Chapter Two
Brian
I heard the beeping sounds first.
Then came the distinctive smell.
I know that smell. How do I know that smell?
But opening my eyes was a struggle. I kept willing my lids up, to no avail.
And fuck, I was thirsty.
Finally, my crusty eyes pried themselves open, and my vision came into focus.
And there she was. The woman who’s starred in many of my shower-stall sessions—Lainey’s sister, Jade.
Was I dreaming?
I looked around and recognized I was in a hospital room. Then I looked down and realized I was the patient.
Oh hell no.
She noticed me moving around and smiled.
“Hi. Welcome back.”
Where had I been?
I tried to ask just that, but my mouth felt like it was full of cotton.
Jade immediately stepped closer and offered me an ice chip on a spoon.
My pride wanted me to refuse being spoon-fed like I was a damn baby, but my dry mouth and throat overruled it. So, I sucked the ice into my mouth. The moisture made me immediately feel better.
Then another thought occurred to me: Am I naked under this gown?
I tried to casually move my hand to my junk, something that was easier said than done with all the tubes connected to me.
Yeah, that’s what I thought. Naked.
Which meant my butt was on full display for all of Haven Springs to see every time I got out of bed.
“Why am I here?”
“You were shot in the thigh while rescuing my sister, and it nicked your femoral artery. You’re waking up from surgery. You’ve got a waiting room full of people anxious to see you.”
Ugh. I remembered getting shot, but not much else after that. I could only imagine what I said and did while I was under anesthesia.
One thing was certain; I didn’t want Jade to see me like this: helpless and weak.
“You can’t be my nurse,” I blurted out.
She cocked her head and furrowed her brows.
“That’s not something you really get a choice on.”
“No,” I insisted. “You have to recuse yourself. It’s a conflict of interest. I was shot rescuing your sister.”
“Nurses don’t ‘recuse’ themselves. This isn’t a court of law, Brian. Those rules don’t apply in the medical field. And if they did, how would providing you with care after you saved my sister be a conflict of interest?”
I didn’t know, still…
“I don’t care.”
She put her hand on her hip.
“What is your problem?”
“You’re my problem. I don’t want you to be my nurse!”
“And I’m telling you; you don’t have a choice.”
“I just got shot in the line of duty. Chad isn’t going to tell me no.”
Chad was the CEO of the hospital.
“Brian O’Shaughnessy—you are the most infuriatingly, handsome patient I’ve ever had!”
Her eyes got big, and she quickly tried to correct herself.
“Annoying! Infuriatingly annoying!”
I felt a grin form.
“You think I’m handsome, Sunshine?”
I can work with this.
“No. I told you, I think you’re annoying!”
“But you said handsome first.”
She turned on the ball of her foot and headed toward the door.
“Where are you going?”
Looking back, she eyed me up and down in my hospital bed.
“To find you a new nurse.”
“But I don’t want one, now.”
“Too bad. I want a new patient.”
****
Jade
Damn that man, and his chiseled jaw and dimpled cheeks. He had me all flustered like I was back in high school.
I was a professional, dammit. A grown-ass woman.
And to think, I’d volunteered to be his post-op nurse.
When he’d come out of surgery, “like a champ,” according to his surgeon, Dr. Tate, it felt like I could breathe again.
He’d been fortunate that Adam’s brother, Alan, a retired Marine who’d apparently been a badass during his service, had been on-scene and knew exactly what to do until help arrived.
Although, that part was apparently off the books, since Alan was not law enforcement and shouldn’t have been assisting Brian and Adam in the first place.
I knew when the doctor had shared the news with the anxious group in the waiting room because I heard a small cheer go up.
Brian had been born and raised in Haven Springs. Everybody knew him, and almost everyone liked him—judging by the overflowing waiting room. I’d be willing to venture that those who didn’t like him, he’d either arrested or dated.
And from what I remember, he’d dated a lot in high school. Although he’d been pretty hot and heavy with Sylvia Concannon the summer before I headed off to college. But when I moved home, Sylvia was my real estate agent, and her last name was Day.
Now the only gossip about Brian’s love life was his lack of one, and how every mom, grandma, and aunt in town wanted to fix him up with the single girl in their family. He was considered quite the catch.
Still, I had my suspicions that being in law enforcement had just taught him how to be covert about who he was messing around with.
One thing was certain—that wasn’t going to be me.
Brian was the guy who’d stay late to cover a shift without a second thought about canceling plans he’d already made with someone. The guy who meant it when he said he cared; he just cared about his job more.
His work took precedence over everything and everyone.
I’d been there, done that, and had promised myself I’d never do it again.
So, he could take his flirty smile, adorable dimples, and cute nicknames and shove them where the sun didn’t shine.