Chapter 24
“So, how has it been going back to your roots?” Marie asked as we sat in the breakroom during lunch.
I chuckled. “It hasn’t been that bad.” Since I could still work as an RN, I was covering for one of the other nurses that day.
“Tell me how many times you almost put in orders by accident.”
“A few,” I answered with a laugh. “But I stopped myself before I fucked up the chart.”
She smiled, chewing a mouthful of her leftover pasta she’d brought from home, and then spoke. “It’s weird not to see you with your partner in crime.”
“It feels weird not working with him,” I agreed.
Marie glanced around the breakroom, checking to make sure we were alone, then leaned in and lowered her voice. “How are things going with you two?”
Her question caught me mid-bite, my stomach suddenly flipping. I couldn’t help my smile. “They’re...going.” My heart began to beat quicker, nervous hope swelling inside me.
She eyed me with a suspicious grin. “‘Going’? I’m going to need you to elaborate.”
“Things are good. We’re just…exploring, if you will.”
“Exploring?” She arched her brow. “That’s what they’re calling it these days?”
“Shut up. You know what I mean.”
Marie giggled. “You are so far gone already.”
“I am not.” I shot her a look, embarrassment and giddiness warring in my chest, but she only laughed harder. “Okay, maybe I am…a little. I just…”
“You’ve already fallen.” It wasn’t a question but a statement.
I sighed, feeling vulnerable. “Yeah...yeah, I think I have. And I don’t know if that’s incredibly dumb of me or not, but he just makes me feel all of these things, and my stupid heart is in overdrive.”
Blake made it so damn easy to fall for him. Too easy. He was sweet. He listened as if what I said actually mattered. He was smart. He was ridiculously good-looking. In bed, he left me undone.
With every little thing, he kept checking every goddamn box I had.
Part of me worried these feelings were just my hopeless romantic heart setting itself up for disappointment—a kind I knew all too well. But another part of me felt it deeper than anything before. With Blake, every moment vibrated with something new and intense.
I wanted so badly to trust that latter part of myself, but I was worried that I was just falling into my old tried and true habit of making myself see what I wanted to see.
I’d pulled more than a few “gotcha” moments on myself in the past, so despite wanting it to be, trusting that this was different wasn’t easy.
Marie was grinning like an idiot. “And…what does Blake think? Feel? Say?”
“I don’t know…he’s really good at keeping things to himself,” I joked.
Partly. “He’s affectionate and flirty, but I can tell he still has some walls up, even though he tries not to let them show.
I don’t know if it’s because of my brother or what, but I don’t want to push him either.
So, I’m just trying to let things play out. ”
“Is he really that concerned about Wes?” Marie asked.
I nodded. “Yeah, I think he is.”
“Look, I know your brother can be a bit over the top and dramatic with you at times, but I’ve seen worse. Plus, he doesn’t strike me as the type to let something like this get to him. Wes is so damn laid back.”
“He is, but at the same time, they’ve been best friends since they were kids.
I think it’s more about loyalty for Blake, like he feels he’s betraying Wes by keeping it from him, and he thinks Wes will see it that way, too.
But like I told him, there’s nothing to tell.
Not yet. Not until we figure out what this is and where it’s going to go, if anywhere. ”
The following day, I was back to working alongside Blake.
The ER had been relatively quiet that day—a word we never said out loud so we wouldn’t jinx ourselves.
So, after discharging our last patient, we decided to check and restock the code carts and drawers in the rooms to give ourselves something to do.
I was grabbing some things from the supply room when the door opened, and Blake walked in. “Grab some O2 tubing, too.”
I nodded and glanced up—the tubing I needed was on the top shelf.
Standing on my tiptoes, I tried reaching for it, stretching as far as I could.
Suddenly, I felt Blake step behind me, his chest brushing against my back.
He grasped the steel shelf with one hand to steady himself and reached up with the other to grab the tubing for me.
For a moment, I was boxed in by him, surrounded by his presence, and I didn’t hate it one bit.
He lowered the oxygen tubing in front of me, dipping his head. “Here ya go, baby girl…”
I all but melted on the spot, a flush rushing up my neck. He knew exactly what that damn term of endearment did to me.
Was he teasing me?
On purpose?
At work?
It was definitely working.
“Thank you.”
I took the tubing, but he didn’t let go right away. “You know…” His voice turned amused as he leaned closer to my ear. “We could always run out to your car and see what supplies you have in there for stocking.”
I huffed out a laugh. “Ha, ha. Very funny.”
His chest rumbled with laughter against my back before he stepped away, and the absence of his warmth was immediate. I turned to face him, intent on making a playful retort, but before I could speak, the door swung open.
Marie poked her head inside, breaking the moment. “Blake, can you come to bed three?”
“Yeah,” he answered, giving me one last look before following her out.
I blew out a breath and turned, grabbing a few more things for the cart before stepping out. Once I had them in their drawers, I walked toward bed three, where Blake had been called to.
When I slid up beside Marie, who was grinning at me, my heart stuttered.
