Glancing out a window in the hallway, I noticed a male figure in the parking lot that looked an awful lot like Sky. Hmm. Could he have remained here only to make sure his boss was all right, or was there more to it?
In the cafeteria, we found Buzz waiting in a short line. “Hey,” I said. “How was she when you brought her in?”
At first he looked at me as if he didn’t know me. Had to be the damn black dress. Why was it that no one knew me unless I was decked out in my hated scrubs? Had they all only related to me as Nurse Pauline? Damn!
Finally recognizing me, he started to answer, but I found myself looking around for Dano. Oh, geez. And with Jagger only feet away. Then again, I shared a few kisses with him, but he’d never made any attempt at asking me out, so no way was I beholden to him.
No way.
Jeremy sighed. “She was in bad shape. Great deal of blood lost. But when they hooked her up, she did have normal sinus rhythm, although also tachycardia.”
“I’d certainly imagine her heart would be pumping faster with a blood loss.” Jeremy knew this, but I figured my simple explanation would help him relax with me and realize that I knew medicine.
“Yeah. Blood loss.” He turned to the girl behind the counter. “Hot-dog platter.”
Suddenly I realized none of us had eaten. There was probably a huge buffet of sorts at Pansy’s house. Maybe the cops would eat it. I smiled to myself and looked around for Jagger…who was gone.
Things like that didn’t even faze me any longer.
After more chitchat, and with the departure of Jagger, I followed Jeremy to his table-where Dano sat.
My hands started to tremble.
My heart started to beat a bit faster, although not in tachycardia.
And my voice came out in a husky tone when I said, “Hey, Dano.” Even I was impressed with it, and by the looks of him, he was too.
Good, since Jagger was gone.
“May I join you?” I asked.
Jeremy said, “Of course,” at the same time Dano said, “No need for an invitation.”
Hmm. Did that mean I was always welcome to sit with him ’cause of our kiss or ’cause I was an employee of TLC?
I was going with the kiss.
“Have you heard how she’s doing?” I asked, sitting.
Dano shook his head. “We usually don’t get reports from the ER staff.” He sounded a bit pissed, and I wondered if that was because Pansy was an employer, or if Dano had another reason why he wanted to know if she was going to make it.
Hopefully that reason was because she was a human being and deserved to live, like everyone else.
And nothing dreadful.
I hung around the ER until the looks of the staff indicated they wanted to throw me out. After way too much small talk, Nancy even tried to look busy instead of talking to me. When Ted Grosch came out of Pansy’s room, I asked how she was doing. He said, “She’ll be off to surgery soon. Still alive, but barely,” and then hurried off.
But barely. Damn.
Two of the cops standing by the doorway started to look at me suspiciously. Of course they didn’t know who I was and Shatley was nowhere to be found, so I figured I’d better hightail it out of there before I was questioned as a suspect. Only Shatley knew I worked with Jagger. That was my cushion to fall back on and keep me from possible incarceration. There was that breaking and entering time…
When I got to the exit, I realized Jagger had abandoned me without a ride. Damn it. Pulling out my cell phone, I stepped to the side while another ambulance company brought in an obviously “in labor” woman, who was cursing at her husband nonstop.
I winked at her and punched in Goldie’s number. “Hey. I need a lift from the ER.”
First, in his usual way, he shrieked, until I hollered into the cell to calm down. “A case, Gold. I’m fine.”
“Oh, good. I’ll swing by to get you, but I’m meeting Miles for lunch at Madelyn’s. You’ll of course join us.”
I couldn’t even use the excuse that I was not dressed up enough for the swanky-the only swanky-restaurant in Hope Valley. Sitting by the Connecticut River and having a Coors Light might be just what the doctor ordered right now. “I’m in,” I said, to Goldie’s delight, and I leaned against the wall to wait.
Miles hugged me as if we were long-lost buddies instead of roommates who had just seen each other that morning. “I’m thrilled you can join us.”
I always felt as if I were interrupting a romance with these two, but that was my take on it, not theirs. I knew that much but still always wanted to give them some space. But I was famished, dressed to kill, and had nowhere else to go but home to flop on my bed and contemplate a horrible day.
“This turned out perfect,” I said, following the hostess as she made small talk with Goldie, who just about everyone knew, and showed us to a table with a water view, since Goldie had insisted on as much for his “Suga.”
The woman set the menus down on the table, turned and stepped to the side, holding the chair for Goldie.
He smiled, began to sit and gasped.
Miles looked in the direction Goldie had and said, “Shit.”
Confused, I turned to see what the big deal was-and froze.
Sitting across the room was Jagger, still in his fantastic suit. Still looking like a GQ model from Testosterone Heaven, and still not noticing me.
Thank the good Lord, since across the table from him was the most gorgeous woman I’d ever seen.
Gorgeous with a damn capital “G.”
Twelve
“You’ve got it all over her,” I heard Goldie say as if in the distance.
Maybe that was because I was in shock, jealous as all get out, although I tried to tell myself I had no right to be. I was still staring.
Long black hair touched her shoulders. A mint green skirt suit with snakeskin shoes, of matching green and black, ivory skin set off by the darkened locks and no wedding ring blurred in the distance. My damn vision cleared enough, unfortunately, to notice teeth whiter than Pansy’s pallor. Okay, bad analogy, but someone that looked so perfect as this chick deserved a bad/ morbid analogy.
Plus, she was with my Jagger!
She looked at him several times and smiled-like a freaking magazine model, airbrushed and all. She made “flirt” the word of the day.
He looked in her eyes and returned a smile. I had to think, though, that it wasn’t too genuine-looking and maybe should be classified as a half smile. I felt my complexion turn a lovely shade of green while I told myself that I was trying to manipulate the image for my own satisfaction. Honest Abe that I was. I really knew little to nothing about Jagger’s life outside of our investigating together and that he vacationed in Newport, Rhode Island, once a year.
Maybe he was making it perfectly clear that we were only coworkers.
I looked at my roomies. “Guys, I’m not really hungry,” I said, and turned and walked away despite their protesting.
I yanked my cell phone out of my pocket. After I punched the buttons with much more force then needed and had to redial three times, I heard a voice that made me feel oh-so-much better.
“Hey, Nightingale.”
Ah…
Earlier I’d only had to swallow a teeny, tiny bit of my pride to invite myself out to eat with ER Dano, I thought, as I looked at him across the table of the Dew Drop Inn diner, Hope Valley’s famous.
Although I’d made the call to him on a whim and telling myself that if Jagger was spending time with the likes of Airbrushed Lady, then I shouldn’t be pining for him. I had to have a love life of my own-it had only dawned on me after the fifth ring that Dano might refuse.