Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
Cerise’s stomach dropped as the helicopter lifted off the ground, a sensation she still wasn’t used to.
All the trauma staff at the medical center had gone through a rigorous training process in preparation for the arrival of the life flight helicopter.
Not once during that training had anyone mentioned how a person’s body would react to the motion of the aircraft.
Glancing at the small screen monitoring the vitals of the woman they’d pulled out of the car, she said a prayer that the flight would be quick. The patient needed surgery, fast.
Working with Nadia in the ER was always an eye-opener, with the way she maintained her cool when chaos surrounded her.
Hell, Cerise had experienced it when she’d been injured herself in the tornado that ripped through Hunt the previous year.
A shudder trickled through her as the memory of almost dying slammed into her mind.
Tonight, though, Nadia had known exactly what to do to make sure the patient was given the best chance to survive.
The three of them—her, Nadia and Brodie from the Hunt VFD—had managed to pull off a miracle. Well, it would be a miracle, if the patient survived the night.
Shifting to get comfortable in the small helicopter seat, and determined not to think about her own brush with death, Cerise let her mind venture into the unusual reaction she’d had the first time she met Brodie’s eyes.
She’d just finished putting the brace around the patient’s neck when he’d let Nadia know he was ready for her to start lowering the seat.
Her job was to make sure that she kept the victim’s neck still and to monitor any change in her skin pallor.
But for a few seconds she’d lost her train of thought and her heart had sped up until it was beating about triple it’s normal rate.
After that initial eye contact, she’d kept her attention firmly off the handsome volunteer firefighter.
She didn’t know much about him, as she hadn’t gone into Hunt that often over the last few months.
The times she had ventured to town had been for the odd trivia night at the new and improved Buck’s Roadhouse, and Brodie for sure hadn’t been there.
No way would she have missed someone so attractive who had piercing blue eyes like he possessed.
But if she’d known he was around town, she may have made more of an effort to get to know him.
No. Her best friend in the whole world might be getting married, but she didn’t have time for a relationship.
Her focus was on something else—adoption.
Even Nadia didn’t know how serious she was about adopting a child.
Her friend thought it was something she may think about doing in the future. Like years down the track.
She wasn’t going to let a handsome firefighter distract her from her end goal, no matter how much her body reacted to him in a way she hadn’t had happen in her whole dating life.
A light touch on her arm pulled her focus back to the task at hand. Shit, she’d been so lost in her thoughts, anything could’ve happened to the patient.
Cerise looked and found Nadia studying her intently, before she pressed a button on her headset. “You okay?”
Wearing the headset gave the impression Nadia was whispering in her ear. It was kind of weird because if someone was going to whisper in her ear, she’d much prefer if it was Brodie.
Geez, she’d spent a harrowing forty minutes in a cramped space with the guy and they’d hardly spoken, but she’d been aware of his every move.
The guy shouldn’t take up as much headspace as he appeared to be doing.
Knowing that Nadia was still waiting for her answer, she pressed her button to be heard in Nadia’s ears. “I’m fine. Monitoring the patient.”
Nadia’s eyebrows rose, as if she didn’t believe Cerise’s claim.
So what if she’d told a little white lie?
She was now going to focus on the patient for the rest of the flight.
Plus it would keep her mind off a guy she shouldn’t be giving her attention to, or the fact that her stomach somersaulted with every little dip or turn the helicopter made. Give her a big Boeing jet any day.
Ninety minutes later, back in the hospital, after having turned their patient over to surgery, Cerise headed into the break room, exhaustion biting at her heels.
The large clock on the wall showed 3 a.m. She had another two hours before she could head home and collapse on her bed.
Although going home to an empty house didn’t appeal.
She missed having to watch where she stepped because Finn had left either his shoes or soccer ball on the ground.
Her heart ached for the little foster boy who’d lived with her off and on over the last few of months.
He needed stability in his life and he wasn’t getting it from the person he should’ve been—his aunt.
His only living relative. But Poppy treated him like he was a commodity that could be given back when it didn’t suit her to have him around.
And then repossess him when she decided she did want her nephew after all.
Cerise shook off the thoughts. Maybe this time Poppy would step up to the plate, accept the responsibility of being a good aunt, and give Finn the loving home he needed.
“I hear you and Boston had your first life flight emergency tonight?” She jumped at the sound of Mitch Alexander’s voice coming from behind her.
“Geez, Mitch, give a girl some warning.”
He laughed. “Sorry. I’ll try and make more noise next time.”
“You are so not sorry,” she grumbled back.
The man standing near her was a completely different person to the one she’d always known.
Nadia’s love and support had allowed him to face his demons from his time in the Army and get back to the job he was made for—being a surgeon.
The medical center was happy to have him on their staff.
It had been a very sad day when Nadia had moved out to live with him.
It had been then that she’d decided she would become a foster mom.
Sure, her hours didn’t make the task easy, but she worked around it and had a reliable babysitter on hand if she had to work the night shift.
“Nadia still in the ER?” he asked.
“Yeah. I’ve just come to grab a quick drink and then I’ll be back out there. They were bringing in more victims from the crash site.”
