Molly - Sarah Monzon Page 0,27

speed at the idea of going back to work again tomorrow? I could tell myself that it was because of Chloe. That little girl was like a cat burglar and had already stolen my heart. How could she not? But I would be lying to myself if I didn’t admit that my stomach fluttered at the thought of seeing Ben, not Chloe. That it was thoughts of Ben, the fatigue he wore like a cloak and the responsibility he shouldered like a weight, that had pierced my core and stirred within me a need and drive to help him in any way that I could.

And the reality that I don’t lie, even to myself, has already been established.

I turned from the door and took a single step toward the living room before I stopped in my tracks. Jocelyn, Betsy, Nicole, and Amanda (who was using the wall for support) all stood about three feet in front of me, grins wide enough to embarrass even the Cheshire cat.

“So that’s Ben.” Jocelyn stated the obvious.

“Yes, that’s Ben.” I moved around them and returned to the serger. If they got too noisy, I’d drown them out with the machine.

The girls followed me into the living room and took up the same positions they’d occupied before the broken blender incident.

“Why didn’t you tell us how good-looking he is?” Amanda asked. “He’s even cuter than my favorite television drama doctor.”

I glanced up from pressing the seams together with my fingers. “Since when do we sit around and talk about the physical appeal of our employers?”

Nicole laughed as she pointed her scissors at Amanda and Betsy. “What do you think those two do while we three sew?”

Betsy shrugged. “I may not date musicians, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate beauty when I see it.”

Amanda let her head fall back on the back of the couch. “Hashtag doctorwhocureswhatailsawoman.”

“Someone take her phone away and don’t let her in any more locker rooms.” I pressed my foot to the pedal and ran the material under the pulsing needle. When I reached the end of the run, I snipped the thread.

Amanda stared at me, genuinely horrified. “Am I really as bad as some of the athletes in the locker room?”

“Yes.” Nicole and Jocelyn said in unison.

I gave them both the stink eye. “No. But we don’t like to be objectified as women, so it isn’t really fair of us to turn around and do it to men.”

Betsy selected a pile of material from the oops basket on the ground and started picking out thread that had been sewn wrong. “Since when did you develop a filter? Isn’t that against your life motto?”

“I in no way lied just now.”

“Lies!” Nicole shot up from her bent position over her pattern on the floor. “We’ve totally gotten off the Dr. Ben topic, and I for one want to get back to that. Direct question time for she who cannot tell a lie.”

“I thought you were going to run interference for me.” The little fink.

Cream coated her feline smile. “Question number one. Have you, Molly Jane Osbourne, developed feelings for one doctor Ben Reed?”

I swiveled back around to the serger, jamming the end of Chloe’s dress under the needle then stomping my foot to the pedal. The machine whirred as it roared to life.

Did I have feelings for Ben? And if so, what kind?

I honestly didn’t know.

8

Ben

Dr. Feinburg didn’t keep me guessing for long as to my punishment for demanding he stick to the work hours requirements set by the Accreditation Council. With a smirk on his face he pronounced my sentence: night float duty.

All the interns and residents had to take their month-long rotation on night float—coming in at six p.m. and leaving at eight a.m. the next morning. A lot of my colleagues griped about the change in schedule and pace. Whereas day doctors made rounds, ordered tests, and treated patients, the doctors on night float only had one objective—keep the patients alive and, as much as possible, stable. Oh, and a stack of paperwork a mile high on all forty-two patients in the unit.

I’d seen some night float doctors sleep, keeping the pager close to their head in case a nurse needed them. But that didn’t sit well with me. If the nurses had to work this shift, then the doctors should be working alongside them, not snoozing in a back room.

Molly had been understanding when I’d called her and said that I needed her to be with Chloe during