Sweet Nothing (17 page)

“Break’s not over yet!” Deb called after me.

I walked out of the break room and down the hall, pressing the button to the elevator. It opened, and I stepped inside with a nervous new father and a brand new, empty car seat.

“Going home today?” I asked.

He beamed. “Yeah.”

I looked down at the carrier. It was brown and cream.
No help at all.
“Boy or girl?”

He couldn’t stop smiling. “Girl.”

“Congratulations,” I said.

The elevator doors opened to the maternity ward, and I waited for him to step out, then followed, stopping at one of the three large windows of the nursery. More than half the cribs were taken.

Georgia walked by in bright scrubs. Large pieces of golden-brown hair had fallen from her ponytail, and her eyes were red and tired.

“Full house?” I asked.

“Let me tell ya somethin’,” she said in her thick Mississippi accent. “It’s a full moon tonight. If you get bored in the ER, you come on up here and I’ll show you busy.”

I chuckled, and she winked, her scrubs swishing as she made her way to one of the delivery rooms.

“Cute, aren’t they?” Dr. Rosenberg said from behind me. “I come up here a lot to center myself and recharge.”

“I’m just trying to get away from Deb,” I joked.

Dr. Rosenberg laughed. “I haven’t seen you at Corner Hole lately. I guess you’ve been busy.”

“I guess so,” I said, staring through the glass with a smile. The babies were cute, but I was thinking of Josh. My face fell, and I looked at the doctor. “Since when are you a regular at Corner Hole?”

“Since I never see you anymore, I guess.”

I pressed my lips together, but the edges of my mouth turned up anyway. “I know. I’ve been preoccupied.”

“How is that going?” Dr. Rosenberg asked.

I didn’t mean to, but I sighed. And then I gushed. And then I couldn’t stop, even when I saw the doctor’s expression change from polite to blank.

“That’s great,” he said. His tone was the one he used with Deb or the other nurses when they tried to chat with him. “I wish you all the happiness.”

“You wish me
all the happiness
?” I said, disgust dripping from every word.

My reaction put a spark back in his eyes. “No, actually, I don’t, but you haven’t taken my advice thus far. I don’t suspect you’ll start now.”

“What are you talking about? What advice?”

“That you should stay away from him. He’s bad news, Avery. I know things are new and fun now, but …” He looked around and then took my arm, gently guiding me around the corner. “Would you just listen to me? We were friends once.”

“Were we?”

He seemed hurt. “I thought so.”

He touched my face with his fingertips and I pulled away, glancing around. I startled when I saw Josh standing ten feet away, murder in his eyes.

I took a step back. “You knew he was there, didn’t you?”

“Of course not,” Dr. Rosenberg said. “Josh.”

Josh nodded once, and the doctor excused himself, walking toward the elevators.

When Josh approached, I pointed to the empty spot where the doctor was standing. “That wasn’t anything. He’s being really weird, but I didn’t … that wasn’t …” While I fumbled for words, I noticed Josh’s jaw twitching. “I know how it looks.”

“How does it look?” Josh finally managed to say. His words were short. He was trying his best to keep from losing his temper.

“I can see that you’re angry, but I’m at work. He’s my boss.”

Josh shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged. “What the fuck does that even mean, Avery?”

I leaned in. “Keep your voice down!” I hissed. I started to walk past him, but he reached out, grabbing my arm.

I looked around to see if anyone noticed, and then back at him. “Let me go before someone sees.”

“Are you still in love with him?”

My mouth fell open. “I was never
in love
with him. He’s married. What kind of person do you think I am?”

Josh’s brows pulled together. “C’mon, baby, open your eyes. He wants you.”

I looked around. “So what if he does? Am I a robot? Just because the beautiful doctor all the nurses want is interested in me, I have to fall on my back with my legs spread? Give me a little more credit than that, Josh. Just because I fell for you doesn’t mean I’m naïve.”

Josh blinked, unsure whether to be flattered or insulted. “I don’t know how to take that.”

“Take it any way you want. My break’s over.”

“Let me walk you down.”

“Dr. Rosenberg is likely down there. It’s probably best you stay away from him,” I said.

“Oh, he’d fucking love it if I stayed out of his way.”

“Like it or not, I work with him. You’re going to have to trust me.”

“It’s him I don’t trust.”

“Josh,” I warned. “I love my job. If you can’t be professional, stay away from Dr. Rosenberg. Don’t ruin this.”

He was clearly unconvinced, so I shouldered past him to the elevators.

“Avery,” he called over his shoulder. He turned around, but the elevator doors were already closing.

I made my way to work, unable to ignore the stress and tension crawling through my muscles. What I needed was to hit the gym and empty my mind, but I didn’t have time. I couldn’t miss work, and any free time spent without Avery felt wasted, even if the late nights and early shifts would eventually make me crash and burn.

