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She was still Raven. Frankie was still Frankie.
But she also discovered that her giving meant that they were closer,andshe felt about a hundred pounds lighter.
No hiding.
No shame.
No thinking she didn’t deserve the bright, beautiful friendship that Frankie gave.
Just taking.
And, for once, being completely okay with it.
Twenty-Two
Connor
“Hey, baby, you wanna get out of here?”
He froze, fingers on the keyboard, and glanced back over his shoulder, seeing Raven popping her head around the corner, peeping on him while he worked at the nurse’s station.
“Does that line actually work?”
A shrug. Her lips turned up. “The ladies like it.”
He smothered a grin, pushed in the keyboard, and stood, prowling over to her, getting close—though not too close, considering they were at work.
They’d laid the groundwork with HR, not wanting to fuck anything up for either of them with them both working in the same department while they explored this connection between them. Since there wasn’t a policy on record forbidding it, they were good. But further than that, it hadn’t been an issue. Mostly, he figured, because they were both good at their jobs and they normally worked opposite shifts. Unless Raven was on call or one of them worked overtime, there would be minimal overlap.
Of course, he didn’t want to make it an issue either since they were currentlyonthe same shift (and he figured the powers that be would frown upon him making out with his woman in the middle of the department), so he stopped a couple of feet away.
“And what do these ladies who love that awful pickup line say in response?”
One corner of her mouth turning up further. “They ask a question.”
“What question?”
She waggled her brows. “Your place or mine?”
Damn.She was fucking funny. And beautiful.
Andadorable in her scrubs and white coat, the glittery badge holder Maggie had bought for her clipped to the pocket. A train sticker adorned the back of her stethoscope, clearly courtesy of Cole. He saw the pen his dad had given them all for Christmas, one of the dorky stocking stuffers he gave them every year. Last year’s collection of random shit Connor usually just threw straight into the trash had been that pen, a solar calculator, and a utility tool. Meanwhile, Raven had kept the pen, put it somewhere she would use it most every day.
Andseriously.
This woman had spent years thinking that she didn’t fit with the women who were her friends—and yeah, they were good women, mostly because he wouldn’t expect his brothers to choose anyone else to love, to say nothing of the people they all picked to fold into their family. But Raven had spent a long time thinking she wasn’t worthy, thinking she had nothing to give…and she didn’t get that by accepting their care, by doing things like working at Frankie’s place and taking a knitting class and building sandcastles, she was doing the same thing.
She didn’t get that.
Orhadn’t, he supposed.
Because ever since she’d left, since she’d had that time with Auntie Pat, since she’d come back and done that pondering she’d mentioned, he could see the change.
She was getting it.
And now let him just decide what was in her mind, what she was thinking.
Grinning, knowing he was a dumbass, he reached out and tugged at her ponytail.
