Page 9 of Rival Hearts

Riley inspected it, noticing that the arm needed immediate surgery to avoid further damage or potentially him losing the arm. Riley wasn’t an ortho specialist, but she had done a surgery like this before and she was confident that she could do it again.

“Please,” the man said again. “I don’t care about anything else, but I won’t be able to work without my arm.”

“Okay,” Riley said, and then, because she was curious and also liked to get to know her patients: “What do you do for work?”

“I’m a construction worker,” the man said. “My name is Dennis.”

“Okay, Dennis,” Riley said. “I’ll see what I can do.”

At that time, a nurse and Jett came walking toward her, and Riley zeroed in on the nurse. “Hadley,” Riley said, pointing at her, “are you doing anything right now?”

“No, I was just showing Jett where we keep the gauze.”

“When you’re done with that, get an OR ready. We need to get this man to X Ray and then get this compound fracture sorted quickly. Get him started on pain meds.”

Jett stopped what she was doing and raised a very elegant eyebrow. “You’re seriously doing this again?” she asked. “He just got in here. He needs to be checked out thoroughly before he can be operated on.”

Riley was feeling riled again straight away. Something about this paramedic just got right under her skin. “I can see just from looking at the color his fingers are beginning to turn that if we don’t get on with this, he may very well end up losing his arm.”

Jett frowned. “So much could go wrong if you just rush into this,” she said, “and it’s not like you can have a large team with you. Everyone else is focused on other patients.”

“I will most certainly be paging Ortho, but if you’re so worried about my decisions, scrub in then,” Riley said, impulsively.

“What?” Jett asked, shocked.

“I’m serious,” Riley said. “I don’t have time to argue with you, and if you think you can help then by all means, do.”

Riley wasn’t against other people helping her, although she’d known some surgeons to be. And, unlike what Jett had insinuated the last time, she wasn’t a glory chaser. Her life’s goal was to be able to save lives and make lives livable. She cared about her patients, even if she barely knew them, and that’s what frustrated her about Jett. The paramedic didn’t seem to see that.

“Okay,” Jett said, her face suddenly flushed.

“Great.” Riley started to wheel the patient away. Jett joined her, making it a million times easier, and Riley couldn’t help but notice the lovely elegance of Jett’s finely muscled forearms as she bent to push the stretcher.

“Have you ever had surgery before?” Riley asked the patient.

“A couple of times,” Dennis said.

“Great,” Riley said. “I there anything I should know? Are you allergic to anything?”

Riley continued to ask Dennis important questions before they left him with the OR staff and went to the scrub room to scrub in.

She guided Jett through the procedure, watching her long graceful fingers as she scrubbed.

Riley looked up and found Jett’s eyes above her mask. “You ever been in an operating room before?” Riley asked.

“Only as a patient,” Jett said.

Riley nodded. “You’ll do fine,” she said. “If you have any problems or any questions, ask me or one of the nurses.”

Jett’s eyes showed shock at Riley’s words. “Thank you,” Jett said.

Riley might have had personal issues with Jett, but she wasn’t about to have a nervous or unsure paramedic in her operating room.

* * *

Throughout the surgery, Riley maintained her razor focus, but she did notice Jett’s behavior throughout the operation. It might have been Jett’s first time in surgery, but Riley couldn’t tell. She assisted quickly with anything she was asked and her focus was intense and methodical.

She asked questions that were relevant and showed she wanted to learn as she went.

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