Page 9 of Stepbrother Dearest

“Coffee.” I flipped open the chart Lorelei, one of the other nurses, handed me.

“Are you sure?” Sloane handed me back my cup. “It tastes like battery acid and sadness.”

“Yeah, well not all of us have a hot girlfriend to bring us lattes whenever we want.” I chugged the rest of my coffee.

Sloane wasn’t wrong. The stuff they stocked in the break room tasted like swamp water, but it was caffeinated and free so I drank it.

She grinned and flipped through the chart Lorelei gave her. “How many more hours until this shit is over?”

“Four,” Lorelei and I chorused.

“And seventeen minutes,” Benji, one of the porters, added as he walked past us.

“This patient left without being seen.” I handed the file back to Lorelei.

“They did?” She flipped it open and scanned it. “That’s the fifth one since midnight.”

The hospital I worked at was a small regional one, and the emergency department ran on a skeleton staff. There was a larger hospital about thirty minutes away where the more serious cases were brought, but most people came here because the wait times for the ER were shorter.

On a normal night, that is. Full moons were always the exception.

“Here.” Lorelei handed me a new file.

Sloane patted my butt as she headed away from the station, her way of saying both hello and goodbye. We’d met four years ago when I’d started working at the hospital, and we’d instantly clicked. She was one of the only reasons I kept sane on nights like tonight.

I flipped the file open. Wait.What the hell?

I reread the personal information of the patient. Graham Hawthorne, birthday 08/13.

Shit.

“Um, Lor?”

“Yeah?”

“I think this guy is my stepbrother.”

“You think?” She tilted her head and studied me. “I didn’t know you had a stepbrother.”

“Two, actually. But I’ve only met this one a few times.” I tapped the file. “Unless there’s someone else out there with his name and birthdate, this is him.”

“Do you want me to give him to someone else?”

I scanned the file. He’d told the triage nurse he’d gotten jumped and his injuries didn’t seem serious.

“How swamped are we?” I snapped the file closed.

“I’m planning on crying in the supply closet when I finally get a break.”

“It’s fine. I’ll take him. It’s not like we know each other. I haven’t seen him since we were teenagers.”

“You’re a peach.” She made a note on the computer. “And can you tell Dr. Carlisle to get off his damn phone and do his job?”

Laughing, I tucked my coffee cup away. “Yeah, I’ll get right on that.”

“Damn baby docs always come into the ER night shift thinking it’s going to be a cake walk. I told him it was the strawberry moon but he wouldn’t listen.”

I stuck the file under my arm. “I’ll leave the resident scolding to you. You’re the one with teenagers. I’d say you’re more equipped to deal with his mentality.”

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