Bennett followed behind him shortly after, and it was only when I turned to throw wide eyes at Melissa that I saw Nikki in the corner, looking like her heart had been torn out.
Melissa watched me watch Nikki, and I was surprised when she said, “Nikki’s in love with someone. I guess now we know who.”
Yeah, I guess now we did.
Nikki was a phlebotomist.
She’d been working in the ER as long as I’d been there, and in the time I’d known her, she’d become a really good friend.
Although I didn’t see her as much as I would’ve liked, I still counted her as one of the friends I could rely on if I needed her.
And I’d known she’d fallen for someone.
I could tell almost two years ago when it’d happened.
Yet she’d clammed up, and hadn’t said a word about it ever since.
Leaving all of us to wonder just what exactly had transpired.
Turning back to Melissa, I inadvertently stepped out past my computer, effectively running into Joslin as I went.
“Watch where you’re going, heifer,” Joslin snapped, glaring at me as she passed.
I wanted to pick up the chart that was next to my hand and whack her upside the head with it, but I refrained.
Barely.
Instead I turned to Melissa as I’d previously intended to do, and said, “We need to get her out for a girl’s night. Get her to talk.”
Melissa nodded sagely. “Yes, yes I think we do.”
Four and a half hours later, exhausted and tired, I walked out the sliding doors of the medical center, and was grateful to see Bennett leaning against his truck waiting for me at the fire lane.
“Hey,” I said, walking up to him and practically dropping against his chest.
He let out a small oomph, and wrapped his arms around my shoulders.
“What’s going on, Nox?” He asked softly against my hair
I smiled up at him for using that weird nickname, and sighed as I pushed away from him.
“Joslin Downs, that’s what,” I growled, crossing my arms across my chest.
“What? Why?” Bennett asked.
I lifted my lip in a silent snarl.
“I accidentally bumped into her just after y’all left, and pissed her off. Or maybe I was just a convenient scapegoat. Whatever the case, she blamed me for everything that went wrong today, and then some,” I growled.
“Yeah, she’s a real piece of work, that one,” Bennett admitted. “Michael had some real colorful things to say about her as we drove back to the station today after seeing y’all.”
I could imagine.
The woman was the devil, and I pitied the man that ever had to deal with her shit.
Past, present, or future.
“Does she have a golden vagina or something?” I asked in all seriousness. “Because she’s always been the way she is right now. Never once has she changed. She treats everyone like shit, and not one of the doctors I know she’s sleeping with cares. They all know how she acts. I’m not sure that they know she’s sleeping with three of them, but still.”
Bennett shrugged and pushed himself off the truck he was leaning against, then opened the door for me.
I was surprised to see Reagan in there.
She was, however, sleeping.
“Did you wear her out?” I asked Bennett.
He smiled. “I think she’s in a food coma. I came home to her, Payton and Harleigh finishing off all the pancakes and cinnamon rolls,” he said dryly.
I smiled.
“That was fun. I really like cooking, but it never seems to be worth it to do it for just me. There’s no way I could keep fitting in my pants if I did that,” I admitted laughingly.
He winked.
“Hop in, princess,” he said, sweeping his hand out in an exuberant fashion.
I did.
Softly, so as not to wake her, I slid inside Bennett’s single cab truck, and shut the door as quietly as I could.
“You really need to get a bigger truck,” I mused.
Bennett slammed his door, hard, before looking in my direction.
“What for?” He asked.
I pointed at Reagan who was practically sprawled all over him.
“She really shouldn’t be in the front seat until she’s bigger. Not to mention it’d save you from that,” I said softly.
He shifted his truck into reverse, carefully to avoiding Reagan’s legs, and said, “I have what I can afford. And for right now, it’s this.”
I remained silent about that, sensing a sore subject when I heard one.Chapter 10A gentleman doesn’t participate in locker room talk. All he needs to do is fuck her hard enough that she screams loud enough that everyone can hear it. Different route, same outcome.
-Note to self
Lennox
“I think I might’ve underdressed,” Bennett said softly.
I moved my eyes from the dashboard where I was changing the station on the radio to see my parents standing in the opened front door.
I tried to see it from his point of view.
He must be looking up at the large home, and the two impeccably dressed people standing on the front porch.
“They’re very down to earth,” I told him. “They came from nothing, and instilled that in their children. I know how to work for what I want, and I still have a humongous amount of student loan debt that I need to pay off.”
He blinked, turning to me with a crease on his brow.
“They didn’t pay for your tuition?” He asked in surprise.
I shook my head. “No. They felt it showed ‘responsibility.’ And that it would be better for me, in the long run, to understand how money worked, and how it didn’t grow on trees.”
“Hmmm,” he grunted.
As soon as he pulled up behind my dad’s BMW, he turned the truck off and started to rouse Reagan.
Knowing it’d take a few minutes, I hopped out of the truck, closed the door softly, and walked up to my parents.
My mother, always with a smile on her face, walked out from under my father’s arm, straight to me.
She hit me like a mini wrecking ball, gathering me into her arms and kissing me.
“How’d your shift go, Lennie?” She asked softly.
I leaned back and smiled at her. “Good. Long.”
She smiled and patted my cheek. “Welcome to the world of medicine.”