Chapter 15 - Diana
“Damn. You guys see the hottie in the waiting room? I think I just started growing another baby.” Ashley fans herself as she leans on the desk next to me.
“You can’t get knocked up once you already are,” I say with a shake of my head and a smile on my face as I click away at the computer.
I see her out of the corner of my eye as she looks at me as if I’m the crazy one in this conversation.
“You can when you get eyes on the man I’m talking about. Seriously, he’s something that should only be reserved for angels to see, or at least from behind a camera.”
I glance at her with a quizzical look on my face. “Behind a what?”
“A camera.” She stands and walks to the opposite side of the desk so I can see her if I look up and not out of the side of my eyes. “He needs to be seen in photos, on billboards. Even televised.”
“So the rest of the world can see him?” I don’t even look up as I smirk and shake my head at her.
“No, so the rest of the world can assume he’s photoshopped. Seeing him in person is bad for all ovaries out there. I swear I saw five women get pregnant just from a glance of that man.”
“That bad, huh?”
“Yes! Tell me you haven’t seen him. He’s hard to miss.”
I look up and give her my full attention for the first time since she came over. “What does he look like?”
“Salt-and-pepper hair, muscles that should be reserved for someone thirty years younger, but he pulls it off. Leather vest and tight jeans. God, I’m just describing him and I think I’ve got another baby trying to brew in my oven.”
I giggle at her words and feel the blush creep up my neck.
“Stop talking and get back to work,” Nurse Vicky barks as she gently pushes Ashley out of the way and sets her clipboard on the top of the desk in front of me. “Don’t you have patients to attend to?”
“Oh, come on. Even you have to admit the man is edible. And don’t tell me you didn’t see him.
You had to walk past him to get over here, and he could catch the eye of a blind person.
” Ashley sidles up to Vicky and talks in a stage whisper, as if that will keep everyone from hearing what she’s been going on about for the last few minutes.
“If the man can cure the blind, we better start lining up the patients with eye issues so we can get a break from taking care of them. But I doubt Diana is going to be okay with so many groggily eyeing her man.”
“Your man?” Ashley squeals as she zeroes in on me.
I say nothing as I grab my next patient’s chart and skate around the other side of the desk to go out the opposite side from Ashley.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were seeing someone?” She hurries past Vicky and loops her arm through mine, not at all deterred by my lack of response to her earlier question.
“Didn’t Vicky say you have patients?” I try to brush her off, but more because it’s funny to see her get flustered at me than that I really care if she attends to her job. She’s a good nurse, and I know she wouldn’t be yammering on with me unless everything was okay with them.
“I just checked on them. They’re good. If not, Vicky is manning the desk and can deal with them if they push the call button. Now tell me, well, everything! Is he really yours? How long have you been together? Did you get pregnant from looking at him? How big is his shlong?”
I give her a look at her comment about Vicky taking on her patients. We all know she won’t and the call buttons will go unnoticed, but a few minutes of gossip won’t kill anyone. Well, I hope not.
“Yes, he’s mine. We’ve been together a few weeks, but it’s still new between us, so we aren’t labeling it or telling everyone.
It’s complicated. No, I didn’t get pregnant looking at him, and before you ask, I’m not pregnant from touching him or anything else with him.
And his shlong is my business, not yours. ”
“Spoilsport.” She sticks her tongue out at me, then follows me into my patient’s room. It’s an elderly woman who just got out of hip surgery. Her family has visited a few times, but no one else is in the room, and she’s asleep. I check her vitals and the machines to make sure everything is okay.
“Why is it complicated?” Ashley whispers as she washes her hands and makes sure the bathroom is stocked with needed items.
“He has a kid.”
“So?”
I shrug. “She doesn’t like me.”
“Seriously? Everyone likes you. Has she even met you?”
I think back to the last time we spoke, the day of the shooting, and shake my head as memories of her words echo in my mind. “Yeah. She’s met me.”
We continue our task in silence and then exit the room.
“Wait.” She pulls my arm back, and I halt in my path to my next patient’s room. “Is he the guy from the coma?”
I wince a bit, but nothing too noticeable, I hope. I never told anyone about my little crush, but I’m sure it was obvious with the way I switched shifts often and ended up in his room even if it wasn’t on my rotation.
“Yeah. Between his daughter and his club, it makes it a little complicated, to say the least.”
“Does the club not like you either?”
I shrug. “Haven’t spoken to a lot of them. I think it’s more about them not being ready to accept someone else in his life. Apparently, his deceased wife was a big part of the club, too, and after she died, he never took up with anyone.”
“So now that he’s with you, they can’t get their heads out of their asses that he’s finally moved on?”
“Guess so.”
“Well, that’s just stupid. People move on all the time. And they can’t expect a man that hot to just stay single. It’s literally against the laws of nature.”
I snort. “Pretty sure your man will throw a fit if he hears you talking like that.”
“Pish posh. If he saw your man, he’d agree.”
“I’d agree to what?” I hear the bark, but the paleness that sweeps over Ashley makes me reach out to grab her arm in case she faints.
“You okay?” I get close and ask.
She nods a second before an arm is thrown over her shoulders and her body is pulled tight to the man beside her.
“Hey, Diana,” Ashley’s husband says with a grin sent my way.
“Hey, Barry. Any action at the firehouse?”
“Not lately. What were you two talking about? What would I agree to?”
The look Ashley gives me has me shaking my head and thinking twice about what to say. “Um, that you would agree that only a few days off for a babymoon isn’t long enough.”
Her eyes reach mine quickly, and she gives me a small smile that evaporates as I see her husband squeeze her arm. A squeeze that doesn’t ease up.
“Yeah, we had a great time. Only a few issues, right, Ashley?”
