Who's Got My Heart: Jenny’s Romance Series, #1

By Eddy Twice

Three Hearts, Two Choices, One Unforgettable Journey…

Jenny, a devoted nurse, thought her life was under control until she met Derick, a kind-hearted man with a secretive past who stirs up unexpected emotions in Jenny.

 Just as things heat up with Derick, enters Ted, a carefree wanderer with disdain for commitment.

Sparks fly, and Jenny finds herself caught in a whirlwind romance that sets her heart racing.

With love pulling her in two dissimilar directions, Jenny's world becomes a rollercoaster of passion.

As she unravels the truth about her past, she must make a choice between the thrill of adventure with Ted or  the stability of a deeper connection with Derick.

Can she follow her heart and find the happiness she deserves, or will her past and the complexities of love hinder her from finding true happiness? 

 

-A gripping tale of love, romance, and an impossible love triangle.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Eddy2wice
• Release date: Nov 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215339022

Book preview

Prologue

Itap my finger to the song playing in my head, Who Owns My Heart by American popstar Miley Cyrus. It’s a lively electro-pop, but my feet aren’t moving to the music.

I love him, but I doubt my feelings. I should be all bubbly about the news of spending my whole life with him, but I just can’t feel like that. To distract myself, I sweep my hand against my cotton blanket with fringes, its coral colour too dull for my liking. My eyes dart from side to side. There is a long, blue, sleeveless, floral dress with embroidery hanging on the back of my door—one my mum chose for me yesterday evening when we went bridal shopping. The dress fit my height, and youthful figure like it was sewn just for me. My hand touches the edge of my short brown hair, and I pull it back in a French bun.

Today is my engagement party; I’m sure of it. My fiancé-to-be gave an excuse of celebrating some event today, but he is very easy to read, even more than the calorie counter on the upper back area of my brain—anatomy puts it into the parietal lobe area. It’s tough to live with my nursing course talking for me and taking over my thoughts all the time.

While doing our laundry some days ago, I found a receipt in his pocket; I called the store and traced the transaction to a pearl ring. He is too easy to read. I should be happy. We have been together for two years and six months. Of course, I’m thrilled to share my life with him. We have been through so much together. It’s what it should be.

I know he wants it to be a surprise: pop into the party, which, of course, he said is a celebration of some sort, and then propose.

I HEAR A POP SOUND coming from a champagne bottle downstairs in our living room. Our guests are strangely happy with the drink being opened without the host in attendance. Their screams are too loud as they cheered for my engagement, but I still haven’t decided what to wear; when they arrived, I opened the door and played clueless about my indecision. 

I stand in front of the mirror and pout my thin, plum-coloured lips. I see a reflection of my walk-in closet with a shimmery, black, short dress with a bow-like belt inside. I walk towards the fluffy, brown carpet in my room, where a pair of black stilettos with glassy heels sit. A popular idiom says: shoes will take you places. I wonder where these shoes will take me.

Chapter One

Jenny’s POV

Three years ago

Aghhh... I said and rolled my eyes at the caller ID on my phone. It’s 10 p.m., for goodness’ sake. Who would call at this late hour? I thought to myself. Sometimes, I wanted to answer the call and scream.

Mrs Fam, get a life. It’s 10 p.m., and I’m trying to sleep so I can wake up at 4 a.m. for work, I muttered as if she was there.

The phone vibrated into silence, but I knew she wasn’t giving up. Of course, like on cue, my phone began ringing again. I reached toward it, hoping it wouldn’t be another one of these calls.

Jenny, your EMAR is red.

By EMAR, she meant an electronic data-entry application nurses use for administering medication. The patient’s profile is set up in the EMAR. Every time the nurse gave the medication, she clicked an option to prove that the medication was given. So, when it was  red, it meant that the medication was past the time it had to be given, or the nurse had given the medication but had forgotten to click on the option, which indicated the medication wasn’t administered.

The night shift didn’t record the temperature of the refrigerator, she continued like a yipping bird.

I brought the phone to my ear and said with the nicest voice I could fake, Hey, Mrs Fam. She went on about a report she had received today at 2 p.m. In her words, Mrs Reese asked for her oxycodone at 9 a.m. but got it at 9.30 a.m. Why? I could never catch a break. I loved my job, but it was just too tiring at times.

I had just received my report that morning at 6 a.m. when Gloria, my hall aide, came to me.

Jenny, 322 is having seizures, she said, her hand placed over her head

We referred to residents by numbers, not because they’d lost their right to their names, but because of privacy reasons. It was privacy law to protect them, so we used room numbers when referencing them unless the discussion was made around only the resident's care team.

I was in the middle of implementing seizure intervention when Gloria ran down the hall again.

Jenny, 314, says she is having difficulty in breathing.

It was Gloria’s first time on the floor. She was hired a week ago and received two days of training in hall 200, but she was scheduled to work in hall 300, which she did not know. She didn’t know how we worked here, nor the residents. And to top the icing on the muffin, she worked with forty residents this morning all by herself because the other aides who had part of the hall called off for stomach flu at 2 a.m. Of course, the staffing manager couldn’t find anyone to come to work with Gloria, so the poor girl had to work the hall by herself. I was sure that after this first experience, Gloria wouldn’t be coming back again.

At 8:45, I had just pulled my hair into a bun while trying to get a urine sample for a resident with a suspected UTI. That was when the curly blonde nurse manager, Mrs Fam, came down the hall. Whenever I saw her hair, I swear I thought of a bird’s nest.

As she caught up to me, she said with a sing-song voice, Hey, Jenny, we have a new admit coming in at 9 a.m. The assessment must be done immediately so that the diet can have her in the system before lunch.

We called it admission, every time a resident was admitted into the nursing home for the first time. The resident’s body would be checked for any bruises or fractures, as well as their blood pressure, glucose, and temperature. I would ask them several questions, such as what day it was and what their name was. I also checked them for dentures and several other processes, known as a physical and neurological assessment, which would be performed because each resident had individual needs.

They might need their food crushed or cut into bits because they could not eat whole meals. Other residents might need help walking to the restroom because they couldn’t do it by themselves because of a fracture, previous fall, or disease. Hence, the nurse must assess the resident so that  a care plan, can be created for this resident’s needs and treatment.

So, there I was, typing, chatting, and biting my upper lip with questions like, what in God’s name are the managers doing while I, the floor nurse, must deal with the clinical and administrative part of the job? Catching me drifting, Gloria came down the hall.

The girl looked like she needed a breathing treatment, she said in a raspy voice. 307 is asking for her pain pill.

307 was Mrs Reese, who had her medication scheduled every 4 hours, and a report from the night shift nurse stated she had received the last dose at 6 a.m., which meant at 9 a.m., she wasn’t due another pill.

Given Mrs Reese’s confusion, I walked into her room and said, Mrs Reese, your medication is due in an hour. I watched the woman tap her phone, which had an alarm clock with the words: pain pill reminder.

She looked me straight in the eye and said, Christina usually gives it to me. I can get it an hour before or after the medication’s scheduled time.

I will check the mar and get back to you, Mrs Reese, I said calmly.

Jenny, she said as I was about to walk out of the room, can I have my PRN Clonazepam and Flexeril at the same time?

By PRN, it meant I gave the medication