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  Take Care

  by Ash Johnson

  All rights reserved.

  Thank you for downloading this ebook. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy from their favorite authorized retailer. Thank you for your support.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Cover art by Ash Johnson ©2014

  Shutterstock image 161540360

  For Chuck and Bo

  Do not grieve over the past for it is gone;

  And do not be troubled over the future,

  For it has yet to come.

  Live in the present and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering.

  Ida Scott Taylor

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgements

  Prologue

  Ada

  “We’re going to be so happy together, Adelaide. You know that, right?” my boyfriend, Rob, says with a tight grip on my shoulders and his hazel eyes staring at me as if he can see into my soul. I know he can’t, though, because everything in my soul is telling me to run away screaming, not stand here and stare blankly at him.

  I finally get my brain to work and my mouth to move at the same time.

  “I do think that we’ll be happy together Rob, but don’t you think it’s a little too early to get married? I mean, we’ve only been together for four months and I just finished nursing school. We have a lot on our plate right now with me just starting my job at the hospital, and you working so hard at the office.”

  Rob narrows his eyes at me, seemingly trying to figure out what the hell my problem is. Any woman would be lucky to marry an attractive, young, successful investment banker like Rob, we both know this. I’m just not ready to be someone’s wife yet. My life is crazy as it is and starting a life with someone I haven’t known very long is really freaking me out.

  I need to try another angle to see if I can get Rob to back out of this insane idea.

  “We’re still young; don’t you think we should wait just a little bit until things start to settle down before we get married?” I stammer on, noticeably nervous and uncomfortable to be in this position.

  With me being just shy of twenty three, I figured I had lots of time before I got married and settled down. Rob is twenty seven and probably thinks he’s getting older and needs to be married, but something just doesn’t feel right about any of this.

  I’m wringing my hands together until they turn white and glancing back and forth between Rob and the Elvis impersonator/minister standing at the other end of the room, an altar with a worn red velvet wall behind him.

  This could be the worst idea Rob’s ever had. It doesn’t seem like that long ago that we first met. I suddenly have a flashback of that day.

  I was meeting a few of my friends at a café a few blocks away from the university for a study session and lunch in between classes. I walked in and immediately noticed my three girlfriends, all stuffed into a small booth and clad in unattractive mint green scrubs and sneakers. After my friends and I placed our orders with the waitress, I noticed someone in my peripheral vision walk up to the table, but heard nothing. I stopped my conversation across the table with my best friend, Elle, and glanced up to see a pair of deep hazel eyes staring at me.

  “Can I help you with something?” I asked and smirked after a few moments of uncomfortable staring on this man’s part. He shook his head, seeming to empty it of whatever he was thinking about, and cleared his throat.

  “I’m sorry to disturb your lunch, but I noticed you walk in and had to introduce myself.” He finally blinked for what seemed like the first time since he had reached our table, put his hand to his chest and smiled, producing the most perfect set of straight, white teeth I had ever seen. He then extended his hand to me.

  “My name is Rob Hyland, and you are?”

  I looked across the table to Elle who was eyeing Rob up and down and smiling while she twisted a lock of her long brown hair around her finger. I raised an eyebrow and looked back at our new table guest to eye him over before I told him who I was.

  His dirty blonde hair was shiny with some sort of gel and slicked back to perfection. It probably took him longer to style his hair in the morning than it did my chin length blonde bob. He had flawless, tan skin and a deep dimple in his chin, which became more pronounced with the enormous smile he was sporting. His three piece black suit looked expensive and fit his near six foot frame perfectly. I finally looked back to Elle who had shifted her brown doe eyes back to me so she could nod her approval.

  I lifted my hand toward Rob and said with a small smile “I’m Ada Michaelson.”

  “Ada? I’ve never heard the name Ada before.” Rob said, still openly staring at me like he wanted to eat me, which was making me slightly uncomfortable. I was just hoping he didn’t ask me out. I wasn’t against dating anyone but for some reason this guy just rubbed me the wrong way.

  “Um, it’s short for Adelaide.” I answered and looked down to the unopened anatomy textbook sitting on the table in front of me. I never liked that name and have gone by Ada since I was twelve.

  “Adelaide is a beautiful name,” Robs smiled. I’m sure it was his most charming smile because when I looked back to Elle, she was literally swooning; her index finger was quickly twisting around a piece of her dark brown hair and she was grinning like she’d just hit the jackpot.

  I creased my brow at her and then looked back to Rob, hoping he was almost done with his interrogation; instead he leaned down closer to my face, his hands resting on the edge of the table.

  “I love how unusual your eyes are. I’ve never seen a set of eyes so beautiful in my life. Are they contacts?” he asked, his voice dripping with a flirtatious tone.

  “No, I have heterochromia iridium.” I huffed and opened my book, trying to get him to leave.

