22. Dakota
The hum of the fluorescent lights above was the only sound in the break room as I sat in the corner, my phone resting on my lap, staring at the screen. It had been a long shift, and my feet were aching, but that wasn’t what had me feeling restless. No, that honor belonged to the search results on my phone: Travel Nursing Opportunities – Colorado.
I scrolled through the list, each posting offering a short-term contract at a hospital in Denver, Boulder, or Fort Collins. I tapped into one, reading over the details. The pay was good—really good—and it would only be for a few weeks at a time. It would let me see the country, experience new places, and, most importantly… meet up with Tucker wherever he landed for a case.
The thought made my heart skip a beat. I could practically see it now—working a shift at some hospital in Colorado, grabbing dinner with Tucker afterward, maybe even joining him and Colton on a case if I was lucky enough to be in the same city.
But then reality crept in. The logistics, the constant moving around, and how it all felt a little bit like chasing something that might never settle, like the wind… or a storm cloud. My hands stilled over the screen, the weight of the decision pressing down on me.
All you have to do is ask.
But… I hadn’t.
I stared at the job posting a second longer, biting my lip. He didn’t want to stay here. He was a self-proclaimed nomad. His home was in Colorado, and yet, his outlook on the very word was so different than mine that he didn’t even consider it to be his home. He’d called it where they were “based.”
That wasn’t the same thing.
I didn’t want to ask him to stay only for him to have the same one foot in and one foot out view of this place. Of me.
Thus, travel nursing. That way, neither of us would be compromising about our ideas of what settling down meant… and we could still have the fun that we’d been having for the last few weeks without the ticking time bomb hanging over our heads.
It wasn’t like I’d made any decisions yet, but the mere fact that I was looking felt like something had shifted inside me. I was trying to figure out a way to make something work that I knew, deep down, was going to be complicated no matter how I sliced it.
“Funny running into you here.”
I nearly jumped out of my skin, and my phone slipped from my hands. I barely managed to catch it before it hit the floor. Dr. Dummy—Dr. Clay, if I were being less petty—stood in the doorway of the break room, his arms crossed, a smug smile plastered across his face.
“Geez, do you have to sneak up on people like that?” I asked, tucking my phone away as quickly as possible, as if that would stop him from prying. “And it’s not that funny. We both work here.”
His eyes flicked to the screen before I hid it, but he didn’t comment on it. Instead, he leaned against the doorframe, the picture of casual arrogance, and raised an eyebrow. “Heard you’ve been keeping some interesting company lately. You and the private investigator, huh?”
I rolled my eyes. “What’s the matter, Clay? You keepin’ tabs on me now? Should I be worried about what your girlfriend thinks of that?”
He smirked, looking like he was enjoying himself far too much. “I don’t care what my girlfriend thinks.”
I feigned a shocked face. “Oh? Well, you never were very good at that, were you?”
His dumb smirk faltered ever-so-slightly, and I felt a little surge of satisfaction. Dr. Dummy had always been good at playing the part of the charming doctor, but I knew better. And I’d been on the receiving end of his charm long enough to know it wasn’t anything special.
“Be careful with that guy,” he said, totally unaware that he had no right to say such a thing. “He seems a little… rough around the edges. You should be with someone with a little more going for them, don’t you think?”
“Meh, I dated a doctor once. He was nothin’ to call home about. Anywho,” I said, standing up and grabbing my bag. “I’d love to stay and chat, but I’ve got actual work to do.”
I brushed past him without another word, leaving the break room behind and trying to shake off the strange interaction. What was it about men like that? He hadn’t said two words to me since we ended things that weren’t directly related to work—and he was as snarky as all get out. But then, as soon as there’s another man in the picture? Boom . Here he was, thinking I wanted him to give me the time of day. I had my own watch, thank you very much.
But before I could take more than a few steps into the ER, I stopped dead in my tracks.
There, standing in the middle of the pit, looking simultaneously like he didn’t quite belong but also like he owned the place, was Tucker.
