After getting the okay from Mindy, I call up and ask Hannah to bring Ash down to the pediatric floor. I’m standing in front of the elevators waiting for him when it dings and the doors slowly open.
He wears a skeptical but humored expression as he steps out. “Are you exiling me?”
“Where’s Hannah?”
“She got a call as we were about to leave. I told her I could find it on my own.” He looks up and around. “Where am I?”
“Welcome to the pediatric floor.”
I’m not sure what I expected his reaction to be, but when he smiles, my stomach does a flip. “We’re going to hang with kids?”
“Just one. The others are sleeping.”
“Right.” He nods and falls into step beside me as I lead him back down the hall toward Liza’s room. “I don’t have any merch or anything with me, but if I make a couple calls—”
I stop abruptly in the middle of the hall and look him square in the face. “This isn’t about what you can do for her, it’s about what she can do for you.”
“I’m intrigued,” he says, aiming that arrogant and flirty grin at me as I walk backward a few steps. I can feel my smile widen in response to his. I’m glad he’s on board. I think this will be good for Ash and Liza.
As I always do, I knock on Liza’s door as I enter.
“What’d you forget?” she asks, staring ahead at her TV show. She’s still sitting on the bed, legs crossed. The book of Sudoku rests in her lap.
When I don’t immediately answer, she glances over and goes very still.
I take another step and look back at Ash hovering in the doorway. “Liza, this is Ash. Is it okay if he hangs out in here with me for a few minutes?”
She still doesn’t speak. I’m worried I might have broken her brain.
Ash walks farther into the room. His good looks mixed with his friendly and flirty demeanor make my good sense want to take a permanent vacation. At the game last month, I thought it was all for show, but now I’m starting to think it’s just him.
“Hey,” he says. “What are you watching?”
Snapping out of it, Liza rushes to pause the show. “It’s this anime series a friend recommended. Wow. It’s really you.”
The way she looks at him, equal parts awe and shock, has me covering my mouth to hide a smile.
“Nice to meet you, Liza.” He nods toward her Sudoku. “I love those. I play a lot on road trips. That and Royal Match.”
“Bridget brought it for me because she knows how bored I get in this place.”
He looks over his shoulder at me with an expression I can’t quite decipher.
Bringing him here was my idea, but now that we’re all crammed into this room together, I feel even more aware of him. His VIP room is twice as big, and at least upstairs, I had a getaway.
“That’s cool. How do you two know each other?” he asks her.
“She was my nurse the first time I was here. Diabetic,” Liza says. “Bridget’s the best. Bummer that she’s on another floor now. But good for you, I guess.”
I was anything but the best on my first day. I was scared and unsure, but I tried not to let Liza see any of that.
“Yes, great news for me.” Ash smirks at me and I’m certain my face is turning red.
I clear my throat. “Ash was bored with us upstairs, and you’re the most entertaining patient in the hospital so I thought you should meet.”
“What she means is I’m a giant pain in the ass and making her life difficult. She’s pawning me off on you,” Ash says.
“Do you want to do one?” Liza offers him her book.
He takes it with a grateful smile.
“Sit,” I command, pointing toward the chair in the room.
He does and I grab an extra pillow to put behind his shoulder. Liza has fully come out of her earlier shock. For the next five minutes, we all watch the end of the current episode and Ash works on a Sudoku puzzle. I have no idea what is happening, partly because I find myself continually watching Ash instead of the screen. Best-case scenario I thought Liza would chat his ear off long enough for him to get his mind off everything, but he looks like he’s enjoying being here.
When it’s over, Liza fills him in on the earlier plot points of the show and then starts peppering him with questions about his injury.
“That sucks,” she says when he’s told her about the hit during the game and that he’ll likely be out for a few weeks. “I broke my arm in seventh grade and missed twelve weeks of tennis.”
“Tennis, huh?”
“Yep, just like Bridget.”
Ash’s gaze lifts. “You play tennis?”
“I did. Not anymore.”
“She was, like, really, really good,” Liza says.
“How would you know?” I ask her. We talked about it a couple of times, but I know I never claimed to be good. I was decent as a kid, but I didn’t put as much effort into it as I got older and hit a plateau.
“I saw some old videos on YouTube. She won a couple of local tournaments.”
“Is that right?” Ash asks her, but his eyes are locked on me. “How did I not know this?”
“Maybe because we met four hours ago.”
“That’s not entirely accurate.”
I glare at him. If he tells Liza the whole story like he did the nurses upstairs, I’ll duct tape his mouth closed. As if he can see my thoughts, Ash’s upper body shakes with quiet laughter. He turns his attention back to Liza. “I might need to see some of these videos.”
“I’m out of screen time until tomorrow,” she says with a frown.
Thank goodness.
“Good thing I have mine.” Ash’s voice is saccharin sweet as he reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone.
“Knock, knock,” Mindy says as she stands in the doorway of Liza’s room. “Sorry to interrupt, but I need to check your blood sugar.”
“Now?” Liza asks with a whine.
