I was just glad I wasn’t one of the first responders that had to work the wreck.

“Shit,” I exhaled, turning to look at Michael.

He wasn’t looking at us, though.

His eyes were on the woman across the room, and not the same woman who’d been glaring at him earlier.

This one was a Hispanic woman that looked vaguely familiar.

She had long, thick brown hair and her eyes were on the work she was doing in front of her.

She’d cast a surreptitious glance in Michael’s direction before it darted back to the cart in front of her.

Turning back to Lennox when she withdrew her hands from around me, I looked down to see her eyeing Michael.

“You remember Michael,” I said.

She nodded, and Michael’s eyes finally tore away from the woman to focus on Lennox.

“Good to see you again, Lennox,” he nodded his head.

Lennox smiled at him, glanced in the direction of the Hispanic girl, and turned back to Michael.

“You know Nikki?” Lennox asked.

Michael’s eyes flared at the mention of ‘Nikki’ and he nodded.

“Yeah, I do,” he answered.

It was then I realized just why the girl was familiar to me.

“Nico’s sister?” I asked him.

Michael nodded. “Yeah.”

Now it made sense.

It’d been two years since Nico had married his wife, Georgia.

And a little over two years since Michael had first met Nikki.

I’d seen her a time or two in the two years, but each of those times were when she was talking to Michael.

Heatedly.

Knowing when a change of subject was needed, I turned my attention to Lennox and asked, “Is there anything I need to bring for dinner tonight to your parents?”

Her eyes widened. “Shoot, I forgot about that.” She bit her lip. “No, you don’t need to bring a thing. Mom can handle it.”

I nodded. “I’ll come pick you up about ten minutes before your shift ends. I’ll wait for you outside, okay?”

She nodded, raised up on her tippy toes, and gave me a soft kiss on the cheek.

“Thanks for coming, Bennett,” she whispered sincerely.

I smiled, and reached up to run a lone finger down the bridge of her nose. “Anytime, honey. I’ll see you around seven.”

***

Lennox

“Who was that sexy beast?” Melissa asked in awe as I walked up to the nurse’s station.

I smiled as I looked over my shoulder at Bennett and Michael leaving.

They were laughing about something, and would’ve kept doing it had Joslin Downs, the she bitch nurse from hell, not stopped them.

“Uh-oh,” Melissa whispered. “What’s this?”

“It looks like ‘Call me Nurse Jo-Jo’ found her next victim,” I mused.

“What are you doing here?” Joslin yelled, bringing the attention of not just those around her, but the entire fucking ER.

Bennett looked amused.

Michael, though, looked nothing close to amused.

Moving closer as inconspicuously as we could, Melissa and I found the nearest COW, or computer on wheels, and started standing there looking as if we were making ourselves busy, even though we were doing nothing close.

“Joslin, I live in Kilgore. I work in Kilgore. I’m a cop. There are times that we’re going to run into each other. Something I’ve tried to tell you time after time,” Michael explained patiently.

Joslin’s face darkened. “There’s no reason in the world you have to come in here. You just do it to upset me.”

Oh, here we go. Joslin’s ‘the world revolves around me’ attitude rearing its ugly head.

Joslin was the queen of making everything about her.

Joslin wanted her lunch break to be at ten instead of one, and she got it. Joslin wanted to work only week days, while other nurses senior to her had to work every other weekend, as was required in the medical center’s by law’s, and she got it.

Joslin wanted to work days, but there were no open positions. She got it and poor Gertrude got bumped down to nights.

I was fairly sure that Joslin had the ER director by the cock, but I wasn’t going to say that.

I also knew for a fact that she was fucking at least three of the doctor’s in the ER. Not that I’d ever say a word to the three of them when they thought they were being so discreet about it.

“Yeah, well I’m leaving anyway, so it doesn’t matter what the problem is. Have a good day,” Michael said, and stepped around the still hissing woman.

“Don’t you walk away from me!” Joslin hissed. “Why is it so hard for you to face your problems? Always running away, using your sickness as an excuse.”

Michael froze, and turned.

“Do not,” he said menacingly. “And I repeat, do not, say another fucking word, or I’ll have my lawyer drawing up a defamation suit against you so fast you can’t even run to one of your fuck buddy doctor friends for support. Trust me on this, Joslin. You don’t want what I got.”

With that he stalked out the door, and for once Joslin had no comeback.

Bennett followed behind him shortly after, and it was only when I turned to throw wide eyes at Melissa that I saw Nikki in the corner, looking like her heart had been torn out.

Melissa watched me watch Nikki, and I was surprised when she said, “Nikki’s in love with someone. I guess now we know who.”

Yeah, I guess now we did.

Nikki was a phlebotomist.

She’d been working in the ER as long as I’d been there, and in the time I’d known her, she’d become a really good friend.

Although I didn’t see her as much as I would’ve liked, I still counted her as one of the friends I could rely on if I needed her.

And I’d known she’d fallen for someone.

I could tell almost two years ago when it’d happened.

Yet she’d clammed up, and hadn’t said a word about it ever since.

Leaving all of us to wonder just what exactly had transpired.

Turning back to Melissa, I inadvertently stepped out past my computer, effectively running into Joslin as I went.

“Watch where you’re going, heifer,” Joslin snapped, glaring at me as she passed.

I wanted to pick up the chart that was next to my hand and whack her upside the head with it, but I refrained.

Barely.

Instead I turned to Melissa as I’d previously intended to do, and said, “We need to get her out for a girl’s night. Get her to talk.”

Melissa nodded sagely. “Yes, yes I think we do.”

Four and a half hours later, exhausted and tired, I walked out the sliding doors of the medical center, and was grateful to see Bennett leaning against his truck waiting for me at the fire lane.

“Hey,” I said, walking up to him and practically dropping against his chest.

He let out a small oomph, and wrapped his arms around my shoulders.

“What’s going on, Nox?” He asked softly against my hair

I smiled up at him for using that weird nickname, and sighed as I pushed away from him.

“Joslin Downs, that’s what,” I growled, crossing my arms across my chest.

“What? Why?” Bennett asked.

I lifted my lip in a silent snarl.

“I accidentally bumped into her just after y’all left, and pissed her off. Or maybe I was just a convenient scapegoat. Whatever the case, she blamed me for everything that went wrong today, and then some,” I growled.

“Yeah, she’s a real piece of work, that one,” Bennett admitted. “Michael had some real colorful things to say about her as we drove back to the station today after seeing y’all.”

I could imagine.

The woman was the devil, and I pitied the man that ever had to deal with her shit.

Past, present, or future.

“Does she have a golden vagina or something?” I asked in all seriousness. “Because she’s always been the way she is right now. Never once has she changed. She treats everyone like shit, and not one of the doctors I know she’s sleeping with cares. They all know how she acts. I’m not sure that they know she’s sleeping with three of them, but still.”

Bennett shrugged and pushed himself off the truck he was leaning against, then opened the door for me.