Page 1 of Room One Hundred and Nineteen: Watching Her

PROLOGUE

DR. JOSHUA ‘JOSH’ SILVER

Iknew exactly where she was headed. I followed her. It was wrong on so many levels, but I couldn’t stop. I wasn’t even going to try.

Standing on the sidelines had not been easy.

Watching her.

Wanting her.

Craving her.

The only thing that brought me solace was the knowledge I wasn’t alone. My best friends were like brothers to me. More than the strangers I shared blood with, that was for sure. We’d seen it all, been through thick and thin, and no matter what, we stuck like glue. That’s why our little setup and situation was a little more, well, let’s say complicated.

She sat at a table at the far end of the cafeteria. The one that faced the floor-to-ceiling window and looked out toward the lush greenspace surrounding the Seattle hospital. The day was shockingly clear for once. But if you saw Elena Flores’ face, you would think there was a thunderstorm brewing out there. Worry and sadness etched her features.

I didn’t have to look behind me to know Rick Montoya was behind me, his eyes pinned on the woman of our dreams.

“She okay?” he asked in his deep voice, low enough so only I could hear. My gaze dropped to the floor then back to her.

“What do you think?” I asked quietly.

The seconds beat away, but we didn’t move. I doubt we fucking blinked. But then again, Elena did that to us. Captivated us, enthralled us in the most visceral, primal way possible. Her dark eyes focused outside in a distant look that told me she was totally zoned out, trying to calm her breathing.

“It was a tough call for her,” he noted. I grunted. “She should go home,” Rick clipped under his breath. If only it were that easy. Our woman was a stubborn one. Not that she even knew that she was ours.Yet,a voice chimed up.Yet,it repeated with hope. We had to play it smart. Our situation was different than most. Not just any woman, much less a single mom, would take up with three guys.

“You know she won’t be that easy to convince,” I warned, not that I had to. Rick knew her as well as I did.

“I know,” he muttered. “But we have to try.”

“I know,” I confirmed.

Ever since we started to work at the hospital and met the stern beauty who was our sweet little ER nurse, Elena had driven us mad. I could still remember that first day. There had been some kind of mandatory meeting for all the emergency room staff, and when she walked in, my hand immediately fisted at my side. Stark awareness of her and who she would one day become shot right through me. But the timing hadn’t been right. It still wasn’t. And that fucking killed.

“Where is Miles?” I asked.

“Where do you think?” Rick grunted.

“Working on Nurse Ratchet to help get Elena time off?” I guessed.

“Yup.” Yeah, the three of us were in sync when it came to taking care of our woman.

“Good.” I swallowed, my hand clenched at my side.Soon,I promised myself. Soon, we would be able to hold her close. Comfort her the way we wanted. The way we were meant to. The way she needed us to.

But it wasn’t time yet.

We were still sorting shit out with setting up our private practice. We needed to make sure her ex-douchebag husband couldn’t touch her or her kids. Not only was Elena ours, but her four-year-old twins were, too.

Men like us, like Miles, Rick and I, weren’t your typical doctors.

We’d seen too much. Had been through too much to be normal. We came as a team, in and out of the hospital. We figured out our friendship, one that had begun in sand-filled battlefields as medics, was different a long time ago. We had no qualms with it. We had come to terms with the way we operated a long time ago. We just hoped we could one day talk Elena into giving us a chance.

She was a single mom of two kids and had a lot on her shoulders. People would most definitely talk about our unorthodox arrangement, that was a given. Being a woman, she would be the one who would take the brunt of that, and maybe because of that, we had stuck to the sidelines so long.

To try and spare her.

To try and not feel what we felt for her.

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