An Informal Introduction (Informal Romance Book 3)

by Heather Gray

“Ever seen a meteor before?”

  “Nary a one.”

  “Well, then, let’s load up, and we’ll head west until we get away from the lights. What time does it start?”

  Lily held up her phone. “I’ll look it up while we drive.”

  “Sounds like a plan.” Caleb rested his hand on the small of her back as they crossed into the hallway outside her apartment. “Find out what direction we need to look. I know a first-rate place for viewing the western sky, but it might take a little more work to find a place that’ll let us see the eastern sky.”

  A couple hours later they both lay on their backs on top of a soft quilt in the bed of Caleb’s truck.

  “What time’s the meteor shower supposed to start?” Truth be told, there could be a starless sky above them and it would still be the perfect end to a fabulous day as far as he was concerned.

  “Uh…” Lily flipped through a page on her phone again. “Not till two in the morning.”

  Laughter rumbled in Caleb’s chest. “We have quite a wait ahead of us then. It’s only ten.”

  “I couldn’t exactly foresee that you’d be so efficient in finding us a place. Besides, the stars are beautiful just the way they are. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the night sky like this before.”

  How many kids did she want? “So tell me why you decided to become a nurse.” Better off sticking to safe topics.

  Lily shrugged beside him. “It’s what I always dreamed of being. I can’t remember a time when I thought of doing anything else. I chose to specialize in intensive care because I like the fast pace and unexpected hurdles. It’s hard sometimes. We get some tough cases. I suppose a small part of me is an adrenaline junkie, though, and that’s the side that thrives in ICU.” She shifted. “What about you? Why law enforcement?”

  Caleb took a deep breath and enjoyed Lily’s perfume. Carried on a light breeze, it smelled like fresh mountain air. “More or less the same. When I was little, I thought I might join the military, but by the time I was in high school, I knew I wanted to go into some kind of police work. That hasn’t changed in all the years since. I majored in criminal justice and criminology in college and minored in forensic science.”

  “That sounds more like training for the FBI, not a small-town sheriff.”

  “Deputy. The sheriff was still a few years away from retiring, and he wasn’t planning on giving up his job any time soon. It would have taken a scandal of epic proportions to get him voted out of office, and he wasn’t the scandal type.” Caleb raised a shoulder and dropped it. “Honestly, I wasn’t sure where I’d end up when I finished college. I got hired somewhere rural, though, and loved it. Turned out my degree was perfect for the job, too. When you work in small-town law enforcement, you wear a lot of different hats.”

  She leaned over and tugged lightly on his cowboy hat. “I kind of like this one.”

  A chuckle rumbled in Caleb’s chest. “Good, because it’s my favorite.”

  “So you liked working in a rural department…” She let the words hang between them.

  “I was more at peace there than anywhere else I had ever been. My mom’ll be the first to tell you, I used to be a little high-strung.”

  “Huh. I’ve marveled more than once at how calm you always seem. Do you think about moving back to Texas, or are you going to be satisfied living in Virginia?”

  He turned to his side and rested his elbow on the bed of the truck, using his hand to prop up his head. “I think I could learn to call it home with the right incentive.”

  Lily couldn’t help the jaw-popping yawn.

  Caleb grinned at her. “It’s good to know I’m such interesting company.”

  She shook her head. “As an official early riser, I’m usually in bed by now. I can’t believe the meteor shower is still hours away.”

  He stretched out on his back and gathered her close. “Here you go.” Her head settled on his shoulder. “At least you have a pillow now in case you fall asleep.”

  Awareness hummed through Lily’s body. She’d never be able to drift off with Caleb so near…

  The loud wail of a siren roared through the air around her. Fire! Heat skittered across the tops of her bare feet. Something was after her, waiting and watching. The siren morphed into her name as though the blaze itself were calling to her.

  “Lily, wake up.” Caleb shook her shoulder. “Wake up.”

