“At work. You got a spare around here?”
Bastard threw me an apron.
“No, but I’ve got a large order I’m working on, and your mom is who knows where.”
He handed me a bucket of roses to take the lower leaves off. That I could handle.
“It’s Wednesday.” I rolled my eyes. Everyone in town knew where Vivian was on Wednesdays. She was kind of a legend for her, shall we say, intense, method of playing. “She’s at bingo.”
“So, important meeting?”
I slapped him on the back of the head because, really? He thought meeting?
“Was bingo. How do you not know this?”
“I’m a bit sleep-deprived.” His eyes were a bit sunken in, his face a bit drawn, which was unusual for my pretty-much-always perfect cousin, which meant I needed to razz his sorry butt.
“I thought your perfect little Rose slept like a dream.” She truly was perfect, though, with her pinchable cheeks and her button nose.
“Oh she does, but the new puppy—not so much.”
“You got a puppy? What on this earth would make you think that was a good idea?” I liked dogs well enough, but full-grown, already trained, not-at-all-jumpy dogs who slept a lot and bothered you little. Dogs that acted more like cats. Cats. I liked cats.
“I found him out back, and no one seemed to know whose he was. A week later, I conceded, and Giggles became ours.”
I had already finished about half the bucket and pointed to the rest. Kayson nodded. More leaf removal it was.
“You named your puppy Giggles?” Which was better than a person name, like Al, but still.
“No, my daughter did.” The way his face beamed every time he mentioned his daughter was both endearing and heart-wrenching. Endearing because I loved to see Kayson enjoying every second of her life. Heart wrenching because my desire for children had been growing by leaps and bounds since my trip to NOLA.
Which was dumb. A one-night stand doesn’t make you instantly want to settle down, except it didn’t feel like a one-night stand. Not that I was an expert in them, but still it felt like more. We knotted face-to-face, for goodness’ sake. That isn’t a fuck-and-go kind of thing. Not to me, anyway. Not that dwelling on it or randomly posting pathetic selfies with the hashtags #wheresmysexynurse and #IfYouSeeMyJSendHimMyWay were helpful.
“Your daughter doesn’t talk,” I countered as I finished up the last rose and placed it back in the bucket, only to have him hand me another. He wasn’t kidding about an unexpectedly large order.
“No. But she giggles every time she sees the puppy, so the name fits.”
“I can’t even wait to see how you spoil her once she can use words to give her commands.” It was going to be bad. I saw a car for her sixteenth birthday and fancy smartphones in her future, or whatever teens wanted these days.
“You’ll understand one day.”
“I hope so.”
“You still hung up on that nurse?”
Hung up didn’t even begin to describe it. I was probably turning him into someone far better than he really was. Good memories took on lives of their own. But yeah, I wanted to see him again, to talk to him again, to hold his hand again. I was a lovesick fool.
“How do you—oh.” He held his phone out to me. Of course, my cousin would look at the crap I posted, although, to be fair, I loved every one of the four bazillion pictures of Rose he posted. “Yeah kind of.”
“Well if it makes you feel any better, a lot of people are trying to help.”
“What do you mean?”
“Do you not look at your social media?”
I kind of didn’t. I looked at his profile for baby pictures and that was about it.
“I kind of do drive-bys.” I shrugged. “So spill. What do you mean?”
“Well, #IfYouSeeMyJSendHimMyWay is now trending.”
Trending? Even with my far too frequent postings, trending meant a ton of people were using it. That was just plain crazy.
“Looks like some college kids picked it up and paired it with #makethisgoviral and #FindBrentHisMan.”
“Let me see that.” I yanked his phone from him and began to scroll through. Sure as shit, it was trending. “Holy shit. Seven hundred shares.”
Back when I was in charge of the planetarium’s social media account, before they gave up on that venture, I’d be lucky to get one retweet, and I was trying. Seven hundred was unbelievable.
