Made For Another (Caroline Dawson Series - Book 1)

PUBLISHED BY:

Career Life Press

Copyright © 2012

AleshaCary
.com

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced in any format, by any means, electronic or otherwise, without prior consent from the copyright owner and publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction.
All characters, names, places and events are the product of the author's imagination or used fictitiously.

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

Sarah Kingman loved her job as a Candy Striper at Little River Hospital, even though most of her fellow student volunteers found the work tedious. As a nursing student, the position not only gave her lots of experience while it satisfied the community service requirements for school, but it also gave her the opportunity to actually work in a hospital.

Arriving early for her shift
, she took off her coat and hung it in her locker. Sarah smiled, remembering the first time she'd seen the Candy Stripers in a hospital. She must have been all of seven years old, and she had excitedly asked her mom who they were and why they were there. That was probably what had started her on the road to fulfilling her dream to become a nurse.

W
hen her mom was unexpectedly diagnosed with cancer, Sarah had dropped out of college and put her education on hold. For Sarah it was more important to be there, supporting Mom through the chemotherapy and radiation treatments after her surgery.

The six months stretched into two years with all the unforeseen complications. But, Sarah stuck with it, and after a final year making sure Mom had convalesced well beyond the danger point, it was over.

Her dad had tried to convince her to at least take a few night classes.

"Sarah, there's no reason to drop out entirely, there's
a good program here and you could get some of the requirements out of the way while you're home," he had suggested. "You know I'm here every evening anyway, and I can take care of your mom, after all we've been together almost 25 years."

T
wenty-five years! It was hard to think of anyone being together for that long - especially in this day and this society. She was lucky to have grown up in a stable loving family.

"No Dad, that's okay. You always taught me to never attempt anything I wasn't willing to give 100%
to." For Sarah, this was an all or nothing kind of thing. She couldn't do anything half-way, not when it came to her parents. Mom had needed her, and she knew that taking classes would only have distracted her from a task she was committed to seeing through.

Sarah closed the locker and headed out to the nursing station. It was still early - in fact, at this time of year the sun wasn't even up yet. She'd be glad when the regular nursing staff showed up. Nowadays it seemed like they were her only social circle.

She didn't know who had been more excited about her acceptance at Redwood University - Mom, Dad or her.
She'd finally been able to return to school last year, deciding to come up north to finish her degree. After the intensity of her "apprenticeship" as Mom's live-in nurse, Sarah had decided that being in a totally new place might be exactly what she needed in order to focus on her studies without distraction.

M
aybe she'd done too good a job. At 22 she was already older than most of her classmates, and while she enjoyed their company, after what she'd been through with Mom, their interests just didn't appeal to her.

What a thrill it had been
when she'd finally been accepted at the hospital, even as a volunteer. She knew that the term 'Candy Striper' wasn't in use very much anymore, and probably some of the other volunteers her age thought it was way too juvenile. After all, it did refer to the younger high school girls who used to wear the candy-stripe-colored uniforms. But Sarah thought the name was adorable and it made her feel special. She was one step closer to fulfilling her dream.

"Morning Clara. Anything exciting happen over night?" She smiled at her friend behind the desk as she signed in for her shift.

"Quiet as a bug." Clara smiled back, "That Bradley was asking after you. Why don't you give that poor boy a break?"

Sarah laughed. She knew Clara loved to tease. But even more
, she loved to gossip. "You know better, Clara. I'm not giving you any ammunition."

H
er daytime duties required her to check on new patients, making sure that all the minimum hygienic requirements were in place for their care and ease during their stay.

"See you later,"
Sarah told her friend as she grabbed the log sheet and headed down the hallway to the storage closet to pick up the supplies she needed. It wouldn't take her long to set up the three rooms she'd just been assigned.

Looking up
from the paper, she noticed Bradley mopping up what looked like a spill. He sure was a dreamy looking guy - especially for a janitor.

"Hi Bradley," she smiled up at the blond six-foot hunk. "Looks like there was an accident?"

"Hey Sarah. Someone dropped a cup of coffee, so I'm just making sure that there won't be a problem. Safety first, and all that."

"At this time of the morning they must've been half-asleep. It's barely dawn. Probably really needed that coffee," she laughed.

