I waved my hand dismissively. “It was nothing. Just doing my job. The way I see it, when someone needs help, I’m always on-duty.”
“You should totally think about teaching nursing students. Or at least mentoring them,” one of the other nurses said.
I retrieved a tea bag and a mug. “Who knows.” I shrugged my shoulders. “Maybe one day.” I finished making my tea and then took a seat, using the down time to check my email, text messages, and voice messages to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. While I wanted to pretend I was looking for work-related messages, I was really checking to see if I had anything from Evan. My heart sank a little upon seeing that he hadn’t called or messaged me at all.
Exasperated, I ran my hand through my hair, recalling the silky feel of his hair and how in contrasted to the rough stubble on his cheeks. I raised my cup to take a sip of my tea, wanting to hide any indication of how hot I felt at the thought of him.
“You used to work with Dr. Nualli, right?” one of the nurses suddenly asked.
I lowered my cup. “Yeah.” I leaned forward. “Have you heard from her lately?”
She shook her head. “No, I was going to ask if you had. Rumor has it that she may be transferring to another hospital, somewhere offering her more money.”
“Ahh,” I said, leaning back in my seat and feeling vaguely disappointed. Regardless of what was going on between me and Evan, Dr. Nualli remained my favorite doctor to work with. I had learned so much from her. On the other hand, I knew she deserved to be properly compensated for her skills, so if the rumor was true, good for her.
“I never got a chance to work with her, but I heard she was a really good doctor. A lot of staff seem bummed out about the possibility of her leaving.”
I nodded. “Yes. She was the best. I’ll be forever grateful for the time I got to work with her. She really taught me a lot about caring for patients, and for being an advocate for the people we treat. Doctors like her are few and far between.”
Another one of the nurses sighed. “Looks like all the good doctors eventually move on. Like Sholly.”
I almost dropped my teacup at the sound of his name. My eyes widened. “Pardon?”
“Dr. Sholly. I heard he’s leaving too, right? Did he find another hospital that’s offering him higher pay?”
“No, that’s not what I heard,” the nurse who’d been watching TV chimed in. “He was in the military before. I heard from Miles that Sholly was thinking about re-enlisting. I guess he misses it. Maybe he’ll be a military doctor or something.”
There was more to the conversation, but I could no longer hear. My ears were practically ringing with shock. The tea had suddenly turned sour in my stomach. I set the cup down.
Evan, re-enlisting without telling me? He couldn’t. He wouldn’t…
The previous day, it felt like things had officially changed between us—like we had
both decided to officially give in to the undeniable connection between us.
Or maybe he was just stringing me along, a voice in my head said. He got what he wanted, and now he’s free to go.
The thoughts created a bitter taste in my mouth, and I felt like my blood was literally starting to boil. It was a moment before I realized the other nurses were still talking to me.
“Tessa, are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” I said, though my voice came out harsh. I stood, recognizing the tale-tell stinging in my eyes indicating that angry tears were not far. “Excuse me.”
I bolted from the on-call room and headed straight for the women’s bathroom, were I locked myself in and stood before the mirror. My eyes swam with tears and my face looked a shade too pale.
Pity. I felt nothing but pity for the woman staring back at me. She just couldn’t stop getting hurt. She had ignored the signs that things had been moving too fast, and now she was going to pay the price.
In the little bit of time I’d known Evan, strangely enough, it felt like he had already hurt me more than Tyler had.
Annoyed, I stormed out of the bathroom. A slow day no longer seemed desirable. I needed to keep busy to keep myself from thinking about how badly I wanted to ring Evan’s neck.
CHAPTER 17
Evan
The last foster family I stayed with, the Vicents, had been fairly decent. In fact, after the several rounds of Hell I’d been through with the previous families, the Vicents had practically been like The Brady Bunch. By the time I made it to their household though, I was already in my late teens, on the brink of adulthood. While the Vicents had treated me kindly enough, I had always harbored resentment toward them and it took me the longest time to figure out why. Logically, I knew I should have been grateful to have finally ended up with a family who didn’t treat me like a second-class citizen. Yet, it wasn’t until I reached legal age that I realized my issue with the Vicent family; I had simply resented them for not coming into my life sooner. I lamented about how my life could have been different had they been the first household I ended up with. I often wondered how much pain and suffering I could have potentially bypassed.
As I got older, I eventually learned to let go of the resentment and accepted that the Vicent household was the only place I could somewhat call home. Whenever I got a break from the military, I wound up on the Vicents’ doorstep. Yet, the military quickly began to change me. It got to the point that when I returned to visit the Vicents, it felt like coming home to a place I truly didn’t belong to anymore despite my sense of loyalty to the only people who had actually treated me like family. I had simply changed too much to fit into their world.