She’s Mine Now

by Parker, Weston

  “Where do we go from here? Will you call me to schedule the next session, or do we do that now?”

  Oh, so now we’re all business again? I sighed internally. I liked getting those glimpses of who she was when her shields were down, but it didn’t seem like she lowered them very often.

  While I understood that she was probably embarrassed, I couldn’t see so much as a trace of it anywhere on her features. “I’d like to see Adi three times a week. We can look at our schedules now to find the times, or we’ll give you a call. We’ve got a few minutes before our next session.”

  “Okay, let’s do it now.” April fished her phone out of her pocket while Hunter suddenly appeared with the tablet we kept our calendar on. “Is there any possibility we can do it when my shift ends? My sister will be dropping Adi off for me, so she’ll be at the hospital anyway.”

  “Sounds good,” I said.

  Hunter nodded. “Let’s go through your shifts for the next two weeks and see if we can work around them. Then we’ll see how that works before we schedule the next sessions.”

  “That’s perfect,” she replied, taking the tablet from him and speaking while she compared our calendar to hers. “I have to do more shifts to work in some of the time I’ve been out, so we might just be able to make this work despite how busy you guys are.”

  She whistled between her teeth as her eyes darted from her screen to ours. “Wow. You really are busy, but I think I’ve worked us in.”

  When she’d found suitable slots that were available, Hunter added their names and grinned at Adi. “We’ll see you around, kid.”

  He glanced at April and lifted his fist for a bump. “Good luck with the extra shifts. Those hours can really suck.”

  “You’ll be a welcome face back,” I commented without thinking, and I saw Hunter bringing his palm to his face from the corner of my eye.

  Well, this is an awkward end of the day for us.

  April nodded after a beat. “Okay, then.”

  She took Adi’s hand and led her out of the room. I groaned out loud when the door banged shut behind them.

  “You’ll be a welcome face back?” Hunter cracked up, shaking his head at me. “That was smooth, bro. Really.”

  “Shut up,” I grumbled, but he completely ignored me.

  “You know what would help you come back from that?” he asked, but I could tell it was rhetorical. “If you could find a shop to buy some game from, you might stand a chance. You’ve run out. Don’t even buy a top off. Buy the entire refill.”

  He smacked me on the shoulder, still laughing as he went to put the mats back on the stack and get our stuff ready for the next patient. The saddest thing of all was that I couldn’t even argue with him.

  I knew it’d been a while since I’d tried chatting someone up or flirting, but that had been a disaster. And I hadn’t even been trying to flirt or ask her out.

  If making simple conversation with her ended like that, Hunter was right. I needed to find somewhere to stock up on game because mine seemed to have run out.

  Chapter 10

  APRIL

  Saturday morning came and brought with it my first day back at work. “Are you sure you’re feeling okay? I can stay if you aren’t. Aunt Katie will be here soon, but I can cancel my shift if you need me to.”

  Adi sat on our couch playing with a foam ball that was part of her therapy and watching me pace around the room. “No, Mom. Don’t cancel. I’ll be fine with Aunt Katie. I’m feeling better. I promise.”

  I frowned and stopped moving for a second to really look at her. “Are you sure?”

  “I’m fine.” There was a tiny hint of exasperation in her tone that made me dread the imminent teenage years.

  It also told me I’d been hovering far too much the last few weeks. “Okay, but you’ll call me if you need me, right?”

  “Right.” The doorbell rang, and she jumped up to get it, almost like she couldn’t wait to get a break from me.

  I ran my fingers through my hair, breathing deeply through my nostrils as I tried to calm the emotional storm raging around my insides. Normally, I wasn’t one to let my emotions rule me. In fact, I was quite good at shutting them down and not showing them at all, but since Adi’s accident, I had been all over the place.

  Although it had meant going into the red with my leave at work, I hadn’t been able to convince myself to go back earlier. Every time I thought about it, I got slammed with the guilt over what had happened the last time I’d left her alone.

  The protective mother bear in my chest roared every time someone so much as looked at my daughter. I knew I was being an erratic helicopter parent, and yet I didn’t know how to regain my rhythm.

  Going to work was probably a good place to start, even though the prospect of leaving Adi with Katie for that long was terrifying to me. Not because I didn’t trust Katie but because there was that stupid voice inside my head saying no one could care for my daughter the way I could.

  But as I heard my sister joking with her and asking how her therapy went, I knew I had to get my shit under control and get the hell back to work. I forced a smile to my lips when Katie walked into the living room.

  “Hi. Thanks for coming.”

  She frowned at me, pulling her head back. “Thanks for coming? What’s with you?”

  “Mom’s being weird today,” Adi supplied helpfully.

  Katie arched her finely plucked brows. “I can see that. Is everything okay? Did something go wrong with physical therapy? Adi just told me everything was fine.”

  “It was fine,” I replied. “Chris is still confident about her chances of making a full recovery, but I’m pretty sure he’s now also confident that I’m secretly obsessed with him.”

  “What?” She frowned. “Why?”

  I flicked my hand like it hadn’t been one of the most humiliating experiences in my life. “Adi told him about how I thought I was too poor for him.”

