LITMIR.BIZ

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that moment, Piper heard her name paged overhead. “Oh, gotta go.” She dashed around the two and hoped that Taylor hadn’t seen her flush. She colored ridiculously, and it was something she had tried to overcome, but couldn’t.

      Arriving at the nurses’ station, she found Emily.

      “Oh, you are here. I was hoping that we didn’t scare you off yesterday with that wild start to your contract. Some nurses would have headed for the hills.” She shook her head and her straight black hair bobbed around her shoulders.

      “Not me. I’m tougher than that.” She’d had to be. When her parents had been killed, she’d had little time to feel sorry for herself or grieve the loss. So she’d found strength that she hadn’t known she’d had. Anything else, compared to that, well, just didn’t compare.

      “Well, good. I’d like to pair you up with one of the nurses for the orientation you were supposed to have yesterday, and then we’ll go from there. After yesterday, I’m certain you won’t have any problems.”

      Emily introduced her to her preceptor, and she spent the rest of the morning familiarizing herself with the ER.

      At lunch, she entered the staff lounge to find a sullenfaced Alex sitting with a book on his lap.

      “Hey, kiddo. What’s wrong with you?” she asked, and took a seat beside him. He looked as if he was about to have a meltdown.

      “I’m s-o-o-o bored.” He snapped the book shut and held it out to her to see. By the look of Alex, it certainly was going to be a long, hot summer. “Reading isn’t part of my summer plans. Uncle T. gave me this. Said it was a good book, but I just don’t get it.”

      “I don’t think I got it when I was your age, either. Might have to be a little older to appreciate it. What grade are you going into?”

      “Sixth.” He folded his arms over his chest.

      “What do you want to do instead of reading? Anything?”

      “Yeah, I want to skydive, and climb mountains and ride a motorcycle really fast, just like Uncle T.” For the first time today excitement shone in his eyes, and he came alive right in front of her.

      “He does all that, does he?” She was beginning to see worship of Uncle Taylor, Super-Hero, in Alex’s eyes.

      “Yeah, and a whole lot more really cool stuff, like base jumping in Norway. He took videos and it was so awesome.” Alex flopped back against the couch. “But I never get to do anything. I’m gonna be stuck inside all summer.”

      Taylor opened the door to the lounge to check on Alex, but stopped when he heard Piper’s voice. It was soft and filled with compassion. Knowing he shouldn’t listen, he seemed powerless to stop himself.

      “Maybe there’s a day camp you could go to. My younger sister used to go to one when I worked back in San Francisco,” Piper said.

      “Did she like it?” Doubt was heavy in the boy’s voice.

      “Sure did. Had to drag her out of there every day.”

      There was a momentary pause. “What kind of stuff did she do?”

      “Biking, hiking, crafts, and maybe some sewing, I think.”

      “Those are girl things. I want to do guy stuff.” The sigh that followed said it all.

      “Why don’t you talk to your uncle when he comes for lunch?”

      Another pause. “I don’t think he’ll listen to me. He’s kinda like my dad that way. He doesn’t listen, either.”

      Taylor closed his eyes and allowed the door to shut silently. Caroline’s parting words had been not to disappoint Alex as his father had done. What had he done so far with Alex? Total disappointment.

      Determined to fix it right now, he coughed loudly and entered the staffroom.

      “Hey, Alex. How’s it going?” Taylor asked, and glanced between them.

      “I’m sick,” Alex said, and made a face, then clutched his abdomen.

      “Sick?” Taylor frowned and grew concerned. The kid hadn’t been feeling poorly that morning, just ornery because Taylor had dragged him out of bed at the crack of dawn. Maybe bringing him to the hospital had been a bad idea after all. Though he’d been here just a few hours, there were all sorts of bacteria in hospitals that he could easily pick up. “Sick how?”

      “Sick of being here. Can I go back to your house if I promise not to spill anything again? I won’t drink anything. Not even water, I promise,” Alex said, his dark brown eyes beseeching in a way that cut right through Taylor. He ran a hand through his hair. He wasn’t prepared for this. He couldn’t work sixty hours a week and care for a child. That camp thing Piper men tioned might have potential, though. Dammit. He just didn’t have it in him. The family he’d grown up in was no role model to draw from, either.

      “You just can’t sit at my house and play video games all summer, Alex.” Taylor ran a hand through his hair, more than frustrated already and Alex had only been with him a few days.

      “Why not?” he said, and gave Taylor a very adult look. “It’s what I do, Uncle T.”

      “Didn’t you just say you wanted to climb mountains and jump out of airplanes like your uncle?” Piper asked from her seat beside Alex.

      “Piper,” Alex whispered out of the corner of his mouth and cast her a conspiratorial glance. “He wasn’t supposed to know.”

      “So how are you going to do any of this stuff if no one knows about it?” she asked, her manner totally at ease while talking to Alex. Taylor wished he could be that way, but his experience with kids was limited to birthdays and holidays and presents sent from far away.

      Apparently, Alex had to think about that a moment because he didn’t have his usual snappy comeback ready. Then he shrugged. “I don’t know.”

      “Why don’t we go get a burger and fries and talk about it?” Taylor asked. “I’m sure there’s something we can fix you up with that we can both agree on.”

      With only a sullen expression on his face and a noncommittal shrug, Alex tucked his belongings into a worn backpack. “Okay.”

      “Want to join us, Piper?” Taylor asked, hoping she would.

      “I brought a sandwich.”

      “You can have that any day. Today is green chile cheese fries day at the cafeteria.” For whatever reason, he really wanted to have lunch with this woman. She’d offered him some hope in dealing with Alex and he’d…needed that.

      “Sounds like death by french fry.” But she stood and followed them from the room. “But I’m game.”

      Taylor slowed as Piper tugged on his sleeve and pulled him back.

      “Just so you know, a bored kid is a bad kid. Especially the really smart ones.” She nodded at Alex who continued down the hall in front of them.

      “So, tell me about this camp business I overheard,” Taylor said, and ushered Piper forward. “I ran wild on military bases as a kid, so I don’t know anything about how they work.”

      Piper smiled up at him, and Taylor took a second look at her. Though not beautiful in the classic sense, her heart-shaped face and full lips were definitely attractive. But her warm blue eyes that sparkled with suppressed humor intrigued him more than anything. Straight caramel-colored hair in a shoulder-length bob swung enticingly as she moved. She was tall and trim, but curvy in the right places. Though he’d observed those things yesterday, he really hadn’t noticed them. Too busy with patients and work as usual.

      Something in his chest cramped as he watched her catch up with Alex. If he’d been too busy to notice a woman as lovely as Piper, there was something seriously wrong with him.

      After

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