19. Win
Win
Rose is sitting in a booth, and her smile is strained.
“Something’s wrong,” I murmur.
“You say something, Win?” Nico yells from the other side of the kitchen hatch.
“Can you take over the cooking?” I ask him, not looking away from Rose. “I need to check something out.”
He follows my gaze, then turns to Lina, calling out, “Lina, I’ll be out back. Can you keep an eye on the counter?”
Lina, busy with a customer, glances at him and nods. “Got it.”
There’s no explanation needed here. If you have a personal emergency, Nico is the first to shove you out the door to deal with it.
If it involves family, he’s volunteering to drive you wherever you need to go.
He was like that before his wife, Alexandria, passed away from heart disease several years ago.
After he lost her, he doesn’t just put family first; he makes sure you do the same.
I pull my apron over my head and wash my hands in the small sink by the swinging door. Nico walks into the kitchen, ready to take my place.
“What tickets are up?” he asks, tying his apron as he scans the grills.
I run through everything on the grill and in the fryer. We’ve been working together for years, used to seamlessly switching when I take a break, or he has to help Lina at the front, so it’s only a couple of minutes before I walk out of the kitchen and toward table seven.
Rose's mind is elsewhere. While Ben digs into his burger and fries, Rose twirls the straw for her banana milkshake, her brow furrowed. I don’t think he’s realized how distracted his mom is.
She’s smiling and nodding, but I doubt she’s heard a word he’s said since they walked into the diner just after the busy lunch period ended thirty minutes ago.
I stop beside their booth. “Hey,” I say, scaring the shit out of her. Her milkshake glass topples, and I reach out to catch it before it spills onto the table and her lap. “Sorry.”
She forces another smile as she grabs a napkin to clean her hands. “Hi, Win. Is something wrong?”
Yeah. Just not with me.
Ever since our first movie night together a couple of days ago, it’s a regular habit. After Ben goes to bed, we pick a movie to watch in the living room. It’s become my favorite part of the day, something to look forward to, and I know I’m not the only one.
Rose was quieter than usual at breakfast this morning.
Last night, we stayed up too late, laughing, talking, and watching very little of the movie we picked out.
I thought she was just tired, like we all were, but that’s not what this is.
This, the strained smiles, the staring at nothing, the sadness she can’t quite hide, is something else.
“I just had a quick question,” I say to her, then smile at Ben. “Mind if I borrow your mom for two minutes? We won’t go far.”
Ben stops sipping his chocolate shake and grins at me. “Nope.”
Rose doesn’t move from her seat.
“You’ll be able to see him from where we’re standing,” I reassure her.
After hesitating briefly, she nods. “Okay.” She slides out of the red leather seat and follows me to a slightly quieter corner of the diner, where she can still watch Ben.
“What’s wrong?” I ask her.
She rips her eyes from Ben and crosses her arms. “Why would you think something was wrong?”
“You’re worried about something.”
“I’m fine,” she says, glancing at Ben.
“It’s always easier when you lean on someone,” I say softly, sensing her lie.
“What is?”
“Everything.”
She looks at me, sighs, then rubs a hand over her mouth. “It’s probably nothing.”
“It won’t hurt to tell me. Promise.” I cross a finger over my heart, knowing it will make her smile. I’d do anything to make this woman happy.
Her lips curve into a brief smile. “I’m not sick anymore.”
I lift my brow. “I’m confused about why that’s a bad thing.”
Her smile widens, and even though she’s barely told me what this is about, I sense her relief that she’s no longer dealing with it on her own. “I should’ve been a little clearer, huh?”
I nod.
She looks at Ben and hugs herself. “When I had my morning sickness with Ben, I was sick as a dog for weeks, literally through my entire first trimester, enough that I started to wonder what could be so great about having a kid. Now, it’s just…
gone.” Her anxiety and sadness, which she couldn’t quite conceal, return twofold.
“What if something’s wrong with the baby?
I could search online, but nothing good comes from that—like when Ben had a bad cough and an article had me convinced it could be lung cancer.
I’d call my parents, but they’d worry so much they’d hop on the first flight here, even though it might be nothing. ”
“Let’s go.”
She blinks at me. “What?”
“The doctor’s office. Rios is small. You’ll get an appointment no problem.”
“But Ben…” She gestures toward Ben, happily sucking on his chocolate shake. “Lina is busy. I can’t leave him here. And if I take him to a doctor's office, he’ll know something’s wrong and will worry.”
“Murph’s office is down the road. We can drop Ben off to learn about building houses for an hour or two while you see the doctor.”
