by Tess Oliver
An older man with a neatly trimmed gray beard and a kind grin stepped into the room. His hand was out before he’d even reached my bed. “Mr. Sawyer, I had to stop in and thank you. Although that’s hardly enough for what you did tonight. I nearly lost both my daughters—” His voice wavered off, and his beard twitched as he pulled his mouth tight. “Don’t know how to ever repay you.” He squeezed my hand again.
“How are they? Nadine and Sarah, right?”
He nodded. “Yes, Nadine has a bad concussion, but the doctors are certain she’ll make a full recovery. Other than a few cuts, bruises and a healthy dose of shock, they are both fine. Thanks to you. They both wanted me to give you their thanks, as well. They’re calling you their hunky guardian angel.” A shaky laugh followed.
“Wish them a speedy recovery for me. Glad I was around to help.”
He looked like a man who was not easily shaken, but this night had, no doubt, left him with a few more gray hairs. That had always been my mom’s favorite comment. ‘Thomas Sawyer, I can blame every gray hair on you’.
“Again, I can’t thank you enough. There just aren’t words.” His voice faltered again.
“No thanks are due. Just glad I was driving on the same road.”
“Me too.” He nodded and walked out.
Andi stayed. She quickly wiped at her eyes before turning back to me. She took a deep, steadying breath and put her hands on her hips with a huff. “I thought they were going to find you a shirt to wear.”
“Sulli, you’re the only girl I know who can make angry look adorable.”
She smiled and her cheeks darkened. “And you’re the only man I know who can make me blush in the midst of trying to look angry. Guess now I know why no one takes me seriously out there. Apparently, my huffiness is comical.”
“Nope. I said adorable. Not comical.” I glanced down at my bare chest. “I can drive home shirtless. My truck has a good heater.”
A smile, the smile I loved, the smile that had cheered me through some dark days tilted her pink lips. “I’m not sure if the female staff members can hold up much longer with you sitting here shirtless. They all seem to be looking for excuses to walk past this particular room. It’s probably the reason none of them have been able to produce that shirt I asked for an hour ago.” She came closer, and my lungs filled with that long, sticky breath of air again. “Let me check those bandages. Nurse Berkin is new, and she’s still a little clumsy. Earlier tonight, she poked the poor woman in the next bed three times before she got the IV into a vein.”
“Nurse Berkin? Is that the blonde with the very nice tits?”
She sighed and raised her brow at me. “I hadn’t really noticed her tits, but since she’s spent the last hour in the nurses’ station waxing poetically about your incredible pecs and biceps, I guess I can’t scold you too much.” Her fingers grazed the skin right next to the bandage. My body reacted with an involuntary shiver. The heat she’d left behind on my skin had nothing to do with the burns.
“I’m sorry. Did I hurt you?”
I shook my head and looked at her. She had no clue. Not a damn clue that my world was different anytime she was near. Most of the time I coasted through life just trying to stay alive, trying to stay out of trouble and trying to avoid feeling too much. I worked hard at not needing anyone, but when Andi was near, with her easy smile and unbreakable spirit, it reminded me that I was human. I did have feelings, and they were all gathered and kept under lock and key for one person. Andi was that person. She was the only one with a key. But she wasn’t for me. I had faced that grim reality long ago. Unfortunately, my heart was still having a tough time accepting it.
My eyes drifted shut as she pressed along the tape holding the sterile bandages in place. Her touch was professional. She was doing her job. But it tied me up inside to have her fingertips grazing my skin.
Her hands fell away. I opened my eyes. She was gazing at me with that same concern I’d seen so often before. Andi had always worried about us, Dawson, Kellan and me. We all had parents who were less than stellar, and having Andi watch out for us was one of the things that’d helped me through all the shit in my life. If nothing else, there had always been Andi.
She reached up, unexpectedly, and pulled a piece of cotton from my beard stubble. “You look sort of punch drunk. You’re definitely not ready to drive. Hey, I just thought of something. If you don’t mind waiting another fifteen minutes for my shift to end, I can drive you home. My car is acting funny again, so I took the bus to work. I don’t relish the idea of riding it home in the middle of the night.”
