Page 21 of Offside Attraction

Rhonda sank into her, the tension in her shoulders instantly easing. “Got it.”

Penny smacked her hip as she pulled back, then waved on her way to pick up her purse from the bench in the entryway. Rhonda waited just long enough for her to disappear into the mudroom, then raced into the guest bedroom like she was a sixteen-year-old who tricked her parents into letting her skip school.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out the napkin, then wrestled her phone from its charger on the nightstand. She tapped on a new text message, her fingers hovering over the numeric keypad.

This was for work.Jordan had a connection there at the hospital, and she didn’t have to go through the Elite League boards or anyone on the Snowballs to get in touch with him. Nobody on the team would blame her for accidentally meeting him at work, just like they didn’t hold it against Penny when she’d treated him before she’d been wrapped into the family fold.

Rhonda typed the number, then jumped when her phone vibrated in her hand. A text from Penny with the garage code. And Aaron’s number. She swiped out of that conversation and went back to her new message and began to type.

This message is for Jordan Wheatfill. Checking if this is still your number? This is Rhonda. If you don’t remember me, I was a recent patient—food allergy.

She didn’t want to say too much in case she was texting a random stranger, but needed to give him enough info that he wouldn’t just delete it. Though remembering her didn’t guarantee he wouldn’t ignore it. What had she said to him when she’d gotten out of his truck? Something about how she was glad he didn’t live locally because he wastoo tempting?

How embarrassing. It was bad enough she’d had to see him at the bar after that, realizing that he’d known who she was that night and not said a word, but now he had the genuinely horrifying image of her sitting on a hospital bed, sweating through her shirt, with a face reminiscent of Quasimodo’s half-sister.

Rhonda pressed send. She didn’t have a better option. She’d been working for years to find a connection there, and somehow Bailey Winters, the rep for TheraNova had gotten their version of Cardivex in last spring instead of hers. It had performed worse in clinical trials, and they were only offering half of what Cantra would’ve given for inpatient benefits and rebates. When she sent that information to Rocky Ridge, she received a one-line reply.

Dr. Mallory isn’t available at this time.

It was the same response she’d gotten every six months when she dutifully responded to her calendar alert. Dr. Mallory was never available. Unless you were TheraNova.

At least they didn’t have an answer to Reviact, but she’d still had no luck getting in for a presentation. Dr. Mallory had also been notably absent at the luncheon she’d held for other chiefs of pharmacy and therapeutics. Jordan was the first lead she’d had in ages, and regardless of their history, she had to take it.

Maybe the night before would make things better, not worse. All that giving-her-his-number-at-the-bar energy was probably so far gone he’d be shocked to see her text him. She could show up and make a few connections with the nurses he knew, and he’d be happy to pass her off.

Too many coincidences. She couldn’t ignore the cosmos.

Her phone buzzed.

Looks like you found me

Chapter

Six

Jordan

Jordan wrappedup the last of his shift at the nurse’s station, feeling that late-afternoon drag settle in. It always took him a solid week to recover from a night shift, but he couldn’t say no when he knew how short-staffed they were, and it didn’t affect his team.

Clipboard in hand, he jotted down a quick set of vitals for a final patient, then tossed the pen back in its holder. He logged off the computer, mentally checking off his list: patient files updated, meds double-checked for the next shift, his station cleared. All of it was so routine, he didn’t have to leave his head to get it right.

And inside his head was all Rhonda. If she’d been serious in their text conversation that morning, she should be arriving any minute. He glanced up, scanning the lobby and ER intake area for the hundredth time.

He’d thought all afternoon about what it meant that his stomach felt like he’d swallowed a packet of Pop Rocks. Gertie, the shift coordinator, had already commented on how frequently he was checking his phone when he rarely took it out of his pocket on normal days.

How could Rhonda think that he wouldn’t remember her? Had she been that out of it the night before that she hadn’t noticed the hints he’d been trying to send?

Jordan turned, flicked on the shredder, and started shoving in papers from the top of the trash pile. They’d moved to a digital record system years ago, but this stack was all the old records that were still being transitioned when old patients came back for a visit.

She wasn’t out of his system. That was all he knew for certain. Every time he saw her, it was like he’d been standing in a dim room, and someone suddenly flicked on the lights.

But what did that mean? Was he intrigued? Was his mind trying to make sense of the fact that she didn’t want to hook up again after the two explosive nights they’d had? Or was he feeling a bit insecure since she’d made it clear at the bar that the team he played for trumped any connection they had. Could it have been as good as he thought if she was able to shut it down that fast?

No. It’d been good.

He replayed the moment she’d left his truck that night in the parking lot.“It’s a good thing you don’t live locally. This would be too tempting.”

He reached for another stack of paper and shoved it into the metal teeth. Rhonda had contacted him to get to Dr. Mallory. She’d had that napkin with his number on it for months and hadn’t used it until now.

---