“Good,” Eli says. “He had surgery this morning, and he’s in recovery and didn’t have any complications. Jude wanted to stay home, but of course he can’t. And Sadie insisted it wasn’t necessary. She promised she’d update him daily and keep the rest of the sorority sane.”
“Sorority?”
Eli laughs. “That’s what Jude calls his sisters. You’d get it if you saw the three of them together. They’re like this hive-minded girl gang. They torture him and protect him at the exact same time and, honestly, I’d say it’s one of the most dysfunctional functioning families ever. Cracks me up.”
“Do you have sisters?” I ask, still trying to cover my curiosity about Sadie’s family.
“Nope. Just Levi and my brother Todd, so this sister thing is foreign to me,” he says, and luckily his skepticism seems to be quelled now.
“We’ll talk more about strategy at the practice when we land,” I say, essentially dismissing him. He gets up and makes his way back to a seat next to his brother, but I can’t help wondering if he’s going to wonder about my invasive questions again.
Damn. I now get to spend the rest of the four-hour flight worrying I might have just made Sadie’s life harder…or made my goalie think I’m some kind of weirdo.
16
Sadie
This has been the longest week of my life,” I confess to Griffin as I lean back on the gross old couch in the nurses’ lounge. It’s vinyl and a color that can only be described as baby poop, at least according to the NICU nurses. It’s got stains that can’t be wiped off and an ugly tear in the left arm. Normally I avoid it and sit in one of the plastic chairs around the long table near the fridge, but I’m just so damn tired. So tired I’m confessing my true feelings to a guy I barely know. I sigh into the phone. “Sorry. I must sound so overdramatic, and I shouldn’t be dumping on you.”
“You don’t and this isn’t dumping,” he says and his tone is soothing without being patronizing. “Your family is going through something big.”
“Yeah, but you don’t have to hear about all my family drama.”
“I don’t have to, but I want to,” he replies firmly. “You don’t have to keep things bottled up.”
“How’s Charlie? She must have been happy to see you.” I’m very ready to change the subject.
“She was thrilled,” Griffin says, and I can hear the relief in his voice. “We had a really fun night. I dropped her off at school this morning and I’ll have her back on the weekend,” Griffin says. “But for now the team is on a break for a couple days, and I was hoping you might be free tonight?”
“I am.” I have never been so excited for a day off before in my life.
“So it’s a date then,” he confirms.
“Yes.” I feel instantly better—happier, more awake, more alive. “When and where?”
“I can pick you up from work if you’re down with that, and we can just go grab a bite and a drink and see where the night leads,” he replies, and I really like the open-ended way that statement ends.
“That works,” I reply. I’m grinning like a lunatic—a horny lunatic. I glance at the industrial clock on the wall. “I have to get back. My break is about to end.”
“Tonight, love,” he promises. I hang up and take a deep, grounding breath. I’m not sure what’s more ridiculous, the fact that he calls me “love” when we’ve only known each other for a few weeks or the fact that when he says it, I feel euphoric.
Unfortunately the feeling doesn’t last. My shift is chaos. The ER is packed with everything from toddlers with stomach bugs to heart attacks and car accidents. If I wasn’t on a day shift I would go outside and look for a full moon. I have to call for a neuro doctor twice because of head injuries, and Dr. Luongo is the one who responds. Bob is friendly and cracks a couple jokes with me, which is great. It’s the first I’ve seen him since he asked me out, and I’m so glad nothing’s changed and we really can be friends.
The day is so crazy that I don’t have time to run upstairs and say a quick hello to my dad. My shift finally ends, and I’m blissfully off the clock for seventy-two hours. I change into street clothes—boyfriend jeans and an oversize T-shirt with some floral Toms. I normally just come and go in my scrubs, but keep this outfit in my locker as backup for when I have days like this and my scrubs are covered in something gross—in this case, toddler puke—and I can’t commute in them. I wish I’d brought something fancier or sexier as a backup outfit, but it is what it is. My excitement over spending time with Griffin trumps my insecurity. I hum to myself as I head out of the nurses’ lounge.
“Hey!” I look up from where I’ve frozen with my purse and my coat in my hand near the nurses’ station. Jude is walking toward me. “Have to give any creepy old guys a sponge bath?”
“Yeah, but I like it. Old creepy men turn me on,” I tell him and lean forward, darkening my expression. “The more back hair the better. I love to run my hands through it, and sometimes I don’t use the sponge to clean them…I use my tongue.”
“Stop! You need a better sense of humor,” he lectures, and I swear his complexion is green. “Gross is not always funny.”
“Really? Then why does your expression when I talk like that make me laugh so hard?” I ask, giggling. “Here to see Dad?”
“I’ve already seen him,” he says. “When I wheeled him over to the diner across the street for dinner with the family.”
“What?” My heart stops. I realize how vehemently I don’t want to share Griffin with my family. I want to keep him all for myself. I want time to savor this new relationship.
“His doctor gave the okay,” Jude explains. “I came back to get you so you could join us.”
