Sean: Denver Royalty (Book 3)

by Sheridan Anne

  Instead, he had to go and flash that handsome face that I can’t have and ruin the rest of my shift. I have hardly been able to concentrate and it’s honestly pissing me off. Why am I finding it so damn hard to move on from this? The guy is fucking married. It’s not that hard. He’s taken and I need to move on.

  And, where the hell does he get off asking me to go for dinner? He has got to be kidding himself if he thinks I’m going to date him. He is positively crazy. Does he think I’m stupid or is he just a nasty kind of guy? His poor wife.

  I need a fucking drink.

  I look up at the clock. I only have twenty minutes of my shift left, then I can get my ass out of here and forget all about it for the twentieth time in the past two weeks. I mean, why does he keep showing up in my life? It’s torture.

  “Gigi,” I hear coming from Sue behind me. I turn to find her walking towards me with a bunch of paperwork in her hand. I walk towards her to meet in the middle. “What do you need?”

  “You’re just about finished, right?” she asks.

  “Yep.”

  “Have you finished all your patient reports?”

  “Just about. I have one more patient to check on and then I’m all good,” I tell her.

  “Excellent,” she says as she hands me her paperwork. “Would you be able to drop these reports downstairs? Then you can leave. Everything is under control here.”

  “Sure thing,” I smile. She shuffles off and I find myself so lucky for having such an awesome supervisor. She’s so chill and it makes for such a nice work environment.

  I pop the paperwork down with my things and quickly check on my last patient. Before I know it, I’m down in the locker room, grabbing my bag. I pull out my phone to check how Mel is doing and find a text already waiting.

  Mel – Hey, I’ve been put on a double. I’ll make my own way home. Have a good night xxx.

  I quickly hash out a reply, kind of relieved that I can get out of here early. If not, I would have been waiting around for Mel to finish and I’d definitely prefer to be home right now with a glass of wine.

  Gigi – Ok, sure. I’ll see you in the morning.

  I pick up the stack of paperwork and gingerly make my way downstairs. I find the supervisor down here and let her know exactly what I’m handing over and say goodnight.

  I walk up the hallway and something catches my eye. A little girl wandering out of the supply room with a pillow. “Georgie?” I question, instantly recognizing the little girl.

  She freezes, clearly thinking she’s just been caught doing something she shouldn’t be. Her eyes meet mine and they instantly light up. “Gigi,” she smiles, before dropping the pillow on the floor and racing towards me.

  She jumps so I quickly bend down and catch her in my arms. “What are you doing out here?” I question. “Where’s your mommy and daddy?”

  “Daddy sweeping,” she tells me.

  “He’s sleeping, is he?”

  “Uh huh,” she says, with an over the top nod of her head.

  I walk over to the nurse’s station and check which room her family is in. “And what about your mommy?” I ask as I scan the room numbers. I place Georgie up on the counter so I can get this shit done faster

  “Mommy in heaben with Grandma and Grandpa,” she says.

  My eyes widen as I look at the little girl. “Heaben?” I ask, hoping I’m not hearing this correctly. “Do you mean heaven?” Please say no, please say no.

  “Yep, heaben.”

  Shit. My heart instantly breaks for this little girl. Her mommy is gone. How could I not know this? I jumped to fucking conclusions, thinking Sean was a bastard when he’s actually the furthest thing from it.

  I’m such a fucking bitch. He must think I’m a monster.

  I can’t imagine what it could be like to lose your partner like that. I mean, when the hell did it happen? Does Georgie remember her and miss her every single day? The poor guy has been a single dad to a little girl who suffers severe asthma attacks. I can’t even begin to imagine how hard it must be. Shit, so many questions are going through my mind but all I want to do is throw myself at him and take the pain away.

  But I’ve fucked up way too much for that.

  I mean, the guy asked me out on a date for God’s sake and I turned him down. Fuck, I’m such a bitch.

  Georgie’s movement pulls me out of my head and I look down at the angel who’s currently pointing to her lady bits. “This is my jiney,” she says before moving her hand, “And this is my hiney.”

