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She pressed her lips together and a small, slow smile replaced it. “I get a sense of how you are when you play. A little fiery, quick to react. Calculating. No wonder you’re drafted.”
“Okay, too much.” I held up my hands. “Too fast. Too many compliments. Quick, insult me.”
Another snort. Fuck yeah. That was two and half today.
“We should head back.” Audrey pushed through the doors and glanced at me over her shoulder. “Come on, buddy.”
Mm, didn’t like hearing buddy coming from those lips.
Marcy approached with a half-smile before saying, “Next will be our patients who’ve suffered an acute stroke. We need to…”
Her voice trailed off as my body tensed from head to toe. Sweat pooled on my forehead as I struggled to breathe. Stroke patients.
I… wasn’t sure I could handle it.
9
Audrey
Theo changed. The charming, quick-witted guy I was growing annoyingly smitten with was gone. As we shadowed Rachel around the acute stroke recovery rooms, Theo paled and didn’t say a word.
His chest moved up and down at a faster rate. He kept wiping his brow as sweat dripped on it, and my chest ached for him. Was seeing stroke victims hard because of his mom? Was this too much for him?
I wish I knew how to help, but there wasn’t the right moment. By the time we checked in on the three patients with varying degrees of strokes, we split up. I helped take vitals and update charts for patients on the south wing with another head nurse, Jennifer. I assisted with monitoring infection sites, and there were some gnarly ones, damn. My favorite part of the entire day was talking to them though, putting the patients at ease.
Jennifer had the coolest quote to one of them that would stick with me forever. She said, “You can be scared, but I’m not. I know how to handle this.”
The relief in the patient’s eyes was immediate. There was an art of showing confidence and kindness that I wanted to emulate. But Theo’s words to me at our break? About being beautiful and lighting up? Best compliment I’d ever received in my life. How was this the guy who battered Quentin’s dreams? He was so kind.
He remained on my mind until the end of our first clinical shift, and an unwanted breath of relief escaped when our gazes met in the hallway. The pale-yellow walls clashed with dark navy scrubs he wore, and maybe it was the fluorescent lights or exhaustion, but Theo was gorgeous. From the thick eyebrows to the cut of his jawline, and the half-smile his lips naturally did… my stomach swooped in a way I hadn’t felt in years.
“You both survived your first day.” Marcy smiled and nodded in greeting at two doctors who walked by. “I’ll see you both Thursday, where we’ll do the same thing. Morning is shadowing, then afternoon you’ll be leading. Nice work.”
She left us, and both Theo and I signed the paper required of us to document hours. It was three in the afternoon, a few hours before I had to be at the library for a study group, and I wished I didn’t have to go. My classmates were dry and not warm like Theo. The truth hit me. I wanted to keep hanging out with him. It weirded me out because there were so many reasons I shouldn’t want to.
“That was a day.” Theo flashed a grin as we walked outside into the sunlight, but it wasn’t his usual demeanor. The tension in his shoulders was evident. I wanted to ask why, but it wasn’t exactly normal to jump into the topic with someone who was barely a friend. He could shut me down or laugh it off or worse, ignore me. I only kept my interactions with people to classwork, small talk, or hockey. Anything more required getting involved with people.
Yet, a shadow had crossed Theo’s face. The least I could do was make sure he was alright. I should ask if he was okay or tired or if he wanted to hang out. Oh God. I couldn’t ask that!
“Was seeing the stroke patients hard for you because of your mom?” I blurted out, my words choppy and too close together. My question wasn’t delicate. I smacked myself in the forehead. “I’m sorry, Theo, I meant to be casual and ease into it but then I got in my head, and the worst thing came out.”
He twisted his lips before meeting my gaze. His eyes lit up with amusement. “I mean, you’re not wrong. Sometimes, the bluntness is appreciated.” He gripped the back of his neck as we walked toward the parking lot. I didn’t see his truck near us, and how silly was it that I was glad we had to keep walking?
“Are you alright? Your whole body changed, and I thought about you all afternoon.” There. That wasn’t too much.
“Sweet of you, Hawthorne.” He ran a hand up and down his forearm, his strong fingers digging into the thickest part of his skin. The urge to feel how thick he was had me stepping back.
“It brought me back to when the stroke happened and how she’s not progressing. We thought, maybe, she’d get her ability to communicate back, but it’s barely there.” He gritted his teeth, and his jaw flexed. “She can talk, but her memory is gone, and she repeats herself a lot.”
He reminded me of me in the time between my dad getting sick and passing. What would’ve helped me would’ve been an opportunity to not feel any of it. Just, be someone else for a few hours without the weight of everything. “I know what you need.”
His beautiful eyes landed on me, curiosity and hope swirling in them. The fact he thought I could actually help him, that he trusted me enough, caused a small flutter in my gut. This was an unfamiliar feeling, and I wanted to bottle it up.
“Mmm, what are you thinking, Auds?”
“Come to a rage room with me.” I crossed my arms, preparing to be rejected. Sweat pooled in between my boobs as I squished them together, and my heart skipped a beat. Asking someone to hang out was horrible. Did friends do this all the time? It was way easier to be alone.
“A rage room?” He arched a brow. “Okay, I’m intrigued. Tell me more.”
