“Give him...” Ross named the medication and Brielle nodded, turning to grab the injectible medication from the crash cart. He turned to Cindy. “Get Cardiology here stat.”
“Yes, sir. Dr. Heather Abellano is in the CCU. I saw her earlier.” Cindy glanced toward Brielle then headed out of the partitioned exam room.
Brielle continued to monitor the patient, all too aware that Ross was watching her. Okay, so really he was observing the patient, but she could sense his gaze shift to her every few seconds.
But he didn’t say a single word to her. Not one.
Within minutes, Dr. Abellano was in the room, examining Mr. Cook and having him transferred to the cardiac care unit for further evaluation and treatment.
Once Mr. Cook was on his way, Brielle sighed in relief, glad her shift was almost over and she could go home to Justice.
She glanced toward Ross. He was scribbling on Mr. Cook’s emergency room encounter, no doubt documenting the man’s code, stabilization, and transfer.
He glanced up, caught her staring at him. His brow lifted, but she only looked away. What did he expect? For her to say something? What was she supposed to say that they hadn’t already said?
* * *
Ross signed his name at the bottom of the emergency room encounter, trying to focus on the task at hand and not on the woman across the room restocking the crash cart.
The woman who’d turned his life upside down.
He couldn’t say that he regretted his decision to come to Bean’s Creek. If he hadn’t, he’d never have known about Justice. He’d done the right thing.
About coming here, if nothing else.
On everything else he just wasn’t sure.
Everything had seemed so clear in his mind when he’d stormed out of her house.
He’d had to leave.
Yet hadn’t he done exactly what she’d expected all along? Left when things got sticky?
He wasn’t a quitter, or the type of man who walked away from a problem. He’d have labeled himself a problem-solver, not a runner.
Yet perhaps Brielle was justified to think that way of him, because with her he hadn’t stuck around when things got muddled.
But unlike in the past, he hadn’t left with no intention of returning. Over the past few days he’d made major life decisions. Decisions that he’d needed to make with a clear head.
Apparently, a clear head and being near Brielle didn’t go hand in hand. Not for him. She made him crazy.
She made him alive.
More alive than at any other point in his life. Every emotion was more intense, more real, more vivid with Brielle back in his life, and that’s where he wanted her, in his life.
He probably should have stayed, camped out on her sofa until they’d both cooled off. Instead, he’d flown to Boston, arranged to sell his practice to his partners, put his apartment on the market and tied up loose ends because he wouldn’t be moving back at the end of his three months in Bean’s Creek.
Regardless of what happened be
tween him and Brielle, he was staying in North Carolina, was staying where his family was, Justice and Brielle.
What was happening between them?
What did he want to happen?
Hadn’t that thought been foremost in his mind over the past few days? What was it he wanted more than anything?
Not what currently was, that was for sure.