I say nothing as I grab my next patient’s chart and skate around the other side of the desk to go out the opposite side from Ashley.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were seeing someone?” She hurries past Vicky and loops her arm through mine, not at all deterred by my lack of response to her earlier question.
“Didn’t Vicky say you have patients?” I try to brush her off, but more because it’s funny to see her get flustered at me than that I really care if she attends to her job. She’s a good nurse, and I know she wouldn’t be yammering on with me unless everything was okay with them.
“I just checked on them. They’re good. If not, Vicky is manning the desk and can deal with them if they push the call button. Now tell me, well, everything! Is he really yours? How long have you been together? Did you get pregnant from looking at him? How big is his shlong?”
I give her a look at her comment about Vicky taking on her patients. We all know she won’t and the call buttons will go unnoticed, but a few minutes of gossip won’t kill anyone. Well, I hope not.
“Yes, he’s mine. We’ve been together a few weeks, but it’s still new between us, so we aren’t labeling it or telling everyone. It’s complicated. No, I didn’t get pregnant looking at him, and before you ask, I’m not pregnant from touching him or anything else with him. And his shlong is my business, not yours.”
“Spoilsport.” She sticks her tongue out at me, then follows me into my patient’s room. It’s an elderly woman who just got out of hip surgery. Her family has visited a few times, but no one else is in the room, and she’s asleep. I check her vitals and the machines to make sure everything is okay.
“Why is it complicated?” Ashley whispers as she washes her hands and makes sure the bathroom is stocked with needed items.
“He has a kid.”
“So?”
I shrug. “She doesn’t like me.”
“Seriously? Everyone likes you. Has she even met you?”
I think back to the last time we spoke, the day of the shooting, and shake my head as memories of her words echo in my mind. “Yeah. She’s met me.”
We continue our task in silence and then exit the room.
“Wait.” She pulls my arm back, and I halt in my path to my next patient’s room. “Is he the guy from the coma?”
I wince a bit, but nothing too noticeable, I hope. I never told anyone about my little crush, but I’m sure it was obvious with the way I switched shifts often and ended up in his room even if it wasn’t on my rotation.
“Yeah. Between his daughter and his club, it makes it a little complicated, to say the least.”
“Does the club not like you either?”
I shrug. “Haven’t spoken to a lot of them. I think it’s more about them not being ready to accept someone else in his life. Apparently, his deceased wife was a big part of the club, too, and after she died, he never took up with anyone.”
“So now that he’s with you, they can’t get their heads out of their asses that he’s finally moved on?”
“Guess so.”
“Well, that’s just stupid. People move on all the time. And they can’t expect a man that hot to just stay single. It’s literally against the laws of nature.”
I snort. “Pretty sure your man will throw a fit if he hears you talking like that.”
“Pish posh. If he saw your man, he’d agree.”
“I’d agree to what?” I hear the bark, but the paleness that sweeps over Ashley makes me reach out to grab her arm in case she faints.
“You okay?” I get close and ask.
She nods a second before an arm is thrown over her shoulders and her body is pulled tight to the man beside her.
“Hey, Diana,” Ashley’s husband says with a grin sent my way.
“Hey, Barry. Any action at the firehouse?”
“Not lately. What were you two talking about? What would I agree to?”
