U-Turn

by Maren Lee

  “I have to work tomorrow, so I’ll check his schedule. We’ll go when he’s at work. But I need my car first. And then I need to find a new place.”

  The thought of Katie living in Billings suddenly upset him.

  “Honey, I know you work in Billings and it’s a seventy mile drive, but I’d love it if you stayed with me until you find something. Or maybe we could find a place together somewhere in the middle,” he asked, hope in his voice.

  Katie bolted up and wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. “I’d love to stay here until I find a new place. But let’s take this slow, Ryan. I made a mistake by jumping into things with Brian too quickly. I don’t want to repeat that.”

  “Cat’s already out of the bag on the moving slow, baby. Can’t stop what’s happened twice now this morning.” He squeezed her close.

  She laughed. “I know. We both just fucking needed it, so I don’t care. But on everything else, let’s get this right.”

  “You know I want to be with you,” he said as he leaned in to kiss her softly. “When should we start telling people?”

  “Let’s get solid first? Make sure our feet are firmly planted and then ease everyone into it?”

  Damn. Ryan was ready to shout it from the rooftop. But her idea had merit, particularly when he was pretty sure Jake was gonna tackle him for this. Still, Ryan was ready for it. He’d wait as long as Katie needed him to and take whatever beating he had to take.

  “I’m ready to tell the world, but I respect your wishes. Let’s get dressed and go pick up your car. While we’re in Billings we can go shopping for some things you’ll need until we can get your stuff.” Katie smiled at him and then squeezed him again.

  “Uhhh, getting my car might be a problem, Ryan.”

  “What?”

  “My car. Brian just bought me a new one when we moved in together. It’s his. My name is nowhere on it. My truck is back at my parents’ place in Challis.”

  “Shit. Why is it in Challis?”

  “When I told my dad that Brian bought me a new car, he asked if he could have my Tacoma as a hunting truck.” Katie laughed. “It’s paid off and I didn’t want to sell it. I don’t know. Maybe my subconscious was trying to protect me from being too dependent on him. I tried to get Brian to accompany me on a road trip to meet my family, but he had to work and wouldn’t take the time off. Shoulda figured it out then.” She blew out a breath, moving a strand of hair out of her face.

  “What’s your schedule next week?”

  “Twelve-hour shifts Monday through Thursday. Off Friday through Sunday. Then I’m on for three days the next week.”

  “You can take my Jeep this week. I’ve got my patrol rig. Then we can head to Challis to get your car. Our schedules sync up this week; I’m off Friday through Monday.”

  “You want to road trip with me? Oh god. What am I going to tell my parents?” The color drained from her face.

  “Don’t worry about it. We have all week to figure out what to say, babe.” He kissed her forehead.

  “Yeah. I need to call my parents right away and tell them the engagement is off and give my mom time to cancel the plane tickets to Seattle for my bridal fitting.”

  Ryan wanted to tell her to keep the appointment and find a dress for their wedding, but…too far, too fast. He’d keep that little nugget to himself.

  “Despite all the shit that has happened in the last twenty-four hours, I am super happy right now, Ryan. It’s been a while since I could say that so, thank you.”

  “Same, babe. Thank you.”

  Fuck. Ryan was totally in love with her. No doubt.

  Chapter 15

  Katie drove Ryan’s Jeep over an hour to get to work Monday morning. The drive normally felt like it took forever, but today it went by too quickly. She’d hoped Brian hadn’t said anything to their colleagues, but she wasn’t betting her life on it. He was all about the image. He’d probably already been on the attack all weekend.

  She walked into the locker room to drop off her bag and immediately felt the tension in the air. Every nurse was glaring in her direction. Fuck. Yep. Brian must’ve told everyone she was cheating on him. God dammit! He’s the one who was cheating!

  She put her bag in her locker and clipped her badge on. She was ready to get this shit show of a day out of the way. Then she was going to hit the mall after work and get a few more outfits, pairs of underwear, and a couple more pairs of scrubs. The hit to her bank account shouldn’t be too bad. She’d saved a lot of money since moving in with Brian. But the hour-long commute would more than quadruple her budget for gas. Driving the Wrangler wasn’t going to be an option for long; she needed her own vehicle. Her new 4Runner was in Brian’s name. Even though she had insisted on making all the payments on it, there was no way she was asking to keep it.

  She had a navy blue, four-door Tacoma at her parents’ place in Challis, Idaho. It was decent enough and she knew her dad wouldn’t mind if she took it back. Heck, all she had to do was get tears in her eyes and her dad would probably buy her a brand new truck. But she wasn’t going to do that. She was an independent woman who had recently broken herself off from a dependent relationship. Hopefully you’re not jumping right back into one. No. Katie was going to make sure she never lost who she was again. She knew Ryan wouldn’t want that anyway. So while the gas mileage in her old truck wasn’t any better than Ryan’s Jeep, it was hers. And she wanted – needed – something that was hers again.

  Now the question was, how was she going to explain this situation to her parents? Fuck. She did not want to have to tell them everything yet. But she knew she needed to at least tell them about breaking things off with Brian.

