Page 94 of Always Salty

It wasn’t, but if he wanted to pretend, I would, too.

I let my head fall onto his solid shoulder and said, “I’m sorry I wouldn’t visit you for the last few years.”

“I’m sorry that I didn’t take that guy out with a shiv so that you could visit me again,” he drawled.

I snickered into his neck. “I’m glad you’re home, Copper.”

He set me on my feet and curled a crazy curl around his finger. “I’m glad that I am, too. Even more glad that you’re helping me whip CE into shape.”

I grimaced, which caused him to laugh.

He threw his arm over my shoulder and started guiding me toward the hospital.

“What do you think about Cutter’s wife?” he asked conversationally. “She seems solid.”

Gah, my brother the protector. Oh, how I’d missed him.

I caught his arm with mine, something I used to do all the time when I was younger, and practically hugged it to my body. It forced him to move closer to me, but he didn’t ask me to stop. Which I was grateful for, because I’d missed being affectionate with Copper.

Hugging him in prison was a no-no, and though I’d tried almost every time I’d gone to see him, a guard always stopped me.

“She’s a good woman,” I admitted. “I like her a whole lot.”

We talked about nothing and everything as we made our way up to the hospital floor that we knew Chevy to be on, based on the location of his phone.

When we arrived on the surgical floor, I turned the phone that had his location pulled up and said, “That way.”

We walked until the ping location ran into a closed and locked door that said ‘physician sleeping quarters.’

I sighed and turned around, looking for a friendly face.

I found her at the back of the nurses’ station that was almost directly across from where we were standing.

“Be right back,” I said as I crossed to the woman.

Val, one of my friends I’d made while a student nurse, was studying a computer screen in front of her.

Her husband was also a doctor at this hospital, and both of them were so nice that I adored them.

Years ago, Val’s husband, Felix, had been stabbed in the hospital corridor right outside the emergency room, and a shit storm of epic proportions had ensued.

I’d been a nursing student at the time and had been scared out of my mind that day because Val had asked me to help her save a man’s life that’d just been complicit in stabbing her husband in the chest. An injured man that was later found out to be one of Maven’s brothers-in-law, an undercover cop.

Needless to say, Val and I had formed a trauma bond together.

That day was also the day that I’d decided that I didn’t want to ever be a nurse.

I’d been six months out from my graduation to get my bachelor’s degree in nursing when I’d made the decision.

I’d practically forced myself to finish school, and Val had helped me cope along the way.

“Val!” I called out happily.

I didn’t see her very often because she was so dang busy. She had a plethora of kids all in sports, and worked full-time as a doctor. She didn’t have the time to hang out, and I hated coming to the hospital. So we barely ever saw each other.

But we’d never forget that particular day that I’d helped her save a police officer’s life.

Val turned and a smile lit up her face. “Rose!”

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