It's Complicated by Julia Kent Read Free Book Online Page A

Alex Derjian here— Dr. Alex Derjian, she corrected herself. Ever since a very messy failed affair her first year of nursing—an entangled, sweeping disaster that involved two doctors at work—she’d had a pretty firm rule: no dating doctors. But rules were made to be broken, right?
    Introductions complete, he pulled his hand away, leaving her drained and empty and full of self-doubt. Had she been alone in the feeling that had just jolted through her? She wasn’t imagining it, though—he seemed to feel it too. Fidgety and a little ill at ease, Josie pretended to study the silver doors as the elevator hummed its way up to an even bigger, more chaotic mess that they both encountered as the doors wheezed open.
    There stood Mike and Dylan and Sherri outside Laura’s door, engaged in an angry whisper campaign with another nurse who stood there. The pained expression on Dylan’s face was shifting more and more into anger, while Mike coiled with a tension diametrically opposite his normal state. Snippets of their conversation floated into Josie’s awareness as they approached.
    “But there’s a limit…”
    “I don’t care about the limit…”
    “Why can’t we…?”
    “Does it really matter?”
    “Is there a reason why we can’t…?”
    “What’s going on?” Alex said, his voice commanding and clear.
    It made Josie stand up straight and listen intently—not that she had any choice. She could have listened to him read a Windows 7 installation guide and been in a state of bliss for hours on end. A melodic baritone, he didn’t have the standard Boston accent that so many men had, and there was a lilt, something foreign, but not quite. He wasn’t a Midwesterner, not a New Yorker, and nothing from the South came into his voice. The sound of his voice was more his own accent, as if he had honed it carefully himself, born of an internal core that made him something distinct and unique and well worthy of everyone’s immediate attention.
    As he spoke, her eyes combed over his body. Brown, shiny waves in hair that needed a cut, but looked perfect tousled the way it was. Dark brown eyes, similar to hers, but with little specks of orange in them. His face was wide, with high cheekbones but the sprinklings of early five o’clock shadow. She knew, too well, that shadow would end up quite thick by the end of his long shift, the kind of stubble that left a slight, rough, red rug burn on a woman’s face after a perfect, intense kiss…or twenty.
    Broad shoulders and a body that indicated that he worked out. His scrubs lay flat against his skin, not too tight, but not the baggy, shapeless look that so many men acquired as residency added some paunch to their under-exercised, over-carbed forms. This was a man who took care of himself. And as the conversation continued, she recognized that he was a man accustomed to finding solutions and having them carried out.
    Sherri turned to him. “Thank you, Alex. I’m glad you’re here. I need you to consult on Laura’s polyhydramnios case,” she said, pulling him aside. “But we also have another issue here that has nothing to do with you.”
    The nurse who stood next to them was arguing with Dylan and Mike, and Josie heard, “But there can’t be two fathers in the room.”
    “But there are two fathers.”
    “No, there can’t be two fathers. Our rooms are small and we can only allow one support person and one father.”
    “Well, I’m the support person,” Josie said. “I’m also an RN. What’s going on?”
    The nurse gave her a grateful look, as if Josie were an instant ally in whatever argument she was having with the men. Josie didn’t like the assumption because she had a feeling that this was going to be one of those moments where she got rip-shit pissed and lost her cool. Doing that in front of Alex was a hell of a first impression she didn’t want to make.
    “Did Lisa call you, too?” the nurse asked.
    “Lisa?” Josie shook her head, confused. The sly