Chapter 8
SILENT INVITATION
“I’ll take the turkey bacon wrap and fries,” Blaze said on Tuesday.
As his family predicted, he wasn’t enjoying his days off but picked up a shift yesterday, came in for a training this morning and then was going to cover for a few hours while the doctor working today could go to the training he’d just left.
“Coming up,” the cafe worker said.
He stood there while the wrap was assembled quickly, then the fries were dumped on his plate from where they’d been warming under a light a few steps away. The cafe was packed, and they were getting people through fast.
It wasn’t as if he had much time to come down here to eat most days—lucky if he could grab something and eat it on his way back to patients—but today he had forty-five minutes and told himself to take a few moments to chill and fill his belly.
He wasn’t working a full shift in the ER, just three hours, which he knew would probably turn into four if things got backed up.
He opened the water bottle that was in his hand as he waited in line, took a long drink. Then he moved a few feet down when he saw his order was done, tapped his credit card to pay and picked the tray up to find a seat.
His eyes scanned the room quickly, latched onto a two-person table that had one open seat and his sexy neighbor taking up the other with her head down.
He moved in that direction, saw her head lift before he made it and her pushing the chair out in a silent invitation. Exactly what he’d been hoping for.
“Are you off and just coming in to eat so you don’t have to cook?”
He laughed at the way her eyes drifted over him from his tan cotton pants, light green shirt and sleeves rolled to his elbows. A few buttons undone because he liked to breathe.
He wasn’t the golf-shirt type, and those printed short-sleeve button-downs? Not a chance in hell. Too polished and too preppy for a guy who’d spent half his life picking apples and doing yardwork.
He’d take simple and lived-in over shiny and showy any day.
“If I didn’t want to cook, I’d just go see my mom at the cafe,” he said, pulling the seat out more and planting his ass.
“I’d love something like that when I didn’t want to meal plan. Having a fussy six-year-old isn’t fun.” She looked at her plate, the remaining special he’d noticed still there. Something with stir-fried chicken and rice maybe. “I have to get fancy cuisine here.”
“That’s fancy?” he asked, popping a fry into his mouth.
“Sad but true.”
She smiled as those words slipped out. Her brown hair was tucked behind her ears, loose waves floating on her shoulders.
There was humor in her light caramel eyes as if she wasn’t sure someone else would find her funny.
He did. He found his few interactions with her were full of what he’d said before. Layers.
Not stinky onion layers, but sweet smelling oranges, that each piece dragged away puffed more of the citrus into his nostrils, making him want to move faster to get to the sticky juicy center.
When was the last time any thoughts like those even filled his brain?
“Yeah, well, I’m on board with you. Give me burgers and potato salad any day of the week. Fancy food isn’t my deal.”
“I’d be thrilled if Gracie wanted potato salad,” she said, laughing.
“Fries are the only way she’ll eat a potato.
A burger, maybe from a fast food place but not what I’d cook.
Comes from her father only giving her that stuff.
Most of her food consists of frozen meat I chuck in the air fryer rather than when I cook on the stove or even the oven. ”
He wasn’t sure what to think of that. That she’d be the type to give in so easily rather than push for something more nutritious. The doctor in him was kind of appalled, but the human in him knew there had to be more to the story.
“My mother, she had five kids to feed and a husband who worked the farm daily. One big meal and we all had to eat it. If we didn’t like it, we sat there while everyone else ate. There were no other options. She didn’t have time to give us a menu of choices.”
He watched her face for annoyance over his words. Nope. Nothing.
She continued to eat, letting him do the same.
He figured he’d just blown it right there, but if he couldn’t speak his mind, there was no reason to progress any further.
She had her right to parent her child the way she wanted, and he had the same right to know it’d bother the shit out of him and it’d never work anyway.
“None of it is my preference,” she said after a minute.
“What?”
“Gracie’s eating habits. Not what I want and she didn’t use to be that way.
Nothing is the way it was before, but I have to pick my battles with all the changes in the past year.