“Sulli, what the hell are you doing riding around on one of those sketch-ass public buses? Bring your car over. I’ll work on it. It’s not safe on the bus at night.”
She smiled and shook her head.
“What? I can fix cars.”
“No, I know you can. It’s just that I was waiting for exactly that response from someone else earlier this evening.” She reached up and pressed her hand against my face. It was a totally casual gesture on her part, but I tightened my hold on the edge of the table. “Thank you for that, Tommy. What do you say about me driving you home?”
She lowered her hand, but I could still feel it on my face. It took me a second to understand the question.
“Yeah, that works. Definitely don’t want you on that bus.” I heard the deep voice of her doctor friend out in the corridor. “Guess you better get back to work before you get in trouble.”
“Guess so.” She stopped halfway out of the room and looked back at me. “I’m really glad you’re talking to me again, Tommy. I missed you. I mean—I missed talking to you.”
“Yeah, Sulli, me too.”
Chapter 6
Andi
Fifteen more minutes. The gurneys had stopped rolling in, and it seemed, that finally, the rest of the world had gone safely to bed. And I couldn’t wait to get to mine too. I’d rummaged through a bag of clean scrubs and found an extra large for Tommy. I received a few disapproving looks from the other nurses as I carried the shirt toward Tommy’s room. I couldn’t suppress my smile. It had always been that way with Tommy. Women were just naturally attracted to him. Tonight it wasn’t just his amazing physique that had them all in a stir. He’d come into the hospital as the hero who had saved two women from a burning car. I was fairly certain some of the other nurses were imagining a halo floating over the ‘hunky guardian angel’s’ head.
The flurry of patients had kept Gary longer than his expected shift. He looked bone tired as he leaned against the counter at the nurses’ station writing something on a chart. He glanced up at me. We hadn’t talked about anything but the patients since our little spat in the hallway outside the trauma room. I was mostly angry over his underhanded comment about the people I hang out with. Gary tended to be a snob, but it had been a completely creepy and ignorant thing to say. Still, tonight he’d redeemed himself some just by being an amazing physician. He’d handled emergency after emergency perfectly. Creepy, judgmental comment aside, he was truly skilled, and it was hard not to admire him for it. Stunning blue eyes helped too.
“Nurse Sullivan, I’ll walk with you.” He pulled up next to me and lowered his voice. “Since my shift lasted longer, I can drive you to my place. You won’t need to take the bus.”
“Ah yes, the egg invite.” Heroic doctor or not, he’d still been acting like a boob tonight. And I still had another man, just as much a hero tonight, waiting for me to drive him home.
“My friend, the one who risked his life pulling two strangers from a car, needs a ride home. And since we’re practically neighbors in the shady, grimy south side of Bluefield, I volunteered to drive him.” I decided to make sure Gary knew just how insulting he had been.
For the first time that night, his expression softened. “Andi, look it’s been a rough night. If I said something to anger you, I’m sorry.”
“If you said something? See, that’s the problem. You don’t even know for sure or which of yo
ur angry barks of the night might have upset me. Anyhow, I’ll be leaving soon to drive Tommy home, so have fun with those eggs.” I could still feel his gaze on my back as I left him standing slightly stunned in the hallway.
As I entered Tommy’s room, I heard some commotion coming from the reception area. More drama, no doubt. But they were for the next shift. Tommy had laid down on his side to sleep. His long lashes almost gave him a little boy quality. But once my gaze drifted to the massive arms and torso, nearly covered with black ink, the little boy disappeared, and I was reminded that Thomas Sawyer, or Huck as his friends called him, had grown into one helluva man.
I smoothed my palm over his cheek. He squinted one eye open to look at me. “Time to leave? Good, cuz this bed sucks. And having to lay on my side sucks too.”
