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“Why not? Did you and Tony have an argument?” Austin sounded surprised.
“No, I thought I should stay home because you're hurt.”
“Josh, I promise I am not hurt. You should go to Tony's house for the party. He's expecting you to be there. You’ll have lots of fun. And besides, I have your mom, the best nurse in the state to help watch over me.”
“Are you sure?”
“I would be sad if you didn't go,” Austin said firmly.
Satisfied, Lindsey hurried into the kitchen. Josh joined her a minute later. “He said I should go,” Josh informed her. “He's really fine.”
Refraining from stating the obvious—I told you so—she nodded and smiled. “Good. Get your things together so that we have everything ready to go by tomorrow.” The plan was for Josh to go home with Tony Friday after school and stay overnight for the party on Saturday.
“Okay!” Josh ran to his room.
She had taken advantage of the chance to work a double shift on Friday, since Josh wouldn’t be home. It had been a long time since she’d done sixteen hours straight, but the overtime would help cover that first large payment on her new loan. Austin would be okay in her absence; she would do his dressing change early in the morning before she left and then check it again later that night when she was home.
A win-win, she told herself. All she had to do was to ignore the small part of her that wanted to stay home to spend time with Austin.
Lindsey had forgotten how busy Friday nights were in the emergency department. Since going back to work after Josh had started school, she mostly worked day shifts or the occasional weekend if Sam was going to be home.
But Friday nights were crazier than any other night of the week.
At least keeping busy made the long sixteen hours of her double shift go faster.
She started to wonder if it was a full moon when the police brought in several behavioral health patients. Her admission was some guy who'd stripped down to his bare butt while standing in the middle of the street, talking to himself. When the police had arrived and asked him to put his pants back on, he'd begun to swear loudly, arguing with them and generally acting crazy. Assuming he needed medication of some sort, they brought him in to be evaluated.
Good thing they'd gotten him to put his pants back on first.
The police officer who brought in the behavioral health patient was Officer McDonald. Sean McDonald was a nice guy who she knew was a single parent, too.
“Hey, Lindsey, how are you?” He asked with a tired smile.
“Doing well, thanks. How about you? How's your daughter?”
“Much better.” His daughter, Morgan, was older than Josh, in her early teens. Sean had talked about her on more than one occasion as she was obviously struggling with the loss of her mother.
“I'm glad.” She tucked a strand of her long blonde hair that had come loose from her ponytail, behind her ear. “Is there a full moon out there or what? Could you please stop bringing in behavioral health patients?”
“Do you think we're having fun?” Sean joked. “Like I want to see some naked guy with his pants off?”
That made her laugh.
“Lindsey, are you doing anything next weekend? I'm off work and thought maybe we could go out for dinner or something.”
What? She stared at him, completely taken aback by his invitation. No one had asked her out since Sam's death. She and Sean had always been friends, he'd never hinted at wanting more. She wasn't sure who was crazier, the guy who'd taken off his pants in the middle of the street or Sean McDonald. “Ah, thanks, but I don't think so.”
“I understand,” Sean said quickly, his face turning red. “I just thought, seeing as we're both single parents, that maybe... Never mind.”
“It was sweet of you to ask,” she said, not wanting him to feel bad. “I'm really sorry, Sean, but I'm just not ready.”
“That's alright. Although if that being ready to date again changes, give me a call.” He handed her a business card with the police department logo, his name and personal cell number on it.
Bemused, she took Sean’s card, watching as he strode away. Sean McDonald was a nice looking guy but she wasn't remotely interested in going out with him. Or with anyone.
The thought of kissing any man that wasn't Austin, left a sour taste in her mouth.
She closed her eyes and rubbed her temple. How had this happened? How had she managed to get hung up on the one guy who was totally wrong for her?
