River Wolf Read Free Page B

inserted to open her artery. As it was, she was two hours past the end of her shift, but she didn’t care. She stayed with the old man— his name was Art —until they came to take him to his wife in recovery.
    Exhaustion dogged her steps as she trudged to the nurse’s station. Miranda glanced up from her computer. “You’re still here,” Colby murmured to the older woman. Since Miranda had been there before she arrived, she’d assumed she would already be gone.
    “I am,” Miranda said with a smile as she held out her hand. “You did an amazing job today. Mr. Dossey was very grateful for your assistance.”
    “He was a nice guy.” Colby hated compliments. “And he was scared. I don’t know why their kids aren’t here for them, but I couldn’t leave him.” Even if she’d wanted to leave, he wouldn’t have let her. Passing over her card, she watched as Miranda signed and initialed it for the last time.
    “We’re going to miss you around here, but I know wherever life takes you, you’re going to be all right.” She slid the time card onto the scanner and fired it up to take a photocopy of the card. “Where is life going to take you?”
    “I don’t know,” she answered as truthfully as possible. Frankly, Miranda’s level of personal interest defied all previous behavior. “I am leaving Alba, though, to try my luck south…maybe New York. Maybe Florida. Florida could be awesome. No more snow in winter.” If she never saw another snowstorm after the last couple of years it would be too soon.
    “I hear that.” Copy finished, Miranda handed her the time card. “You’ve got a lot of potential, Colby. I meant what I said about writing you a recommendation. You only need a few more clinical hours and a couple of classes to finish your RN.”
    Uncertain of what to say, Colby shrugged. “I’m going to start over, whatever I do.”
    “You deserve a fresh start.” Miranda rose from her chair then circled out from behind the nurse’s station. If her kindness and interest hadn’t already startled Colby, her sudden hug robbed her of speech. “I’m exceptionally proud of you, Colby Jensen. You were full of resentment when you marched through those doors thirteen months ago. The last place in the world you wanted to be was a hospital, but you never let it stop you from doing your absolute best and you’ve grown, young lady. Grown wonderfully.”
    Tears filled her eyes, and Colby returned the embrace with more hesitance than she thought possible. People didn’t hug her. Hell, her mother was the least touchy feely person she knew. Public demonstrations of emotion were strictly forbidden and more likely to earn rancor than empathy. “Thank you, Miranda. I might actually miss you.”
    The older woman laughed then gave her a squeeze before nudging her away. “I doubt that. I’m the dragon lady, and I rather like my reputation. Now, get out of here.”
    “I will. I promised five-ten I’d drop in before I left. Did he behave today?” Honestly, she’d been so busy, she’d all but forgotten about their deal.
    “Actually, I think he did. None of the nurses or orderlies complained. What did you do? Drug his food?”
    Colby laughed. “Tempting, but no. I just explained to him he needed to be nicer to people and they might be nice to him. I also pointed out, since I’m leaving, he’s out his free burgers if he doesn’t suck up to someone else.”
    “Well played. You really do have a gift with patients.” The phone rang and Miranda reached for it. “Go be a stranger, Colby.”
    Be a stranger. She liked that idea. Outside of Alba, no one would know about Colby Jensen and her bad reputation or her penchant for raising hell with the worst kind of boys. She wouldn’t be the kid cited for vandalism or the skipping school. The nursing school dropout who let her boyfriend use her for access to a prescription locker or worse…a punching bag. Her jaw ached at the memory. Course, he only used her for a