by Harlow James
Devoted
Emerson Falls Book 5
Harlow James
Contents
Title Page
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Epilogue
Copyright © 2020 Harlow James
Devoted
Emerson Falls, Book 5
Cover Design: Pink Elephant Designs
All rights reserved. No parts of the book may be used or reproduced in any matter without written permission from the author, except for inclusion of brief quotations in a review. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, establishments, organizations, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously to give a sense of authenticity.
Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. The eBook may not be re-sold or given away to another person except when loaned out per Amazon’s lending program. If you’re reading this book and you did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then it was pirated illegally. Please purchase a copy of your own and respect the hard work of this author.
Dedication
To any woman who has fought for their life in one way or another, this one is for you.
And to my readers: Thank you for being Devoted to my stories.
Prologue
Jess
Age Fifteen
“Are you ready for school to start next week?” My mom glances back at me in the rearview mirror of our car as we drive to the restaurant she let me pick for dinner, my younger sister sitting beside me. It’s a warm summer night in Portland, Oregon, and I can’t wait to sink my teeth into Dickie’s Barbecue ribs.
“Absolutely. I hate summer vacation. I always end up so bored by the end of it.” Truth be told, I’m more excited about using my new planner and folders I have to start the new year, along with the new multi-colored pens that match. Buying new school supplies gives me a high that other girls must get when they purchase new clothes.
“I will finally be an eighth grader too,” my sister, Katelyn, adds beside me.
My dad turns around in his seat to face me. “Both of my girls are growing up too fast. And Jess, at least you aren’t a freshman anymore. I remember how annoying it was to be the low guy on the totem pole.”
“Yeah. All the seniors snicker at you as you walk by. It freaking pisses me off, especially since I’m way more mature than my classmates.” And I’m not just saying that to sound conceited. It’s the truth. I’ve always been more intellectually developed than my friends my own age. Honestly, I can’t wait for college so I can be surrounded by people that genuinely want to be there and take their education seriously like I do. And hopefully the boys are more mature as well. These high school boys are annoying as hell.
“You’ve always had an old soul,” my mother adds right before the screech of tires and crunch of metal to my right causes my mom to slam on the brakes of the car and all four of us to turn in that direction. As if in slow motion, a truck skids across the asphalt and slams into a telephone pole, while an older model SUV flips through the air three times before landing several feet away from the site of the collision, further down the street.
You see accidents on TV and in movies, but nothing prepares you for witnessing the real thing, that sound that you’ll never forget hitting your ears.
“Jesus Christ, Will. Quick, dial 9-1-1,” my mother commands as she turns down the street where the cars have smoke coming from under their hoods, the SUV resting on its roof.
As my mother contemplates what we should do, I don’t waste one second answering the innate feeling I get to run to the scene and help, my hand already on the door handle, pulling it towards me.
“Jess! What are you doing?” My mother shouts while my father speaks on the phone.
Then my sister starts to panic as well. “Jess, don’t go! It’s not safe.”
But I don’t stop to listen as I jump from the car, racing over to the turmoil. I can hear screaming coming from inside the SUV just as a man shoves open the door of the truck that smashed into the pole, his body hunched over like he’s in pain.
“Help! Please help us!” The woman’s voice is frantic and high-pitched, her panic evident in how wide her eyes are as I approach her door and assess her position. Her head is tilted to the side even though she’s upside down. But considering how mangled her car is, she doesn’t look too bad. I’m not a doctor by any means, but I’ve watched enough Grey’s Anatomy to get a sense of life-threatening injuries. And the fact that she’s alert and talking is an excellent sign. I don’t see any large open wounds either, just a few scrapes and bruises on her arms and face.
“Ma’am, my name is Jessalyn. My parents called an ambulance and they’re on their way. Are you alone in the car?”
“No! My son… he’s in the back. Please check on him! He hasn’t answered me since the car stopped rolling.”
I stand from my crouched position at her window and move towards the back of the vehicle, anxious for what I’ll find, but knowing that each second here counts. Through the shattered glass of the window, I see a small boy that can’t be older than eight lying slightly sideways along the seat, his seat belt digging into his shoulder as he hunches over to the side, his entire body inverted.
“What’s your son’s name?”
“Jordan. Is he okay?”
“Jordan,” I say loudly in his ear, ignoring his mom because I don’t want to tell her he’s still unconscious. All I know is that the paramedics will be here shortly and I want to make sure he’s alive when they get here. “Jordan, wake up.” I reach into the car to stroke my hand carefully along his forehead, brushing back his hair matted down with blood leaking from a cut above his eyebrow. Suddenly, his eyes are fluttering open and dark brown irises meet my grey ones. “What… what happened? Where’s… where’s my mom?”