  Oh, sweet baby Jesus. “Yes, honey, it is,” I smile.

  “Do you have a jiney?” she questions.

  Far out! How did our conversation take this turn? “Yes,” I laugh. “I do have a jiney.” She’s bound to tell me more about the human anatomy so I scoop her up off the counter and put an end to it. We head down the hallway and I stop to grab the discarded pillow.

  I stand with Georgie outside the door, needing a minute to compose myself before walking in there and seeing the man that I’ve most likely hurt, after he’s already suffered so much.

  I take a deep breath and slowly blow it out before stepping into the doorway of the room. I smile to myself as I take in the scene before me. Every single adult in the room is fast asleep. Cassie and Carter lay in beds with the dividing curtain pulled right back. They both look awful, especially Cassie who has deep bruising around her eyes. Jax is curled up beside her with Max asleep between them.

  Brianna sits in the chair right beside Carter, asleep with her head lolled to the side.

  Logan is sprawled out on the floor beside the twins and Lilly who are all quietly playing while Elle lays right by him, using his ass as a pillow.

  Then there’s Sean, laid back on the couch with his legs propped up over the side. He has a space beside him which is clearly where Georgie has escaped from.

  I lightly knock on the door and all their eyes instantly ping open. Sean immediately flies to his feet as he realizes his daughter is no longer safely tucked in his arms, but calms when he sees us by the door.

  “Hi,” I cringe in the doorway as they all look to me. “I found this one wandering around in the supply room,” I explain as I hold up the pillow.

  Sean instantly crosses the room and scoops Georgie out of my arms. His arms rub against my skin and I never want to leave this moment, but it’s not like I can hold onto him without making a fool of myself.

  “Thank you,” he whispers with his eyes on mine, clearly wanting to say something else, but leaving the topic alone. He looks away and focuses his attention on his daughter. “What were you doing?”

  “I needed a piwow,” she tells him.

  He lets out a frustrated breath before placing her down on the couch.

  I give the room a tight smile before making my move to leave. “Um, Gigi,” I hear.

  I turn around to find Jax sitting up and looking over at me. “What’s up?”

  “Do you think we could get some more pain killers for Cass?”

  She instantly objects. “No, Jax. I’m fine. I just want this shit to wear off so we can go home.”

  I walk into the room and pick up her chart. I look it over and frown as I take it all in. “You should have been able to go home ages ago,” I murmur.

  “You’re kidding right?” Jax grunts.

  “Not at all,” I say. “I’ll go find the doctor and get you guys out of here.”

  “Thanks,” he says. I double check Carter’s chart and sure enough, his is exactly the same. I let out a huff, completely annoyed with the staff down here. I mean, I get it’s busy but that doesn’t mean you forget to check on your patients.

  “I’ll send the doctor in,” I say as I make my way out of the room.

  “Thanks, Gigi,” I hear chorused behind me.

  I set on my way and find the doctor. He promises to see them next and I make my way out the door, pleased I’ve done my part.

  I get in my car and I can’t stop thinking about him. I owe him an apology, bi
g time. My only issue is that I’m almost certain he wouldn’t want to hear from me.

  With a sigh, I get myself home and run a bath. Without Mel here, I’m as free as a bird and strut around the apartment in my underwear. I make myself dinner before grabbing my Kindle and running a bath. I add a bath bomb and then some bubbles. The only thing missing is my glass of wine, so I don’t waste another minute and get that shit sorted.

  I strip off my underwear and slip into the bath. I’m relaxed as fuck but I’m finding it impossible to get into this book as thoughts of Sean continue to plague my mind. Shit. I need to fix this before I drive myself insane.

  I get out of the bath and wrap a towel around my chest. I skip the whole getting dressed thing and dig out my phone.

  I pull up a new message and sit on my couch, staring at it, wondering what the hell I’m going to say. Why does this have to be so hard? I decide I should give it to him straight.

