Page 6 of Love Medley (Med Wreck Romance #1)

“Hi, there.” I smile at the slightly overweight man named Frank sitting on the bed in the exam room. I’m guessing the middle-aged woman sitting on the chair next to him is his wife. “I’m Jake, one of the nurses, and this is Thomas, one of the patient care techs. He’s helping me out today.”

“Hi,” Frank says to us, looking sheepish. “I feel really ridiculous getting everyone so worked up about me. I’m sure it’s nothing.”

“Chest pain is nothing to scoff at,” I say as I wash my hands thoroughly with soap and water. “You did the right thing coming in.”

“That’s what I said, Frank!” the woman to his right exclaims, whacking him not so gently on his arm. “You always downplay your symptoms and wait until the pain is so bad you can’t hide it from me anymore!”

Frank laughs. “I know. I’m a horrible patient.”

My grin widens. It’s obvious they have great affection for each other.

“I’m sure you’ve had your blood drawn before, but I’ll walk you through this.

The doctor wants me to put in an IV and draw some labs.

Your blood pressure is fine, so we don’t need to start fluids on you, but we can also use the IV for giving CT contrast or medicine. ”

“Okay.”

As I snap on a pair of nitrile blue gloves, lay out the contents of the IV kit on the metal tray, and label the glass tubes for the labs, Thomas washes his hands .

I verify Frank’s name and date of birth and place ID stickers on each of the glass vials for the blood draw and then proceed to tie a tourniquet on his arm.

“Frank, I’m going to be teaching Thomas a little bit about the placement of the IV. Let me know if you have any questions.”

“I’m glad someone is getting something out of this,” Frank chuckles, while his wife rolls her eyes.

I turn to Thomas, who has already put on gloves in anticipation of the blood collection. “In the ER, we usually use the antecubital vein in the crease at the elbow to draw blood and start IVs. This vein is large enough to accommodate contrast for CTs,” I say.

“I've always wondered why IVs were placed there,” says Frank.

“Yup, that’s why. But you’ll need to keep your arm straight for this IV to prevent it from kinking or falling out; I’ll wrap your arm on a board to help stabilize it.”

I give him a countdown before pricking his arm with the IV catheter.

Frank looks surprised. “Wow, I barely felt that!”

“I might have done this a couple of times before.” As I flash Frank a wry grin, I pull the tourniquet loose with my left hand and push a button to retract the needle.

Twisting the first tube onto the IV catheter, I watch the vial quickly fill with blood.

After I unscrew the vial from the catheter, I hand it to Thomas.

“Some of these vials have additives for processing. Gently invert the tube back and forth several times before you put it down,” I instruct Thomas. “It has to be done right after blood collection. ”

He tilts the tube with a back-and-forth flick of his wrist. “Like this?”

“Exactly.”

Soon, all the vials are filled. I twist a ten-ml syringe containing normal saline onto the catheter and tape it to Frank’s arm. Then I add a small white armboard underneath his elbow and secure it with tape. “All done.”

“Seriously, I’m impressed. I’ve had enough blood draws to appreciate how easy that was. Thank you,” Frank says.

Even as I smile at my patient, I’m unable to enjoy his compliment. Starting an IV is hardly rocket science; it just takes practice. And then I wonder if that’s my father’s voice or mine. Maybe somewhere along the way, they’ve blurred together.

But the truth is, I love what I do. I’m a damned good nurse. That should be enough. Some days, it almost is.

“Do you know how much longer it will be?” his wife asks, clearly eager to get the ball rolling.

I try to regain my bearings. “I’m pretty sure the docs want to see Frank’s labs before deciding next steps. And that will take an hour or so. I’d get settled in—this won’t be a brief visit.”

Frank gives his wife an apologetic look.

“Thanks,” she says and pats his hand.

After cleaning up, I toss my gloves into the trash. “Do you guys need anything else? Unfortunately, you can’t eat or drink right now, but I can see about a warm blanket?”

Frank shakes his head. “Not me, but maybe for her. ”

“Sounds like a plan. Use the call button here for anything else,” I gesture to the remote on the bed.

Then I follow Thomas out of the room, sliding the glass door shut behind me.

“I’m going to the doctor’s station to search for the medical student,” I say to him. “Why don’t you grab a blanket for Frank’s wife and then start writing up a list of things you are interested in seeing today? We’ll see how much of it we can cross off.”

Thomas grins. “Wow, this is great. I totally didn’t expect to actually get some hands-on experience. Yeah, I’ll do that, thanks.” His words catch me off guard; I’m surprised to feel an unfamiliar surge of pride rising in my chest.