  Her eyes flew wide open, and she brought her hand to her mouth to hide her smile. “She did?”

  “Yeah. She did. I didn’t have an answer that wouldn’t make it sound like I was secretly obsessed with him, so I just shut it down.”

  “How’d you do that?” Katie rounded the couch and set her purse down on it. “Because whatever you did, I’m quite sure you just made it sound more like you’re obsessed.”

  “She said we’re not allowed to repeat girl talk to boys,” Adi chimed in.

  My sister stared at me, blinking rapidly with her jaw slightly unhinged. “That’s what you said? Yeah, he definitely thinks you’re obsessed.”

  “I just really hope he isn’t there today,” I said. “If I don’t see him for a few days, maybe that’ll make things less awkward.”

  “I doubt it.” She smirked and pointed at the door. “Well, let’s go, stalker chick.”

  Narrowing my eyes in my best screw-you glare, I held her gaze to make sure she got the message and then went to gather my things. My heart raced when I left the apartment, a hollow feeling settling in the pit of my stomach.

  Once I was back at my desk and had updated all my colleagues who asked about Adi’s condition, I took a few breaths and tried to concentrate on work. All morning, I pretended that I wasn’t looking for Chris, but whenever I looked up, I found my eyes roaming the lobby for him.

  Why I was looking for him, I didn’t know. I really wanted it to be so I could duck in time to avoid him, but there was a gnawing truth at the back of my mind. I wanted to see him simply because I wanted to see him.

  Those light green eyes had been popping into my thoughts too often to deny it. I’d also wondered on more than one occasion what it would be like to drag my fingers through his silky hair or to run my hands down the muscular planes of his back.

  When he still hadn’t shown up by lunchtime, I realized he was probably either busy upstairs or not on shift. It shouldn’t have mattered where he was anyway. Unless I wanted to seem even more obsessed with him, I needed to get a damn grip.


  Determined not to be the stalker chick my own sister now thought I was, I marched down to the cafeteria and resolved to do better after my break. I will not look for Doctor Sexy—

  My thoughts were interrupted by a familiar deep voice coming from behind me. “Mind if I join you?”

  I whirled around on my seat, briefly wondering if I’d somehow summoned him with my borderline obsessive thinking about him. “Yeah. No. Sure.”

  Oh, God. Since when do I stammer around guys? Kicking out a chair across from me, I focused on giving him a smile instead of trying to figure out the confusion swimming around my head.

  Chris looked as good as ever, his blonde hair just messed up enough to know he’d been working and hadn’t bothered to check it. His green eyes seemed to sparkle in the midday sun shining into the courtyard where I’d taken a seat, and his lips formed an easygoing smile.

  “How’s Adi doing?” he asked, sitting down opposite me.

  I shrugged, acting like I wasn’t suddenly a bundle of nerves for some odd reason. “She’s good. She’s been practicing those stretches, and the ball is basically glued to her hand.”

  He chuckled, and the rich sound of it made my stomach feel all warm. Maybe I was coming down with something.

  “That’s good news. Dedicated patients always recover faster than those who only work while they’re with us.”

  “You’ve definitely got a dedicated patient in her.”

  I cocked my head after giving myself a quick pep talk. I’d been acting so unlike myself recently that I was even annoying my own daughter. I needed to calm down and get back to being me. All this freaking out, hovering, obsessing, and snapping wasn’t me.

  Which wasn’t to say I wasn’t a bitch at times. I just wasn’t usually one without reason. Chris hadn’t given me any reason. If anything, he was possibly the nicest person I’d ever met.

  “I’m sorry if I’ve come across as a crazy person,” I said. “This has just been a really difficult time.”

  “No need to apologize.” His smile grew wider. “I’ve already told you I understand. How are you holding up with everything?”

  “Worse than I thought I would,” I said, surprising even myself with my honesty. “One minute, you think you can handle anything life throws at you and rock at it, and the next, you get knocked so far off your game that you don’t even recognize yourself.”

  Understanding softened the corners of his eyes. “The universe sure has a way of putting us back in our place if our heads get too big. It’s happened to us all, I think.”

  Something told me he really did understand, but prying into his innermost thoughts and experiences didn’t feel right. I sat back instead, spearing a tomato with my fork and deciding it was better to just keep things light.

  “You and Hunter seem to work well together. How long has he been your assistant?”

  Thankfully, Chris seemed onboard with my plan about ignoring all the heavier topics for now. Since he’d met Craig and had been the doctor at the emergency room when the medics brought Adi in, I was sure he had a million questions.

  But he seemed content not to ask them now, which made me like him even more. “We’ve been together since I got started about eight years ago. He’s a giant and a goofball, but I love him. My job would’ve been impossible most days if not for him.”

  “He seems really good with kids,” I commented. “Adi can’t stop speaking about you two.”

  He grinned. “He is good with kids, but she’s a really good kid. It’s not difficult to warm up to her.”

  “About that.” I fidgeted with my fingers in my lap, but I knew this was my opening to address the massive elephant sitting on the table between us. “I’m sorry about what she said in that session. My sister and I weren’t discussing you behind your back or anything like that. She just asked about the doctor treating Adi, and when she heard what nurses called you, she felt compelled to remind me our visits with you are for Adi’s benefit. I only made that comment to get her off my back.”