  The first half of the day dragged on and on. She did everything she could to avoid making eye contact with anyone. Unfortunately, Katie spotted Shayna in the Emergency Department “by chance.” The other woman tried to make her presence seem appropriate, but she was on the wrong floor and wasn’t even on the clock. It seemed very clear that Shayna had come in on her day off to catch a glimpse of Katie and laugh about the whole thing with her friends. Bitch.

  “Don’t worry about them,” Cally told her. “Karma’ll get ‘em.” Cally had gotten the rundown during a bathroom break earlier in the day and confirmed to Katie that yes, Brian had indeed told everyone that Katie had been cheating on him and when he caught her, he punched the guy she was cheating with, putting his brilliant surgical hands in danger.

  Give me a break.

  Brian just “happened” to come into work early, too. Katie nearly had a run in with him in the hall, but thankfully she made it to the nurses’ lounge just as he walked by. She heard him mutter ‘whore’ underneath his breath as he walked by, just loud enough for her to hear.

  Fuck it.

  Katie had been called worse. And she knew if she told Ryan what Brian had called her, he would knock Brian’s teeth down his throat. So she’d keep that one quiet. Unless, of course, things got a little too out of control. Then she would definitely let Ryan loose.

  She stayed busy all day. The hospital had staff that restocked all of the medical supplies in each of the rooms in her unit, but today they wouldn’t have to. She needed to get away from the prying eyes. So she restocked drawers, cabinets, linen cupboards – anything she could find. She was headed to the supply room when she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket, alerting her that she had a new text message. She pulled her phone out of her pocket.

  RB: How’s it going, babe?

  She walked into the supply room, shut the door, went to the farthest corner, and leaned against the shelf. She slid down and sat on the floor, knees to her chest.

  KH: Awkward and slow. I should have called in sick.

  RB: If you would have called in sick, I would have called in sick. We could have spent all damn day in bed.

  KH: That sounds better than hiding in the supply room.

  RB: You have no reason to hide, baby. He’s the on
e with the issues. Not you.

  KH: I know, but I feel like an outsider now. Seems he’s been coming in all weekend and trashing me.

  RB: That fucker better not be. He’s lucky you didn’t press charges.

  KH: Apparently he told everyone he caught us and he punched you. That’s why his beautiful, talented surgeon hands are bloodied.

  RB: I’ll fucking break his hands if you want me to. It’s not too late to press charges, babe.

  KH: I couldn’t do that. Then he’d always blame me for ruining his career.

  RB: Fuck. What if he does this to the next woman?

  KH: Then I will fucking destroy him and his precious career.

  RB: That’s my girl. Keep your head up, beautiful.

  KH: I’ll try. Gotta get back to work. Xoxo

  RB: I probably should too, Wesson is glaring at me and Smitty wants to talk football schedules. Remind me to kick Wesson’s ass when we finally tell everyone.

  KH: Ha! Don’t give him any more reason to suspect anything. See you tonight.

  RB: ❤️

  The heart emoji made her stomach flip and toes curl. It was a giddy feeling she hadn’t really had in months. In fact, she wasn’t sure Brian had ever made her feel this way. She ached to get back to Imminence and into Ryan’s arms. Shopping could wait tonight. She’d wash her scrubs and wear one of his t-shirts for bed. Yeah, like you’ll be wearing anything to bed.

  ➰

  Ryan was fuming. He was pretty sure every vein on his forehead was protruding. Fucking Dr. Douchebag was talking shit about Katie. My Katie. He wanted to head to Billings and force him to stop. Show him what it would really be like to lose the use of his hands forever.

  Ryan blew out a hard breath. Not worth it. You got the girl. Fuck that guy. Maybe Katie wouldn’t have to work in Billings forever. Maybe she could get a job in Imminence. It was a lot smaller, in terms of patient care, but local medical care was a necessity. Most of the time, patients were just stabilized in Imminence until Life Flight could arrive and take them into Billings Regional. Hadn’t Katie mentioned at one point that she wanted to be a flight nurse someday? Maybe this could be a way for her to get into it? Ryan didn’t know how it worked, but he wanted to help. He could ask around.

  “You okay, man?” Jake asked. “You’ve seemed a little stressed out.”

  “What? Naw, I’m good.” They were at the diner on their lunch break getting a greasy burger and a cup of coffee. It seemed a few others in the Department had the same idea. Ryan wondered if anyone was out patrolling the highways, because the booths were filled with his coworkers. “Should we be staggering our lunch breaks?” he asked, looking around.

  Jake shrugged. “Maybe the good people of Bounty County deserve to have an hour when we’re not hounding their asses about the speed limit?”

  Ryan raised his eyebrow at his Sergeant.

  Jake laughed. “Just kidding. No they don’t. Yeah, we should probably talk about staggering.”

  “How’s Bennett?” Ryan asked. He figured it was safe to ask about Jake’s kid. It was a little awkward hanging out with Jake, seeing as how Ryan was secretly in love with the guy’s little sister.

