Chapter 8

Ansley

"You alright?" Nancy stopped by my office just before ten, her face pale and eyes so weary.

"Yes. You?" I stood and moved around my desk as tears filled her eyes.

"No." She started to cry.

"Nancy, what's wrong?" I pulled her into my arms and held her. I wasn't close to anyone at the hospital on purpose, but she'd been beside me since the beginning of my career. We were a dynamic duo of sorts.

"I got pulled into the ER tonight, and we lost a little boy from an accident." She leaned against me and shook as she cried. "I'll never get calloused enough to be down there. I just can't stand the sight of a child in pain."

"It's okay." I ran my hand over her silver hair and closed my eyes. Feeling her pain left me alive and wanting to make a change again. "You want to grab a bite to eat before you head home? We can talk about it."

She nodded and moved back. "I'd like that. The food. I don't want to rehash what just happened. It was horrible."

"You should have called me down there. I might have been able to-"

"No, Ansley. You couldn't." She shook her head as if reliving a nightmare and reached up to wipe her tears away. "Doctor York did all he could. Honestly."

"Tom is excellent at what he does." I walked around my desk to grab my keys and jacket. "They have broccoli cheese soup today. Come on. My treat?"

She nodded and wrapped her arm around the back of my waist as I wrapped mine around her shoulders. We walked down the hall that way, and I could honestly not care what anyone thought. I had a cold, hard persona that I usually kept up, but Nancy was hurting. Personas be damned.

"Do you mind if I ask you something?" She glanced up at me as we walked into the cafeteria and released our hold on each other.

"You can ask me anything." I moved up to the soup station and grabbed two cups, handing her one.

"Do you have a history with Jacob Parks?"

"It's actually Jacob Parker. He just goes by Parks for some odd reason, but no. I don't." I poured an oversized ladle of soup into my cup and reached for hers. "Why do you ask?"

"There's so much emotion between the two of you. He sets you off like no one I've ever seen before." She rubbed my back as I worked on her soup. "More than Nolan, Ans."

I nodded. "I don't know what it is. Maybe that I'm insanely attracted to him, and I know he's a wolf?"

"Maybe so." She took her soup from me and walked to the checkout, holding the conversation until we were seated at a quiet table just for the two of us. "Just be careful. You don't want everyone noticing. It's a little explosive."

I nodded. "I'll be careful. I need to figure out what it is about him. I'm thirty-five fucking years old. A young doctor shouldn't affect me as much as he does, but something about him sets me on the defensive."

"Maybe because he's attracted to you, and his reputation is the love 'em and leave 'em type?" She took a tentative bite of her soup and sighed. "So good. Thanks for doing this."

"I would do anything for you." I chuckled. "A cup of soup is the least I can do after you having to put up with me all the time." I took a bite of my soup and thought of Parks. My body ached for a long night beneath him, but at the same time, fury danced in the center of my chest. Odd.

"What are you thinking?" She tilted her head to the side.

"That I need to figure out what it is about Parks that makes me crazy." I shrugged. "You're right. I think about him and am instantly turned on and pissed. I feel like I'm sixteen again."

She laughed. "Well, that might not be such a bad thing."

"Yeah, except for the fact that I'm not sixteen. I'm grown." I glanced around to see Nolan walking out the front door. "And the man I loved and thought I was going to spend forever with turned out to be a liar. One that stole my youth and my child bearing years."

"What? Bullshit on that. You can still have a baby." She reached across the table and gripped my hand tightly. "Women can have babies up until menopause. You know this. You're a brilliant physician."

"The risk is too high. I'm too late." I pulled my hand from hers. "It's okay. I really don't want to go down this road again."

"Ans."

"No, seriously. Please, Nancy." I let my gaze move up to meet hers. It was hard to do, but I let my facade down for a moment, just long enough to let her see my pain. "It's too late, and no one is at fault for that but me. I let the devil in, and when I discovered who he was, I was too afraid to kick his ass out."

"And now Parks looks like another Devil?"

"Maybe so." I glanced down at my soup and tried to let my thoughts go. If I didn't, I'd be up all night long, pacing the floor, and that wasn't good for me or my patients the next day.