There was Blake, in all his six-foot-four broad muscled glory, holding what had to be maybe a three-month-old little girl, his face softening in a way that undid me.
Something fierce tangled in my chest at the sight; he had no damn right looking that good holding a baby.
Marie nudged my arm with a chuckle. “You’re welcome.”
“I think my ovaries just exploded,” I whispered.
She cupped a hand over her mouth, trying to stifle her laugh. I kept my gaze on Blake, watching as he listened to the worried parents. They explained that their baby had seemed to be short of breath.
Blake gently removed his stethoscope from around his neck and positioned it over the baby’s back.
He carefully laid her on the stretcher, his tall frame hovering protectively as he listened to her tiny chest. As Marie stepped forward to assist, I watched Blake smile down at the baby, who stared back at him with wide eyes, her little arms and feet wiggling in response to his attention.
“Let’s get an RSV, and I’ll put in for a chest X-ray, breathing treatment, and labs.
” Marie nodded and was already moving while Blake explained the next steps to the parents, then turned and stepped out of the room, looking at me.
“Sorry. I would have waited for you to get in there to do the exam, but I didn’t want to freak the parents out any more than they already looked. ”
“No, it’s okay,” I said as we walked back toward the physicians’ charting area, and I tried getting the image of him holding a baby out of my head.
After work that night, I followed behind Blake’s Jeep, driving over Gilded Hill Bridge and turning down his road before pulling into his driveway a few minutes later. When we walked into his house together, Maverick met us at the door, tail going wild as he let out a few cute little howls of hello.
“Hey, buddy,” Blake said as he dropped his bag and reached down, scratching his head.
Maverick wiggled right by him and came to me, and I chuckled as I crouched in front of him, turning my face as he tried to lick it. “Hi, Mav.”
“Well, fine,” Blake playfully huffed, earning another laugh from me.
Blake changed out of his work clothes, then fed Maverick. Afterward, he moved to the kitchen and made us something for dinner. It wasn’t the first time we’d done this in the last few weeks since we had agreed to see what happened. This routine had honestly become one of my favorite things, though.
It was so damn domestic, and I couldn’t help the flutter it gave my chest or my desire for it to keep happening—coming home after a long workday, being with Blake and Maverick, having dinner. It was easy to want it. To crave it.
When Blake finished cleaning up after dinner, he walked back to the living room and paused at the end of the couch, arching his brow. I was lying down, and Maverick, who liked to think he was a lap dog, was lying on top of me.
“Alright, Mav. My turn,” he said, snapping his fingers and waving his hand for him to move. Maverick just looked at him…then rested his head against my chest, earning a soft chuckle from me. “Mav…you gotta move, pal.”
When Maverick let out a grumble, I began to laugh harder. “He loves me. What can I say?”
Blake looked at him again, and Maverick lifted his head and barked. “You’re a traitor.” He sighed, reached down, and popped up a moment later while holding Maverick’s favorite ball. He immediately sat up, making me grunt with the movement. “Go get it.”
Blake threw it behind him, and when Maverick flew off of me to retrieve it, he quickly moved, climbing onto the sofa and settling his stomach between my legs, our faces level as I laughed.
Maverick was back within seconds, stilling with his ball in his mouth as he looked between me and Blake, both of us staring at him silently.
“He looks so betrayed,” I whispered through a giggle.
The ball dropped from Maverick’s mouth as he focused an accusing look on Blake. Without warning, he leapt onto the couch and climbed onto Blake’s back, making both of us grunt with laughter as he nudged at Blake, eager to play.
Blake squirmed above me, most of his weight braced against his forearms, when Maverick buried his snout into his neck, trying to play. “Mav!” He chuckled. “Quit it!”
As I laughed while watching the two of them, all three of us now piled onto the couch...I realized how much I wanted more moments like these.
A couple of weeks later, I was at Lucas’s and Callie’s house—everyone had been invited for their annual Friendsgiving dinner.
The guys were watching a movie in the living room. Callie and Morgan were in the kitchen, laughing over wine with their boss, Grace. And I was on the back patio, watching Maverick zip back and forth between me and the backyard as I threw his ball.
“Good boy,” I cooed as he brought it back. I held my hand out to take it back, but he jumped onto my lap on the patio loveseat instead, making me grunt. “You’re not a lap dog, Mav.”
“He seems to like you.”
I glanced over to see Morgan step outside, smiling as she looked at me with Blake’s dog, and I chuckled. “He likes anyone who will give him attention.”
Morgan smiled. “He’s been around all of us quite a bit, but he’s seemed to take a special liking to you and your attention. Almost like he’s used to it.”
I met her gaze, and when she looked at me, I swore I saw something knowing flicker in her eyes, like she was putting pieces of a puzzle together.
She offered me a curious smile, looking between me and Maverick once more. “Dinner will be ready in five.”
I nodded, trying to play it off. “Okay.”
Morgan cast one more suspiciously amused glance in my direction before turning and walking back inside.
Shit.