Open fracture outside of the hospital setting was not on my BINGO card yesterday. Hell, it wasn’t on my in-the-hospital BINGO card either. After a long shift where we dealt with a child from a neighboring town with a brain hemorrhage, I was looking forward to a bubble bath, a steaming cup of tea, decompression, and a solid sleep. But that was too tall an order, apparently. The plan was to park, grab a couple of things at the market, then walk the two blocks to treat myself to my favorite coffee. But when I stepped out with my bag of groceries, I watched a horrible scene unfold in front of me in slow motion. Some teenager didn’t heed the stop sign, blowing right through it into a tourist riding a bike. I watched this guy crack his head, fly up over the car, and then land in a contorted jumble of limbs. The sound was the worst of it for me. I mean, radial open fracture was a very close second, but the deafening thud sound of a body hitting a car turned my stomach. It had been burned into my mind since I was sixteen.
Going over the incident, I was grateful that Maeve’s boss, Donovan, magically appeared and called 9-1-1. That was thefirst time I’d ever seen him outside of the office. I wondered about that one. He was hands down the most attractive man I’d ever seen, but he also didn’t exactly put out warm, fuzzy, or even friendly vibes. At best, he was indifferent to me; at worst, he actively disliked me because he never said anything more than hello before he retreated into his office whenever I stopped by. Today he seemed friendly—offering me a ride, coffee, and help. I made a note to stop by the office to thank him for all of that because I disappeared without saying goodbye yesterday.
Although I had several things on my to-do list, I had the next two days off. My dad, his wife, Trina, and my two brothers were coming into town from the city to have dinner the following night. It wasn’t prohibitively far, but at a couple of hours each way, it never felt like I saw them enough. I had to shop for food, get my house in proper order, set my table, and plant some spring pots—all that housekeeping stuff. Not that any of that mattered to them, they were pretty laid back, but it gave me a good excuse to just get it done.
After my workout and shower, I head out to Main Street to get my errands done. Main Street is one of the reasons I could never leave here for the city, or anywhere else. I loved walking down this road, enjoyed seeing all the things that have been here forever, and loved all the new stores that have taken hold. But most of all, I loved seeing all the people. There was so much life in these couple of blocks, and they were lives you were invested in because you cared about them at some level. I didn’t like the anonymity of the city. Don’t get me wrong, I curse small-town gossip as much as the next person, but at the end of the day, I deeply love my community.
Today, I was going to partake in one of my activities on errand day—walk around town to buy all the things I neededand then go back with my car to pick everything up in one fell swoop. You definitely couldn’t do that outside of a small town.
The hardware store had an impressive gardening center, but I didn’t actually love the act of gardening; I just loved admiring said gardens. I wanted someone to water my plants and pick the weeds. One day, I’d define my success when I could hire someone to do that for me. Plus, I felt like even when I tried to give my best green thumb efforts, everything just died anyway. But spring was a time for rebirth, and I was going to give it another go. Laughing to myself, I thought about how much my mother loved her garden. I’m sure she was rolling in her grave that I could not properly take care of one. Actually, I was surprised she didn’t haunt me about it. I tried to call on her spirit to guide me, but it didn’t work, and now I was winging it. A billion dollars later, I had my greenery for my pots.
Next up, table flowers. I didn’t see what I wanted at the garden center, so I made my way to the florist. Looking around the store, I was waiting for something to catch my eye when something striking certainly did. Donovan Wright was here. This man was next level. I knew who he was immediately yesterday when he approached me on the scene of the accident. Hell, I’m pretty sure everyone did. But that scene was hard to stomach, and he handled himself surprisingly well, which was impressive. He also wasn’t his usually indifferent self, though I thought it was telling that he felt like he had to introduce himself to me.
It appears I also caught his eye. “Audra,” He said, looking at me in surprise. “Two days in a row. What are you doing here?” The deep velvety timber of his voice could make someone weak in their knees. It was me. I was someone.
“Um … getting groceries?” I replied sarcastically, but regretted it as soon as it came out of my mouth. That wasn’t the way to make friends, especially with someone who barely gave you the time of day. Besides, wasn’t the better question what was he doing here? Didn’t he have people to do this for him? Like Maeve? He was probably getting some ridiculous bouquet for some lady he was trying to woo. I could imagine he had people lining up around the block for him.
He gave me a funny look and smiled. “Yeah, I guess that was a foolish question. Should I say, what is your occasion for buying flowers? Better?”
“I just need some table flowers. I’m having company over tomorrow for dinner, and I’m recreating a tablescape from Pinterest.”