  His eyes lit up with amusement. “Don’t even think about it. I’ll admit to being curious about what you said, but it’s not a big deal. I know how these things go. How’s your first shift back at work?”

  Chris and I spent the rest of our lunch break talking. We stuck to small things, just getting to know each other. He asked about Katie and Adi and told me more about his practice, Hunter, and what their machinery was capable of.

  For the first time in weeks, I actually felt like myself. I laughed, teased him, and didn’t constantly feel like I had to keep my guard up just in case trouble was waiting around the next corner. It was a nice change of pace.

  “It was good to see you, April,” he said once our burgers were done and our water bottles drained. “Maybe we could have more lunches together.”

  It wasn’t a question, but it wasn’t a demand either. He had this way about him that just made things easy.

  I nodded so automatically it was almost like my head was attached to a string someone else was in charge of. “Sure, that would be nice. Same time tomorrow?”

  “Tomorrow is my day off, but I’ll see you on Monday?” He flashed me another smile that absolutely should not have made my heart go all aflutter.

  “See you on Monday,” I said. “Enjoy your day off.”

  As he walked away from me, I couldn’t help but steal a glance at his firm butt. The guy had a nice ass. And nice eyes. And a nice smile.

  And also, none of those things were only nice. Despite the fact that I knew better, for one fleeting moment, I wondered if having my own Pretty Woman story would really be all that bad.

  Chapter 11

  CHRIS

  “Man, it stinks out here. I love it.” Hunter took a deep breath and grinned at me, pulling his faded ballcap lower over his forehead. “There’s nothing like a Sunday morning next to the water.”

  I nodded and set my tackle box down between our feet. “I’ve heard the stripers have been biting this season. We should have made some time to do this months ago.”

  “Yeah.” He shrugged before crouching down to bait his hook. “Shifts have been crazy recently, though. It’s not like we’ve had much free time.”

  “True.”

  He unpacked what we needed, and we both lapsed into silence as we got our rods rigged up. Once we were done, he walked a safe distance down the pier and cast his line. He was still close enough that we’d be able to speak while we fished, but far enough away that I, hopefully, wouldn’t get a fishing hook through my lip.

  “If we went into private practice, we wouldn’t have to deal with such crazy shifts,” he said. “It’d still be hard work, but we’d make our own hours and we could have a ‘Gone Fishing’ sign made for when we just need to get out.”

  “I don’t think it works that way.” Making sure there was no one around me, I let my own line fly and widened my stance. “If we set our own hours and actually do well, we might end up working even more.”

  “But the hospital won’t let us have a ‘Gone Fishing’ sign,” he argued with amusement in his eyes when he glanced at me. “If it’s our own place, we can just hang it on the door whenever we want.”

  “Again, I don’t think that’s how it works.” Swells tugged at my line and gulls cawed and darted overhead. They might not be well loved by beachgoers, but there was something about them in this environment that made it feel right.

  It relaxed me more than I had been in a while. Tension melted out of my muscles as a gentle breeze cooled my skin. Hunter has a point. We really should do this more often.

  “Maybe we could designate a certain time slot on a specific day that we use to get out of the office,” I said. “We might not always be able to fit fishing into that break, but we could try for a couple of times a week.”

  “That’s the spirit.” Hunter grinned, crab-walking over to give me a high-five before going back to his spot. “Are you really thinking about it then?”

  “I don’t know.” I narr
owed my eyes as I considered his question. “I’d like to go private, but is now the right time? There’s a lot more to it than just making a decision and going for it.”

  “Why?” He frowned and jabbed a thumb at his chest. “I could take care of the business side of things. I took some classes in college.”

  “I didn’t know you took business classes,” I said. “You’ve never mentioned it before, but it would come in useful if we decided to do this.”

  “Maybe I should’ve said I was enrolled in business classes. I might or might not have taken the actual classes.”

  I rolled my eyes at my friend. He liked to joke around, often pretending to be dumb when the truth was that the guy was extremely smart.

  “Even so, I’m sure you’ll do just fine running the business. But that’s not the only thing we’d have to think about. We’d need the space, the equipment, and marketing for a start. We’ll probably also have to hire someone to handle the admin and scheduling. Plus, we’d have to leave the hospital. Are you really ready to leave all our patients?”

  He sighed and lifted his cap to run his hand through his hair before shaking his head. “No. I don’t think I’d be able to leave them.”

  “There you have it then. Until we’re ready to leave them all, we can’t go anywhere.” That was the long and short of it and the reason I still hadn’t left the hospital.

  “We could offer to keep treating them,” he said after pausing for a minute. “Some of them might look us up and come with us when we leave.”

  “I’m sure some will but not all of them would be able to afford private rates.” An image of April and Adi at our first session flashed in my mind.

  As if Hunter had seen right into my brain, his eyebrows arched and he shot me a questioning look. “You’ve always said you weren’t in this for the money. Maybe it’s time to put that money where your mouth is. But speaking of the Adams family, have you heard from April again?”