Page 2 of Stolen Kisses
I’m here,Joey texted.Meter’s running.
Okay, she could hold herself together for a few more minutes until she was back at the townhouse she shared with her brother. She faked a frown at Barbie. “I’m so sorry, but something has come up and I need to go. Do you mind telling Noah for me?”
Barbie looked genuinely disappointed as the corners of her mouth pulled down. “Aww, that’s a shame. I’ll tell him.”
“Thanks.” Krista pushed through the bathroom door, weaved through the crowd, and headed straight toward the exit. She could tell Noah herself, but he’d ask questions. He’d want to know what had come up. Why did she need to leave? What was the real problem? Because he could always see right through her. The only thing he couldn’t seem to see was how she felt about him, and that was for the best.
The cool fall air hit Krista as she exited Castaways. Her shoes crunched as she cut across the lot sprinkled with oyster shells instead of gravel, giving the place seaside charm. She whipped open the door and plopped into the front passenger seat of Joey’s cab, then blew out the breath she’d been holding until she’d escaped. “Let’s get out of here.”
“First you have to explain yourself,” Joey said. “Is there someone in there whose ass I need to kick?”
Krista smiled at her large, overbearing brute of a brother. “Yes. A blond Barbie doll’s.”
His wide shoulders lowered a notch. “If it was a dude, you know I’d have your back.”
“I know, and it’s one of the many reasons I love you. Now let’s go.” Before Noah headed outside. Before she lost her dinner and the beers she’d consumed a little too fast in the last hour.
The cab started moving and Krista melted back into the passenger seat. She closed her eyes, suddenly drained. She was twenty-eight years old. Maybe she was getting too old to be going out and having beers on a work night anyway. Maybe she should start spending more nights in, reading books, watching the Hallmark Channel, and going to sleep at a reasonable hour.
“You coming in?” Krista asked as Joey pulled in front of their brick townhome ten minutes later.
“No. I’m going to take a few more calls from paying customers. Emphasis onpaying.” He winked.
Krista knew he was joking. He’d always been the one to insist on driving her around at night to keep her safe, even if she couldn’t imagine a safer place than Blushing Bay, North Carolina. The small, cozy town centered around a major fishing port off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. It was full of a lot of things, primarily fisherfolk, but not hardened criminals. “Thanks again. I owe you big,” she told him as she climbed out, fumbled with her house keys, and headed inside. Then she poured herself a glass of water to offset the beer and tucked herself into bed—alone.
—
“It’s fine.” Krista shrugged the next morning over coffee and muffins with her good friend Grace Donner. They were at one of the best bakeries in town, the Blushing Bay Café. It rested snugly between the two marinas on the waterfront and catered to the local fishermen and fisherwomen, including Noah’s family, who Grace worked for. “I mean, Noah needs to find himself a good woman who’ll make him settle down. That man has undiagnosed attention deficit disorder, I swear. I’m a pediatric nurse, I’d know.”
Grace laughed and glanced at her watch. “Ten ’til eight. I have to get to the office.”
Krista usually envied the fact that Grace got to go to the Sawyer Seafood Company and see Noah every day, but not today. Today, Krista was glad she didn’t have to face him.
Krista stood as well. “Me, too.” She had several patients on the peds floor right now that she was eager to get back to. Leaving them in their beds while she went home to hers didn’t mean they’d left her mind. The nurse in her always wished she could check on them in the middle of the night, just to ensure they were comfortable. “I’ll see you at Castaways tonight for drinks?”
“Sure thing,” Grace said, waving.
Krista drove a few miles to the Blushing Bay Memorial Hospital and parked out front. In her rearview mirror she saw Dr. Chandler Dale pull in across from her. Grabbing her stuff, she hurried toward the entrance. She’d didn’t feel like making small talk with the young cardiologist this morning. He’d hinted at going out a time or two in the past and, while he was good-looking and seemed nice enough, she wasn’t interested.
She pushed into the elevator and was relieved when the doors closed with her in it alone. Two floors later, she exited on the pediatric-unit floor. Karen Brim, the head pediatric nurse, waved at Krista as she headed to the nurse’s station to put her things down. Then she logged in at a computer and started scanning the patient data from last night. Afterward she would check with the nurse on the prior shift to make sure everything had gone smoothly.
Please let things have gone smoothly.
The times Krista arrived and met the hollow eyes of the prior shift’s nurse were the worst. Those were the times where things hadn’t gone smoothly the night before. Krista swallowed as she pulled up the data for seven-year-old Adam Reese. He’d been admitted the day before. Her eyes skimmed the on-screen text looking for keywords.
Stable.
Resting well.
Comfortable.
“Hey.” Olivia, the nightshift nurse, walked up behind Krista. Her eyes were bright and shiny, with a smudge of dark circles underneath. Tired, but nothing more.
Krista exhaled. “Hey. Everything go okay last night?”
Olivia nodded. She was a younger nurse who’d been at Blushing Bay Memorial for maybe a year. Most of the nurses on the pediatric floor were young or similar in age to Krista, except for Karen, the head nurse. Peds nurses had a high rate of burnout. At least here. It wasn’t an easy job, but in Krista’s experience, it was a rewarding one. She loved helping kids.
“They’re all clean, dry, well rested, and waiting eagerly on breakfast,” Olivia told her. “Adam was asking for you.”
