Blurred Lines by KD Williamson (12 page)

As they left the room, she heard Nora scoff. “I do believe it’s ‘Lay on MacDuff.’”

“I knew that. Just trying to make sure you’re paying attention.”

* * *

Kelli tossed the medicine ball back to Dan. Her muscles burned, but it was a good feeling. She glanced in Nora’s direction. She sat discreetly in the far corner, looking as prim and proper as ever. Kelli was grateful for her presence, but she wanted more. “Talk to me, doc.”

Nora’s gaze strayed toward Kelli then back to Dan.

Kelli smirked. She felt special. When they were alone, Nora was pretty much an open book, and Kelli ended up spilling her guts as well.

She had to find an easy, everyday topic since they had company. “Any pets?”

“Yes, Phineas.”

“Dog?” Kelli asked.

“No.”

“Cat?”

“Kunekune.” Nora finally answered.

Kelli blinked and almost missed the dense leather ball coming at her face. She caught it just in time. “Say what now?”

“A…domesticated pig…with fur.”

Kelli dropped the medicine ball to her lap. The laughter that stirred in her chest tapered off when she realized Nora wasn’t teasing. “You’re serious?”

“I am.”

Curious, Kelli asked, “You keep him in the house?”

Nora stared at her for several seconds.

Kelli held her gaze. “What?”

“I expected laughter. I can imagine it sounded odd.”

Kelli shrugged. “I find it more interesting than funny.”

Nora stood and moved toward her. “He’s approximately 217 pounds.”

“Oh, he’s a big fu—”

“Ms. McCabe.” Nora made a scolding
tsk
sound.

“Big one. I meant to say big one.”

“He has a habitat in the backyard, but he has his own entrance into the house. He visits often.” Nora paused. “Do you have pets?”

“Had a cat named Evil. Wouldn’t let me touch him, pick him up, or anything. Damn thing disappeared months ago. He was always trying to escape.”

“I’m sorry.”

Kelli snorted. “I’m not. I was sure it was going to kill me in my sleep one night.”

Nora’s lips lifted at the corners.

That feeling in Kelli’s stomach came back full force.

“May I ask you something?”

“Sure.” Kelli shrugged.

“How long have you been with the police department?”

“Twelve years…detective for almost eight. Let me guess? You want to know why I chose to be a cop?” Kelli didn’t wait for an answer. “I wanted to be a superhero when I was a kid. This seemed like the next best thing.”

Nora gave her a pointed look. “Are you—”

“Serious? Nope. Not at all.” Kelli grinned.

Dan cleared his throat.

Kelli jumped in surprise. She forgot that they weren’t alone.

Dan stepped into view. “Let’s do the bar and finish with some stretches.”

Kelli nodded. She glanced at Nora, only to find her back in her seat.

* * *

Kelli ignored the sweat dribbling into her eyes. She growled in pain as she took step after step. Needing a distraction, Kelli glanced in Nora’s direction. “It’s great…that you’re here, but I’m not keeping you from anything am I?”

“I have surgery scheduled in forty-five minutes.”

“You need to go now?”

“Normally, I like to prepare up to an hour ahead…” Nora’s voice trailed off.

Their gazes met and held. Kelli saw it. Nora didn’t stay because Kelli asked her to. She stayed because she wanted to. “Thank you.”

Nora simply nodded.

Kelli shifted gears to Travis. “The specialist is here…for Travis. I mean, I knew he was coming today.” Since Nora was his doctor, it made sense for her to consult with the neurologist. Kelli continued, “You had to meet with him. That’s why you were late.”

Nora looked surprised.

“Travis told me about it, and he signed a release, too, for me and the rest of the family.”

“Yes, I’m aware of that. The neurosurgeon decided on a highly experimental procedure. It’s scheduled for tomorrow morning. He didn’t see a reason to wait since Mr. Travis is stable.”

Kelli licked her lips and could not fight the sudden weakness in her legs. She held onto the bar until the moment passed. None of this was fair. It wasn’t fucking fair.

“I can make sure I’m there to…observe.” Nora’s tone was gentle, hesitant.

Kelli sucked in a breath. Her sense of relief was overpowering. Maybe she couldn’t be there for Travis, but Nora could. That Nora would offer to do this for her…it meant a lot, and Kelli had no idea what she did to deserve it. This was too much. Kelli fought back the tears and glanced at Nora. Her expression was the softest Kelli had ever seen it. “You’d…do that for me?”

