4. Ron
FOUR
RON
“Hey.” Nate came up behind me, still dressed in his gear, and I gave him a chin nod. I was waiting in the hallway, just outside the room where Evie had been. They had taken her in for X-rays, and I hadn’t been able to get myself to move from the spot.
“You heading back to work?” he asked even though I had a feeling we both knew the answer to that.
“No,” I clipped. “I talked to them. I’m done for the day.”
“For the day.” He whistled. “So… who is she?” I scowled.
“What do you mean?”
“Man, come on.” He chuckled and just my luck, right when I turned towards him, Logan walked up to us with a knowing grin.
“Let me guess…” he started to say with a cocky grin I wanted to wipe off his face.
“Shut it.” I pointed at him and shook my head. This was all his fault. Sometimes, I didn’t know if I wanted to punch him or name my firstborn after him.
My head was a messy place to be. Heaviness filled my veins as I thought about what had happened. Showing up to the bakery destroyed and Evie pinned between a goddamn car and a wall. I swallowed hard.
“I saw her this morning.” Emotions and fear were hard to choke down. “I was going to ask her out. See if she wanted to go dinner or…” I scratched the back of my head and then frowned. “But I fucking chickened out. I didn’t. I thought I had more time, but… fuck.” I rubbed my jaw.
“Hey, man… she’s good. She’s just getting checked out,” Nate said, rubbing my shoulder, and Logan nodded.
“You don’t get it,” I rasped. “This… this is why I don’t fucking…” I shook my head. “I already… l lost too much.”
“Man, we know that.” Logan patted me on the shoulder. “Come on, let’s talk outside.” Nate and Logan led me out. When we took a seat on the empty benches, I leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees.
“What do I do?” I asked, completely vulnerable.
I was in love.
Head over heels, dumbass in love. It wasn’t the same as it had been with Sara. It was different but not any less real. Shit. Somehow, what I felt about Evelyn was different. I hated saying it but maybe a little more.
“About?” Nate asked, and Logan rolled his eyes.
“About the baker!” Logan clarified. “You like her?” he asked, and I swallowed, shaking my head. He frowned, and then he saw it. He recognized what I felt because his own life had been swept up when he fell hard and fast himself while on duty. “You’re in love.”
“Wait… love?” Nate repeated, obviously trying to catch up. “He is not in love. They just met. Or wait, do you know her?”
“I met her the day of the engagement party.”
“That’s right. You went to pick up the cake,” Nate mumbled.
“I’ve… I’ve been going into her shop daily. Almost,” I confessed, and Logan whistled.
“Daily… to a bakery? You?” Nate asked. “You don’t do sugary stuff.”
“I know,” I muttered. “Let’s just say the office has loved and hated me these last couple of weeks.”
“There is nothing wrong with falling in love again,” Logan said quietly and without judgment.
“I know that,” I muttered, rolling my neck. “I… I thought I had time. I know better than that. I mean?—“
“Breathe, man,” Nate encouraged.
“I love her,” I said out loud.
I wasn’t big on lying to myself.
Not when I had first fallen in love in high school at seventeen and definitely not when Sara was diagnosed, nor when things had taken a turn for the worse and we both knew we wouldn’t e enjoy a long happily ever after. I knew firsthand just how short life was.
And I’d stupidly taken it for granted because I’d been scared.
Fear was a bitch and a waste of time.
“You don’t say?” Logan’s lips twitched. “Question is, what are you going to do about it?” I looked at him. My eyes bounced from Logan to Nate, wondering what the hell I could do.
“I… I’m not sure. All I know is I can’t keep sitting back. What if… what if that car hadn’t stopped when it did and—“ Nate’s hand touched my shoulder, and our eyes connected.
“Don’t go there,” he gently instructed. “We all know how things can go south in the blink of an eye. We all do. In our line of work,”—a muscle twitched beneath his eye—“we see it every day, Ronnie. But today wasn’t that kind of day.
