Chapter 2
TWO
“Cammie Lou, you’re in the ER tonight.”
My mouth gaped open so far that I half-expected a fly to swarm inside.
“What?!” I yelled at Becky, the head ICU nurse.
“I know. Sorry, Sweets. Amanda flaked again. I’m about to fire her lazy ass.”
I laughed. Becky was an open book, and she’d tell you how it was no matter how hard it was for you to hear. If she said something behind your back, you’d best believe she’d say it to your face, too.
I stared at her graying, brown hair and round face while holding back an eye roll. She was watching me with her eyebrows raised, waiting for my snarky reply, but I held it in. I just wasn’t in the mood tonight.
“Fine,” I puffed, and she gave me her wicked grin.
“That’s my girl. You’re my favorite. You know that, right?”
“Well,” I said, placing my stethoscope around my neck. “You wouldn’t tell me that if it wasn’t true, so I guess I have to believe you. ”
“Damn straight. Now get going before Dr. Douche comes up here.”
I laughed and made my way down to the first floor, hoping I didn’t run into Dr. Douche—the biggest ass in the entire hospital.
You would’ve thought that I couldn’t possibly have been happy working in a hospital, surrounded by so much death, especially after the year I’d had.
But ironically enough, it was probably the only thing that kept me happy nowadays.
It kept me occupied. Between working the night shift three times a week—sometimes more if they needed me—and then catching up on my sleep, I truly didn’t have a lot of time to sit around and mope.
Plus, according to my father and every fucking person that had the balls to say something, “ A year is too long to grieve .” It was bullshit.
You couldn’t put a time limit on how long someone needed to grieve the death of someone they cared for.
They were their own person, and everyone healed differently, and everyone grieved in their own time.
Rounding the nurse’s station, I murmured, “Okay, girlies. Whatcha got for me?”
I wasn’t really a big fan of working in the ER.
I typically worked in the ICU, where things were usually intense and extremely time-consuming.
When I first started working here right out of college, I was stuck in the ER, and there was a reason why I used the word “stuck.” Not many people liked working the emergency room, especially at night, and especially in the summer.
People got drunk, and people got stupid.
Plus, I enjoyed having relationships with my patients, and you just couldn’t do that in the ER.
“Hey!” a male voice yelled from under the desk. I stepped up on my tiptoes and saw one of the new male nurses sitting on his butt, sporting his navy-blue scrubs, with papers splayed out all around him on the tiled floor.
My face scrunched up. “Sorry, I mean girlies and guy-ies…or man-ies…or…nevermind. What do we have tonight?”
April, one of the older ER nurses, glanced down at the laptop sitting on the counter.
I watched as her eyes squinted, and then she lit up like a lightbulb.
“Well, take your pick. In room number one, we’ve got a little kid with a jelly bean stuck up his nose, and…
a very frantic dad. Mom’s out for the weekend, so he’s freaking out.
” She laughed. “Then, in room number two, we’ve got a possible concussion, although the guy is saying he’s fine. ”
I rolled my eyes. “Typical man.”
“Hey! Again…” the male nurse said, but I chose to ignore him.
“Then, in room number three, we have a guy who cut himself during a fishing trip. He’ll probably need stitches. He’s going to the restroom now, then he’ll be ready to go.”
I let out a long breath. Talk about boring.
I hated nights like tonight. They were slow, and they dragged on for eons.
If I was in the ICU, like normal, I could have been keeping a watchful eye on Mr. Gibson—an elderly man who was hit head-on by a truck going over forty miles per hour.
He had emergency surgery to fix a collapsed lung, plus a plethora of other injuries to take care of.
He’d been touch-and-go for a while, but when he was “go,” he was by far my favorite patient.
(FYI, we weren’t necessarily supposed to have a favorite, but we all secretly did.)
“I want the little kid!” Kelly said, grabbing the purple file. “I love kids, and I can calm the dad down. After all, the same thing happened to Noah when he was around three. It’s no biggie.” Kelly fixed her bright- blonde hair and adjusted her scrub top, all but skipping down to room number one.
“Which one do you want?”
I decided to go with the stitches man. After all, that was much more exciting and time-consuming than a possible concussion.
I grabbed the correct file and started to walk down to room number three. Just as I was a few yards from the door, I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw the man entering his room from using the restroom.
I sucked in a huge breath when I realized who it was. I muffled a squeak, causing Jackie, another one of the ER nurses, to glance over at me, but I didn’t have time to explain. Instead, I jumped through the door closest to me.
“Oh my GOD! Why does this shit happen to me? ” I cried out, resting my head against the back of the door that I had not so subtly slammed.
“Why does what happen to you?” I heard a deep voice ask from behind me. Of course I would jump into a room with someone already inside. I stood up straight, embarrassed that I not only had burst into an OCCUPIED room, but I had also managed to talk to myself like a crazy person while there.
I was about to turn around and explain myself (okay, make up an excuse), but the door opened again so quickly that I had to jump back. I was met with two very amused, almond-shaped eyes.
“So, you’re not taking patient three?” Jackie whispered, grinning.
