Page 12 of The Triple Threat
On my second visit I’d been a little more subtle and grabbed his cell and taken it to the bathroom with me to check his calls. Thank goodness my brother was an imbecile and used the same passcode for everything – Blake Lively’s birthday; he was obsessed.
While I peed, I scrolled and found nothing recent from Hunter. Although I did find a text from a few months before where he’d told Carter he was worried about me being with my douche of an ex. It seemed I looked permanently sad. My loving brother’s response was: ‘did I lend you my red button down?’. Yeah, I definitely won big time on the brother stakes.
I managed to drop his cell back down the side of his favorite gaming chair and then made myself scarce. The smell of farts, sweaty socks and unwashed bodies being too much to handle any longer than necessary.
The one thing I hadn’t done and wished I had, was to take down Hunter’s number because then I could have called him myself. Problem was, I’d been too busy wondering why he’d felt it necessary to tell my brother that I looked sad, and also thinking about my need to buy new panties as I looked down at the once white and now greyish ones around my ankles.
Hunter and I had never been close enough that I needed his digits, but they really would have been useful the last week. Especially as Bronte had mentioned with glee that Jefferson and his lady friend, Jojo, had argued at her parents’ house at Friday night’s dinner. It had resulted in Jojo storming into the yard and sitting out there for over twenty minutes until Jefferson finally went out to talk to her.
“Can you go and help out in the ER?” A breathless voice roused me from my thoughts. I whirled around on my seat at the nurse’s station to see Mimi, our hospital administrator, breathing heavily and clutching at her side.
“Sorry, hon, I ran up here. I’m trying to get some weight off my tush and I kind of underestimated how long three flights of stairs actually are.”
When I noticed her glasses had begun to steam up, and her blouse was pulled from the waistband of her skirt, I couldn’t help but smile. Mimi was a little like a comfy sofa; all soft and squishy and coming apart at the seams.
“What’s the deal with ER?” I asked as I got up from my chair and moved around the desk.
We were a hospital that served three small towns, the closest being Dayton Valley, but even so we weren’t often short staffed for the number of patients we had. The kid’s ward which I worked on rarely had above ten patients on it, which was why I worked on a small rotation of six staff members.
“There’s been a stomach flu epidemic down there.” Mimi groaned, making a face as though she was about to puke herself. “They’re down to two nurses and one doctor and seeing as we’ve just had six people come in who were in a car accident on the Western Lake road, we need your help.”
I knew I was an obvious choice. I’d started my career in the hospital on the ER until a place had come on Pediatrics, which was what I’d majored in.
“Okay, let’s go,” I said and guided Mimi with a hand to her elbow. “But we’ll use the elevator.”
* * *
Most of the casualties from the accident had been patched up and sent home or sent for x-rays. Things were finally calm. I’d persuaded the two nurses and a doctor to go and grab a quick break while I held the fort, knowing I could call them back if I needed to.
No one had been in or out of the ER for almost a half hour and Beth, the receptionist, and I were both taking the time to catch up on paperwork, so when the next person to come to the desk was Hunter, I was a little surprised.
“Hey,” I said and stood up to greet him. “What brings you here?”
He pulled up his shirt to reveal deep black bruises along his side. “Your brother was checking on a calf and like an idiot, I walked behind it just as Carter injected it with antibiotics.”
I leaned over the desk to take a closer look. “Sheesh, looks painful. Does it hurt?”
He shook his head. “Nope, but Pop insisted I get it checked out for broken ribs, so here I am.”
“Beth can you check Hunter in, please,” I said and pushed my chair back.
“Sure, honey. Hey, Hunter,” Beth sighed. “Not seen you for a while.” She flashed her blue eyes at him and flicked her long blonde hair back over her shoulder. If she hadn’t been Beth, I’m sure Hunter may well have flirted back. Beth was a good-looking woman but not known for being particular about the men she took to her bed. I mean I didn’t judge her for it; her fiancé had been killed in Iraq when they were only twenty and three months from getting married. Since then, Beth had enjoyed a lot of attention in the bedroom department and didn’t care who knew it.
“Hey Beth, how you doing?”
“Better than you by the looks of it, honey.” She gave Hunter her bedroom smile again, but when he turned to watch me walk toward him, she gave up and continued to book him in. I grabbed a clipboard and chart from the desk and ushered Hunter down to one of the examination rooms.
Once I’d pulled the drape I rounded on Hunter.
“Where’ve you been and why haven’t you been trying to get Carter to fall for Bronte?” I whispered.
Hunter took a step back and put his hands to his hips, with a wince I should add.
“I’ve been busy,” he retorted. “I have cows to look after. And who says I haven’t been trying?”
“Carter. He said he hadn’t heard from you all week, and I checked his phone.” I poked my head around the drape to make sure no one was hanging around. The last thing I needed was to get into trouble for not caring for a patient and interrogating him instead. When I saw the coast was clear, I pulled my head back inside. “She’s going to do something stupid; I know she is.”
Hunter ran a hand down his face. “Ellie, don’t you think you’re overreacting a little. My pop isn’t interested in Bronte.”