  She blinked as the man hovering over her came into focus. She couldn’t distinguish his features in the darkness, but she didn’t think he woke her because of the meteor shower. Wonder and awe were decidedly absent from his voice.

  “Hear that?”

  Lily didn’t have to strain her ears. The racket from her dream was all too real. Only it wasn’t a siren. “What is that?”

  “A pack of coyotes, getting closer by the sound of it. You need to be in the cab where it’s safe.”

  “Okay.” Still sluggish from sleep, she sat up and stared warily into the shifting shadows. “Is it unlocked?”

  Before she realized it was coming, Caleb snatched her up and sat her on the side of the truck bed. She grabbed on to keep her balance while he jumped out the back and closed the tailgate. He came around to where she rested on the edge of the bed, and he drew her down into his arms before opening the driver-side door and setting her down behind the steering wheel.

  She blinked in the interior’s sudden light.

  “Scoot over so I can climb in, too.” Humor sparkled in his eyes.

  Lily scrambled across the middle console and into her own seat, and Caleb climbed in behind her, shutting the door with the solid sound of metal against metal.

  “I’m afraid the meteor shower will have to wait for another night. We’ll try to catch the next one. I knew they had coyotes out here, but I thought being so close to an urbanized area would force them into smaller packs. The one we heard was anything but small. At least a dozen strong if sound’s anything to go by. It’s not worth the risk.”

  The cobwebs began to clear, and Lily glanced at Caleb. “Would you have stayed if you’d been alone?”

  He frowned as he started the engine. “Is that important?”

  Of course he would have. He was leaving because of her. Should she be angry or flattered?

  Lily caught a glimpse of the heat in Caleb’s eyes.

  Flattered. Definitely flattered. She might not be crazy about someone making decisions for her, but she could get used to the look in those grey orbs when he was set on protecting her.

  “I’m sorry I fell asleep. That’s not like me.”

  He offered her a half shrug as he steered the truck onto the road. “Like you said. You’re an early bird, and I’m a night owl. It didn’t bother me. I liked watching you sleep.” Then he winced. “But not in a creepy peeping Tom kind of way.”

  How could she not find him endearing with sweet talk like that? “Did I snore?”

  Caleb reached over and laced the fingers of his right hand through those of her left. “Even if you did, you’re still the most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen.”

  Polar ice caps would melt at the sound of his voice. How did she stand a chance?

  “You keep saying things like that, and a girl might get the wrong idea.”

  The only light in the truck’s cab came from the dashboard. His lips moved in the dim blue glow. “I’m pretty sure you’re not getting the wrong idea.”

  “He’s insane! He has to be… Right?”

  Lily was nowhere near ready to give up her rant when Lyza cut her off. “Child, you got to admire a man who recognizes what he wants and goes after it.”

  Together the two women worked to reposition an unconscious patient.

  “You don’t understand,” Lily countered. “I think he’s talking about marriage, and we barely know each other.”

  Lyza leaned back and surveyed their handiwork. “Does that look comfortable to you?”

  Lily eyed the patient lying on his side, knees bent, pillows offering support behind him
so he wouldn’t slump onto his back, his arms propped around another pillow to give them a different position, and the feet and knees protected with pillow cushions as well. “I’m sleepy just looking at him. I need a pile of pillows like this for my bed at home.” She threw Lyza an admiring smile. “You always pay so much attention to the patient’s comfort, even if they can’t tell you what they like.”

  “Mm-mm-mm,” Lyza half-hummed. “If I were ever sick like this, I hope someone would care enough to want me to be comfortable, too. Anyhow, no way is a patient of mine getting bed sores, not on my watch.”

  Some nurses programmed the bed so that it shifted automatically, alleviating the risk of pressure sores, but Lyza came from the days before automated beds. “Nothing feels as good as curling up on your side after being forced to lie on your back for hours.”

  Lily gathered up the soiled linens and put them into the proper receptacle. “He’s moving so fast. I’m not sure what to do.”

  “Y’all have chemistry?” Lyza lifted her eyebrows in question.

