Chapter 24
Twenty-Four
I love you in a way that would worry a therapist.
—Hux to Bernice
Hux
I’d just separated the shoulder joint from the rest of the elk’s torso when my phone pinged.
I glanced at it and grinned.
Thinking now was a great time for a break, I shucked my gloves, my apron, and my cap, then headed to the sink to wash my hands.
On the way out the door, I swiped up my phone and jogged quickly toward the back entrance to The Mercantile.
“Well, look who’s here.” My mother clapped. “Would you mind moving some boxes for me?”
I was already shaking my head. “No can do.”
“What?” my mother asked. “Then why are you here?”
“Because Bernice is meeting me for lunch,” I said. “She’s already here. Gotta go.”
By the time that I got to the front counter, Bernice had already started to order our lunch from Katana.
Katana, who looked a hell of a lot better today than when she’d left my place a week ago.
I winked at her as I came up behind Bernice and wrapped my arms around her torso, pulling her back into my front.
“Hey, beautiful,” I said as I pressed kisses down the length of her neck, stopping when I reached her ear and she started to giggle.
She brought her hand up and cupped my face, turning it so that she could take my mouth with her own.
“Y’all are so gross,” Katana grumbled as she rang up the rest of our order while I was busy kissing Bernice.
Bernice broke off the kiss and looked sheepishly at Katana. “Oh, really? We’re gross? What about what I saw you doing with Shaw just an hour ago in my office?”
Katana’s face went red. “That’s definitely against patient confidentiality. That’s a HIPAA violation, isn’t it?”
“I wasn’t your doctor. I also wasn’t seeing you in an official capacity. Nor have I shared any of your medical information.” Bernice rolled her eyes. “Plus, you were outside the office when I saw you both.”
Katana scrunched up her nose. “I know.”
“What’s this?” I asked, leveling my cousin with a look. “Is it official then?”
Katana shrugged. “He wants it to be.”
I could sense her need to change the subject, though, based solely on how red her cheeks were.
Instead, I turned to Bernice and said, “How’s your day been?”
Bernice ran with the subject change as she leaned in close and said, “What did you think of the new nurse?”
I heard because I was also standing so close.
But I could tell that Bernice had some serious reservations about this new nurse that they’d hired.
At first, they thought that it was the other man, Randel, who would be the problem.
But in the week or so that Chan had been working with Odin, Sage, and Bernice, he’d become a different person.
At first, they were happy to have whatever help that they could.
But then Chan started to question literally everything.
The charting. Their choices in products. The drugs they kept on hand.
And those were just the tame questions.
Chan had also started questioning Odin’s skills as a doctor, Sage’s nursing practices, and more.
But it’d been Chan’s treatment of Bernice that had everyone pausing.
Bernice couldn’t do anything right.
Chan questioned her in front of patients. Chan refused to be assigned to Bernice as her RN for the day. He refused to even be in the same room as her sometimes.
It was a complete one-eighty from what he’d acted like when they’d hired him.
Honestly, if it wasn’t for Odin already questioning Chan and his employment status, I might’ve forced Odin’s hand.
As it was, they were ready to fire him. Needing help or not, Chan wasn’t enough of a help to warrant having to deal with his shit.
“You mean when I came in to get a routine test today, and he said I was stupid for getting pregnant while also having a cancer diagnosis?” my cousin asked.
I stiffened.
“I hadn’t heard that,” Bernice growled low under her breath. “I was actually talking about his actions, and what vibe you got off of him when he talked to you today. Whether you felt like he was a good fit…”
But now, she didn’t need to ask, because of what Katana had just shared.
“I already filed a complaint with Odin,” she admitted. “I would’ve said something to you, but you looked ragged yourself.”
Bernice grimaced and looked at me guiltily.
“What happened?”
“One of the Hubers came in,” she whispered so that only Katana and I could hear. “Without giving you too much detail into him, he asked for me specifically. Then proceeded to show me his dick.”
My hand clenched on her parka. “I’m sorry, what?”
“He had an infection on his leg, and he took everything off for me to see it. It was nowhere near his pubic area. So there was no reason for him to pull his pants down and wave it around. Luckily, Sage was there with me to help get him under control.”
“Gross,” Katana said. “I put y’all’s orders in. But your mother is glaring so hard right now, Hux. Maybe move it along so that she doesn’t come over here and ruin a good thing.”
By ‘good thing’ Katana meant my mother being anywhere near her.
Just because Katana was family didn’t mean that my mother went easy on her.
My mother went easy on no one.
I winked at her. “See you this weekend for game night?”
Katana’s face lit up. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
I tugged Bernice with me toward the dining room.
