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Meg lets out an audible gasp, finally turning toward me with her face lit up. “How was it?” she hisses, drawing attention from the other day shift staff.
Awesome. Freaking fun. I hope I get to do it again. Instead, I shrug, not wanting to let myself get excited over this. But God, it feels good to have him in my life again.
“It was good, but hard. I remember now how much I liked him.”
“Did you hear about the ex-wife? I’m dying to know who she was.”
“No, no discussion of the ex. He asked me if he could take me on a date, but I said no.”
“Atta girl,” Meg says, raising her hand for a high five.
I politely return her gesture, but not her enthusiasm. I said no, but why did I feel sad telling him no? There is a part of me that wants to so badly, but there is the bigger part that worries he will change his mind about me and leave me hanging, though he says otherwise.
“His daughter, Allie, she’s so cool.”
“Cool is kind of a loose term for a toddler, isn’t it?”
“You’d be surprised. I think having a young kid in your life would do you some good. Pretty soon you’ll find out, Auntie Meg.”
I turn over my shoulder to see Lainey following Margaret, right on her heels but clearly being ignored. “What do you think of the new girl?”
Meg shrugs. “Even though she’s quieter than a church mouse, she’s beautiful, she seems sweet and smart. Let’s hope she likes it enough to become one of us, that is, if Margaret doesn’t eat her alive first.”
“Practice your matronly, nurturing side. Take her under your wing.”
Meg rolls her head over to me to give a death stare, slapping a Post-It note to my chest in the process. “You get the first admit of the day.”
Chapter Fifteen
“G
irl, one of these days you need to learn how to cook.” I peel the plastic covering from my TV dinner and pop it in the microwave, starting the three-minute countdown until I can eat.
I lean my elbows on the counter, using the position to stretch out my neck and back. My body is screaming from the non-stop work shifts, begging for a massage or an orgasm, or both, wishing for an end to the madness.
My phone rings somewhere in the distance, and I consider ignoring it, but Meg was off today and spent the day helping her little sister shop for baby gear. And since I love drama that doesn’t involve me, I scramble to my purse, and rummage through it as the call ends. I swipe the screen and audibly gasp when I see the name of the caller.
Emmett.
We have seen a lot more of each other lately. I’ve been going over there for dinner once or twice a week, we’ve extended our hangouts to include the aquarium and the children’s museum, basically anything we think Allie would have a blast at. But most communication is through a quick text or in person, he’s never called at—my eyes flick up to the clock on the stove—almost eight o’clock at night.
I immediately call back, my stomach swirling at all the scary possibilities of why he’s calling so late.
“Everything okay?” I ask, ignoring his hello.
“Everything’s fine . . . just wondering what you are up to and how big of a favor I can ask of you.”
My shoulders sag in relief that they are fine, and I tuck the phone between my shoulder and ear to pull my frozen dinner from the microwave. Double checking the box that I picked out is indeed a chicken stir fry because the mush in front of me looks more like a pile of refried beans.
“You can ask anything of me, you know that.”
“This storm is supposed to continue all night long; they’re predicting power outages all over the city, so though I worked today and work tomorrow, it’s all hands-on deck for on-call tonight. Normally my sister or my mom takes Allie for the night if this happens. I called my sister, and her boys have been sick all day. My parents are in Cabo . . .”
I’m tossing my disgusting dinner in the garbage and moving to the hall closet to pull out my boots and jacket before he finishes talking. “I’d be happy to come hang out with Allie. Be there in twenty.”
A huge sigh of relief on his end. “Thank you,” he says earnestly. “You have no idea how much this means to me; I owe you.”
“You don’t owe me shit. I told you I’d be available for her anytime you needed. Just know that I haven’t had dinner, so I’ll be raiding your pantry.”
