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My Snippet comes from my latest release, The Doctor's Deception:

Faith Daniels stared at Cheryl’s closed fist and the short
plastic straws it contained. Trepidation rippled up her spine. She hated this. Her gaze flew to Jolene, who chewed her lower lip nervously.  The two of them were the last two nurses in the lounge left to choose.

 “Go ahead, Jo. Pick one.”

Jolene’s hand trembled as she reached out to grab a straw
before she snatched her hand back.

 “I can’t, Faith. You go.”


“Well, somebody better draw. Nurses’ report ended five
minutes ago, and I know the night shift is probably more than ready to go home,” Cheryl, the day charge nurse, urged.

“Oh, what the hell. I’ll go.” Faith inhaled a deep breath and
grasped the smooth plastic.

Not again. Please, God. Not again.

 She pulled and out slipped the one inch stump she’d been
dreading. Cheryl opened her palm to reveal the two remaining straws that were about an inch and a half longer than the one Faith held. Her heart skipped a beat. Her silent prayer had fallen on deaf ears—again.

A collective sigh of relief escaped the other nurses. They
collected their stethoscopes and started to make their escape.

“Thank God!” Jolene said dramatically, wiping her hands on
her hot pink scrub pants. “I couldn’t bear the thought of putting up with him today.” She gave Faith an apologetic smile. “Sorry, Faith, but better you than me.” Jolene picked her stethoscope up off the table and left for shift report like her hind end was on fire.

“Damn. How do I always get the short straw, Cheryl?” Faith’s
gaze pinned the only nurse still left in the room. “What have I done to deserve this?”

“It’s called Karma, Faith. You just don’t have any.” Cheryl
chuckled. “Cheer up. At least he’ll be in surgery for a while and won’t be able to start in right away.” She patted Faith on the back and followed the others.

Faith turned to her open locker and grasped her stethoscope.
She wrapped it around her neck, then slammed the door shut with enough force that it bounced back open. She was going to have to deal with him for the fourth shift in a row. The thought depressed her.

Him.

Dr. Stone Lassiter.

God’s gift to cardiovascular surgery…At least in his own,
over-inflated opinion. A derisive snort escaped her and she closed her locker. Since he’d come to Deerborne County General last year, she’d made it a habit to avoid him as much as possible. But, when forced to deal with his anger when he was on a roll, she fired right back with an overexaggerated
sweetness guaranteed to get on his nerves. Her behavior
was childish, she knew, but she couldn’t seem to help herself.

His superior, know-it-all attitude made him an easy target. She didn’t like the way he treated the nursing staff. He was often rude and impatient when he gave orders.

Was it really necessary to snap and yell at people when things
didn’t go as planned? This was a hospital with living, breathing
patients. Nothing ever went as planned. What did he expect, robots?

That’s what was so wonderful about her job. There was a new
challenge every day.  Besides, wasn’t there an old saying about honey versus lemons? Obviously, Doctor Granite-head hadn’t heard of it.

What he needed was a healthy dose of his own medicine now
 and then, and Faith was very good at medication administration.

Staring at the bulletin board full of educational opportunities
and kudos for excellent teamwork amongst staff, she sighed. Of
course, it didn’t help that he was six-feet of well muscled M-A-N.
Half the female staff became tongue-tied in his presence. Worse, when they had him on the phone and heard that sexy baritone over the line, they’d forget why they’d paged him in the first place. Which only provoked more of his condescending attitude.

 Faith couldn’t blame those nurses, though. When she’d first
seen his honey-blond hair and deep chocolate brown eyes, she’d
wanted to drool over the new doctor too. His perfect physique
would’ve given a Greek goddess reason to salivate. Then Stone
Lassiter had opened his mouth and ruined the moment. Too bad his ego filled up any room he walked into.

 Faith left the lounge and inhaled the familiar scent of the
hospital. The unique smell tickled her nose as she entered the nurses’ station— a combination of antiseptic and commercial cleaning materials. Her stiff shoulders relaxed a fraction, and she scanned the  room. The low hum of conversation buzzed around her, along with the different chimes of call lights bleeping patients’ needs and the heart monitor signaling minor changes in the beat of their hearts.

 Nurses were paired together as they quietly discussed night
shift’s accounting of each patient’s condition. She spied Chad
Thorson sitting by himself next to the central cardiac monitor.

 Thinking he had her patient assignment, she plopped down in the vacant chair next to him. “Hi, Chad. You must have the patient in SI-7 going for open heart surgery today.”

