Adam closed his eyes, trying to fight the wide grin that wanted to spread across his face. Why it made him happy that Janae hadn’t wanted that from Michael, he wasn’t sure. But he couldn’t deny the lightness in his chest at Michael’s revelation.
“Does Vanessa know y’all were a thing?”
“She does. Trust me, my woman has no doubts that she’s the only person I want. Janae really is a good friend and nothing more. Although, when I came back to town when my folks died, I won’t lie and say I didn’t think about rekindling whatever we had. But she was married at the time, so it was a nonstarter.”
Adam leaned against the back of his chair, thinking about what his next move should be, if there was going to be a next move at all.
“Here’s my advice to you, friend. Janae is an amazing woman who any man would be lucky to have. She’s a wonderful human being, she’s gorgeous, a loyal friend, and a phenomenal mother, and if you screw over anyone she loves, she’ll gut you like a fish. If you aren’t ready to handle all of that, don’t interfere in her life. But if you’re serious, if you really think you can bring something positive her way, shoot your shot. Because if there’s one thing I know, it’s this: A woman as fine, smart, and compassionate as Janae won’t be available for long.”
Michael stood up, lifted his chin to his friend in farewell and headed out of Adam’s office, leaving Adam to come to one powerful conclusion.
Fate had given him a second chance to man up and explore his interest in Janae. This time around, he wouldn’t let silly immaturity or his father stop him.
Chapter 4
The familiar fragrance of antiseptic greeted her when she stepped into the empty operating room. Janae tried her best to find a few quiet moments in the room before staff, providers, and the patient arrived to settle herself by double-checking all of her equipment, cataloguing all of the meds, and making sure she had enough saline and lactated ringers bags hanging to be certain they’d be ready to go in case they needed emergent intravenous access.
Dressed in light blue scrubs and a matching surgical bonnet, Janae sat down at the head of the operating table, placed her hands on the mattress pad, closed her eyes, and bowed her head.
“Dear God, please allow me to use my skills to help this person you’re placing in our care. Remove my ego and any other noise that may prevent me from best serving the life you’re placing in this team’s hands. Allow the procedure to progress in a routine fashion and should there be an emergency, please keep my mind sharp and my responses accurate, yet quick. Above all, whatever is done in this room, allow it to help and not hurt the person whose care you’ve entrusted to us. Amen.”
She’d said that same prayer or some variation thereof since she’dstarted clinicals in nursing school. Practicing in the medical field could be a heady drug, and there were too many providers who thought their knowledge and degrees made them infallible. Janae had seen too many patients suffer at the hands of decisions made by arrogant people in charge. She was confident in her skills, but she never wanted to be so sure of herself that she hurt a patient. Science was great, but some added help from above was never a bad thing as far as she was concerned.
Janae had needed this prayer more than anything today. Since yesterday, she’d been hard-pressed to focus on anything but her interaction with Adam in front of the high school. His physical presence was enough to knock her off her game with his smooth complexion, his neatly twisted locs, and his tall and muscular form covered by that gorgeous dark suit he’d worn. It wasn’t just his physique that made it hard to get him off her mind, and that was the problem. His mental presence, the things he’d said to her, the encouragement and interest he’d shown in her work and educational background, it was heady. And right now, with this new problem of the closure of the arts program for the district, the last thing she needed was to get lost in Adam Henderson’s words.
Janae took a deep breath, languishing in the fact that there was no reason for thoughts of Adam to follow her into this room. This was the one space where she could be free of this unsettling hold he had over her.
“Morning, Janae.”
Janae looked up to find Christina Leeds, a surgical nurse, coming into the room. She was a short blond woman with a slight build, but when she lasered her ice blue eyes on someone, she could make them cry. Janae had seen her do just that to several surgical residents who hadn’t yet learned that their MDs didn’t mean they didn’t have to possess and use manners.
“Morning, Christina. What’s the next case on our shift?”
“A C-section. Mom has been laboring for what seems likeforever. The little one is beginning to show signs of distress, so the OB decided it was time to section the mother.”
Janae nodded. Tapping a few keys on her tablet, she brought up the patient’s information and began to peruse.
“I’m sure you know this already, but Adam Henderson is back. With him back, y’all little quintet is back together again, right?”
Janae winced at that description. It wasn’t that Christina was technically wrong. She just wasn’t close enough to the situation to be right.
“Yeah, we’ve run into each other a couple of times.” Janae went back to reading the patient’s chart, or at least pretending to. Giving Christina the slightest hint that something was wrong would have a breaking news bulletin spread across Monroe Hills before brunch.
“Do you know if he’s single?”
Janae’s eyes snapped up from her tablet and onto Christina’s gaze so quickly, she might’ve strained an eye muscle.
“We haven’t spoken long enough to get on the subject of his love life. I’d think with him being so busy with moving back to town and getting his life set up, he probably hasn’t had time to even consider dating.”
There was absolutely no way Janae could know if any of that was true. There was also no reason Janae should be telling Christina something like this. What did it matter if the woman was interested in Adam? What did it matter if Adam welcomed Christina’s interest? There was absolutely nothing going on between Janae and Adam. He was as free an agent as there came. Yet, as she stood there with her gaze clasped onto the woman’s across the room, she had no intention of relenting.
Eventually, Christina blinked first and nodded her head. “You’re probably right, Janae.”
Janae just nodded and turned her eyes back to her tablet. Cockblocking a man you had no interest in was next-level weird and Janae couldn’t figure out for the life of her why she’d done it.
She shook her head and refused to run down that rabbit hole. She’d said this was a distraction-free zone, and here she was being wholly distracted by the one man she needed to stay away from. Her work and her kid were all she had time for. Nothing else.
Now, if only her head would cooperate and get Adam off her brain.