My heart did a flip, my pulse racing as I took him in. He wasn’t dressed like a patient—he was in his usual jeans and that worn leather jacket I liked to sniff so much—but the fact that he was here, in the middle of my emergency room, instantly made me worry.
I quickened my pace, weaving through the controlled chaos of the ER until I was standing right in front of him. “Tucker?” I asked, my voice a little too loud, a little too anxious. “What are you doin’ here? Is everythin’ okay?”
Tucker’s eyes locked onto mine the second I got close, and the tension that had been humming through my body suddenly snapped. Relief flooded his face, but before I could even open my mouth to ask again what he was doing here, he closed the distance between us in one swift, smooth motion.
And then, without a word, he kissed me.
It wasn’t just any kiss, though. It was the kind of kiss that knocked the breath clean out of my lungs. His hands found my waist, pulling me to him with a sort of urgency that left no room for questions, no space for hesitation. My heart pounded in my chest, and before I even knew what was happening, Tucker’s arms hoisted me up off the floor, and I instinctively wrapped my legs around his waist.
I was vaguely aware of the sounds of the ER—monitors beeping, the distant murmur of nurses at the nurse’s station—but all of it faded into the background. All I could focus on was the warmth of his lips on mine, the feel of his strong hands holding me securely in place, the sheer intensity of the moment.
This wasn’t some fleeting, casual kiss. This was Tucker—gruff, guarded Tucker—kissing me in public like he’d been waiting all day to do it. And I was kissing him back with just as much fire.
When he finally pulled back, his forehead rested against mine, and I was breathless, my chest rising and falling with quick, shallow breaths. He grinned that crooked grin of his, the one that made my insides melt, and his eyes sparkled with a mischievous glint.
“There,” he said, his voice low and full of that rough-edged charm that made my stomach flip. “Now I can work. You distract me even when you’re not around, Wildcard.”
He winked at me, casually lowering me back to the ground as if this was the most normal thing in the world. Like we hadn’t just kissed in the middle of the ER with patients, doctors, and nurses milling around us. My feet touched the floor, but I still felt like I was floating as Tucker flashed me one more grin, turned on his heel, and strode out of the ER without a backward glance.
I stood there, rooted to the spot, my heart still racing, my lips tingling from the force of that kiss. For a moment, I didn’t know what to do with myself. Should I follow him? Run after him? Or just stand here in a stupor and?—
My thoughts came to a screeching halt as I turned around. Dr. Dummy and Nurse Ratchett stood at the edge of the pit with their mouths hanging open in shock.
For a split second, I considered waltzing over there and saying something sassy, but then the realization of what had just happened hit me, and a wave of giddy excitement surged through me. My heart felt like it was doing somersaults, and it took every ounce of self-control not to squeal like a teenager who’d just been kissed for the first time.
So, I simply stood there, smiling to myself, because right here, in the middle of my workplace, in front of all these people, Tucker had kissed me like he couldn’t bear to be without me for another second. And I knew, right then and there, that he meant it when he’d told me I only had to ask.
A few hours later, I was back at the nurse’s desk, typing up patient notes and trying to keep my mind on work and not the spectacle from before. My fingers hovered over the keyboard, but my thoughts kept drifting. The goofy grin that kept tugging at my mouth probably wasn’t the most professional look, but I couldn’t help it.
Just as I finally slipped into honest-to-goodness focus mode, the glass doors of the ER slid open, and my heart skipped a beat as I glanced up. But instead of Tucker walking back in—though once was probably enough, a group of tall, broad-shouldered men storm through the entrance.
My stomach immediately dropped.
Unlike the once-in-a-lifetime moment with Tucker before, people I cared about didn’t just pop in for a visit at the ER. They didn’t show up unless something was wrong, and seeing the Wilson brothers and Riley Conrad striding into the pit had panic bubbling up in my chest.
But then I caught sight of the familiar smirk on Travis’s face as he trailed behind the others.
Oh no.
Travis’s smirk might’ve told me this wasn’t an emergency, but everyone around here knew these men were a little overprotective and a lot stubborn when it came to me and the other women in their lives, and because of that, their presence made quite an entrance.
