Page 283 of Under Her Skin

Beth comes up behind me and asks, “What do you need,Delaney?”

“I need to get the hell out of this wing for the next week. What can you do to help me?” I ask the nurse who makes ourschedules.

“Out of this wing? Why?” she asks as she looks over theschedule.

“A man has a hard dick for me. He’s going to be here most likely every day to see a patient in this wing. I know it’s just to get to me, so I want away from here.” I look over her shoulder and see that Rhonda is working the cancer ward. “See if she’ll switch with me, please. I have to get away from theman.”

“You sound worried,” she says as she looks at me with concern. “Is he athreat?”

“Not in the way that’s illegal, no.” I look away and wonder what my problem really is, then find the words coming out of my mouth. “He’s sexy as hell, the most handsome man I’ve ever met, and he’s rich. I’m afraid my good sense will go out the window if I’m around him too much. When you throw in the fact that he’s been pretty damn nice to me, it’s apparent I can’t trustmyself.”

“That sounds amazing,” she says as she looks at me like I’m insane. “That does not sound like a man you should be hiding from in this vasthospital.”

“He’s the owner of Bargain Bin, the chain that ruined my family’s business. He’s the enemy. Get it now?” I ask as I tap the computer screen to show her Rhonda is on call and in the sleeping quarters. “I’ll go see her, to ask her in person, if you’re cool with thechange.”

“Your enemy, huh? Not a lot of people have enemies,Delaney.”

“So is that a yes?” I ask as I walk away fromher.

“I guess so. But you should really reconsider this and get to know the rich, handsome man, even if he is your family’s enemy,” she calls out afterme.

I shake my head and wag my finger behind me as I head out to find Rhonda and divert myself from this path Blaine Vanderbilt is right in the damn middleof.

The break room is full as I turn to go inside to get to the sleeping quarters that are behind it. There’s food set out on the long side table we use when it’s someone’s birthday or when it’s some other special occasion when we all bring in food for acelebration.

“Wow, who’s birthday?” I ask. “And where’s thecake?”

“Look, Delaney, lobster bisque,” the janitor, Billy, shows me as he pulls up a spoonful of thick, creamy goodness. There’s a large chunk of lobster right in the middle of it. “And you are the reason for thisfeast.”

An intern comes up to me with a card. When I open it, I see the food is a gift from Blaine Vanderbilt for all of our hard work here at the hospital. My name is the only one on the card, as he wrote that I was a special nurse who was aiding his friend’s family in their terrible time ofneed.

“What a crock of shit!” I say, making everyone look at me with slackjaws.

Paul comes up behind me and looks at the card over my shoulder. “Uh, oh. Seems someone is smitten with you, Delaney. Now how did that happen so fast?” I turn to find his hands on his hips as his eyesdance.

“I’m not sure. I suppose it’s because I hate the man. You all enjoy. I won’t take a bite of the food the evil man who owns Bargain Bin sent. But if you guys want to eat the food from the devil, go right ahead. Much like Eve when she ate the apple in the Garden of Eden and it became herdownfall.”

“Halloween was last month, Delaney,” another one of the nurses I work with calls out to me, then shows me a pretty delicious-looking, tiny cake. “Evil, devil, and words like that have no place in November. It’s a time for thanksgiving. Come on, try some of the food. It’s allfantastic.”

I make my way through the people and find the woman I’m looking for at the back of the room eating a large plate of food. “Hey, Rhonda, I’d like to talk to you about switching schedules for the next few days orso.”

“And why is that?” she asks, then places a huge bite of some type of sandwich—it looks like roast beef—into hermouth.

“I need out of this wing until the Peterson kid is released. So can you help me out?” I ask as I watch hereat.

She nods, then swallows before she says, “Just one thing, though. I want out of that ward until after the first of January. I hate all the hoops we have to jump through when the hospital lets people come up to visit the cancer patients during the holidays. It just poops me out and the charge nurse over there can randomly stick you as the aid to any one of the crazy celebrities who come in to visit the kids. I hateit.”

“Deal,” I say without hesitation. “I’ll take that over trying to fend Vanderbilt off anyday.”

“I have to tell you that you are a crazy woman, Delaney. If that hot piece of man-meat was after me, I’d roll over quick and in a hurry forhim.”

The smell of roasted chicken wafts past my nose as Paul comes up beside me, a chicken leg roasted to perfection waving in the air as he says, “Unless a man is willing to drop down on one knee and pledge his undying and committed to love to Delaney Richards, he doesn’t stand a chance. Vanderbilt went wrong when he simply asked her out on a date. Yes, Delaney, I heard aboutthat.”

Fantastic. I’ll be the laughing stock of the entire hospitalnow!

A ChillyFall

BookTwo