“Jordan! I’m right here, honey! Are you okay?” His mother calls from the front seat as the sirens echo in the distance, growing louder as they close in on the scene.
“My head hurts… everything hurts.”
“You were in an accident, Jordan. It’s gonna be alright, though. The ambulance is on their way.” I smile at the boy sincerely, trying to comfort him in this dire situation, even though my heart is racing as I hear my parents call out to me in the distance.
“Jess! Get over here! What are you doing?”
“I’m not leaving them!” I yell back, turning to flash them a look so they know I’m serious.
“The emergency personnel are here! Let them do their jobs,” my mother hollers back at me.
“Please,” the little boy cries, reaching for my hand as best he can, our fingers interlocking as I meet him halfway. “Please don’t leave me.”
“I’m not going anywhere. I will stay as long as you need me, okay? I know you’re scared, but I promise I’m here as long as they let me stay. Everything is going to be alright.” I hate saying those words because I don’t know that they’re true, but my gut is telling me to remain rooted where I am, reassuring this little boy that his entire world isn’t upside down even though he is.
The paramedics arrive seconds later and everything happens in a blink of an eye. The mother is extracted from the front seat and belted to a gurney, the little boy follows, and the driver of the truck is examined in the back of the ambulance as the other two are transported to the hospital.
“Hey, you did good.” One of the paramedics comes up to me, resting his hand on my shoulder.
“I don’t feel like I did much…”
He shakes his head at me. “No. You did a lot. You comforted that mother and her son in a situation that is unprecedented for any parent to find themselves in. You held his hand while we did our jobs. You were devoted to making sure that he didn’t feel alone. That’s something that not most people can do.” A wave of pride washes over me as the paramedic grins. “You ever think about going into the medical field?”
I lift both of my shoulders in question. “No. I mean, I haven’t exactly decided on what I want to do with my life yet.” It’s a decision that’s been in the back of my mind, keeping me awake at night. I feel like I should know by now what I want to do for a career, especially since I’m so confident about other choices I make.
“Well, don’t knock it. I think you have a calling. You ran to the scene without a moment’s hesitation. We need people like that saving lives.” His eyes pop up now to stare at my parents and sister standing behind me. “You two should be proud. Your daughter did a noble thing tonight.” The sun has set in the distance between the time we pulled up on the accident and the victims were ushered away.
I can see the heavy breath that leaves my mother’s chest as she pulls me into her, wrapping her arm around my shoulders, and my sister leans in to hug me. My father rests his hands on my free arm and reaches to shake the EMT’s hand.
“Thank you. We are proud, even though I was furious with her in the moment.”
The paramedic laughs. “Understandable. But thanks again for calling and staying strong. Have a good night.” He turns on his heel and heads back to the fire engine as multiple police and other rescue workers attempt to make sense of how the accident even happened in the first place.
And as they assess that situation, I attempt to make sense of the overwhelming impression of purpose I feel radiating in my chest. Tonight I may not have helped save a life medically, but I helped a mother and her child stay calm in an emergency—and that’s an experience I’ve never had before.
And now that it’s cemented in my brain and my heart, I’m almost positive it’s one I want again.
Chapter 1
Jess
Present Day
“Oh, my feet,” I groan, flexing the arches once I take a seat at the nurse’s station for the first time in almost eight hours. I can’t remember the last time I ate something or took a drink, a detail I quickly remedy by reaching for my water bottle, sucking it dry.
“Hey, nice catch on the meningitis case,” Dr. Hill acknowledges as he rushes by, turning around in his movements before adding, “I always know I can count on you to pay attention to every detail.”
“That’s what they pay me the big bucks for.” I flash him a wink as he sprints off in the direction he was headed.
“My God! It’s been a while since we’ve had a shift like that, hasn’t it?” My best friend Piper plops down in the chair next to me, letting out a sigh of relief as she extracts a granola bar from the drawer in the counter. Much like a well-seasoned mom or teacher, nurses always have snacks stashed everywhere because you never know when you’ll get the chance to scarf down a bite of food.
“I can’t remember the last time I had to work almost eighteen hours. It’s nights like these that remind me why I’m still single. How the hell am I supposed to meet someone when I never leave this place?”
“Well, with that cold going around, a lot of the staff has been out. And of course, that makes for more patients in the ER. Then add on the accident that was brought in a few hours ago, and well…. It’s been a circus of a night.” Piper stretches her neck from side to side before she glances down at her watch to check the time. “If you want to get out of here, I’d do it now. Process that last discharge and run for the hills,” she jokes before reaching for a chart left on the counter.
