Chapter 7 Hayley
HAYLEY
It wasn’t the first time Hayley had ever woken up in an unfamiliar bedroom, but it had been a while since the last occurrence.
She lay blinking up at the ceiling, watching the way the light played on it through the blinds, feeling the sheets on her body that were a soft jersey and not the crisp cotton she had on her bed at home.
Also, there was a body that she did not typically wake up next to.
Hayley sat up straight, clutching the sheet and comforter over her bare breasts.
The toddler-sized cat curled up next to her, lifted up its large, fluffy cream and brown head and stared at her with uninterested blue eyes for an unsettlingly long moment before lowering back down with a sigh.
Cautiously, Hayley reached out a hand to let the majestic beast sniff.
Just as cautiously, the cat did accept the offer, with noisy, yet still somehow dainty little sniffs.
Then, to her delight, it stood up and shoved its head under her hand.
That was a clear message. “Oh, so, you like a good pet?” She rubbed the soft little ears.
“Good, you met Cory.” Deb bustled into the room, clad in black boyshorts and a faded UT-Austin t-shirt with a cut-down collar that drooped off of one shoulder. In her hands, she carried two bowls of cereal. “And he likes you, that’s even better.”
Hayley accepted one of the bowls. “You named your cat Cory?”
“Short for Corazón, because he is my heart, and the only man ever allowed in my bed.” Deb grinned and pointed at the bowl in Hayley’s hands. “Do you like Raisin Bran? Sorry, it’s the only cereal I eat.”
Hayley looked into the bowl, amazed. “This seems kind of… pedestrian, for you. Not Lucky Charms? Fruity Pebbles?”
“I save my Cinnamon Toast Crunch for my weekends off,” Deb replied, almost primly as she sat down next to Cory and spooned a mouthful of raisins and bran flakes into her mouth. “Then it’s special.”
Hayley ate a bite of her own. “And you use soy milk for it?”
“I realize you think I’m entirely reckless, but I do have some regard for my health.” Deb paused, another spoonful of cereal halfway to her mouth. “Gonna be honest, though, I switched to soy milk because Cory kept attacking me to get to the milk in my bowl. It was self-defense.”
“Ah.” Scooping another spoonful of cereal into her mouth, Hayley then set the bowl on the bedside table and reached out to pet Cory some more. “He’s a gorgeous fella. What kind of cat is he?”
“Ragdoll. Aren’t cha, buddy?” The look in Deb’s eyes was unexpectedly soft and fond, and Hayley could see the giant cat really was the apple of her eye. “I’ve had him since he was a widdle baby that could fit in my hands.”
Hayley eyed the very, very large animal skeptically. “I find it hard to believe he was ever that size.”
“Hims was. Just a wee widdle mister man, he was.” Deb was leaning down, and she and Cory were actually nuzzling noses.
It was the most incredible thing Hayley had ever seen.
Who knew the badass, reckless, arrogant, motorcycle-riding ER chief was secretly a soft-hearted baby-talking cat lady? “Wasn’t yous?”
This was all a lot to wrap her brain around. Hayley shook her head. Raisin Bran. Giant cat. Soy milk.
…getting her brains absolutely fucked out by Deb in an alcove at a lesbian bar. Hayley thought she might pass out, she blushed so hard.
“You all right?” Deb asked, her face curious as she shoveled more Raisin Bran into it.
“Great!” Flashing a smile she hoped looked sunny and casual and not mildly freaked out and plastic, Hayley retrieved her bowl and began sucking down the now-soggy cereal. But as more memories of the evening began to escape into her consciousness, she almost choked on a mouthful.
Deb’s fingers deep inside of her. Her mouth on Deb’s nipples. Her mouth on Deb’s clit, the taste of her in Hayley’s mouth, the sound of her deep moans as she came… Hayley squirmed, the heat of arousal beginning to bloom again in her lap.
She did not understand how they’d gotten here. The back and forth between them, the anger, the commiserating, bitching one minute and dancing like they were glued together the next. From fighting to kissing, she understood nothing of it. But she also liked it.
And, if she was being honest, she was deeply afraid of it.
Slowly, she swallowed down the last bite of her cereal and set the bowl aside. She wasn’t sure what to do next. Part of her wanted to flee home. But another part of her wanted to push Deb back against the pillows and explore her lush, delicious body in the light of the morning.
Deb was watching her carefully. “You want coffee?”
Hayley took a deep breath and made herself grin. “I want to fuck you again.”
She liked the way that made Deb’s face light up. She liked even more the way Deb hauled off her t-shirt and threw it aside, then reached for Hayley. “Well, hell yes, Nurse Milton, I like your priorities.”