  I really get tired of explaining my eyes. My left eye is a light blue with a slightly darker blue ring around the outer iris and my right eye is a light green with a hazel ring around the outer iris. A lot of people stare at my eyes and compliment them but it gets uncomfortable, and also annoying, having people stare at you all the time.

  Rob cleared his throat and creased his brow, as if he’s realized that I was losing interest very quickly. “Can I take you out for dinner sometime?” Oh shit, he did it. I was really hoping he would get the hint that I wasn’t interested and just leave.

  “Um” I said, trying to come up with an excuse as to why I couldn’t go to dinner with
him-ever. Just as I was about to tell him that I was too busy with school, Elle kicked me in the shin; her brown eyes widening at me. “Well, yeah, I guess that would be okay.” I grunted out, giving Rob a half hearted smile while rubbing my sore shin under the table.

  “Great! Let me get your number and I’ll let you get back to lunch with your friends.” I grabbed a pen and tore a piece of paper from a notebook in my backpack to write my number down because he said he left his phone back at his office. Before I started writing it down I thought about giving him a fake phone number, but Elle must have known what I was thinking. She cleared her throat and slightly shook her head at me in disapproval.

  Skip ahead four short months of dating and here we are, at a tiny off white chapel with graffiti on the side of it in Las Vegas, both a little drunk and only one of us very confused.

  “Adelaide” Rob says, bringing my attention back to him. He knows that I hate being called Adelaide, but he refuses to call me Ada. “We’ve been so happy for the past four months. We can be happy with each other for the rest of our lives. We can move in together and start a family if you want. You don’t have to worry about working at all and I know I’ve been busy at the office, but I’ll start cutting back on my hours to spend time with my wife.”

  He’s swaying his hips back and forth and biting his lower lip while he smiles like he’s trying to be sexy and flirtatious, but really it’s just pissing me off because he isn’t listening to me at all, as usual.

  “Rob, I’m just not so sure about this. Doesn’t this seem a bit fast to you?” I ask, creasing my brow at him. Rob loses his playful banter quickly and stands up stiffly, telling me with his body language that he’s mad.

  “No Adelaide, this doesn’t seem fast to me. I love you and want to be with you. Don’t you love me?” He’s angry and holding my hands a little too tightly, like he thinks I’m going to run out of the room. He’s smart, because at the moment I am thinking of bolting.

  “Of course I love you, Rob. It’s just-“, then Rob’s fingers are on my lips and he’s shushing me.

  “No buts, Adelaide. If we love each other, what’s the problem? Let’s get married tonight and if you wake up and still think it’s a bad idea, we’ll get it annulled, okay?” He says, already pulling me toward the altar.

  I know I’m not going to win this battle. He’ll keep pushing until he gets what he wants or he’ll make me feel guilty for wanting the opposite of what he does.

  “Okay, Rob. But if this doesn’t feel like a good idea in the morning, we get it annulled, deal?” I say, pointing a finger at his chest.

  Rob smiles his most charming smile down at me, knowing he’s won. “Of course, Adelaide, when we wake up in the morning as husband and wife, if you think it’s a bad idea we’ll get it annulled. But I’ll do everything in my power to make sure you don’t think it was a bad idea.”

  He rubs his hand across my cheek and then shifts his body toward Elvis. “Alright, we’re ready.” Rob states with a smile on his face. I’m sure my face has a look of confusion and perhaps sadness. I’m not ready.

  Chapter 1

  Ada

  It’s just after 9 p.m. on a Friday night at Desert Regional Hospital in Phoenix and I’m basically running on fumes at the moment. I have been working for almost 24 hours with one thirty minute lunch break, barely staying awake with the help of big cups of strong coffee. My shift was from 10 p.m. last night till 10 this morning, but I picked up the day shift as well because one of the morning nurses needed me to trade shifts with her today.

  As an emergency room nurse I hardly have a minute to breathe between patients rushing in, tending to injuries, checking on patients that are already in a bed, and trying to get other patients released.

  “Hey Ada, you’re looking sexy in those worn down scrubs,” another nurse, Greg, smiles as he walks toward me, which irritates me because he’s pulling me out of my task of entering information on my laptop.

  I smile back, but silently curse him because I have now forgotten what I was going to input about the medication I just gave the burn victim in room five.

  “Thanks Greg, that’s so sweet of you to say.”

  I try not to cringe as he steps even closer to me, wearing an odd smile as he slowly looks me up and down.

  Greg is one of the day nurses who seems to either have a crush on me or is just overly friendly, either option has always made him seem slightly creepy. I don’t see him very often, normally only during shift changes, but since I’m working the day shift as well today, he’s been persistent.

