She seemed about to protest, then pressed a hand to her forehead, weariness radiating from her body. “All right.”
He expelled a tight breath.
She shuffled toward her suitcases.
He jumped up and crossed the room. She’d refused to let him carry them yesterday. The least he could do now was put them in her room. In fact, he should have thought of that earlier.
As he grabbed hold of the handles of both, she held on for a second longer before releasing them, her shoulders slumping. Silently, he carried them next door and deposited them on the end of the new bed.
Their interior decorator had been the one to transform the home office into a suitable space for a nurse. The aspen bedposts and other lightwood furniture had been accented with shades of blue. It was classy and matched the design throughout the rest of the house.
Kinsey had followed him into the room and lowered herself to the edge of the bed.
“Take all the time you need,” he offered.
“Thank you.”
He waited a second, not sure what more he expected. More conversation? Or maybe he wanted to make sure she was okay.
He really was letting this woman fluster him, and he needed to put an end to it. Without another word, he walked to the door and exited.
5
Kinsey couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so miserable.
At the buzz of her phone, she rolled to her side and tried to sit up, but her head throbbed like the bass on a car stereo turned up too loud and on repeat. She had no appetite and was weak and dizzy.
The illness had started shortly after she’d started caring for T.W. At first she’d wondered if she’d picked up a virus on the plane from O’Hare to Denver, but it hadn’t taken her long to realize she was experiencing altitude sickness—an adjustment to the lower air pressure and lack of oxygen that came at the nine-thousand-plus-feet elevation of the high country of Colorado.
“Ugh.” She couldn’t afford to be under the weather. Not on her first full day on the job. And not with how sick T.W. was. He needed someone to monitor him carefully, especially in order to get the nausea under control. She’d gotten him to drink the electrolytes in the oral rehydration solution, but it wasn’t staying down any more than the other fluids had. She would have to start an IV.
Thankfully, the equipment she’d asked for was all here. She hadn’t had the time to sort through it, but she’d seen the IV pole, the pump, and the tubing.
The trouble was, she could hardly stand, much less insert an IV line.
Her phone buzzed again with an incoming call. She pried open an eye, pushed herself halfway up, and pawed at thebedside table until her fingers connected to her phone. The screen read 11:35, which meant she’d been lying down for at least three hours. She should feel better by now. But if anything, she felt worse.
Her friend’s name was flashing across her phone. “Hi, Pippa,” she answered in a croaky voice.
“Girl, you sick?” came Pippa’s loud question over the speaker.
“No.” Kinsey tried to sound normal. “Just a little altitude adjustment is all.”
“Don’t you be trying to fool me now.” Pippa’s voice was even louder. “You sound sick.”
Kinsey flopped back onto the bed, unwanted tears stinging her eyes. She glanced at the closed door, then dropped her voice to a near-whisper. “I’m not doing so well, Pippa.”
“That’s what I figured.”
“You did?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Pippa was saying, still too loudly. “T.W.’s son Tyler called yesterday and chewed me out for sending him such a young pup.” As a co-owner of the company, Pippa still traveled as an RN, but mostly, she oversaw the scheduling and needs of the rest of the traveling nurses.
“I’m not surprised he complained. He hasn’t been too happy with me so far.” Even though Tyler McQuaid had told her to rest and to take all the time she needed, she had to get up and start working again. After she’d boasted to him that she was the best nurse working for Premier, what choice did she have?
So far, all she’d done was show how incompetent she was. It hadn’t helped that T.W. had arrived before her and she hadn’t been able to set up his room the way she wanted or put away the supplies and equipment. It also hadn’t helped that the Rochester doctors hadn’t given him an anti-nausea medication. The past long hours of taking care of him had been a disaster.
“Don’t worry about what that guy thinks,” Pippa bellowed. “He obviously doesn’t know one end of a syringe from the other.”
