“Room twelve is vomiting blood,” Olivia, the nurse said as she passed her in the hall.

“Tell him to quit sniffling. He’s drawing all that blood down his throat. And is the clotting agent working yet?”

Olivia nodded. “It seems to be slowing down the bleeding. I’m heading back in there now to check.”

“I’ll be there shortly. I need to check the X-rays for the abdominal patient.”

She reviewed the X-rays, which didn’t tell her what she needed to know, so she found the intern in charge of her abdominal patient.

“What do you see on this X-ray?”

The intern, Max, studied it. “Not much, really. Nothing to account for the amount of pain the patient is in. We’ve ruled out appendix and gall bladder.”

She nodded. “What would you do next?”

Max looked at her. “I’d order a CT scan of the upper and lower abdominal region.”

“Good call. Get that done and go monitor the patient. Let me know when we have the results.”

Max nodded and went to order the tests.

That taken care of, she went in to check on her nosebleed patient. True to what Olivia had told her, the clotting agent was working and his bleeding had stopped. She packed his nose and decided to keep him there to make sure the bleeding didn’t start up again. Hopefully within an hour he’d be on his way, with instructions to see a specialist about his inability to appropriately clot.

They’d gotten X-rays back on the upper-respiratory patient, which fortunately revealed no pneumonia, just a bad case of bronchitis. She sent the older woman on her way with antibiotics and an inhaler, and a note to follow up with her personal physician.

Since she actually had a minute to breathe, she went to grab an energy drink. She had downed that when her phone buzzed.

It was Tucker. In the waiting area. You busy?

She rolled her eyes. She hadn’t seen him in a couple days. Conflicting schedules and all. But he had kept in touch and they’d talked.

But now, to just show up here? For some reason he must think she worked in an office, and he could drop by anytime. She was going to have to set him straight about that.

Like now, when she had those few minutes to breathe. She headed out to the waiting area where he stood at the desk talking to Charlene, the intake coordinator.

He looked up when he saw her and smiled.

So typical. He wore loose jeans, a long-sleeved cotton shirt pushed up to the elbows, and he looked gorgeous.

She, on the other hand, had her hair pushed behind her ears and her scrubs were covered in . . . God only knew what. She felt disgusting.

“Hey,” he said, heading over to her. “I was in the area so I thought I’d drop by.”

“I’m really busy. You should call or text and make an appointment.”

He laughed. “I haven’t fallen or torn anything up, Doc. I don’t need an ER appointment.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Oh. You meant like an appointment for a date. Well, aren’t you all important.”

She shook her head. “That’s not what I meant, either.”

Her hair had fallen in her face and he tucked the strand behind her ear. “Having a rough day?”

His voice was soft and comforting and she was being a bitch.

Her shitty day was not his fault. “It’s been busy.”

“I can go. Why don’t you call me when you get off work?”

He turned to walk away but she grabbed his wrist. “No. It’s okay. I’d like you to stay. I have a patient I have to deal with first, but . . . stay.”

His gaze melted her, made her wish they were anywhere but here right now.

“Okay. I’ll just hang out here.”

“No. Come back with me. There’s a lounge you can wait in.”

He smiled. “Sure.”

She walked him back to the doctors’ lounge. No one was in there—of course—because it was just that kind of day.

“There’s a vending machine. It has soda and water and snacks. And a TV with a sports channel.”

“I’m good for now.”

She looked up at him. “I’ll just check on that patient and be right back. If I’m not—”

He put his hands on her arms. “Aubry. I’m a big boy. I can take care of myself. If you get busy, don’t worry about me, okay?”

“Okay.”

He brushed his lips against hers. “I’ll either see you soon or I’ll talk to you later.”

She nodded, then hurried off. She ran into Max on her way to the patient’s room.

“CT scan is ordered. I was just going to arrange to have the patient taken in.”

“All right. Let me know when we have the results.”

After Max walked off, she finished charting her patients’ records, then went back to check on incoming.

Those were all handled, so she headed back to the lounge.

Tucker was in there playing a game on his phone.

“You’re still here.”

He stood and slid his phone in his pocket. “You weren’t gone long.”

“I’m waiting on test results for a patient.”

“How long will that take?”

“Maybe an hour.”

He looked around. “Got a broom closet we can fool around in?”

She laughed. “That stuff only happens on those television shows.”

“What? You’ve never gotten it on in the hospital?”