Just for today.
Then I got out Adair’s laptop and set it beside me on the bed.
After a nice, long nap, I would get back to work.
Once I burrowed under the covers, with nowhere to be and no one needing me, I realized “relief” hadn’t been quite right.
Free.
That was the word.
32
ADAIR
“Oh, Nurse,” a masculine, sing-song voice called through the exam room doorway. “I’m ready for my sponge bath.”
Lordy.
I closed my eyes and fought back a laugh. “Shouldn’t I be the one who?—”
I shut my mouth firmly. I’d almost fallen for his trap.
Cracking open an eye, I sighed in relief when Cole sauntered into the room wearing normal clothes. In just those few seconds, my mind had gone places. Places it did not need to be.
“You’re thinking of Halloween three years ago, aren’t you?” Cole asked as he glanced around the small room. “Nurse Dubois was a revelation never to be topped. However—” He gave me a quick hug and a pat on the back. “—the polyester skirt chafed like a motherfucker.”
I snorted at my best friend, but I was happy he was here. Even more than I anticipated I would be, especially since I wasn’t expecting him to make it here until later. Hemust’ve gotten up crazy early to make it here by now, or had just… never gone to sleep.
Save for the nurses, I’d been alone since Jillie picked me up from Camellia Lane before the sun could even consider rising this morning—bless her—and brought me to this outpatient surgery center about half an hour from Live Oak.
It felt like I was a million miles away from Camellia Lane after she left.
But she’d made me reassure her at least five times that someone would be here for me soon before she’d driven off, which had warmed my heart considerably.
Delly was at work by now, only because I’d bullied her into not taking off more than a couple hours early, reasoning that there was nothing she could do but wait. Pops couldn’t really be here without Jillie, and I didn’t want him to feel guilty about that fact.
And Ireland was…. I glanced at the clock on the wall, thinking through her routine. She was probably boarding over to the Locc right now to have breakfast with Beck.
I hoped she got the notes I left her.
The call that they could do the surgery this morning—earlythis morning—had been unexpected. I’d not really considered the possibility of it being today, since I knew how slow things in this world moved. But then they’d called, and I had to square things away with my supervisor, apologizing profusely, before spending most of my evening last night waiting at an imaging center to get fresh scans.
The last-minute scramble for all of this had left no time to talk to Ireland or Pops again, which was maybe for the best.
Kissing my gorgeous roommate was one thing, but burdening her with this? That was another.
Hell, if I could’ve not told Delly, I would have.
“You almost look broody,” Cole said through a yawn. “Whatcha thinking so hard about?”
“Not you in a nurse costume, thankfully.”
“That blush on your cheeks says otherwise, babe.” He smirked, tucking his hair behind his ears. “Such a little liar.”
A real nurse came into the room then, wearing very normal scrubs. Definitely not the all-white skirt, low-cut button up, and cap combo that I knew Cole had hanging in his closet back in the apartment in Georgia. He wouldn’t have brought that with him… right?
“Good morning, Mr. Jacks. I’m here to place your IV and take your vitals before we take you back.”
