you’re a pro.” Terri beamed. “Thanks so much. Be sure to press the button if you need me. I’ll pop in later to take your vitals.”
Sniffles from the bed accompanied the mother’s thank-you as Terri left the room. Phobic patients like Brittney weren’t unusual on this floor, but Terri never stopped trying to make a hospital stay as pleasant as possible for everyone. Stress didn’t help the healing process.
After introducing herself to her other patients, she caught one of the nursing techs on the floor for help moving a few things around in the lounge. It was a long shot, but she’d made it her mission for the shift to get at least one smile out of Brittney before her doctor sent her home. If nothing else, it might make life easier for a nurse in Brittney’s future.
Terri returned to 412, this time waiting until Mrs. Markwald reached a stopping point in the story. “Breakfast is coming around,” she explained. “You can have it in here or you can really impress the doctors.”
After a moment of visible skepticism, Brittney asked, “How?”
Contact at last, Terri thought with an inner cheer. “You’re doing well enough that you can eat down in the lounge. There’s a video game kart racing challenge and we post high scores on the wall.”
“You mean I don’t have to stay in here?”
Terri nodded. “You can stay in the room if you like. But if you want to go to the lounge, I can have physical therapy meet you there, too.”
Brittney’s momentary excitement faded. “I don’t want more people messing with me.”
“Well, that’s understandable, but you don’t get to go home until they know you can manage the crutches.”
Brittney aimed another sullen expression at her mother.
“It’s a lot more fun, I promise,” Terri added. “Unless you’re tired.”
“I’m not tired,” Brittney declared. “I want to go.”
Brittney cooperated as Terri and her mother helped her get settled in front of one of the lounge gaming stations. When she was engrossed with outfitting her racer, Terri pulled the mother aside. “You can go down to the cafeteria for breakfast and coffee,” she suggested. “I double-checked with the surgeon’s office. He won’t be up for another hour at least.”
“What if—”
“Your daughter will be fine with us. If the surgeon’s schedule changes, I’ll call you.”
The mother’s eyes brightened with relief. “Thank you,” she said, slipping out of her daughter’s sight. “She’s not usually such a handful. They did their best last night, but...”
“She’s upset and scared. Happens to all of us at some point.” Terri had been blessed with good health, but she understood the fears and questions that plagued her patients. “We’ll get you through this as a team.”
With Brittney happily distracted, Terri moved on through her shift, tending to patient calls and overseeing discharge orders. The hours sped by and her rumbling stomach cued her in that she needed to eat and she headed downstairs to the cafeteria. Normally, she brought lunch from home, but after another restless night full of anxious dreams about her brother she’d overslept. In the subsequent rush to get out the door, she’d left her lunch bag sitting on the kitchen counter.
Reminders from the police and her friends that Trey was officially a legal adult and smart enough to get into college failed to ease her worry over his disappearance. After the first month with no word from him, she’d sought the help of the best private investigator she could afford. Unfortunately, her modest investment only confirmed what his college roommate had told her. Trey had changed almost overnight, going from an outgoing freshman making friends on campus to withdrawn and reclusive until he went out one day and just didn’t return.
Letting him go to college in Arizona had been a mistake, Terri knew that now. It had been too big a leap. His body had been ready, thanks to his hard work through physical therapy, but she never should’ve accepted his claim about his emotional stability at face value. If nothing else, her constant worry was proof she hadn’t been ready to be this far from him.
She loved her friends and her work, but she was lonely without her brother. He was the only family she had left. On move-in day, she’d taken plenty of pictures and, before she left, they’d tossed around ideas for the holiday break between semesters. Now Christmas was only two weeks away, and she didn’t know what she was supposed to do without him.
“Hey, Terri.”
Startled, she glanced up at the sound of her name and then smiled into the rugged, handsome face of David Martin. “Oh. Hey, David.”
He was relatively new at the hospital and he’d made an impression on most of the women with his Georgia accent, that dark hair and those eyes that were more gray than blue. Somehow on him, the pressed khakis, white polo shirt and dark blue fleece jacket embroidered with the MUSC logo looked as though it belonged on the cover of GQ.
She suddenly felt a little silly in her bright, tropical frog scrubs. “How’s your day going?”
“Predictable.” He lifted his tall coffee mug. “I came looking for a shot of caffeine. Reports are due in a couple of hours.” He checked his watch. “Late lunch?” He dipped his chin in the direction of the plastic salad container she held.
“Yeah. The lunch I packed is still sitting at home.”
“Want some company?”
That would be lovely. She always enjoyed talking with him over coffee or lunch. “I wish I could take a few minutes down here,” she said. “There’s a problem child on the ward today and I don’t want to give her any reason to get upset again.”
He grinned, and the tilt of his lips set butterflies loose in her belly. “You applied that famous Nurse Terri charm, didn’t you?”
She laughed. “Of course.” She leaned a little closer, just because she could. “It’s possible this patient’s immune.”
“I don’t believe that for a minute.” He nudged her shoulder. “No one’s immune to that smile.”
Her lips curved even more at the words, and his confidence gave her mood a much-needed boost. “Thanks.”
“We’re still on for tonight, right?”
She nodded. He’d invited her to dinner at a new place on King Street. If she didn’t get back upstairs, she wouldn’t have any time at all to eat. She tried to care, but food seemed far less important than taking a few minutes with an interesting man like David. “I’ll be ready.”
“Great.” He followed her into the elevator and punched the button for her floor.
“What are you doing?” Whenever they did get together over lunch, they parted ways at the elevator.
His dark eyebrows arched. “Walking you back,” he said. “Is that a problem?”
“No.” It was just different. She remembered how the gossip had zipped through the hospital when he joined
