Page 2 of Heartless Pucker in Love

Asshole.

He chuckled. “Sorry, you look and sound like you’ll live so I couldn’t help messing with you a little.”

The wail of a siren pierced the night. “Hang on, Julian. We’ll get you to the nearest hospital.”

Blowing out a breath, I laid there and embraced the pain. Even then, she appeared. Damn, why couldn’t I get her picture out of my head?

2

APRIL

I was bored out of my mind...which was a great problem to have in the emergency room if I really think about it. That meant no one had come in gravely injured, dying, or already dead. There usually weren’t many crazy emergencies coming into Oakland General Hospital on weekdays or nights. This Wednesday night was uneventful. So, I leaned on the counter at the nurses' station and brainstormed fundraising ideas.

I was fighting tooth and nail to save my baby, a free nursing home for those unable to afford the fancy expensive ones. It was an idea I pitched to Mayor Greggs a few years ago, and he actually ran with it. He was a good guy, but without funding, his good-heartedness could only do so much. Without money to run the place, it was about to be shut down.

“A bake sale,” I murmured. “No, that’s so overdone.” Oakland might as well be bake sale central. There was a bake sale for everything. However, the people could only consume so much banana bread and muffins. Plus, I didn’t want to put any pressure on my sister, Tessa. She always got stuck in the kitchen doing all the heavy work when one of us girls wanted to participate in one of the many bake sales. The rest of us weren’t lazy. It’s just that cooking and baking was Tessa’s forte. I sucked. I could turn the simple task of toasting bread into a disaster for heaven’s sake. Tessa once told me it was a good thing I’m pretty because the man I’m with won’t mind that I’m a terrible cook.

I rolled my eyes at the memory. The man I’m with. As if I wanted to be in a relationship. That irritating stir of longing happened in my gut, and I scowled. Do I want to be with someone? Blowing out a breath, I shook my head. No. No, I don’t. However, there was the annoying flicker of uncertainty rising up again. My scowl deepened because I could see my other sister, Cassandra, smirk in my mind. Out of the five Bennet girls, Cassandra was the most sarcastic and the brattiest.

She once caught me looking at a bridal magazine and accused me of being a closet romantic. I adamantly denied the accusation, and we proceeded to have a childish verbal battle over it. I was not a secret romantic. I was mooning over the stupid magazine because I liked the styles of some of the dresses. I did not want to get married. A man was required for me to do that, and I did not want one of those.

I harrumphed. Realizing that I was getting heated over the memory of my bratty sister’s taunting, I shook my head. “You’re so much better than this, April,” I said before taking a deep breath and returning to my typical, calm nature.

“Talking to yourself again, April? You need more friends.”

“You mean other than the likes of you, Cathy? No way.”

Cathy Anderson, the charge nurse and the captain of our emergency room ship, cackled. Her weathered skin crinkled and momentarily, amusement overshadowed her unhappiness. She was older than I was by about a decade, and she was a hard-ass, smart-mouthed skeptic. However, she was one of my closest friends, apart from my sisters and my old pal Margaret. Okay, she was one of my two friends who weren’t blood-related. I didn’t do well with making friends. It had been that way since I was a kid. My social awkwardness made it hard. I had this habit of turning into a stuttering mess when I got anxious, and talking to most people made me anxious. Therefore, I limited my conversations to my family and the few people I could comfortably interact with.

“I mean it, kid, you need to socialize more.”

“I socialize plenty.”

“I mean with others who are not patients, your sisters…or animals.”

Lips pursed, I gaze at the vital signs monitor across the room. Shrugging, I muttered, “Plenty of people talk to animals. It’s normal.” My gaze dropped to the pristine white tiles of the ER. “Perfectly normal.” Besides, animals didn’t judge.

“Uh-huh. You’ll have to get over high school at some point, April.”

“Can’t. I’m the same quirky loser who gets along better with animals and plants than people so…”

Cathy rolled her eyes. “Yeah, okay. I’m heading outside for a smoke.”

“That stuff will kill you. You should know, you’re a nurse,” I said before she could leave the room.

She spun around and smirked at me. “Doctors and nurses make the worst patients, you know that. Besides, it’s better to die by nicotine than by the stress of a divorce.” With that, she strolled out, her blonde ponytail bobbing behind her.

Sighing, I stared at my friend’s back and shook my head. Cathy had been through the wringer lately after her husband filed for divorce. “Irreconcilable differences.” How is that even a thing? Surely, things can be resolved without a legal shitshow after fifteen years of marriage, right? There were two sweet innocent kids involved for crying out loud.

“Exhibit C of why I do not want a relationship,” I muttered to myself. Exhibit A would be my parents’ crazy, toxic rollercoaster ride of a marriage, which resulted in my father ditching his five daughters to get away from his wife. Or maybe he wanted to get away from us too. My heart sank a little at the thought, but I quickly shook off the sadness.

Exhibit B would be my friend Margaret’s relationship. She was eighty-three and still hadn’t gotten over her ex-fiancé, Bert, who stole all her money and skipped town. What an asshole. But that was thirty years ago, before I was born, and she was still miserable over it. I’d much rather avoid the pain and trouble by staying single, thank you very much.

At least my sister, Lucy, hit the jackpot in the relationship department. Her fiancé, Nic, was awesome. He’d never pull the shady shit all of us Bennet girls were afraid of. Finding Mr. Right was probably a one-in-a-million chance though.

Speaking of Nic, the double doors slid open, and he appeared. When he spotted me, he smiled. I returned the smile, but it dropped when two EMTs appeared behind him pushing a stretcher. “And here I thought there would be no action tonight,” I murmured. Reaching for my stethoscope, I hurried to meet the small group.

“Hey, April,” was all Nic said before he stepped aside.

---