Chapter 36
Lily
My life has completely shifted in the last couple weeks, and I feel like I can’t keep up. I went from coming back to Amity with a boyfriend, to no longer having said boyfriend and somehow, someway, being back with Parker. The same Parker I swore up and down I would never get back with again.
But apparently, I’m a big fat liar because if I’m not with him I’m thinking about him. It’s like we really are teenagers back in high school again. And I love it.
But right now, I’m scrambling to get to work on time because I overslept and the only reason I woke up when I did was because Tulips started licking my face.
Since I’m on the overnight shift, not only has my life turned upside down but my entire schedule is so messed up trying to balance overnight but also be a normal human.
Parker is on shift, and I used to dread the possibility of seeing him at work. But now I anticipate it.
Crazy how things change.
“Come on, Tulips, I have to go,” I bounce on the balls of my feet, waiting for her to do her business in the yard. Throwing my head back on a groan when I realize I forgot to get gas.
Now I know I’m going to be late because I like to wait until the very last minute when it comes to filling my car. If there’s enough miles left to get where I need to go then why would I waste time stopping if I don’t have to?
Then there’s times like this where I wish I wasn’t like that.
Aaron used to hate it. Almost every time he would get in my car, I would be low on gas, and he would make some snide comment about it. I don’t know what I saw in him and am easily adding him to the long list of regrets I already have in my twenty-four years of life.
Wait, almost twenty-five.
In my chaos of a life and screwed up schedule I realize I’ve lost track of the days, and my birthday is in two days. I wonder if Parker will remember. I scoff to myself because of course he will. He’s Parker.
Eventually, I get into my car, turn it on and expect to see the gas tank on negative E. But I think I must still be waking up, or dreaming, because it’s completely full.
Even though I may be hallucinating I drive to work trying to rack my brain on if I got gas in my sleep. Or if there’s some sort of gas fairy that goes around to fill up cars of women that procrastinate.
I get into work, get the report from the nurse I’m relieving, but I’m still distracted. When I sit down at the nurse’s station, I pull out my phone for the first time and see a text from Parker that has my stomach flipping.
Parker: Have a good night at work.
Lily: Did you put gas in my car?
Parker: Did you think a magical gas fairy did it?
Lily: …maybe.
Lily: But how? You’re on shift.
Parker: I had time before.
Parker: I didn’t want you to worry about it.
I type “I love you” before quickly deleting it. Tossing my phone onto the counter I hardly hold back a squeal into my hands as I drop my head into them.
“Are you okay?” my coworker, Lexi, asks.
“I don’t think so,” I mumble into my palms.
“What’s wrong?” She sounds genuinely concerned. Meanwhile, I’m just here struggling with the fact that I have the best, hottest, sweetest, most swoon-worthy man in my life.
I move my head to the side to look at her while keeping my hand on my cheek and I purse my lips. “Nothing is wrong per say.” I sigh. “It’s Parker.”
“Oh, what did he do?” She sounds ready to fight.
I chuckle, shaking my head. “He filled my car up with gas.”
“What’s wrong with that? I would love if my husband would do that. Can he teach classes for other men?”
“That’s the problem!” I exclaim. “He’s too perfect, right? Like there has to be something wrong that I’m missing.”
“Haven’t you known him forever?”
“Mhm.”
“And has he always been this way?”
I scrunch my face while I think about it. Because yeah, he has. As my best friend, as a boyfriend. The only time he wasn’t was when I thought he was whoring around town, but it turns out that’s not true.
I may have interrogated some of the other nurses at the hospital to double check that. Not because I don’t trust him, of course, I just…I feel like I have to be missing something.
“Yeah, he has,” I relent.
“Then seriously, can he teach classes for other men to learn his ways?”
I smile. “I don’t think he could teach it, he’s just Parker.” He has a great mom who stepped up as both his parents, and I think she’s a big reason he’s the reason he is. She’s hardworking, sweet, and raised an amazing man.
“You’re the lucky one. You know most of the girls around here have been hoping they’d be the one for him. But I think it was always going to be you.”
I nod. “That’s what he says.”
We both busy ourselves, and I see someone walking by with a tray of food they’re delivering to a room.
One of my thoughts pops into my head I can’t control.
I turn back to Lexi. “Who do you think was the first person to drink milk? Like who looked at a cow and said, ‘I’m going to drink that?’ It’s really weird when you think about it. ”
“Wha…How do you think of this stuff?” She chuckles.
“I’m just saying, it seems like someone has some explaining to do.”
Lexi continues to laugh, and I’m tempted to fall down a rabbit hole of looking into how we all started drinking milk. Except me, I don’t really like milk unless it’s in a bowl of cereal.
My shift is going pretty smoothly, and I’m thankful for it. Around four in the morning we get a call that a patient is being brought in from an accident. We prep for the admission, and I try to tamp down the butterflies going wild knowing I’m going to see Parker.
Luckily, the patient is alert when the paramedics arrive, and Lexi is assigned to them. I catch a glimpse of Parker wheeling in the stretcher while giving the report to Lexi, and I take the time to admire him. He’s even hot when he’s focused and being good at his job.
The way he looks in his uniform also helps. The navy Amity fire T-shirt and straps of his bunkers on his shoulders. If he ends up coming over to talk to me with those off, I may have to pull him into a supply closet, though.
I’m finishing some charting when he appears at the desk, signature smirk on his face and mischief in his eyes. I look up through my lashes. “Can I help you?”
“Yeah, I’m looking for someone you may know that works here. Blonde hair, blue eyes, gorgeous smile, and unmatched sense of humor.”
“Hm.” I look around and then back to him. “I’m unfamiliar with who that may be, do you have a name?”
“I think it’s something floral like Daisy…or Violet,” he jokes.
I scrunch my face. “Still not ringing any bells.”
He chuckles, leaning forward, his voice dropping deeper. “I want to kiss you so bad right now.”
“I want to do more than just kiss you,” I tell him with my voice just as low.
He groans quietly, and then there’s a slap on his shoulder. “Stop flirting, we gotta go,” Jameson pops our bubble that we were in.
“I remember when you would leave in the middle of shift to go see Sutton,” Parker retorts to his coworker.
“She worked right next door.” He shrugs.
Thinking about the grooming salon Sutton worked at causes a pang in my chest when I think about the burnt building that’s slowly being rebuilt.
It was the start to their story, and I never really thought of the impact losing it caused.
I’ve been so caught up in my own shit and haven’t had much time to consider that.
Trish puts on a strong front and acts like it hasn’t been as big of a deal as I know it has been for her. Suddenly, I feel really bad.
Parker turns back toward me and immediately looks concerned. “What’s wrong?”
“Huh? Nothing,” I brush off. “Just tired.”
He doesn’t look like he believes me, but he’s being hauled away by his coworkers again. “I’ll see you when I’m off shift.”
I nod eagerly.
He winks before leaving with the rest of his crew.
“Damn,” Lexi’s voice breaks me out of my Parker induced haze. “Anyone who spends two seconds with you two could feel that tension.”
I shrug, but she’s right. I’m glad I’m not the only one that can feel it.
“I know,” I tell her with a wide smile.