Page 18 of This Time I'm Keeping You
“You can come with me if you like, just to make sure I’ll behave.I’d be doing the next shift a favor.When Poppy goes off, she goes off.No calming her when the fear takes hold.Once, she bit the arm of a nurse and kicked another in the stomach.Then there was that time she just took off with that thing in her arm.I had to bring her back.”
“The IV?”the nurse asked, looking worried.
“That.”Nick pointed at her.Nila looked like she was wavering, so he went for the sympathy vote.
“She had a real rough time as a kid in the hospital.It’s scarred her.If you’ll just come with me, I’ll check and then go?—”
“It’s all right, Nila.Let him see the patient.He came in with Miss Sylvester today, and I know she’s nervous.”The doctor who admitted Poppy approached the desk.By Nick’s calculations, the guy had been working for ten hours and looked about ready to drop.
“Cheers, Doc.I won’t stay long,” Nick said.
Reaching Poppy’s room, he pushed open the door and entered.Moving quietly around the bed, he looked down at her.Her eyes were open.
“Nick, what are you doing here?”
“You should be sleeping, Poppy.”She was propped up on several pillows, looking uncomfortable.
“I don’t want to stay here anymore.Smuggle me out, please.”Her voice sounded desperate.
“Have you been lying there thinking about that since I left?”
“I hate hospitals, and I want to go home.”
“And here’s me without my violin,” Nick drawled.
“Asshole.”
“True,” he said, hooking a leg around the chair behind him.Nick dragged it forward.
“What are you doing here, Nick?Surely there’s a woman somewhere waiting for you?”
“No, I gave her the night off, and the hospital is on my way home,” he lied, dropping into the chair.
“It’s late.How does being here have anything to do with going home?”
“It was Atherton night.We never finish till twelve.”
She studied him through pain-filled eyes.
“Your family has a night?”
“We tried to pass a bill through Congress, but they wouldn’t give us a whole day, so we go for a night.Every second Friday each month is for us, just siblings with no extras.”
“Extras being?”she asked.
“Cousins, partners, parents, nieces and nephews, aunts, uncles, friends, and grandparents,” Nick said.
“Are they all like you?”
Nick brushed a curl off her cheek because he wanted to touch her.
“Hot and intelligent?”
“Arrogant and annoying,” Poppy added.
“Pretty much.Atherton night is held in a bar called Honey’s,” Nick said, resting his elbow on the bed beside her head.
“I bet it’s a real classy joint.”Her smile was small but still a smile.