“A what?” He stammered. I imagined it was hard to make a man like him trip over his words. It already felt like I was ahead of the game when I had him smiling at my snark earlier.
“Tablescape,” I laughed at his reaction and the ridiculous word. “It’s like what you’d see in a magazine. Google it. Fancy stuff, Wright. You probably know nothing about that kind of fancy,” I teased, and nudged him with my shoulder, immediately feeling embarrassed that I touched him. “What is your occasion?”
“My sister took the bar in February for the first time, and she’s awaiting the results. They should be arriving soon, and I just wanted to send her some love, regardless of what the outcome is.”
It was my turn to be caught off guard, and my hand went over my heart. “That is the sweetest. How lucky is she?”
“Just about as lucky as people who are going to see the hard work of someone tablescaping for them. Can that be a verb?”Did Donovan Wright just make a joke, or was that an honestquestion?I had no control over the chortle that escaped me. After a second, he joined in my laughter.
“You just wait. It’s going to be good. No, great! Best ever!”
“Oh, believe me, I’ll be waiting with bated breath.” He said, as he kept chuckling. Picking up a flower that was kind of ugly, he looked at me, wagging his brows as if he was asking if I wanted it. I shook my head no, and he did it again with another questionable one. It wasn’t even that funny, but nevertheless, we were making such a racquet giggling that people were looking at us. When we finally pulled it together, he spoke, “God, I haven’t belly laughed like that in a very long time, certainly not over something as ridiculous as this. Thank you for that.” Donovan’s eyes sparkled at me, and dimples popped out on his cheeks. Lord Jesus, I didn’t know those existed on his perfect face. It was also telling that I didn’t know the man had dimples. “Please,” he continued, “let me get the florals for your tablescape, and you can repay me by showing me your work next time you’re in the office.”
“Gosh, no, don’t worry about that. I’m not sure how much I’m going to spend.” I know he was doing pretty well in this life, but there was no reason for him to be picking up my tab.
“Fine,” he didn’t argue, “but do I still get to see it later?”
“Next time I come to the office,” I smiled at him, “I promise.”
“Deal.” He held out his hand to shake. I took it, and when my hand grabbed onto his large, warm hand, tingles spread at the point of contact. Glancing down at my hand and then up at him, he was staring at my eyes with a look on his face I didn’t know well enough to peg. His eyes really were amazing. This was the first time I’d gotten to have more than a cursory glance at them because he’d never come out of his office or hang around when I came by. They were a silky chocolate browncolor and were positively captivating. After a couple of seconds had passed, he broke the trance. “Ok, I have to place this order and get back. It was great seeing you, Audra, especially since we didn’t have to do anything like keep someone calm who had a bone sticking out of their arm. It will be an even better day when you show me your photos.” He nudged me back.
“Thanks for the laugh today. And about yesterday, thanks for the coffee and the 9-1-1 call. It was really helpful to have you there. Sorry, I took off without saying goodbye.”
“No need to apologize. Standing around covered in blood isn’t my thing, either. I was happy to help. Have a great rest of your day.” He stepped back, smiling without breaking eye contact, and I felt the slightest flutter in my stomach.
“You too!” I smiled and went back to my florals. After he was done with his transaction, he turned back again to wave as he walked out. What an interesting interaction. When I finally decided on what to get, I brought my armful of flowers to the counter to pay, but Mrs. Twilinski informed me it had already been taken care of. She had owned this flower shop since I was little, and she would always hand out carnations to kids when their parents bought flowers.
“How?” I asked, knowing exactly how.
“Well, it says here there is an open tab from Mr. T. Bill Scape,” she smirked as the words left her mouth. She must have read my face because before I had a chance to say anything, she blurted out, “Honey, he does a lot of business here, so while I can’t make you put these on that tab, I highly encourage you to do so. Besides, if a man like that wanted to pay for flowers, I think you’d be a fool to say no,” she said as she fanned her face in an exaggerated fashion.
Touché, Mrs. Twilinski. Touché. Deciding to do just that, Iwalked out with gratitude, a smile, and a phenomenal spread of flowers I was excited to arrange.
My dinner menu for the next day included chicken and steak fajitas with all the fixings, so when I got home from the grocery store, I started preparing everything I could. My mind, however, was on Donovan Wright. I had no idea that version of him existed. As a thank you for the flowers, I decided to save him some of the food to go along with the tablescape photos he requested. After that and the latte the other day, I thought it would be a friendly gesture. Maybe he’d even leave his office when I stopped by next time.
3