“We should get back anyway,” I tell her. “Ash needs to sleep, and my lunch break is almost over.”
“All right.” The disappointment in her voice always tugs at my heart.
“I’ll stop by tomorrow,” I promise.
“Nice to meet you,” Ash says to her. “Thanks for keeping me company.”
When he tries to hand her back the book of Sudoku puzzles, she shakes her head. “Keep it. I have a stack of them.”
We say our goodbyes and Ash and I head out.
He doesn’t say anything until we get on the elevator.
“Is she going to be okay?” he asks.
“Yeah.” I nod. “She’s a brittle diabetic, which means her blood glucose is harder to control. She’s had to stay in the hospital quite a bit since her diagnosis.”
He nods thoughtfully as he leans back against the elevator wall.
“How are you feeling?”
“I’m all right.”
“Liar. Your head hurts, doesn’t it? You keep clenching your jaw.”
A small smile tugs up one side of his mouth. “It kills.”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have dragged you down here.”
“No,” he says quickly. “I’m glad you did. Liza was cool and I got to learn more about you. A tennis player, huh?”
“I was, yeah. I quit the team last year.”
“I’d love to watch you play sometime.”
“You want to watch a college tennis match?”
“I want to watch you play.”
I don’t even try to resist rolling my eyes at him.
“I play a little. My uncle owns a country club. I spent every summer working there until I graduated college. I could take you to dinner and then we could hit the ball back and forth a bit.”
The doors open on the orthopedic floor and we step out and slowly walk back toward his room.
“With one arm?” I ask.
He flashes a cocky smile. “I’m wildly talented with the right incentive.”
Yeah, I’ll bet he is.
“And my nurse will be there in case I need anything.”
I can’t help but laugh. “I’m not dating right now.”
“Right. Because you’re busy.”
“I am,” I insist, voice on the verge of a screech. “I have a lot going on.”
When we get to his room, he walks right in and climbs into bed. He rests his head back on the pillow and waits for me to continue.
“I work all night, go to school all day. Any spare minutes I find, I’m usually studying or figuring out what I’m going to feed myself. Seriously, who knew the worst part of being an adult would be deciding on and cooking dinner? I haven’t read a book for fun or watched TV or gone to the tennis court in so long, I basically have no hobbies.”
Something in the way he looks at me, half-amused and wholly focused, pushes me to keep going. “And today I found out that I’m going to have to move from my rental, so that’ll take days or weeks of searching for something close to campus that I can afford. See? I definitely don’t have time to date.”
“I happen to be great at deciding what to eat for dinner. I’d be happy to help. Two birds, one stone.” He looks so proud of himself. “How’s tomorrow?”
I imagine that for a moment, what it would be like to go to dinner with Ash. He’d be charming and attentive, and I’d have fun for a few hours. But I’m not ready to get involved with anyone right now. Definitely not a hot hockey player who is a notorious serial dater. “I don’t think so.”
“Why not?” His voice climbs with lighthearted outrage and his eyes twinkle. “You can’t be too busy to eat.”
“Maybe I just don’t want to go out with you.”
“I did consider that, but then I remembered you checking me out earlier when I had my shirt off.”
“I was doing my job.”
“Ogling my body is the job, huh?”
My face heats with the accusation. He isn’t wrong, I was checking him out, but some of it was for professional reasons.
“I’m not going out with you.”
“Is it because of the jerk ex-boyfriend? Are you still in love with him?”
“No,” I say too quickly. The only emotions I feel when I think of Gabe are anger and shame. Anger that he turned out to be such an asshole and shame for not realizing it sooner.
“Good. He didn’t deserve you. I’m glad you broke up with him. You should date someone that treats you a hell of a lot better than he did that night. Even if it’s not me, though I think it should be me.”
I wish he’d forgotten about that night outside of the bar. “How do you know he didn’t break up with me?”
He scoffs. “Nobody is that stupid.”
I’m at a loss for words again and distract myself by checking the time. I need to get back to the desk and relieve Hannah.
“I should go check on my other patients, and you need sleep.”
He nods. “I am starting to get a little tired. Don’t know how much sleep my shoulder is going to let me get though.”
“Is the pain okay?”
“It’s better now that I’m lying down. What time do you get off?” he asks.
“Seven.”
“Will you come see me again before you leave?”
“Only if you promise to stay in bed and rest until then.”
He laughs. “If I do, will you have breakfast with me?”
“You just don’t give up.”
“Never.”
Against my better judgment, I find myself nodding. “Fine, but just coffee.”
“Really?” His obvious glee makes my stomach flip.
“I’ll stop by once I clock out, but I only have thirty minutes before I have to leave for classes.”
“I’ll be ready. Not how I pictured our first date, but I can work with cafeteria food.”
Even with excitement bubbling under my skin, I feel an instant twinge of regret. What the hell am I doing?
“It’s not a date. I’m just letting you buy me coffee to make up for being the worst patient ever.”
He laughs that deep, throaty chuckle again. “Fair enough.”
“Get some sleep.”
“Goodnight, Nurse Bridget.”