Nora stood again.

“Why?” Kelli asked. Yes, they’d connected, but Nora was still pretty much a stranger. Before the thought finished forming, Kelli knew it was complete bullshit. Kelli would never tell a stranger the things she’d told Nora, and she sure as hell wouldn’t have let her see the things she had.

“I’m…I don’t know.” Nora looked just as confused.

“Okay…okay.” Kelli nodded and leaned heavily against the equipment.

Their gazes met.

The door burst open, letting in laughter and a small group of people. Dan was already there, dealing with them. Distracted, Kelli looked toward the entrance. Then, her gaze found Nora’s again.

“Thank you,” Kelli whispered.

Nora moved closer. When she was within arm’s length, Kelli barely resisted the urge to reach out to her. She had never been a touchy-feely person, but for some reason, with Nora she wanted to be.

“Kelli, I—”

“You only use my first name when you think I’m stressed.” Kelli interrupted.

“It seems to calm the situation.”

Kelli smiled. “It does.”

“Sorry. Residents. They thought it would be fun to check out areas they’d never been in,” Dan said.

Kelli ignored him. Nora was way more interesting. Nora looked down at her watch. For Kelli, it was just another clue, another piece of the puzzle. “You’re a stickler for time.”

Nora glanced upward. “I am, yes. I think routine makes things much more productive.”

“I’m part of your routine?” Kelli already knew the answer. She just wanted to hear her say it.

For the umpteenth time, Nora blushed. “Yes, I suppose.”

Well, hell. The tightening in her stomach turned into a hard tug. “That’s why I’ve been seeing you at the same time the past few days.”

“If that seems strange—”

“No, it doesn’t, not at all. I like it.”

Nora quirked a brow as she looked at Kelli expectantly.

Kelli smirked. “What? Does that make 
me
 strange?”

“Possibly.” Nora’s lips twitched.

Kelli shrugged. “Been called a lot of things. We can just add that to the pile.” Kelli glanced at the wall clock. “You’d better get to your surgery. I’ll see you at one o’clock.”

Nora backed away. She held Kelli’s eyes for a few seconds before finally turning to leave. Kelli stared at the door. Dan cleared his throat. He just had to ruin the fucking moment.

“Yesss?”

Dan laughed. “I was just thinking. We should bottle whatever it is you have and make sure Dr. Whitmore gets a daily dose of it. From the buzz I get from around here, the residents would be more than grateful.”

Kelli snorted, but it was true. Nora was different around her. Hell, they were different around each other. This friendship or whatever they were working toward was about ten shades of weird, but for whatever reason it worked.

* * *

When Nora entered the operating room, several members of her team looked her way. She was not late, but this group was used to her being present several minutes before any procedure. She nodded. It was her way of telling them to proceed.

The jazz music piping through the sound system transitioned from dulcet tones to a heady crescendo of trumpet and saxophone. It reminded her of Kelli. She had the capacity for stillness. However, more often than not, she hummed with unreleased energy that affected the others around her, and Nora was drawn in as well. This wasn’t the time for this. Focus. She needed to focus.

“Ten blade.”

Nora pressed into the exposed skin of the abdomen. Blood welled around the incision and spilled over to flood the peritoneum.

“Suction.”

Once the field was clear, she peered up at the resident assisting her—Dr. Lang—and asked, “What do you see?”

“Spleen is enlarged to twice its normal size denoting possible infection. Liver is bleeding profusely.”

Nora waited.

“Is that…should we take a look at the small intestines as well? There seems to be inflammation.”

“Very good. We may even find necrotic tissue.”

She looked at Nora in surprise.

“Is there a problem Dr. Lang?” Nora asked.

“No, I just didn’t expect…” She faded out.

Nora sighed. She hadn’t expected the compliment. Honestly, Nora hadn’t either. After each interaction with Kelli, she felt softened somehow. Was that wrong? It didn’t feel wrong. A splinter of fear made its way into her chest anyway, but it was immediately followed by a flood of excitement. Kelli brought change, indeed, but there was so much more. “Proceed.”

After the surgery, Nora removed her gloves, surgical cap, and let her hair down before washing and drying her hands. Laughter wafted around her. She turned as others entered the prep room.

Patricia, one of the surgical nurses on her team, smiled, and Nora was instantly uncomfortable. She stepped away from the group. It was an odd dichotomy. Her level of comfort with Kelli was rising, but with others, it stayed generally the same.