She chews on her lip and furrows her brow, then she shakes her head. “He’ll be working like you should be instead of rearranging your day because of me.”
I lean toward her, making sure I have her full attention before I tell her something important.
“Murph will take a break to watch Ben, just like I would. Joel would have, but he needs more advanced warning to take off work because he can’t leave Ben at the firehouse in an emergency.
Nico let me walk out of the kitchen to find out what was wrong with you because family always comes first.”
As she peers up at me, I silently will her to believe that there’s nothing I—and Joel and Murph—wouldn’t do for her and Ben.
“Okay,” she agrees. “Let’s go to the doctor.”
“Come on.” I take her hand and lead the way back to Ben.
Rose smiles extra wide at Ben, trying to hide her looming doctor's visit from him. “Mommy has to run an errand with Win. How do you feel about staying with Murph at his office for a bit?”
He sucks on his milkshake so fast that Rose reaches over to take it from him before he chokes. “Stop that. We can come back.”
“I can put that in a go-cup,” Lina calls over from a few tables away after hearing Rose’s yell.
“That would be great, thanks, Lina.” Rose smiles gratefully at her, then turns to me. “Are you sure about this? What if Murph has to work?”
“Then we’ll just ask,” I say as Lina heads to the front counter and returns with a plastic cup and a straw, pouring Ben’s milkshake from a glass into it.
“There you go.” Lina slides the cup to Ben, who takes it with a grin.
“Thanks, Lina.”
She playfully wags a finger at him. “And slow down with that thing, okay? You’ll suck that straw right into your head if you’re not careful.”
“Okay.” Ben nods and resumes sipping his shake at a slower pace.
“Don’t worry about the check if you need to rush off,” Lina tells Rose. “I’ll leave it on the side for another time.”
“I’ll take care of it,” I tell Lina, pretending not to see Rose’s frown as I pull out my cell phone to call Murph, stepping away from Ben so he won’t hear. Rose moves closer to me but keeps her eyes on Ben as she listens.
Murph answers on the third ring, and I put it on speakerphone for Rose.
“What?” Murph grunts.
My brow lifts at his tone. I’m someone he likes. I don’t want to know how he answers the phone to someone who calls trying to sell him something.
“I’m taking Rose to see the doctor,” I tell Murph, lowering my voice for this next part. “She’s worried about the baby. Can you watch Ben for an hour? Could be longer depending on how soon the doctor can squeeze her in.”
“Sure. Bring him round. He can draw and hang out with the guys. We don’t have any site visits today, so if her appointment takes longer, it takes longer. She there?”
“I’m here,” Rose says, leaning toward the phone I hold toward her.
Despite Murph’s gruff, less-than-welcome greeting, his next words are softer. Warmer. “Sweetheart, I know it’s easier said than done, but try not to let your mind go to dark places until you’ve seen the doctor, okay?”
A small smile tugs at the corners of her mouth. “I’ll try.”
“I’m ready for Ben whenever you want to swing by,” Murph says and hangs up the phone.
Once I check that Ben is still occupied, sipping his milkshake, I move farther away and make another call, this time to the doctor’s office.
Wendy, Dr. Hoffman’s receptionist, picks up after two rings, and I confirm he’s available for an emergency appointment for Rose.
There might be a wait of twenty or thirty minutes while he finishes with another patient, but it’s fine to bring Rose in so she can start filling out some medical forms.
Rose looks overwhelmed by how quickly this is all unfolding, and I can’t say I blame her.
Five minutes ago, she was toying with the straw for her milkshake, and now we’re about to walk out of the diner to drop Ben off with Murph while we head to a doctor’s appointment. And she didn’t arrange any of this.
Rose looks at me. “So, it’s happening?”
I tuck my phone into my pocket. “Just need to get you there and fill out some forms before you go in. Oh, and I need to let Nico know, but he won’t care. Are we going in your car or mine?”
She hesitates.
I could pluck the thoughts out of her head; she’s that easy to read. “You’re not making any of us do anything we don’t already want to do,” I reassure her. “We’re offering.”
“Okay, thanks, Win,” she says softly. “Um, my car. Ben needs his car seat.”
“Let me tell Nico I have to go, and we’ll get out of here.”
I don’t get a quarter of the way through explaining why I need to leave before Nico’s waving me out of the kitchen with an order not to hurry back.
I hold Ben’s hand as I lead him out of the diner, making up a story about a monkey that escaped from the zoo, hoping to keep him distracted so he doesn’t notice Rose’s anxiety.