No, she didn’t believe a word he said.
“He said he couldn’t find you. He called here to see if I’d give him your number.”
“You better not have,” she said to her mother.
“Of course not. He hurt you. The least he could have done was stand by you and instead he went back to his wife.”
“No,” she said. “Even if he left his wife for me, it wouldn’t have made me stay. He was married. He lived with her. He cheated. You know how I feel about players, Mom.”
“You need to understand the other side of it,” her mother said. “There are reasons people stray. They are legitimate reasons.”
“No, there aren’t. And if you called to lecture me on this again then this conversation is over with. There is no excuse to cheat on anyone. Period. End of story.”
She’d done what Wyatt said he’d done to his brother Drake on Sunday. She’d hung up on her mother.
And what that call had done was set her off and push her back a few steps.
It wasn’t Wyatt’s fault that he dated a lot.
Well, it was. But it wasn’t his fault that she didn’t want to be involved with someone like that.
Was he like Spencer though? No, he wasn’t.
There was nothing about Wyatt that was like Spencer in the least other than they were both doctors and cocky and good looking.
When her coworkers back home found out she’d been seeing Spencer they called her a homewrecker.
No one wanted to hear her side of it. It didn’t matter that she argued she had no idea he was married. Many said the signs were all there.
They were right. The signs were, but she was too busy looking away because she didn’t want to be lumped into the category of other nurses who were after doctors. She’d been totally fine keeping their relationship private back then, almost allowing him to get away with it.
So that was why, here she was four days later and she hadn’t really talked much to Wyatt other than a few texts.
Truthfully they didn’t talk much during the week anyway. They didn’t see each other either unless they were in the OR together.
And they hadn’t been until today.
It wasn’t just Wyatt but his cousin Sam too.
This should be interesting.
Once the patient was set up and ready to go under, Wyatt and Sam started talking like they normally did. “I hear Ryder got you on Sunday.”
Wyatt looked at his cousin, narrowed his eyes, then shifted up to her. She looked away, knowing her face was red. Could this really be happening where other people could see them?
“Yeah. Your brother is an ass sometimes.”
“He is. He didn’t say much other than his date got up to use the bathroom and he followed,” Sam said.
That was something at least, Adriana thought. Maybe Sam didn’t know who the woman was. Except he turned his head and looked at her and winked.
Yep, his family knew.
“You going to my parents’ this Saturday for the party?” Sam asked.
“Of course,” Wyatt said. “My mom called me the other day to remind me. Everyone going to be there?” he asked.
“Everyone in Durham. Aunt Jolene and Uncle Gavin decided to come up but none of the Five are,” Sam said.
“They don’t normally come up for these things anyway. They’ve got their hands full,” Wyatt said.
“Yeah. We just saw them all for the wedding anyway,” Sam said.
She listened to the two of them go back and forth talking about their family for a few minutes and then Sam got to work and the conversation mellowed out.
When the surgery was done and everyone was gone, she closed the OR and finished up with her notes.
She was leaving the room when Wyatt caught her eye and nodded her out. She didn’t want to go, but if she didn’t would he call her name? She wasn’t sure she wanted to take the chance and then wondered why she cared.
Because she’d already had one person approach her about her spending time with Wyatt. Thankfully no one saw them out this weekend so there wasn’t much going on. Well, no one but Ryder, who obviously told his brother Sam.
“Sorry about that, “Wyatt said when they were in the staircase. He was just walking and she was following. She couldn’t go far as she was waiting to get into another OR.
“Not your fault. I didn’t think Sam knew it was me, but he did, didn’t he?”
“He knows. He was just poking a hot iron at me bringing it up in there. When we were walking out he’d said it’s payback.”
“For what?” she asked. “All the times you played jokes on him?”
“Yeah,” he said. “You got caught in the crossfire twice. It’s like everyone is conspiring against me.”
“For what?” she asked.
* * *
“Really?” he asked her. “You can’t be that oblivious.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, putting her chin up.
“Yes, you do.” But he wasn’t going to argue with her now. They’d passed people in the stairs, but anyone who saw them would think they were just walking up one behind the other.
“Was there something else you needed to say?” she asked. “I need to get back.”
“I’ll text you later.”
“Fine,” she said and turned to go back. That didn’t go the way he wanted it to.
He made his way to his office and then left to go see Sam and give him hell in private. “You’re an ass,” he said when he walked in Sam’s door.
Sam started to laugh. “What? I was trying to help you.”
“A lot of help that was. We are just friends in her eyes.”
“And I’m trying to get her used to you and our family by talking about it in front of her.”
Was his cousin actually trying to help him rather than cock block him? “Ryder put me back a few steps.”
“I figured as much. How bad was the woman he was with? What’s her name? Sandy?”
“Candi. How long has he been seeing her?” he asked.
“Not sure. A few dates. I
