Page 15 of Careless Whisper

“I’ll think about it,” I said mildly, having no intention of doing so.

“I always thought you two had potential. You’ve known each other forever. She’s not impulsive. She’s sensible, smart, steady, and ambitious. Just right for you.”

You’d reconsider the sensible and steady part if you’d seen her lying naked on my bed in my apartment, demanding we get back together, and when I refused, screaming like a freaking banshee.

But you know who was steady, though?Reggie.

Cool under pressure. Surgical in her thinking.

Even when I kicked her out of the OR for what everyone thought was a bullshit infraction I’d called her out on—she’d been graceful. Cindy had told me she was disappointed in me but had left it at that. I’d joked that Reggie was probably badmouthing me.

“No, Dr. Graham, that would be the rest of the nursing staff…well, except for Delaney, who got a promotion she doesn’t deserve,” Cindy had told me without emotion. “Nurse Sanchez does not speak ill of any of her colleagues,ever.”

Reggie was a damn good nurse—even I could see that.

She’d seen tamponade even before the echo. She’d called it and acted on it. If I’d arrived two minutes later, the patient still would’ve lived because of her. And what did I do to reward that? Ripped her apartover a drape slip in front of residents. Humiliated her for what she’d already corrected. Why? Because it was easier to shame her than wonder if I’d been wrong about her five years ago? I now had, as I had then, evidence of her professionalism and her skill—and yet…

My father was still talking—blathering on about an article in JACC and how Maren might be a speaker at the ACC conference—but I tuned out. It was white noise.

“I have to go,” I said, cutting him off.

“Fine. Don’t forget to RSVP.” He ended the call. I tossed the phone on the bar, staring out of the floor-to-ceiling windows.

The silence in my condo wrapped around me like a vacuum. There were no personal pictures on the walls—just manicured art. No laughter in the halls—just the ringing of a phone and the ticking of a clock.

I rubbed my chest, feeling a hollowness inside me, a hole that used to not be there.

I should never have come to Seattle. I came to build a future, not walk straight into my past.

Reggie! She was everywhere now. In my OR. In my head. In the damn silence.

I thought I hated her. Maybe I still did.

But part of me hated me more; the part that missed her and ached for her, the part that still loved her.

CHAPTER 5

Reggie

The hospital gym was tucked in a quiet corner of the sub-basement, beneath the staff lounge and across from supply storage. This meant it always smelled faintly of rubber flooring, metal, and lemon-scented disinfectant. It was not glamorous, but it was better than the fancy one in my apartment complex, which was a bit too polished for my liking.

I wiped the sweat from my neck and adjusted my grip on the barbell. My arms were already shaking, but I wasn’t stopping yet. Not until I hit failure.

“Three more,” Luther ordered from beside me, spotting like the human wall he was. “Don’t bail.”

I didn’t answer; just gritted my teeth and pushed through the burn. My muscles screamed, but I got the reps done and racked the bar with a grunt.

“Hell, yeah.” Luther crowed. “You get scarier by the week, Sanchez.”

I grabbed my water bottle. “You like working out; I do it because I like food, and my Mexican genes are hell on…well, food.”

He dropped down onto the bench next to me. Even in a gray tank top and sweats, he looked like he could still suit up and block and tackle. Broad shoulders, thick arms, and a booming laugh that carried across any room, even a surgical ward. Most people found him intimidating until they heard him talk about his sourdough starter or his favorite rom-coms.

“Seriously though”—Luther caught his breath—“that was a beast set. You okay?”

“Yeah. Just needed to sweat out some rage.”

“Dr. Graham again?”

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