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“What do you normally eat on your pizza?” Seth asked.
They’d ordered slices from the all-night café, but their choices had been cheese or pepperoni. She’d settled for cheese.
She shrugged. “Depends. If it’s just a quick Friday night binge, I like cheese pizza. But when I traveled a lot, I would always find the hole in the wall pizza joint and order their special.” Just the thought of pizza piled high with meats and veggies made her mouth water, almost as much as the thought of Seth had all day.
Seth shifted toward her. “Why don’t you travel anymore?”
“What do you mean? I’m on a ship in the middle of the ocean hundreds of miles away from home. Does that not count as traveling?” She turned her head to see him staring back at her with his dark brow raised.
“You know what I mean. You said you lived in a van. What happened?”
She sighed. Where did she start? “I got married.” Though that wasn’t really where it started. She’d given up traveling before she took Kyle’s last name.
Seth made a sound in the back of his throat. “No, there’s more than that.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“I don’t know. I just feel like there’s a story there.”
He wasn’t wrong, but that didn’t mean she could explain it to him. “I already told you I was a travel nurse, right?”
He nodded.
“I ended up at his hospital in South Carolina. One night Kyle—”
“Your husband?”
Something stopped her from answering. Yes, Kyle was the man she’d married. He was her husband, but he also wasn’t. She was still learning to navigate that reality.
“I’m sorry. Did I say—”
“No, you’re fine.” She waved off Seth’s concern. “Yes, Kyle was my husband. He was also a pediatrician in town. One night one of his patients came into the ER, not for the first time. The ER doctors called him in since he knew the patient well. After that I saw him frequently.”
“So, how did that stop your traveling? Was he so irresistible you couldn’t leave him behind?” There was a smile in Seth’s teasing voice.
She shook her head. She and Kyle had never been like that. He was comfortable. She enjoyed her time with him. When he’d asked her to stay and marry him, it had seemed like the next logical step in her life. The usual guilt she felt when analyzing her marriage weighed on her now.
“I was staying at a local campground in my van. It was summer. There were some major storms coming in, so Kyle suggested that I stay at his place one night instead of going back to my van.” She could still remember how nervous he’d acted, and how sure she’d been that staying wouldn’t change anything between them. But it had. “After that it became easier and easier to just stay with Kyle. Eventually I stopped going back to the campground. It didn’t even feel like moving in. Since I had my van in the driveway, I never moved my things into his house. It just happened.”
“And?”
“And what?”
“And what happened next?”
She lifted her hands then let them fall, slapping against her thighs. “When my contract was up, he suggested I stay. He found me a job at a doctor’s office and asked me to marry him. So, I did.”
They sat in silence for a few moments. She didn’t know what Seth thought of her story. He hadn’t asked many questions, not that she had many answers. She still couldn’t quite figure out how her life had taken such a drastic turn from what she’d expected.
“I remember you now.” His voice cut through the dark night between them. “Ashley used to talk about you. I remember her telling me stories of your adventures. I just didn’t realize until today that you’re the woman I’d heard so much about.”
She shifted, uncomfortable with what Ashley may have told Seth about her. Ashley had always accused her of settling. She’d never hidden her feelings from Courtney or Kyle.
“She always called you Corey,” he continued.
“Only Ashley still insists on using that nickname.” Courtney had used the name as a child when she was a wild tomboy. Kyle hadn’t thought it fit a grown woman, definitely not a doctor’s wife.
Seth smiled. “I like it. I’m not sure if it fits you anymore. But I like it.”
