The doorbell ringsat nine-fifty-nine and sends every heart in this house into a tailspin. Nacho, who’s starting to venture a little further from the bedroom, spins in circles, and slams her ass on the coffee table on each revolution, while Ninja bolts from the top of the couch and knocks an empty glass off the coffee table as she flees.
No longer wearing my clothes, Andi struts around in yoga pants that I know –I know!– she’s not wearing panties under, and a long sleeve top that hugs her every curve, including her not-double D’s. She steamrolls toward the front door before I can do it and carries with her an air of ‘I’m gonna fuck a bitch up’. She’s just teasing. I know she is, but her acting skills make my heart gallop as she swings the door wide open.
“I knew it!” Without stepping back, she plants her hands on her hips and scowls. “Twenty-one and hot.”
“Ahh… I’m twenty-nine, actually.” I frown at the familiar voice and push my chair a few feet closer to the front door. “But I’ll take the hot compliment. Thanks! You remember me, right? We partied that ti–”
“Yes,” Andi sighs. Stepping back, she waves the nurse in. “Go ahead, woo him with your angel eyes and adorable freckles.”
Kari Macchio – little sister to the very same Marcus who hit on Andi that one time – moves through my front door and stops with a smile when our eyes meet. The familiar anger roars in my veins and burns the ends of my hair. Why couldn’t they send me a crotchety old bitch that we don’t know and would never have to meet over the dinner table? Why did ithaveto be Kari Macchio that would help clean me up and check my staples?
But of course, it gets worse as Luc Lenaghan, her boyfriend and the EMT who plugged my bullet hole with his fingers so I wouldn’t bleed to death, follows her through the door. Kari being here is a stretch. I know these assholes pulled strings to make it so, but there’s no reason for him to be here except to be a big nose and insert himself in my business.
“Cruz.” Luc stops behind his wild-haired girlfriend and carries a bag full of shit that nurses carry with them to every home job. They think they’re slick. They think I don’t know they shouldn’t be here. “You look good, man. Truly. How are you feeling?”
“Fine.” I wave him off. “You can wait outside.”
“Riley! Don’t be an asshole.” Andi pushes the couple through my living room with an angry glare. She knows I don’t want people up in my space. She knows I can hardly tolerateherup in my space. But now I have to deal with a friend’s little sister, and a man I’ve had a beer with.
I’m not angry with these people. I just don’t want them in my home where they can give me the ‘there, there’ sympathetic pats on the shoulder and go back to living their perfect lives.
There’s a reason Kari brought her guard dog; word’s getting out that I’m a grumpy fuck. But they couldn’t pass up an opportunity to get inside.
Ignoring Luc, I meet Kari’s eyes only as she stops six feet ahead of me. “Where’s the real nurse?”
She clasps her hands together and stands in front of me in tight jeans and a Van Halen concert t-shirt. “I’m the real nurse; got a fancy degree and everything.” When I narrow my eyes, she rolls hers. “Fine. Luc and I are saving up for a house and a wedding, so I’ve been picking up extra shifts at the community nurse center to add to our savings. Home nurses are contracted after a patient,” she smiles, “you, are discharged. Your file slid across my desk three days ago, so–”
“So you figured you’d snag the file and help yourself to my business?”
“Actually, no. I dropped that file like it was hot and pretended I had a sudden onset of the shits. I sat in the bathroom for a full hour, caught up on my text chats, played sudoku, posted a bathroom selfie on social media. I figured the file would be allocated by the time I got out.”
“But it wasn’t.”
“Nope. I figure everyone knew you’d be a jerk about it – we all know how mean you were to LeAnn at the hospital – so everyone else decided to take a shit, too.”
“Can you stop saying shit? It’s creepin’ me out.”
Turning with a shrug, she takes the bag from her much taller boyfriend and pats his chest. Turning back to me, she takes another step closer and stops. “Luc wanted to say hey, but technically he shouldn’t be here, so… whatever. You and I can go to your bedroom if you like, and he can stay up here with Andi. He’dlovea glass of sweet tea.”
