Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 68500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
It wasn’t weird.
It was contrived.
There was a difference.
“Hey,” Rose said to no one in particular, “y’all want to grab a coffee or something while we wait for the shuttle? It’s getting pretty nippy out here.”
She was right.
It was beyond nippy.
“I still don’t understand why there’s not employee parking on grounds,” Val grumbled to Rose. “I mean, how ridiculous to make us either walk two miles to the employee parking lot or ride a shuttle that takes twenty minutes to get back to you.”
“That’s one of the joys of living in a metropolis,” Tammy snarked.
This had to be the first time I actually wanted to trip her ass.
She was being a jerk, and it hadn’t gone unnoticed that she’d been acting that way since she’d caught Val and I in the utility closet.
Not that she was being mean to me. But to Val? She was definitely being a jerk.
I wondered if it dawned on Tammy that Val Singh and Val Drew were the same people.
She would figure it out soon, and I didn’t doubt that when she learned it, she’d throw the biggest hissy fit in history.
For years, she’d told me to forget about Val and leave the girl alone—that she didn’t want anything to do with me.
And it wasn’t until the end that I’d actually started to believe her and get upset.
But shit.
The way Val was now, was the same Val she used to be when we’d first started. Before she’d left and hadn’t looked back.
Sweet and attentive, I was seriously doubting that she didn’t have a very good reason.
That, or maybe I was just trying to justify her being mean to me and leaving me to move on and try again.
Sadly, I didn’t think I could survive a second break up from her.
“Sure,” Val shivered. “Let’s go inside.”
I resisted the urge to slip my jacket off my shoulders and hand it to her.
At least, I would have if we hadn’t gotten to the coffee shop and seen the sign on the door.
Closed for Snowmageddon. Come back when the roads are safe!
Preemptively closing was a good thing, I’d give them that.
But it was fucking cold here, and the damn bus stop that would take us to our cars was a half-mile walk from the doors of the ER. So either we sprinted when we saw the shuttle coming, hoping we got there in time before they took off, or we stayed at the shuttle drop off zone and waited.
“Well shit,” Rose muttered darkly.
“Rose!” Val gasped. “You just said the S word!”
Rose rolled her eyes at Val, causing me to glance Val’s way.
That was when I saw her frantically trying to warm up her arms.
Today had been crazy.
When we’d gotten to work, it’d been in the sixties.
By the time we were walking out the door five minutes ago, the temperature had dropped into the teens.
It was the craziest shift in temperature I’d ever seen.
And had I not been paying attention to the weather when I’d left, I wouldn’t have had my own jacket to wear.
But seeing her so cold, shivering in her thin scrubs and white turtleneck that was underneath it, I knew I couldn’t let her sit there and freeze.
And, knowing that she would completely balk at taking my jacket, I walked up behind her and said, “This is only for warmth.”
Then I wrapped my jacket around her shoulders from behind, bringing her body into mine and enclosing her into my space.
My jacket was large.
Usually, I used it when I skied, having multiple layers on underneath it.
But this time, it was only the jacket and myself, giving me plenty of room for bringing the woman I couldn’t stop thinking about into my body heat and arms.
The feel of her up against me was… everything.
Every single thing I’d been missing since I touched her last.
I’d missed the holy hell out of her, and our short, ten-minute romp in the closet didn’t help take off years of deprivation.
“That’s a good idea,” Rose said. “Come here, Tammy, we’ll cuddle up together to keep warm.”
Sour-faced, Tammy said, “I’m sorry, but I have to go take a phone call.”
“Get in here, Rose,” Val urged.
Inwardly I cursed. Outwardly, I held my hands open for her to come forth.
She laughed and said, “Absolutely not. I was just teasing.”
Thank God.
I closed my hands and said, “Suit yourself, you stubborn woman.”
Rose’s eyes twinkled, but before she could reply, my phone rang.
“Can you get that out of my pocket, Val?” I asked.
Val reached into the pocket of my scrub top and pulled out my phone, slowly sifting it up through our bodies.
She pushed it out of the top of my jacket, leaned back, and said, “It says your uncle.”
I stiffened.
“Here,” Rose said as she took the phone out of Val’s hand and answered it before putting it on speakerphone.
Nothing I could do about it now, I said ‘Hello’ to the screen that Rose was holding up toward our faces.