It was my turn to clear my throat. “Well, I guess I can add that to my list of crazy ER moments. I’m going to head on home. Thanks for letting me watch, Truitt.”
He smirked. “Like I had any options.”
His response stopped me for a moment. Had he not wanted me there? Maybe he was embarrassed to be back in the ER. Maybe the pain of having a nail shot through his foot made him cranky. Maybe I was overthinking this.
Without a word, I headed to my locker in the break room. After I grabbed my purse, I quickly made my way outside and to my car.
“Saryn! Wait.”
The sound of Ryan’s voice stopped me. I turned to face him.
He stopped in front of me and asked, “Hey, is everything okay?”
I forced a slight smile. “I’m tired. I didn’t like working in the ER the first time I had to do it, and I hate it even more now. I’m ready to get back to babies. That’s all.”
He nodded and looked at me thoughtfully. “I didn’t mean anything when I brought up that whole thing with Luke.”
I waved him off. “It’s fine. I knew what I was doing and figured the rumors would start eventually. It’s not a big deal.”
“Hey, it’s okay if you have feelings for Truitt.”
My mouth opened slightly, and for the briefest moment I wanted to tell Ryan exactly how I felt. But I didn’t know exactly how I felt. “I’ll see you later.”
Ryan nodded, then leaned down and kissed me on the cheek. “Give Liliana a kiss for me.”
This time my smile was genuine. “I will.” I turned to get into my car before I faced him again. “Did you drive here? Do you need a ride home?”
“I drove Truitt here in my truck. I’ll wait around until he’s ready to head out, then take him home.”
“Sounds good, Ryan. See ya.”
“See ya.”
As I watched my brother walk back into the ER, I pushed away any and all thoughts of Truitt Carter.
Truitt
I LOOKED OUT over the pasture and stared at the sun slowly sinking into the western sky. The sound of something or someone walking up behind me made me go still. It wasn’t a deer, so it had to be one of the other guys.
The slap on my back made me sputter out a cough.
“What the fuck?” I said as I jumped up and saw Roger standing there—a damn smile on his face. “I could have shot you! Stupid asshole.”
He held up his hands, his rifle strung over his shoulder. “Damn, little brother, you’re on edge. What’s wrong, haven’t gotten laid in awhile?”
A sinking feeling hit me in the chest. “Something like that.”
“Call Shay.”
I rolled my eyes. The night I went back to Shay’s place we hadn’t had sex. I made her come, simply because I wasn’t an asshole and it was me who had asked her out, but we didn’t have sex. I couldn’t bring myself to want to. “I’m not interested in that.”
Roger looked at me, then turned his gaze out over the open pasture. “See anything this afternoon?”
Relief washed over me that he’d dropped the subject of Shay.
“No. They probably smelled your damn men’s perfume coming from a mile away,” I mumbled.
He laughed, then bumped me on the arm. “Come on, let’s go back to the cabin, grab some food.”
I shook my head. “Nah, I’m going to hike on over to my tree stand, see if anything comes in.”
“Truitt, the sun is fixin’ to go down soon. Even if you do see something, it’ll be too dark to shoot and then track it if you get lucky enough to hit it at all. Let’s go, man.”
Rubbing the back of my neck, I sighed. “Maybe I’ll just head on home. I need to work on the Nights’ playhouse.”
Roger narrowed his eyes at me. “Truitt, what’s going on with you? You haven’t been yourself since we got up here.”
My brother, Ryan, Pete, Jack, Paul, and I visited the deer lease my father had in Llano every year. First weekend of rifle season, the six of us came up here to go deer hunting. It was like clockwork. Hell, Paul had scheduled his damn wedding around this weekend.
“I’ve just got a lot on my mind, that’s all.”
Without taking his gaze off of me, Roger asked, “Business is doing good?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I’ve got a waiting list. Even some clients out in California are interested in a playhouse. One’s an actor.”
He smiled, the pride evident in his eyes. “That’s great, so why the long face?”
I stared back out over the open land. “I don’t really know, to be honest. I’m feeling…something. A void, a loss. A fucking sadness, I have no idea why. I don’t know what in the fuck it is. Maybe I do need to get laid.”