Page 40 of Passion Restored

Her performance reviews were stellar, far better than Lisa’s, and everyone in this room knew it. But the rumors about Owen and Murphy hadn’t quit thanks to Lisa constantly churning up the waters.

Liz would not let this petty bullshit cost her her job, however. She slid her chair back, the scraping sound echoing in the almost empty room. “Okay, then. When you have real details, let me know. I need to get back to work as the place can’t run itself.”

Lisa rolled her eyes but didn’t say anything. Liz was about two eye rolls away from slapping the other woman so she turned away and started walking. She was not a violent person. Each time she even thought about doing something like that, she became more like her mother, and she’d be damned if she let that happen. That was why punching Owen like she had before had made her act as she had. That was not Liz—no matter what vile things her mother had put into her head. If only she could keep remembering that.

Another hour passed during her shift, and the tension pulsating in her temples had yet to abate. She only had another hour or so go to before she could go home, but her feet were pretty much done. With a sigh, she glared at her orthopedics. It looked like it was time to get a new pair and break them in because if her feet hurt like this already, the darn shoes were on their way out.

She kept her focus on her patients—the only people that mattered today—and ignored the whispers surrounding her. Apparently, Lisa was doing her best to keep the “Get Liz Fired” campaign going strong.

Liz hadn’t done a single fucking thing wrong, however, and she had to keep remembering that. Lisa was just scared about her job and going about keeping it in an immature and shitty way. It wasn’t Liz’s fault that Lisa was so insecure she was spreading rumors about Liz and her patients. But hell, the fact that Liz knew people she’d thought of as friends were talking about her killed her.

“Yeah, I don’t know which patient she’s with, but it might be both, you know?” another nurse, Freddie, said. “The way I hear it, she’s not really picky when it comes to getting it on after work. I mean, if she has all this time to make it with the people she treats, maybe she shouldn’t be here.”

“Yeah, we’re a good hospital. We don’t need that kind of negativity or reputation.”

Liz froze in her tracks on her way to the next patient, her blood boiling even as her stomach dropped. Dear God. Was that what people really thought of her? That she was some slut who jumped from bed to bed and didn’t care about work?

Well, for fuck’s sake, if she wanted to sleep with twenty guys in twenty days on her own time, she could if she wanted to. She was a single woman, who didn’t need to be ashamed about whom she slept with. Owen and Murphy weren’t her patients anymore, and she’d already told herself she wouldn’t treat them if for some reason fate led them through the door once again. These people were just petty fucking idiots that made her want to scream.

And there was nothing she could do about it.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath; actually, there was something she could do about it. This wasn’t high school, and she wasn’t the lonely teenager too scared and shy to say anything.

She pulled back the curtain where the two nurses were cleaning up something and raised a brow. “You might want to make sure that the person you’re gossiping about isn’t right behind you.”

The younger nurse, Lydia, had the grace to blush. Freddie, one of Lisa’s friends, just rolled her eyes. Seriously, did these women have no self-respect or any other way to react?

“First, we’re at work. Get your mind on your patients, and off whatever gossip you hear about me. Second, if I wanted to date someone out of this hospital, it has no bearing on my performance. Third, if I wanted to date the whole damn Denver Broncos starting line-up, provided they were single, it wouldn’t be any of your business. So maybe you should stop finding ways to cut another woman down and get to work. Because if you’re spending so much time worrying about who I might be sleeping with, you’re ignoring those who actually need your help.”

With a huff, Liz stomped away and toward her next patient, aware that the staff was staring at her. Thankfully, the ER wasn’t that full today, and she’d been in the corner where they hadn’t yet admitted the next set of patients. With her voice as low as she’d made it, no one would have heard her other than the janitor and a few other coworkers.

Hell, she’d made a fool of herself, but she was beyond caring. She just needed to keep people safe, stop the bleeding, keep their bodies intact, and walk away from whatever mess she might have just made.

She was just so tired of it all.

So an hour later, after she’d cleared her patients, made sure the next nurse would know what to do, and had grabbed her things, she shouldn’t have been surprised that her day wouldn’t actually end the way she wanted.

Owen stood near the front doors, two paper cups of coffee in his hands as he leaned against the wall. He wore a very sexy leather jacket over his usual attire of slacks and a nice shirt, and she really wanted to gobble him up.

But this was her place of business.

The same place that made her feel like nothing.

The place that made her feel as if everything she did was wrong—including knowing Owen and Murphy.

And the last time she’d seen Owen, she’d broken in front of him after laying everything on the table.

This was so not her day.

“Tessa said you were off shift,” he said as he handed her a cup—the one with the L on the side.

She wasn’t going to smile and let that warm feeling spread through her at the sight of his cute organization.

Liz ignored the looks from the other nurses and orderlies in the room. “Oh? She’s working the late shift tonight so she must be on her way in.”

Owen nodded. “She knocked on my door when I got home from work since her battery apparently died in her car.”

“Hell. I keep telling her she needs to replace that old thing.”

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