I’d scrubbed the back of the meat wagon after our last patient until my knuckles felt raw, but there was still a residual discontent rumbling just under the surface. The conversation we’d had about my sister still haunted me. Avery hadn’t run away screaming, but I’d seen the pain in her eyes when I’d told her it was all my fault. I don’t know why she’d stuck around after that. Maybe it was the alcohol. I worried that she would come to her senses any minute.

It was a relief that Avery hadn’t insisted that I go into detail about each stripe tattooed on my ribs. If she had, I’d be even more of a fucking mess. Women usually just assumed the tattoos didn’t have any meaning, so I’d never had to explain what it meant—not that I would tell them the truth anyway.

I was caught off guard that Avery not only asked, but cared enough to listen.

“Earth to Josh.” Quinn waved his hand in front of my face and I slapped it away. He chuckled. “That girl has you sprung.”

I shook my head as I rounded the back of the ambulance, stopping mid-step when I saw Doc Rose. He was checking his phone as he walked across the parking lot toward the ambulance bay doors, but when he recognized me, he dropped his phone into his pocket, staring right at me with a smug smile.

I nodded back to him, whispering a string of expletives under my breath.

“You really don’t like that guy, do you? He still trying to put the moves on Avery?” Quinn asked, closing the back of the ambulance.

I wiped my hands on my pants, fantasizing about using the shears hanging from one of the loops in my cargos. Doc Rose was a cocky fucker now, but that fake smile would disappear if he was stabbed in the face. I shook the violent thought away. “Whoa.”

“What?”

“Feeling stabby. Is this what it’s like to be jealous?”

“Want to kill him?”

“Yeah.”

“Yep. You’re jealous. Is he bothering her?”

“She doesn’t see it that way, not that she’d tell me if he were.”

“Can’t blame her there. Get your hand off your shears.”

I pointed my whole hand in the doctor’s general direction. “How does a guy like him, who has everything, just throw it all away? He’s married, with kids. He has the whole American dream waiting for him at home.”

“Pussy is a powerful thing, man. Look how it has you twisted.”

“Don’t talk about Avery like that,” I warned.

Quinn held up his hands. “Who said it’s the American dream to have kids? I don’t want no little Quinns runnin’ around here.”

“No one does, brother,” I agreed.

Quinn shot me a look, and then something in the parking lot caught his eye. “Speak of the Devil.”

Avery was making her way across the lot, smiling brightly, a paper bag in her hand. My stomach growled as the red symbol on the side came into view, but my attention quickly returned to the skintight jeans she wore with a simple white tank top. I’ve never known another woman to look so fucking good with no effort.

“She’s off today?” Quinn asked.

I kept my gaze on Avery. “Yeah.”

“Did you know she would be here? Is that why you spent so much time cleaning out the back?”

“Maybe.” I wiped the ridiculous grin off my face, crossing my arms and leaning against the fender of the ambulance, trying not to look too eager.

“I thought you could use some lunch,” Avery said, stopping a few feet from me. She held out the bag from JayWok.

I walked toward her, looping my arms around her waist, lifting her feet from the ground and planting a kiss on her lips. She let hers part, granting me deeper access. I groaned, reluctant to pull away. Needing her had become worse, not better, and I wondered if it was normal to feel so desperate for her, a deep-seated worry that we didn’t have much time left.

“Only if you join me,” I replied.

Her smile widened, and she gave a quick nod to Quinn before returning her attention to me. “Of course. Let me go say hi to Deb, and then we can find some shade. It’s too nice to eat inside, and we’ve only got a few weeks of summer left. Might as well enjoy it.”

“Tell Deb I’d like to
eat out
too,” Quinn interrupted. I recoiled watching him wink and then run his tongue over his lower lip. “She’ll know what it means.”

Avery made a gagging sound as she walked away.

I smacked him on the chest. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Quinn rubbed his chest, not looking the least bit apologetic. “What the fuck is wrong with you? You’ve lost your sense of humor. That girl has you wrapped around her little finger, man.”

I watched Avery disappear behind the emergency room’s sliding glass doors. I couldn’t argue with Quinn. Avery scared the hell out of me, but I couldn’t stay away from her, even if a part of me knew it wouldn’t end well.

Before Avery, I’d made mistakes I was too ashamed to ever admit. I knew when I did, she wouldn’t look at me the same way. Running my hand absentmindedly over my side, I pictured the large gray door that stood between my future and me only a few short years ago.

“Brooke!” I yelled, running into the lobby of the clinic.

Seeing Daniel pacing in front of a door, I knew exactly where she was.

Daniel took one look at me and shoved his shoulder against my chest, using all his strength to keep me back from the doorway. He was my closest friend, but if he didn’t get out of my way, I was going to slam my fist into his jaw.

“You have to calm down, Josh,” Daniel said. “You can’t let her see you like this. She needs you to be strong for her.”

I gripped his shirt at the collar. “What happened? I told her I would be back tomorrow.
Why?
I left for one fucking day!” I stared at the door, knowing I was already too late. My body shook, and I pushed against Daniel.