All we can do is count our lucky stars and keep moving forward,” he laid out all too wisely.
“Jesus,” Logan said, clearing his thorat.
“What he said.” He nodded. When our eyes connected, I knew he was thinking about the day he met his now future wife.
Shit, the three of us had been on scene for the end of the high-speed pursuit and when Violet’s car had been almost squished by an electrical pole with live electric wires surrounding it with her inside of it.
“The day I picked up the cake? For your engagement party? I asked Sara for a sign.” I cleared my throat. “You think it’s weird I think she put Evelyn in my path?”
“No.” He shook his head. “I don’t. Sara would want you happy. She’d hate knowing that you’ve been alone, not sharing your life with anyone.”
“Fuck.” I swiped my face. I knew Logan was right. We had all grown up together. “You’re right.” I nodded and stood. “You guys mind? I wanna get back in there and check on her.”
“We understand,” Logan said, watching me closely. “You got this.”
“Just, you know, don’t fuck it up,” Nate warned, and I laughed roughly. “I mean, you have been out of the game for a while.”
“Nate,” Logan warned, but Nathan was a jokester.
“What? It’s true. Do you even know how to be charming?” he teased, and I rolled my eyes.
“He might not have been in a relationship, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know how to talk to women. We’ve both seen him do it at bars when we’ve gone out,” Logan defended me, but Nate wasn’t far off.
I thought of how grumpy I’d been going into the bakery the last couple of weeks.
How I’d tried to force myself not to smile the way I wanted to, how she’d tried everything to make me laugh.
How she’d stopped a couple of days ago. But today had been different.
It’s you. Those first words she’d said to me when I arrived on scene clung to my head. It’s you.
“True… but when it means something, that’s when you know the risks are higher, and you get in your head and fuck crap up,” Nate said all too wisely.
Something in his gaze made me wonder if he had someone who he’d screwed shit up with. If he was talking from experience rather than speculation. Nathan was older than us by two years and the ultimate bachelor.
“Just trust your gut,” Logan said, patting me on the shoulder. Nate waved as they both walked away. I turned and headed back into the ER, straight to the room she’d been in.
“Hi.” She waved shyly as she sat up in bed. Her dark hair was a mess of wild waves plopped up on top of her head with a couple of strands falling in front of her face, and she was wearing a green hospital gown, but to me, she had never looked more beautiful.
“Hey.” I walked straight to her, unable to stay the hell away and play it cool. Fuck that. I wanted her to know exactly how interested I was. I was done trying to fight the urge to be close to her. I sat down and took her hand, tangling our fingers. “How’d the X-rays go?”
“The tech said he couldn’t tell me much but winked and smiled, so, maybe that means it’s all good?
” The hope was clear in her voice. I didn’t like the tech flirting with her, but fuck, who could resist?
You need to lock it down, and fast, a voice in my head shouted at me.
A voice I sure as fuck wasn’t going to ignore.
“I’m sure everything’s good, baby.” Up close, I could see little scrapes at her neck from the accident.
“Baby,” she repeated, her cheeks tinged with pink beneath her smooth tan skin. “What’s that all about?” Curiosity was shining in her caramel gaze.
“It’s that—“ A knock sounded, interrupting us. I turned and felt my jaw clench.
Of course, we would get interrupted. But not only was it a nurse popping in, it was Dr. Jack Leon, who was on call.
Just my luck. He was a good guy. One of the best. But he was also a good-looking motherfucker.
A regular Rico Suave. I had seen more than a fair share of women aged eighteen to a hundred swoon over the emergency room doctor.
“Hey.” He grinned, and his eyes widened when he saw me at her bedside. “Ron, how are you?”
“Good, Doc.” I nodded, not bothering to get up nor let go of Evie’s hand. “How’s my girl?”
“Your girl, huh?” The doctor smiled. “You and your friends are taking all the good ladies out there.” He winked, and I heard Evie giggle.