  His strawberry blonde hair is at that awkward shaggy length where it gets in his eyes and ears, but isn’t long enough to be sexy. He has gorgeous light blue eyes but they are dulled and overshadowed by the red freckles on his cheeks.

  Even though I’m on the shorter side at five foot three, he stands at about five feet eight inches tall and is just a bit shorter than I like for a man to be. I like the safeness I feel with a taller man.

  Although we are constantly running and getting a great workout around the hospital, Greg is a bit overweight, with a small pot belly bowing out his scrubs. As soon as he reaches me at the nurse’s station, he props his elbows on the countertop next to me and smiles wider.

  “What are you doing this weekend, Ada? You free for dinner?”

  I huff and look back down at my laptop, trying to remember what I was going to input before he interrupted me. I decide to answer him and get him to walk away as soon as possible so that I can get back to my work.

  “I’m going to be hanging out with my husband this weekend, Greg. Just like I do every weekend, you know this.” Greg just chuckles.

  He’s known I was married from the second he started working here a year ago, but he asks me out every weekend, probably as a joke. I always tell him I’ll be with my husband even though I don’t see much of Rob on the weekends because he’s always so busy with work.

  Greg smacks the counter a few times and then starts to walk away. “Just think about it, Ada. One of these times you are going to say yes,” he says with a grin. He winks at me and disappears around the corner. I have never felt overly uncomfortable around Greg, but it gets really tiresome having the same conversation every time I see him.

  I accidentally told Rob about Greg’s joking pick up attempts when I first met him, but Rob didn’t think it was so funny. He and I fought for weeks about it while Rob tried to convince me to quit my job before Greg made things even more uncomfortable for me. I told Rob that I never worked the same shift with Greg and that I wouldn’t quit my job for such a stupid reason.

  I shake my head and try to focus on my work. I’ve finished entering the information onto my laptop and am finally caught up on everything. I feel like I’ve been drowning for some reason today and it’s nice to have the upper hand for once, but it won’t last.

  I feel a vibration on my chest and look down at my small pager that is attached to my name badge. It’s telling me that I’m needed in room 42, which is odd. It isn’t one of the rooms I’m covering tonight, but I’m guessing that Carla, one of the other night nurses who picked up a few hours tonight, needs some help with a patient. I save the information I’ve typed down and make my way toward the room to help Carla out.

  When I reach the right hallway, I see Carla, a middle aged woman about my height whose brown bun is proudly showing stripes of gray, standing next to the closed door. She looks pale and scared.

  “Hi Carla, is everything okay?” I ask, extending my hand to Carla’s arm when I reach her, trying to get her to stop wringing her hands together.

  “Ada, I have to tell you something and I have a strong feeling you aren’t going to like it.” Carla mumbles, turning her head down so she doesn’t have to look me in the eye. I step in front of her and lower my body, forcing Carla to look at me.

  “Carla, what is it? What’s wrong?” I’m starting to get nervous.

  “Well Ada,” Carla is still wringing her hands together and bouncing on the ba
lls of her feet. “The patient in this room,” she hikes her thumb back toward the door of room 42 “was mugged while walking out of a movie theatre tonight. He was shot in his right bicep and although he lost a bit of blood, he’s been stabilized and is recovering well.”

  I look at Carla, waiting for the catch. She doesn’t need my help with this patient? Why did she call me over here then?

  “Carla,” I hiss, getting a bit agitated due to a lack of sleep, “why did you call me over here? Do you need a hand with this patient or not?”

  “Ada, Rob is in this room.” Carla says sympathetically. I feel the blood drain from my face.

  “Oh my God!” I put my hand to my mouth and try to shove past her so that I can see my husband and make sure he’s really okay. Before I can get past her and into the room, Carla grabs my forearm and pulls me back.

  “Ada, he’s not in there alone,” she mutters.

  Okay, well maybe the person who brought him to the hospital came with him to make sure he was alright. I nod and quickly make my way into the room with Carla on my heels.

  When I walk into the room, I see my husband lying in the hospital bed, an IV attached to his left arm. He’s smiling and holding hands with an attractive woman with long dark brown, almost black, hair and she is in a very short pink dress and black high heels sitting in a chair next to him.

  I make my way to the end of his bed when he finally looks away from the woman to me. His face tells me that he didn’t think I’d be working now since my night shift isn’t supposed to start for another half an hour. His smile fades, his face goes pale and he starts to stutter.

  “Adelaide, I… I can explain.”

  “What’s to explain, Rob? Who is this?” I ask, pointing at the woman who is smiling at me, but still holding Rob’s hand.

  She stands up and makes her way toward me. She is very good looking with big brown eyes, huge and obviously fake breasts barely contained in her dress, and perfectly tanned skin. She’s a lot taller than I am because of her five inch heels but I’m guessing that even with her heels off, she still stands a few inches taller than my small five foot three inch frame.