“Nope. I’ll take this one.” I peeked around Jackie’s body and gave the patient a quick smile before coming back in front of her. “I changed my mind.”
“Yeah, I think the entire hospital heard you change your mind. What was that about?” Jackie’s whispers weren’t even close to whispers.
I knew for a fact that the patient could hear her.
Jackie was one of those “loud” people. You know, the ones who just couldn’t seem to control their volume, no matter what, when they talked.
I whispered a real whisper back. “I’ll tell you later.”
“Oh no, feel free to tell her now. I’m interested, too,” the deep voice rose from behind us, and I had to hold back an eye roll. Obviously, I couldn’t seem to whisper right, either.
“Is there something I should know about that patient?” Jackie asked while giggling flirtatiously in the direction of the deep-voiced patient.
“No. It’s just…” I felt my neck start to get a teeny bit warm. How can I explain this without being totally mortified?
I can’t. That’s how.
“Fine,” I huffed, no longer making an effort to whisper. I crossed my arms over the front of my navy scrubs and squeezed my eyes shut. Maybe if I can’t see them, they can’t see me?
“I went out on a blind date with patient number three, and…” Oh my God. I couldn’t believe I was saying this in front of another patient. This had to be breaking, like, five thousand rules.
“Go on,” the patient said in an overly arrogant voice.
I peeled my eyes out from under my clenched eyelids and almost glared at him.
But I couldn’t do that for more than one reason.
I’d already started the night out completely unprofessionally, so I didn’t want to dig myself an even bigger hole, and my thoughts of annoyance vanished when I really took a look at him…
he was stunningly handsome. Almost too handsome to be real .
“Seriously, come on. Don’t leave us hanging,” Jackie probed.
I cleared my throat. “And he was so obnoxious at dinner while eating steak like a grizzly bear that I told him I was going to the restroom, and I got up and left…him…there.”
An undeniably tense silence emerged from the other two people in the room. Great. Now they both thought I was the biggest bitch in the entire world—and maybe I was. But I had kind of been scared for my life. I’d half-expected Dustin to eat me after he was finished with his hearty steak.
I literally jumped from the cackling laughter that burst from Jackie, and then the handsome specimen joined in with a low chuckle.
Jackie’s face turned a shade darker than her red lipstick, and she was holding her stomach, barely able to breathe.
I scowled and continued to cross my arms until they were both done laughing.
I knew my face must have been a deep shade of red from embarrassment.
But seriously, how did it happen that (1) Dustin was here in the ER, (2) I wasn’t even supposed to be working the ER, and (3) somehow, he was my patient?
My life was full of clever little jokes, I tell ya. They’d gotten increasingly worse this past year, too. I would almost bet my life that Alexander was somehow having a play in all this shit.
“Okay, okay, okay!” Jackie said, gathering herself to stop laughing. The second she met my eyes, she snickered again.
“Seriously, it’s not that funny. Now, you go deal with him, because I just…can’t.”
“I think you should punish her and make her go deal with him. Serves her right, after bailing.” My eyes narrowed into little slits at the patient. He thought he got a say in this?
“Go.” I ushered Jackie toward the door once more before she gave up another small laugh .
“I can’t wait to hear more about this date, Cammie.”
I didn’t even acknowledge her, other than switching our patient files. I was sure she’d understand completely once she was done stitching him up. He’d probably offer to do it himself while she watched. You know, cavemen knew how to stitch themselves up, right?
I opened the file as soon as Jackie left the room and started to scan its contents.
“So, do you ditch men often on dates, or…”
I glanced up from the file, after reading his name: Lucas J.
Wells. I walked the few feet over to his bed and placed the file on the counter before reaching for the hand sanitizer.
Still reading the file and not giving him much more of a glance, it said he was 6’2” and one hundred and ninety pounds.
My left eyebrow quipped upward at his vitals that had already been done.
They were near perfect. Heart rate nice and steady.
I finally got the nerve to look over at him, and I noticeably swallowed when I saw that he was staring directly at me.
I couldn’t even stop my eyes as they scanned his entirety.
He was what you’d call a nice, tall glass of water.
Actually, I almost felt as if I needed some water to moisten my now drying mouth.
Jesus, take me now. I knew his body was near perfect with his 6’2” height and perfectly proportioned weight, but what I wasn’t expecting was for everything else to be immaculate, too.
Sandy-blond hair, parted off to the side and tousled right on top.
His eyes were a pale green, almost taking my breath away with their sharp contrast to his long, dark eyelashes.
His straight, narrow nose led down to his slim but plump lips, which laid unmoving on his wide, Russian-like face.
He had a narrow, slanted white scar in between his eyebrows, but somehow, even that tiny imperfection was perfect .
“So?” he asked, raising his eyebrows. Caught in the act, my eyes widened fast. I quickly averted my eyes back down to his file.
I honestly needed a second to catch my breath, because he had literally stolen it from me. Little thief! I’d been told that I was picky when it came to men—and maybe I was. I just knew what I wanted and what I liked. And this man… His looks were definitely something I liked.
Or thought I liked, until… My stomach dropped to the floor like a fucking bowling ball. Occupation: United States Marine Corps.
Goddamnit!