Page 85 of Tulips and Lost Time

CLEO

“So your plan was to…” Just like Blake did back then, Jess inhales and fills her cheeks, shaking her head in surprised exasperation. “You were just walking in and setting up camp, no matter that no one wanted you there?”

“She wanted me there. She just wouldn’t admit it yet because she was in pain and her stubborn streak made it impossible. But I’d known her for more than half my life at that point. I knew who she was beneath the words she spoke.”

“Also known as disrespecting a woman’s clearly spoken boundaries,” Kane chuckles. “Smooth and effective, like a battering ram and ten men breaching a door.”

“I’m typically a fierce advocate for boundaries and respect. I was raised with too many women around for me not to be. But Kari was saying no to what I knew would be our entire lives together. And she was saying no because she was scared.”

“So you considered it your job to talk her around?” Kane’s lips curl a little higher on the left. “Gentle encouragement.”

“Battering ram style.”

Iwait in the hall just outside the emergency department on Kari’s first day. Her first shift. The first hour of what she worked so hard to achieve. And with my radio pinned to my shirt, my hands in my pockets, I kick one ankle over the other and grin as doctors and nurses and patients wander by.

Yes, I have a job to do.

Yes, I should be on the bus with Mitch.

No, we don’t have any active call-outs right now.

Yes, I have my radio turned up and my ears pricked. If I need to go, I’m only ten seconds away. But until then…

“You’re a stage three creep at this point.” Mitch comes around the corridor corner and looks me up and down with a smile. He’s in a uniform just like mine. Cargo pants with more pockets than we can count, and a navy button-up shirt with a patch on the shoulder, his name sewn above the breast pocket. In the winter, we would have high-vis jackets, and hats that cover our ears. But this summer is still holding on, so even in just shirts, we still sweat. “She’s working, Lenaghan. She doesn’t need you hovering around and throwing her off her game.”

“I haven’t let her see me yet.” I fold my arms and grin. “I can hear her, though. I know she’s doing the job. Janey’s giving her the tour.”

“They have time.” If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Mitch comes to stand on my left, his shoulder almost touching mine and his fresh aftershave hitting my senses. Then he presses his back to the wall and settles in. “Things are pretty chill around town right now. So until we get busy, she won’t be busy.”

“I like that she gets a minute to breathe. She’s worked her ass off for this, so she deserves to be eased in, so to speak.”

“What about that other guy she’s supposedly dating? He here?”

“He doesn’t have a job yet.” I angle my head forward and glance along the hall when the ED doors swing open. A fleet of doctors finishing their rounds stream out, but Kari doesn’t move with them. And she doesn’t hover by the door where I can get a glimpse.

Which is both good and bad.

“Kari got her job because she has a history in this town, she graduated at the top of her class, and she aced her NCLEX. Blake is an implant from the city, doesn’t have a foster brother as chief of police, and the dude failed his exams… twice.”

“Doesn’t make him bad at his job,” Mitch mediates. “Maybe he just doesn’t test well.”

“Maybe. But the data is the data, and for right now, he’s unemployed. He’ll probably land one soon. It’s not like folks are flocking to this town and locking themselves down.”

“Yay us,” he chuckles. “We get the cast offs and flunkies because no one else wants the job.”

“Nah.” I peer across and grin. “We get Kari, the cream of the crop who could work in any hospital in the country, but she chooses to be here with us. Come on.” I tap his arm and push away from the wall. “Rounds are complete, which means she’s likely to come out that door soon. I don’t wanna be here when she does.”

“Afraid she’ll kick your ass back outside where you belong?”

I scoff. “Afraid I’ll pick a fight on her first day and land her with a lecture from Nurse Janey. Kari and I aren’t… getting along right now.”

He laughs. “Ya think?”

“She and I tend to shout at each other when we’re in the same space.” Then she cries. And fuck, but I don’t want more of her tears on my conscience. “I don’t want to get her in trouble.”

“Ambulance three,” a voice crackles over the radio. “This is dispatch. Motor vehicle accident on Third and Grey.”

“Shit.” I grab my radio and take off toward the ambulance bays out back. Pressing the button on the side, I respond, “Ambulance three responding. ETA four minutes.”

---