Afternoon Delight by Anne Calhoun Read Free Book Online Page A

watched Casey try to find a vein in an elderly, somewhat dehydrated patient. Another few seconds and he’d do it himself, but the only way to learn to insert an IV was to insert a bunch of IVs. Every organism with a circulatory system had arteries and veins, but no two were exactly the same. There was no standard routine, just a procedure practiced often enough to become second nature.
    And the thing was . . . he followed a pretty standard routine with women, too, one that had started to feel like going through the motions. Get her number, ask her out, get her into bed. With Sarah, he’d done exactly that, and far more efficiently than he usually did, only to have it spin sideways like hot tires on black ice when she pulled off casual with a shocking, unexpected intensity that set him back on his heels.
    Christ, what she’d done to him. She’d bared him just enough to fuck him, which set his blood boiling and left him wanting more. But he knew when he was being played, when a woman showed up with a set of rules she was following about who called whom and when, how many days to wait before calling or texting, when to have sex, when not to have sex.
    There wasn’t an artificial bone in Sarah’s curvy body.
    â€œI can’t get the vein, LT.”
    â€œHe’s never been sick a day in his life,” the wife fretted, hovering in the background, watching them try to stabilize her husband.
    Casey didn’t let his emotions show in his voice, but they both knew success or failure on an entire call depended on how fast the paramedic found the vein. Tim would compliment him on his calm presence later, but now, he was already reaching for the needle. The patient was eighty-seven and on blood thinners; his future held quite a few sick days, probably growing progressively worse until he was hospitalized. Tim had seen this before.
    He felt his way along the inner arm, found a vein not visible in the man’s thin skin, pulled the skin taut to anchor the vein, showed Casey the shallow angle of his needle, and slid the needle in. Bingo. He advanced the catheter while Casey watched carefully, all his attention focused on something Tim found so routine, he could get caught up in memories of the previous afternoon. Tim shouldered the bag while Casey jockeyed the gurney into the back of the bus. He trotted around to the driver’s seat and hoisted himself up while Tim stayed in the back.
    â€œShit. Move!” Casey hit the horn, his gaze focused on a narrow gap through traffic on First Avenue. He was flushed, and his voice had jumped half an octave. He was young, riding the adrenaline rush of learning everything he could. The day when this would become routine, just another day at the office, was far in the future.
    Tim peered through the window into the driver’s compartment and pointed at the gap. “You’ll fit through there. Just keep it straight and lay on the horn.”
    Muttering to himself, Casey set the heel of his hand to the horn and edged into the narrow space. Two inches on either side of the bus. Plenty of room.
    Tim focused on the patient’s breathing and pulse. Steady. They cleared the traffic and edged into the ER entrance. They off-loaded the vic, transferred the gurney into the back of the bus. “Speed and skills. Work on both of them. Practice at home. When you’re watching TV, whatever, practice finding your own vein, and if you’ve got family members who will let you near them with a needle, practice on them,” Tim said as they swung up into the cab.
    â€œI do,” Casey said, just a hint of wounded in his voice.
    Tim sighed.
    ***
    It took practice to get fast. Efficient. Untouchable. Casey would learn that soon enough.
    Tim walked into his apartment and tossed his keys and wallet on the kitchen counter, then headed for the bathroom. While the water heated, he stripped off his uniform. As he bent to unlace his boots, a shock of pleasure