Room for You (38 page)

I followed her into the nurses’ station and set my bags down in an empty space.”

“Kacie Jensen?” A woman bellowed as she came around the corner.

“Yes.” I spun around nervously.

“I’m Maureen, you’re with me. Let’s go.” She waved as she strolled past the Square.

“You’re with Maureen?” Darla whispered as I walked past her.

I nodded.

“Good luck,” she mouthed.

I quickly stepped in behind Maureen. “Hi, Maureen. It’s nice to meet you. I’m very excited to work with you,” I said to the back of her tight gray bun as she continued walking.

“No chit chat, we’re very busy today. Just follow my lead.” She didn’t even turn her head when she spoke to me. “Don’t expect me to coddle you, this is the real world. If I tell you that you did a good job, it’s because you did. If you need someone always telling you how great you are, call your mother.”

Whoa, she
was
tough.

My first day was filled with cleaning up puke, changing out bedpans and perfecting the art of blood pressure taking. What it lacked in excitement, it more than made up for in how fast the day flew by. Before I’d even had a chance to look at the clock once, Maureen was telling me to go sit down for a thirty-minute lunch break. I didn’t know exactly where I was supposed to go, so I grabbed my lunch bag and sat at the desk next to Darla while she continued transferring all the files she almost dropped into the computer.

“You married?” she asked, staring straight ahead at her computer screen.

“Nope.”

“Boyfriend?”

“Yep.”

“He got any cute single friends?”

I giggled when I thought of Viper, the only single friend of Brody’s that came to mind. And he wasn’t exactly single … it really just depended on the day and Kat’s mood, from what I understood.

“Nah, not any good ones.”

“Bummer. By the time I leave here at night, I’m too damn tired to go out and all these damn doctors are married. Maybe I’ll become a lesbian.”

I chuckled and chewed on my carrot sticks while I people-watched. A young girl came in needing stitches from a dog bite, a construction worker shot a nail through his hand with a nail gun and a little old man was severely constipated. The day was not quite as eventful as I’d hoped it would be.

“Break-time’s over, Jensen,” Maureen called out as she went from room to room. “A woman with chest pains is being brought in by ambulance any minute, can you prep Room 4 and get her vitals for me?”

Hopping up eagerly, I tossed my carrots in the trash. “I’m on it.”

I went into room 4, turned on the monitors and got the blood pressure cuff ready. There wasn’t much else to do.

A minute later, the curtain pulled back, startling me as a young man with curly black hair pushed a stretcher into the room. Another EMT who wore a baseball cap over his blonde hair, had his back to me as he pulled the other end of the stretcher and called out stats.

“Female patient in her early sixties complaining of chest pains. BP is 220 over 130, temp is 99.2, pulse is 110.”

I awkwardly tried to stay out of the way as they swiftly transferred the patient from the stretcher to the bed. My pulse was probably as high as hers at the moment because I was so damn nervous.

The curly-haired paramedic smiled at me and left the room as quickly as he came in.

“Okay, she’s all yours,” said the blonde EMT as he turned around.

I locked eyes with him and stopped breathing, my body grinding to a halt.

Oh. My. God.

Zach.

Writing this book was a long, often stressful process for me and it would not have been possible without help from several people…

Thank you to Kelsey Kukal-Keeton at K. Keeton Designs for the wonderful cover photo.

Thank you to Sarah Hansen at Okay Creations for working your cover design magic on that photo.

Thank you to Angela McLaurin at Fictional Formats for taking me and my book on totally last minute and for being one of the sweetest people ever to work with.

To my editor, Lori Sabin… The whole editing process made me nervous, but I could write a whole chapter about how amazing you were. Not only did you make it easy, you made it enjoyable. Thank you a million times.

To my betas… Michelle, Megan W, Megan S, Melissa, Julie, Janna and Happy. This book wouldn’t be what it is without you guys. Your input and suggestions were beyond helpful and I’ll be forever grateful for the time you took to read and give me feedback. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

For all the blogs that participated in my cover reveal and blog tour… You are the heartbeat of the book world. Thank you for all the unanswered hours you put in.

To Pam Carrion from The Book Avenue Review… You are one of the sweetest people I have ever met. Your generosity and selflessness know no bounds. The hours you put in organizing cover reveals and blog tours and doing countless other things to help authors are immeasurable. The world would be a better place if there were more people like you walking around.

A special thank you to Michelle Kisner Pace who answered a million questions and helped me make sure certain parts of the book were accurate.

My wonderful CP, Janna Mashburn. You’re a little secret weapon when it comes to the brainstorming process. You have this amazing ability to step back and see what direction the story should go in. I so appreciate all the time you put in reading and critiquing everything.

Melissa Brown. I don’t even want to write this paragraph because there is no way I’m going to properly give you the thanks you deserve. When you invited me to this little Indie Author event in Chicago a little over a year ago, I had no idea my whole life would change in that weekend, all thanks to you. You were the first person I told about writing this book and since then, you’ve done it all. You’ve brainstormed with me. You’ve read every word of this book, sometimes two or three times. You named it. You put my first chapter at the end of
your
book. Most importantly, you believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself. I will thank you and tell you I love you every day for the rest of my life and it still won’t be enough. I might have to buy you a pony. We’ve already been friends for 25 years, I can’t wait to see what the next 25 have in store.

Julie Hill… the Cliff house… you and me, roomie.

To Happy Driggs. You are my very best friend on this entire planet. We can have whole conversations with very few words, though I suppose that’s what happens when you share a brain. I want to list all of the insanely wonderful things you’ve done for me but we both know that’s not how we work. The one thing I will always be grateful for is the way you tell me to just shut up and get it done. You get me, completely. You’re my favorite asshole. #Namaste.

To my mom… You’ve been my rock every day of my 35 years on this planet. You’re more than just my mom, you’re my mentor and my best friend. Thank you for believing in me and always sounding interested in my book, even when I’d already talked about it 3,206 times that day. Everything I’ve always done has been possible because I knew no matter what, you would be in my corner, cheering me on.

To my incredible husband, Chris. You have been my co-pilot in this journey we call life for the past 16 years and I couldn’t be happier to have you by my side. When I first told you I needed to do this, you jumped right in and eagerly asked what you could do to help. I don’t think you thought it would be so much cooking and cleaning, but you didn’t complain, most of the time. Thank you for always having my back, regardless of how insane my ideas can be. I love you a little more every single day.

Lastly, thank you to my four kids who listened to me say, “I’ll be there in a minute,” or “Just a second,” for months while I was typing away. You guys are the reason I breathe. I love you more than anything in this world.

Beth Ehemann lives in the northern suburbs of Chicago with her 4 children and her husband, Chris, who is really a big kid himself most of the time. She enjoys reading, writing, photography, martinis, and all things Chicago Cubs.

Twitter: @bethehemann

Facebook:
www.facebook.com/bethehemann

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