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“God, I don’t even know.” I sipped my coffee, leaning against the nurses’ station, “There are sixty minutes in an hour, right?”
“Twenty-four-hour shift,” Dan said with a laugh, stirring his mocha.
“One thousand four hundred and forty babies,” I heard Dr. Aster’s humored voice say.
I glanced up at him, smiled, and shook my head, “Yeah, right.”
“It sure felt like it,” Dan said, nudging me with his elbow, and I watched Dr. Aster’s eyes fill with irritation.
It was entirely unlike the man to have any expression other than a cheerful, friendly look on his face.
“I know it feels like you’ve delivered a baby a minute over the night, but rest assured that you did not. The nursery is merely filled with thirty-one new infants.”
What the fuck is his problem? I thought, knowing this man couldn’t possibly be jealous of sixty-year-old Dan, the RN.
I was too tired to care or ask. Aster was here to relieve my on-call ass for the day, so I could go home and move boxes to my aunt’s house. His out-of-character, lousy mood was not my problem as of fourteen minutes ago.
“Merely thirty-one, huh?” I said, rolling my eyes. “Let’s go over charts, and then I’m going home to crash.”
“Ha,” he smirked, taking the iPad from my hands and scanning through all the notes and charts of the patients I’d delivered all night and yesterday. “She’s officially one of Saint John’s now.”
“She? If you’re talking to me, I’m standing right here,” I snapped, my exhaustion making me sound like a massive bitch. “I’m sorry. That came across much harsher than it was meant.” I rubbed my forehead, ready for a justifiable reprimand.
“Never apologize for being yourself,” he glanced up from where he scanned the charts, winked at me, and then returned his attention to the iPad.
“For being myself? You think I’m a bitch?” I said, wishing I could just shut my mouth around this man for once when I couldn’t think straight.
His eyes pulled up to meet mine as he hugged the iPad to his chest, and my tired eyes were instantly drawn to the V in his dark blue scrubs. My lips suddenly parched with the thought of pressing them into the center—stop! Fuck, stop, Mickie, I ordered myself, knowing that after being awake for twenty-four hours straight, my brain operated at the equivalent of what it would if I were drunk.
“I never said you were a bitch, Dr. Smith,” he said, his eyes studying mine. “Though, I’ll take your apology at Avalon tomorrow night.”
I grinned, “You’ve been asking me to go with you back to that place since my second day on the job. It’s not going to happen.”
“It’s not a date,” he said. “I don’t date my colleagues.”
“I never said it was a date, Dr. Aster.”
He grinned, and damn it, this one lit his eyes with humor, making it next to impossible to resist any request he might make. His long dark eyelashes perfectly defined his hazel irises, making it difficult to focus.
“I know. I’m just being upfront with you,” he replied. “This way, when you do fall in love with me, you will have already been warned that I won’t be returning those sentiments.”
This mother fucker.
It’s like he knew exactly what to say to challenge the athlete in me who never lost anything. Now, I wanted to fucking prove to him that I could spend time with him—at Avalon or anywhere—and not fall in love with his arrogant ass. Who could possibly fall in love with someone who was already so deeply in love with themselves?
“And you should know that I won’t be returning those sentiments, either. I was already warned in med school never to marry a doctor.”
His eyebrows knit together in humor, “Interesting, I didn’t realize Stanford was offering relationship advice services.”
“While my professor worked as an ER doctor, she married and divorced twice—two doctors. I guess you could say that her experience indicates that it is not a good idea for doctors to marry.”
He leaned back against the nurses’ station, which was relatively quiet compared to the last twenty-four hours. Probably because every woman in five counties had already given birth, and there were none left to deliver.
“A woman scorned gives you this advice, and you believe it should be set in stone?”
“I never said she was a woman scorned or that it should be set in stone. I am saying that I am no fool, and it makes sense why the relationship would never work.”
His eyes grew mischievous. “I feel this could be the best challenge I’ve ever taken on,” he said, and I instantly was lost.
