“If anyone’s the mother hen, it’s me,” his mom said, wiping her nose.
“One’s enough, thanks.” Andrew leaned his head back against the cushion. He felt a headache coming on.
Mandi widened her eyes in Andrew’s direction, almost as if she were commiserating with him.
“First thing I’m going to do is access your port, okay?” Mandi frowned. “Unless you want to stretch out the neck of your T-shirt, you’ll need to lift it up for me. Next time try to wear something with buttons for easier access.”
Andrew hadn’t even thought of that. The device had been surgically implanted into the right side of his chest just three days ago, and it was still sore. He’d chosen the softest shirt he owned, hoping to avoid irritating it any further.
Mandi put on bright pink gloves and bent over the tray, getting the equipment ready. She held up a little plastic stick with a round pad on the end. “This is for cleaning the skin around the port before I use the needle.”
Andrew lifted his shirt up to his neck, baring the entire right side of his abdomen and chest. Mandi leaned forward and eyed the circular lump underneath his skin, and lightly touched around it with her glove-tipped fingers. The light pressure was painful, and Andrew held as still as possible.
“Sorry, it’s probably still tender. That’s normal. The incision is healing well, and it looks good.” She scrubbed the moist pad all around the area, and an antiseptic stench rose to Andrew’s nostrils. She turned back to the tray and faced him once again with a large, thick needle.
“Holy shit, that’s a big needle,” Jeni said loudly.
“Jeni!” his mother admonished.
“It’s quick,” Mandi said.
“Do you want to hold my hand?” Valerie asked.
Andrew resisted the urge to roll his eyes and remind his family he was a six-foot-three, two-hundred-plus-pound man who’d been through worse. “I’m good.”
“Take a deep breath in and hold it, and you’ll feel a big stick.”
He did as asked, and Mandi pierced his skin.
Fuck, that hurt. He clenched his teeth and caught a grunt of pain that rose in his throat just in time.
“All done.”
An odd, slightly cold sensation tickled at the area. He looked down at the plastic apparatus now attached to him, and saw clear fluid move through the tubing.
“That’s just saline for now. I’ll get the premedications ready and bring them back in a few minutes.” Mandi pushed the cabinet on wheels against the wall and left.
“Are you okay?”
“Did it hurt?”
“Can we get you anything?”
His sisters all spoke at once, but Andrew didn’t hear a word they said, because as he watched Mandi walk away, his eye caught on someone else.
Lauren stood at the nursing station directly in front of his chair, several yards away. Her alluring red hair was loosely pulled back in a braid, a style that had always fascinated Andrew. He’d watched Caroline weave her hair into braids and had joked about her ninja skills as she’d worked her fingers behind her head, not even looking at her progress as she went.
Lauren’s hair was longer than Caroline’s—but why was he comparing them, anyway? They’d broken up only a month ago and had dated for six, so he’d probably compare women to Caroline for a while. But Lauren wasn’t a romantic interest, and her involvement in his life had nothing in common with Caroline’s.
He needed to remember that.
She was talking to a man in scrubs. A nurse, maybe? Whoever he was, he was into Lauren, that much was clear. He stood close to her with a lazy smile on his face, and his eyes drifted down her body more than once as they conversed.
At least when Andrew had talked to her he’d tried to keep his attention up top. This guy didn’t even attempt to show her respect.
Dick.
Not that it made a difference to Andrew one way or another, but Lauren didn’t seem to enjoy the guy’s attentions. Her posture was stiff, and she kept looking around while the guy went on and on, obviously not getting the hint that she needed (or wanted) to be somewhere else. Another woman in scrubs joined them, and Lauren backed away, turning to leave.