Page 14 of Heartsick & Lipsticks
I knocked lightly on the door and then pushed it open. When I did, I walked inside, and the first person I saw was Gary, seated in a chair in the corner of the room. At six foot six and nearly three hundred pounds, it was hard to miss him. Patients had nicknamed him the gentle giant, and he lived up to the moniker. When he saw me, he grinned and closed the book he was reading.
I looked to my left and saw a woman who looked much younger than sixty lying in bed with her eyes closed. Her blonde hair was gathered to one side and draped over her shoulder. I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting to see, but I never would have guessed this woman had been incarcerated for over forty years and had just been released that morning. Her fair skin, cherry-red lips, and dark lashes reminded me of a Disney princess, not a villain. She looked like Sleeping Beauty.
Gary stood and walked over to me. He whispered as we went through the shift change. “She’s been sleeping most of the day. She was awake about an hour ago; she ate half a chicken breast and about two tablespoons of rice. She hasn’t had a bowel movement, and she declined her last dose of oxy. I charted it all.”
“Okay, great.”
Gary smiled as he left but turned back when he got to the door and quietly said, “Sorry about you getting called out on vacation.”
I smiled and whispered, “It’s fine.”
When the door closed, I turned back to the bed and saw that Naomi’s eyelids were fluttering open. I stepped over to the bed and introduced myself: “Hi, I’m Skye.”
The corners of her lips curled. “Hi, Skye.”
I set my bag on the table and pulled out my blood pressure cuff. “Is it okay if I take your blood pressure?”
She nodded, and I went through the rest of my examination, checking her pulse, respiration, and temperature. Examining her skin for any pressure sores or bruises. I asked about side effects from medication and how much she’d been eating and sleeping.
After charting everything, I asked, “Is there anything I can do to make you more comfortable?”
“Did Gary say that you were supposed to be on vacation?”
I was shocked that she’d heard that. He’d barely been speaking above a whisper. “Oh, yeah, he did.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine, really.”
“Were you going someplace fun?”
“No, just staying at home.”
Her eyes closed, and she licked her lips.
“Are you thirsty?”
She nodded. I checked the cup next to her and saw that it was empty.
“Do you want some water? Or tea, maybe.”
“Water
“I’ll be right back.”
I picked up her cup and went to the kitchen to fill the glass with ice and water. I still wasn’t sure exactly why Naomi was here. I hadn’t met any family, only staff at this point.
It wasn’t uncommon for me not to meet my patient’s family. Sometimes they lived far away or didn’t have any family they were close to. But this felt different. There was someone who cared enough about her to pay for round-the-clock care for her, and then they weren’t around.
I heard the door to the garage open, and I turned around expecting to see Jada or Kurt, but it wasn’t either of them. It was a man I didn’t recognize. He had sandy blond hair that was just untamed enough to look sexy but not enough to be unkept. His eyes were bluer than the water this house overlooked, and the stubble on his square jaw gave him a bad boy edge. His white button-down dress shirt was rolled up on the sleeves, revealing strong tattooed forearms.
Was everyone who worked here ridiculously hot? Was that a prerequisite?
If it was, I wasn’t going to make the cut.
As I stared at him, my cheeks felt warm, my mouth watered, and my stomach felt funny. My first thought was that I might have gotten the flu or that the tuna fish sandwich I’d eaten for lunch was bad.
“Hi.” The man’s deep voice ricocheted through me like a silver ball in a pinball machine, lighting up tingles as it went.
