Page 4 of Rival Hearts

“Thank you, doctor,” one of the police officers said. “We just wanted to make sure that little girl made it through, but now we’ll be leaving.” The other firefighter also left, giving Riley an appreciative nod before walking out.

Then, all that was left in the room was Riley and the angry athletic beautiful paramedic. Riley knew that she should have kept her mouth shut, but she couldn’t help herself. She was tired of being questioned and treated like she wasn’t good enough.

“I told you she would make it,” Riley said.

The paramedic looked at her with a sharp expression on her face, almost as if to say, Are you serious right now?

“It’s a good thing, or you’d be looking like an idiot and a murderer with your negligence,” the paramedic fired back.

Riley looked at her in shock.What on Earth was her problem?she thought. She succeeded in the surgery—surely that was all that mattered. But when she looked into the paramedic’s dark eyes, they were burning with anger.

Riley had had enough. Not only was she being accused of being negligent, but she had also just gotten out of a long surgery. “What the hell is your problem?” Riley asked.

“I don’t like someone skipping steps and putting a little girl’s life at risk just for some glory,” the paramedic said.

Ouch. That one actually hurt. She had been accused of being a fame-chaser when it came to her successes in the medical field, but she hated when people accused her of not caring about her patients.

“Glory?” Riley said with a scoff. “I wanted to save her life, not put her at risk of shock or sepsis. You need to stop acting like you can do my job better than me when I’m the reason that girl is alive and going to make a full recovery.”

The paramedic dropped her jaw before closing it again. “You’re the reason?” the paramedic asked in shock. “You surgeons always think you are such a big deal. Do you seriously think that what my team did to save that girl’s life and bring her to you means nothing?”

Riley furrowed her eyebrows. “What the hell?” she asked. “I never said that.”

The paramedic just shook her head, frustrating Riley even further. Strands of her slicked back hair fell across her lovely face.

“You know what?” the paramedic said. “You can go to hell.” She walked away and Riley couldn’t stop her eyes once again following the beautiful curve of her ass and long lines of her legs in that navy blue jumpsuit.

2

JETT

It had been a few days since an eleven-year-old girl was rushed to the Emergency Room after getting the bike handlebar stuck into her chest, and Jett Thompson couldn’t stop thinking about that day. It was one of the most stressful and frustrating days in recent memory.

Jett was off today, like she was every Sunday. It could be hard to get a weekend day off, especially in a career such as hers, but it was fairly easy for her given her experience in the field—and her legacy. Jett’s father had had Sundays off as well, and Jett had fond memories of him spending time with her, Brody, and their mother. Now, even though her father was no longer around, Jett continued the tradition.

When Jett was a little girl, her parents would have her go to church with them. Jett never really hated it, and their church was rather progressive compared to others, but as she got older, she stopped going, much preferring to sleep in instead of praying.

However, Jett’s mother still went to church and required her children to come to her house every Sunday at one o’clock for a family dinner. While Jett did have one sibling, Brody, their family dinners were never just the three of them. Jett had always known a close, tight-knit family, and her home growing up had an open-door policy. Aunts, uncles, and cousins often Josephineined for food on Sunday.

Jett lived close to her mom, just a few blocks away in the same suburb, so today she decided to take her homemade sweet tea and walk with the pitcher to her mom’s house.

When she got there, a few cars were parked in the driveway and Jett smiled when she saw Brody’s among them. Last week, he’d been too sick to make it, but he must have been feeling better and Jett was happy about that. Even though Brody was her older brother, she worried about him a lot.

When Jett got to the door, she walked inside without knocking. Her mom never minded. Again, she had always had an open-door policy.

Jett set the pitcher of sweet tea on the kitchen island before she looked around to see what all was for lunch today. Jett’s mom was the best cook on the planet, and Jett always looked forward to Sunday lunches for that exact reason. Jett wasn’t a half-bad cook, but no one could compete with her mom.

While looking at the food, Jett saw broccoli casserole, baked macaroni and cheese, cajun chicken, and many other dishes that made her belly grumble. But her mom was nowhere in sight. Jett looked around before she finally found her and Brody on the back porch, talking.

“Hey Momma,” Jett said, giving her mom a big hug.

“Hey bro,” Brody said, and Jett laughed. She always found it funny that Brody called her bro even though she was a girl. When Jett was studying to be a paramedic, she went to the same college as Brody, and he would introduce her to his friends as his little bro, confusing all of them, but Brody had always maintained that bro is a gender-neutral term.

“Hey,” Jett said, “is Hannah here?”

“Yeah,” Brody said. “She went to the bathroom. She’s been there a while actually.”

“Do you want me to go check on her?” Jett asked.

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