“Oh, that’s not one of the good ones.” He took the phone back, tapped on the screen a few times before handing it back. “Here, this is the one you took of the coffee.”
“That can’t be right.” There was my blurry picture, one I didn’t even have that hashtag on, and people were sharing it with my J hashtag. Un-freaking-believable, and they weren’t even mocking me. They legit wanted me to find my sexy nurse. If only that could be enough. “There are five digits in shares alone.”
“Which is why I don’t know how you missed it.” He slapped me on the back of the head just as I had done to him earlier. In so many ways, we were more like brothers than cousins, which made him a thousand times better than my soon-to-be stepbrother who had yet to apologize to me. Not that I was bitter or anything.
“I drive by, remember.”
“Well quit driving by, and let’s do this right. Here hold this.” He handed me a vase of flowers. “Perfect. Now look to my left—chin up—and I got it.” He must’ve snapped a thousand pictures.
“What are you typing?” I had a pretty good guess.
“If we are going to get this to work, we need to be a little bit creative.”
I grabbed the phone from him. Oh, yeah, he got creative all right, adding Vivian’s Roses to the hashtags but that didn’t stop people from sharing it. I had five shares before handing it back to him, and it wasn’t even posted on my account—it was on his. My silly hash tagging had taken on a life of its own. Fingers crossed it worked. Well, worked and didn’t have Jay thinking I was a stalker.
“So, who are all these flowers for? Some spouse with a naughty husband?” I handed him back the second bucket, completely ready.
“No. Mrs. Harrison died, and her husband made me promise that if he went first I would regale her with flowers when her time came.” His voice cracked as he spoke. I didn’t know her or her husband, for that matter, well, but I knew they were loved by my mom and cousin, and my heart hurt for him.
She had come in every week to get flowers for his grave, and from what I heard, he had come in every week before that to get flowers for her table. They were that once-in-a-lifetime love, the stuff of movies.
“I am so sorry.”
“It pretty much sucks. But you know what? It makes me more determined to help you find your man because I know what it is like to have what they had, and I want that for you, Brent. I want that for you.” He pulled me into a hug, and I hugged him back his tears dampened my shoulder.
I wanted it, too.
Chapter Nine
Joaquim
#HotLatinNurseSeeksSexyNerd
Portland had a vibe of its own. Each city and town and even country had its own attitude and culture, but there was something about Portland. Laid back yet aware.
The hospital I worked at had new nurses. All of them, except a few supervisors like myself, were fresh out of school.
“Joaquim, you have to look at this.” One of them, Harris, shoved a phone in my face as I was looking over their charts, making sure they were getting the hang of writing everything down. Harris was particularly interested as he was an omega himself. I think the Twitter hashtag business gave the guy some hope of finding his own alpha one day.
“Harris, I shouldn’t And you shouldn’t, either. There’s always work to do for a nurse, even if everything is quiet, and you’re not supposed to be on your phone when you’re on duty Anyway, it’s not like that thing is going to help. It’s just a waste of time.”
Yeah, that had become me. I’d been with Brent less than twenty-four hours,
and yet the Internet had fueled our relationship for almost two months now. I was over it.
Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t over Brent, not by a long shot, but what could I do? Yeah, those people were playing out some fantasy that we would find each other, but the odds were stacked against us.
“Come on. They think they’ve found something.”
Just then a call button beeped. “How can we help you, Mrs. Alice?”
“I’m in a lot of pain,” she groaned back, and I waved a hand at Harris. Mrs. Alice was his patient.
“She’s calling for you, man. Get off that phone and back to work.”
Another supervisor sidled up next to me, and we watched Harris practically run to the dispensary to get her medicine before going to her room.
“Remember when we were that new?” Janet asked me.
I laughed. “I don’t ever remember being that new,” I answered. “Besides, we weren’t plastered to our phones back then. The most interesting thing about our jobs was the drama going on right here. Now, it’s all virtual or whatever.”
She shrugged. “Well, it’s not all interesting, Sexy Nurse.”
