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Two days later Bri found me in the supply closet by the chief’s office. “What are you doing?” she asked, peering over my shoulder in the doorway.

I surveyed a shelf of baby formula. “Gibson said I could have whatever I want out of the free sample stash. I think I need a trauma kit for my car.”

“For what?”

I picked up a can of Enfamil and started reading the label. “I keep going on medical calls in Wakan. I delivered a baby last week, and I didn’t even have PPE.”

“You delivered a baby,” she deadpanned.

“Yeah. With a double nuchal cord.” I nodded at a machine gathering dust on a shelf. “Do you think Gibson would let me have that portable EKG?”

She shrugged. “I don’t see why not. A rep gave us that two years ago to test in the ambulances. We’re not using it, and they don’t want it back.” She peered at the pile I had started. “What else you got?”

“Gauze, Kerlix wrap, Ace bandages, butterflies, liquid stitch, needles, syringes, lidocaine—you know they’re stitching each other up with a fishhook over there?”

She scoffed. “Probably using Krazy Glue too.”

I paused, holding a C-collar. “I bet they are…”

She started pulling things. “So what are you doing tonight? Want to have dinner?”

“I can’t. I’m having dinner with my parents. They want to talk about the quasquicentennial.”

She grabbed a box of instant ice packs. “How about dinner tomorrow then? Or are you going to that thing at Gabby’s?”

I shook my head. “I’m not really hanging out with them right now.”

“Why? Because of the TripAdvisor thing?”

I shrugged, tossing a few eye shields into the keep pile. “That. And I don’t know. I just don’t think I have as much in common with them as I thought I did. But I can’t go tomorrow either. I think I’m going to Daniel’s.”

I was definitely going to Daniel’s.

I’d stolen a different hoodie on my way out the other day. This one was from Cabela’s. It was gray and it had deer antlers on the front. Daniel had a cherry ChapStick in the pocket that tasted like his mouth. It was like a tiny bonus prize, and I loved it.

I’d turned the thermostat down to freezing last night just so I could sleep in it. I’d lain in bed wearing it, talking to him on the phone until almost midnight. Even thinking about it made me smile.

“So I took a page out of your dating playbook this week,” Bri said. “Went on a Tinder date with a twenty-six-year-old.”

I arched an eyebrow. “And?”

“And the guy’s entire apartment was a TV, an Xbox, and a recliner parked in front of it. His mattress was on the floor. He only had one plate.”

I laughed.

“Does Daniel have more than one plate? Because I feel like he’s a more than one plate kind of guy.”

I grinned at the shelves. “He has lots of plates. Nice ones, actually. Antiques.”

“I bet he folds towels the right way too. A mythical creature.”

I laughed. “Did you sleep with him? The twenty-six-year-old?”

“No. I refuse to have sex with someone who doesn’t have a headboard. I’m not that desperate—yet. My vagina has officially been closed so long I’m afraid a Spirit Halloween is going to move in.”

I laughed so hard I started to choke on my spit.

She grabbed a box and tapped a finger on it. “Take some SAM Splints in case you get a broken bone. Burn sheets. Do you have a pulse ox? Blood pressure cuff?”