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Kelsey
Kelsey flipped through the pages of the shift schedule, worry mounting with each turn. Her shifts had been cut back even more. The hospital hired three new nurses followed by a decline in patient admissions due to a new hospital had been added across town. As a part-timer, Kelsey's hours were filled last. Thought it was something she was forced to deal with, it also couldn’t have come at a worse time.
“Is everything okay?” One of the new nurses leaned back in her chair, chewing on a cheese stick and yawning.
“I'm good. It's just hours are tight.” Kelsey grabbed her backpack and pulled out the mail she’d taken from her apartment mail slot before she left for work. She was behind on about five days’ worth of mail. The call from the nursing home had jogged her memory.
The woman agreed. “I know what you mean. Finding a job in this town has been hard. Three different nursing schools within twenty miles of each other? I don't know how you guys do it. I was told I’d be able to get a job within days of graduation. I’ve been looking for six months.”
Kelsey didn't answer. The logo for the school she wanted to get into for the nurse practitioner degree flashed from the corner of an envelope. And it was a big envelope.
They didn't send rejections in big envelopes.
Her hands shook as she opened the letter, thinking that maybe she would be admitted in the January course the following year. She could definitely use the chance to save up some money. It was too late in the application process to get accepted for that starting semester.
Slowly, she pulled out the papers. The soft rustle whispered under the other nurse’s droning voice.
The ink blurred as Kelsey focused on words that said, “You’ve been accepted. Please, have your down payment and other fees for the first semester submitted by June 30.”
June 30? That was in just under a month. How was she ever going to be able to get that kind of money? It wasn't a measly hundred dollars either. Her financial aid wouldn't go through for a good six months. She had to wait for the other financial aid that she filed for to come through. Who knew when that would happen?
Maybe she wouldn't be able to get into the school she needed to. Unfortunately, the program was so competitive to get into, it was now or never.
A beep called her to JT's room. She didn't feel like doing anything, even seeing him. She wanted to wallow in her stress and she didn’t want him to see her at her worst. She felt deflated. The news of her grandmother had been hard enough, but being unable to properly care for her and no longer able to attend her dream school due to the ever-decreasing hours was destroying her.
In the end, she decided to anyway. Taking care of the patients was her job and seeing JT was the only positive thing she could picture for her day.
She pasted on a fake smile when she entered the room. Though her smile was forced, the butterflies in her stomach when he looked at her were decidedly real. More than half the vases and balloons were gone from his room. An orderly pushed the door open behind her and left the room with a vase in each hand.
“Are you really giving them away?” Her fake smile began to reflect genuine happiness. Only a good guy would think of others after she only mentioned it once.
“Of course. I don’t need them and it would be a shame for them to go to waste.” He pulled his jacket on, zipping up the front before settling into the seat of the wheelchair that waited by his bed.
Kelsey’s eyes widened. She hadn’t looked carefully at his chart. “They’re discharging you?” Her fake smile returned and this time she tried not to glare. Nothing was going her way.
“Okay, what's going on? I haven't known you more than a week, but I can tell that face means something's up. I don't usually get fake smiles from pretty girls.” JT drew his eyebrows together. The bruises on his face had changed to a light purple-green, which made his other injuries, like the sling on his arm, more noticeable.
She smiled tightly, grabbing his chart. “I’m fine. You called?”
He looked fine. JT wasn’t the type of guy to call a nurse in to chat about the weather. Whatever it was, it would most likely be the last time they talked. Celebrity athletes didn’t exactly hang out in hospitals for fun.
Kelsey didn’t want to acknowledge her feelings of loss that he was finally being released. He shouldn’t have even been admitted. She understood the need for extra precautions, but she was acting like a baby when she’d had a chance to get to know him and she shouldn’t have even had that.
JT stopped moving and angled his head to see her better. “I want you to tell me what's going on.”
She didn’t have any friends. Not real friends. She didn’t have anyone to talk to about anything. The need to talk to someone was suddenly stronger than the desire to keep things private. Kelsey dropped the chart and slumped against the hard plastic of the hospital bed.
