I pull her hands away. “I’mgladyou like me.” I inhale, then speak on a rushed exhale. “I was starting to feel lonely.”
“Lonely?” Her forehead scrunches.
“Yeah.” I roll my lips. “I thought I was alone in how I was feeling.”
Her gaze turns wary. “And how is that?”
“You know what I mean,” I say softly. “The pining. Yearning.” I brush a hand along her foot, and she shivers. “Aching.”
She turns her head to the ceiling. “Damn you.” When she looks at me again, her face shifts to an expression of resolve. “Okay. Tell me more about you then. Something I don’t know.”
“Hmm.” I scratch my chin. I run my hands over her gorgeous legs, admiring the view as I think. “You remember Tom? That gangly guy I used to hang with in high school some? He played football with me.”
“Tom Buckman? Yeah. Me and my friends used to call him the chinless menace.”
I laugh. “He deserves that. But I hated him even then. Not as much as I disliked myself, but close.” I trace a path along her shin. Her legs are so smooth I want to rub my face against them. “I know that I had a problem with feeling like having money meant I should automatically be more successful than those who didn’t. I cared too much what other people thought of me. That guy, though. He would have committed terrible crimes if he thought it would win him points with his friends.”
“Sometimes belonging to a group is more important than the truth,” she says.
“That’s a lot of wisdom for a Sunday night.”
She pulls her legs off me and sits up. “I have some good thoughts occasionally.” She bends forward to put her elbows on her knees. “So you aren’t still friends with him, I take it?”
“Hell no. I don’t know what happened to him. He’s got an uncle who’s a politician, so for all I know he’s into that. Or he went to prison. Who knows.” I scoot closer to her so that our thighs press together. “Tell me about your friends. The ones you’re really close to. The other nurses, I mean.”
“Well, you met Maria at the gym. She’s kinda shy, but she’s a steady rock, like the heartbeat of our group. Gwen can be grumpy when you meet her, but she’s actually really soft andloving inside.” She gives me a sly smile. “She grew up rich. Way richer than you. East coast, Connecticut kind of wealth.”
“And you don’t dislike her on principle?”
She shrugs. “I never claimed to be consistent. My friend Joan, the blonde one, is tall like me, even taller than me, actually. She’s this amazing athlete. She’s our peacemaker, and probably the most optimistic out of all of us in some ways.” She laughs. “I feel like I’m talking about the seven dwarfs. Bashful, Grumpy, Happy. But they’re obviously much more complex than that.”
“Which dwarf would you be in this case?” I nudge her leg.
“Doc, I hope.” At my groan, she laughs again. “Sorry, that was really corny. Ugh. Gwen says I’m our shit-stirrer, which sounds about right, don’t you think?”
“I like that about you, though. You’re just not intimidated by anything.”
“Isn’t that what you were trying to squash, though? When we were younger? I always thought that’s how bullying worked. It’s a power dynamic.”
I blow out a breath. “Honestly, even after hundreds of hours of therapy, I still don’t know. But I’m glad you fought back. I’ll say that. It drove me crazy at the time. You just didn’t seem to care what I thought.” We’re leaning on each other now. “Are you going to move back there you think? After you’re done with school?”
“I don’t know. I know they need doctors. It’s hard to imagine, though. Sometimes I think it’s better for me to be away from there. What about you?”
“Definitely not.” I shake my head. “I know the area needs help, and sometimes the people promising that aren’t the right ones to help them. But I’m not sure it can be me.”
“I totally understand.” She stands. “You want a drink or anything?”
“Nah.”
She cocks her head. “You want to stay here with me?” Her voice is quiet. “Is that a weird thing to ask?”
“Kendall. I’ll spend any extra time I have with you. All my minutes.” I smile. “And I’m wearing sweats. I can sleep in those.”
“I have an extra toothbrush. We can go watch something in my room, if you want.”
“Yeah.” My heart dances an erratic rhythm in my chest. “I would really like that.”
She finds a toothbrush for me, and we get ready for bed together. I keep extra clothes and scrubs in my car, so I don’t need to go home in the morning. We settle under Kendall’s covers together, and she turns the television on.