  Gigi – Hey Sean, I know I’m probably the last person you want to hear from, but I need to apologize. On Saturday, I picked up your phone thinking it was mine and realized you were married, which is why I left. Then this afternoon, Georgie mentioned to me that her mommy was in heaven. I feel like such a fool, I completely jumped to conclusions and assumed you weren’t a nice guy. I was awful to you today and you didn’t deserve it. I’m so sorry.

  I hit send and instantly throw my phone away.

  Crap. I did it. I reached out to a guy. Geez. This feeling is worse than the whole Tinder thing.

  I find myself watching my phone on the coffee table, waiting for him to respond. Ten minutes pass, then twenty and thirty.

  Just as I’m coming to the conclusion that it’s over, that I’ve completely fucked things up, my phone lights up.

  I stare at it, too nervous to actually check it. Crap, come on Gigi, grow a set of balls. He’s either going to say ‘that’s ok, Gigi, come and fall madly in love with me’ or ‘get fucked, Gigi, you’re a rotten asshole’.

  I let out my nervous breath and will the butterflies in my stomach to die. I fly forward and grab the phone before I convince myself to burn it.

  Sean – I don’t really know what to say to you. I feel like this could have been avoided had you talked to me.

  Shit, well that leaves me confused. Is this a bad thing? I have no fucking clue.

  Gigi – You’re completely right. I’m sorry. Talking to new people isn’t exactly that easy, especially ones that look like you.

  Send. Fuckkkkkk, I went there.

  Sean – I know what you mean! But yes, what Georgie said is correct. My wife is gone. Sara died three years ago during childbirth. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through and it left me completely broken. I was with Sara since high school, so I don’t know how to do this… thing with you.

  Wowza. That, I was not expecting. I read and reread his words over and over again. She died during childbirth, so he’s been doing this whole single parenting thing since Georgie was a newborn.

  He’s a lot stronger than I could ever have imagined.

  He called whatever’s going on here a ‘thing’. Honestly, I don’t think I could possibly come up with a more appropriate word for it. It is a ‘thing’. It’s not ‘nothing’ but it’s not ‘something’. We clearly have an attraction to each other. Me clearly a lot more than he does.

  I start typing back, a little unsure how to approach this.

  Gigi – Can we start over?

  Sean – Dinner?

  Holy shit.

  Gigi – I’d love to.

  Chapter 13

  Sean

  I sit at the bar of the nicest restaurant in town, feeling absolutely sick to my stomach as my eyes remain locked on the door. I can’t believe I’m about to do this. It’s my first date since Sara and I’ve never been so nervous in my life.

  I still can’t believe it’s even happening. I got that text from her and I swear, I must have sat there, dumbfounded, looking at the screen, trying to figure out what the hell to say.

  The fact that she now knows about Sara seems to make things easier. Maybe it will help her to understand why I’m so standoffish when it comes to this shit. I told her that I was broken and yet she still agreed to go to dinner with me, so maybe I didn’t completely screw things up.

  All I know is that right now, I have a second chance.

  I really like her and that thought alone scares the shit out of me. I don’t want to screw this up with her. I have to do this right, especially when I have Georgie to think about, though, Gigi seems like the kind of woman who just gets it.

  The door of the restaurant opens and I find myself holding my breath. A woman walks in but it’s not her. Shit, why the fuck am I freaking out? I’m a grown ass man. I can handle this.

  I order a beer and force myself to relax. She’s just a woman. An amazing woman. A woman who has saved my child’s life and then brought her back to me when she wandered away, even though she thought I was a cheating prick at the time.

  I have to admit, that she thought I was the kind of man to cheat on my wife nearly killed me. But I guess I can’t hold that against her. She had only just met me and the evidence she had would have been very convincing. How the hell was she to know my wife had died? It’s not like I was forthcoming about the topic.

  The door opens again and this time my heart stops. Gigi walks in wearing a knee length black dress with strappy high heels. Her eyes scan the room and stop on mine.

