Chapter 2

Noah had decided groveling in front of Grace Donner and Abby Sawyer was a bad idea. Instead, he’d come straight to Krista’s front door. Looking at her now, he wondered if that wasn’t a bad idea, too.

Her lips were pressed into a plump line. He could almost see the wall building between them right in front of his eyes.

“Stop that,” he said, still standing on her porch.

“Stop what?” She crossed her arms at her chest.

He kept his gaze above her shoulders. Always above the shoulders. “You’re shutting me out because you’re mad at me. I’m sorry.”

One invisible brick tumbled. If he’d been smart, he would have brought chocolate and watched the whole wall crumble with minimal effort.

“What are you sorry for?” she asked, lifting her chin stubbornly.

Noah squeezed past her and waved at Joey on the couch.

“Hey, I didn’t invite you in,” she objected, spinning around to face him again.

Noah grinned at her. Another brick fell. “Krista, I’m sorry that I brought Amber to dinner last night. I didn’t realize it was going to scare you off.”

Joey sat up. “So that’s what happened last night.”

Krista shushed him. “I felt sick. That’s why I left. You’re free to bring people to our Wednesday night hangouts. There are no rules.” She shrugged nonchalantly. “Not a problem.”

“She’s lying,” Joey said, sitting behind them. He pointed. “See how she’s biting her lower lip?”

Krista’s face reddened and she spit out her lip.

Noah suppressed a laugh because she was already mad at him, and now her brother was tossing logs on her flames. “Can we take a walk? Talk in private maybe? How about I be your DD tonight with the girls?”

Krista shook her head. “I’m not going tonight.”

Noah could see the shine to her blue eyes. There were tears behind them, waiting. He knew her well enough to know it wasn’t all about him. Something had probably happened at work today. She loved being a nurse, loved her patients almost to a fault. “All right. How about we take a drive together? I can take your mind off the day and win back my best friend.”

Krista glanced behind her to a boiling pot on the stove. “I’m making mac and cheese.”

Joey stood and headed into the kitchen. “Go, I’ll finish it. It’s the thought that counts, blah, blah, blah.” He looked up and winked at his sister.

Turning back to Noah, Krista gave a small nod. “Okay. A drive would be nice, I guess.”

“Well, let’s go.” Noah led her to his four-door Jeep Sahara and took the driver’s seat. They cruised down several roads before she started talking.

“It’s fine that you brought someone to dinner last night. Great, actually. And she seemed to be just your type.”

“Ha. Definitely not my type,” Noah said. “I’d rather have Wednesday Wings with you. Just you and me on Wednesdays from now on. I promise.” He glanced over as they drove. A small smile set on her mouth. “Wanna talk about today?” he asked.

He could hear the sharp intake of breath filling up her chest. She blew it out and he knew, if he looked over, he’d probably see her fighting off tears again.

“One of the kids on my floor had to be medevaced to the children’s hospital at Duke. That only happens if we can’t meet their needs. If…” Her words trailed off. She rolled her lips inward and sniffled at his side.

“I’m sorry, Kris,” Noah said in a low voice, feeling helpless suddenly. “I’m sure the people at Duke will take good care of him or her.”

Krista wiped a finger under her eye. “I know.”

Noah heard the crack in her voice. He wanted to make it all better. “Ice cream?” he asked, turning toward the Blushing Bay pier. There was an ice cream shop there where he and Kris had shared many a cone together. In his experience, ice cream made things better. All the more if it was chocolate ice cream.

“I didn’t say yes,” she said, noting the direction of his Jeep.

“You didn’t have to. I know what makes you tick.”

Five minutes later, he parked and they strolled along the Main Street sidewalk toward the vendor. The air was chilly, summer long gone by now. Noah doubted there was much demand for ice cream these days. The old man who’d run the shop for as long as Noah could remember waved as they stepped inside.

“There’re my two troublemakers,” he said, looking at them over his thick-lensed glasses.

“How’s the kidney?” he asked Krista, as if it hadn’t been nearly two decades since her transplant.

Krista swept an unruly lock of dark hair from her cheek and patted her side. “No problems. Just like new.”

The question made Noah’s gaze fall on the charm she’d been wearing around her neck for just as long. It was a fishing hook twisted up to make a heart that he’d given her just before her surgery. He’d looped it on a piece of fishing line to make a necklace for her. He hadn’t known what else to do and he’d wanted to give her something. He’d have given her his own kidney if he could have. In fact, he’d petitioned his dad to let him do so. “This is to hook your new kidney and keep it on the line.” It was silly, but Krista had loved it so much that she’d had the fishing hook plated in gold. It now hung around her neck on a thin gold chain and she never took it off.

