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I’m dying. Even though his body protested from the hike and his lungs still hurt from the thin air, he’d been riding high from his date with Lucy not six hours ago. He hoped the momentum of their affections would be enough to get him through the next four hours and he wouldn’t be beat-up exhausted from pushing himself so hard.
Her affection and the rescue inhaler he had to sneak back to take in the doctor call room would get him to seven in the morning.
How much longer can I do this?
Taking his thumb, he retraced where she’d kissed him until his lips were swollen and sore.
Damn, the woman was going to kill him with her passion for life. If they took that step, she might kill him in the most beautiful way possible.
Nothing like la petite mort.
He smirked. Guess I do know a few more French words.
Regardless, he dreaded how beat-up he’d feel after going to bed, but if working out in the mountains meant he got to hike more with Lucy, he was all for more physical therapy.
Cheerfully, he whistled as he exited the doctor’s call room, feeling the best he’d felt in months.
Lucy made the weight of his world lift and float away.
She’d given him something to care about again, something to hope for. Something to believe in.
“I cannot believe you.”
What?
Jade came around the corner, her hair pulled back in a loose, messy ponytail. Her makeup faded and splotchy. “I need to talk to you right now.”
Seeing his friend frazzled and frustrated worked as the perfect buzzkill. “It’s three in the morning, Jade. What are you doing here?”
“Were you whistling?” She glared at him then raised an eyebrow. “Like-I-just-got-laid whistling?”
He stifled a laugh. “What do you want, Jade?”
“I need to talk to you.”
“Okay.” This should be fun.
She walked next to him, her pace quick to keep up with his long strides. “You talked to Dr. Snootypants about me.”
“I did. Thanks for throwing me under the bus, Jade. Telling her your husband had a good reason to be jealous.”
Her rapid footsteps stopped. “She talked to you about that?”
Thomas turned a one-eighty and glared. “Yes, Jade. She did. I had to explain the entire situation to her. Thank God she believed me.”
Thank God her siblings believed him or that hike might not have happened.
That wonderful, sexy, exhilarating hike.
Jade scoffed, “Why do you care what she thinks? It’s not like... whistling?”
“Yeah, whistling.”
“If she’s so important to impress, why didn’t you just tell her everything?”
“Because I had this crazy idea that I wanted to respect your privacy. Not everyone knows your entire situation, but they know I’m your friend. I came here to help after you helped me.” He opened and closed his fists as he shifted his weight. “I wanted to let you tell her on your own terms what happened, but you’re too damned busy being pissed at her because she’s doing her job.”
“I don’t care what you tell her about my history. I couldn’t give a crap what she thinks of me.” She bit her lip as if she couldn’t quite believe he’d bitten back or that she’d snapped at him. “I’m sorry, Thomas. She flustered me with something. I guess it just fell out.”
“Hell of a way to be a friend, Jade.” Turning his back to her, he continued until he reached the central ER desk and scanned the patient board and charts. “Three patients. Nice.”
Luckily, the evening ER traffic stopped pouring in about two hours ago. Most had been treated and discharged with minor ailments like ear infections, allergic reactions, and easily repairable lacerations. Now, they were down to a chest pain, a sex injury, and the same croupy kid from a couple of days ago.
For an early Saturday morning, the unit had been unusually slow. Thomas didn’t dare say that out loud, though. One thing he never did while working in the ER was utter the words “it’s slow, dead, or we’re not busy”. If done, for certain, all hell would break loose within an hour.
“But I still need to talk to you,” Jade mumbled. “Privately.”
Sitting behind the desk, Nurse Dave Fletcher yawned as he read a...
“Dave, are you reading, what? A romance?” Thomas chuckled.
Without taking his eyes off the page, Dave nodded. “Sort of. It’s The Body Movers.”
“You sure that’s a good book to read in the ER? May not instill confidence in our clientele.”
“It’s a romantic comedy.”
Walking around the desk, Thomas held his hand out and Dave put the book in his palm. “I didn’t know you like rom-coms, Dave. Seems you’d be more of a thriller or blood and gore kind of guy.”