  “More than I know what to do with.”

  “Never felt this way about another man before?”

  “Never, and I’m not some starry-eyed teenager, either.”

  “You talk it over with The Man Upstairs yet?”

  Hiding a cringe, Lily nodded. She’d been taught it was disrespectful to refer to God as The Man Upstairs. That was the other nurse’s way, though, and Lyza genuinely meant no disrespect by it. “I’ve talked, but I’m not hearing a response.”

  “You got your emotions all twisted up and fit to be tied, don’t you?”

  They stepped out into the corridor, and Lily threw herself down into a chair at the nearby nurse’s station. The chair spun her in a full circle before it came to a stop. “Is it normal for men to move so fast?”

  Lyza clucked her tongue and took the other available seat. She brought the patient’s chart up on the screen so she could document the position change. “Some men spend their whole life not knowing who they are or what they want. They make lousy husbands because they’re never satisfied. They’re always wondering if the gal across the street is gonna make them happier. And they blame their woman, their job, or their children whenever they don’t feel fulfilled, but the truth is they’re unfulfilled because they’re clueless about life. That’s not a real man.”

  The older nurse yanked her reading glasses down far on her nose and peered at Lily over the top of them. “When you find a man who knows his own mind and what he wants, and plans to dedicate the rest of his days to making you the happiest woman on earth, girl, you snatch him up. From everything you’ve told me, this trooper is the type of man that holds on. Not the smothering, wife-beating kind of hold-on, but the rock-in-the-storm kind of hold-on. That’s a man who won’t leave you high and dry when life gets rough and when bad things go down. A man you want by your side when your child’s diagnosed with an incurable disease, when your parents sue each other over the family china, or when you do your monthly check and discover a lump in your breast. No point in having a man stand beside you all the days of your life unless he’s strong enough to hold you up whenever you need to lean on him.”

  Caleb was all those things. If she could choose someone to lean on, she would pick him. “You’re sure it’s not weird that he’s moving so fast?”

  “I met my Charlie at a friend’s birthday party.” Lyza chuckled. “We were datin’ by the next day and engaged before two weeks passed.”

  “How long was your engagement?”

  Lyza snorted. “We got a little impatient for the weddin’ night, and we weren’t even engaged yet. After that, Charlie insisted we wed right away. He wanted to do right by me. Knew each other less than a month when we tied the knot. That was more’n twenty years ago.”

  “Did you marry him because you slept with him or because he was the one?”

  Lyza brushed the question aside. “I ain’t condonin’ what we did, mind you, but I like to think my body understood what my brain was havin’ a hard time accepting. I don’t think I’d have ever ended up in bed with the man if I hadn’t recognized all the way down to the core of my bein’ that I planned to spend the rest of my life with him.” Lyza shook a finger at Lily. “Don’t think that’s stopped me from preaching abstinence to every single one of my babies, though. What I did was wrong and dumb and reckless. I count it a blessing every day that God saw fit to work it out for good.”

  “You couldn’t have known each other very well when you got married. I always thought engagements were supposed to be long so people can become more familiar with one other.”

  Another snort filled the corridor. “My marriage has been an adventure, one that’s never been boring. It hasn’t always been easy, and we had some hard adjustments to make early on, but we were committed, and we stuck with it, and I’ve never regretted it.”

  “Lily — front desk!”

  Her head snapped up. The charge nurse waved her over as she conferred with Arlene Norval, the nursing director. As Lily approached, the director pointed to her. “In my office. Now.”

  Lily’s heart raced as she sat in Arlene’s office waiting for the woman to join her. What had she done wrong?

  She wiped her sweaty palms on her scrubs, plucked off any stray lint or hair she could find on her clothes, and smoothed the wrinkles developed over the course of the day. The sudden opening of the door caused her to jump. Arlene strode in, took a seat in front of the L-shaped desk resting against the wall in the corner of her office, and faced Lily.

