“I’m sorry,” I apologized. “I wasn’t paying attention.”
“No worries,” he said. “You okay?”
I nodded. “Yeah.” He didn’t have his white coat on yet, and I couldn’t help but look him over in his navy blue scrubs.Jesus. He should not lookthatgood in scrubs. “Uh…first day?”
“Yeah, first time out on the floor,” he said, glancing between me and Marie.
I didn’t have to look to know Marie was grinning like a damn idiot behind me, feeding off my obvious awkwardness. I knew she was enjoying it far more than she should be, and I was already dreading her commentary later. When I glanced over, her broad smile confirmed my suspicions.
I introduced them, trying to sound casual. “This is Marie, one of the nurses. Marie, this is Dr. Pierson.”
“Nice to meet you, Marie. And please, call me Blake.”
Marie giggled. “Sure thing,Blake. Nice to meet you, too.”
I took a deep breath, grabbed Marie’s wrist, and gestured toward the hallway. “We should go get report.” Blake nodded and stepped back from the door, allowing us to pass.
I pulled Marie along, and when we rounded the corner, she started to laugh. “Oh, you are so fucked.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You were totally checking him out in his scrubs.”
“I was not.” Lies. Idefinitelywas.
“Listen, I don’t blame you. It’s a damn shame that white coat is going to cover up those drool-worthy forearms.”
“You’reinsufferable,” I huffed.
She let out another giggle. “Dr. Dimples at your service.”
By the time afternoon rolled around, Blake seemed to fit right in with the rest of the ER staff, both the doctors and nurses alike. He made a good first impression on all of them. He clicked right away with Dr. Wileman, a former military man himself from Florida, who was ten years his senior.
I couldn’t help but watch him throughout the day, especially when I was the nurse on his cases. His bedside manner was damn near impeccable, and his care for each patient was thorough; he listened to them instead of rushing through his assessments just to get to the next one. We had a few critical patients come in, and he maintained a level head, with no hesitation, when calling out orders. He seemed truly in his element.
And I kept noticing, no matter how hard I tried not to—he just looked so good doing it.
Marie was right—itwasa shame his white coat was covering those criminally impressive arms. He’d certainly turned more than a few heads from other staff, too. Gretchen from X-Ray was practically drooling as she handed off films. Natasha from the lab fanned herself. Even a female police officer muttered “damn” when she saw him.
Dr. Pierson was the shiny new toy and was a rather popular guy on his first day.
Later in the shift, as the pace picked up, I was sitting down to chart when a call came in from emergency dispatch, letting me know that the ambulance was en route with a critical patient. In the midst of writing down what information they had, Blake appeared behind me, peering over my shoulder at the paper I was scribbling on.
I’d barely got off the call before he asked, “ETA?”
“One minute out.”
And we both moved.
He double-checked that the defibrillator was ready, and I quickly pulled several supplies from my pockets, dropping them onto the small table nearby in case we needed to start a new IV. We both tugged on gloves just as the ambulance bay doors slid open and the paramedics hurried in with a stretcher, already performing CPR on the patient.
“What do we got?” Blake asked as they stopped alongside the bed, and he stood next to me, both of us reaching over to help lift the patient from the stretcher to the bed.
I stood on the step stool at the side of the bed—it was easier for me that way—and took over compressions while the CNA quickly hooked the patient up to the monitor.
I listened as closely as I could as the EMTs spoke to Blake,mainly relaying what they already told me over the call. Fifty-eight-year-old male. Collapsed at work. Unresponsive. BLS was given en route.
“Stop compressions,” Blake said, his head whipping toward the monitor.
