Page 41 of The Holiday Puppy
She’d begun to feel burnout after years at her last hospital, but going to a new location was invigorating. Her current eight-week commitment in the neonatal intensive care unit at a children’s hospital in St. Paul felt like a new chapter in her life.
Knowing she would eventually be moving on to wherever she was needed next had erased her burn-out.
Even though she was scheduled to work tomorrow. On Christmas Eve.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Lucy stared at thecomputer screen in the nurse’s station with a cup of strong coffee at her side as she typed up progress notes for the Nelson baby in room 534.
She had always thrived in the high-stress, high-stakes environment of a NICU. But now she was in the fourteenth hour of her twelve-hour Christmas Eve shift, and she was exhausted.
One nurse due to arrive at eleven o’clock had called in sick. Another had fallen on the ice and fractured her arm while leaving for work.
She and the rest of the team were working nonstop with the fourteen babies already here—and two more infants had just been admitted. One at 36 weeks with unstable vital signs, and one born with respiratory distress syndrome.
It was going to be a long night.
“How are you doing?” Brandy, the charge nurse for the eleven pm to eleven am shift, gave her a sympathetic smile. “It must be hard coming into an unfamiliar place and dealing with all of this.”
“This has been my life since I was twenty. It’s nothing new. But I have to admit that I’m getting a little tired.”
“I’ve got good news. I finally heard back from one of our off-duty nurses, and she’ll be here in twenty minutes. And we’re pulling a nurse from the pediatric ICU who should be up here in five.”
Lucy felt the tension in her shoulders ease. With Adam’s favorite sparkling raspberry gelatin salad and Bree’s favorite Swedish creamy rice dessert left to make and get into the refrigerator yet tonight, her day wasn’t over.
And she still needed to wrap the last remaining gifts. “I’ll stay as long as you need me, of course.”
“Fiona will be here any minute, so you can leave. But thanks for offering. We all really appreciate you. Merry Christmas!”
Relieved, Lucy went to retrieve her things from a locker in the break room and donned her snow boots and coat.
She glanced up when a tall man walked past the door. It had been weeks now, and she still found herself taking a second glance when she saw someone like Nick from afar.Utter madness,she chided herself.
But when she stepped out in the hallway to head for the elevator, she couldn’t help but take a second look.
The man drew to a stop and looked over his shoulder. His jaw dropped.“Lucy?”