Page 48 of Careless Whisper

Had Maren lied at the M&M review, just like Reggie said?

But I knew Maren. I trusted her. And even though the version of Reggie she described—careless, deflecting, immature—never matched the woman I’d actually known, I went with Maren’s story because I didn’t want to believe she would maliciously fabricate something about Reggie—or anyone.

Even now, with the truth staring me in the face, I had clung to the old narrative, hadn’t I?

The Reggie I’d seen in Seattle—steady, competent, exceptional—wasn’t new. She was exactly who she’d always been. I just hadn’t wanted to see it.

“Thanks, Lars,” I said, throat tight.

“You want to tell me why you’re bringing this up?” Lars asked softly.

“Like I said, I hired Maren,andReggie Sanchez is a surgical nurse here.”

There was a long pause, and then Lars spoke carefully: “I have heard, you know how hospital rumors are, that she got that nurse who escalated issuesfired from Stratford. I'm not sure what happened, just that there was a patient death involved.”

“Thanks, Lars.”

“Anytime, Elias.”

I put my phone down on my desk with shaking hands.

I failed Reggie, I realized, by trusting Maren, by not giving Reggie the benefit of the doubt, by just discarding her.

The epiphany didn’t hit me like a sledgehammer. It wasn’t loud or dramatic. It was quieter—more like peeling back a truth I’d buried a long time ago.

I had fallen for Reggie.Hard. And when I was offered a version of her that made her unworthy—messy, reckless, disposable—I’d taken it because it let me off the hook.

Fear of commitment was a cop-out for some people who said it to sound self-aware, but for me, it wasreal.

I’d spent my whole life surrounded by marriages that looked perfect on the outside but were rotten inside. They were contracts, alliances, and performance pieces for the country club crowd. Love didn’t mean security—it meant leverage. A weakness, a debt you’d eventually be forced to pay.

So, I always kept things casual so I could walk away

But with Reggie—it hadn’t been casual; it had been real! So, instead of standing by her, I chose the storythat kept me safe. I let her fall—because I was afraid of what it would mean to catch her.

Everything I’d seen from Reggie since I came to Seattle—the way she handled pressure, how surgical residents deferred to her, how nurses looked to her like she was the anchor in every storm—it had all been right in front of me. She wasn’t reckless. She wasn’t emotional. She was the best nurse we had, and I’d let her be destroyed—twice, and each time, I’d chosen to protect my emotions rather than the woman I was in love with.

I was in love with Reggie!

My knees weakened, and if I weren’t already sitting, I would’ve hit the floor.

I was in love with Regina Sanchez, and I’d lost her.

After we’d made love in that on-call room, I should’ve kept her close, coddled her, and made up for all my screw-ups. Instead, I’d fucked her over some more by asking her to play nice with Maren.

Would she even give me a chance to make this right?Probably not.

But if she did?—

God help me?—

I wouldn’t waste it.

CHAPTER 17

Reggie

No scrubs, no pagers, no surgical charts—just the tiny miracle of waking up without tension or that low, constant buzz of anxiety under my skin, wondering what fresh hell Drs Maren Loring and Elias Graham had in store for me that day.

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