The entire ER seemed to pause for a moment. One of the nurses at the desk next to me, Maria, actually dropped her pen, her eyes widening as she sized up the group of men. “Goodness gracious, it’s like someone just paraded a lineup of action heroes in here,” she muttered under her breath.
I hid my smile, bemused by the way all the women in the ER suddenly seemed to take a keen interest in the path they traveled. Travis’s swagger, Jackson’s quiet strength, and Everett’s serious face were met with lingering glances, and Adam—who was usually the most intimidating of the bunch considering the uniform—earned many appreciative looks. But Riley, always the charmer, probably got the most attention since he had a thing for well-aimed winks at the ladies and was grinning like he owned the place.
Meanwhile, the only thing I felt as the horde approached the nurse’s station was mild exasperation. These guys might’ve been heartthrobs to the women of Charlotte Oaks, but to me? They were basically my brothers. And with that… came a long history of me being annoyed by them and them being annoyed by me.
Whoopee.
“Kota.” Adam’s voice was the first to break through the staring contest happening around us. He stepped forward, his brow furrowed in that no-nonsense way of his. “Can we talk somewhere private?”
The question immediately made me suspicious. There was no way they’d shown up here for a casual chat, and considering the timing of this little visit and their habit of sticking their noses where they didn’t belong, I had a good guess what they wanted to discuss.
I sighed, knowing exactly where this was going but not willing to deal with it just yet. “No can do. We’re busy today. Short-staffed, too.”
As soon as the words left my mouth, a middle-aged nurse from across the desk, Julie, leaned over. “It’s actually a slow day,” she called out loud enough for everyone to hear. “Plenty of places you can take ’em to talk, and we won’t miss ya up here. But, honey, if you don’t want to, I’d be happy to step in and take your place.”
I shot her a glare. Of course, she’d be happy to step in. She—and probably half the women in this hospital—would love the chance to have a “private chat” with any of the Wilson brothers—especially with Riley in tow. Not to mention with all of them.
Before I could come up with a retort about the universal party foul that was calling anything a “slow day” in an emergency room, a familiar voice rang out from the waiting room.
“I call dibs on the boxer!”
I groaned inwardly as Travis visibly flinched.
Mrs. McClusky—here waiting to visit a friend—sat in the waiting room, waving enthusiastically at Travis. Her voice had boomed across the ER, causing several chuckles aimed in her direction.
Travis turned a bright shade of red, clearly horrified, while Riley’s grin only widened.
“Fine. Follow me,” I muttered under my breath.
I didn’t have the energy to argue, especially not with Mrs. M openly ogling Travis and the rest of the room paying too much attention. One public spectacle was all I needed today.
Exasperated, I stood up from the desk and led the group down the hallway toward one of the conference rooms that was thankfully empty.
The Wilson brothers and Riley followed in a tight formation, their footsteps echoing off the sterile floors as we made our way down the corridor. I could feel their eyes on me, and I could practically hear the lecture that was coming.
When we reached the room, I pushed open the door and gestured for them to go inside. “Have a seat.”
Of course, none of them did. Well, except for Riley, who, with his usual easygoing charm, slipped into a chair at the conference table with a smile like he had all the time in the world. The Wilsons, on the other hand, remained standing, arms crossed, their eyes locked on me.
I walked over and plopped into the chair across from Riley. “What is this, an intervention?”
Travis shot me a look that told me I wasn’t far off. And judging by the way Adam’s arms were crossed tighter than usual, this wasn’t going to be a quick conversation.
Fantastic.
I leaned back in the chair, folding my arms as I stared at the lineup. They looked like they’d just been called in to deal with a family crisis, and judging by the stern looks on Everett’s and Adam’s faces, I had a pretty good idea of what was coming next. Riley, as usual, looked like he was enjoying the show, while Jackson shifted uncomfortably, like he wasn’t quite sure where he stood.
Travis was the most relaxed, but there was still a seriousness about him that I didn’t love.
