Page 410 of The Doctors Will See You Now

She smiled hugely then. It might have been at my expense, but I didn’t care. For one, I’d just publically acknowledged—hell, it’s my first private acknowledgment too—the true status of my relationship with Charlotte. We hadn’t discussed it ad nauseam, but I was trying my hand at being better with signals. The signals said she was my girlfriend. And secondly, I liked that I’d given Sarah purpose. From talking to some of my previous patients, feeling incapable and like a burden was one of the hardest parts of recovery when it came to any kind of traumatic brain injury.

“Okay, let’s start with some easy ones. What hospital is this?”

“St. Luke’s,” she answered.

“And what city are we in?”

“New York. The Big Apple. Manhattan.”

“Wow,” I teased. “Overachiever.”

She laughed. “Oh yeah. I should win an award.”

“Hey.” I smiled. “Some days I don’t know where the hell I am.”

“Comforting words from my brain surgeon, ladies and gentlemen,” Sarah said over my shoulder and directly into the camera, I suspected.

I laughed at her theatrics.

“Okay, let’s try some tougher ones.” I gestured with one finger as I dug into my back pocket and pulled out my notepad with a wink. “But first, let me make sure I have something to take notes.”

I’d only made it up two out of three steps at the front of Winnie and Wes’s house when the door flew open and my daughter burst out to hug me. I went back a step and down as she hit me full force, wrapping her arms around my neck and squeezing, before jumping down like it’d never happened and running back into the house.

I watched as she ran down the hall toward the kitchen like a bat out of hell until Winnie stepped pointedly into my line of sight with a huge smirk on her face. “Your expression right now amuses me greatly.”

I lifted my eyebrows with an eye roll. “Thanks.”

Winnie laughed, long and melodic, and unwarranted, Charlotte’s completely off-key and off-rhythm one came to mind. It was weird to think about, but I imagined the two of them would get along quite well.

My stomach twisted, and my chest ached as I tried to make sense of the complicated way that made me feel. Awkward, for sure. But mostly, I think I just liked it. Winnie was the mother of my child, after all. And Charlotte? Well, she was my girlfriend, and she’d quickly become one of the most important people in my life.

I really wanted to reach that place where Winnie and Charlotte had not only met one another, but liked each other, too.

“Don’t worry, I make that face at least twice a day thanks to Lex. You just have to give up trying to understand sometimes. We’ll be forever inferior to her way of thinking.”

I laughed a little. “Yeah, I know that’s true. She runs circles around me daily. Both literally and figuratively.”

She surveyed me casually, and I let her, finally at ease with who I was and my priorities in life. If Winnie were going to analyze me, I’d much rather it be now than five years ago.

“You look happy, Nick. I don’t know what it is, but the last few times you’ve picked up Lex, I’ve noticed.”

I shrugged, even though, instantly, two reasons for my happiness came to mind. Lexi and Charlotte.

I knew my recent happiness over the past few weeks had a lot to do with Charlotte, and eventually, I wanted to give Winnie insight into my relationship, but I didn’t feel like now was the appropriate time to bring it up. Lexi could appear any moment, and I really didn’t want to start any kind of conversation that could turn personal when there was a chance she might overhear.

This was a baby steps kind of situation.

“Thanks. I’m just…happy. Lexi makes me happy. So thanks for giving me the chance to have it.”

She nodded just as our daughter came barreling past her and down the steps to take me by the hand. “Come on, Dad. You know Vinito’s gets eighty percent busier an hour from now.”

I nodded down to her and then looked back to Winnie with a smile. “Later, Win.”

“Later, Nick.”

“Don’t worry, Mom. I did my research. The house is in great condition, and if I can manage to win it at the auction, I’ll have an incredible amount of equity from the get go.”

“Are you sure you did research?”