Deb had always been a rollercoaster riding, motorcycle loving, bungee-jumping adrenaline junkie. It was part of why she’d been drawn to emergency medicine as a specialty. The chaos of a busy ED was where she thrived.
That said, she always appreciated the quiet, calm atmosphere of intensive care. The lights weren’t quite as harsh, everyone spoke in pleasant tones, and the focus was on recovery rather than triage. It was almost peaceful.
Any peace Deb was feeling at the moment, however, vanished when she spotted Hayley Milton at the ICU desk. Hayley was concentrating deeply on the tablet in front of her, tapping the head of a stylus against her full, rosy-pink bottom lip. Her honey-blonde hair was coiled atop her head into a tight, neat bun, and she had a pair of blue-rimmed reading glasses propped up on her head in front of the bun.
She looked tired. But still so, so pretty. Deb admired the view while she could. Once Hayley realized she was there, she’d start talking, and that would simply ruin everything because inevitably, they were going to get into a spat.
You’re here to apologize,she reminded herself, and immediately had to stop her back molars from grinding together. She was not someone for whom apologies came easily. Especially not when the person she was apologizing to was prissy, pretty, infuriating Hayley Milton. Deb heaved a sigh all the way up from her toes.
That got Hayley’s attention. She looked up with a lovely bright smile that immediately faded when she realized who was in her ICU. “Doctor Morales,” she said, her voice frosty. “What brings you to Intensive Care?”
Deb pressed her lips tight together against the disappointment she felt at Hayley being so very displeased to see her.You don’tlikeher,she reminded herself.No need to be disappointed. Just get this over with. “Nurse Milton,” she began, bracing herself. “I came to discuss a patient transfer with you. I understand you want my personal, direct sign off.”
“The near-aortic dissection patient, yes.” Hayley’s blue eyes were ice chips, cold and flinty. “I don’t want there to be any kind of misunderstanding or miscommunication here.” She tapped at the tablet and turned it towards Deb, handing the stylus that had touched her lip over with it. “Please sign it.”
Deb took the stylus, annoyed that she was having to fight the urge to tap her own bottom lip with it, just where a faint smear of Hayley’s pale pink lip balm still gleamed on the white plastic. She swallowed hard and scribbled her name on the digital line and handed the stylus back before she could be tempted to pocket it. “There you go.”
“Thank you.” Hayley took the tablet and stylus back and set them down next to her computer keyboard. Then she sat down and started to work on the computer, typing assiduously away, once again laser-focused.
Deb’s mouth was dry, and she wished she’d brought her water bottle with her. Sticking her hands into her lab coat pockets, she let her fingers fiddle with the little things she left in there, old pens, small sheets of puffy star stickers she often gave to child patients, an ancient cough drop or two. She sifted them through her fingers over and over, trying to talk herself into finishing this errand and escape back to her office.
I’m sorry. She just couldn’t open her mouth and get the words out.
The rustling of the objects in her pockets caught Hayley’s attention and she looked up from whatever she was working on. “Doctor Morales? Did you need something else?”
Pulling her hands out, Deb rubbed her now sweaty palms down her thighs.Say it say it say it!“I…”
“I really need to get this schedule finalized, so if there is something, I’d prefer we just get it over with now so you can be on your way.” Hayley’s smile was polite as she folded her hands down into her lap, but her intent was crystal clear. She sat and kept her steady blue gaze on Deb, saying nothing more.
As it had when she was younger and her mother had effectively used the silent treatment to get rebellious Deb to confess to all manner of sins, Hayley’s application of the tactic worked far better than her own failed efforts at trying to make herself say the damn words. “I’m sorry,” she blurted out, feeling her face flush hot.
Hayley’s mouth turned up on one side in a smug little smile, and the ice of her blue eyes brightened with the infuriating light of satisfaction. “Oh? For what, exactly?”
Deb wrestled with the wild conflict that tiny smile ignited within her. She wanted to lunge over the desk and grab Hayley by the front of her scrub top and haul her in for a filthy, wet, hot as hell kiss.
Aaaaaand she also wanted to strangle the ICU charge nurse.
Though she hated to show Hayley in any way that the woman had gotten to her, Deb had to close her eyes and take a deep breath. She was trying to be professional, and anyway, this was really more of a favor for Paige and the emergency department team. It wasn’treallyabout her on a personal level at all.
With effort, she opened her eyes again and fixed a small smile on her face. “I apologize for the mix-up andmiscommunication in the ED yesterday. It wasn’t my best moment, and I feel terrible that patients were inconvenienced in the process. I hope our departments can continue to work together smoothly.”
Hayley had returned her attention to her work on the computer. “That shouldn’t be a problem, Doctor Morales. As long as you keep your ego in check and let your team and my team get our work done, everything should be quite smooth sailing.”
Deb was frozen with fury in the blink of an eye at Hayley’s calm yet snide tone, and her fingers curled into fists, her bitten down nails biting into her palms. Her blood pressure was definitely going up, and she was going to have to get out of here expeditiously. “Great,” she gritted out, spinning on her heel and stalking out of the ICU as calmly as she could manage.
The worst part was that as angry as she was, as riled up as Hayley could get her… goddamn it, Deb stillwantedher. Possibly even more in this moment. Thoroughly wound up, there was only one thing she could do. She pulled out her phone and fired off a text to Rose.On-call 3, five minutes.
She already knew that a solid fuck wasn’t going to get Hayley out of her system, but it couldn’t hurt to try.
3
HAYLEY
Hayley sat down in the chair next to the hospital bed and took her patient’s hand. “I want you to promise me something, Ernest.”
Ernest Simpson grinned at her, the crow’s feet around his brown eyes crinkling up. “Anything you want, cutie patootie.”
She sighed. “Amendment. Two things. When you transfer to the cardiac floor, please call the nurses by their names.”
