Page 18 of Rival Hearts

“Besides,” Leah said, “I know I messed up. That patient could have died because of me. I just feel horrible.”

Riley nodded again. “You know, it’s a good thing you feel horrible,” Riley said and Leah looked at her in confusion before Riley continued, “It means you’re not a psychopath.”

Leah laughed a little at that. “Yeah,” she said, “but it’s making it hard to focus and do my job.”

“That’s not good,” Riley said, “Look. You messed up. You know you messed up, everyone knows you messed up, but also everyone messes up. And you were lucky; you messed up and no one died. I haven’t always been that lucky. But the thing is, no matter how badly you mess up, you have to be able to forgive yourself and learn from it, because if you don’t learn from your mistakes, you won’t know how to do better, and if you don’t forgive yourself, you won’t be able to act of what you now know and actually do better.”

Leah frowned and nodded and Riley looked at her. “Did that make sense, or did I just sound like some sort of hippie?” Riley asked.

Leah laughed a little at that. “It did make sense,” she said, “but you’re also sounding kind of like a hippie right now.”

“Damn it,” Riley said with a shake of her head. “I’m not good at the whole pep talk thing.”

“I can tell,” Leah said, “but thanks for trying anyway. And you really don’t have to try to make me feel better. I’m not going to gossip about what you and Everett were talking about.”

“Yeah,” Riley said, “but I don’t like leaving people in bad places, even if I’m the reason they’re there.”

“It’s okay,” Leah said, “I forgive you. Plus if you were super nice about it, I probably wouldn’t have taken it so seriously anyway.”

Riley didn’t know what else to say, so she just changed the subject. “Is there really not much to do?”

Leah shook her head. “It’s been incredibly busy all day,” she said in the most sarcastic voice she could muster, letting Riley know that it had been dead today. Every doctor and nurse knew to avoid saying, “It’s not busy,” or it would become the busiest day in memory.

* * *

Riley worked for hours, trying to keep herself busy, and even when the sky turned dark outside, nothing changed. This wasn’t the first time she had had an easy shift, but it was fairly out of the ordinary for the surgeon.

Then, an ambulance came in. Dr. Everett came running through the hallway, passing Riley.

“I call dibs,” Dr. Everett said, making her way toward the ambulance dock. Riley just shook her head and let her. When times were uneventful in the hospital, it was often that the two trauma surgeons would compete and call dibs for patients. Normally, Riley was more competitive, but she just didn’t seem to care today.

That didn’t change, either, when Riley saw who was helping wheel the stretcher in. Riley’s breath stopped for a moment as she stared at the woman she was trying to forget. Riley didn’t know what she had been thinking. It was obvious the two would see each other again. After all, they had worked together twice before. Riley really should have prepared for this possibility. Instead, she walked into the closest room, which just so happened to be the trauma bay that the paramedics were taking their patient to.

Riley looked up like a deer in headlights when she saw Jett helping the other paramedic carry in the patient while Dr. Everett followed.

“Hey,” Dr. Everett said, “I called dibs.”

“Right,” Riley said, “sorry.” Riley went to leave the room and as she was leaving, she felt Jett’s eyes on her and she couldn’t help but hear Jett speaking to Dr. Everett.

“Lucinda,” Jett said, “do you need me here? Or am I good to go?”

“You may leave,” Dr. Everett said, and Riley walked as quickly as she could, trying to lose Jett, before she walked into one of the on-call rooms.

However, it didn’t take much for Jett to find her, and when she did, Riley looked up at the other woman and tried to keep her calm, even though her heart was racing and she felt anything but calm.

Jett closed the door to the on-call room and walked toward Riley. Her hips swayed and every curve of her body and her lips was deliciously tempting. Her brown eyes were pools of melted chocolate. “Running away from me, sweetheart?”

“No,” Riley lied, not wanting Jett to know how much she affected her. “I just needed a moment to rest.”

Jett gave a short laugh; clearly she didn’t believe Riley, but Riley tried not to let that affect her either.

“Poor thing,” Jett said. “Would you like some help? I can tire you out.”

“I—no,” Riley said, crossing her arms. “And what makes you think that I would let you top for the second time in a row?”

“Are you saying that it’s your turn?” Jett asked. “Okay.”

Riley’s brain buffered. All of her attempts to forget Jett and convince herself that what they had was a one-time thing were being thrown out of a window.

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