I jumped with fright when I felt a hand pressed against my back, and lightly tap away, helping me get the water up and regain my composure. I looked back to my left as Ryder retracted his hand away from me, without looking away from the screen of his phone.
I stared at him blankly, blindly.
I wasn’t sure what to make of his kind gesture, which was terribly sad. He was my fiancé and I was beyond surprised that he touched me. He never touched me anymore. Not if he could help it anyway.
“Thank you,” I said lowly to him.
He didn’t look at me as he said, “Don’t mention it.”
Silence settled over us again, and my sadness returned.
I hated feeling so down.
I looked away from him and glanced around the room, my eyes landing on Aideen as Bronagh and Keela moved away from her, smirks in place on both of their pretty faces.
What were they up to now?
I lightly smiled to myself, and shook my head.
I looked down to my leg when it vibrated. I reached into my pocket and took out my phone, smiling when my co-workers name flashed across the screen.
Ash Wade.
He joined our crew at the hospital about ten weeks ago. He was a twenty-eight year old English man who moved over from London when he was twenty years old and loved it so much that he never went back home.
Ash was a hoot. He made me laugh on days that I thought I could do nothing but cry. He talked to me, and he listened to me talk. A lot. He became quite a good friend of mine, and I was very thankful to have met him at a point in my life when I need a pick-me-up.
Ash was pure light; he would brighten up anyone’s day.
I slid my finger across the green blob on the screen, then brought the phone to my ear.
“What do you want?” I asked, grinning.
Ash snorted through the receiver. “It’s a good thing I didn’t misdial a hotline number and ask for phone sex when you fired that loaded question my way.”
I joyfully laughed, the sound surprising me and others around me. I looked forward when I felt many sets of eyes on me, but only one set that caused me to tense up.
His eyes.
We had grown apart, but I could never seem to shake the sensation that came over me when he looked at me. The moment his eyes locked onto my body, I became hyper aware of every movement I made.
“Branna?” Ash’s voice called out. “You there, Angel?”
I couldn’t help but playfully roll my eyes.
Ash decided to label me with the nickname Angel when the grandfather of one of our patients a few weeks back kept calling me it when he addressed me. I asked him to drop it, but he hasn’t, and it had seemed to stick.
“I’m here,” I replied. “Sorry, just zoned out for a second.”
“No worries,” Ash chirped then lowered his voice. “You won’t believe what happened on the ward today after you went home.”
Ash worked the delivery suite with me, and bar a few extra hours here and there, we had an identical roster.
“If you tell me the patient in suite four that screamed bloody murder all day randomly stopped when I walked off the ward, then I’m goin’ to curse her.”
Ash’s deep laughter filled my ear, and it warmed my hurt heart.
“No, she was still screaming when I left … even though she got her epidural and was numb from the waist down.”
I giggled. “There’s always one who goes overboard.”
Ash grunted. “You’re telling me.”
I chortled. “What happened?”
“The lady in suite one, you know, the hot redhead with massive tits?”
Ash was brilliant, but he was still such a man.
I good-naturedly shook my head. “Yeah, what about her?”
“She shit herself as she pushed. Her husband freaked out not knowing what was happening and fainted, knocked into the bed and caused shit to literally fly everywhere.”
I fell onto the arm of the sofa as laughter erupted out of me.
“I swear,” Ash laughed with me. “It’s both hilarious and disgusting.”
I wiped under my eyes with my free hand when tears of laughter fell.
“Did she deliver fine?” I asked, automatically switching to midwife mode. “And the husband, is he okay?”
“Both are fine. She had a boy, but I doubt the husband will step foot inside the delivery ward ever again. He made his wife swear to bring her mother in with her in the future.”
I continued to laugh. “I bet you all had a right laugh about that.”
“We did,” Ash confirmed. “Sally almost wet herself from laughing after she got the baby cleaned up.”