“I get enough blood and gore here. I want something that makes me laugh. Something that’s not constantly serious.”
“That’s one pink cover,” Jade commented. “The Body Movers by Stephanie Bond. Any good?”
“Pretty good. The romance part’s decent. Closest thing to reading a woman’s mind as there is, Dr. McAvoy. A romance novel.”
Giving Jade a sideways glance, Thomas asked, “Does it work?”
“I haven’t had any complaints.”
Medical assistant Sue Westbrook, Nurse Shelly Westbrook’s aunt, chuckled. “Sure, Dave. Sure.”
“Just doing my homework so I’m always ready for a test.” Dave shrugged. “Anything wrong with being prepared?”
“Not a thing, Mr. Boy Scout.”
“Where’s everyone else?” Thomas handed the book back.
“Lillian’s outside getting a smoke. Teresa’s in room one checking on the croupy kid. Allen is in the break room getting lunch.”
“I hope we can get this kid well. Sucks to be sick.” A four-year-old shouldn’t keep having stridor after epi treatments. He hoped this last one Respiratory Therapist Teresa Mason gave him would help him clear.
“Basically in a holding pattern right now, Dr. McAvoy.” Sue took a long drink from her Black Widow mug. “We’ll text you if we need you.”
One of the things Thomas loved about working in the ER had to be the people. Not the patients as much as the staff. It took a special personality to be ready for anything that walked through the door. The unpredictability of a shift and what patients would be seen presented its own chaos.
Strong and capable doctors, nurses, medical assistants, paramedics, respiratory therapists and anyone else on the team could be as chaotically unpredictable.
A rapid foot tapping only emphasized his point.
“I. Need. To talk. To you,” Jade mumbled through clenched teeth.
“Fine.” He pointed to an observation room. When they went in, closed the door, he leaned against the window where he could see any new patients being roomed. “You okay?”
“No, I’m absolutely not okay.” She paced. “I’m losing my mind.”
You just now figuring that out? “Why?”
“Junior isn’t talking to me.”
“Sorry to hear that.” Not that I should be worried about that. The sooner he gets out of your life, the better.
“No, you’re not.”
“You’re right. I’m not.” He ran his tongue across his well-repaired lip, thinking of how his lips and tongue made Lucy cry out his name but a few hours ago.
“He’s mad at me because I told him I planned to sell the place.”
That pulled Thomas’s attention away from his erotic memories. “You’re going to sell? When?”
“Isn’t that what I said?” Burying her face in her hands, she leaned against the wall. “I’ve lost so much money. I can’t believe how much I’ve lost.”
This would be a perfect time to tell her ‘I told you so’, but what would that accomplish? “Why the change of heart?”
“I have you to thank for that.”
“Me?” Movement caught his attention, but it was Teresa coming out of the croupy kid’s room. “Why me?”
“After him punching you and joking about it, I tried to excuse him. Then he made the comment about him getting to run his business without any permits or zoning changes as long as I owned the land, I knew this would never get better.” Fat tears ran down her ruddy cheeks. “And I know you don’t like him. You have every right to hate him, really, but he’s always talked to me. Even when I didn’t see him for long periods of time, we always spoke. Always helped each other. We have some great memories of sitting outside, laughing. Joking. Getting one another through tough times.”
Her voice dripped in sadness. Thomas hated he couldn’t fix this for her, help her more than simply listening. “I’m sorry, Jade.”
She tapped her front teeth, tears ran down her face. “And I think he’s into something bad. Really bad.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. It’s only a feeling.”
Her confession made his jaw clench so tight, it hurt. “Jade, you can’t keep the place because of your brother. The memories there. Get out of there.”
“I am and I will.” Her shoulders slumped as she sat on the end of the bed. “I feel like I’m letting him down. My dad down. Generations of my family down.”
His heart hurt for her, but Jade’s insistence for doing right by her irresponsible family had been one of her shortcomings. More than once, he’d tried to talk some sense into her, but she’d refused to listen. It had almost cost her and him their lives. “If your dad cared about that land and the house, he would have made sure it stayed in the family. He would have done something other than sit and let things rot around him, but from what you said, he gave up a long time ago.”