But not once did she try to argue that she was mine. Hope bloomed inside my chest.
“Evelyn, how are you feeling?” he asked.
“Nervous.”
“Nervous?” The doc and I both asked at the same time, and I watched as she shrugged.
“I’m connected to a bunch of machines but feel okay, so I’m not sure why I’m here.”
“A car drove through your bakery, and you were stuck between the wall and the car, Evie.” I couldn’t believe I had to remind her. Her pretty gaze connected with mine.
“I know that, but I don’t feel hurt. I wasn’t trapped completely.” I opened my mouth to argue, but the doc cleared his throat.
“We just wanted to make sure there were no signs of internal bleeding or head injuries,” Doc shared, and she squeezed my hand.
“And what’s the diagnosis?” she asked.
“Considering everything that happened, you were a very lucky young woman.” Jack smiled.
“Everything is okay.” I felt like I could take the first full breath since the call had come into the station.
“I’d like to see you in two weeks for a follow-up, but other than a couple of scrapes and maybe some bruising on your back from where you were pressed against the counter, there shouldn’t be much to worry about.
” She nodded. Her eyes filled with relief I could feel radiating off the two of us in pounding waves.
She is okay. Thank fuck!
“I’m going to get my nurses to work on getting you discharged, hopefully within the hour.”
“Thanks, Doc,” I muttered.
“Thank you, Doctor,” she said as well. Jack waved before leaving the tiny makeshift room, closing the curtain behind him, giving us a little privacy. “Everything’s okay,” she broke the silence that had fallen between us.
“Yeah.” my voice rasped as I nodded. Her fingers squeezed my hand, almost like she knew I needed to feel her that much more. Our eyes connected, and I opened my mouth, but she beat me to it.
“Would you come home with me?” she blurted, and my eyes widened. “I mean… honestly, part of me doesn’t know if you even like me. Most of the time, I think you can’t stand me––“
“Can’t stand––“ I started to say, but she kept going adorably. Almost like if she didn’t keep talking, she wouldn’t be able to get the words out.
“With the way you get all growly when you come in, I mean, it’s hot, but it’s still all grr , but then I think about how you keep coming in every morning when you know I’m working, and, well, that has to mean something, right?
” Her eyes searched mine, but I was too stupidly stunned to answer.
“And life’s short, you know?” she rambled.
My poor brain worked triple time to process what she was asking me to do since I didn’t have much blood left because it had all traveled south.
“And I’m just… grateful, and I really don’t want to be alone tonight.
Well, I mean, I don’t think anyone ever wants to be alone all the time, but tonight…
” She shook her head, her cheeks adorably brighter.
“And I was thinking maybe… maybe you would like to come home with me today or tonight? I’m not really sure of the time right now.
” She stared at me, and when I didn’t say anything, her hand in mine relaxed, and she slowly started to untangle her fingers from mine.
There was a flash of rejection in her eyes I wanted to erase.
“Evie,” my voice rasped her name just as two nurses walked in.
“Okay, you two!” A nurse in pink scrubs grinned. “Dr. Leon said our favorite baker can go home.”
“You’ve been to my shop?”
“Of course! It’s our favorite,” the nurse in blue scrubs shared.
“I’m so sorry about what happened. But hey, that’s what insurance is for, right?” the one in pink encouraged. “I’m sure it will be better than ever before you know it.”
“Yeah,” my girl said, but I could tell she felt discouraged.
“Your man here gave us some clothes for you since the stuff you came in was pretty dusty.”
“You did?” Her eyes connected with mine.
“Yeah.” I cleared my throat. I felt like I was about to come out of my skin if I didn’t get my hands on my girl soon. Or my fucking lips on hers. “I’ll step out to give you guys a moment.” I turned and, without looking, walked out and waited on the other side of the curtain.
Evelyn wanted me to go home with her, and fucking hell, that’s exactly what I was going to do.