Leaving Thomas at the nurse’s station, I head to where the doctors congregate. My gait slows to a halt when I catch sight of a stunning woman twisting a lock of black hair around her finger while staring intently at the computer.

Momentarily frozen, I slowly detect creamy skin with a hint of rose and the delicate curve of one ear, slender legs tucked under the chair crossed at the ankle. And then more details: the smell of lavender, the waves of dark hair down her back, the gentle slope of her nose.

I try to remember if I ever felt this way with Sam but merely end up feeling even more scrambled. I wipe my sweaty palms on my scrubs. Oddly, they weren’t this damp when I was drawing blood.

“Hey, are you Lucy?” I call out before I lose my senses entirely.

As she turns around and I catch sight of her entire face, my heartbeat thuds in my ears. She’s even more gorgeous than I imagined, with large brown eyes and lips that curl into a radiant smile that leaves me speechless.

“That’s me,” Lucy says, her voice soft but musical. Immediately, I envision her on the stage of Tunes and Tonic, the dueling piano bar where I perform. Somehow I bet she’d bring the house down.

As she rises from her chair, I realize that Lucy stands a few inches below my height.

With a quick sweep of my eyes, I take in the medical student short coat, the blue, button-down blouse, and khaki skirt.

My gaze briefly dips to the curve of her breasts before I immediately course-correct and yank my eyes back to her face, but I’m just as distracted by what I find there.

The combination of her delicate, heart-shaped face, expressive dark eyebrows, and that one slightly crooked tooth undoes me in a way I can’t explain.

“I just wanted to let you know that I placed Room 3’s blood and drew the IV.

” My face burns as I clear my throat. “I mean, I placed the IV and drew blood.” I cough. “For the labs.”

Fuck. Do I not have any brain cells left? She must think I’m a complete idiot at this point.

Lucy’s eyes twinkle at me. “Great, thanks! I feel like I’ve seen you around. Do I know you?”

Dazed, I scramble for a coherent answer, but instead, I have the strangest urge to breathe her in deeply. God, it’s like I’ve turned into some kind of Twilight -inspired werewolf sniffing at a potential mate. Fuck me, how do I even know what Twilight is?

“I’m Jake Whitlock, one of the ER nurses. I started a few months ago. Nice to meet you. ”

As soon as our hands touch for what was supposed to be a simple handshake, I’m overloaded by the smoothness of her skin and the warmth of her slim fingers wrapped in mine.

Before now, I’ve never noticed nail polish in my life, but hers is perfect, the pale pink glistening on her neatly-trimmed fingernails.

In slow motion, we meet each other’s eyes, and as I gaze into those luminous, brown pools, I forget what I was doing here in the first place.

After a moment, Lucy seems to come back to her senses and clears her throat.

“Um…I do think I’ve seen you in the ER before.

” At that moment, I realize our hands are still joined, and I release her, noticing a trace of pink on her cheeks as she looks away.

And that’s when I wonder…could she be feeling the same way?

My fingers still tingle from where they touched her skin, as fleeting as that was.

But when my brain finally catches up, I compute what Lucy has just said. She’s been here in the ER before? I definitely would have noticed her. “Really? Sorry I haven’t introduced myself before.”

“No, no. Not for an actual shift.” Lucy glances at her red flats, her dark eyelashes dipping downwards.

I have a compulsion to tip her chin upwards so I can see those glowing eyes again.

“I’ve had to get some signatures, so I think I saw you from afar at some point.” As soon as the words leave her lips, I notice a stricken look on her face that she tries to hide—is she embarrassed?

And then, I’m suddenly acutely aware that Lucy has definitely noticed me .

But before I can further analyze that thought, those soft eyes flick back to me, and my mind suddenly goes blank.

Where has my ability to speak gone? And why have my mind and body gone completely haywire just from standing next to her?

As if from a great distance, a resident with curly dark hair tied up into a bun calls out, “Lucy! Do you want to help me with an I and D?”

And the spell is broken. Incision and drainage is one of the few procedures that medical students can actually assist with in the ER, but it’s totally gross with pus and blood everywhere. There’s no way Lucy would want to participate.

But I’m proven completely wrong when her eyes light up. “Yes, Cecelia, thank you so much! I’ll be right there.”

Cecelia grins as she looks her up and down. “You maaaay want to gown up.”

Lucy laughs. “Don’t worry, I will.” She starts gathering her dark hair into a ponytail, exposing the graceful line of her neck.

Jesus. What is it about this woman? I’ve seen beautiful women before, but not a single one, not even Sam, has affected me like this. As someone who has always worked out his thoughts through music, I bet I’ll be settling down at my keyboard tonight, crooning a tune or two, right after this shift.

Because one thing is crystal clear: Lucy Chang is an irresistible melody that I won’t easily forget.