultaneous conversations with himself. Numbskull! … She likes my accent… It’s a wonder she didn’t take off running as soon as she got out of her car! … So I’m charming, huh?

  Ma tsked. “He’s not used to living up here. His dad and I moved to Virginia after he finished high school. He went off to college then went to work at a sheriff’s department down south. City life is new to him. I may tease the boy about being a bully, but I’m not sure he even realizes how imposing he can be. He’d never intentionally threaten someone.”

  Silence settled into the room before his mom added with a chuckle, “Besides, the flashing lights should’ve clued you in that he was one of the good guys.”

  The snort that came next was all Lily. “Don’t forget the siren.”

  “He used the siren on you? Oh, my. I’m gonna have to talk to that boy.”

  Caleb almost shook his head at them, but doing so would tip them off that he was awake and listening.

  Something his father had said as he was growing up came back to him. Sneaky might be educational or even entertaining, but it’s still wrong.

  Some life lessons were harder to unlearn than others. With a sigh, Caleb made a big show of stretching.

  “Well, there you are, sleepyhead. I told you, you should go home and get some rest.”

  He hoisted himself out of the chair and approached the bed, giving his mom a kiss on the forehead. “And I told you I’m not leaving. Taking care of you is my job now, and I’m not g
oing to…” His words trailed into silence as he realized what he’d been about to say.

  Ma read him like a book. “What? You’re not going to fall asleep on the job?”

  Lily didn’t laugh outright, but she did grin as she patted his mother’s hand. “Your mom is doing fine, Trooper Graham. Her blood sugar is still high, but it’s coming down nice and steady, which is best. The pH of her blood is still too acidic, but it’s moving in the right direction, too. She’s taking her fluids in and as soon as we get her pH where it needs to be, she’ll be able to eat something. You can go down to the cafeteria and get yourself some lunch, if you’d like.”

  “Coffee’s all I need. Is there a machine around here somewhere?”

  The pony-tail-bun bounced as Lily nodded. “Take a right down the hallway there, and you’ll find the coffee in the third room on your left. Right past the scrub sink.”

  “I know where the sink is.” He’d been directed there first thing when he came on the unit with Ma.

  Caleb returned a few minutes later to find Ma chuckling as Lily smoothed her blanket. The two must have been enjoying a conversation — or joke — at his expense.

  Lily’s eyes twinkled as she turned to him. “I’m going to check on my other patient, but if your mom needs anything, hit the call button. If I’m not able to come, one of the other nurses will.”

  She left before Caleb could stop her.

  What would he have said to her, anyway? Your eyes are the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. I’m sorry for standing in the headlights. Will you run away to a small Texas town with me?

  He shook his head and turned to Ma. “Given any thought to what you want your first meal to be when you’re allowed to eat again?”

  “Lily already wrote down all my favorites. She’s such a delightful girl.”

  Ma was about to reach for her cup when yelling from the next room drew Caleb’s attention. He strode toward the door but stopped as several staff members ran past him, heading in the direction of the ruckus. The unintelligible words amplified in volume, and the guttural sound of agony permeated the man’s ragged voice.

  One of the medical staff — a doctor, maybe — started yelling into the chaos. “Hold him down! Restrain him!”

  A glance at his mom told Caleb he had permission to leave her side and investigate. He stepped out into the hallway far enough to catch a glimpse of the interior of the neighboring room. People swarmed the bed like ants on a piece of chocolate. The patient they were attempting to restrain resembled a bulldog coming out on the wrong end of a fight rather than a man in need of intensive care.

  “In your room!” An angry-looking woman with short grey hair yelled in his face. He took a step backward in surprise. It was all she needed. She slid the door to his mother’s room closed with him inside. The sound wasn’t drowned out, but it was muted. The man’s horrifying roars were muffled until they sounded like a bad remix of some heavy metal song Caleb held no hope of understanding.

  Caleb took a quick peek at his mom. She’d pushed her cup of water away untouched.

  “You need to drink, Ma.”

  “I can’t, hon. I’ll try later. What do you think happened? It sounded like that poor man was enduring torture.”

  The yelling stopped, and the echo of silence surrounded them for a moment before people began speaking again, but this time in the kind of normal voices that were easily muted by the walls. The throng of staff in the hallway untangled itself. People wandered back toward their posts, heads close together as they no doubt recounted the gruesome details of what had occurred next door.

  “Whatever caused it, he’s in the right place. They’ll see to his needs.”

  The words were true, but still, the man’s yells would haunt Caleb’s dreams for a while. It was no wonder Ma had lost her sparkle. Caleb reached into the bag he’d brought from home and pulled out a deck of cards.

  Ma’s eyebrow lifted. “My glucose meter and playing cards? Dare I ask what else made the cut?”

  Caleb shuffled the cards. “Texas Hold ’em, War, or Go Fish?”

  A couple of hands later, the door behind him slid open. He wouldn’t have spared it a thought, except his mom lost all color.