“So,” I said, raising an eyebrow. “Who wants to tell me why you’re all standing around like I’ve done somethin’ terrible?”
Travis snorted. “We heard Tucker came in here earlier and defiled you in front of everyone in the ER.”
I blinked, caught off guard by the choice of words, but then a laugh burst out of me. “ Defiled me? Good grief. It was just a kiss.”
Everett’s eyes narrowed. “In front of everyone. In the middle of the ER.”
“It wasn’t in front of everyone. It was—” I cut myself off, realizing there was no use trying to downplay it. “Okay, fine. Yes, it was in the middle of the ER. But it was just one kiss. Y’all need to calm down.”
Adam crossed his arms tighter over his chest, his frown deepening. “The guy’s leavin’ and you know it.”
“Besides that,” Everett chimed in, “We hardly know him. There’s no way of knowin’ if he’s even good enough for you while he’s here.”
This had clearly been brewing for a while, and they had every right to worry, considering the way the news of that kiss had probably reached them with many exaggerations that didn’t speak well to my character or Tucker’s.
But I wasn’t about to let them tell me how to live my life.
“First of all,” I said, holding up a finger, “don’t you think I’m smart enough to know if he’s good enough for me or not? Y’all really don’t trust my judgment?”
“Of course we do—” Travis started, but I cut him off.
“Second of all,” I continued, “I know he’s not stayin’, but what makes you think I can’t leave Charlotte Oaks? I never said I would, but don’t you think I’m capable of makin’ that decision for myself?”
Riley chuckled, leaning back in his chair and throwing me a wink. “She’s got a point, boys. We all know Dakota can take care of herself.”
Riley was taking it easy, and I knew why. His security team had already run a background check on Tucker the moment Norma at the diner whispered her concerns in his ear. And according to him, Tucker’s background was nothing but hero status, especially after his time in the Marines. Riley had been impressed. The others? Well, they weren’t so easily convinced.
Travis was more pro-Tucker than all of them combined, though, thanks to his time with Austin at the gym over the last few weeks. He leaned against the wall, his arms crossed casually. “Austin’s a good kid, Kota. And from what I’ve seen, he’s got a lot of reasons for hero-worshippin’ his big brother and the friend. I wouldn’t mind if they decided to stick around.”
I shot him a grateful smile. “Thanks, Trav. They probably won’t, but thanks, all the same.”
The two oldest, grumpiest, and most protective of the bunch still stood there with matching scowls. Everett was the first to speak, his voice low and serious. “We just don’t wanna see you get hurt again, Kota. That’s all.”
Jackson, the quietest of the group and the one who’d always been the nurturing kind, finally chimed in. “We’re just lookin’ out for you. You know how it is.”
I gave them all a level look, my voice firm. “I appreciate that. Really, I do. But I think y’all would like Tucker if you gave him a chance. He’s a good man, and you know what? Y’all probably have more in common with him than you think.”
Everett and Adam exchanged glances, clearly unconvinced, but before they could argue further, Riley leaned forward, his grin still firmly in place. “Are you and Tucker gonna be at the Harvest Festival tomorrow night?”
Riley and Laney were set to perform their annual duet concert for the town—a highlight of the festival. And I’d almost forgotten about it in the midst of everything going on with the case, but I definitely wanted to go.
“I’ll talk to Tuck and let you know,” I said, trying not to get my hopes up, just in case.
Everett grunted. “See that he’s there. I want to size him up myself.”
Everett hadn’t met him yet, though the rest of them had had brief interactions with him, given all the time I’d spent by his side for the last few weeks. But considering the size of our brood, it was hard to really get to know someone in social settings like that, and I didn’t understand how he thought he’d do much better at a concert during a fall festival.
Travis pursed his lips. “We all might be tall and good fighters—since I let y’all into the gym to work on your swings, of course—but that man still has several inches on all of us. Pretty sure that’ll be the first thing you notice, Ev.”
I laughed, shaking my head at the absurdity of it all. Only in Charlotte Oaks would a man be judged not by his character, but by how tall he was compared to the Wilson brothers.