Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
Bray
I slump into a chair in the break room. It’s been a hell of an evening.
Three car accident victims with massive internal bleeding, one guy who nearly sawed his finger off, a kid with a nail in his foot, two heart attack patients, a kid who is on chemo and likely contracted an infection, and a teenager who will be having his appendix out later tonight.
It’s the chemo kid that really has me messed up.
It makes me think of Lanie and my childhood.
Watching one of your friends go through that at age seven is horrific.
My hookup buddy, Becca, walks into the room and sits down.
“Rough night?” she asks. Becca and I met about five years ago. She’s a nurse here at the hospital. She’s normally up in the ICU, but with all the craziness down here, she got called in to help.
I shrug. “It’s been a long night,” I say with a sigh, wishing I could head home instead of working another two hours.
“We could…you know,” she says as she motions toward the door. Two rooms down is the supply closet, where, when we’ve needed to blow off some steam, we’ve hooked up a few times over the years.
“Nah. Not tonight,” I say for reasons I’m not entirely sure. We haven’t hooked up in a few months, even though we’ve both been single.
She shrugs. “Your loss,” she says, tightening the blonde hair in her messy bun.
“Everything OK?” she asks, and it makes me think of my conversation with Carly earlier.
“Just had a chemo kiddo with an infection,” I say. Becca knows about my past and how I became a doctor. We talked about how we came to be in the medical field one night after fucking for several hours.
“Oh, sorry. I missed that one tonight. They gonna be OK?” she asks.
I nod. “I think so. The parents were smart to bring her in early. Hopefully, the oncology ward can keep it under control. She’ll need to stay here for a week or so.”
She nods her understanding. “I should probably get back out there. I’ll see you later,” she adds as she pats my shoulder and leaves.
I pull myself together and stand. My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I pull it out. It’s a text from Carly. I look at the time. It’s late. She’s normally in bed by now. I pull up the message.
Carly: I forgot to send this earlier. Ava wanted to say goodnight. We hope you have a great day at work or evening or…well, you get the drift.
I grin and open the attached video. It’s a close-up of Ava.
She’s holding a hand over her mouth, and I frown in confusion until she starts speaking.
“Goodnight, Unca Bray! Guess what? Guess? No, you’ll never guess.” She pulls her hand away and flashes me a wide grin. She’s missing a front tooth. “Guess I’m going to be rich tomorrow,” she adds and then tries to wink, but just closes both eyes.
I chuckle.
“OK, goodnight! Love you!” she says.
“’Night, Bray,” Carly adds. The camera pans out, and they both wave before turning off the video.
God, I love that kid. I don’t know if I’ll ever have kids, but I’m thankful I get to be part of her life.
Something about nearly losing Lanie changed me.
I just barely remember being little, wanting to have a family when I grew up.
But by age nine, I had written off that idea altogether.
I was going to be a famous doctor and save lives.
I have saved a few lives, but I definitely am not famous.
I stare at the little girl and woman that I love with all my heart. I wish I could be more for them, but it’s clear that Carly doesn’t want more, which is good. I need someone like her in my life. A friend. Only a friend. In my life, I need predictable, and friends are predictable.
I walk up to Carly’s door to find Al standing there, knocking.
“Hey,” I say as I look at the old man who has become a good friend. Al hasn’t ever once felt like my landlord.
“Good morning,” he says with a big smile. He’s holding an envelope. I frown and am about to ask what he’s doing, but then the door flies open.
“Mom! Is Mr. Al or Unca Bray babysitting me today?” Ava cries out as she looks from Al to me.
Al chuckles. The man might as well be Santa Claus because he looks like him right now.
Ava giggles. “Hi,” she says quietly to him as she twirls on one toe like a ballerina.
“You’ve been practicing,” he states.
She smiles wider.
“Oh, my. You lost a tooth,” Al says as he leans down to examine her mouth.
She nods excitedly and pulls a five-dollar bill from her pocket. “I’m rich!” she declares.
Al laughs again. “Very exciting, indeed,” he says.
She nods. “What’s that?” she asks as she points to the envelope.
“Oh, hi,” Carly says as she walks over to us. “Come on in,” she insists, stepping back and motioning for both of us to enter.
I follow Al inside. Carly’s wearing my favorite work dress of hers.
It’s red with little white polka dots. The dress has a deep “v” neckline that accentuates her breasts.