“I know. He did when he could, but after he lost his job and the cancer came into play... life went downhill for him.” She stomped her foot. “What’s wrong with me? I can’t quit upsetting people. My brother. Dr. Snootypants.”
“Me.”
“You.” She grabbed a box of Kleenex and used several to dry her face and blow her nose.
When she settled back in, Thomas asked, “Why were you even talking to her in the first place?”
Jade’s forehead puckered. “She didn’t say anything to you?”
“Other than your comment about your ex being jealous. No. Why?”
“She... didn’t... say anything?”
Worry slammed into Thomas’s brain, making his eye twitch. “Don’t do this to me, Jade. I’ve kept my promise and come here to help, but you can’t screw me over on this.”
“You like her, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“Does that mean you might stay in Marietta?”
Hearing someone else ask him what he wondered about himself hit him hard. “No, I don’t plan to stay.”
When the words were out of his mouth, he immediately regretted them.
What the hell?
Jade shook her head as though she were confused. “Does that mean she’s leaving? With you?”
“We’ve had one date.” One incredible date.
“Must have been a good date because you’re whistling.” She sniffled.
He didn’t want to talk about this now, especially not with her. Instead, he took a rule out of Jade’s How to be Avoidant Playbook. “Why did you ask if Lucy had talked to me?”
“No, no. It’s fine. Honestly. It’s going to be okay.” She waved him off and grabbed another Kleenex. “Sorry to bother you. I just couldn’t sleep.”
The angst in her voice didn’t offer him any comfort. “Why? What’s wrong?”
“That house is an icebox. Can I sleep in the doctor’s lounge?”
“You know I can’t let you do that.” He propped the head of the bed up and locked a bedrail in place. He motioned for her to lie down. “We’ll block this room off for you. There. Sleep in here for awhile.”
Her eyes welled with tears. “You’re a nice guy, you know that?”
“Don’t tell anyone. It’ll ruin my street cred.”
“You don’t have any street cred.” Jade quickly snuggled in as he found a pillow and pulled two blankets out of the warmer. As he threw it over her, she sighed. “Thomas, I’m exhausted.”
“Sleeping in a freezer would be draining.”
With fat tears rolling down her face, she sniffled. “I’m flat-out tired of fighting the men in my life. My dad. My brother. My husband.” Her breath hitched. “My dead husband.”
Damn. Her words made him flinch. “You didn’t have a choice, Jade. He was going to kill you. Both of us.”
She played with the hem of her shirt. “I could have chosen not to marry him. I could have left him the first time he hit me. I could have gotten him to believe there had never been anything between us.”
“He wasn’t going to believe anything you said.”
“But if I had tried harder.”
“Don’t do that to yourself.” Leaning against the doorframe, Thomas noticed how the sadness had drained all the hope from her eyes. “Jade, you can’t change what happened, but it was a damned brave thing you did.”
“I killed someone, Thomas. There’s nothing brave about that.”
“There is when you have everything to lose.” He pulled up a chair next to the bed.
“Look, I don’t think I can offer any true words of encouragement. I know you’re a strong woman and you deserve a hell of a lot more than what you’ve had so far in life, but unless you believe it, nothing’s going to change.”
For a long moment, she said nothing. Tears stained her clothes.
“What you need right now is sleep. Things will make more sense afterwards.” Standing, he patted her on the shoulder and turned out the light. “Take a nap in here. I’ll come wake you at seven.”
Before he shut the door, she asked, “Have I ruined everything?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, have I ruined everything in my life?”
“Jade, I haven’t seen anything you’ve done you can’t recover from.” At least what he knew about.
“I hope so.”
“Get some sleep, Jade.” He stepped back, but she called out to him again.
“Thomas?”
“Yes?”
“I’m glad she makes you whistle. You’ve needed to whistle for a long time.”
Without a word, he nodded and left the room because as much as Thomas loved to whistle, the fact he loved it scared him more than he cared to admit.
