It’s been a weird shift. Everyone’s lost their mind over Ash being here. All night I’ve fielded questions about him. What’s he like? Is he nice? Is he just as hot as he looks on TV? And on and on. The guy is obscenely good-looking from every angle, and it just gets worse the closer you get to him. It’s like a contact high. But there’s no way I’m admitting that to anyone.
He’s signing scrubs and scraps of paper for all my coworkers while I try to drown it out and study. School is kicking my butt this semester and I need every minute of study time I can get. But Ash’s presence has thrown me off completely. Before he walked up, I’d reread the same section of my homework notes five times and I still don’t remember a word of it.
I’m not usually so easily shook, but today has been one too many things piling up on my plate. First, I found out my landlord isn’t extending my lease. I live in this cute one-bedroom guesthouse. It’s tiny, barely more than a bed, bathroom, and a counter with a hot plate and sink, but it’s within walking distance to the Whittaker campus and the rent is cheap.
Crisis number two: I went to get my morning coffee and saw my ex-boyfriend. Gabe didn’t see me (thank goodness), but just seeing him added to the already crappy start of the day. A sighting of my dick ex would be enough to put me in a bad mood, but at my coffee spot? Surely I should get custody of the Starbucks near my house and school? He doesn’t live or work nearby, so I’m pretty sure he was there just hoping to run into me. We broke up a month ago and he still thinks there’s a chance we’ll get back together (never going to happen).
And finally, after a day of stewing over points one and two, I forgot to put my favorite scrubs in the dryer and had to wear my backup pair that are too tight on my butt.
I thought coming to work tonight I could unwind, forget about everything and just get lost in work and studying.
Then Ash Kelly happened.
I’ve spent all night ignoring the butterflies in my stomach when I’m near him while trying to remain an objective and considerate caretaker.
I adjust my glasses and then turn the page of my book at the same time the group of nurses surrounding Ash break out in boisterous laughter. Instead of the words on the page, all I can concentrate on is the hot patient charming my coworkers. I look up and inadvertently meet Ash’s gaze. He’s smiling, but it looks strained. I wonder if his shoulder is hurting him. He put on a shirt before he left his room earlier—small mercies, but he looks too good to be true in a basic gray T-shirt and his athletic pants.
I’m not too proud to admit that I looked him up after he tried to get my number at the game. I knew, or I sort of assumed, that Ash was as big a player as he seemed. I was one hundred percent correct. His hockey stats are impressive, but so are the girls he’s dated.
All the women he’s been pictured with are stunning. His last girlfriend was an actual model. He doesn’t post on his social media accounts that often, but there were still several images of the two of them on beautiful vacations and attending fun, local parties.
The phone on the desk in front of me rings and I jump like a girl in a horror film.
While I answer, Ash and Hannah slowly make their way to me. Hannah takes the seat next to me again. Ash stands in front of me on the other side of the nurses’ station.
He watches me as I chat back and forth with the guy in the emergency room department downstairs. My face warms under his gaze. He has this way of watching me that’s unnerving. Like he’s checking me out but noticing more than my physical appearance.
Ignoring him the best I can, I hang up the phone and direct my attention to Hannah. “That was the ER. They’re sending up a broken pelvis.”
She nods and glances back at the board with our room assignments.
“Do you want me to take them?” I ask. Since I have a VIP patient, Sandy gave me fewer rooms than everyone else.
“No. I’ve got it. Why don’t you go ahead and go to lunch?”
“Sure. I’m just going to check on my patients first.” I glance at Ash. “You should try to get some sleep. Lying down will help your shoulder.”
“I can’t sleep in this place.” The flash of vulnerability in his eyes is there one second and gone in the next. A flirty smile kicks up one side of his mouth. “Maybe you want to come keep me company while you’re on your lunch? I have lots of food.”
“What you’re proposing sounds like the opposite of rest.”
“Did you think keeping me company was code for getting naked or something? I’m shocked, Bridget.” The way he says my name sends goosebumps racing up my arms. “I was only suggesting we sit and hang out. I want to hear what you’ve been up to since the last time I saw you.” His smile couldn’t be any smugger if he tried.
“I’m not allowed to hang out while I’m on the clock. I have other patients.”
