Page 59 of Yours to Keep

It kept replaying the way Bree had jumped into action yesterday, somehow knowing exactly what to do. I almost wished I could call and ask for her advice, but it was doubtful she’d even pick up if I tried right now, and besides, Liana would probably talk to her herself.

Back at home, I tried to get a little work done. I answered emails and reviewed the feedback on some of the equipment we’d recently rolled out. Usually, this was the kind of thing that would snap me back into myself, but today, my focus kept slipping.

Every other moment, her face flashed in my mind, the way she’d looked walking toward me yesterday on that sidewalk and the soft, almost surprised little smile she’d gotten after every orgasm. I thought about the way she’d snuggled into me all night long, like she was just as desperate to stay with me as I had been to keep her, but she’d run off like she couldn’t get away fast enough.

I told myself to respect that and to back off, but every instinct I had screamed to do the opposite. All my life, I’d been good at control, distance, and keeping my wants neatly boxed and labeled. Bree had already blown that to hell.

Which meant that as much as I told myself I should let it end here, deep down, I knew with absolute certainty that I wasn’t done with her.

Not even close.

CHAPTER 23

BREE

After the wedding, I slipped back into my life like nothing had happened. Every morning, I put on my scrubs and went to work. My days were filled with checking on my patients, charting, and coffee that went cold before I could remember to drink it.

From the outside, everything looked the same at the hospital, but to me, it all felt so very different. Because Sullivan felt different now. I hadn’t even seen him, but my awareness seemed to stretch down every hallway, my stomach tightening every time the elevator doors opened.

I’d watch them, riveted, half-hoping and half-dreading that he’d be on the other side. It made me wonder if maybe, once someone really got to you in a way no one else ever had, your world rearranged itself around their absence.

Mine sure seemed to have done that.

Everything was suddenly about him. About where he might turn up next. I was glad I hadn’t seen him, but I wanted to run into him more than I’d ever wanted anything before. Both things were true, constantly, and it was exhausting me from the inside out.

Leaving that hotel room had been one of the hardest things I’d ever done in my personal life. Professionally, sure, I’d faced much worse, but that was a different kind of hard. It was familiar and structured. It came with rules, shifts, and handovers.

None of that was applicable to walking away from a man who’d made me feel the way he had. Honestly, leaving him right then had left me feeling cracked wide open, like I’d actively chosen to torture myself, but I’d done it because in that moment, it had been the right thing to do.

Both of us had gotten so wrapped up in each other that neither of us had been thinking straight. When I’d realized that he wanted me to stay almost as much as I wanted to do it, I’d known that one of us had to pull back at least a little bit. One look at him had told me that the person in question would have to be me.

What had happened between us in that suite had been nothing short of incredible, but stepping out into the world together would’ve been much more complicated. That was something neither of us could ignore, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t conflicted about it all.

By midweek, even I could tell I wasn’t hiding it well anymore, but my friends at the hospital let it go until Maya, another nurse practitioner, finally cornered me during a lull at the nurses’ station.

“Are you okay?” she asked. “You’ve been staring at that screen for over a minute, but you haven’t typed anything. Do you need help?”

I blinked and looked down, realizing she was right. “I’m fine. I just had a late night. You know how it goes when you’ve had too little sleep and not enough coffee.”

She snorted. “Join the club. There’s a pot in the break room that might still be alive. You’d better go grab it before Tanya does. Her baby seems to be going through a sleep regression.”

I grimaced. “In that case, I think she needs it more. I’ll just grab some from the cafeteria later. I need to check in on Mrs. Jones first anyway.”

“I’m telling you, something’s coming,” one of the nurses was saying as she approached the nurses’ station, her voice low but intense. “My cousin is in admin and she says Crowne is looking at cuts.”

“Again?” the orderly she was with asked. “Didn’t they just restructure last year?”

“Yeah, but that was before he took over.”

I froze, my hands tightening on the keyboard I still hadn’t used. Maya propped a hand on her hip, glancing around and then keeping her voice down too, even though there was no sign of him. “Wait. Wait. Wait. What’s this now? What kind of cuts are we talking about?”

“Who knows,” the first nurse said. “Rumor has it they’re evaluating efficiency. Everyone knows that’s admin-speak for someone’s about to get screwed.”

“I heard they’re talking about merging some of the units,” Maya said slowly. “Someone also told me they’re considering bringing in external consultants, but I haven’t heard of any cuts.”

“Oh great,” the orderly said. “Because merging and external consultants always go so well. Between that and the cuts, he might as well just have built a new damn hospital.”

As I stood there, listening to the swirl of anxiety and half-formed speculation, my heart thudded against my ribs. Familiar names came up while they tossed the rumors they’d heard back and forth, departments I cared about and programs that were already stretched thin.