Chapter 26
TWENTY-SIX
WINNIE
All the Things I Never Saw
My sponge-washed uniform is still damp but a whole lot less smelly by the time I’m an hour into my shift.
I feel semi-unhygienic, but I’m present.
Sally has a babysitter, or Lanie does, depending on how I look at the home situation, and I’m fairly sure West never slept last night, either sitting outside my townhouse, working, or playing The Sims all night.
One of those happened, even if I have no proof.
My driver for today is Keith, and my roster shows no other regular driver for a while. This one has been sitting in the overstuffed ER with our first patient of the day, Leon.
“Do either of you want a snack?” I cover a yawn poorly. “Or a coffee?”
Leon nurses a still-full cup and shifts with a wince. “I’m good. Thanks, Winnie.”
“Ouch,” I sympathize with him. “No more diving off roof lines okay? Next time, stay up there and finish the job.” He would have been here a whole lot faster, but he lives a bit out of town, and his phone was still on the roof when he fell.
It took a small miracle and a handful of messages for the thing to fall off the guttering and land near enough for him to call his own ambulance almost a dozen hours later.
Apparently the dog, along with its bed and covers, kept him company for the night.
We are all lucky he hadn’t gone into shock overnight. Leon might not smell good, but he’s alive, if in a whole lot of pain. And his dog deserves a medal, in my opinion.
“Worst thing?” He grimaces. “The roof still needs cleaning.”
I look pointedly at his leg that I’m fairly certain is broken, though we don’t have a piece of bone protruding anywhere.
Which would get him seen faster, but that’s another reason not to need to see bone bits today.
“It might. But pay someone. You’re not going back up there for a while, right? Want anything, Keith?”
“Egg-and-bacon roll?” he asks, offering a watery, if hopeful, smile.
That’s a hangover cure right there. But I’m no stranger to those, not after Brad left. Plenty of sleepless nights are marked in my calendar. I’m not about to pry into what’s on Keith’s mind when I have enough of my own issues hanging off me right now.
“I’m on it. Don’t go anywhere.” I flutter my fingers at them to a chorus of groans. The coffee shop is on the same level as the ER, but it’s a decent hike. So while Leon gets company, I get some exercise to wake myself up as well as a coffee reward at the other end of my trip.
West came through with a top-up of groceries last night, even though I didn’t ask him for any, as well as a double order of spring rolls, soup, and noodles.
My funds were deposited right back where they came from, and he delivered with a kiss after unpacking everything and letting my houseguest and my offspring sleep through the whole thing.
I couldn’t really object to that or to making out afterward until my body thrummed with need. And when he stepped back, that almost-smile hovered at the corners of his lips like the asshole knew exactly what he’d just done and enjoyed leaving me in exactly that state.
“Call me when you need me” was all he said as he walked away.
Having a cowboy on call was… new to me, but also not new to me. West has always been there, sure. But he’s been there as my brother’s keeper, not as mine. And he’s certainly not my keeper. He’s just… mine.
“Ugh.” I want to bang my head against the wall as I walk.
Coffee calls, and that quickens my steps.
“A bacon-and-egg roll and a hammerhead, please,” I order as soon as I walk into the hospital café, which miraculously has no line.
Welp, maybe that’s because it’s not quite five a.m., and they’re open a little earlier than they should be.
“Toasted?” Stevie, my favorite barista ever, grabs two of her largest takeout cups and slots them into each other for thermal protection for my hands.
“Pretty please? It’s for Keith. I think he’s had about as little sleep as me.”
Stevie makes a face. “I heard. Was it that bad?”
My eyebrows rise. And there is gossip in the wind that I’ve missed. This place is never boring, that’s for sure. “Was what that bad?”
“Oh. It was, huh? I promise I won’t say anything.” She shoves a premade roll into the flat toaster and gets my beans on the grind.
Feeling like I’m several conversations behind, I make sure my card pays for the goods first. “Uh, Stevie? I think you’re talking about something that I’m not. I’ve been away at my brother’s rodeo event up north all weekend.”
She squints at me. “Aren’t you dating Tom? The singing nurse?”
I manage a surprise cough, but it’s a real close thing. West won’t be grumpy over that one for sure. “No. I have, um, another prospect.” That sounds callous. “Anyway, moving right along. What happened to Tom? Is he okay?”
She concentrates on my coffee. “Apparently last night’s gig got a bit rowdy. Keith was there. Didn’t he say anything?”
