Page 37 of Seduction
My chest felt tight. “Has he made a pass at you?” I was hoping he wasn’t a serial cheater. Dr. Lumpkin in cardiology was one of those guys who’d gone through as many nurses and residents as he could when he first arrived at the hospital. I attracted those kinds of guys like shit did flies.
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “There’s something else. He has secrets.” She gestured as though she were parodying an explosion. “Very big ones.” Then she sighed as she closed out her computer. “Anyway, I gotta go scrub in. At least he usually smells good.” She winked.
I snorted. She didn’t know how on the money she was.
At that point, since we’d fucked and he was acting weird again, I figured I was obligated to find out as much about him as I could. The fact that Nurse Krislyn Hardy was on my service felt like a blessing in disguise. Kris was a chatterbox who couldn’t stop talking for more than two seconds whenever we weren’t with a patient or in surgery. She knew everything and just about everyone in the hospital and probably New Orleans too.
We had just finished a consult and were walking to the coffee shop in the lobby for a twenty-minute break before seeing our next patient. I started by asking her how long she had known about Court and Rich. My goal was to get her started on the easier topics of gossip before easing her into the more restrictive ones.
She gave me a light stroke on the forearm. “Oh, Pen, I’m sorry you had to hear about them that way.”
I felt my eyes grow wide as I finished paying for both our lattes—the drinks were on me.What does she know about the way I heard it?
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
We sat at a small round table. “Court let everyone know that you were hurt by the news, but despite it, you took it rather well. Personally, I never thought you gave a damn about the guy. He used to bring you all of those gifts, and you would just turn your nose up to them. That’s why Court figured you didn’t deserve him. But everyone knows he’d rather be with you. Even she does. That’s why she’s trying to hook you up with Leaky Penis, Greg Carrol. I mean, the guy takes antibiotics like they’re breath mints.”
I frowned. “How could you know that? He’s a professional athlete. Don’t they have team doctors to slip them anti-dick-itch-and-drip drugs?”
Kris searched the room, checking over both shoulders. Then she leaned toward me and whispered, “Dr. Best is their candy man.”
I was learning more about the salacious shit that went on around the hospital than I wanted to know. I had to find a way to stop her from regurgitating more mindless gossip and get to the mindful stuff.
I leaned back in my seat to put distance between us. “To each their own, I guess. And as far as Rich is concerned, I’ve had several conversations with Court about how untrustworthy he is.” I would never tell her how he’d tried to fuck me the other day. “She’s made her bed. Now she has to lie in it.”
“Yeah,” Kris said with a sigh. “I agree.”
Linda, the barista, called my name, and I got up to get our drinks. When I sat back down, Kris complained about how watery her latte was and went back up to the counter and made Linda make her a new one. I thought mine tasted fine. It wasn’t sweet. I didn’t like sweet coffee.
When she settled in her chair again, we only had seven minutes to talk about who I really wanted to discuss. So I went right to it.
“Dr. Sparrow. What’s the story on him?”
Her eyes instantly grew wide. “Oh. Him.” She grunted. “He’s the one who opened up the west wing and got all of those beds for everyone. You know how much money this hospital doesn’t have. We have a nurse shortage and not enough residents. Anyway…” She rolled her eyes as she shook her head. “I found out that someone bought the hospital, and now there’s all this money. Then he shows up. And he’s, like… spending it.”
One reason Kris was so good at gossip was that she knew how to piece together the details. “How is he spending the money?” I asked, practically on the edge of my seat.
She shrugged indifferently. “He’s paid a lot. And yesterday, I heard him tell Chief Brown to get him three more residents and a fellow. I mean, who the fuck is he?”
That was a good question. Unfortunately, the alarm on my phone blared, letting me know that I had five more minutes to make it to our patient’s room and begin our pre-surgery consult.
“I’ll tell you more later,” she said as we both shot to our feet.
I didn’t want to wait for later. “There’s more?”
“Yes.”
We walked down the hallway on our way to the care station to meet up with the rest of the team for our next consult.
“Just tell me a little now,” I said.
“He made a—” She tensed up. “Speak of the devil,” she mumbled.
I followed her line of sight. Dr. Sparrow was approaching us and beaming at me.
“Good afternoon, Dr. Sparrow,” Kris said.
“Afternoon,” he muttered without taking his eyes off me.