“I got it!” Andi rushes around my chair and takes a glass down from the kitchen cabinet, but Luc and I are caught in a stand-off of sorts – if one could be consideredstanding offwhile in a wheelchair. I’m going to my bedroom with his girlfriend and he doesn’t seem the least bit concerned. He’s too fucking casual for my liking.
And yet, Dee’s out here pouring him a glass of tea and I want to break a table over his head.
“Let’s go, Cruz.” Kari steps around me, but she doesn’t dare touch my chair. My reputation definitely precedes me. A benefit, I suppose, considering before this, everyone mocked my innocence. “The sooner we start, the sooner I’ll be out of your space again. Then you can have sweet tea with Andi.”
“Yeah…” I turn away from the blonde man that watches me with a smirk –take his girlfriend to my bedroom? No big deal –and lead my nurse along the hall and past the guest bedroom. Nacho has resumed her position half-under Andi’s pillow so her tutu covered ass pokes out, and though Kari’s gasp indicates she saw what I saw, she remains professional and doesn’t ask.
Rolling from hard wood to soft carpet, I stop at the end of my bed and turn. “What do you need me to do?”
She sets her bag on my bed and opens it up. “Nothing. I’m just going to wash my hands, then we can get started. I’ll take your dressing off, check your residual limb, make sure it’s clean and dry, then I’ll cover it with fresh bandaging again. I’ll be back every day for a week, so I’d appreciate you not glaring at me each time I arrive.”
“You scared of me, Macchio?” I continue talking, even as she moves into my bathroom. “Had to bring your guard dog in case I attacked?”
“Scared?” Her mocking scoff echoes amongst the tile. “No. Not much scares me, Cruz, least of all a patient who is grieving his leg, so he lashes out at everyone near him. Luc came along because he wanted to see you for himself.” She dries her hands on a towel and turns back to my room. “We both know he was with you the night you were hurt. He wasonyour stretcher as the ambulance pulled up to the hospital, then he was dismissed and sent to the showers to wash your blood off his hands. His sisters were hurt that day, too, but the whole world knows you took their bullets. You saved their lives.”
“And in exchange, he saved mine?”
“Not in exchange.” She stops by the bed and goes to work setting out the things she’ll need. Gloves, bandaging, creams. “He did that because that’s his job, his passion. He didn’t even know about the twins at that point. Everyone thought they were home in bed, so he was doing his thing with you, and he refused to let you go. He rode with you, washed you off, clocked out and crawled into bed, only to get another call an hour later to find out the girls were in trouble. Everyone has been so busy watching the twins’ grief, but he never stopped thinking about you. He found out I was coming here today, so he asked to ride along.”
“Are the twins okay?” The same way Andi disarms me, Kari’s honesty washes away my bitterness for a moment. “I’m sorry I wasn’t enough.”
She glances up with a soft smile. “You were definitely enough. They’re alive, they’re here, and that’s good enough for now. Physically, they’re pretty much fine. Jess is nursing a flesh wound in her arm, but it didn’t cause a whole lot of damage. Ten stitches and she was closed up again. Both girls have burns to their legs and arms, but Jess is worse. She’s blistering up and sore, but antibiotic ointment is helping. Emotionally…” She sighs. “Emotionally, they’re wrecked.” She snaps on a pair of gloves and turns away to hide the sadness in her eyes. She speaks of the girls like she would any patient, detached, factual, but we both know they’re her best friends. Literally. They grew up together since Kari and her brother were fostered by my chief’s family. “Jessie’s boyfriend died while you were in surgery, so she’s pretty messed up about that.”
Jessie’s boyfriend… Kane Bishop.
“And Laine…” Kari lowers to her knees in front of my chair and works on the Velcro of my brace. Instead of discussing what she’s doing, we stick to news of the girls and ignore the elephant in the room. “There are rumors going around that Laine isn’t doing so great. But she won’t let anyone in. She won’t talk to us.” Kari’s green eyes meet mine. “Both girls are locked away in their rooms, and they won’t talk to anyone, and that really hurts Luc.”