And So It Goes (Stevens Book 10)

Chapter 1

Agatha Stevens sat on the hard bench and leaned her head against the metal wall behind her as the morning sunlight warmed her face. It had been a long night. As a combat surgical nurse, it was either sink or swim, and she had done a lot of swimming the last two years to stay afloat, but last evening's shift had been one of the hardest. A convoy of soldiers had encountered an IED the previous afternoon while on patrol, and it had taken well into the morning to stabilize them all.

"Geeze, what a night!" Jenny, a fellow nurse, said as she sat next to her.

"We haven't had one that bad before!" Sherry agreed as she sat on Agatha's other side.

Both girls were young, in their early twenties, and made Agatha feel old at only twenty-nine. What a difference a decade made. Jenny was a pretty brunette with dark blue eyes and long eyelashes, and Sherry was a tall,  thin reed of a girl with light blond hair.

"The way you handled Merrick was something else, Agatha. I swear he was in an extra foul mood," Jenny grumbled as she leaned back and closed her eyes.

Agatha took her time deciding on how best to respond to Jenny's words. She got why Doctor Roark Merrick, trauma surgeon, was in a foul mood. It was the same reason she was in a foul mood but did her best to hide it.

It was hard to see young men in their prime come in so severely damaged, and Merrick sometimes had to perform miracles to save them. He was the best surgeon that Agatha had ever known. However, he was also a moody, taciturn, demanding, perfectionist of a man who was deliciously sexy despite the attitude, and there was nothing more Agatha loved than pushing his buttons. The more agitated Merrick got, the sweeter Agatha got.

"It was a rough night for all of us," Agatha finally conceded with a sigh.

"And it would have been rougher if you hadn't blocked him from going off on all of us for every little thing," Jenny responded, unwilling to give Merrick a pass after the long night. 

It was true. Every time Merrick was at his boiling point and had a nurse in his sights, Agatha would send them on some errand, cutting him off before he could get started.

Agatha knew that he knew what she was up to, and when he glared at her, she would smile and proceed to pick up where the other nurse had left off. It was a very stimulating interaction and helped to pass an otherwise heartbreaking night.

"Still, for such a sour man, he sure is something to look at," Sherry said in a dreamy voice that caused Agatha and Jenny to open their eyes and focus on the man himself, who had just exited the hospital with another doctor.

"Doctor Jessup isn't that bad either," Jenny added. "Plus, he's much nicer to the nurses."

This was also true. Agatha had served two tours with Merrick, and he never fraternized with the nurses or other hospital personnel, although many nurses had tried. Jessup, who had only been there a few months, was more inclined to flirt with any and every female who came his way.

"True, but with Merrick, there's a mysterious air about him. Also, he's probably good in bed." Sherry smiled.

"How so?" Jenny asked, looking at Merrick in a new light as he and Jessup stopped to talk about something.

Sherry shrugged. "He's a bit rough around the edges and not worried about being polite. I bet he's the same way in the bedroom."

Jenny nodded as she considered the two men.

Agatha had heard it all before. They were thoughts she had many times, but she would never voice them aloud. Agatha had watched Merrick's hands as they worked and wondered what they would feel like if they touched her. Other than their hands occasionally brushing as items passed back and forth between them, she couldn't remember him ever purposely touching her, and why would he?