  “Awesome. Little brawler already.” Jake flashed his white teeth and dimples. “He’s crawling out of his crib, though, so it’s probably time for a toddler bed. Fucking exhausting, man. How come no one told me how tiring parenthood is?”

  “You didn’t ask me,” Ryan answered, dryly.

  “You got court this week?” Jake asked.

  “Wednesday. Just a marijuana possession case. Kid fucking reeked and then consented to a search. Should be a slam dunk.” Should be. “Lane got that one?”

  “No clue. Probably. She doesn’t usually tell me, except when she’s not going to be handling a case because she feels there’s a conflict. She takes her ethical obligations very seriously.”

  “How do your parents feel about Lane?” Ryan was fishing. He hoped it wasn’t obvious.

  “They fucking love her. But then, they’d been waiting for me to find ‘the one’ for years.”

  “Your other sister…I haven’t met her. What’s her story?” Is it obvious now?

  “Dani. Danielle. She’s…a spoiled brat. And she married a man who spends pretty much all of his time working for a lot of money that she very much enjoys spending. She’s a stay-at-home mom and yet my mom ends up with her kids more than she does. So, yeah… My sister Dani is infuriating. She’s nothing like Katie.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Katie is the hardest worker I’ve ever met. She refuses to take shit from anyone, but she wears her heart on her sleeve and would give her shirt off her back to anyone who isn’t on her shit list. I fucking love that kid. I wish she wasn’t getting married to this fucking douchebag of a doctor. I got a bad feeling about him, man. But once Katie makes her mind up, I have no shot at changing it. She sticks to her guns probably just to spite me.” Jake shook his head and took another giant bite of his burger.

  Shit. Well…if only you knew, man. Ryan agreed with Jake’s description of Katie. Every word. She was amazing. It was why he’d completely fallen in love with her. He really did feel bad keeping this all from Jake. But he needed to wait for Katie to be ready.

  Fuck. Ryan knew he was gonna get his ass beat.

  Jake’s radio started crackling. “Bounty County. 2236.”

  “2236, go.”

  “We got a possible 10-16 in Banner Creek. What’s your location?” Domestic violence. Ugh. At one o’clock in the afternoon on a Monday. Ugh.

  “Send me the address. We’re on our way.” Jake threw a twenty on the table. “You coming, Blakesly?” he asked Ryan.

  “Hell, yes.” He tossed the bills on the table and they headed out. It was nice to work with his future brother-in-law today. Ryan laughed out loud at that thought. Eventually, Jake was gonna kill him for even thinking that.

  Chapter 16

  Work sucked. After several awkward days of being glared at, Katie decided to enlist her hospital friends to win back her reputation. Katie wasn’t a fucking cheater. Cally, Christine, and Jolene agreed to spread Katie’s version of the story around (which, she’d like to add, was the real fucking version). She had no idea if it would help, given the growing size of Dr. Carson’s harem, but maybe it’d keep the bitchy daggers out of her back.

  She considered confronting Brian and threatening to press charges if he opened his stupid mouth again, but she really just wanted to be done with him. She didn’t feel like dragging this relationship along any further than she had to.

  Brian was a psycho.

  A total control freak.

  Possibly a cheater.

  No one at the hospital knew she was living with Ryan, which was a slightly more damning fact in her storyline when viewed by an impartial party. Explainable, yes. But she admitted the optics were bad. Katie didn’t cheat. She’d just never actually gotten over Ryan in the first place.

  You’re totally in the right here.

  But even if she wasn’t in the right, she didn’t fucking care anymore. She’d come to terms with a lot in the past few days. The truth was, she started the relationship with Brian purely as a distraction from reality. She stayed purely because she felt like she was stuck. She’d felt destined to settle. But she was done settling. She didn’t want to ignore her true feelings anymore. And that was certainly not something she was going to beat herself up over.

  She’d gotten a lot done this week. She’d hit the clinic for an STD test. She’d gotten her own cell phone plan and left her factory reset phone on the hood of Brian’s car. Now she just needed to get her clothes out of the house, find a place to live, and get her truck from her parents. Not small tasks. Ugh.

  Shift change was finally here. It had been the longest day ever. She walked out the employee exit and headed to Ryan’s Jeep. Thank goodness he had a patrol vehicle so that she could use this big beautiful beast. She reached for the handle on t
he driver's door and noticed the paint was scratched all the way up from the bottom of the door.

  What the hell?

  Katie stepped back and her mouth dropped. The word “BITCH” was keyed across the entire door. Fuck. Her stomach dropped. Fucking Brian. That stupid asshole apparently liked to ruin things. That would have been good to know about eight months ago.

  Fuck. Ryan was going to lose his mind when he saw this. She debated on whether or not to call him on her way home or just tell him in person. The vision of him screaming through the phone and then hightailing it to Billings in his cop car, running lights and sirens, going breakneck speeds just to kick Dr. Douchebag’s ass made Katie decide to tell him when she got home.