“What’ll you have?” the old man asked Krista first.

Before she even answered, Noah knew exactly what she’d choose. She’d pour over every choice before deciding on cookies and cream. Always.

She stepped along the cartons, looking at every choice.

Noah tapped his foot, but held his tongue. He’d developed patience over the years.

“Cookies and cream,” she finally said, smiling up at Mr. Plumly.

“I’ll have coffee ice cream,” Noah added.

“Not that you need any more caffeine. I don’t know how you sleep at night,” she said, laughing.

And that was true. The only thing they didn’t know about each other was how the one slept. And that’s the way it would stay.

Ice cream cones in hand, they walked toward the pier that stretched out over the roaring ocean. The wind whipped by, repeatedly tossing Krista’s hair into her cone.

“I’m going to have to shower off the stickiness when I get home, thanks to you.” She glanced over. “But thank you. I needed this.”

“Does this get me out of the doghouse?”

She laughed, the sound light and bubbly as it reached his ears. “Yes.”

They made it to the end of the pier and leaned against it, staring out from where they used to fish as children, before the days of commercial fishing boats and a quota of fish that had to be brought in daily for the Sawyer Seafood Company’s needs.

Noah cut his gaze to the side just in time to see Krista swirl her tongue over the peak of the ice cream mound on her cone. He resisted the surge of attraction that hit him like one of those wind-tossed waves on the pilings below.

Noah swallowed and frowned at his own cone. He was suddenly turned on. He usually ignored the attraction he had toward Krista. Ignored it like his life depended on it, because in a way, it did. As his best friend, she made his life better. He never wanted to lose her. “Dammit,” he whispered under his breath, pulling his cone away from his mouth.

Krista looked over. “What’s wrong? You don’t like it?”

“Not too much,” he muttered.

Friday the thirteenth wasn’t exactly a holiday, but when you worked on the pediatric floor of a hospital, any opportunity to make things fun was welcome.

Krista poked her head into Adam Reese’s doorway. “Boo,” she said, entering into the dimly lit room. Adam remained asleep. His mother, Mandy, smiled tiredly at his side.

“It was a rough night,” she said. “He didn’t get to sleep until after midnight.”

Krista’s heart sunk like a lead balloon. “I’m sorry. You look tired, too. You should go home. Get some sleep. I’m on shift for the next eight hours and I’ll make sure Adam is well taken care of. I promise.”

Mandy shook her head, but then submitted to a yawn.

“You can’t take the best care of him if you’re a zombie. He’ll probably be asleep for another four hours anyway. Then I plan on making spiders out of surgical gloves to scare Dr. Jacobs later. Adam will love it.”

Mandy laughed. “You’re amazing with him. I’m so glad you’re here.”

Krista hugged Adam’s chart to her chest. “You know, there’s a caregiver support group that meets downstairs once a week. I know it’s beneficial for a lot of friends and family members who frequent here. You should go.”

Mandy shook her head. “I don’t have anyone to leave him with when we’re home.”

Krista knew Mandy didn’t work. Adam had what the medical community referred to as PAD—primary antibody deficiency. His little immune system had a difficult time fighting off even a basic cold. He came to the hospital once a month to receive an intravenous blood product heavy in antibodies that would help him fight off germs for the next few weeks—but even so, he sometimes landed in here with an infection. This week’s diagnosis was pneumonia. Mandy couldn’t hold down a job because she was always carting him to and from the ER, so they lived on child support checks from Adam’s father, who preferred to pay big bucks to keep the weighty responsibility of Adam’s illness off him—the bastard.

“My parents are older. They can’t manage a seven-year-old boy,” Mandy said.

Krista pulled a pen and notepad out of her pocket and jotted down her cellphone number, which broke one of the unwritten rules in nursing: Never give your personal information to patients. All contact goes through the hospital. “Here. You just said it yourself. I’m great with Adam. Once he’s discharged, feel free to call me anytime. If I’m not working, I’ll be glad to come over and watch him so you can take some much deserved ‘you’ time.”

A smile pushed up Mandy’s sunken cheeks. “Are you serious?”

“Of course I am. I love Adam.” Krista turned to look at the sleeping boy. “And you need a break.”

Mandy pocketed Krista’s phone number. “I’m going to take you up on that. I haven’t had a free night to myself since he was diagnosed.”

“Good. And right now I want you to go home and get some sleep. He’s fine here. I promise.”

Mandy pulled her lower lip between her teeth and slowly stood. “Okay. But please call if he needs me.”

“Of course. Otherwise, you need to get some sleep.” Krista offered a reassuring smile, then watched as Mandy collected her purse, gave one last hesitating glance at her sleeping son, and headed out the door—which Krista’s boss was standing at.

