“Oh, I wowed her all right. It was the best night of either of our lives. She’s running scared.”
Maverick wanted to instantly take it back, but it was out there in the open now. He expected a joke from his brother, but his face got all serious as he looked at Mav like he was something on a slide under a microscope. Mav didn’t like that look at all.
“Hmm. You’re really serious about this girl, aren’t you?” Coop said.
“No! I mean, I’m just trying to help her, that’s all,” Mav said, running his hand through his hair as he began to pace on the wide deck.
“I don’t think so, Mav. I remember this feeling when I knew I couldn’t live another day without Stormy. You’ve been hit, brother, and the only way to ease the pain is to just accept what you’re feeling,” Coop told him.
“I don’t know what in the hell you’re going on about. We’ve only been dating for a short while and there’s a time limit on it. I’ve been on a mission to help her,” Mav told him.
Cooper laughed—actually laughed at him, which made Maverick glare at his brother. Normally, he enjoyed Cooper’s company.
“Oh my poor, unfortunate brother. Love isn’t a mission. It’s also not something that can be stopped. And it looks like you’re officially on this ride whether you want to be or not,” Cooper said.
“This is nonsense. Love has nothing to do with how I feel about this girl. Sure, I enjoy being with her, and I definitely want to help her, and we do have passion, but that doesn’t add up to love,” Mav insisted.
“Yeah, I thought that, too,” Coop said with a laugh.
“It’s a lot different with me and Lins than it was with you and Stormy. Any fool could see you were head over heels for that woman.”
“It’s okay. It will take you time to see what’s happening.”
“Whatever,” Maverick said before sending another withering look his brother’s way. “Where’s Lins?” He was done talking to Cooper.
“She took an extra shift at the hospital. She’s been doing that quite a bit the past few days. I don’t know, though—today she seemed more nervous than usual. You might want to go and check in on her,” Coop said.
Maverick was moving away before he even thought about it. He didn’t bother saying good-bye to his brother. He needed to go and check on Lindsey, make sure she was okay. His stress was through the roof as he jumped in his truck and gunned the engine. If Lindsey was upset, then he needed to be there for her.
On the other hand, what if it really was just him wanting her to need him? What if she was perfectly fine on her own and that wasn’t something he could accept? Maybe all of this was one-sided and he was too infatuated with the girl to notice. Whatever it was didn’t matter, though. He had to go see the girl and nothing was going to stop him from doing just that.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Avoidance seemed to be something Lindsey was too capable of. When the going got tough, she fled as fast as she could. Her feelings for Maverick were too strong, so the best cure for that was a heck of a lot of work.
Lindsey was examining her patient when the new attending came rushing into the room, looking at the man’s chart, not bothering to even peek at the person on the table.
“Patient needs a cardiac panel, EKG, and Cath UA. Splint the right arm, and get that wound in the right leg secured. Move it!”
“Umm, Dr. Cullen,” Lindsey said as she tried to get the doctor’s attention. He cut her off.
“Stop speaking and get on this,” he thundered.
Grrr. Attitude. She hated the new attending. “Heard you loud and clear, but—” Again she was interrupted. Sometimes it was difficult to keep her patience. Today apparently was one of those days. Hotshot doctors with attitudes didn’t amuse her.
“You will listen when I give an order. You are the nurse and I’m the MD. Do you know how to do your damn job? Or did you just slide your way through nursing school and then forget it all while on vacation?”
Lindsey saw red, but somehow managed to keep from screaming at the new doctor. Yes, she’d taken a few months off, but she was sure he hadn’t bothered to find out a thing about her or why she’d needed to take leave. He probably thought she was right out of nursing school with zero brains in her head.
“As I was saying,” she said with such authority, it actually stopped the man for two seconds. “The labs and EKG were done before you came in. The resident has already sutured the lacerations and the splint is on. If you bothered to look at the patient, you could have saved us both critical time.”
The doctor’s eyes narrowed as he tried to decide what to say. His next words didn’t get much better. “You should have told me as soon as I came in the room.” Of course he was turning the blame on her. She had to count to ten before speaking again, or she just might get fired before she was ready to leave the hospital she’d already decided she wouldn’t stay at forever.
“I was trying to tell you, but none of that matters right now,” she said with a shake of her head. “I’ve been with him for the past fifteen minutes and he looks like he’s going into respiratory failure. We need to address the internal injuries now.”
The doctor pushed on the patient’s abdomen and looked at him for all of ten seconds. “You’re overreacting. We have more patients in here that need our care. This one is fine.”