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“Do you really miss the life?” her tone was serious. “Is that why you said you would come back?”
He sensed that his answer meant a lot to her, so he tried to explain the best way he could. “Lately, I’ve been going through the motions of life. Almost like I’ve been sleepwalking. I thought that being in this line of work, it would be something new every day. That there would be excitement and high stakes. But in reality, it’s a lot of waiting around. If going back to boxing wasn’t an option, then this would be fine. But since it is, I don’t want to settle for the second best version of my life.”
Her eyes narrowed. “So, your decision has nothing to do with my dad being sick?”
“Of course it does, Charlie gave me…everything. And then I walked away from it all, from him, and look what happened.”
“That’s not your fault,” she insisted.
He wasn’t so sure. “It doesn’t matter because there’s nothing I can do about it. I can’t change the past. But I can do the right thing now, and going back is the right thing. I can keep an eye on things, on him.”
Letting out an audible breath she ran her hands through her hair. “I’m still not sure he should be doing this.”
“Neither am I, but I don’t think we get a vote.”
“Yeah,” she agreed sadly. Then her face lit up. “But, he seems to listen to that nurse Stephanie, maybe we should recruit her.”
“I’m not sure that Tapioca pudding is going to be as valuable a bargaining chip once he gets released,” he reasoned.
“Yeah, you’re probably right.”
He could see the worry and anxiety that this was causing her and he would give anything to take it away. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t promise her that Charlie was doing the right thing. He couldn’t promise her that her dad would be fine. He couldn’t promise her that everything would work out.
All he could do was promise her that no matter what happened he would be here, for her. “Whatever happens, we’ll get through it. Together. You’re not alone.”
He waited to see if his declaration would be met with dismissal, denial or delight.
“Do you think she’s pretty?”
Deflection…that was a d-word he hadn’t considered.
“Who, Stephanie?”
“Yes, Stephanie,” she confirmed as if the answer was as obvious as finding Waldo in a nudist camp.
He really wasn’t trying to play dumb or buy himself time, he just wanted to make sure they were talking about the same person.
“Yeah, she’s hot.”
A few months ago, he would’ve been more than happy to find out what was under that redhead’s loose scrubs. But not now. Now he only cared about what was under his loose T-shirt on the brunette sitting across from him.
His answer caused Maxi to sit up straighter. She crossed her arms. “You can ask her out if you want to. I don’t care, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“Really?” Her words were saying that she didn’t care, but her tone and body language were saying that she cared a lot.
“Really.” She nodded a little too enthusiastically. “If you think she’s ‘hot’ you should go for it.”
Unlike in Jessie’s office when she was protesting too much, now she was encouraging too much. He wanted to point out that if she was Pinocchio her nose would be growing, but instead he just said, “Good to know.”
“Good to know?” she parroted. “So you’re going to ask her out?”
This was a fork in the conversational road. One path led to having a serious discussion about the fact that he was only interested in her and he didn’t see that ever changing. The other path was keeping things light and saving the “relationship” talk for a time that she wasn’t so emotionally raw.
As much as he wanted to lay everything on the table he knew that it wouldn’t be fair for him to do it now. Plus, giving her something to think about other than her dad’s health or the psycho that was harassing her probably wouldn’t hurt either. “I didn’t say that.”
“So you’re not going to ask her out,” she clarified.
“I thought you didn’t care what I do.” He stood, cleared their plates and took them to the sink.