Normally I give her what I know she’ll eat mixed in with what I’m having.
She has to eat some of mine, even if it’s not her favorite.
Kind of our compromise. To me, the hope is that I can just move to mine completely and not make the two meals. ”
And that was why he tried not to judge too much. There was a reason. A good one by the sounds of it with a solid compromise blended in.
“The ex?” he asked. Hard not to figure out with the way Arden was giving the guy shit last week.
One week ago. Had it really been that long? It felt more like yesterday.
Or that could be because she hadn’t left his mind much.
On Sunday, he’d hoped to catch sight of them in the back, but he’d been gone most of the afternoon and when he got home it was after dinner and too hot to sit on his patio for long.
“Yeah. My ex-husband. It’s not been a great year and Gracie is... timid around her father now. We are treading water, but at least we are moving toward the shore. It’s better than it’s been. I’d hoped the move here would help and give her a change of environment to kind of reset.”
As much as he wanted to know more, something told him not to ask.
Least of all to ask in a place where they couldn’t have a private conversation.
“Where did you move from? If you don’t mind me asking. I grew up in Warrensburg. Lived in the area my whole life except for med school.”
“We moved from Saratoga. I grew up there and went to college at SUNY Cortland and returned home, got a job right away at the county as a case manager, then a social worker. Started at the hospital a few weeks before I could close on the townhouse.”
“Not that far then,” he said.
“No. I’ve been around the area on and off. Never was at your parents’ orchard though I’d heard of it. I hadn’t realized until you mentioned your siblings who you were. Is it still an orchard now?”
“It will always be an orchard but not open to the public for picking. Clay’s running it all with the hard cider, but my mother has the cafe and bakery year round and one of the old barns is now a wedding venue. It’s a much different place than I grew up on.”
“That sounds exciting. Hard cider is much more interesting to me than just apple picking. I only say that since I’m talking to another adult. If my daughter were here, oh yeah, apple picking is the jam.”
He laughed. “That can be our secret.” Might as well keep this light since she was more open that way. She’d picked up on the humor again and he’d rather it be that way for now.
“Maybe this fall, you can bring Gracie out there to let her run wild and pick as many apples as she wants with no competition. That is if she eats them? Or is it just picking?”
“That’s very sweet. She’d love it. And yes, it’s one fruit she loves.
She’d eat three in a row if I didn’t stop her.
She gets one a day. She likes fruit more than vegetables, but I know that’s normal with kids.
” She took another bite of her lunch so he did the same.
“Where did you go to college? You didn’t say. ”
“I went to SUNY Albany for undergrad, just wanted to stay close to home. Ford went there too. We are only a year apart in age, so it helped being there and sharing a car to come home or move around on campus.”
“Did you live together there?”
“We did. He had an apartment his last three years, I moved in with him my freshman year and stayed the whole time. Got other roommates when he graduated that year. And since we only had one car, one of us was always just kind of hanging out around campus or taking the bus. Sometimes we’d walk, but it was about a mile, so not horrible. Worked for us.”
“That’s great you could do that. I’m an only child. My parents live in Saratoga still. I couldn’t wait to leave the area and get a feel for life, but came home and ended up a divorced single parent. Not exactly my dream goal.” She waved her hand. “Where did you go to med school?”
“University of Rochester. Still close enough to come home, then did my residency back in Albany. I knew this is where I’d land and since people aren’t fighting to be in these more rural areas, it fell into place.”
“Sounds like you got your dream goal. Glad one of us did.”
She was still grinning. “There is time yet for you to get it. Or all of it. Having your daughter happy and healthy has to be on the top of your list. She seems it to me.”
“Thank you for that,” she said softly. “It means a lot. Sometimes I wonder if I overanalyze things to death because of my job. Like I should have known better and yet I made stupid mistakes.”
“Hey,” he said, his hand reaching over the same as it would have a patient who was struggling.
His job wasn’t just to go in and fix and kick them out for the next, it was to comfort and nurture while they were in his care.
At least that was how he always looked at it.