“Professionalism, I dig it. So, check on them first, then come hang out.” He glances around the empty halls. “Looks like everyone is sleeping, anyway.”
“Everyone but you,” I correct him. “I’m sorry. I can’t hang out with you.”
“Unless I need something…” He shifts his attention. “Tell me, Hannah, if I were to go to my room right now and buzz my nurse, would Bridget be the one to come check on me?”
“Yes, she would.” She stands and stretches.
The traitor.
He’s charmed all my coworkers to taking his side.
“And she’d tell you—” I start, but he cuts in.
“That I need rest. I know, I know. I got it.” He blows out a breath and runs a hand through his messy light-brown hair as he moves away from the desk.
“I’ll be by in a few hours, but if you need anything—really need anything—just buzz.”
“All right. Three hours. I’m gonna hold you to that. Later, Nurse Bridget.”
The man is infuriating, but somehow so likeable that it’s hard to be annoyed with him. As he strolls away, I stand to work off some of the anxiousness in my body.
“That is one good-looking guy.” Hannah moves a step closer to me when he’s gone.
“And he knows it,” I mumble.
She turns and leans against the desk. “I don’t know. A flirt? Yes, but he seems to have a good head on his shoulders. I know for a fact he does a lot of charity work for the Wildcat Foundation and he just spent the past thirty minutes signing everything we pushed at him.”
“Fine. He’s a decent human, but he’s still arrogant.”
“Sweet, good-looking, and a world-class athlete. I think he’s allowed to be a little cocky. He’s quite the triple threat in my book,” she says. “Single too, but not for long if I have anything to say about it.”
“What is John going to say about that?” I quirk a brow. Her husband is fiercely protective and adoring. He picks her up every morning after her shift. Gets out, kisses her, and opens the door. It’s heartwarming. And I can’t imagine him sharing, even if they’re both Wildcat fans.
She throws her head back and laughs loudly. “Not me. I am very happily taken. My cousin just graduated college and moved back home.”
“Oh.” A pang of jealousy hits me unexpectedly.
“Unless you’re going to cut the guy a break and stop ignoring his blatant attempt to get your attention.”
Heat climbs up my neck. “I’m not interested in dating right now.”
She’s quiet for a moment, considering me with a pensive gaze. “I didn’t meet Gabe, so I know I don’t know the situation, but I know what it’s like to be fresh off a breakup and feel like you’ll never find a decent guy. You will. I promise. I felt the same way so many times. I would swear off dating because of shitty dates or asshole boyfriends. It was exhausting. I couldn’t fathom going through it all over again. But you know what?”
“What?” My lips quirk up at the corners just listening to Hannah talk. She never ceases to put me in a good mood. If we weren’t at such different stages of our lives, I think we could be good friends.
“All I really wanted was someone who would work harder to tear down the walls I built. I wanted to feel like I was worth the trouble.” She pushes off the desk when the elevator dings and a nurse from the ER pushes our new patient out onto the floor. “Then again, that was just me. I was hard to love when I was your age.”
“I find that very hard to believe.”
“It’s true. I wouldn’t let anyone close enough to get to know me, so the only men that bothered asking me out were the ones that didn’t care about knowing me more than one night. Until John.”
“What made him different?”
“Everything.”
My chest tightens. My situation is different, but there’s probably more to her words than I want to analyze right now.
Room 612’s call button flashes on the desk. I’m happy for the distraction.
“I got it,” Hannah says. “Go take your lunch.”
“It’s fine. I should probably go check on Ash anyway and make sure he went back to his room. If Sandy hears that he was walking the halls and flirting with nurses, she’ll lose her shit.” I chew on the inside of my cheek. A terrible habit I’ve had since I was a kid whenever I’m nervous or agitated, or sometimes just bored.
“Okay, fine. You handle Ash, but then go eat. You look tired. You need food and caffeine. Are you going to see Liza?”
“Oh, shoot.” I check the time. “I forgot.”
“Go now. I’ve got you covered.” She shoos me with a wave of her hand as she heads down the hall toward Room 612.