She did not just go there.
“No, Janet!” I played the drama queen a little while no one else was looking. “Not you, too. Spit out the Kool-Aid.”
“It’s like a fairy tale, Jay. Seriously, you two meet and then lose each other, and the whole freaking world is rooting for you and sending you pictures of every Brent around the world. I live for that crap.”
What could I say to her? She was right. It was all tingles and good wishes, but my brain knew better.
“Maybe one day I’ll get my HEA,” I said, grabbing my stuff to make rounds.
“You will. Oh, and I made brownies. They’re in the break room.”
“Brownies always help,” I said, chuckling.
~~
Hours later, I left the hospital, my satchel over my shoulder and jacket in my hand. The spring was making the weather warmer, and soon I’d be going somewhere else.
“Are you off?” It was Harris talking to me from right outside the doors, holding his phone.
The kid had an issue.
“Yeah, I’m off. Harris, shouldn’t you be home?”
“Look, I know you think I’m nuts, but I really think you should see this. Just take a look and, if it’s not him, you can tell me to shut up, and I won’t talk to you about it again.”
I rolled my eyes and took him by the elbow so we could sit on a bench near the entrance.
“Fine, let’s have a look.”
Harris did some number combination and unlocked his phone, scrolled through apps until he came to a picture, and handed me the phone. “If that’s not him, I give up. I swear.”
I could barely hold the phone after one look at the picture. It was blurry, and some time had passed. His face no longer had the scruff… it had been replaced by a full beard. Of course, his clothes were different, but it was Brent.
It was my Brent.
“How did you…”
“Oh! It’s him? I just knew it. Look at those hashtags.”
#IfYouSeeMyJSendHimMyWay
Brent actually thought my name was J.
“Who sent this? How do I reply? What do I…” A thousand thoughts barreled through my mind. The first thoughts were, How fast can I get a flight, and where is he?
No, I had to find out where he was first and then fly there.
Damn, I’m all mixed up.
“Give me your phone.”
I hesitated at Harris’s request.
“Come on, Joaquim. Give it to me. I’m so excited. I can’t believe I found him for you!”
I fiddled around in my pockets and fished out my phone, thrusting it in his direction. “Tell me what to do. Where is he?”
“Okay. First things first. We have to respond, let him know you’ve seen the pics and it’s you. Oh! Let’s make a video.”
I’d just gotten off of a twelve-hour shift and was still in my scrubs, and this guy wanted to do a video?
“No, I can’t. Look at me.”
Harris cocked his head to one side. “Please. You always look good. Now, I’m going to count down with my fingers and you…well, pour your heart out.”
Pour my heart out. I didn’t have anything left to pour. It was like an empty vessel. I looked back down at the picture on Harris’s phone, on the bench next to me, and like magic, I had something to say.
“Okay. Here goes nothing.”
He pressed some buttons, a goofy grin on his face, and before I knew it, he was counting down, fingers in the air.
He pointed to me, and I almost froze. Almost.
“Hey, this is Joaquim. I think some of you know me as J, the nurse. A friend just showed me a picture of Brent on Twitter and yes, that’s my Brent, the one I spent a magical night with in New Orleans. I don’t know a lot about this Twitter thing, but I’m hoping everyone will help me get this video to him. And…” a blush crept up on my face. “Brent, if you’re listening, I’ve never stopped thinking about you. I’m not sure what happened in New Orleans, but I wasn’t ready for you and I to be over. If you see this, I’m in Portland now. I’ll come to you—wherever you are. That’s it.” I looked at Harris, and he pressed some buttons and typed in some things.
Brent was out there—looking for me.
Maybe hope was alive after all.
Chapter Ten
Brent
#onelineortwo
The smell of lilies attacked me as I walked into my mom’s shop. I normally loved them, but for whatever the reason, they triggered a relapse of my stomach bug, and I found myself running to the bathroom instead of greeting my cousin, whom I was meeting for lunch. I reached the toilet just in time. Lunch was officially off the table.