Krista offered up another smile, this one meant to cover up the oh-crap-caught-in-the-act look that was probably on her face. “Hi, Karen,” she said enthusiastically, but quietly. Adam was sleeping and she didn’t want to wake him.

“Can I see you in my office for a minute?” Karen asked. There was a pinched expression on her face.

Krista’s smile dropped. She gave one last glance at the sleeping boy, and then exited the room, following the older nurse down the hall to the nice office space on the left. The head nurse was the only one to get an office. All the others shared the nurse’s station at the center of the floor. “What’s up, Karen?” Krista intertwined her fingers in front of her. She had nothing to be nervous about, though. So what if her boss had heard her extend a personal invitation to a patient—again. What she did outside the walls of Blushing Bay Memorial was none of Karen’s concern.

“You know why I called you in here, Krista.”

Krista unclasped her hands and sat down in the chair in front of Karen’s desk. “That mom needs time to herself. She’s been in and out since he was born.” And Krista had always been his nurse. “She’s no good to Adam or herself if she’s exhausted.”

“That’s not your job.”

“Not as a nurse, but as a person with a heart, it is. I love Adam. It’s no problem to watch him. Really.”

Karen cocked her head. “I thought you wanted to take my place when I retire.”

Krista straightened. “I’m a good nurse, Karen. You know I am.”

“Not questioning that fact. You’re one of the best. And, while young, you’re by far the most experienced here. You’ve been volunteering here since you were a kid. You interned here.”

“And this was my first job.” As far as Krista was concerned, it’d be her last job, too. She was committed. She’d always known where she belonged and it was here.

“I’m just looking out for you, Krista, when I advise you to keep your distance. If you become head nurse, there’ll be no one to tell you that, and you need to hear it. Really hear it. I used to be like you, and it got harder and harder to draw the line between work and my personal life. Once those lines blur, it’s trouble. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

Krista shook her head. “Karen, all I offered to do was babysit a boy for his exhausted mother.”

Karen gave her a long, assessing look. “Personal space, Krista. Heed my advice.”

Krista started to stand, hoping that the conversation was over.

“And, on that note, why are your nights so free? Isn’t it time you found yourself a nice guy?”

Krista met her boss’s now teasing expression. “Is that a job requirement for head nurse, too?” she asked, only half teasing. Now she was frustrated, irritated, confused, and holy-not-in-the-mood to discuss her lack of a love life, especially with Karen.

“No, but you deserve happiness as much as the next person. I hear that Jane in the cardiology department found herself a man on that new online dating site.”

Krista laughed. “I buy my clothes online, but I don’t find men there.” She didn’t find them anywhere actually. Or she did, but they didn’t compare to her mental image of the perfect date. Krista hooked a thumb behind her. “I’ve got patients to check on.”

Karen nodded. “Of course.”

Expelling a heavy breath, Krista walked out and headed back toward the nurse’s station. Getting called into Karen’s office was akin to getting sent to the principal’s office as a child, which had only ever happened once. She’d been chewing gum, which was against the school rules. Then Noah had made her laugh so hard she’d spit the gum into the hair of the girl in front of her. Purely accidental, but the girl had cried and sworn that Krista had done it on purpose. So off she’d gone to the principal’s office. Noah had promptly misbehaved on purpose to get sent down there with her—and then he’d taken the blame for her behavior, too. Her misguided knight in shining armor.

Krista had done nothing wrong by being nice to Mandy, though. She’d offer her number again in a heartbeat—even if it did screw with her chances of becoming head nurse.

After checking in on a few patients, Krista sat at her spot in the nurse’s station and pulled her bottled water to her. She took a healthy drink, washing down all the competing thoughts in her head, vying for attention that she needed to give to the kids here.

The nurse’s call bell rang for room 23—Adam’s room. Krista shot up and went to see what he needed. Poking her head in the door, she saw that his eyes were open, staring into the sterile room. Without the warmth of his mother, it must’ve felt cold to him. Krista remembered that feeling well. She’d only been in the hospital for two weeks, but the memory was ingrained in her brain. It was a cold and scary place, and all she’d wanted was to go home and be normal again. All she’d wanted was to run up and down the Blushing Bay banks, fishing with her best friend, who lived across the street.

“Hey, your mom will be back soon,” she told Adam, without him having to ask.

His rounded eyes stayed on Krista.

As she checked his vitals, she soothed him by talking and taking his mind off the mechanical beeps filling the room and the IV needle jabbing into his little arm. “Guess what? It’s Friday the thirteenth,” she said in a spooky voice.

