Page 30 of Unraveled

He’d startled her by accusing her of being on a date, and she’d immediately gotten defensive. Everything had gone downhill from there. He’d stormed off at the sight of Mason, heading for the bar near the front of the restaurant. After dinner, she’d headed in that direction to speak with him. She at least wanted him to hear her side of the story.

As it turned out, he’d already turned his attention elsewhere. Beautiful, big boobs, hand possessively on his thigh. She couldn’t get the image of that woman out of her mind. It was just like Scott’s indiscretion, but worse somehow. Seeing them together reminded her of why she refused to let another man in.

She knew it was irrational, but she couldn’t help it. Though she’d been the one to push him away, subconsciously she wanted him to care about her the same way she was beginning to care about him.

Rising from her chair, she pushed her negative thoughts away and wandered toward the nurses’ station. Stella was headed toward her at a fast clip, her brow furrowed with concern.

Audrey lifted her brows in question. “Everything okay?”

“I just got off the phone with Mr. Cross a little while ago. He called with chest pains, and I suspected it was a heart attack. I went ahead and called dispatch and had them pick him up, then reached out to his emergency contact.”

“Good,” Audrey said, relieved. “Thank you.”

They walked back to station A side by side, and Audrey leaned her elbows on the counter. “Who do I have next?”

“McPherson, room 104.”

“Thanks.”

Audrey took care of her next patient, but she couldn’t get Mr. Cross off her mind. She could call the hospital to check with the attending physician, or… She leaned her elbows on the counter at the nurses’ station.

“Stella, what else is scheduled for this afternoon?”

Stella clicked through the system. “Dr. Kellerman has a patient at 4:20, but that’s it for the day unless we have any walk-ins.”

Audrey chewed on her lower lip. “Still haven’t heard anything about Cross?”

Stella shook her head. “Not yet.”

Audrey checked the clock hanging over the desk on the wall. “I’m going to head over, see how he’s holding up. I assume you already sent a copy of his chart to the hospital?”

Stella nodded. “Taken care of.”

“Awesome, thanks again. I’ll see you in the morning.” Audrey headed toward the back of the office and shrugged out of her lab coat, then grabbed her purse and locked up before heading toward Dr. Kellerman’s office. She froze in the hallway as the sound of angry voices met her ears.

“I swear, I never meant for any of that to happen.” She recognized Dr. Kellerman’s voice.

“Like that makes it any better.” The second voice sounded bitter and resentful.

“I’m sorry. Believe me when I say I tried⁠—”

“That’s not good enough!”

“You’ll never know how sorry I am.”

“You think you can apologize and make all of this go away?”

Make what go away? Audrey bit her lip and leaned infinitesimally closer.

The man paused, and she imagined him seething, shaking his head. “It’s too late for that.”

“Please, I⁠—”

“You’ll pay for this.”

The man’s parting words punctuated his exit, and Audrey jumped out of the way as he stormed out of Kellerman’s office. He seemed taken aback to see her standing right outside, but he gathered himself quickly and continued down the hallway. She peeked her head around the doorway and saw Dr. Kellerman with his elbows braced on the desk, head resting in his hands. He looked more saddened than concerned by the threat, and sympathy tugged at her.

“Everything okay?”