“Riiight,” she says with a small quiver in her voice. I would have overlooked it if I hadn’t worked with her for so long.
“Issues?” I say out loud before I think better of it.
“Oh, it was nothing,” Ashley replies too quickly, then raises a hand to shake it off as if the word would go away with that wave.
“Nothing?” Barry looks down at her, and while there’s a smile on his face, there’s something in his eyes that doesn’t seem right. “Hope that doesn’t mean we didn’t learn from our mistakes, dear. I would hate to have to explain it to you again.”
“Oh no, I remember. I just meant it was nothing for Diana to concern herself with. Just something for me to work on and do better. That’s all,” Ashley insists.
He seems satisfied with her words, but all it does is leave a bad feeling in my stomach.
I might not be close with Ashley outside the hospital, but that’s just because it’s hard to make friends with anyone outside of working hours due to our sleep schedules.
But if I can make it work with Karter, then I need to make more of an effort with others, Ashley included.
Especially her. I want us to be close. Well, close enough that she’ll tell me if there’s something I need to be concerned about.
“Babygirl, you about ready?”
I turn at Karter’s words and smile as I see him coming up behind me.
He kisses my cheek and wraps his arms around my waist. I sink back into him.
Him being here, arms around me, just makes everything infinitely better.
Even if it wasn’t bad, I still feel better than I did for no other reason than he’s here.
“Just about. Karter, this is Ashley, my coworker, and Barry, her husband. Barry works out of Station Twelve.”
My guy holds out a hand to Barry, and they shake while the other still holds me close to his front.
“Hey, thanks for all that you do, man.” Then Karter holds his hand out to Ashley. She looks at Barry first, then reaches out and shakes his hand. “And thanks for keeping my girl company.” He releases her hand and wraps it back around me. “She gets bored when I’m not around.”
“Hey! I did just fine before you showed up,” I huff, but there’s a smile on my face.
“But you’re doing amazing now, aren’t you, Babygirl?” He nuzzles into my neck, and I can’t help but giggle at the feel of his beard on my skin as it gets warm from the blush he brought out of me.
“You with that motorcycle gang? The one that blew up last year?”
I feel Karter go stiff against me, and he’s slow to raise his head off my neck to look at Barry.
It’s not in fear; my guy is afraid of nothing.
If I had to guess, he’s taking his time to pull in his instant anger at the way Barry spoke about the Hounds.
The disrespect is clear in the snarl on Barry’s lips.
“It’s a club. And yeah, we had a small gas leak a while back. You the boys who helped put out some of the fires?”
“Yeah, sure. And us boys weren’t allowed in. You all took care of it on your own.”
Was Barry pouting that he didn’t get to help, or that he wasn’t allowed entrance into the Hounds’ territory? I might not know everything about the club, but it’s clear that only a few can get in.
I’ve read some things since spending time with Karter.
Not everything can be believed, of course, but I know that being part of a motorcycle club is only for a select few.
Only a handful get into a club despite the numbers that might apply.
Or prospect, as I learned the term is. And the Hounds?
They’re known throughout the world. At least Google was able to find a lot on them.
And by a lot, it just mentioned them, but real details are unknown on the web.
They have a few other chapters spread throughout the country and even internationally.
There’s even one in Ireland, if I recall correctly.
Karter doesn’t take the bait and just nods. “Sounds about right.”
“Might be better to have the professionals work on your shit next time. Might save a few lives if you get someone who knows what they’re doing.” Barry’s smugness only makes him sound like a cad rather than the hero I’m sure he’s trying to portray.
“I wouldn’t lose sleep on it if I were you. The boys got enough experience from the military and special ops that we can manage just fine.”
If there was a threat in that, Barry doesn’t take any notice of it. He just continues to glare, and Ashley’s squeak has me guessing that his hand on her shoulder is taking out his frustration on her for whatever he has against Karter.
“Ash, we’re leaving.”
“Um, I have a few more rounds to do.” She speaks softly to him but looks at me with a bit of panic in her eyes.
“I can take care of it,” I offer. “You should get off your feet anyway.”
“Yeah, you hear that? Someone knows when to let a professional do their job.”
Karter chuckles at Barry’s words. “You complimenting my girl now?”
Barry’s mouth drops open and then closes before he glares even harder.
“Let’s go, honey. I’m tired.” Ashley pushes Barry back, but his eyes don’t leave Karter’s for a solid five steps backward before he turns and pulls Ashley with him. He looks back twice, and I bite my lip to keep from smiling when Karter finger waves at him the last time.
“You don’t know when to quit, do you?” I turn in his arms as I speak.
He just shrugs. “Guy’s got a stick up his ass for no reason.”
“True, but you didn’t seem to help anything.”
“Wasn’t looking to help.”
“Then what were you looking to do?”
“Cause trouble.” He grins wide as he pulls me closer and nibbles under my jawline.
“You already do,” I mumble as I arch my neck to give him better access. “Got any issues with us staying a while longer? It should be only thirty minutes, maybe an hour at the most.”
He shakes his head as he pulls back. “No worries. Do your shit, and then we can go.”
He kisses my lips with a simple peck, leaving me wanting more, but I know I have to wait.
Which sucks because despite what someone might think, I despise waiting.
I’m the worst around the holidays and my birthday, always wanting to open the present the second I see it instead of waiting for the actual day.
“I hate waiting,” I mutter as I turn and walk away.
A smack on my ass has me gasping as I look back at him and rub my cheek. That smarts, but not in a completely unpleasant way.
“Stop pouting. You know you’re going to enjoy the end once we get there. So hurry up. You’re the one who determines how long the wait is, not me.”
With a smile and a little hype in my step, I skip down to my next patient. I might have just doubled my workload, but Karter’s right. The end result of us together is well worth the wait.