AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter One
“Slow down!” my best friend and cousin Keegan yells to me as I blow past her.
When you work as a surgeon, every second counts. Every patient on your table is someone else’s someone you’re there to save. As a surgical resident, my ass belongs to the hospital. And as a resident who hopes to eventually become a trauma surgeon, when I get a stat page to the ER, I run at a goddamn sprint.
It doesn’t matter that I’m wolfing down a protein bar mid-stride or that I haven’t slept in far too many hours. I have another five to go on this bitch of a shift that doesn’t seem to be quite done with me yet.
“Can’t! Stat page to the ER. Something about a car accident and a family.”
“Oh,” she remarks with the same trepidation I have in my gut. She knows what happened to my parents when I was six. She knows they died in this very hospital while I was unharmed in the back seat and how every freaking car accident that comes in makes my stomach feel as shitty as if I just ate a chili cheese dog and chased it down with a sixteen-ounce Guinness.
People always wonder how I manage to work here. The weird truth is it somehow makes me feel closer to them. Like they’re watching over me here. This hospital is part of my story, the tragic part, and I work as hard as I can to change that around and rewrite it.
“Yeah. Oh.” My head flips to my left, catching her out of the corner of my eye because suddenly she’s beside me. “The storms outside are causing all kinds of pileups. Why are you running with me? You’re an OB.”
“Because I have to tell you about the hot new doctor.”
I roll my eyes and dodge a gurney, only to come to a halt as I reach the bank of elevators. “I don’t care about a new hot doctor,” I puff out, trying to catch my breath.
The side of my fist pounds into the button and I hold my ribs, wheezing while I also try to finish off my protein bar because eating time is precious. I tuck a loose strand of brown hair that fell out of my messy bun behind my ear only to think better of it and yank the elastic out to quickly redo it since half my hair is now plastered to my slightly sweaty forehead as the protein bar hangs from my lips.
“Yes, you do,” she assures me, her hands on her narrow hips, all business.
“Don’t you have patients?” I garble around my last bite.
She waves me off. “None past five centimeters dilated. I swear, the storm is making every woman go into labor. But like I was saying, you totally will care because not only is the new doctor hot, but you’ll also be seeing a lot of him.” She gives me a devilish smirk. “Since he’s the new chief of trauma surgery.”
“What?” My head whips in her direction, my eyebrows pinched tighter than a nun’s ass. “No way. I haven’t heard about any new doctor in trauma, and that’s the sort of thing to hit the gossip mill at full speed. Not to mention Wes would have told me about this.”
Wes Kincaid is not only the current head of trauma, but he’s also my mentor and friends with my uncles. I’ve known him my entire life. So again, he would have told me. Right?
She shakes her head. “It was hush-hush. Rumor has it the contract was just signed this morning. He’s some hotshot from the Midwest. Maybe Mayo? Or was it Cleveland?” She tilts her head contemplatively before just as quickly waving that away. “I can’t remember. I overheard my dad talking to Wes this morning, so you know it’s no bullshit. But then I saw the new doctor earlier and whoa, holy hotness Batman. Like epic hotness. Like, I’d take you down in a cage fight over his hotness.”
I stare dumbfounded at my friend. “I don’t even know what to say. You’re telling me I’m going to have a new boss soon? This isn’t a small thing for me. You know that.”
“Yep. But at least he’s a hot new boss.”
“You mentioned that already. About ten times now,” I deadpan as I scrub my hands up and down my face, too tired to try and weed this out. “What’s his name? This new hotshot you’re already swooning over?” Just then the elevator doors open, and my phone vibrates against my hip. “Never mind. I don’t have time. Tell me later.”
I walk backward onto the elevator and hit the button for the ER, checking my phone as I do.
“Katy!”
“What?” I glance up at her just as the doors close to see her eyes wide with meaning as if she’s trying to relay something to me. I tilt my head, following her as the doors come together, but they close before I can figure out what any of that is.
Weird.
But then again, so is Keegan.
I go back to the text on my phone.
Wes: When you’re done with the patient in trauma two, come find me. I have something I need to tell you.
Wow. So I guess it’s true. I’ll have a new boss soon. And since I’m seriously hoping to secure a trauma fellowship here, I need this new hotshot guy to like me. Or else I’m going to be stuck trying to find an elite trauma fellowship elsewhere, likely outside of Boston, which considering all my family and friends are here, is far from my first choice.
“This seriously sucks.”
“What does?”