“I understand it was a pretty bad scene.”
Cerise thought back to the first look she got of the site from the air.
It was like something from a movie, with the flashing lights of first responders vehicles as well as the wreckage that was strewn across the road.
“Yeah, it was. There were two dead on the scene and we transported a critical patient.”
Mitch nodded as he grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. “She’s still in surgery, I believe.”
“It was touch and go there for a while in the car.” She thought about how the three of them worked well together, as if they’d been doing it for years. “Brodie was a great help. Hunt VFD has lucked out with him on the team.”
“Oh, I wondered if Dice would be there. Makes sense he was called in, seeing he was a paramedic.”
“Dice? And was a paramedic?”
“Brodie. I call him Dice. And he works on my parents’ dude ranch now, but before he came to us, he was a paramedic.”
There was a bit of information there for her to decipher. Now Brodie’s calm demeanor in the face of a highly charged situation made sense. If he’d been a paramedic, he would’ve seen quite a bit of action. But why was he on a dude ranch now?
Cerise shook her head. She didn’t need to know, but she latched onto the one thing that had always intrigued her. “What is it with you guys and nicknames?”
“It’s something we do. I mean it’s pretty standard in the military to give out nicknames. Some guys’ names can be a mouthful, so it’s easier to come up with something shorter.” He swallowed some more water. “Just like you like glitter. We all have our thing.”
Cerise narrowed her eyes and placed her hands on her hips. “Watch it, Mitchell. You don’t disparage glitter and not expect consequences.”
Mitch laughed and held up his hands. “I surrender. Don’t glitter bomb me.”
Cerise joined in the laughter. “Because you’re engaged to my best friend, I’ll give you another chance.”
He brushed a hand across his forehead. “Phew. I would hate to perform a surgery on someone and then leave a glitter trail inside of them.”
“Yeah, probably not a good look.” A wave of tiredness swept over her and her side began to ache—a constant reminder of her past injury. She pushed it aside. She had another couple of hours to get through and then she could go home, soak in a bath, and collapse into bed.
“And speak of the devil, how you doing, Dice?”
With her back to the door, she hadn’t realized a newcomer had arrived. Not to mention it was the person she and Mitch had been talking about. For some inexplicable reason her heart rate kicked up a notch and the pain in her side seemed to fade away.
“Tired, Mitch, but it’s a good tired.”
Knowing she was being rude by standing there with her back to him, she gripped her water a little tighter before turning, keeping her gaze on a spot over his shoulder.
She wasn’t sure she was ready to make eye contact, not after almost losing her composure in the car when their gazes connected the first time.
“Hello again, Brodie.” Good, her voice was steady and strong.
“Hey, Cerise. Any news on our victim?” He walked a little farther into the room.
“She’s still in surgery from what I understand.” The closer he got to her, the more she couldn’t avoid looking directly at him. The second she did, a buzzing sounded in her ears and her skin prickled in awareness.
What the heck is going on with me?
Seconds ticked by as she and Brodie continued to look at each other. Finally a clearing of a throat penetrated the fog that seemed to have surrounded her. She pulled her gaze away from Brodie and over to Mitch, who was watching the byplay between the two of them with interest.
Great. He’d tell Nadia and then she would ply her with twenty questions, but Cerise couldn’t explain anything to her best friend when she didn’t understand it herself.
“Well, I need to get back to it. I’ll see you later, Cerise.”
“Later, Mitch.”
“Dice, I’ll probably see you out at the ranch. Nadia and I are coming over for a late breakfast once we finish our shift here.”
“Sounds good, Mitch.”
Mitch walked out of the room. Then it was just the two of them and the air around them seemed to thicken. So clichéd but also the truth.
Her knees locked together as Brodie walked toward her. “You have a little something,” he reached out and brushed his thumb gently across her cheek. The tingles returned to her skin, but only in the area he touched.
He held his thumb up to the light and she could see the sparkle from the tiny spec. “Glitter? I’m surprised you’re allowed to wear glitter in the ER,” he murmured.
Normally, she was never short of a word or snappy comeback, but somehow, right this second, her mind was blank like a white board at the end of the school year. All she could concentrate on was the tender touch and how strong and handsome he looked.
In the confines of the smashed vehicle, she hadn’t been able to see that he was quite tall. His shoulders were broad and she could easily imagine him decked out in tight jeans, a nice button-down shirt, wearing boots and a cowboy hat.
She took a deep breath and a step back, which was enough to jolt her mind into action. “It’s only a sliver of glitter. I’ve yet to leave any on a patient.”
“Good to know. I like it,” he said, with a smile that crinkled his eyes and showcased a dimple hiding in his cheek.
God, she was a sucker for a dimple. “Thanks. Glitter is life. You can never have too much of it.”
Crap on a cracker. Did I really say that out loud?
Brodie laughed at the same time as the radio clipped to his belt crackled to life. “I’ll take your word for it. See you around, Sparkles.”
Her insides warmed at the nickname he bestowed upon her. “Bye, Dice.”
The farewell popped out of her, as natural as breathing. Okay then, maybe she could call him by his nickname. And she really did hope she would see him again.