“I will. I just need to sit for a minute.”
Piper reaches over and grabs my hand. “You know you’re gonna meet someone, right Jess? You’re a catch. You’re smart as a whip, beautiful, and have a wicked sense of humor. You just haven’t found the right guy yet.” She flashes me a sympathetic smile on a tilt of her head, and then turns back to the computer, filling in the information from the chart.
I huff sarcastically. “At this point, it would have to be someone in this hospital. But that opens up a can of worms since you know how I feel about dating people I see at work.” I think back to a guy I dated in nursing school, one of my classmates that I desperately found attractive and vice versa. Trent was intelligent and hot, and the two of us together was explosive. But then it all went to shit when I caught him using me to make his ex-girlfriend jealous. He took me to a bar where he knew she would be and paraded me around. I didn’t realize what he was doing until I noticed his eyes were veering everywhere around the room except at me. And then he slathered my mouth with his the second the long-legged blonde focused in on us, a complete contrast to my five-foot-one stature and jet black hair.
I should have known better, but I was so drunk on him and the sex that I convinced myself there was more there. Then he ended up reconciling with his ex and put a ring on her finger within months. Since then, any man I’ve developed feelings for seems to find the next best thing after me and marry her. I’m not kidding. It’s like my vagina is the magical gateway to being engaged—just not for me. There have been four men now that I’ve dated who end up meeting the love of their life after they’ve taken a trip through my vagina.
I call it my ‘vaginal curse’ to my friends, but just ‘the curse’ to others.
And now that it’s been a little over two years since I graduated from nursing school in Portland and moved down here to Emerson Falls, I haven’t had much of a dating life in between those failed relationships. My friends would argue that I keep things casual to avoid the curse from making another matrimonial match. But honestly, I haven’t had a ton of time to dedicate to the cause anyway.
However, now I’m the third wheel in almost all of my friendships since my girlfriends are either married or are all finding the men they’re going to marry and I’m still single at twenty-nine, scared to let a guy in because I might just be training him for his future wife.
“I hope so. I feel so out of the loop, out of the dating game in general,” I reply as Piper hands me a granola bar of my own. I tear at the wrapper and then start to inhale the thing.
“Well, you have to put yourself out there if you’re going to even have the chance to meet someone.”
“Easy for you to say, Piper. Cash practically stalked you until you gave in to him. Your man came to you. It’s much easier that way.” Piper moved to Emerson Falls last year and started working in the ER with me shortly after. She crossed paths with playboy deputy Cash Williams and they fell in love after he pursued her relentlessly. Unfortunately, Piper really was here hiding under a false name, and when she was discovered, it threatened her life. She ended up returning home to New York to heal, but then moved back to be with Cash. They got engaged and are getting married in a few months.
“Yes, but it’s not like we didn’t go through obstacles to get there,” she challenges.
“I know. I’m not saying it was easy for you guys, or that love in general is easy. But with my track rec
ord, I’m nervous to find someone I really like because in the back of my head, I’m wondering if I’ll actually get to keep him.”
Piper reaches for my hand. “We’re gonna find you the right guy. All of those guys who you claim are victims of the curse were just not the right men for you. That’s why things didn’t work out—it wasn’t because of your vagina,” she says, rolling her eyes at my farfetched beliefs.
“At this point, I’m not so sure. Maybe I should just become a lesbian.” I stare off into space, contemplating whether or not I could live the rest of my life without dick. I mean, I know there are toys for substitutes, but I don’t think anything could replace the actual thing.
“Well, any woman would be lucky to have you,” Piper assures me just as one of the EMT’s comes up to us at our desk.
“Hey, ladies. Did I just overhear Jess contemplating becoming a lesbian?” Ethan stands before us, his stocky frame resting against the counter. If the guy was a few inches taller and didn’t talk to me like I was his sister, I might actually be interested. Sadly, Ethan and I learned very quickly there weren’t romantic feelings there when I threatened his life.
“Yup. But it took me all of one minute to realize I like penis too much.”
Ethan’s eyes pop open wider. “Wow. Okay then, glad to know something about you that I didn’t before.” He shakes his head, probably trying to remove an image his brain conjured up from my declaration. “What’s with the life-style change threat? Something happen?”
“I’m just realizing that I may be single forever since I spend so much damn time in this hospital or go after the wrong guy. You don’t happen to know anyone who’s available and doesn’t mind dating a woman who’s unavailable during half of the week, do you?” I pop forward in my chair, the desperation so evident in my voice even Piper’s alarmed at my outburst.
“Uh, no. Sorry. Most of the guys I work with are married or have serious girlfriends. There might be some guys at the fire station though,” he adds enthusiastically.
