by Cheryl Wyatt
“Thank you, Nurse Lauren. You certainly knew your calling.”
Her words stopped Lauren. She felt Mitch’s stare, and probably his knowing smirk, on her frame from the door.
“Uh, thanks.” If the woman only knew… Lauren entered the hall, not surprised to see Mitch still outside the door.
“You, trouble?” He draped an arm around her. “Maybe so, Nurse Lauren, but I’m quite convinced you’re worth it.”
Two hours later, he met her at the time clock. “Shift over?”
“Yes. But if you need something—”
“No.” Mitch ushered her outside. “I need to set something straight, and it would be unprofessional to do so on duty.”
Beyond curious, she followed. He led her to a cozy lakeside bench canopied in a flower-woven trellis beside the parking lot.
Before Lauren could blink, Mitch bent and thoroughly kissed every last question out of her mind.
For the next few electrifying minutes, his mouth took exquisite care with hers. Intent. Gentle. Delicate. Deliberate.
As he broke contact, deep feelings surged between them. His fervent eyes softened as he dipped his face in earnest once more, with delectable pressure and the promise of devotion.
Every slumbered nerve, every hope, every emotion—awakened.
Every fear, every reservation, every doubt—demolished.
The world dwindled to just him and her and the ardent kiss between them.
A startling sound pulled Lauren back to earth. Still in the bliss that was Mitch’s arms, she turned.
Ian stood, scowling, one fist clutching a bag of fast food, the other clenched into a fist. He stood seething at the end of the employee parking area.
“Yikes. Big mistake,” Mitch muttered and moved toward Ian.
What? Did he mean the kiss?
Or something with Ian?
Mitch approached Ian intently, but Ian shook his glaring head and stalked off until he disappeared inside the building.
Mitch came back, braced Lauren’s shoulders and bent his mouth close to her ear. “In case there’s any question, I meant every single second of that kiss. My only regret is I didn’t do it sooner.”
With that, Mitch pulled her in for a caring follow-up that more than adequately proved he meant it.
* * *
“Speaking of trouble, here it comes in spades,” Kate said to Lauren and Mitch at the break table the next day.
Everyone turned.
Ian tanked toward them like an irate military interrogator. “What’s the scoop, Lauren?”
He turned his wrath next on Mitch. “You’re my best friend. I shouldn’t be the last to know.”
No question Ian was still miffed. He hadn’t answered Mitch’s calls yesterday or this morning.
Lauren looked to Nita for help.
“Shall I translate for all of you then?” Nita stood. “Mitch and Lauren care deeply about one another, but each of them has been too scared, scarred or stubborn to admit it. In fact, they are probably falling flat-faced in love as we speak.”
Everyone’s mouths fell open. Including Mitch and Lauren’s.
Kate’s eyes widened. “Wow. This is better than a TV drama.”
“Lauren?” Ian pressed.
“I seriously have no idea what that means.”
Mitch did. But didn’t want to say it the first time with an audience. He studied Ian. Pangs of regret hit that he hadn’t mentioned his feelings for Lauren. But the truth was, he only recently came to terms with admitting his feelings to himself.
He’d prayed for permission yesterday and gotten a green light while Lauren went to the jail to visit Mara.
“So it’s not true about you and Mitch?” Ian’s jaw clicked.
“I, er, I’m not sure what’s going on there.” Lauren seemed more bewildered by the minute. She nervously wrung her hands.
Kate passed Mitch looks as if he’d better do something fast.
Ian was out of control. And completely out of character.
“Making out on hospital property meant nothing?” Ian said.
That did it. Mitch’s anger boiled against Ian over his badgering Lauren. Ian needed to pick on someone his own size. Besides, he and Lauren were far from making out yesterday.
“Ian, can I talk to you privately?” Mitch rose formidably.
Ian’s jaw clenched. He fell into wordless step with Mitch.
“Peace offering.” Mitch shoved Ian a bouquet of Lauren’s dark chocolate once they were down the hall.
Ian didn’t crack a smile, however, and instead hulked, hurt and humorless, ahead of Mitch into the physicians’ lounge.
“Why didn’t you tell me you and Lauren are dating?” Ian’s tone seared into Mitch like flaming shrapnel.
“We’re not dating, bro.”
Ian’s head tilted. “You’re…”
“No. She’s a respectable girl and I told you, I’m doing things right this time around. We haven’t technically been on a date.” He needed to remedy that ASAP.
As soon as he fixed this rift with Ian.
“You said if you ever fall in love again, you’ll do things differently. You saying you’re in love with her?”
“No, man. I, maybe. I don’t know. All I know is that, where you’re concerned, I’m sorry. This is coming out all wrong. I didn’t want to talk to you about it because, well, I thought that would be insensitive since you’re…” Mitch’s hand tilted.
Ian straightened. “What? Headed to Divorceville, and you’re headed to Blissville?”
Ian’s voice had softened somewhere in the middle.
Mitch looked up, glad to see Ian half smiling now.
“She’s why you’ve been dissing me.” Ian laughed with the self-revelation, bringing Mitch great relief.