  “We have a situation on our hands. Someone under Secret Service protection was shot, and he’s in our OR.”

  Political drama. Not at all what she’d expected.

  “Your name is already linked to a high-profile case. Rather than put another nurse in the spotlight, I’d like to ask you to take on the daytime care for this patient. With Mr. Miller gone to rehab, it should be easy enough.”

  “I’m on today and tomorrow then off again.”

  She nodded. “With your permission, I’ll rearrange the schedule so that you’re with him until he’s transferred out. I’ll be doing the same with his night nurse who, incidentally, also worked with Mr. Miller.”

  “What about my other patients?”

  “Someone from the float pool is taking over their care. They’ll be in good hands.”

  High-profile cases weren’t unusual, but they weren’t commonplace, either. Lily had seen them handled in different ways over the years. The last nursing director had given no special treatment, dropping those cases into the regular rotation like every other patient in ICU.

  She hadn’t lasted long in the job.

  “That’ll be fine,” Lily told Arlene. “How long are we talking? I can work four or five days straight with no problem. If it goes much longer than that, though, I’ll need a day off.”

  The director concurred. “I had a brief word with the surgeon. Five days should be enough for recovery. He’d be on the main floor if he weren’t a VIP. There’s one other thing you should be aware of…”

  Lily waited, shuddering inwardly at the tone in the other woman’s voice.

  “Secret Service is all over this one. They tried to get permission to confine the nurses to campus housing so they could keep you under lock and key. I fought it. You can stay on campus if you want, and they’ll guard you. Otherwise, you’re free to go home between shifts, but be aware that Secret Service is more uptight than usual. They could change the rules at any time. An Agent Whitehall is heading up the security force that will be present in ICU. I’m sure you’ll run into him.”

  Word came from the OR: surgery was done and had gone well. For security reasons, the recovery room would be bypassed. The patient would be sent straight to ICU. Lily got her first look at him when she went downstairs to take over custody from the OR nurse. Post-op patients didn’t often make a memorable first impression, but she wanted to commit this one to memory. Who knew? He could be president someday.

&nbs
p; She studied her patient, but true to form, there wasn’t much to notice about him just yet. He was covered neck-to-toe in hospital blankets and had medical equipment jumbled around him. There wasn’t much to see beside his wheat-colored hair with a little grey at the temples. Oh well. Barring anything unforeseen, she’d have plenty of time to get to know her patient later.

  In the meantime, she found herself dealing with three men in suits and sporting firearms. The Secret Service agents wouldn’t allow any of the orderlies near and insisted on pushing the bed themselves. The only medical personnel allowed on the elevator besides her was a respiratory technician.

  Lily resisted the urge to clear her throat as she contemplated the somber-faced men accompanying her patient. “When the doors open, we’ll need to turn left, but you’ll swing the bed right first so we can get it situated the way we want. He needs to go down the hallway head first in order for us to make it into his room smoothly.”

  None of the men said a word, but when the elevator doors parted, the agents did exactly as she’d told them. Within minutes, the patient was settled into his room. The charge nurse came in to help transfer all the monitoring equipment from displaying on the portable screen to the in-room one, and the respiratory technician worked to wrap and secure the corrugated tubing to the respirator so the excess wasn’t in anybody’s way.

  Lily, who had grabbed a couple minutes in the break room with the television before she’d been called down, had a good idea who her patient was. Jefferson David Taylor, the most likely man to snag the Republican nomination for president. He was younger than the other candidates, unmarried, physically fit, reasonably attractive, and he had been shot. The media didn’t seem to know anything about the shooting other than the fact that it had occurred. What she’d learned in the few minutes she’d caught of the news program had been pure speculation.

  Once Mr. Taylor’s stats were displayed on the in-room monitor where she could screen them, Lily angled around and stared at the three Secret Service agents. “You can’t all stay in here, and any of you that are going to be on this unit need to go scrub in. You leave the unit, fine. The second you come back in, you scrub again. No exceptions.”