She hurried out of there, hoping her face didn’t appear as flaming hot from the embarrassment she felt at almost being caught kissing a patient.
Could she have acted more unprofessional? What was wrong with her, anyway? She’d been laser focused on her work since the moment she’d entered college for her undergraduate degree. Other than a short, ill-fated romance in medical school that hadn’t occupied a lot of her time, there’d been nothing and no one to distract her.
Until now. And in a couple short weeks, Tucker Cassidy had completely turned her world upside down.
She was determined to turn him down when he called her for a date. There was no way she’d allow him to disrupt her carefully planned life.
She went to the station and gave the nurse discharge instructions, then took a breath.
“Heard you treated Tucker Cassidy again.”
It figured Katie would be hovering nearby.
“I did. He presented with concussion symptoms. X-ray and CT scan results were negative, fortunately.”
“Did he get hit with a baseball?”
“No. Playing football with his brothers. He tripped over some rocks.”
“I see.” Katie was entering her notes into one of the laptops and didn’t look up. “He probably did it on purpose so he could come and see you again.”
She turned and leaned against the station. “He did not. He’ll likely miss his next pitching spot, so why would he intentionally hurt himself?”
Katie looked up from her notes, shoving a thick auburn curl behind her ear. “I was kidding. And you’re being sensitive about it. What’s up with that?”
She looked around. Marie was on break and everyone else was on the other side of the station. “I almost kissed him. In the exam room.”
“Scandalous. And juicy. So why didn’t you?”
“His brothers walked in. Otherwise, I probably would have. Which is so inappropriate.”
“But probably would have been incredibly hot, right?”
She was trying not to think about the hotness of the situation. Or the regret, both positive and negative. “No. Not hot. Inappropriate, Katie.”
“I don’t know. He’s a stud. You should have sex with him.”
“And you are not helping.”
“Actually, I am helping. You’re wound up all the time, and you haven’t gotten laid in ages. You’re always so all about medicine, and not about having fun. You need to have some fun, Aubry.”
She pushed off the station. “I’m not talking about this.”
But Katie followed. “Seriously, Bree. When was the last time you had some incredible, mind-blowing, curl-your-toes sex?”
She gave herself a few seconds to think about it, then realized she couldn’t pinpoint the last time, which meant it had been too long. “I don’t remember.”
“Aha. Did he ask you out again?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“He’s got my number. He’s going to call me. I’m going to say no.”
She started moving, but Katie stopped her. “Now you’re just being ridiculous.”
“No, I’m being smart. Work has to take precedence. My residency is important to me. Plus, he’s a jock, and you know how I feel about that.”
“So, fuck him and don’t think about his occupation. Then you’ll feel better and he probably doesn’t want a girlfriend anyway. Not after what the last one did to him.”
Katie had a point. After his ex-girlfriend kneed him in the testicles, the last thing Tucker probably wanted was a girlfriend. And she wasn’t looking for a boyfriend.
So what was the harm in some . . . harmless sex?
“Dr. Ross. Dr. Murphy.”
She turned in the hallway to face Dr. Kenneth Chen, the attending physician in charge of emergency medicine.
Their boss.
“Hello, Dr. Chen,” Katie said, always unaffected by Dr. Chen, whereas for some reason he made Aubry a nervous wreck.
“We seem to have patients in this emergency room, yet the two of you are . . . doing what, exactly? Gossiping?”
“Actually, Dr. Chen, I was consulting with Dr. Ross about my diabetic patient in room six. Now that I’ve finished my consult, I’m about to head back.”
Dr. Chen nodded. “Carry on then, Dr. Murphy.”
Katie winked at her and headed off in the opposite direction.
“I noticed you treated Tucker Cassidy, Dr. Ross.”
Leave it to Dr. Chen to be on top of everything going on in his ER. “Yes, sir.”
“There’s no game today, so I assume it wasn’t a work-related injury.”
“No, Dr. Chen. He was playing football with his brothers and tripped over some rocks.”
“I assume you intend to follow up on his care, as well as report it to the team?”
“I do indeed. I’ll make a report to the team physician in the morning.”
“Make sure that you do. Our relationship with the Rivers is important to this hospital. They send all their injuries to us. We want to insure there’s follow-up.”
“There will be.”
“Is Mr. Cassidy still here?”
“I just left him a short while ago. Amy should be giving him discharge instructions.”
“I think I’ll stop in and see how he’s doing. You can go about your business with your other patients.”
“Yes, sir.”
She couldn’t get away from him fast enough. Dr. Chen was brilliant in the ER, and she’d learned a lot in the past few years working under him. But damn if he wasn’t intimidating as hell. The man didn’t have a warm bone in his body. She always felt under the microscope whenever he directed his scrutiny toward her, as if she somehow didn’t measure up.