“No, but I will. You know that.”
I watch as Blair tenderly cares for our employee. She has a great bedside manner. Calm and confident, soft spoken but direct, she probably made a great nurse at every facility she traveled to. I wonder at her career choice. She could’ve followed in her father’s footsteps. Instead, she went in the opposite direction.
Because I’m watching her so closely, I notice her slight flinch as she leans forward to study the bloody wound. My eyes narrow on the way she quickly straightens and has Dominic lift his arm up to her line of vision instead, as if leaning forward was hard for her.
What’s that about? Did she sleep funny? Mentally, I make a note to pull the Epsom salt out for her to use in the bath tonight. A good soak will help with that.
“Hm, the first aid kit doesn’t have the instruments I need for this, nor do I have the space to really do much,” Blair announces with a sigh. “But what I can do is wrap your arm up nice and tight to get the bleeding to slow until we can get a doctor to check you out. That sound alright?”
“Shit, ma is going to kill me,” he groans, leaning his head back with a heavy grimace. “She’s always telling me to be careful ‘cause I’m a klutz. I guess she’s right about that.”
Blair chuckles. “Sounds like she cares about you.”
She turns to look at us. Again, there’s a slight flinch that she tries to downplay. I also catch sight of the small bruise she’s attempting to hide with her hair as it hangs a little more in her face today than usual. My body locks up in surprise.
Where the hell had that come from? How had I missed it this morning? Self-disgust and guilt cause my heart to race. What the fuck happened and why didn’t Blair say anything? It’s my job to make sure everyone under Ledger’s roof is taken care of.
“I’ll grab the keys to the truck,” Ledger offers, already heading for the door. “Blair, do you care to walk Dominic down?”
“I don’t mind at all. I wouldn’t want my patient to stumble down the stairs on my watch,” she says, shooting Dominic a wink.
I say nothing as Ledger leaves, and Blair works on wrapping Dominic’s arm. When she walks him out of my office, I walk over to the large window that looks down over the setup below and watch as she gingerly takes each step—her attention solely on her patient while mine is trained on her.
“So, this afternoon with Dominic,”I hedge as I settle deeper into the couch cushion.
Ledger looks over from the couch across the room, his arms crossed over his chest as he watches the football game on the television.
He raises a brow. “Yeah, what about it?”
“What if we have Blair be our on-site nurse? We can find her space in an empty office somewhere and make it the medical room,” I suggest. “With how often our guys get hurt, it would be nice to have someone who knows what they’re doing tending to them.”
Ledger considers this, his eyes going back to the screen but he’s not really watching the game.
“I don’t see why not. Run it past her. If she’s okay with it, we’ll make it happen,” he replies after a minute.
“It’ll get her out of my hair,” Rhett mutters from the floor where he and Santi are playing a card game.
My gaze flickers to him. He’s toying with his split lip that’s situated between the two hoops on his bottom lip. It’s another little injury I had missed this morning but picked up on this evening during a tense dinner.
Santi chuckles but the sound is off tonight. “It’ll probably getyouout ofherhair.”
The tension humming between these two has been as noticeable as Blair’s absence this evening. Rhett hasn’t stopped making snide remarks since getting off work, most geared toward Blair, which in turn seems to be pissing Santi off. Blair occasionally snipped back but mostly remained silent despite the attempts me, Santi, and Ledger made to drag her into conversation. After the dishes were done, she’d excused herself to go up to her room where she’s been for the past two hours.
“As long as she’s as far away as possible from me, I don’t give a fuck whose hair is involved,” Rhett says. “You’ll probably have to fight Colly on this though. She’s practically in love with Blair—if you don’t hurry there might even be a proposal soon.”
Rhett’s assistant manager is a bubbly woman whose exceedingly good at her job but has, on more than one occasion, complained about how there aren’t enough women in her line of work. I have no doubt that she appreciates Blair’s presence and help recently.
“Colly likes everyone,” Santi points out. “But I’ll object at the wedding if Blair accepts the offer of marriage. Blair deserves better than that workaholic.”
I start to chuckle but Rhett kills the mood by muttering, “She deserves a swift boot to the ass.”
“Yeah? Then so do you,” Santi counters. “Quit talking about Blair like that or I’llmakeyou.”
The two of them glare at one another before returning their attention to the cards in their hands.
I suppress a sigh and it looks like Ledger does too. Santiago and Rhett are grown men. Whatever’s going on between these two is none of our business. It would be nice, however, if they sorted it out.
Before I can open my mouth to suggest the empty room in Building D that’s being used for storage as a nurse’s aid station, the sound of Blair’s footsteps coming down the stairs catches my attention. I look up just in time to watch her stroll by the entrance of the living room, heading toward the kitchen. As casually as I can manage, I get to my feet and head out of the room.