  A beaming smile instantly takes over her face and just like I knew with Sara, I know with Gigi. My nerves instantly leave me. This woman is going to be in my life no matter what I have to do to make that happen. I just hope she’s ok with slow. I don’t think I could jump straight in to a committed relationship with anyone just yet.

  I stand as she makes her way across to me. It’s perfectly clear that she’s nervous and she has every right to be; it’s not like we’ve had a normal start. “Hi,” she smiles.

  “How are you?” I ask as I offer her the seat beside mine.

  “Honestly, I’m kind of freaking out,” she says with a nervous giggle.

  I take the seat beside her. “Don’t freak out,” I tell her. “You look beautiful, by the way.”

  Her cheeks instantly flush and I find I absolutely love the look on her. “Thank you,” she smiles. “You don’t look too bad yourself.”

  “Can I get you a drink?”

  “Please,” she says.

  I call the bartender over and order her a glass of wine, which she happily accepts. She takes a sip and I watch as she tilts her chin up and shows off the beautiful column of her neck. Wow, she’s absolutely radiant. With the sunset shining in through the window behind her and lighting on her light brown hair, she almost looks as though she wears a halo.

  The restaurant hostess appears beside us and I watch as her eyes greedily travel up and down Gigi’s body. Hmmm, interesting. “Your table is ready,” she announces.

  At that, Gigi and I stand. I place my hand on her lower back as we follow the hostess and I feel electricity shooting through my fingertips. I help Gigi into her seat and I feel good about it all. I know it’s only just begun, but I feel like it couldn’t be going any better.

  Gigi takes another sip of her wine and I see her visibly relax. She’s comfortable here with me, just as I am with her. In fact, I’m more than comfortable with her, she helps me breathe again.

  We look over the menu and I realize this shit is a little fancier than I originally thought and I honestly don’t understand what the fuck is on this menu. I look up at Gigi and see the crease between her eyebrows as she studies the menu. “Do you have any idea what the hell this stuff is?” I question.

  She looks up from her menu and a grin instantly rips across her face. “No,” she admits.

  “You want to go get pizza?”

  Her grin turns into a beaming smile. “Would that be too rude?”

  “Hell no,” I say I push back out of my chair and come around to her side. I of
fer her my hand to assist her out of her chair. She gently places her hand in mine and our eyes instantly meet.

  I help her out of her chair and I find myself holding onto her hand a second longer than necessary. I put a twenty dollar bill down on the table for their troubles and lead Gigi out of the restaurant.

  We cross the street and I once again find my hand resting on her lower back, though it’s begging to wrap around her waist.

  We walk straight into the pizza place and put in our order before we walk over to the liquor store and grab a bottle of wine.

  By the time we get back to pick up our pizza, it’s ready to go and were left wondering where to eat. An idea hits me and I find myself sliding my hand into hers before leading her away.

  “Do you have a coat?” I ask before I make her do this.

  “Yeah,” she says. “It’s in my car.”

  We cross the road and she quickly dives into her car and pulls out her coat. With one hand in hers and the other balancing the pizza, we walk five minutes down the road to the deserted park and I lead her to one of the picnic benches that sits right under a lamp post.

  She smiles as I set the pizza down on the table and takes a seat. She instantly pulls her heels off and crosses her legs under her. I love that she’s this comfortable. “The heels aren’t you?” I question as I pop the cork out of the bottle.

  She thinks about her answer for just a moment. “Sort of,” she finally says. “I love heels. I have quite an impressive collection, but I actually hate wearing them.”

  “Hurt your feet?”

  “Yep,” she smiles.

  I take a seat opposite her and we instantly dig in. I can just picture it now, me and Gigi having a night in together, completely at ease with each other.

  She eyes the bottle of wine before that same crease from earlier appears between her eyebrows. “What’s wrong?” I ask.

  “How am I supposed to drink that? We have no glasses.”

  Shit. I knew I was forgetting something. “You’re not opposed to drinking out of the bottle, are you?”

  “No,” she laughs. “I just didn’t want to appear like a slob on a first date.”

  “You’re good.”