I give myself a pep talk on the way to check on Ash before I leave the floor. I can do this. I love my job. I’ve wanted to be a nurse for as long as I can remember. How I make people feel while they’re here matters. Even when I leave here exhausted, there’s a sense of accomplishment that no other job has given me.
Ash is charming and he’s a flirt, but he isn’t the first patient to hit on me. I can handle him for a few more hours.
When I walk into his room, Ash is in bed. Leaning back, one ankle crossed over the other, he stares up at the ceiling.
“I thought for sure I was going to find you in here bouncing off the walls.”
He lets his head fall to the side. “That was either the fastest three hours ever or I blacked out.”
“It hasn’t been that long.”
“That must mean you missed me then.” One side of his mouth quirks up.
“You’re incorrigible.”
“Been called worse.” He sits up. “Been called better too.”
I stop by the side of his bed, hands in my pockets. “Are you going to be able to sleep at all?”
“Doubtful.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Eh, it’s fine. It seems like I’m gonna have plenty of time to rest over the next few weeks.” His lips pull into a straight line and a muscle in his cheek flexes.
“I meant I’m sorry about the injury.”
He nods slowly. “Thanks.”
I walk around the bed and pull the curtains.
“It’s such a trip that I’m here and you’re here. Fate.”
“Getting a concussion is fate, huh?”
He chuckles softly. “It brought us together and now I can ask you out, so yeah.”
I’m almost relieved he finally put it out there because I can tell him no and we can move on.
“I’m not dating right now.”
“Because of the jerk ex-boyfriend? I’ve never wanted to hit someone so much in my entire life. I was worried about letting you leave with him, but I didn’t know what else to do.”
I break his stare and swallow down the emotions rising to the surface when I think about that night. He couldn’t have done anything. I know that, but the what-if scenarios still taunt me. “No, not because of him. I can take care of myself.”
“I have no doubt,” he says in a playful voice that causes me to look back at him. He really is too handsome for his own good. Some of that playfulness takes on a serious edge when he adds, “I really did look for you. Every game I kept hoping you’d show up again.”
I have no idea how to respond to that. Do I even believe him? I finally settle on, “I don’t really like hockey.”
“How come?”
“I don’t understand it, and everything moves so fast.”
“No, not that. How come you aren’t dating right now?”
“Oh. I’m too busy.”
“With?”
“School and work.” I wave a hand around the room. “The stress of dealing with patients who won’t sleep at night.”
That pulls a smile out of him. “That’s it? I’ll be on my best behavior. Promise.”
“You? Doubtful.”
“I’ll have you know I’m a gentleman.”
“Sorry.”
“Too busy,” he says quietly. “That’s an excuse I haven’t heard in a while.”
We both know I could make time for dating if that was the real issue. He manages, and I know his schedule must be insane. Then again, everyone Ash dates probably lets him dictate everything from when and where they go out to how often they have sex. Which I bet is a lot, as cocky as this man is. And now I’m thinking about having sex with him. Dammit. Why can’t I keep my thoughts out of the gutter?
Frustrated, I shake my head. “I’m going to lunch. I’ll check in again when I get back.”
“Okay,” he says, voice despondent.
I get all the way to the door before I pause and reconsider, but I force myself to go. He needs rest and I need to catch my breath. This day, this month, has been a lot.
On my way downstairs, I eat a protein bar. The elevator doors open on the pediatric unit. Mindy, the charge nurse on the floor, looks up and smiles when she sees me.
“Is she up?” I ask her, tipping my head toward the direction of the patient rooms.
Mindy nods. “Yeah. I think she was hoping you’d stop by.”
“Thanks.” I smile and head down the hall. Everything on the pediatric floor feels warmer, happier. It’s decorated basically identical to every other unit, but the air is different I swear.
Kids have this amazing ability to find joy in every situation. It’s one of the big reasons I want to work here eventually. I don’t ever want to stop finding the joy. No matter how bad things seem.
At Liza’s room, I knock quietly and peek in.
“Come in,” she calls over the TV. She sits at the end of her bed watching the screen on the wall in front of her. She turns quickly to see who it is, then does a double take and a big smile spreads across her face. She tries to hide it quickly, but her smile won’t cooperate. “Hey.”
“Hi.” I walk all the way into the room and toss a new book of Sudoku puzzles on the bed next to her. “Can’t sleep?”
