of queasy.”
“Okay. I want you to lie still, and no getting up without buzzing for help. Understood?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I appreciate the cooperation. No going to sleep, either.”
“I’m too wired to sleep.” Though he wasn’t sure if the adrenaline rush was from the fire or from having Carmen so close to him. Both, maybe?
Before she could leave the room, Rafe’s brothers, Jackson and Kal, appeared in the doorway. He was glad to see them, though he wasn’t going to tell them that.
“Hey, Carmen,” Jackson said. “Okay if we come in?”
“Sure. I’d like someone to keep him company anyway while we wait for the CT scan.”
Kal smiled. “We can do that.” He pulled up a chair next to Rafe, grabbed the remote to the television and turned it on, scrolling through until he found a football game.
Jackson stepped out to talk to Carmen for a few minutes. Rafe watched the two of them in conversation. Carmen’s hands moved as she talked. Then she tucked a loose hair behind her ear, nodded and grasped Jackson’s arm as if to soothe his worry before walking away.
Jackson stepped inside.
“Well?” Rafe asked.
“Well, what?” Jackson slid into the other chair.
“Am I dying?”
“How the hell should I know? Do I look like a doctor?”
Rafe rolled his eyes, which only made his head hurt more. “What did Carmen say?”
“She said she thinks you’re a dick.”
“Very funny.”
“She said she thinks it’s a concussion, but they’ll know more after the CT scan. And if you have to get up to go down the hall to take a piss, one of us has to come with you so you don’t faint.”
Rafe frowned. “Fuck that.”
“No, seriously.”
“Don’t worry, bro, I’ll hold your hand,” Kal said, giving him his signature smart-ass smirk.
Rafe stared at the TV. “This whole situation sucks.”
“If you didn’t bang your head against doors, you wouldn’t be in this situation.”
He glared at Jackson. “How’s the house, by the way?”
“Fire’s contained. Finally. You did good in there.”
“Yeah, right up until the backdraft knocked me on my ass.”
“Hey, we’ve all been there.”
“Not me,” Kal said, his face glued to the game.
Rafe glared at his brother. “You’ll get your turn, asshole.”
Kal let out a laugh. “I’m not as dumb as you.”
“Ignore him,” Jackson said. “His time will come.”
Honestly, Rafe hoped his little brother would never have the same experience Rafe had had today.
Because this pretty much sucked.
“WHO’S THE EXTREMELY HOT FIREFIGHTER IN FIVE?” TESS asked when Carmen returned to the desk.
Carmen kept her focus on charting. “My next-door neighbor.”
“Shut the front door.” Tess’s jaw dropped. “He is not.”
“He is.”
“What’s his status?”
“Possible concussion. We won’t know more until after his CT scan.”
“Carmen Lewis, you’ve been holding out on me.”
“About his diagnosis?”
Tess tilted her head to the side. “No. About you and the hot firefighter.”
Carmen finished charting Rafe’s vitals, supplies they’d used on him and details about his status, then looked up at her friend. Tess Blackstone was a beautiful redhead with a killer smile who’d been Carmen’s best friend since nursing school. Carmen had been terrified her first day of nursing school, didn’t know anyone, felt inept and unprepared for what was ahead. It must have shown on her face, because Tess had sat next to her, leveled her signature bright smile on Carmen and told her they were going to be best friends forever.
And they had been ever since, including falling in love with emergency medicine together and ending up getting a job at the same emergency room. Carmen had been matron of honor at Tess’s wedding to her husband, George, and Tess had been there to offer a shoulder to cry on when Carmen’s marriage had ended so badly.
They’d been through it all together, and there was nothing that Carmen wouldn’t tell her.
“I hold nothing back from you, Tess, and you know it.”
“Apparently, you do, because you’ve been living next door to an extremely sexy firefighter for—how long?”
She shrugged. “A few years.”
“What? And I’m just now hearing about it?”
“Those are his two brothers in there with him. They live with him.”
Tess looked at the room, which just so happened to be across from the nurses station. She gaped, then turned to face Carmen. “Dear God in heaven, Carmen. I don’t think we can be friends anymore.”
Carmen laughed. “You’re so dramatic. There’s nothing to tell. We’re neighbors. That’s it.”
“And yet you never once thought to mention to me that three—count them, three—extremely good-looking firefighters were living right next to you.”
She signed out of her terminal, grabbed her netbook to do some inventory and left the station.