Bradley smiled at her and went on mopping as she continued to the supply closet. Sarah knew he couldn't be more than a couple years older than she was. She liked his warm, deep voice and tall lanky build.

She
'd noticed that he always seemed happy to see her, and she secretly agreed with Clara - he might have been an interesting candidate for getting to know better, if only he wasn't someone she worked with.

~ # ~

Sarah spent the next several hours setting up the rooms for occupancy by the new patients who would undoubtedly be assigned sometime during the day. Little River was a very small hospital serving a rather remote community, with nothing else available for at least a couple hundred miles.

The staff at the hospital was a tight knit group, helping each other out when necessary, and everyone got along pretty well. Oh, there were the normal squabbles, just like you'd expect in an extended family, but nothing they couldn't smooth out in a day or so.

That was part of what Sarah liked the most about working here - the friendship she enjoyed with several of the staff. Being older, it felt like the nurses had already accepted her as one of their own.

She didn't have a lot of friends yet, but she was making progress. There was
Anna, the short brunette Emergency Room nurse with a southern accent .Anna had been particularly helpful to her when she'd started. As the "new girl on the block" Sarah had felt like an outsider, but with Anna to show her around, that feeling had vanished pretty quickly.

And then there was Clara, the sassy black clerk who knew everyone and everything. They'd hit it off pretty quickly, too. She had given Sarah some eye-opening (or in some cases eye-popping) insight into the relationships at the hospital. Clara was the one you went to if you wanted to know the latest gossip or the hottest news.

Sarah smiled. Clara had even told her who to watch out for - and thank goodness. Otherwise she might have become the latest conquest for that young doctor in the E.R. - the one the girls had nicknamed "Ronnie the Rascal" behind his back. Good thing he didn't know that, but it gave the women something to chuckle about when he started employing his "technique" on the unsuspecting.

As Sarah came around the corner, she noticed a handsome dark haired, brooding young man sitting on a chair in the hallway. His right leg was outstretched in front of him, with a jagged tear in his jeans that ran the length from just above his knee down to his ankle.

He sat there looking down at the leg with a scowl on his face. It was obvious he was in pain, but it didn't appear to be serious, which would explain why he was sitting in the hallway instead of being in a room.

As Sarah walked up, she could see the gnarly-looking road rash that must have come from sliding through gravel or across concrete.

"Looks painful," she said starting to wince. Catching herself, she smiled instead, which seemed to perk him up.

"Aw, not too bad," he responded. "More an inconvenience than anything. I hit a patch of hail in the road and dumped my bike."

"That must have been pretty scary!"

"Well, losing control at 60 miles an hour will definitely get your attention! But once I hit that patch and skidded sideways, there was nothing I could do about it. Just lucky I didn't hit a tree or an oncoming car."

"Oh my! And you're okay? Are they checking for broken bones and all?"

"I'm waiting for the x-rays to come back, they don't think there's a break, but they want to make sure. I'm just trying to figure out how I'm gonna get around 'til my bike is fixed." He scowled again.

"You have friends who can help?" she asked him.

"Sure," he told her, "for the short term anyway. But I gotta get the ride fixed pretty soon so I got wheels. I don't like to depend on my friends."

Well that was nice, she thought. He sounded like someone who took care of business. She wondered what his name was.

"I'm Sarah," she said, extending her hand. She didn't know a whole lot of people her age here in town, and he was
attractive in a "bad boy" sort of way.

"Tony." He responded with a crooked little grin that warmed her heart. "Glad to meet ya. You lived here long? I never seen you before."

"I'm going to school at the University," she told him. "Nursing. But I'm from Sacramento."

"Big difference!" he laughed. She smiled.

"Very big difference," she agreed.

"Look, you want to hook up sometime? Go for a ride? I could show you the lake."

She laughed, "I don't want to sound rude, but given you've just had an accident on that bike, I'm not so sure that's a good idea."

He scowled for a moment, then said, "Look, I've had the bike for six years. This is the first accident, and it only happened 'cuz of that huge sudden downpour of hail. I'm a safe driver - I promise! You want references?" he grinned up at her. "Come on! It'll be fun!"

She had to laugh. She doubted this guy would take NO for an answer.  "Maybe," she said shaking her head.

"Well, I gotta get the bike fixed first anyway." He scribbled out a note and handed it to Sarah. "That's my number. You call me when you're ready."