Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 72401 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72401 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
I looked up to find her watching me with a small smile on her face. “Yeah?”
“Do y’all ever allow ride along’s?” She asked.
I nodded. “Sure. All the time.”
“Really? Do I have to sign up or something? Do I need to have any special permissions?” She asked.
I shook my head again as I pulled a black shirt out of my drawer and shrugged it on. “No. It’s really up to whomever is on duty at the time. Who the flight medic is. Why do you ask?”
She pursed her lips. “I just want to ride along. I’ve always enjoyed doing the trauma rooms, but I think it’d be interesting to see your side of things. I’ve always been curious about first responders.”
“Come with me. What good is being boss if I can’t let you come with me whenever the hell I want to?” I asked.
She grinned widely. “Okay…what do I wear?”
***
Rue
“You know,” I said. “You really shattered all of my illusions when you told me you wear clothes underneath your flight suit.”
Cleo chuckled as he walked down the long white hallway that led to the heli-pad.
We were at Life Flight headquarters, and were going out to do the ‘first check’ of the morning.
The first thing Cleo had done when we arrived was find me a flight suit that fit me.
He’d studiously ignored the glares of the man, Alonzo, as he went into the man’s office and started pawing through the closet where all the extra suits were held.
“Sorry to burst your bubble,” he winked. “It just gets hotter than hell in that enclosed space. When you’re in route to the scene, or you have someone back there, you don’t necessarily feel the heat. But once you’re done, it finally hits you. If I’m not wearing anything on underneath, then I wouldn’t be able to pull the suit down.”
I gave him a mock glare. “Still. I had these visions of you and all of them were centered on you having nothing under your suit.”
He rolled his eyes at me, and then pushed the door open that led outside.
“I’m flying today. Ross Bradley’s the flight nurse today. He’s new, so I don’t know much about him other than he’s just started this job, and he’s young. Maybe twenty five or so.”
“Is he cute?” I teased.
He looked down at me, and even though he had on glasses, I could tell he was glaring. “Keep it up.”
I winked at him. “Okay, I’ll see what I can do.”
“You do that, see what you end up with,” he growled, and then gave my ass a sharp slap.
I squeaked and jumped forward. “Agh!”
He grinned and walked in front of me, leading the way to the large white and green helicopter that was in front of us.
“Would you let me fly sometime?” I asked.
I was genuinely interested in learning to fly. I wanted to see why Cleo liked it so much.
“Yeah…no. This is a multimillion dollar machine, and there’s no way I’m going to let you fly it. You’ll have to take actual lessons before I ever consider it,” he said, no bullshitting for my man.
Not that I didn’t respect his decision, though.
In fact, it impressed me.
He wouldn’t think of compromising himself or me just because I wanted to have fun.
“Normally, what I do when I first arrive on shift is do a check of the helicopter. I check my equipment, make sure everything is in proper working order. When I’m piloting, my partner’s the one who’s supposed to do the check of the supplies we have on board, but I’ll do that so I can show you what we normally do,” Cleo said as he opened the back doors of the helicopter, turned around, lifted me by my hips, and set me on the platform in the back of the helicopter.
He followed up behind me and sat down on the bench beside the cot where the patients were strapped down.
We were in there for twenty minutes as he showed me around the area before his partner came out.
The man was young; really young.
He must’ve gone into nursing school right out of high school.
He couldn’t even grow a full beard yet; and he still had the whipcord lean body of a youth who didn’t have the bulkiness of an older man.
He was cute, though.
There was no doubt about that.
“Hey,” the man said, holding out his hand to Cleo. “My name’s Ross Bradley. Nice to meet you.”
I raised my eyebrows at Cleo when Cleo stared at the man for a few long moments. “Are you any relation to Grayson Trammel?”
I blinked.
Now that Cleo had mentioned it, Torren (Grayson was his real name) and Ross did look incredibly alike.
Ross shook his head. “No, never heard of him. I actually just moved here because my ma’s in bad shape. She’s seeing a specialist here.”
Cleo stayed silent for a moment too long, so I intervened. “I’m sorry to hear about your mom. I know it’s not good losing a loved one. My Nonnie’s in assisted living with Alzheimer’s. It’s like I lose her every couple of weeks.”
Ross looked at me with sympathy. “I’m sorry to hear about that.”
“I’m just showing Rue…” Cleo started to say when a loud sound from the radio on his shirt interrupted him.
“Air Medic 1,” a disembodied voice relayed. “MVA on Interstate 20. South bound and East bound lanes are being shut down right now. Two year old male with major injuries to the right leg, right hand, and head. Sending coordinates to your navigation system.”
My stomach knotted as the implications of my decision to ride with Cleo meant for me.
I’d be watching a little tiny child fight for his life.
The next thirty minutes happened quickly.
It took us less than two to take off, and eleven to arrive on scene.
I’d been on an airplane before. However, a helicopter was an entirely different experience.
It felt incredibly weird to take off from a flat surface, straight up into the air.
It was loud, and we had to wear helmets to hear each other speak.