“That the ex?” I asked as I turned my back on the glaring woman.
“Yep,” he answered shortly. “Looks like she’s in one hell of a mood, too. Let’s get out of here before…”
“Bennett! Hey!” Lennox said excitedly.
I turned to find Lennox hurrying towards me.
She was wearing the scrubs I’d dropped her off in, at least the bottoms, anyway.
The top was now a t-shirt that said, ‘A team of excellence,’ on it.
She walked straight up to me, and buried her face into my neck as she hugged me on her tip toes.
I wrapped my arms around her and rested my head on the top of hers.
Her hair smelled like sunshine, as if she’d just come in from outside.
“What’s going on here? Is this from the wreck on the interstate?” I asked.
She nodded. “Yeah. Five car pile-up.”
I nodded, remembering the radio call.
“The kid make it?” I asked softly.
She shook her head. “No. The young boy died on the way to Children’s in Dallas.”
My stomach knotted.
The wreck had been horrific by itself, but a young child had been riding in the back of one of the trucks when it rolled, and he’d been impaled on a guardrail that they’d originally ran into.
I was just glad I wasn’t one of the first responders that had to work the wreck.
“Shit,” I exhaled, turning to look at Michael.
He wasn’t looking at us, though.
His eyes were on the woman across the room, and not the same woman who’d been glaring at him earlier.
This one was a Hispanic woman that looked vaguely familiar.
She had long, thick brown hair and her eyes were on the work she was doing in front of her.
She’d cast a surreptitious glance in Michael’s direction before it darted back to the cart in front of her.
Turning back to Lennox when she withdrew her hands from around me, I looked down to see her eyeing Michael.
“You remember Michael,” I said.
She nodded, and Michael’s eyes finally tore away from the woman to focus on Lennox.
“Good to see you again, Lennox,” he nodded his head.
Lennox smiled at him, glanced in the direction of the Hispanic girl, and turned back to Michael.
“You know Nikki?” Lennox asked.
Michael’s eyes flared at the mention of ‘Nikki’ and he nodded.
“Yeah, I do,” he answered.
It was then I realized just why the girl was familiar to me.
“Nico’s sister?” I asked him.
Michael nodded. “Yeah.”
Now it made sense.
It’d been two years since Nico had married his wife, Georgia.
And a little over two years since Michael had first met Nikki.
I’d seen her a time or two in the two years, but each of those times were when she was talking to Michael.
Heatedly.
Knowing when a change of subject was needed, I turned my attention to Lennox and asked, “Is there anything I need to bring for dinner tonight to your parents?”
Her eyes widened. “Shoot, I forgot about that.” She bit her lip. “No, you don’t need to bring a thing. Mom can handle it.”
I nodded. “I’ll come pick you up about ten minutes before your shift ends. I’ll wait for you outside, okay?”
She nodded, raised up on her tippy toes, and gave me a soft kiss on the cheek.
“Thanks for coming, Bennett,” she whispered sincerely.
I smiled, and reached up to run a lone finger down the bridge of her nose. “Anytime, honey. I’ll see you around seven.”***Lennox
“Who was that sexy beast?” Melissa asked in awe as I walked up to the nurse’s station.
I smiled as I looked over my shoulder at Bennett and Michael leaving.
They were laughing about something, and would’ve kept doing it had Joslin Downs, the she bitch nurse from hell, not stopped them.
“Uh-oh,” Melissa whispered. “What’s this?”
“It looks like ‘Call me Nurse Jo-Jo’ found her next victim,” I mused.
“What are you doing here?” Joslin yelled, bringing the attention of not just those around her, but the entire fucking ER.
Bennett looked amused.
Michael, though, looked nothing close to amused.
Moving closer as inconspicuously as we could, Melissa and I found the nearest COW, or computer on wheels, and started standing there looking as if we were making ourselves busy, even though we were doing nothing close.
“Joslin, I live in Kilgore. I work in Kilgore. I’m a cop. There are times that we’re going to run into each other. Something I’ve tried to tell you time after time,” Michael explained patiently.
Joslin’s face darkened. “There’s no reason in the world you have to come in here. You just do it to upset me.”
Oh, here we go. Joslin’s ‘the world revolves around me’ attitude rearing its ugly head.
Joslin was the queen of making everything about her.
Joslin wanted her lunch break to be at ten instead of one, and she got it. Joslin wanted to work only week days, while other nurses senior to her had to work every other weekend, as was required in the medical center’s by law’s, and she got it.
Joslin wanted to work days, but there were no open positions. She got it and poor Gertrude got bumped down to nights.
I was fairly sure that Joslin had the ER director by the cock, but I wasn’t going to say that.
I also knew for a fact that she was fucking at least three of the doctor’s in the ER. Not that I’d ever say a word to the three of them when they thought they were being so discreet about it.
“Yeah, well I’m leaving anyway, so it doesn’t matter what the problem is. Have a good day,” Michael said, and stepped around the still hissing woman.
“Don’t you walk away from me!” Joslin hissed. “Why is it so hard for you to face your problems? Always running away, using your sickness as an excuse.”
Michael froze, and turned.
“Do not,” he said menacingly. “And I repeat, do not, say another fucking word, or I’ll have my lawyer drawing up a defamation suit against you so fast you can’t even run to one of your fuck buddy doctor friends for support. Trust me on this, Joslin. You don’t want what I got.”
With that he stalked out the door, and for once Joslin had no comeback.