Page 77 of Undeniably Enemies

I want this chief job—I’ve earned it. Work is consistent. Work doesn’t cheat, and it doesn’t lie, and it doesn’t break your fucking heart. Well, the patients might, but work itself doesn’t. Work hasn’t failed me, and it hasn’t betrayed me. It saw me through. Even when she was my second-best gal, she stayed dutifully by my side.

Cold sweat drips down my face and neck as I pant for my life when I reach the ambulance bay. My hands link behind my head, and I do my best to drag oxygen into my lungs while I pace back and forth.

“Jesus, Kincaid,” a voice comes from behind me. “Are you okay, man?”

I turn to find my uncle, Brecken, standing by the ambulance bay doors.

“Yeah. Hey.” I laugh, a little taken aback. “What the hell are you doing out here at this hour?”

Brecken is my mom’s older brother. He’s also married to Rina, who is Wren’s aunt, but whatever.

“I’m picking up Rina. She’s on nights, and I hate it when she leaves here in the dark.”

A smile breaks clear across my face. Rina Fritz Davenport isan ICU nurse, one of the few Fritzes who didn’t become a doctor because she wanted to make a direct impact on her patients. Rina is fucking cool. And her husband is obviously obsessed with her.

I check my watch. “Change of shift isn’t for another hour.”

“Nah, her floor switched it up, and now they’re doing it at six.”

I stare at him. “For real?”

“Something that has to do with school schedules.” He shrugs. “I don’t know. So who’s the girl?”

“What?” That takes me aback for a second time, and I find myself crossing the asphalt over to him. “Why would you ask that?”

He gives me adon’t play a playerlook. “You ran here over an hour before your shift, and it looks like you sprinted the entire way.”

“So?”

He laughs. “Come on, man. Just tell me. I’m a vault, and I won’t tell your mother even though she’s been trying to match you up like a bride for a decade now.”

I think about this for a moment. Breck fell in love with Rina, who was—is—my mom’s best friend. Like Owen is for me. I remember hearing once how my mom and he fought over it because she wasn’t happy he was dating her best friend. Fuck it.

“It’s Wren.”

He blinks at me. “What about her?” Realization dawns on him, and he slowly nods. “Ah. You’re in love with her. Shit.”

“What? No.” I take a step back, feeling like he just hit me in the chest with a two-by-four.

Especially when he smirks knowingly at me. “What would you call it then? What else has a man leaving his house before dawn, running the way you ran here, and looking like that?”

I shake my head. “That’s not?—”

“A million years ago I stood outside these very doors”—hepans his hand toward the bay doors—“with that same forlorn, had my gut punched in, can hardly take a deep breath expression. Hell, that woman got me to readTwilight. Imagine that.”

I gulp, thinking about the books Wren got me to read.

“Those Fritz women, man. They just get inside of you, and that’s that. You’re a goner. For real, there is no coming back from them.”

“Thanks,” I mutter dryly.

He pats my sweaty shoulder, winces, and wipes his palm on his jeans. “Sorry, man, but it’s true. Best thing you can do is roll with it. Accept it. Chase it.”

I put my hands on my hips and stare down at the ground. “I can’t do that. I’m after chief, and she’s looking to match as an intern here. Plus, she’s Owen’s sister and ten years younger than me.”

He whistles through his teeth. “Feels like a lot is stacked against you.”

“Yeah,” I agree, my lips twisting at that.

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