I sort of feel like a fifth wheel now. At least Bray is single for the moment, too. Otherwise, I’d be hanging with all the elderly widows and widower in the building.
I walk over to see her ring. “It’s beautiful,” I say.
She grins. “We have more exciting news,” she says.
“Please don’t tell me you’re preggers, too,” Roxy blurts out.
Cam rolls her eyes. “No. But we are getting married at Vito’s family’s vineyard in a little less than three more weeks,” she says, and then looks around at all of us. “And you’re all invited.”
My eyes widen. Drew’s boyfriend, Vito, works and lives at his family’s vineyard near Milan, Italy.
“In three weeks,” I murmur as I give Cam a curious look. She rolls her eyes, clearly understanding that I still think it’s a shotgun wedding.
“Yes. I know it’s last-minute and all, but we don’t want to wait. I’m only inviting you guys, the bakery crew, and our families,” she says.
Now, my stomach drops. I can’t afford that. And what about Ava?
As if reading my mind, Cam smiles. “Ava, too. I need a flower girl.”
“Mom, where’s Italy?” Ava asks.
I swallow hard. “Europe, Peanut. It’s across the ocean.”
“Oh. That’s far,” Ava points out.
“It’ll be fun, Ava,” Cam says. The sound of a cork popping pulls everyone’s attention toward the bar.
Al holds up a bottle of champagne. “This calls for a celebration,” he says as he starts pouring glasses. Everyone grabs one, and he pours some ginger ale into a glass for Ava.
“To Cam and Fletcher!” he says loudly, and we all yell, “Cheers.”
I watch Cam and Fletcher kiss again, and I suddenly feel unnaturally sad. I’ll never have that again. Hell, I don’t think I really had that before.
“You sure you’re OK?” Bray asks again, as he stands next to me.
“Yeah, I…uh, just not sure we’ll be able to go. It’s pretty busy here,” I whisper.
Bray squeezes my arm, and I look up into his dark brown eyes. “We’ll figure something out. I gotta run to work.”
I don’t have time to answer before he sets down his glass and gives Cam a hug and Fletcher one of those bro, back-thumping hugs as he leaves.
I watch him disappear as the door shuts to the stairwell. What does he mean we’ll figure something out?
CHAPTER FOUR
Bray
I slump into a chair in the break room. It’s been a hell of an evening. Three car accident victims with massive internal bleeding, one guy who nearly sawed his finger off, a kid with a nail in his foot, two heart attack patients, a kid who is on chemo and likely contracted an infection, and a teenager who will be having his appendix out later tonight. It’s the chemo kid that really has me messed up. It makes me think of Lanie and my childhood. Watching one of your friends go through that at age seven is horrific.
My hookup buddy, Becca, walks into the room and sits down.
“Rough night?” she asks. Becca and I met about five years ago. She’s a nurse here at the hospital. She’s normally up in the ICU, but with all the craziness down here, she got called in to help.
I shrug. “It’s been a long night,” I say with a sigh, wishing I could head home instead of working another two hours.
“We could…you know,” she says as she motions toward the door. Two rooms down is the supply closet, where, when we’ve needed to blow off some steam, we’ve hooked up a few times over the years.
“Nah. Not tonight,” I say for reasons I’m not entirely sure. We haven’t hooked up in a few months, even though we’ve both been single.
