Page 3 of Gamble (Black Light #38)
REAGAN
“ O kay, let’s close her up. It looks like I might make it to my anniversary dinner on time after all.”
Reagan had the suture materials ready, placing them into Dr. Jennings’s gloved palm when he was ready. She had performed a half dozen other surgeries with the popular orthopedic surgeon since her start at the mammoth hospital in Los Angeles, and he was one of her favorites.
Why did so many other surgeons have to treat the surgical nurses like shit?
“Happy Anniversary, Doctor. How many years have you been married?” she asked, continuing to assist as needed.
“Twenty-nine lovely years. With the same woman. I deserve an award.”
She couldn’t see the handsome older man’s face thanks to their surgical masks, but she heard the humor in his voice. Reagan suspected Mrs. Jennings was a very happy wife indeed. She got one of the good ones.
Unlike me. I have the worst taste in men.
“Did you get her something nice for a gift?” Josh, the anesthesiologist asked.
The surgeon chuckled as he finished up the sutures on the car-accident victim he’d just operated on.
“I looked up what the traditional gift was for a 29th anniversary. My wife wasn’t impressed when I offered to buy her a new string trimmer since this is our ‘tool’ anniversary.”
Everyone in the sterile room cracked up at his joke. But later, as Reagan was standing at the wash tub cleaning up, a pang of longing replaced the humor of the off-handed comment.
In her experience, men like Dr. Jennings were rare. She should know. She’d been through more than her share of duds.
Even as she thought it, she berated herself.
She’d taken the enormous step of moving down from Seattle to Los Angeles to be closer to Tristan, hoping it might improve their long-distance relationship.
Maybe the six months since her move hadn’t had the desired effect—yet— but it was still too early to give up on him.
He was perfect… at least on paper. Her best friend, however, reminded her often that life was not lived on paper.
By the time Reagan’s shift was ending, she was starving. Her tummy growled just as she made it to the emergency room to see if her roommate might be ready to head home.
“Hey, Meena. I got off on time for a change. You ready to head out?”
The dark-haired beauty she’d met in college looked up from the stack of patient charts.
“You’re so lucky. I’ve got at least another hour here, but you go ahead. Asher will give me a ride.”
Dr. Asher Patel, Emergency Room doctor extraordinaire and another prime example of one of the good guys.
Reagan pushed down the pang of jealousy.
There was no way she’d wish anything but the best for her friend and sorority sister.
She couldn’t wait until Meena and Asher’s big wedding in just a few months.
Surely, she could get her own act together by then since that would be when she’d be losing her roommate.
Rent wasn’t affordable in L.A. with only one income—not on a nurse’s salary anyway.
“It’s early. You should make Tristan take you out for a nice dinner. Who cares if it’s only a Tuesday.”
If only she could make Tristan do anything.
“I wish, but he’s traveling for work again. I think he’s in San Francisco and Monterey this week.”
Meena didn’t even try to hide her sour expression. “Listen, don’t get me wrong. I’m thrilled that you moved to L.A., but I thought it was so you could spend more time with him, but hell, he’s never here.”
“You don’t need to tell me something I already know,” Reagan snapped before realizing Meena was the last person she wanted to take her frustration out on before adding, “I’m sorry.”
“Hey, don’t be sorry with me. I just worry about you is all. I don’t want you to get hurt…”
Her friend had left off the word ‘again’ but they both knew the word belonged at the end of the sentence.
After one divorce and two major breakups in the nine years since college graduation, Reagan had the worst track record in the men department of any of their close-knit group of sorority sisters.
She’d known it was getting bad when her friends had all stopped teasing her about her doomed love life since it just wasn’t funny anymore.
“I appreciate your concern. I know he hasn’t been around, but he invited me to go away with him at the end of the month for a few days.” She put on her most cheerful smile before adding, “I’m counting on getting things back on track then, if you know what I mean.”
The ladies shared a scandalous chuckle at the thought of a sexy weekend away with the sex-god that was Tristan Goodrich.
Reagan gave her friend a little wave across the counter that separated them, heading toward the employee parking lot.
Even with the covered garage shading the cars, the interior was hot in the California summer heat.
She was just starting her car to get the air conditioning going when Tristan’s face lit up her cell phone.
“What a pleasant surprise!” she exclaimed. “I was just thinking about you!”
“Hey, baby. How was your day?”
Just hearing his voice helped settle some of her insecurities.
“It was fine. My last surgery was with one of my favorite doctors, so that was a delightful surprise.”
“You’ll never guess what great news I have,” he interjected, not paying any attention to her reply.
Reagan sighed, turning up the air conditioning as she asked, “I love great news. You’re coming home early this week?”
“Naw, even better.”
She doubted that.
“I was talking with Jules and Jeff and mentioned that we were going away for the weekend in a few weeks. They reminded me that it’s been months since their last road trip to Las Vegas so they’re going to meet us there. Isn’t that great?”
“Vegas? You didn’t tell me we were going to Vegas.”
“Surprise!”
“Tristan, since you go to Vegas at least four times a year, it isn’t exactly a surprise. You promised we would go somewhere more romantic on our next getaway,” she complained. Even to her own ears she sounded whiny, and she hated it.
“Aw come on, we always have fun there and you know it.”
She bit her tongue to temper her response. “We have had some fun there, yes, but I’m not into gambling… and you know the smoke inside all of the casinos makes me sick. I was counting on going to Napa and wine country. Remember, I won that free night at the spa there?”
“Yeah, I remember, but it doesn’t expire until next year. We have plenty of time.”
Reagan opened her mouth to voice her opinion, but just in time bit back her response. She’d lost not just one, but two, relationships because she’d been too pushy. That had been their words, not hers. Other words they’d used for her were ‘stubborn’ and ‘uncompromising.’
She was determined to work on the undesirable qualities that had tanked most, if not all, of the intimate relationships she’d had as an adult. Moving to L.A. and changing jobs had been just the first steps at compromise with Tristan.
And it looked like going to Vegas would be her next.
“Okay, it sounds fun.”
“That’s my girl. We’ll have a great time with Jules and Jeff. You’ll see.”
Reagan somehow doubted that since every time she’d been around Tristan’s gaggle of close friends, she’d always felt like a fifth wheel.
“Listen, I’m taking several hospital administrators to dinner tonight, so I need to head out. I’ll call you tomorrow. Bye.”
And he was gone, not even waiting for her to get another word in. After the call ended, she realized it was for the best, since all she wanted to do was complain that she’d moved to L.A. so they could go out for dinner together.
This is what I get for dating a pharmaceutical sales rep. All he does is travel.
Reagan pulled out of the garage and into the late-day sun. The temperature on her dashboard read ninety-three degrees. There was no way she wanted to go home and cook, but she hated going out to eat alone.
Just a few blocks from her and Meena’s apartment, she made the last-minute decision to pull into the grocery store, heading to the mammoth salad bar. She was a good-girl, filling the to-go container with healthy fruits and vegetables.
Instead of leaving, she went all the way to the back, winding through the aisles.
She shouldn’t. Her scale would hate her tomorrow.
Reaching into the sub-zero cooler, she came out with a quart-sized carton of rocky-road ice cream. Just as the glass door slammed closed, she saw the “Buy One, Get One Free” sign and reached in to grab a second.
Most women turn to retail therapy after a bad day. Reagan turned to ice cream.
She tried to look on the bright side.
They had great ice cream in Vegas, too.