Adam rewarded her with a slight smile.

“Have you ever made surgical-glove spiders?”

He shook his head, his rust-colored hair falling onto his forehead.

“Dr. Jacobs is terrified of spiders, you know. Want to make some and watch him scream when he comes to check on you after lunch?” Krista didn’t really have time to play, but blowing air into a glove only took a second. She could spare that if it made Adam feel better.

Adam was showing teeth as he smiled at her now. “Yeah,” he said, color filling his cheeks.

Krista laughed and pulled a pair of gloves out of her pocket. “Cool. Let’s do it.”

Noah left the fish house and sucked in a big breath of fresh air. He didn’t mind the smell of fish, but the fish house was a little overwhelming even to a seasoned fisherman. His catch today had been good, but it would’ve been better with another experienced crew member.

“No offense,” he told Beauty, untangling her leash from the leg of the bench he’d secured her to while he’d gone inside. He couldn’t bring a dog into the fish house. For one, Beauty might’ve contaminated the whole catch. For two, he didn’t want her to carry the scent back to his houseboat later. Or now, because he couldn’t wait to take a shower and stay in, be it a Friday night or not.

“C’mon, Beauty. You’re my date tonight,” he told the energetic canine. God knows he didn’t want another night with Amber. He was lucky Krista had forgiven his brief lapse of judgment there.

His phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and checked the caller ID. Joey Nelson’s name lit up the screen. “Hey, man. What’s up?”

“Tell me you’re docked already,” Joey said.

“Docked and the fish are delivered. ’Bout to head home for a drink or two. Wanna join me?”

“Yeah, but I’m stuck on the side of the road at the moment. I think the cab has finally died. Luckily it wasn’t until after I dropped that last customer off.”

Noah tugged on Beauty’s leash as he crossed the parking lot toward his Jeep. “Need me to come get you?” he asked.

“If you don’t mind. Krista’s at work and I don’t want to bother her.”

“No problem. Where are you?” Noah cranked his engine and laid on the gas. Ten minutes later, Joey climbed in the passenger seat beside him.

“Blasted transmission. It’ll cost more to fix it than the cab is worth.”

Beauty climbed in Joey’s lap and propped her feet up on his chest.

“Meet my new first mate,” Noah said, chuckling. “I think she likes you.”

“Yeah?” Joey gave the dog a good rubdown. “You’re a fishing dog, huh? That’s cool.”

Noah continued to drive. He didn’t ask again, but he took Joey back to his place for drinks. “You gonna buy a new cab then?”

Joey shrugged as they sat on the deck of Noah’s houseboat. “Truthfully, it might be time I get a paying job. Most of my passengers ride for free because I’m a sucker.”

Noah glanced over. “Everyone’s been telling you that for years.”

“I know. But I can’t charge my sister and her friends. I can’t charge the nice old lady who works the register at the food mart. She can barely afford to feed her dog. And then the hot chicks always get a free ride with me. What’s a guy to do?” Joey shrugged his big shoulders and pulled Beauty under his arm.

“So you need work?” Noah asked, feeling a little prickle of excitement at his friend’s misfortune.

“Maybe the food mart is hiring a bagger,” Joey said dryly, casting his gaze out on the water.

“Well, I’m hiring a co-captain for the Summerly. Your dad was in the business and you’ve got a lifetime of experience. What do you say?”

Joey scratched his chin. “I got out of fishing because I was sick of spending my days on the high sea. But I guess I do miss it a little. And I don’t have many options at the moment. So, yeah. I’ll work with you. Thanks for the offer, man.”

Noah punched a fist into the air. “All right. Looks like Friday the thirteenth is lucky for both of us.”

“Krista will flip if we work together, you know,” Joey noted. “She’s always been a little jealous of your time.”

Noah laughed. “That’s an understatement. She’ll be fine, though, as long as I don’t bring you along to Wednesday Wings.”

Joey shook his head. “I can’t believe you did that.”

“Not one of my finer moments.”

They both laughed, then spent the next few hours drinking beer and celebrating their new arrangement. Joey was one of the best fishermen in Blushing Bay. Everyone knew it. He’d worked a boat with his dad for a while and had given the Sawyers a run for their money at times. He, Noah, and Beauty would be the perfect crew for the Summerly, even if Noah knew that Joey was right about Krista’s reaction. She’d never liked it when Joey had tried to be a third wheel with them growing up. Noah was her best friend, not Joey’s, and, even though they were grown now and this was work, Noah suspected she might not be thrilled about the idea of Joey joining his crew. He guessed he’d have to buy her another ice cream cone from Mr. Plumly at the pier to smooth things over.