“It’s barely midnight.” She snorts and tosses her red hair over one shoulder. “Besides, I have three episodes left in this series.”
I glance at the screen. “What is it about?”
“It’s too hard to explain, but that girl in the hospital bed fell off a cliff as she was about to get with the guy she likes. He confessed that he’d been in love with her for years, but now she has amnesia and doesn’t remember any of it.”
“She was going to get with that guy?” I ask as on the TV a dark-headed, broody-looking guy appears next to the hospital bed with tears in his eyes.
“No. That’s a different guy. She was dating him, but secretly had feelings for the other guy. This dude is all wrong for her.”
I laugh and take a seat on the bed next to her. “Sounds complicated.”
She shrugs one shoulder and takes a drink of juice.
“How’s your blood sugar?”
“Shit, obviously. I’m here.”
I laugh softly and she gives me a rueful smile. “I’m dehydrated and my sugars are a mess.”
I check her chart while she keeps watching the TV. She’s improved since they admitted her this morning, so that’s good.
Liza was my very first patient. I was doing clinicals when she was admitted to the hospital and diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. For the past nine months, she’s been in and out as they struggle to get her levels steady. Her parents both have big corporate jobs and most of the time she’s here by herself. They visit, but it’s not like the other kids who have parents hovering over them for their entire visit. Even when she was here the first time, her mom only stayed the first night and the rest of the time she visited for an hour or two once a day.
Liza’s sixteen, plenty old enough to be left alone, I guess, but it frustrates me that they leave her alone so much while she’s sick. That’s probably why I bonded with her so deeply. I felt this huge responsibility to make sure she had someone looking out for her.
Mindy lets me know any time Liza is admitted and I try to come down during my lunch break. The sassy teenager is a total night owl, which works out nice for me since I don’t take my long break until around midnight.
“I heard you had some famous hockey player on your floor. Is it true?” She takes her attention off the screen long enough to look at me as she asks the question.
“How’d you hear that?”
“Please. That’s all anyone has been talking about. Have you met him?”
“Yep. I sure did.”
“Really?” Liza pauses the TV and turns on the bed to face me. Her eyes light up. “You met Ash Kelly?!”
“A second ago he was ‘some famous hockey player.’”
She rolls her eyes dramatically. “My dad watches hockey and sometimes I sit with him so we can spend time together.”
My chest squeezes at her admission and I like her dad even less than before. I wonder if he has any idea his daughter is trying so hard to get his attention.
“So, tell me, what’s he like?”
“He’s…fine.”
“Fine?” She studies me closely, then stiffens. “Is he an asshole? Was he mean to you?”
The fire in her eyes at the thought of someone treating me badly is heartwarming.
“No,” I say quickly. I don’t want her to get the wrong idea. Ash might be frustrating, but I’m pretty certain that he’s not a jerk. “He’s fine. Normal.”
“I’m not buying it. You’re not telling me something.”
Now I’m rolling my eyes. “There’s nothing to tell. He just won’t sleep.”
“O-kay,” she says the word slowly like she’s trying to decide why that’s a problem.
“He needs rest to heal and instead of doing that like I keep suggesting, he’s wandering the halls and signing autographs for every person on the floor.”
Liza nods slowly. “He’s probably just bored or lonely.”
“It’s only been a few hours.”
“Yeah, but hospital time isn’t like normal time. I swear the minutes go by twice as slow here. There’s nothing to do and nowhere to go. Everyone inside either feels crummy or is preoccupied taking care of the people that feel crummy and at this time of night everyone outside of here is sleeping or busy.”
I try to hide the pity in my expression at her admission, but she must see it because she’s quick to smile and add, “I’m used to it by now. That’s why I always make sure to bring my own entertainment.”
Liza presses play on her show and turns back to watch it. Guilt settles in as I think over everything she said. Maybe I was too quick to dismiss Ash’s need for socializing. He’s a professional athlete who is going to be sidelined for weeks. Who wouldn’t want to take their mind off that?
Dammit. I think I screwed up. Standing, I head for the door.
“Are you leaving?” she asks, a hint of disappointment in her voice.
“I am, but I’ll be back. I forgot something.”