“Well, that is not a real mattress and lying on your side will beat lying on that mosaic of blisters on your back.” I put the shirt on the bed. “I brought this if you want it. I’ll be off in ten minutes.”
He nodded without lifting his head from the pillow and drifted right back to sleep.
Outside the room, shouting was followed by a strange stretch of silence. It wasn’t unusual at all to receive a belligerent patient in the ER. I stepped out to see what was happening. Gary, two attendants and several of the nurses were standing perfectly still in a semi circle, looking as if someone had frozen them in time.
“What’s happening?” I asked.
Gary’s eyes widened as he looked at something behind me. Before I had a chance to turn around, two hospital security guards stepped off the elevator. A large arm went around my neck, and the sour smell of alcohol coasted over my shoulder. I clutched at the man’s arm but it was like an iron band around me. His other arm stretched out next to me. I was unable to move my head, but from the corner of my eye, I saw the metal barrel of a gun glint under the lights.
“Take me to him, or I take off this pretty nurse’s head.” His words were loose and sloppy, but his grip was tight and concise.
My feet stumbled beneath me as he dragged me along a few feet. “The asshole slept with my woman, and I need to finish what I started tonight.”
The earlier gunshot victim, I briefly concluded in the midst of my terror. The police had mentioned a love triangle. The man holding me hostage was obviously the third side of it.
It was hard to see what was happening as I struggled to stay on my feet and keep air coming into my lungs. My coworkers looked both terrified and helpless. There was little anyone could do when a gun was being swung around by an angry, drunk man.
“Bring me him right now, or I shoot her in the head.” The cold hard edge of the gun was suddenly jammed against my temple. The horror of knowing that in one second I could be dead caused my knees to give out. He wrenched me hard to keep me from falling, his arm tightening more around my neck.
“No, please.” I heard the words come out of my mouth, but I couldn’t remember producing them.
The security guards had split up, but there was little they could do. I hoped, in fact, that they wouldn’t be bold enough to reach for their weapons. I was sure that would be the end. My eyes shot to Gary. He looked sufficiently worried, I thought, wryly, in my seconds of complete terror. This couldn’t be happening. Stuff like this only happened in movies.
Gary’s eyes flicked at something behind us. Something jarred my assailant. The arm around me tightened like a clamp, but the gun fell away from my temple. More stale breath followed as the man groaned in pain. I was being pulled sideways along with him. The gun clanged as it hit the tile floor. A scraping sound followed as the pistol slid several feet away.
My attacker cried out in pain, but his grip hadn’t loosened. “He fucked my girl,” the man groaned. “He fucked her.”
I clutched at the hard forearm as it nearly choked the life from me. Then a voice came drifting through the haze swarming my head. It was as familiar as it was comforting. I was going to be all right, I thought, as tears clouded my vision.
“Yeah, all right, so he fucked her. She’s the one you’ll do anything for even if it means fucking up your whole life with a prison sentence,” Tommy said calmly. “I’d do the same for my one and only. And you’re holding her right now. So, asshole, I will break this fucking arm of yours clean off if you don’t let her go right now.”
The man’s body jerked a little bit. He yelled out in pain.
“Let go now while you still have a chance of parole and the use of this arm,” Tommy said through gritted teeth.
Reluctantly, the man lowered his arm. I stumbled away. The other nurses surrounded me. The security guards moved in to secure the man. A heated few minutes of crying and sighs of relief followed. My coworkers hugged and held me.
I lifted my face from the circle and looked across the room at Tommy. He was standing with his hand pressed against the wall for support. The incident had started the blood flowing on his cut again. His face was pale from pain and worry as his eyes caught mine. Our gazes stayed locked together for a long, intense moment, even while my coworkers were talking to me and hugging me. I couldn’t look away from the man, a lifelong friend and someone who I’d seen go through every bad thing life had to offer.
Gary broke his usual protocol and hugged me. Not just as a frightened coworker but as someone who was more than a friend. His arms went around me, but they did nothing to calm the beating of my heart. Adrenaline still raced through my body making every part of me tremble. I lifted my face to see Tommy turning to go back into his room. I pulled from Gary’s arms.