Fuck. I shouldn’t be ogling my friend’s boobs.
But damn, they look great in that dress.
The color makes her cheeks look even rosier than normal.
She catches me watching her, and a deep pink spreads across her chest and up her neck. I swallow.
“You look beautiful,” I say as I scratch the back of my head.
“Oh, uh, thanks,” she manages. “What’s up, Al?”
Al looks between us and smiles. “Remember that ring you found a while back and we never did figure out whose it was?”
She nods. “I do.”
“Well, guess what?”
She’s silent as she waits for him to answer his own question.
“It was actually worth some money. I finally got around to taking it to my pawn shop friend. It’s worth six thousand dollars,” he says as he hands her the envelope.
She opens it and stares at the cash. Her mouth opens, but she doesn’t speak.
I walk up to her and look into the envelope. There is a stack of one-hundred-dollar bills.
“I think you should use it to come to the wedding,” Al says as he looks between us.
Carly still isn’t speaking. I watch her as she continues staring at the money. I was going to offer to pay for them to go, but I know she’d turn me down. She’s proud and stubborn. But with this money, there’s no reason she shouldn’t go.
“It’s enough for you guys to go and then some,” I point out.
She swallows and looks up at me. “How much was your plane ticket?”
“I haven’t booked it yet,” I explain.
Frowning, she looks from me to Al. “I thought everyone had already booked.”
We shake our heads. “No. I think Roxy and Gray might have. But I’m not sure about everyone else,” I say.
I pull out my phone and open my travel app.
I search flights and grin. “There’s a sale.
I can get us business class for eight hundred each way,” I say, not mentioning that means I’m using some points.
She’d never otherwise buy business class, and she certainly wouldn’t let me pay for her tickets without an epic fight.
She pulls out the money and hands me thirty-two hundred dollars.
“Vito’s parents have offered up the guesthouses they have on the property, so we don’t have to pay for a place to stay,” I add.
“They have?” she asks.
“Yeah, I saw Fletcher this morning. So, you can use the rest for food and stuff and then bank anything you don’t spend,” I say with a grin, knowing that she always worries about money.
There’s a look of relief on her face that I don’t like. I hate that she wants for anything. “I think I will. I mean, I shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, right?” she says.
Al laughs. “Certainly not. Well, that settles that. I’m off to my weekly breakfast with my old golfing buddies. See you kids later,” he says as he walks to the door and opens it.
“Mr. Al?” Ava says.
“Yes?”
“Are you Santa Claus?” she asks. We all look at each other because even for Ava, that was a random question.
Al doubles over, really laughing this time. “No, Peanut. I’m not. But thanks for making an old man’s day.”
Ava purses her lips as if she doesn’t quite believe him.
He holds up his hands. “I promise. I’m just Mr. Al.”
She crosses her arms and tilts her head. “OK,” she says suspiciously. “But if you are, can I get a new dollhouse for Christmas?”
“Ava!” I scold.
She gives me a pointed look. “Mom, you always say I should be clear with my words, and if Mr. Al is Santa Claus, I don’t want him confused about what I want.”
With one final laugh and a shake of his head, Al leaves.
“I’m going to go pack,” Ava announces and skips off to her room. As if she wasn’t just asking our friend if he was Santa Claus.
Carly looks back toward her. “This…is going to be interesting.”
I tuck a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “It’ll be great. I promise.”
She looks up at me and smiles. “We’re going on vacation,” she says as everything that just occurred starts to sink into her brain. Our gazes lock, and I watch as she licks her lower lip.
“That we are,” I say, and then, as if a trance has been broken, she shakes her head a little.
“Oh, shit. I need to go. OK, uh, I just need my purse,” she says, spinning in a circle. She finds it and pulls the strap onto her shoulder. “I’ll see you this afternoon.”
“We’ll be here. Have a good day,” I call out as she leaves. She yells goodbye to Ava as she closes the door. I walk to the window and watch her emerge from the building and walk down the street, the wind blowing her hair slightly. Why the hell does she have to be so gorgeous?
“Unca Bray! Mr. Pickles is stuck in my suitcase!” Ava screams from her room, and just like that, I’m pulled back to reality, the one where I can’t have the most beautiful woman I know, but I can take care of her and her daughter. I guess that’ll have to do.