That explains a few bags under his eyes, but the nurses and paramedics socializing to blow off steam is nothing new at this hospital. “Ah, no,” I apologize, inhaling the scent of much-needed ambrosia for a different reason than has been tabled. “So, goss please.”
“Oh. Uh…” Her eyes skew side to side. I lean forward, encouraging the spill of impending tea.
“Well, apparently the audience was big. He did great; don’t worry,” she says hastily.
“It was a great party, and then afterward, he wasn’t so great.
Got a bit snappish toward the bar staff.
Maybe drunk? I don’t know. Anyway, it ended up with him outside and everyone else kind of partying on without him and lots of handovers.
” She finishes up with my coffee, wraps Keith’s roll, and passes everything over with a flourish.
My mouth hangs open. “Oh. My. Nursing. License. Are you saying Tom got thrown out of his own gig? And he’s okay after that?”
Stevie waves open palms in front of her, turned upward. “I mean, I haven’t seen him this morning? But lots of people are grumpy and…”
I fumble for my phone and send off a text.
Are you alive? I just heard. Please be okay. I’m sorry I wasn’t there.
Proof of life req’d pretty please
Come on, Singing Nurse Squadron of One. My grunge rock star nurse ex-crush will never be anything more now, and that’s kind of sad. The Hottie McNurse title is officially dead. No matter how long I stare at my phone, Tom doesn’t reply.
I grab everything, mumble my thanks to Stevie, and keep stalker-messaging as I head back toward the ER. Not a single message is read, even as I hand my coffee to Keith and keep the bacon-and-egg roll to myself.
Leon sighs and levers up to grab the egg roll I mistakenly kept instead of handing it over. “Oh, sweet Jesus.”
His skyrocketing pain jerks me out of my lost-nurse haze. “Crap. I got those mixed up. Leon. That was very sweet. You don’t need to babysit me. Thank you,” I berate him nicely for his assistance with a smile and turn to Keith. “Please update me on Tom and when you saw him last.”
He shrugs. “He got rowdy with the stage manager after his gig. Something about not getting paid on time. Then the bouncer came through. Then he wasn’t inside anymore.”
I stare, my coffee gripped between my hands. “And you let that happen?”
Keith peers at me. “I had a lot—” His eyes slide sideways to Leon, who drinks in our drama like it’s Montana gold. “Listen, this has been going on for a while, all right? I thought you knew.”
“Knew what?” I frown at him. “Tom’s always sweet. Distant. But he’s an artist, right?”
“An artist asshole,” Keith corrects me, his face strained. “We didn’t say anything because you two got on well. And you seemed so… you know.”
“I what now?”
“Ah.” Keith looks slightly alarmed.
“I’m sure he was just trying to help,” Leon pipes in.
“Don’t help a sinking ship,” I tell him.
“Keith got himself into this. He can dig himself right out of the Keith-and-Tom-shaped hole he’s fallen into.
Why did you leave Tom alone? Apart from the asshole factor that I may or may not have noticed for a full year, apparently?
” Am I seething at myself? Yes. Yes, I am.
But that matters not a damn whit as I stare at Keith, since he’s the object of my irritation right now, as I continue my rant.
“Because that doesn’t seem like it holds with our ‘besties who dance together stay together’ club motto.
” A motto that I didn’t hold to the night that I went home with West. But that was then with West, and this is now.
Keith bit into his roll. “Imnnsayynngannthhngoorr.”
“Uh-huh.” I fold my arms over my chest. “Leon, I’ll leave you in Keith’s capable hands while I go search out one singing nurse. Will you be okay here for a while?”
Leon looks down at his leg and sighs. “Well, I’m not going—”
“Anywhere.” Keith swallows his roll almost whole and grins. “We’ll be here, Winnie. Go get us goss.”
I stare. “You two are terrible.” I head off past triage, waving to Maisie, who has her head down as she fills in forms. She waves back anyway, her sixth nurse’s sense kicking in as she holds a bag out for her current patient to spew in.
“Good skills.” I nod my appreciation. “Do you know where Tom is?”
The wave turns into a finger point leading up the next hallway. I divert my path and head toward the nurses’ station instead.
“Do you know where—” A trolley rolls past. I flatten myself to the wall and try again as I head to one side of the circular nurse’s station. “Sorry. Do you know where Tom is this morning? I haven’t seen him or his delish chicken sandwiches.”
Demi, roster nurse, makes a face. “I think he’s occupying the toilet. But also, why that man, Winnie? You could have anyone. Not him.”