“Tommy.”
Tommy stopped and turned back around. I raced to him and pressed myself into his embrace. “Thank you,” I said through the tears that had been waiting to fall. I stayed there wrapped in his arms for a few moments, and that’s when it struck me. Gary’s arms had done nothing to ease the stress of the night, but every ounce of fear and adrenaline drained away while Tommy held me. He’d saved my life tonight, and I would never forget it. And somewhere in the middle of the terrible nightmare, I’d heard Tommy say something to my attacker that still struck me as unexpected, something I’d already brushed off as a result of frayed nerves and utter fright in the heat of the moment. In fact, the further from that moment of pandemonium I got, the easier it was for me to dismiss as completely my imagination.
I lifted my face and put on my best nurse’s tone. “We need to get you back to the bed. That arm needs to be looked at.”
He didn’t say another word but followed my directions and climbed back onto the bed.
Chapter 7
Andi
Gary walked out of the locker room wearing a sweater and jeans. I was hoping to avoid him before leaving, but fate had slammed me into him for the umpteenth time on this seemingly endless night. I was as disappointed with him as I was disappointed in myself for always expecting more from him than he was able to give.
“Are you sure you don’t want to come home with me?” He placed a comforting hand on my arm. He was even breaking his own rules with a small show of affection in the hospital. He was obviously trying hard to make up for things that had just not gone right tonight. “I could break open a bottle of wine. Seems like we could both use it. And since we don’t have to be back here until Monday, I thought we could just spend the whole day in bed.”
“Not tonight, Gary. I need to make sure that Tommy gets home safely. He’s had a long night too.”
His jaw tightened at the mention of Tommy. He dropped his hand from my arm. “Drive safely.” There was a slight chill in his tone.
“Thanks. You too.”
Tommy was standing in the doorway of the treatment room. He’d pulled on the blue scrub shirt I found him. It was stretched incredibly tight over his chest and shoulders. It might have been even less ridiculous to let him walk out with a bare chest. His arm had needed a few new stitches, and now he was ready and anxious to go home. I was too.
I held up the plastic baggie with his meager belongings, a wallet, a phone a
nd his keys.
He took hold of them. “Guess that means someone paid my bail. About time. I was looking for a way to break out of this joint.”
“You and me both, Huck. Let’s go.”
We walked along the corridor. Instantly, there was a flurry of batting eyelashes and sweet smiles, even from female staff members who weren’t known for being friendly or sweet, for that matter. And it wasn’t just because the man had had to sit around all night half-dressed in all his tattooed and muscular glory. It was more. After coming in as a hero who’d rescued two women from burning to death in their car, he’d rescued me from being shot in the head. Tommy had only been in the emergency room a few hours, but he’d made quite a name for himself.
We were just halfway to the exit when Nurse Berkin came skittering across the tile floor as if her practical nurse shoes were skates. She stopped our journey short when she came to an abrupt halt directly in front of Tommy. I hadn’t noticed it before, but Tommy had been right. She had ‘nice tits’.
She pushed them just a little higher as she patted Tommy on the chest. “You take care, Mr. Sawyer, and call if you need any help changing those bandages.” She stuck a square of paper into the pocket on his shirt and patted it for safe keeping.
“I will definitely do that,” Tommy said.
My coworker hardly glimpsed my direction before scurrying away.
Tommy copied her by patting the pocket. “Now that’s what I call first class medical care.”
“Yes, isn’t it.” I shook my head. “Why do I get the feeling you’re going to be the topic of discussion in the lunch room for the next week.”
“Only a week?” he asked with a grin. “I must be losing my touch.”
“Oh my gosh, you, Kellan and my over-confident brother should write a cocky bastard handbook. Really. You’d make a fortune. I have a title. ‘Ten Easy Steps to Being Perpetually Arrogant’.”
“Perpetually? Shit, Sulli, it’s too damn early for long words.”