Page 59 of Quinton's Quest

“And the surprise engagement?”

He laughed. “Especially the surprise engagement.”

I refrained from asking him about his own plans. He’d tell me in good time. I suspected a wedding would be coming soon—the men were meant to be together and, for someone like Gideon, that meant marriage.

My suspicions were that the same was true for Archer.

“Well, goodbye.”

“Oh, you’re off?” Archer stepped into the foyer. “I was just going to see if you wanted something to drink. A cola or hot chocolate or something.”

I waved. “Thanks. I’ll take my leave.” I opened the front door to a blast of frigid air. Turning back, I met Gideon’s gaze. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure.” He leaned back against Archer who’d positioned himself behind him.

They looked so damn perfect together that my heart took a knock.

I waved goodbye.

And headed into the darkness.

Back to my empty house.

Chapter Fifteen

Quinton

“Can you help out in the ER?” Christie eyed me over her reading glasses. Her normally neat black hair—with threads of gray—was disordered. So was her desk.

“That bad?” I glanced at her wall clock that read ten past ten. My shift had started mere hours ago, and I was already exhausted.

Christie voluntarily took the helm as head nurse on weekends. Without a family, and having only six adorable cats who didn’t necessarily miss her, she chose to do these yucky shifts. Her chaotic appearance was very unlike her.

“Four injured firefighters from Mission City. Two others were redirected to Maple Ridge. None were serious enough to require transporting into New West, but I still want them treated and out as soon as I can get them. With our regular Sunday-night load, we’re already racked and stacked."

With patients who either couldn’t wait until the next day to see their family doctor or, just as likely, didn’t have a family doctor at all.

“Sure, I can go.” I gave her a little salute and headed down to the ER.

As she’d intimated, the place was general chaos.Well, this is going to be more interesting than maternity where we had exactly zero women in labor.New moon or something. Whether we had more women giving birth during a full moon was always fun gossip.

Nadine grabbed my arm. “Curtain twelve.”

“Sure.” I donned gloves, then pushed the curtain aside as I stepped inside. Despite myself, I laughed. “Seriously, Finn? What did you do?”

The super sexy—and super gay—firefighter gave me a lopsided smile. “Got hit on the head.” At least he was no longer in his turnout gear. If he was able to get into his sweats, then things couldn’t bethatbad.

Or so I told myself.

“Oh shit.” I moved toward him.

“Not as bad as Marlon or Albert. Or hell, even Miriam.” He winced. “Plus Giancarlo and Krish who were sent to Maple Ridge.” He scratched his nose with his very sooty hand. “Can you find out how everyone’s doing?”

“First, I want to check your pupils.” I grabbed the flashlight. “This is going to hurt.”

“I’m fine.”

“Didn’t you just say,got hit on the head?”