“I’m Miles Blake. Hayden’s my brother.”
I gave Miles a rundown of the injuries Hayden still had after I’d taken care of the worst and life-threatening ones. “There’s a button by his bed if he needs anything.”
“Thanks,” Miles said without looking away from his brother.
“He really is going to be fine,” I promised as I headed for the door.
“Wait, what’s your name?”
“Danielle.”
Miles’s lips quirked up, and the hint of a dimple peeked through the light scruff on his cheeks. “That’s a pretty name.”
I didn’t return his smile. Flirting with a patient’s family wasn’t professional, and I was professional to a fault. I didn’t want to give anyone a reason to question my work or notice that sometimes my patients made recoveries that were a tad bit too miraculous.
“Mr. Blake—”
“Miles. Please. I’m way too tired to deal with formalities right now. And honestly, whenever someone says Mr. Blake, I have to fight the urge to look around for my father.”
I shouldn’t have smiled, but I couldn’t fight the grin that overtook me. Miles was one of those people it was impossible not to like.
“Good night… Miles.”
“See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” His laughter filled the room, and in that second I was almost glad for the events that happened earlier. If I’d been a human nurse, if Beelzebub hadn’t brought Hayden to me, Miles would be mourning the loss of his brother right now instead of joking with me.
I shook my head at him.
“Wait, you said good night. Are you coming back?”
“I’m done for the night, but I’ll be back tomorrow evening.”
Miles’s shoulders slumped like the news had just added a giant weight to them.
“How are you holding up?” I asked.
“I’m not the one who was in a car accident.”
“That doesn’t mean this isn’t hard. Sometimes it’s harder to watch other people go through pain than it is to feel it yourself. I’ve been there.” Feeling Nate tense under my hands, his face tight with agony, still haunted me. I hate watching pain. Always have and probably always will.
“Did they get better?” Miles asked.
“Yep. And Hayden will too.”
“Will you stay?”
“What?”
“The rest of my family is all out of town. You said you’re done working, and I really don’t want to sit herewith my unconscious brother as my only company all night.”
Maybe I should have said no, but it was a good excuse to stay close to Hayden so I could give Beelzebub the updates he’d requested. And there was something about the anxiety in Miles’s aura that made it impossible to refuse him. “Okay.”
He gave me a relieved smile, and he looked even younger in those seconds. Too young to be dealing with this alone.
“Hey.” I reached for his hand and squeezed. “I promise everything is going to be fine. Do you believe me?”
“Should I?”
“I wouldn’t make the promise if I wasn’t one hundred percent sure I was right.”