“Do you really want to know? Because I have a lot I could say.” Would telling him hurt anything? They’d never see each other again. The chance to vent to a living person might do her some good.
He folded his arms and settled into the wheelchair, his feet resting on the metal platforms. “Try me.”
Something in the way he said it, and the way he tilted his head to the side, convinced her she could say something. She could say anything and he wouldn’t judge her.
Maybe he wouldn’t see her as the failure she knew she was.
Heaving a deep breath, she gathered her courage. “I have to get my grandmother out of the nursing home tomorrow. I don’t make enough money for her to stay there anymore. For her to stay anywhere. She has advanced dementia, so she has to be watched round the clock. I can’t leave her alone.” She swallowed back her tears. He’d only asked what was going on, but if she stopped speaking, she wouldn’t be able to start again.
“I don't have the money to pay for a nurse or to stay with her. My hours were cut here at the hospital, so I’m only going to work one day a week. I need to make a lot more than that to pay for... life.” She closed her eyes. “Between rent, my grandmother's care, food, and everything else, my bank account is severely anemic.”
She laughed derisively as she realized another impossibility with her situation. “My studio apartment is up four flights of stairs, no elevator, and a cherry on top? I just found out that I got into the best nurse practitioner’s program in the country, but I have no way to pay for it.”
Kelsey wrinkled her nose and tried to wave off her problems. “It all comes down to money. Right? You with your sponsors and me with... everything else.” She folded her arms, blinking back tears. Then her tone softened. “Thank you for letting me vent. I actually do feel a lot better.” Should she be ashamed for ranting? Or was it one of those things that was okay because they were sharing from both sides?
JT studied her with intense blue eyes. “Well, actually that is what I called you for. I saw you walk in while the doors were swinging open and shut with the flowers going out. All the flowers...” He shifted in the chair, sighing. “I ramble when I’m nervous.” He cleared his throat.
What could he be nervous about? He lifted his hand and then dropped it back to his lap. “You know about my sponsor problem. I’m trying to quit my career as an AMA motocross racer. I want to go freestyle. But, if I don't race in the next three weeks, I’ll lose my sponsorships and those are the ones that will pay for me to get into the freestyle competition. So, I need to not only race in Salt Lake City, I need to place. The doctors, however, won't clear me for another five weeks.”
JT pressed his lips together and watched her. He rubbed his hand on his leg. “Which is where I think you come in.”
Kelsey listened closely. She didn’t know how she could help him. She wasn’t a doctor and she didn’t work miracles.
“I want you and your grandmother to move into my downstairs mother-in-law suite. It’s a huge house and it's all mine. My dad left with some money. Not all of it, but enough that he thinks he did. I had the locks changed while I’ve been in here, so the house is secure.” He smiled, as if trying to convince her. “You need a job that pays, right? I’ll hire you as my physical therapist and you can work around your schooling. I’ll even pay for a nurse for your grandmother.”
“But I’m not a physical therapist.” Kelsey bit her lip. The things he promised her weren’t possible. They were everything she needed, but that didn’t add up. She never got what she needed.
“I know that, but they’ll give me some exercises to do at home and I need help with every day things. You could help me with that.” JT leaned toward her.
“What’s the catch?” she asked. There was always a catch. She couldn’t just go with him.
A side smile curved his lips. “The catch is... I need you to be hard-core and get me where I need to be, just like yesterday when you didn’t let me quit. Instead, you made it possible for me to do what I wanted. I need that. I need someone to really push me. Enough spoiling me.” A hint of desperation glinted in his gaze, triggering Kelsey’s caretaking instincts.
He needed someone to push him? Or was it just a pity offer? There were too many benefits for her to worry so much, but her pride wouldn’t survive a pity deal. Especially from someone she struggled desperately to keep her attraction under control.
She didn’t have anywhere to put her grandmother that was safe. She didn’t even have a comfortable place for the older woman, if it’d been on the ground floor. Kelsey couldn’t do what she needed to without the offer he placed before her.
She had to keep the question in the forefront of her mind. Could she do the job? Of course, she could. She was dang good at what she did.
Did Kelsey care if her pride was thrust to the side? Could she afford to care?