“Stupid mistakes are better than deadly ones. Trust me, I know.”
“You make a good point,” she said. “I hope you haven’t had too many deadly ones.”
“Not mistakes,” he said. “But in my job, the outcome can be horrible no matter how many things you do right.”
“God, listen to our depressing conversation. I get enough of that in my job. Tell me more about the townhouses. Anything or anyone I need to be on the lookout for? So far it’s pretty quiet. Gracie has been riding her bike around with me next to her and the traffic is calm too.”
He was more than willing to change the subject right there with her. He didn’t need the reminder of the ones who didn’t make it.
Most were losses he couldn’t have prevented, complications beyond his hands. Others… he’d never even learned how they ended and maybe that was for the best.
Treat them. Move on. Don’t let it stick.
Because once you let it in—once you started replaying every decision—it could eat you alive.
He knew better than to let that happen. Not if he wanted to keep his head straight, his career intact, and the part of him that still cared from getting crushed.
Then Arden’s voice cut through the noise. Steady, warm, real. She was saying hi, waving to someone else, her smile filling her face when she turned her attention back to him.
And just like that, the heaviness eased. She didn’t even realize she’d done it, but she had that effect on him. Reminding him that not every thought, every word, or every action had to carry weight.
“It’s a nice area,” he said. “Quiet like you said. The only traffic is those living there and nothing dangerous I’ve seen. No speeding or anything like that. Everyone is pretty respectful and we are toward the back, so easy enough for her to ride around.”
“I have to say,” she said, “one of the best decisions I’ve made in the past year. Seems to be working out well. Every part of it.”
It was the look of pure appreciation in her eyes that got him. For the guy sitting across from her.
Her gaze lingered, tracing his face as if she were trying to memorize it, that soft grin still tugging at her lips. Her fingers played absently with the fork, a slow twist, a tell he probably wasn’t supposed to notice. And damn if it didn’t do something to him.
He wasn’t easily thrown off, but the warmth in her eyes hit somewhere deep past the armor, past the practiced calm he wore like a cage for all around him.
For a second, he forgot about the hospital, the noise, the burden of everything he carried, but all he saw was her.
“That’s the thing about life—it’s happening all around you, the good, the bad, the joy, and the sorrow.
You just have to decide what you’re going to latch on to.
” He looked at his watch, knew he needed to get a move on and his lunch was gone, all but a few fries he picked up.
The thoughts in his head were getting a little deeper than he’d planned on top of it.
“Speaking of latching on, got to get to the ER. It was nice talking to you.”
“You too,” she said.
He picked up his tray, dumped the remains of his lunch in the garbage and slid the blue plastic on top. Grabbing the rest of his water bottle, he went to the locker room to change into scrubs.
He made his way to the nurse’s station, Maddy waiting there with a massive grin. “There he is. Didn’t think you were going to break away from your lunch date.”
“What?” he asked.
Erika and Shelly were at the station and both stopped to listen to Maddy. “I ran down and saw you sitting with the cute new social worker. Arden, right?”
“That’s her,” he said. “And I’m sure you noticed the place was packed. It was the only open seat so I snagged it.”
“Sure,” Maddy said. “You tell yourself that. You think I haven’t noticed how you look at her? She was down here yesterday too and your eyes locked in as if you were a missile ready to launch.”
“Now, Dr. Ridgeway, you’re not going to be one of those typical men and make a comment on that, are you?” Shelly asked.
“My boyfriend would,” Erika said, wiggling her eyebrows. “Worse if there were other men around to hear.”
“No comment,” he said. “Sexist or otherwise. It was an open seat, I ate lunch. I found out Arden lives in the same townhouse unit as me, so just being friendly. Time to get to work.”
Erika narrowed her eyes at his response. Sorry if she didn’t like it, but he wasn’t going to do the typical immature shit other men might, nor would he be caught gossiping. Friend or not.
But it was more than that, and if others saw it, then maybe he’d have to be more careful. If for no other reason than to protect Arden from being caught up in the ER staff’s playfulness.