Chapter 5 #2
I roll my eyes at Evie’s inner monologue, but honestly, it makes me happy to hear her rambling on about nothing. She spent too long in a bad marriage, then too long worrying about how to recover after her divorce. She deserves to have silly conversations about pickles and expired tomato juice.
My brother’s voice sounds through the phone. “You should let me finish this,” he says.
“I’m almost done,” Evie says. “And look! I found pickles!”
“Megan, why is she craving pickles?” Alec asks. “I thought it was a myth that pregnant women crave pickles.”
I must be on speaker phone now, because both of their voices are coming through the phone loud and clear.
“Not a myth,” I say. “Though no one really knows why it happens. It could be the salt. Or the power of suggestion. Pregnant women all want pickles because in their mind, they think they’re supposed to.”
“I don’t care what the reason is,” Evie says, her mouth obviously full. “This is the best thing I’ve ever eaten.”
“Hey, I have a question for you,” I say to my brother. “But then you have to leave so I can talk to Evie for real.”
“Okay, shoot,” Alec says. “How are you, by the way? Staying warm?”
“Perfectly warm,” I say. “Do you remember ever meeting a Noah Hawthorne?”
“That’s the guy who’s there with you? The cousin?”
“Yeah. He said he’s met you before, but he didn’t think you’d remember him.”
“Did he say when? Or why?” Alec asks.
“Just that it was a work thing.”
“That’s weird,” Evie says. “What kind of work thing?”
“He didn’t say. He isn’t exactly the chattiest guy,” I say.
“I met with so many people,” Alec says. “Could have been anything. Something contract related or maybe an advertising deal of some kind?”
“What about physical therapy or training?” Evie asks.
“I got to know most of those guys pretty well,” Alec says. “I’d remember him if that was it.”
“Want me to ask Summer what he does for a living?” Evie asks. “I can text her.”
“Or can’t you just ask him?” Alec asks. “It’s not weird that I don’t remember someone I met who-knows-where with the team. Why are we acting like this is a big mystery we need to solve?”
“I’m not,” I say. “I just asked because I was curious, but I’ve barely talked to the guy. It’s not a big deal.”
“Is he nice?” Alec asks, a twinge of something menacing laced through his tone.
“He’s very nice,” I say. Or, at least nice-ish. “He’s mostly keeping to himself.”
“Okay, time for you to go now,” Evie says.
“What? Why?” Alec says.
“Because Megan doesn’t want to talk about this guy with her brother,” Evie says. “She wants to talk about him with her best friend.”
“But we just were talking about him,” Alec says.
“That was brother talk,” Evie says. “Trust me. There’s more.”
“Is that true?” Alec asks me.
I hesitate to answer, but who am I kidding? I’ve been hoping I’d run into Noah all day. And it would be nice to process that with Evie. “It’s…a little bit true.”
Alec sighs. “Sometimes I hate that you two are best friends.”
Based on the sounds that filter through the phone, Evie must lean up and kiss him. “No you don’t,” she says. “Will you go check on Juno? Her show is probably over, and she needs a bath.”
“On it,” Alec says. His voice fades as he moves away, but I still hear him yell, “Where’s my little girl?”
“Okay, spill it,” Evie says. “Was this whole thing really a setup? Summer says she’s hearing through the family grapevine that it totally was.”
“I have no idea,” I say. “Noah thinks it is, but I’m not convinced.”
“Are you doing any actual work?”
“I mean, it’s only been a day. But yeah. Olivia left stuff for me to do. I’m decorating the farmhouse tomorrow, and I’m answering the phone, and a few different orchard employees came in today to pick up their holiday bonuses, so I’m handing those out.”
“Well, that all sounds legit.”
“Yeah. But Noah made it seem like there were definitely other employees who could have handled stuff.”
“Meh. Whatever. You’re there now, and you’re going to do a great job. So what’s Noah like?”
I tug my covers up a little tighter and breathe out a sigh. “Ridiculously handsome,” I say. “And broody and secretive. That’s all I’ve figured out so far.”
“Really?”
“Really. I’ve barely seen him. But…”
“But what?” Evie asks, her tone indicating just how much she’s reading into my hesitation.
“But—I don’t know. We had this moment when we were eating breakfast this morning and it just—it felt like something sparked or whatever.”
“Give me more details,” Evie says.
“We were just looking at each other. Nobody was saying anything. But he didn’t look away, and I didn’t look away, and then my stomach got all twisted and I have no idea. Does that sound stupid?”
“Not at all,” Evie says.
“I don’t know. I think the whole ‘potential setup’ idea got in my head, and it’s making me see stuff that isn’t really happening. Like pregnant women craving pickles.”
“Or maybe you just met your future husband,” Evie says. “Stranger things have happened. What about after breakfast? Did you see him again?”
“We sat in the living room for like, three hours or something. But we didn’t talk. He was reading a book. I was studying. It was all very chill.”
“Hmm. That could still mean something. It’s better than just full on avoiding you.”
“Or it could mean absolutely nothing at all,” I say. “Which is the most likely thing. I’m only going to be here a week, so what does it matter anyway?”
“Hey—a lot can happen in a week. And you still might get a job in North Carolina. You have to stop talking like it won’t happen.”
A pinch of anxiety makes my chest tighten.
The pediatric intensive care nurse residency program at the largest hospital in Charlotte is incredibly competitive.
Most of my classmates already have jobs lined up, and I’ve gotten offers from a few other hospitals closer to home.
But I loved my interview in Charlotte, so I’ve been holding out, waiting for an offer I’m afraid, at this point, is never going to come.
It would be so perfect. Especially since it’s only a few hours away from Alec and Evie, and I would love to be closer to them with the baby on the way.
“Honestly, Evie, I feel like I would have heard by now if I got in.”
“Maybe not,” Evie says. “You haven’t even taken your NCLEX yet. Maybe you should reach out again. Just to let them know you’re still interested and available.” Evie stifles a yawn, but it still muffles her words, and that makes me yawn.
I glance at my watch. It’s only eight thirty, but I feel like I could crash anyway. Nursing school may have permanently ruined my sleep schedule. “I already did,” I say. “But I’m not expecting much with the holidays so close.”
“Hospitals don’t get holidays,” Evie says. “I’m sure you’ll hear something soon.”
I appreciate her vote of confidence, but I’ve pretty much resigned myself to accepting my second—or even third—choice job.
Assuming those are still available. If they aren’t, I might be the one who finally ruins the one-hundred-percent-job-placement statistic of my nursing program.
Guaranteed work…unless you’re me, apparently.
Evie and I chat for a few more minutes, and she sends me a video of Juno talking about her dinner. She’s started calling cucumbers cute numbers, and it’s legitimately the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen.
“I miss her already,” I tell Evie before we say goodbye. “You’d better talk about me every day so she doesn’t forget me.”
“You know I will,” Evie says.
If I wasn’t so sure I wanted to work in the PICU, I might apply to work at the hospital in Harvest Hollow just so I could see Juno more frequently. But it’s a little too small to have pediatric intensive care, and I’m a little too certain that’s what I want my focus to be.
Maybe too certain. At this point, I might not have a choice.