Feel the Rush: A Hard Feelings Novel (InterMix) by Kelsie Leverich

it was 104.” She sighed and Meagan could see the apparent fear in her eyes.
    She gave the woman a reassuring smile. “The doctor will be in here shortly to talk to you about his meds for his ear infections, but it won’t be long, and then we can get you two outta here. He will be back up, bouncing off the wall and driving you crazy, in no time flat.”
    “Ha, ain’t that the truth.” She smirked.
    Meagan smiled and gently ran her hand over the top of his blond ringlets. “Enjoy his cuddle moments. Even though it stinks when they are sick, they always cuddle better when they don’t feel well.”
    She gave a knowing nod. “How old are your spawn?”
    “Oh, I don’t have any children yet.” Meagan wrote his temperature on the patient chart. For some reason she was afraid to meet the woman’s eyes. Which was stupid, she knew that. But her question just added to the nagging in her ear.
    “Well, for the record, he likes to color on my walls and poop in the bathtub while I happen to be in there with him, he tries to eat dirt, and at the ripe age of three, has managed to destroy every piece of furniture in my house, so even though I hate it when my baby doesn’t feel well—I definitely cherish these snuggle-bug moments. Drool and all.” She snickered, looking down at her chest, which had a nice wet spot right under little Braden’s mouth.
    Meagan laughed quietly, attempting to keep from waking him. Lord knew his mom needed a few more minutes of quiet after the wave of panic she went through when her son had a dangerously high fever. And sleeping it off was the best thing for him too.
    Meagan’s eyes shifted from the little boy to his mom, and she was just staring at Meagan with a smile on her face.
    “Oh, just you wait till you have kids. You’ll see. They only look sweet when they sleep,” she teased, kissing his head again.
    Meagan made sure they didn’t need anything else before she headed to check on her next patient.
    “Back again?” the soldier asked when he looked up from his phone to acknowledge Meagan as she walked in his room.
    “Yes, I know. I’m a pain in the butt, but I just wanted to check in on you again real quick. How’s the hand?”
    “It’s starting to throb again, but I’ve had worse.”
    Meagan shook her head. Men and their pride. Scratch that—
soldiers
and their pride. He probably wouldn’t tell her if it felt like it was about to fall off. “All right, tough guy. I’ll be back to check on you
again
and I promise the doctor will be in here as soon as possible to go over your X-rays.”
    He just nodded and looked back at his phone. If he wasn’t in pain, she might have told him to shove that phone in his ass. She just might check in on him a few more times, just to push his buttons.
    The rest of Meagan’s shift went by even more quickly. She made sure to keep tabs on Reed’s soldier during his surgery, and she kept her word and called him as soon as he got out. The surgery went well, thank god, and now Sergeant Brewer was recovering in the medical surgical unit.
    Meagan leaned over the nurses’ station and whispered to Zoe, who was on the phone. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
    She nodded and smiled her reply and Meagan made her way to the elevators to head on up to the med surg unit. She wanted to check on Sergeant Brewer one last time before she left. She had popped in a few times after he was out of surgery, and he was sleeping like a baby, well, more like a heavily drugged oversize baby. He was a good-looking guy, shaved head, long lashes that brushed the tops of his cheeks as his slept, and from what little she could tell from the hospital gown he was wearing, he wasn’t lacking points in the build department either. But something about this guy triggered the motherly, sisterly, whateverly instinct that was coiled up inside her to come out, more so than usual. Meagan was always the friend who took care of everyone when they were sick, or, hell, just drunk or