* * *

The nurse yanked the blood pressure cuff from Kelli’s right arm.

“Really? I’m sure you don’t have to be so rough.”

The nurse rolled her eyes.

“I saw that,” Kelli said.

“I’m sure you did.” The nurse held up a piece of equipment. “This…is a pulse oximeter. It should look familiar to you, just like the blood pressure cuff, so you know it won’t hurt. Should I call your mother just to be sure?” The woman smiled as she clipped the monitor on Kelli’s finger.

Shit, the nurse was getting better with her snark. Kelli was going to have to step it up. “No, but you sitting in my lap might help.” Sexual innuendo was always great to throw people, especially strangers, off their game.

The nurse reddened. The pulse…whatever the fuck it was beeped, and she left so fast that Kelli thought she saw wisps of smoke behind her. Kelli grinned. What she said was twenty different types of wrong, but she couldn’t argue with the end result.

As the nurse left, Tony stumbled in.

“Oh shit, she was hot. Maybe I need to get shot.” Tony laughed at his own joke.

It really wasn’t funny. Kelli studied him. His face was pale, sweaty. She got a sinking feeling in her stomach.

Their mother walked in. “Did you see Ton—” Carina huffed and glared. “There you are. Why did you take off running?”

Tony sniffed and shrugged. “What’s the big fucking deal?”

“Whoa, hold on. You have to be so disrespectful?” Kelli asked. “What’s wrong with you?”

Instead of answering, Tony started laughing again.

Kelli looked at her mother, who rolled her eyes.

“She’s right. Watch your mouth. Look at you. It looks like you’ve lost ten pounds since I last saw you, and I can tell you’re not sleeping. You have luggage. You work too hard. Tell Kelli about your new job.” Carina smiled at Kelli. “He’s working nights.”

“Yeah,” Tony mumbled. He focused on picking the sore on his forearm.

“Antony.” Carina said his name loud enough for the people down the hall to hear.

His head whipped toward her. “Yeah, nights. Construction.” Tony glanced at Kelli and smiled before he found something else more interesting to focus on.

“No, that was your last job, remember? You’re doing security,” their mother said.

The sinking feeling went to being swallowed whole. The hairs on the back of Kelli’s neck stood up. Tony’s eyes were red, and his pupils were dilated. What in the purple fuck? Kelli knew. She knew something wasn’t right with him, but she didn’t want it to be this. All the signs were there. Tony was using again. And it was bad enough that he didn’t give a damn that he was lit up like a Christmas tree in front of his mother.

Anger came for Kelli first, and sadness was right behind it. Hopelessness was late to the game, but it was a strong chaser.

“Oh shit! Check this out.” He pulled on the string that controlled the blinds. The slats opened and closed. “It’s like cartoons. If I do it real fast…the people. Spongebob. And the cars. They move so fast.”

He wasn’t making any sense at all.

“I gotta go see. Kelli…you do the blinds. Watch me. It’s like cartoons.” This time when he laughed, it was high pitched and scary. The laughter got louder as he ran out the room.

Kelli looked at her mother and waited.

Carina shook her head and sighed. “That boy. I told him not to drink all that coffee.”

And there it was. Denial. Anything Kelli had to say right now was going to be called bullshit.

She glanced at Kelli. “I brought you a bear claw. There’s a decent-looking bakery a few streets over.” Carina sat the white paper bag on the nightstand. Kelli stared at it. She didn’t see it before. Her focus was on Tony.

“Mom?” Kelli’s voice cracked. She couldn’t help it.

“I’m sorry. I better go find him. I’m his ride, and I’ll be late if I wait for him to come to me.” She brushed Kelli’s hair back off her forehead and gave her a quick kiss.

Kelli closed her eyes and let it happen. When she opened them again, Carina was looking at her strangely.

“I’ll, uh, give you a call later.”

Kelli nodded and watched her go.

It only took a few seconds for all the emotions she was holding back to explode outward. With a violent swing of her arm, Kelli swiped everything off the night stand including the white paper bag.

Kelli welcomed the jolt of pain in her chest. She couldn’t hurt any worse right now. What the hell was she going to tell Sean? Her insides clenched suddenly. After everything that just happened, Kelli’s mind was a little clunky, but she was quick enough to figure out that if she knew something smelled shitty, Sean could smell it too. Why hadn’t he said anything?