“Little pig, little pig let me come in,” Kayson called through the mostly closed door when I finally stopped retching.
I flushed the toilet and rinsed my mouth as the sound of his incessant knocking echoed through the small room. I loved my cousin, I really did, but sometimes I just wanted to smack him upside the head.
“Buzz off, cousin.”
Which apparently meant come on in, in Kayson’s interpretation because in he came.
“My store, my rules.”
It was so not his store, although it would be one day. Mom had already told me about her plan to gift it to him before she married Henry so she could quote “focus on her new life.” I was happy for Kayson, but I’d be damned if I would spoil the surprise.
“Fine.” I sighed. “Come in. But it’s not your store.” Yet.
“True, but it worked so I don’t—whoa, you look awful.”
I really truly did. This bug was made of awful.
“Thanks. I appreciate that.” I pushed past him and out into the main part of the shop, away from the smell of vomit.
“No.” His hand settled on my shoulder, his tone grave. “Seriously, you are a new shade of green.”
“I’m aware, but I just emptied my stomach, so all should be well soon.” Or so I hoped. That had been the pattern so I was holding onto it.
“Do you have a fever?” He placed his hand on my forehead as if he had a magical thermometer built into his hand.
“Probably not.”
“Did you eat the sushi at the convenience store?”
Maria was never going to live that decision down, although someone was buying it, or she wouldn’t still be stocking it.
“How dumb do you think I am? We don’t even live near the ocean, and they have no kitchen. No way would I eat that. It’s just a bug.” A nagging feeling told me it wasn’t just a bug although my googling result of stomach cancer felt wrong, too.
“Well, if you are still sick tomorrow, you should get it checked out.” He handed me a bottle of water he had stowed under the counter.
I opened it and took a long swig.
“They had that noro whatever in Glennville. You don’t want that.”
“I think
if I had the Norovirus, I’d know by now.” And I’d already googled the daylights out of it to make sure I didn’t. “It’s not getting worse. It just comes and goes.”
“Comes and goes?” He smirked. What the heck was funny about puking?
“Yeah. So?”
He leaned in close and whispered, “Are you pregnant, little cousin?”
“As if,” I scoffed, suddenly wondering if that was indeed my issue. But it couldn’t be, right? “I only had sex once in freaking forever and we used a condom.”
He belted out a laugh before schooling himself.
“Rose is living proof that that doesn’t matter.” He slapped me on the shoulder.
“Rose was a condom baby?” Not that I should’ve been surprised. My cousin was all about safe sex, and boom, he has a baby a hot second after meeting his omega. In hindsight, it made sense.
“Yep. Damn thing must’ve had a hole or something because when—let’s just say it was empty.”
Shit, shit, shit.
“Was this a condom from the same box you gave me when you went all overprotective big cousin on me and gave me the talk—again?” If he gave me a faulty condom, I was never in a million years going to let him live it down.
“That was over a year ago.” Because, of course, he thought that meant it was a different condom. Did he know me not at all? I hadn’t even had sex with my cheat of an ex, although finding him with another man was the entirety of the reason for that.
“So?”
He just shook his head at my response.
“You kept a condom for over a year?”
“Not the time to be tormenting me over my lack of sex life.” I grabbed his stool, taking a seat. I was so stupid tired. Puking wears you out.
So does growing a human.
But I didn’t want to let myself go there. Not when I didn’t even know the father’s last name or where he lived or freaking anything.
“Shit. Yeah, it does. I’m so sorry.” He was kicking the edge of the counter lightly with the tips of his shoes.
“We don’t even know I’m prego.” I was. I hadn’t put the pieces together until he mentioned it, but now that they were in front of me, it made sense.
Mardi Gras with His Omega: A Mapleville Mardi Gras Novella: MM Non Shifter Alpha Omega Mpreg (Mapleville Omegas Book 3) Page 4
