Page 16 of After All

She swallowed and moved back as the nurse approached the bed. She was going to chalk her rattled emotions and reactions up to seeing Scott in a hospital bed. Big, tough, smart-ass, fix-everything, always-there Scott. In a hospital bed.

Peyton pulled in a breath and told herself that if she cried right now she wasnotgetting French fries on her way home. She’d already cried—in the cab in Baltimore on her way to the airport after getting the call about the shooting, in the airport bathroom after she’d made it through security and realized she had an hour to kill, in the Atlanta airport bathroom when she’d realized she was still four hours away from him and that a lot could happen in four hours.

That was more crying than she’d done in a year.

“How are you feeling?” the nurse asked Scott, giving Peyton a smile. Her name tag said Angie.

“Groggy,” he said.

Peyton smiled slightly. She kind of liked groggy Scott. He was usually so on and intense. Nothing ever missed his notice, especially about her. Sometimes she thought he could read her thoughts. She didn’t mind having a break from feeling constantly exposed around him.

But, if this was as groggy as he got, there was no relaxing. He’d known she was hiding something. Even if they’d only been Corn Nuts.

“I can turn the drip down,” Angie said.

Scott nodded, but Peyton asked, “Is that a good idea?”

She was as surprised as they were that she’d spoken up. This was Scott. He always knew what he was doing.

“That’s controlling the pain, right?” she asked anyway.

The nurse looked back at Scott. “Itisimportant to stay on top of your pain at this point,” she said.

“I don’t like the groggy feeling,” Scott said, looking at Peyton. “I’m fine with a little pain.”

Peyton frowned at him. He was such a stubborn ass sometimes. All the time. “It’s stupid to hurt if you don’t have to.”

“I’m fine.”

“I have to agree with your girlfriend,” Angie said. “There’s—”

“I’m not his girlfriend,” Peyton broke in.

Scott gave her a scowl. Well, she wasn’t.

“Oh.” Angie looked back and forth between them. “Okay.”

“Peyton is my…”

Peyton lifted a brow at him. How was he going to finish that sentence?

“Personal nurse,” he said. “She’s here to learn everything she needs to know about what I’ll need when I go home.”

“Oh,” Angie said again.

Peyton felt her eyebrows shoot up. She gave him a frown. Okay, so he was on morphine, but personal nurse? Really?

“You’re a nurse?” Angie asked.

“No. He’s loopy. He’s having flashbacks to my Halloween costume.”

“Well, she’s in nursing school,” Scott said.

She’d taken two nursingclasses. Not even nursing classes, actually. Prerequisites. And she hadn’t even finished those. Nursing was very…caring. Not really her style.

On the other hand, her work at the bakery in Sapphire Falls was perfect. It was straightforward work—mix, pour, bake, frost. She could, and had, screwed even that up from time to time, but that was fixable. You could scrape icing off and start over. You could toss it all in the trash and start fresh. And people werehappyabout what she gave them at the bakery. Cookies, cupcakes, pie. Yeah, that was definitely better than shots and medicine and bad news. Definitely.

“She’s always wanted to be a nurse,” Scott said.

---