Hayley fell back and pulled Deb on top of her, letting herself sink into an incendiary kiss that almost, almost, almost drowned out the little voice in her brain telling her to be careful, be safe, don’t get in too deep…
“Earth to Boss Lady.” Mirenda waved a hand in front of Hayley’s face, snapping her out of the reverie she’d fallen into. “Hey, hey. Wild night?”
“Not in the way you’re thinking,” Hayley mumbled, rubbing her temples as she sat up straight at the ICU charge desk. “I only had two little drinks.”
“Yeah, but you don’t drink much, it can hit you like a freight train.
” Mirenda pumped out some hand sanitizer from the big bottle on the desk and rubbed it into her hands, all the while regarding Hayley from under raised eyebrows.
After a moment of intense scrutiny, she nodded.
“Okay. You’re not hungover. No bloodshot eyes, your skin isn’t dry, fine.
You do look a little shit, though. Got some water with you? ”
Hayley lifted her big blue water jug and shook it so the ice inside tinkled against the metal walls. “Right here. And ibuprofen.” She tapped a packet on the desk next to her. “I have a headache.”
“So if you’re not hungover, then what’s up?
” Mirenda pulled out the other desk chair and sat down.
She handed over a plastic-wrapped oatmeal cream pie and a beef jerky stick.
“Eat. Explain. Does this have anything to do with how I almost caught you in a compromising position with ER Chief Asshole two days ago?”
“Maybe,” Hayley replied slowly, unwrapping the little pie with care. “Yes.”
“Y’all went out?” Mirenda propped her chin in her hand, dark eyes gleaming with interest. “I presume you both lived. Otherwise you’d be on a bus crossing the border into Tijuana about now.”
“Yes, we lived,” Hayley snapped with some impatience. She tore a bite of pie off and chewed it angrily. “Come on, now, Mir. What do you take me for?”
“Someone who, up until two days ago, absolutely hated our hospital’s head of Emergency Medicine,” Mirenda drawled.
“I still don’t exactly like her,” Hayley muttered.
“Mm. The red faces and mussed up hair I caught you two with in the on-call the other day would beg to differ, but okay.” Mirenda was and had always been a paragon of patience.
What she wanted, she would have, and Hayley knew she wanted information.
“You didn’t kill Doctor Morales. So. What did you do? ”
Hayley shot her a glare over another vicious mouthful of cream pie. “I mean, you are an adult. Married with children, even. I think you can guess.”
“Mm. I want to hear you say it.” Mirenda’s dark eyes sparkled.
All Hayley could do was heave a sigh. “I slept with her.”
“I knew it.” Mirenda chortled. “I knew it, knew it, knew it! Must have been pretty good, you look like you did not sleep at all.”
“I slept,” Hayley protested. “I even took a nap once I got home.” She looked down at her hands and began to pick at her cuticles. “It just wasn’t very… restful sleep.”
“Well, if you got railed all night, then why the hell not?” With a look of dismay on her lovely face, Mirenda sat back and shook her head. “Given how much you two dislike each other normally, I would have thought the sex would be exhaustingly good.”
“I mean, it was. It was,” Hayley admitted. “Just…”
After a moment of silence, during which Hayley zoned out again, Mirenda gave her a good poke in the ribs that made her yelp and jump. “Just what?” Mirenda snapped.
The dread and fear Hayley had felt just that morning in Deb’s bedroom returned, coiling up and sitting in her stomach like a rock. Stalling for time, she took a long drink of her ice water before answering. “It’s just… it’s been a while since I’ve been with anyone.”
“I remember. About five years, if I recall right.” Mirenda had been by Hayley’s side in the ICU for a long time. She did know where a lot of Hayley’s skeletons were stored.
“Yeah. And you remember how that ended.” The memories were sour, hard to look back on.
“Mmhmm. Well. Actually.” Mirenda sat up with a frown. “I don’t know if I ever knew the ins and outs of it, Hay. You can be a real vault when you want to be.”
“Tell me what you do remember.” It would be interesting to see someone else’s perspective. To see if she was just being overly paranoid.
Mirenda’s eyes went distant as she thought, her finger tapping at her bottom lip. “It was fast. What was her name… Alayna? It was her, right? The charge nurse from Cardiac.”
“That’s the one,” Hayley confirmed grimly.
“You two were together for a while, I remember. It was cute. I mean, I thought it was. Was it?”
“Yeah.” She’d never been so happy. Amazing sex, vacations around the world, nights at home snuggled up together with good books.
She and Alayna had been two peas in a pod.
Not a relationship with excessive fireworks, but something good and comfortable and serious after many years of alternately screwing around and diving into her work headfirst.
It was perfect, which was when she, Hayley, had fucked it all right up.