quietly.
I grumbled something unladylike under my breath and raised my head.
My breath hitched in my throat when I got my first good look at the man now looking at me like he had a new, exciting shininess to me.
“What?” I asked curiously.
“Dre’s gay?”
I frowned. “Yeah…is that a problem? Are you homophobic or something?”
He shook his head. “No…but I thought y’all were married.”
I burst out laughing. “Dre and me? Married?”
I laughed my ass all the way to the car.
Chapter 7
Some of y’all have never turned Lynyrd Skynyrd up when he told you to…and it really shows.
-Harleigh’s random thoughts
Harleigh
The turning point in our love-hate relationship came the night that I went to work, and he saved me from being murdered.
Which, I suppose, would do it for normal women, too.
The day started out like any other.
Honestly, I’d been in the middle of my shift. The morning had gone about as planned, other than being a little short-staffed and having to run from floor to floor on my own.
I’d just arrived on the ground floor—the floor that the ER was on—and had stepped inside and was talking to a nurse about what was needed for two patients when it happened.
“Wow, looks like you got a busy day ahead of you,” I said softly.
“We got a girl over there that shot a man in a motorcycle club. And the man she shot all the way at the opposite side of the room, but still in the same room. I can feel the murderous glares from the motorcycle club being beamed down the hallway at her. And she’s just sitting there smiling.” The nurse rolled her eyes and led me first to a room. “This is the one that needs to go first. He’s got a compound fracture poking out of the skin.”
I went in and assessed the patient with a glance, nodded my head, and said, “One of you are going to have to help me push him.”
The nurse nodded. “Come with me. I’ll go see if one of the orderlies can take them with you.”
“I imagine that I’ll need one for that one, too.” I gestured toward the next room. “Can I keep him for about an hour?”
The nurse laughed. “No. But if you call us, I can send the next patient up with you.”
I sighed. “We’re so short-staffed it’s not even funny.”
The nurse agreed right along with me. “We had two nurses call in sick due to the flu, one for ‘flu-like’ symptoms that were coming on, and two technicians. Needless to say, I’m wiped.”
I imagined. “That’s what took our staff out, too.”
She just shook her head and stopped at the nurses’ station.
I did as well but looked down at the chart that was in my hand. Something on the patient’s paperwork caught me off guard, and I began backing up, thinking I might need to double check that before I went.
With my back turned toward the main part of the room, I was keeping an eye on my chart and not where I was going. My back hit something solid, and I turned to apologize almost immediately.
“I’m sorry, sir!” I paused when I saw the man continue walking as if I hadn’t just hit him with everything I had.
Sure, it’d been unintentional, and my bulk was that of a prepubescent boy, but I’d done it.
Then I saw where he was going and hurried to catch up to him.
“You can’t go in there. She’s in police custody…”
Slap.
I hit the floor and began to roll.
There was no other way to stop it.
My face had exploded in pain, and all because the man that I’d been trying to stop had backhanded me. He’d backhanded me.
I was busy saying ‘what the fuck’ in my head for what felt like an eon.
It was only as I was scrambling to move backward that I finally realized that one hit might not have been enough, when I heard a deafening crack.
My eyes peeled open just in time to see Slate’s massive bulk standing over the man that had fallen to the floor. Fallen to the floor with one punch from his fisted hand.
Then the almost comical show of the man popping back up began to happen.
He’d get up, run at Slate with murder in his eyes, and Slate would slam him back down.
Over and over again, this happened.
I managed to stand up at some point. I wasn’t sure how or why, but I found myself with my back against the nurses’ station.
I’d just thought about moving to the other