Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69807 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69807 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
The medicine I’d given him would kick in quickly, I just had to wait for it to calm him down.
“What?” His eyes went huge. “That’s so cool. I didn’t know that anyone had our name but me! And sometimes my momma calls my dad Chevy. His real name is Ford, though. Not nearly as cool as Chevy.”
The two parents across the room in their chairs, looking nervous as all fuck, grinned despite their feelings.
“Chevy is always the superior name,” I agreed. “Back to going to sleep. You don’t have any red hair under that cap, do you?”
He narrowed his eyes. “What’s wrong with red hair?”
“Nothing,” I replied, noting his sudden fierceness. “Only, sometimes when you have red hair, you react to sleepy stuff way differently. Redheads are kind of special.”
He yanked off his cap and I saw his blonde hair.
“Nope, no red in sight,” I said. “Did you dye your hair before you came?”
He wrinkled his nose. “No, my momma used to do that. And Dad says that it’s a lot of money. So I’ll probably never do it.”
“Good,” I said. “I hear that it fries some of your brain cells each time you do it.”
The woman across the room snorted.
The dad outright laughed.
I leaned into him, my hands on my knees, and said, “Do you have any questions for me?”
“Can I bring my stuffed animal?” he asked, raising it up from the bed.
It was a brown bear that looked like it’d seen better days. “I don’t see why not.”
He grinned, and the corners of his smile were wonky.
Excellent.
Exactly what I wanted.
Patting his thigh, I said, “I’ll see you in just a little bit, okay?”
“Yeah.” He sounded high.
Perfect.
I stood up and offered my hand to both parents again. “You have any questions?”
The mom leaned into the dad and said, “No. Thank you.”
I winked at her and left the room, finding Aella at the door of the room ready to get the patient wheeled back to me.
I winked at her and headed for the OR.
Time to get to work.
Eleven
It’s like these kids see the room clean and think, “Absolutely not.”
—Text from Aella to Silver
AELLA
I wouldn’t admit this, but I watched for him to come out of surgery for half the morning.
When he finally did, the butterflies in my belly started to fly.
I quickly looked away, focusing on filling up my cart in the supply closet and not at his overwhelmingly handsome form.
This was the way it went for me.
I looked at him when I could do it in a way that he wouldn’t be looking, or noticing, and I ran away when he got too close.
Honestly, I was surprised that I handled myself as well as I did last night and this morning.
I must’ve been high on adrenaline or something.
When I noticed that he was coming my way and not stopping at the nurses’ station, I promptly dropped an entire box of four-by-fours on the floor.
“Shit,” I said as I hunched down.
I could feel him getting closer despite the fact that I was doing everything in my power not to look at him.
I’d just picked up a handful of four-by-fours when I heard the yelling.
If the way that Chevy dealt with the young boy in room three didn’t do my heart in, the way he picked up his niece and whirled her around would have.
“Unca Evy!” the little girl cried.
Catalina.
His brother, Cutter’s, daughter.
I’d seen her before, of course.
Cutter, Keely and Copper came to the hospital all the time—though Copper was the most recent brother to start visiting, and I was still curious as hell to know where he’d been this entire time.
One day, maybe I’d have the courage to ask Chevy.
Until then, my mind made up elaborate dreams that were likely really far from the truth.
“There’s my girl.” I watched as Chevy bent down, picked up the young toddler, and threw her high in the air.
The mother, who’d been about halfway down the hallway, let out a squeak.
“Chevy,” Milena gasped as she placed her hand over her heart. “Don’t do that.”
“It’s fine, Mil,” Chevy teased as he brought the young girl close and blew raspberries on the side of her neck.
“We ame to swee woo.” The little girl threw both of her hands onto Chevy’s face and squeezed.
“I can see that,” Chevy replied. “You’re lucky you didn’t miss me. I just got out of surgery.”
I loved that he talked to her like a grownup.
I loved even more the look in his eyes when he stared adoringly down at the little girl.
“We had her two-year checkup today, and she demanded that we come see you,” Milena said. “I didn’t even know if you were working today.”
“I’m off tomorrow through Friday,” he said. “Then I work the entire weekend.”
My schedule.
A delighted shiver went down my spine.
Though I wasn’t supposed to work this weekend, the charge nurse, Dru, had asked me if she could rearrange my schedule because a tech had quit. I’d agreed, and now I was really glad that I did.