I jerked my chin toward the spot that we liked most. The table was in the corner of the heated outdoor patio, and I slid the chair out for her before taking my own.
The seats next to us slid out and I wasn’t surprised to see Black and Gentry sit down, their drinks in hand.
“Well, hello, Officers.” Bernice batted her eyes at them.
Gentry winked, but Black said, “Sheriff. Not officer.”
“Oh, sorry, Sheriff.” Bernice snickered.
“Tell us about this new nurse of yours,” he instructed. “Odin said he might be a problem when he goes to fire him this afternoon. Wants us close in case things go south.”
My brows rose. “You’re going to fire him?”
“Odin said he might,” Bernice looked thoughtful for a moment before she turned back to Black and said, “He’s a handful.”
“Tell us everything.”
So she did.
She left nothing out.
The stuff from today only made me more angry that she had to deal with this so-called “adult” at all.
It also sucked that Sage, Odin and Bernice couldn’t catch a break.
They were getting their asses kicked.
Something had to give.
“At least your new office worker is working out,” I pointed out.
“Thank God,” Bernice grumbled.
“Who is it?” Gentry asked.
His eyes were focused out the windows as he watched a couple of kids playing on the sidewalk building a snowman.
The seat to our left slid out, and then Denver was there looking concerned.
“What is it?” I asked, seeing the look of anger in his eyes.
“Y’all know a Randel Conway?”
Bernice’s swift inhale had me glancing her way. “That the other nurse that applied?”
She nodded.
Denver’s hands clenched. “That’s the prick that bought the land I’ve been trying to buy from the old man across the street. We’ve been working on this for over a decade.”
Bernice shuddered. “I wish he’d just move on. That sucks that he’s decided to stay.”
“Not for long if I can help it,” Denver grumbled. “My grandbaby was just born, and I wasn’t giving the old man the attention I should have. Fucker came in under my nose and snatched it up.”
“Is it a done deal?” I wondered.
“Not quite yet,” Denver growled, angry as hell. “He’s leasing it out for now. Old man is gone, though. Not coming back to town until the end of the month so he can sign the title paperwork.”
“Maybe he’ll die before he comes home,” Gentry mused.
Bernice popped him on the arm with the back of her hand. “Don’t talk like that. What if it comes true?”
Gentry grinned. “Then it’d be better for Denver seeing as he’s in the man’s will.”
Bernice rolled her eyes as Katana brought our food out.
As she set ours down, she said, “Deputy. Sheriff. Your food will be out shortly. Since it’s fried it takes longer.”
I took a huge bite of my sandwich, as did Bernice.
Denver said, “Maybe I should go order lunch, too.”
“Aren’t you having lunch with your wife?” Bernice asked.
“She’s inseminating racehorses today. She won’t be home until late.” Denver eyed her pickle. “Are you going to eat that pickle?”
She gestured for him to take it, and he did, eating it in two bites.
She pushed half of her sandwich over to him and said, “I’m not going to eat all of this.”
He reached for her sandwich.
“That was mine,” I whined.
Bernice grinned. “You’re not going to let your club president go hungry, are you, Hux?”
“I got a thousand pounds of elk meat for him in my deep freezer. The man won’t starve.”
“Speaking of,” Denver said. “I’ll come get that this weekend. Thanks for hanging onto it so long for me. Holly and I decided to do a kitchen remodel at the worst time.”
Denver eventually got up to order his own food.
Gentry and Black talked to Bernice a little bit longer about the dude they were firing before she glanced at her watch and said, “I have to get back to work.”
She still had a bite of her sandwich left, which Denver took before I could.
I growled. “Seriously?”
“Boys.” She laughed as she got up and shrugged on her coat.
I caught her by the sleeve when she skirted around to my side, then tugged until she leaned down and pressed her lips to my own.
Then she was gone, leaving me with the taste of honey mustard and Bernice.
The men at the table watched me incredulously.
“You love her, don’t you?”
I shrugged. “I’ve loved her for a really long time.”
“No, but you really love her,” Gentry said. “Never thought I’d see the day.”
“Love her so much I’d die for her,” I agreed.
A soft hand at my throat had me tilting my head backward to see Bernice was back. “My phone. I forgot it.”
I righted my head and reached for it under a discarded napkin, then handed it to her while tilting my head again.
She dropped her mouth to mine and reached for her phone.
When she was done kissing the hell out of me, she left again.
But she didn’t get far before she said, “Oh, Hux?”
I glanced at her over my shoulder. “Yeah?”
She beamed at me. “I love you, too. So much that I’d die for you as well.”