“Ian, you’re my best bud. Like a brother. The last thing I want right now is to bring more pain and suffering upon you. So, while my intentions of being cautious were good, I might have waited too long to tell you.” And too long to make a move with courting Lauren.
“Might have? Best buds don’t keep things from each other.”
Mitch dropped his chin to his chest, knowing that.
“Yeah, I’m hurting but I’m not so weak of a guy that I can’t celebrate with my best friend when his heart revives and his life turns around from shards and shrapnel to songs and sunshine.” Ian snatched the chocolate. “So what’s the scoop?”
“We like each other. A lot. The attraction is out of this world. I want a future with her.”
“But?”
“You know me well. But she lives in Texas and she’s strapped to a whopper of a building loan, among other things.”
“But otherwise she’d consider moving here?”
“Yeah. She’d love to.”
“That’d be good for Lem, too. He seems to have a lot more vitality with her around these parts. You, as well. In fact, you look so smitten you border on goofy.” Ian shook his head and smirked.
Mitch loved how Lem had adopted his entire team. Kate, Nita and Ian had begun to call him Gramps, which tickled Lem pink.
“I thought you’d ask me if I’ve been popping Stupid Pills.” Mitch laughed but dipped his head.
Ian clamped a hand over Mitch’s shoulder and turned ten shades of serious. “Nah, man. I’m happy for you…if you can find a way to make this work. And if you’re over the betrayal Sheila caused you.”
Ian, not always the realist. Just these days.
“You are over her and your breakup. Right?” Ian scratched the five o’clock stubble along his jaw.
“Her? Yes. The breakup? I’m getting there.” But the words felt like razors across his tongue. And by the concern taking Ian’s face hostage, he found the words lacki
ng certainty, too.
“Maybe I was more in love with the idea of being in love than with Sheila, which wasn’t fair to her.”
“Bro, if you still have that tendency…”
“The potential for Lauren’s heart to break is there.” Mitch’s heart felt as if it dropped into his stomach. Was he in any kind of position emotionally to pursue a low-risk relationship with Lauren?
The question put a sick feeling inside because Mitch didn’t honestly know the answer with full certainty. Was he ready?
Not according to the doubt creeping up in Ian’s eyes. Because Ian knew him better than anyone. Better than he knew himself, at times. In fact, Ian’s head tilted in a telltale way. “You don’t still have the ring?” Ian had a surgical way with questions.
Mitch didn’t answer.
Ian got nose to nose. “Mitch? You still have it? Because dude, if you do, that’s not cool. Lauren could get hurt if you don’t have it all back together emotionally after your breakup.”
“Lauren isn’t a rebound fling, if that’s what you mean.”
“I know that. You and Sheila had drifted apart, thanks to the distance. My concern is Texas is a whole lot farther from Illinois than Sheila’s unit was from ours when you two imploded as a couple.” Ian turned to go. “Keep that in mind.”
“Trust me, I am.”
Doubt assailed Mitch. Was it merely infatuation? Was he simply caught up in the excitement and newness of attraction?
Or, like Nita said, was it love on their horizon?
He could easily fall for Lauren. Felt as if he was already in the beginning stages of caring that deeply for her. Part of it was that he did deeply know and care about her from years and years of Lem’s gazillion colorful stories.
Lord, don’t let Ian be right. Don’t let this love be wrong.
But while Mitch could think that, he couldn’t bring himself to pray it with meaning. That wasn’t the right way to pray.
He dipped his head where he was. “God, please. Don’t let me act foolishly. I don’t want to hurt Lauren or Lem.”
But an acute knowing sank teeth into Mitch that whatever was going to happen, happiness or hurt, was already in progress.
Mitch fled the break room and paced a barren, under-construction hallway.
Was their relationship prognosis good or grave?
Regardless, it was already in motion. No reversing it.
The gravity of that thrust Mitch to one knee right there in the trauma center’s section of a deserted construction hall.
Fist to his bent forehead, he focused on God. “Fitting, huh? I’m under construction in places, too. I know You’re on it. Thank You. I’m here to ask for Your excavating services, too. See, there’s this mountain that I can’t move alone. I could really use a hand. And a little guidance, too. I’m moving forward. So if I’m headed in the wrong direction, I know You can drag me out of cornfield-high blindness and set me on the right path.”
Chapter Nineteen
The situation with Lauren, and Ian’s admonishment, made for a rough week. For days, grace eluded. Though home from battle, Mitch still felt very much at war. With himself and his past. He wavered between caution and hope for a future with Lauren. All the while, fending off pitchforks of uncertainty and guilt over Ian’s words of wisdom. The rift between himself and Ian would work itself out. For now, Mitch’s growing desire to spend more meaningful time with Lauren won out over any reticence.
At the next shift change, Mitch met Lauren at the time clock as she punched out her card reader. He pulled her aside. “Look, I know things are up in the air, but I’d like to take you to dinner and treat you to a movie.”
At her stunned look, he grinned and added, “Lem approves this message.”
With all the political campaigning on TV lately, that made her laugh. “I imagine he does.” She shifted her handbag and peered shyly at Mitch. “I prefer plays, but I’d gladly go to the movies with you, too.” Her eyes grew vulnerable. “In fact, I’d follow you to the moon if I could.”
