“Is normal as awesome as it seems?” I ask, my voice rough.
Ian’s laugh reminds me of when we were kids. “Normal’s underrated, Felix. It took me a long time to figure that out, but it’s pretty fucking awesome once you do.”
“I can see that,” I say, thinking about Piper and Ellie. Feeding my sourdough starter and being on sandbox duty and the way my heart squeezes when Ellie snuggles into me. The best part of normal is coming home to people who know the real me, not just the wide receiver who makes highlight reels.
“You’ll get there.” Ian squeezes my shoulder. “You’re already closer than you think.”
From downstairs, Eric yells for us to hurry up before they start without us.
“Coming,” Ian calls back, then studies me for a few seconds. “You ready?”
I consider the question. Am I ready for poker with these guys who don’t expect anything from me except my company? Or am I ready for this new life that’s taking shape around me, whether I planned it or not? Maybe I’m ready to believe I could have something like what Ian’s found.
“Yeah,” I say. “I’m ready.”
We head downstairs, where the others are already settled around a professional-grade poker table. Cards are shuffled, chips distributed, and trash talk initiated. A night like this is exactly what I didn’t know I needed.
I love football and always will. I get off on the adrenaline of game day, the precision of a perfect route, and the roar of the crowd when I make an impossible catch in the end zone. The game is in my blood.
But I could also get used to normal.
Hell, I think I already am.
“Felix, you in or you gonna sit there daydreaming about Piper all night?” Ian asks, grinning like the asshole he is.
“Fuck off,” I say, tossing a chip into the pot. “And I’m all in.”
Eric raises an eyebrow. “Bold move for the first hand.”
“That’s how I play.”
And just maybe, it’s how I’m going to win.
22
PIPER
The Skylark Community Hospitalparking lot looks the same as it did three weeks ago when I stormed out of here with my dignity in tatters. The pothole near the employee entrance is still there and the scraggly ornamental grasses lining the walkway are still struggling against Colorado’s unpredictable weather.
Some things never change.
Except me, apparently. Three weeks ago, I was Piper Hart, the pediatric nurse who couldn’t keep her shit together long enough to make it through a single shift after seeing her ex-fiancé’s smug face in the hallway. Now I’m Piper Hart, the secretly pregnant pediatric nurse who’s shacking up with an NFL wide receiver and playing house with his adorable ward. Either way, I’m still trying to figure out if any of this is real, or if I’m going to wake up and discover it was all some bizarre fever dream brought on by excessive morning sickness.
I pull into a spot three rows back from the entrance and cut the Jeep’s engine. My hands shake slightly on the steering wheel, which is ridiculous because I’m simply here to talk to Casey Plummer, my old nurse manager. Casey is kind and understandingand definitely didn’t deserve the way I bailed on her and the entire peds unit without so much as a two-week notice.
My phone buzzes with a text from Felix.
Felix: Good luck, Hart. You’ve got this.
Felix: Also Go Pi from Ellie, so she believes in you, too.
I smile despite the nerves twisting my stomach.
Me: Thx, Barlowe. Needed that kick in the ass.
It’s followed by a photo of Ellie, with what looks like an entire container of yogurt smeared across her face, grinning like she’s over the moon for the man snapping her pic.
Can’t blame her, given that I feel the same. After I got home from Molly’s Friday night, where the book club ladies grilled me about Felix as if they were casually curious and not totally obsessed with my love life, Felix tried again to apologize for the proposal disaster.