  “I stopped in to make sure everybody’s all right in here and to say sorry for the ruckus.” Strain rang through Lily’s voice like the twang of an out-of-tune guitar.

  Caleb spun around in his chair to see what had Ma so alarmed.

  There stood Lily. Her sun-bleached hair was more down than up. Her eyes were dim. And her scrubs were smeared with blood.

  Lily, high on adrenaline, stared at Mrs. Graham. The older woman’s face told her something was wrong, but the pieces weren’t falling together quickly enough. The scene she’d just left continued to play through her mind’s eye like an old film reel.

  Mr. Miller had started to come to while she checked his vitals. She’d called the resident and informed her the patient was stirring. Prior to anyone’s arrival, though, he woke enough to become a danger to himself. His pain must have been off the charts, with the medication in his system affecting his ability to reason. When he wouldn’t stay still, she’d climbed on top of the bed to restrain him so he wouldn’t tear out the stitches in his shoulder. It had been the only viable option at the time.

  Awake but not fully in touch with reality, he’d appeared to be caught in some sort of nightmare. Mr. Miller had shrieked out wordless screams and bucked to dislodge her. Whether he fought the ET tube, the pain from his amputated arm, or the fear of being pinned to the bed, she couldn’t tell. Not that it had mattered. She’d had no choice but to throw her full weight on him in an attempt to hold him relatively still until help arrived. Lily had never thought of herself as weak, but her tiny frame was no match for his larger and more muscled form.

  The whole ordeal had lasted only a couple minutes, but she would be hurting after the adrenaline wore off. Between his one good arm, the railings of the bed, and his thrashing legs, she was certain to end up with more bruises than if she’d spent eight seconds riding a bucking bull. Not that she planned to put that to the test. Even then, the beating she’d taken was nothing compared to what her patient had gone through — was still going through.

  Whether it was post-traumatic stress from his accident, residual confusion from his anesthesia, or a reaction to his meds, the end result was the same. He was a danger to himself. Lily had still been straddling her patient and trying to hold him down when a doctor behind her barked the order for lorazepam and another nurse administered it.

  Mr. Miller had finally slipped back into slumber after that. She’d then had to give him a new mainline for his IV drip since the other had been ripped out during their wrestling match. She’d also instructed the respiratory tech to double-check the placement and condition of his ET tube. Then she’d tackled the task of removing the dressing from his shoulder. Several of his stitches had popped, and she’d assisted while the resident sterilized and re-stitched. After that, she’d redressed the wound.

  Once Mr. Miller was at last settled, Lily had decided to stop in and check on Mrs. Graham to make sure all the noise hadn’t disturbed the older woman too much.

  She stood in the doorway, watching mother and son. A moment passed before it registered that they were both staring at her, faces pale and eyes wide.

  Her brow wrinkled. “Is something wrong?”

  Caleb rose from his seat and took her by the elbow. She wasn’t used to being manhandled, not that she could actually call his gentle touch that. Even if it had been, though, the concern on his face would have prevented her from telling him so. He led her over to the bathroom door and swung it open so she caught sight of herself in the mirror.

  What the blazes had she been thinking, waltzing into a patient’s room like that? A fresh-from-nursing-school rookie wouldn’t even make that kind of mistake.

  “Oh. I… I’m sorry. I’ll be back in a minute.”

  She was almost out the door when Mrs. Graham stopped her with a
word. “Lily?”

  She turned around and met the woman’s gaze.

  “Is that man going to be okay?”

  His arm had been torn from his body by the very machine that provided his livelihood — all because of one person’s idiocy. Okay was a relative term. “He’s strong. He’ll survive.” She indicated the macabre stain on the front of her scrubs. “His IV came out, and some stitches got pulled. This blood isn’t nearly as bad as it looks.”

  Mrs. Graham nodded and offered a weak smile. Lily slipped out of the room and closed the door behind her.

  She headed straight to the nurse’s station. “Does anybody have a spare set of scrubs I can borrow?”

  Maddie glanced up from the chart she was reading. “In my locker. They’ll be big on you, though.”

  Lily gave her a tired smile. “I’ve been short my whole life. I’m used to masquerading as a kid dressed up in mom’s clothes whenever I’m stuck borrowing anything.”

  Maddie walked with her toward the locker room. “Why don’t you keep an extra set here?”

  “I do. I used them on my last shift and forgot to bring replacements in this morning.”

  Dressed in the borrowed too-big scrubs, Lily strode into Mrs. Graham’s room. The woman rested peacefully. Caleb’s chair was back in its place, out of the way and against the wall.

  He grinned at her. “I knew you were a dainty thing, but dressed like that, you look like you couldn’t be more than twelve.”

  It was true. Lily had rolled the pant legs up several times and had even doubled the scrubs over at the drawstring waist. The top hung on her small frame and would have revealed much more than made her comfortable with its V-neck if not for the formfitting white t-shirt she wore underneath.

  She couldn’t help but return his smile. “I’m not sure I know any women who like to be referred to as…” Lily accompanied her final word with air quotes. “…things.”