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Great. That was just great.
Me: Did you get home okay?
Blondie: I ended up going straight to the zoo
Me: How is everything there?
Blondie: Just busy. They had 8 more positive tests already. Puff was negative, though, so you don’t need to worry.
Me: I’m glad the little man is okay. But listen…I don’t like how we left things. I know you’re busy, but we need to talk about that kiss. I don’t want to do it on the phone, but when I get back, we need to talk, okay?
Blondie: Sure. Great.
Me: Ok
“Sit,”Tom Wilson barked at me.
Holding back a grunt of annoyance, I dropped into the black chair in his office at the training facility. This space was smaller, more efficient than his space in Boston. Pretty much black and white. Not much personal shit. Just a phone and computer on the desk. A stack of binders and a few books on the shelf behind him. A white board with notes on the opposite wall. The man was pretty streamlined.
His fists clenched on top of the black desk and he angled closer. “I thought I told you a few more days.”
He had, but my dad was doing better. His only issue when I left was that he was aggravated with Gianna and me for being around constantly. And if I couldn’t be at the hospital with him, then there was no point in staying in New York.
I fully intended to bring him up to Boston as soon as I was back home, but Gianna and the two lovely nurses we hired would have it covered when Pop transferred to a short-term care facility. So I was back in Florida.
“It’s been four days. I’m ready to pitch.”
He narrowed his blue eyes, the ones he’d passed on to Avery, at me. Automatically, my hand lifted to tap my wrist in what had become my heartbeat of calm over the last year.
I took a deep breath and racked my brain, searching for words I could string together coherently. Avery and I were not in a great spot, and it was my fault. I owned that. She had shocked me when she kissed me, and I’d reacted like an asshole. I’d been waiting a year for that moment. I’d planned and thought about every detail of how I’d finally kiss her again. And nowhere in the grand scheme I created did I intend to give her a quick peck in a hospital parking lot before parting ways yet again.
Maybe I should have opened up to her then. And I definitely should have gone in for another kiss. But even if I had, we’d still be ten states apart and probably even more unsure. Because I wasn’t in the right head space to have the conversation we needed to have.
Our texting for the last few days had been shit. She’d been busy with the sick birds, and I’d been dealing with setting up care for Dad, so our only communication had been limited to quick check-ins that revolved around those two topics.
I swore I almost passed out from relief when she told me the puffins and penguins had tested negative. But then I’d wished I could pull her in close and hold her when she mentioned that Sarge was getting sicker. That was really weighing on her. But I wanted to give her space to deal with that, and I was making an effort to be here to listen when she needed me.
Plus, I couldn’t dive into my feelings about her through text message. It was alook her in the eye, slash my heart out of my chest, and hand it to hertype of conversation.
“Does this mean you think you don’t have to listen to me?” Tom Wilson’s words jarred me back to the present.
Clear the air with him. That was my goal.
“Sir.” I swallowed. “I know I need to listen to you, and I respect that you have more knowledge and experience than I do.”
He cocked his head to the side, his lips parting slightly.
“But,” I continued, resting my elbows on the armrests of the visitor chair and lacing my fingers, “it’s a two-way street.”
He reared back in his chair and crossed his arms.
I held out a single hand. “Please let me explain.”
He gave a clipped nod.
“I want you to hear me, so that means I need to stop yelling. I get that. I need to stop acting like an ass, because no one takes a person like that seriously.”
His brows were practically in his hairline now.