He grinned. “Next time the local car-rental place runs a special on rocket rentals, I’ll take you there. As long as there are no lunar geese orbiting around.”
Lauren’s beaming expression rivaled the fullest of moons. It stayed on her face all the way to the mall, where they browsed shops and bought Lem a stuffed snake for a gag gift.
Later, on the way out of the mall after shopping, the movie and dinner, Lauren took Mitch’s hand when he reached. A rocket ride could not compete with the rush and out-of-this-world thrill of being close to her. Stars winked approval overhead as they stepped from the mall curb to the lot where Mitch had parked. He squeezed her hand as she stepped over a patch of loose gravel in the median. She held tight, and all sorts of emotions stirred inside Mitch.
His heart felt as big as the movie screen.
He caressed Lauren’s hand and walked slower to draw out the moment.
“Even the flowers seem to smile when we pass,” she whispered into the softness of moonlight. What was it about the luminescent glow that made a moment so conducive to a kiss?
Mitch smiled, too. He’d never been happier to have parked at the edge of the lot. Good way to exercise. And take every opportunistic second to court a woman who deserved it.
Her answering smile could light the galaxy, as if the stars whispered Mitch’s secrets and his heart’s thoughts to her soul and mind. “I know,” she said, drawing a breath as long and deep as the Mississippi River. “I could get used to this. Everything seems to come to life and become magic and animated when two people start to fall in love.”
Her words stunned them both, and made them pause in their steps.
Her vulnerable look. The silver hue that moonlight and streetlights cast around the edges of her glistening eyes. Her hair, red like hearts.
Exquisite.
He tightened his grip on her hand. And his past loosened its hold on his heart. A little. At least, for now.
He captured her nervously flitting gaze. “Lauren, if love is what’s breathing magic in the air between us, I hope the magic stretches this special moment into the longest, most lingering Forever.”
* * *
Today was the day.
Mitch had courted Lauren for a month, which was all it took to make him want to seek Lem’s blessing for a permanent future with her. Mitch ascended Lem’s steps early to ensure she wasn’t awake.
Lem met him outside. “I’ve never seen you so serious. What’s more important than another hour’s sleep?”
“Lauren,” Mitch said as they sat on the gliding rocker. Mitch looked Lem in the eye. “She’s important to me.”
“I gathered that. She’s sweet on you, too.”
“I’d like to take our relationship more seriously. The kind of serious that I hope will lead to marriage.”
Lem’s grin exploded. “If you’re asking my permission, all I got to say is what took you so long?”
Mitch chuckled. “So I have your blessing?”
“Indeed! Nothing would make me happier.” Lem frowned. “Wait, if things progress, you’d rope her into moving here, right? You wouldn’t skip off to Texas on me, would ya?” Lem’s countenance fell. He grew genuinely upset at the prospect.
Mitch put a steadying hand on him. The man really did not want to be alone. “You have my word, Lem. I’ll get her here.” Lem still looked distraught so Mitch added, “I promise.”
Lem’s quivering limbs relaxed. “When you gonna ask her?”
“Soon. I’ll let you know. First, I need to be sure she feels the same.”
“Whoop!” Lem leaped like a man half his age.
Joy detonated in Mitch because if Lem was this happy about them, he’d turn inside out when the time came to say vows. And Mitch had every intention of d
oing so. He rose. “Let’s boot her out of bed.”
“I’m awake.” Lauren stumbled out, looking half asleep and half annoyed. “What’s all this carrying on right by my window?”
Uh-oh. “How much did you hear?” Mitch approached.
“A bunch of whooping and hollering.” She woke fully and tugged her robe tight.
“We’re going to hit the lake on jet skis today.”
She smiled with still-sleepy eyes. “You keep saying that, but every time we plan it, trauma tsunamis roll in.”
“Precisely why we’re starting early. Ready?” Mitch was anxious to get going.
She looked down. “Right. People go wave-running in pajamas.”
Mitch laughed, properly chagrined. “Let’s eat on the way.”
“Are your feet on fire? Give me ten minutes.”
“Five. Your makeup will just wash off in the water.”
“Who said I’m putting on makeup just for you?”
Mitch smirked. “You always do.”
“You’re suffering a terrible case of confusion.” Cheeks adorably flamed, Lauren bolted into the house. Mitch followed.
She doused water on her face. “I should hold your head under. You embarrass the daylights out of me.”
“I love to see you blush.”
“And I hate to blush more than almost anything.”
“See? We’re made for each other.”
Lauren smiled and met his gaze in the mirror.
“By the way, today’s another group date. But next time we go out, it’ll be just you and me again.”
She drew a breath. “And my nerves.”
He smiled. “What would you have to be nervous about?”
She shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know. That whole getting my heart stomped on thing.”
He moved close. “I’d never hurt you, Lauren.”
She held up a finger. “You’d never mean to hurt me.”
Mitch didn’t have a rebuttal for that because in truth, no one entered a dating relationship intending to hurt or be hurt.
Lauren rustled around a tiny zippered bag and fished out a tube. “Waterproof mascara to the rescue! Something’s better than nothing, right?”
