“Oh, so I’m on recruiter duty now, am I?”
“You’re the one who brought it up. Besides, you’re a smooth talker, Tucker. If anyone can do it, you can.”
He was, and Norah was falling right into his hands. “You could do it, too. I’m reasonably sure no one has actually said no to you about anything since you moved to town.”
“True, but I’ll be busy sweet talking everyone else. Can I count on you? To dance and to work on Mama Pearl?”
Tucker loved to dance, loved to perform, and it would give him yet another legitimate excuse to drop into the diner. And if he could get Mama Pearl on board, it just might give him the opportunity to break this stalemate he’d been in with her sad-eyed waitress. He lifted a hand in salute. “I’m your man, General Burke.”
~*~
“Only twenty more minutes and we are done! Girl, give me a high five.”
Corinne Dawson slapped Malika Hobbs’s uplifted hand before returning to her patient charts. The next twenty minutes were all that stood between them and the completion of the clinical hours required for their nursing program. With finals finished, this was the last requirement for graduation. Thank God. The last two semesters of juggling online classes, clinical hours, and her job as a waitress at Dinner Belles had meant little sleep and even less time with her son. But the end was in sight.
“We should totally go out for drinks to celebrate. Or ice cream. A big ass banana split,” Malika continued. “And then a three hour nap.”
The idea of that nap almost made Corinne whimper. “I wish. I’ve still got a shift at the diner when I leave here.” Another eight hours on her feet after eight here at the hospital. She’d forgotten what
it was like not to operate past the threshold of permanent exhaustion.
The younger woman stuck out her lip in a pout. “With clinicals done, when am I going to see you?”
It gave Corinne warm fuzzies that her classmate still wanted to see her. She hadn’t exactly been welcomed back to Wishful with open arms when she’d come slinking home, a divorced single mom, eighteen months before. Friends had been hard to come by.
“You could both apply for jobs here at the hospital.” Rosemary Newsome reached past them both to pluck a chart out of the rack.
Corinne looked at the charge nurse. “I didn’t think they were hiring.”
“They weren’t. But they will be. It’s a good gig. Hard work, but part of the job perks is that the hospital will pay for you to continue your education. You come in as LPNs, you can work your way up. Two years working here for every year of schooling.”
A means of furthering her education without going deeper into debt? With that kind of option, she could afford to finally move out of her mom’s house, get her own place and start paying off all the debts she’d accrued trying to get back on her feet since the divorce. “Where do I pick up an application?” Corinne asked.
“The posting will go up in a few weeks. You can swing by HR then, put in an application. They’ll have it online, but better to have your face seen. We’re old school around here. Then the board will interview candidates,” Rosemary said.
“The hospital board?” Corinne asked.
“That’d be the one.”
Damn it. Of the nine board members, Corinne knew at least three of them would turn her application down on the spot. She’d been back long enough to know nobody had forgotten high school and no one cared about giving her a chance to make up for her less than sterling behavior. But maybe it didn’t have to be a unanimous decision. She’d just have to make sure she was the best candidate for the job.
“I’m going to go check on Mr. Lennox in 104,” Malika announced.
As her friend hustled down the hall, Corinne turned to Rosemary. “I know clinical hours are over, but is there any chance I can continue volunteering?”
The older woman blinked. “You need to be studying for your NCLEX exam.”
“And I am. But I’m serious about going for that job.” She needed it to make a better life for her son. “It seems like going above and beyond would help set me apart from the crowd.”
“Your work should speak for itself. You’ve done a good job here, Corinne.”
She’d worked her tail off. But Corinne had her doubts about whether it would be enough. In all likelihood, she’d end up having to leave Wishful to start a new life for her and Kurt. As difficult as coming home had been, going somewhere entirely new was a mountain she wasn’t sure she had it in her to climb.
One step at a time, she reminded herself. It had been the mantra echoing through her head for a long time now. It had gotten her away from Lance, found her a job, gotten her back in school. It would get her a little bit further.
At the end of their shift, she and Malika walked out to the parking lot together.
“Oh! Oh! Final grades are posted!” Malika furiously punched at her smartphone. “Thank you, baby Jesus, I passed.”