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“I don’t get to do what? Be a part of your life? Because that’s what this whole thing feels like you were trying to say.”
“No, Dad. You don’t get it. You really think Garrett’s a shithead? You really think he’s the same as Phil and Pete?”
I glance up to take a look at Shell, who’s licking her lips at my attack on her husband, but still, somehow, manages to look down at me with apology in her eyes. She’s really the best sister, I have to give her that, but that’s a conversation for a different time and place.
“If he walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, what am I supposed to think he is, darlin’?”
“Oh, stop,” I say with an angry shake of my head.
“You’ve been together a month, right?” he asks without waiting for me to answer. “Tell me, baby, how many days out of that time have you actually seen him?”
“You’re right. He’s been gone. You would know because so have you. But I’d rather be with a guy who’s truly sorry to have to go than one who’s completely apathetic about his ability to stay.”
My dad’s forehead crinkles as my words sink in, but I don’t pause—I don’t let up.
“Pete and Phil, they’re there all the goddamn time without a single shit to give. Garrett may be gone half the month, but when he’s there…”
I have to swallow against the building emotion.
“When he’s there, he’s there. He’s present and helpful and fun and supportive and attentive. He’s twice the guy he needs to be because he only gets to be him half the time.”
Garrett
Lauren doesn’t even notice as I pull to a stop behind her car in her dad’s driveway, shut off the engine, and jump down outside. She’s busy in the middle of a rant, her arms flying out to the sides as she talks animatedly to Cap.
Her sister Shell stands on the top step, in front of the door, and gives me a small smile as she notices me come up behind Lauren in the driveway. Her words, though, they bring me to a rocking stop.
My heart clenches in my chest as the overwhelming certainty that I’ve done the right thing—that I’ve chosen the right woman—washes over me like a springtime rain shower.
It’s gentle and comforting, and it makes me want to wrap my woman up in my arms and never let her go.
“Lauren,” I say gently, pulling the Cap’s very active eyes straight to mine as she spins around.
“Garrett,” she says before tugging her lips into her mouth and then letting them go. “What are you doing here?”
I shrug. “I had a very strong feeling this is where you were heading when you hung up on me.”
“I’m sorry,” she apologizes.
“Are you kidding?” I ask with a chuckle. My woman dropped everything to go to battle for me. She doesn’t have anything to apologize for. “Lauren, you’re everything,” I say simply, trying like hell to put a whole fucking truckload of feelings into a tiny little jar.
“I love you,” she says back, and her dad’s eyes widen behind her as he puts his hands on his hips. But I stop paying attention to him and close the gap between myself and my woman, cupping her face in my hands as she goes on. “I don’t know how it happened or when or what you did to convince me to allow it. For me, it’s been about me and my career since the time I left home to go to college. I did that and then medical school, and then spent years doing my internship and residency and living on my own.”
I sweep a thumb under her eye just as a teeny tear slips out.
“I wasn’t supposed to come back here and find someone,” she says. “And I definitely wasn’t supposed to see his penis before he knew my full name.”
I laugh at that and shake my head. God, I’d had to make a laundry list of famous grandmother figures to keep myself from getting hard during that infamous appointment.
“But I did,” she says, her voice certain. “And the rest of it…I’ve never had something feel so right. So, I love you. And your kids. I don’t love your schedule, but I get it.”
“Lauren, I don’t think you’re going to have to worry about my schedule,” I say with a small laugh.
“Yes, I am,” she protests. “Because you’ve worked too hard and too long, and if Station 18 can’t see that, you’ll find another.”
“Lauren—”
“No. You’re doing this,” she refutes. “You’re not abandoning your career because of a bump in the road and a woman, for God’s sake. I get it, the importance of this thing you do. Not in a way that we’re going to be together for fifteen years and I’m going to start to resent you. In the kind of way that I can’t even imagine you doing something else—being some other person. I promise, if you keep up your end—if you continue to treat me the way you have since the moment you stepped into my life—I’ll do the same. I’ll be there for you. There for you when you’re here, and there for the kids when you’re not. Because as much as Sarah scares me, I love them too. Probably too much.” She shrugs. “Okay, definitely too much. Sarah would certainly tell me I’m being way uncool right now.”