“And you must be the lucky nurse to have drawn the short
straw,” Chad said. “Again,” he added, a mischievous glint in his brown eyes.

“Yeah, yeah.” Faith grimaced. “Have all the fun at my
expense you want, Thorson. Rub it in. Go ahead. But remember who wants my tickets to a certain concert next week. I may decide to forgo studying and tell the new pharmacist I’m available for a date after all.” Faith slipped two tickets to the Van Halen concert out of her pocket and waved them in front of Chad. “Who knows when Eddie and David will be able to come to terms and tour again after this? Rumor has it this is their last concert, but don’t fret—I’ll pick you up a T-shirt.”

 Chad’s shoulders straightened and he sobered instantly. The
dimples disappeared from his cheeks and he raked a hand through his black hair, sending the thick waves into disarray. “Oh, come on, Faith. I was only razzin’ ya. This is the concert event of the season.”

 She smiled and handed the tickets over. “I know, but it was
fun to see you humbled, if only for a moment.”
Chad grabbed the tickets and kissed them fervently. “Yes!
You’re the greatest.” His glance slid over to Jolene. “She’s going to love this. Hey, when we’re done with report, walk with me back to the lounge and I’ll pay you for them.”

Nodding, Faith pulled the pen from behind her ear and took
the patient clip board from him. “Okay. What can you tell me about this lady?”

“Mrs. Humphrey is a seventy-two year old woman who came in during the night complaining of chest pain. She received the usual meds in the ER—aspirin, a couple doses of morphine, and she was started on a nitro drip that we are to titrate to relieve her pain.  Currently, I have her on fifty-five micrograms per minute, and have  steadily advanced it. She’s still having intermittent tightening in her chest.”

 “Is her blood pressure tolerating that high a dose?” Faith
asked, concerned, knowing how quickly nitroglycerin could drop a patient’s blood pressure.


“Yes. In fact, we started her on a beta-blocker and gave her
three separate five milligram doses of IV lopressor because of her hypertension. That seemed to help. Not only did it bring her heart rate down from the 120s, but her blood pressure had been 184/97. After the lopressor and the nitro, she’s now hanging out in the 140/80 range.”

 “Okay, so if she’s just having chest pain, why is Dr. Lassiter
on board? Couldn’t they just take her to the cath lab and do
angioplasty to open her arteries up?”

 Chad laughed. “You wish. Then you wouldn’t have to deal
with you-know-who.”

 Faith glowered at him.

 Chad held his hands up in mock surrender. “All right, I was
only teasing you. They did whisk her off to cath lab from the ER to try and open the blockages in her heart, but the occlusions are in difficult places to reach and they were unsuccessful. So, Dr. Lassiter was consulted to do her bypass. Since she’s still having intermittent pain, he bumped his other case and is going to operate on her first.

 She’s already had the two hibiclens scrubs to her chest and legs, the pre-op checklist is completed, and her consents are signed.”

 “Good. What about labs? I’m assuming her cardiac enzymes
came back positive.”

 “You’d be right, of course.” Chad grinned. “Just like I’m
going to bet you’ll draw the short straw again tomorrow.”

 “I’d take that bet,” Cheryl said.

 “Me, too,” Jolene chimed in.

 “Face it, Faith.” Chad leaned in. “The odds are in my favor.”

 A round of laughter erupted from all the staff present.
Her suspicion returned, burning in the pit of her stomach. Had
they been rigging the straws? It seemed unlikely she’d get the same one four shifts in a row. She caught the shared secretive glances and smirks on their faces. From now on, she’d pay closer attention.

 “Oh, you guys are a riot. It isn’t my fault I pulled that damn
 straw four shifts in a row. Maybe we should change it to rock, paper, scissors—even the playing field a bit. You guys probably color code the straws or something.” Faith held her head between her hands and feigned a severe headache. “Maybe I’ll call in sick tomorrow.”

 

That's the end of my snippet. Here's my Question:  Do you think the nurses have rigged the drawing of the straws so that Faith gets the short straw every time?

You can purchase The Doctor's Deception here:
http://www.evernightpublishing.com/the-doctors-deception-by-kathleen-grieve/

Don't forget to stop by the other Evernight Author's Participating in Valentine's Snippets! You can find the list here: http://evernightpublishing.blogspot.ca/2013/02/valentines-snippets-blog-hop.html?zx=697dc2f9f21ac608

Hope you have a fabulous Valentine's Day!!
Kathleen