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“You should grab a quick nap,” Dr. Myers said, startling her. She spun around to find him leaning against the doorframe of Mr. Patrones’s room with a lopsided grin.
“I’ve only got an hour left.” She shrugged. “Not much point to it now.”
He stepped toward her, the grin dissolving into a frown of concern. “Yeah, but you still have to drive home. Take a nap. I can check on your remaining patients.”
She quirked an eyebrow. “How are you not dead on your feet? You’ve been here as long as me, if not longer.”
It was his turn to shrug. “I’m used to little sleep.” Turning so his back pressed against the wall, he stared at the ceiling. “Before I came here, I was an on-call with the ER in Baltimore.”
“Oof.” Several of her nursing friends had gone on to work in ERs all over the nation. The last time she saw them, they’d told horror story after horror story. She couldn’t imagine the chaos. It’d been hard enough when Steven had come through, and she wasn’t even his nurse.
“Yeah,” he said. “Oof.”
“What made you decide to move to our little town?”
The lopsided grin returned. “Would you believe me if I said a girl?”
That got her attention. “Really?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Didn’t you come here for Steven?”
“Well, yeah, but we’d been together awhile by that point.” She cocked her head. “You just don’t seem the type to go chasing after someone.”
His laugh was hollow, bitter. Rose deduced he had quite the story to tell, but she shifted uncomfortably. It wasn’t her business, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to know the details. They weren’t friendly outside of the office like she and Rebecca were. In fact, that conversation was the longest one she could ever remember them having.
He nodded at the chart in her hands. “How many more patients do you have?”
“Just one. Why?”
“If you’re not going to take a nap, you should get some coffee in you.” When she frowned, he gave a sad smile. “Meet me downstairs when you’re done, and I’ll tell you the whole sordid tale.”
Despite her misgivings, curiosity bubbled up inside her. With a nod, she turned on her heel and headed off to check on her last patient. She didn’t know why she cared. Based on some of his cocky behavior at the hospital, she could only imagine what he had done to cause the end of his relationship. But learning that someone else had moved to their tiny town for love intrigued her.
About ten minutes later, Rose entered the cafeteria and allowed her eyes to sweep the room. Though technically the place was closed, a couple of coffee and vending machines were available. A few residents sat around a table by the door, but they paid her no mind. Finally, she spotted Dr. Myers seated at a table on the far side of the room with two coffees set before him.
“Two sugars and a splash of cream, right?” He slid her drink over.
She sank into a seat, dumbstruck by his thoughtfulness. “How’d you know?”
“I pay attention.”
Just the scent of the roasted beans was enough to rouse her, but she took a sip anyway. He was right—she needed something to stay awake. Though she lived only fifteen to twenty minutes from the hospital, she always struggled to keep her eyes open after working a double.
“So, tell me,” she said. “Who broke your heart?”
His eyes widened. “How do you know she did the breaking?”
“Lucky guess?”
He shifted, his fingers fiddling with the flap on the lid of his cup. “I’d say we broke each other.”
When he didn’t continue, she leaned back in her chair and sipped her coffee. “We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”
“No, I want to. I’m trying to think of where to begin.” Wrapping his hands around the cup, he stared at the table. “Melissa and I met at Johns Hopkins. I had been accepted into their cardiology fellowship, and she was pursuing her MFA in creative writing.” He shook his head, a faint smile on his face. “We came from such different worlds—it was a wonder ours connected at all. In some ways, it felt like fate.”
Rose leaned forward, growing more interested in his tale with each word due to the similarities with her own story. She and Steven had also met in college, and though they’d both gone to the University of Maryland, their programs had almost nothing in common.
“So, how did you meet?” she asked.
