Page 24 of Ravaged From Fate

I leave the bedside to give her time to sleep.

“I’ll stay here and continue to monitor the mother,” the doctor tells me quietly outside the bedroom. “You should go back to the clinic. Get some rest.”

I nod. “Sure.”

I say my farewells to Liam, check in one last time on the now-sleeping Simone and the baby, and then head out to my car. It’s only now, as everyone is clearly safe and fine and I’m in the safety of my vehicle, that I realize how tired I really am. I could go to sleep right now and not wake up for a hundred years.

I allow myself a yawn and then I start to drive, playing over the day’s crazy events in my head.

As a small town nurse, you’re usually dealing with a lot of crap day-in and day-out. Admin. Broken arms. Paperwork. Screaming children. Gossip. Lots of boring hours talking to patients about nothing they should even worry about.

But then you get a day like today. And it makes all those other days full of tedium and sacrifice just… worth it. Today is the kind of day that makes me happy to be a nurse. Today is the kind of day that feeds my soul. Today is the kind of day that gives me the strength to deal with all the other crap in my life.

Today’s the kind of day that makes me happy to overwork and never go on vacation. Or date.

Seeing the look on Simone’s face with the baby in her arms makes me truly, without-a-doubt happy.

I sink back in my car’s seat as I drive, exhausted to hell, but with the biggest grin on my stupid little face.

I can go home now.

I am still a long way out of town when I see Caspian walking on the side of the road.

12

ELSA

I wind down my window, bring my car to a dawdling crawl, and speak to Caspian’s back.

“You want a ride?”

It’s definitely him. No other man in a hundred miles, except for maybe Cyrus, is that… tall and muscular.

The giant of a man slowly turns around to face me. If he’s startled by me and my car pulling up behind him, then he doesn’t show it. He takes his time checking out my vehicle and then me, regarding me with blank eyes of his that betray a danger lurking underneath. Those same dark eyes that stared so intensely at me the other night in the clinic.

Yeah, this is a man who’s holding some secrets inside…

“No.”

That’s his reply. Blunt and throwaway. He carries on walking.

I scoff. I mean, come on, his one-word answer is a bit rude. It brings me back to Cyrus saying how the man walked out of his gym unexpectedly. Evidently, Caspian is a guy who does what he wants and doesn’t give a fuck.

But something makes me want to continue talking to him. Fine, I’m curious. That’s the fact. Growing up in this small town, everyone knows everyone else intimately. A whole lifetime of stories, rumors, and gossip. Caspian just walked into this community with nothing – no past and no baggage. Of course, I’m curious into finding out who the hell he is.

If he’s rude to me, then maybe I can be a little pushy back…

I let my car idly drift along the road at the same speed as Caspian’s walking. My head tilts out the open window in his direction.

“You know, people around town have been saying that you take big walks,” I tell him as he saunters down the side of the road. On either side of us is woodland wilderness. He’s ages out of town. “And look at me, I’ve finally spotted you going on one of these famous walks. I’m excited. It’s like discovering Bigfoot or something.”

Caspian turns to look at me again. “Everyone in this town seems to love making my business their business,” he says. “Why is that?”

I shrug. “That’s because people in this town are bored.”

“Are you?”

I chortle. “I’ve had the opposite day to boring, let me tell you.”