by Ford, Mia
And then she told me that my job was the reason that she didn’t want to be with me. I was almost speechless every time I thought about it. As she explained her feelings about it to me I felt almost sick to my stomach. The thought of giving up the career I loved was impossible to fathom…
But was I willing to do it for her?
Naomi had never asked me to do that and she never would I didn’t believe, but if I offered to do so what would she have said?
There were just too many questions, too many unknown variables to deal with. And Naomi was almost as bad with holding her feelings inside as I was.
I’d told Dr. Myles everything about it. For whatever reason I felt that I could really open up to her and I didn’t have to worry about her being the least bit judgmental, even though in deciding my case and my future with the Army, that was basically her job.
The moment she told me during the session that she was clearing me to continue my position with the Army, I almost leapt up from the couch and gave her a giant hug. I’ve never been the touchy feely type, but with that news in my ears I was ecstatic. The fear of losing my job had been weighing on my mind heavily. In fact, I’d thought about almost nothing else, or at least until my coffee date with Naomi. Date… I had to laugh when I thought of the word. Naomi and I had never really had a date, had we?
I finished out the rest of the day running some drills and then went home to work on a carpentry project. I was building a large dresser which I hoped to sell to somebody for a nice little profit. Carpentry had been a hobby of mine since my first wood shop class my freshman year of high school and I’d showed some promise. The shop teacher Mr. Davidson had taken me under his wing and taught me a lot. For a brief bit I thought I might do something like that as a career, but I quickly began to fill my plate with other things that ignited the fire inside of me a bit hotter. Carpentry was more of a relaxing hobby.
But if I could sell a few furnishings and make some extra money on it then that was fine too. The Army did not pay me nearly what most civilians probably thought I made. Unless you became a very high ranking senior officer, you were working more for passion of the military and the position then for the financial reward.
When I got home I went out back to my work area I’d set up and began working on the new piece. It was a good distraction from everything else I’d been dealing with. As I began to work, Lacy’s face kept popping up in my head. She’d laid off the flirting angle since I had told her I was with someone, which at that time I thought I might be, but something told me that she would still be interested if I ever changed my mind.
And that was an offer that was starting to look very good.
“So, your shackles have been relinquished?” Lacy had asked me when I stopped by the office before heading toward home.
“Yeah,” I said. “The doctor just cleared me.”
“Fantastic. I wouldn’t want to work for anyone else…”
Lacy’s voice still sounded so sultry. It must have been natural. I couldn’t really tell if she even realized it.
“Well, thanks,” I said. “I’ll have to keep seeing the shrink, but I can manage that.”
“She is very pretty, isn’t she…” Lacy asked.
I smiled at Lacy. “See you tomorrow.”
Yes, Lacy was still very tempting. But I couldn’t. I knew that it would be a mistake to get involved with her, and now that Naomi and I had a baby on the way together I could not get the idea out of the back of my mind that there might still be hope for us. I really felt that the baby would bring the two of us closer together. How could it not? That just seemed like the most natural thing in the world to me. Wasn’t that the way nature planned it? I’d seen a documentary about that very thing once and if memory served me it said the same thing.
But Naomi was stubborn and set in her ways. She had made up her mind long ago that this was not the sort of life she was going to allow herself to live.
I was just going to have to live with it.
In the months to come I did everything I could to get over Naomi’s decision. I buried myself in my work, took extra shifts, I played softball for two different teams from different leagues so I wouldn’t have my evenings filled with nothing, and I even started to integrate some martial arts training back into my morning workouts, signing up with a local school. Yeah, I did everything I could to keep my mind off the fact that the one woman in the world I wanted to spend my life with and raise our child with didn’t want me back.
Little by little the pain began to fade. But pain like that never really goes away.
It just lies dormant from time to time.
Chapter Sixteen
Naomi
9 Months Later…
When I entered exam room number three after a long day of back to back patients (it seemed everyone was getting boosters and checkups this time of year) I never expected that I would run into Tucker Worthington. I hadn’t spoken to him since I’d run into him several months back at the coffee shop, even though he had taken my number and said he would call me. I was beginning to think he’d fallen off the face of the earth.
But there he was looking sexy as ever.
“Well, look who the cat dragged in, right?” Tucker said with a big smile. Sitting on the exam table in front of him was a medium sized beagle that appeared to be about two years old. She was immediately excited as I came into the room. The dog hopped up on its hind legs and began to make over me, licking my face and rubbing its paws on me as I approached the table.
“Hey, it’s great to see you!” I exclaimed as the dog’s tongue tickled my cheek and a giggle escaped me. I nosed the dog back and petted it cupping it’s soft, cuddly face in my palms. “And who is this little one?”
“This is Spunky,” Tucker said.
“Spunky? Well, that’s an adorable name,” I said in my best baby voice as I continued to play with the dog. She was adorable.
“Yeah, I just got her from the pound a few weeks ago. She’s had a bit of a cough, even though they said she’d had all her shots. So, I thought I’d bring her in.”
“No problem,” I said. “It might be a little kennel cough, or more likely just a sinus infection.”
“OK, I hope nothing serious,” Tucker said. “She’s a wonderful dog.”
I pulled out a stethoscope and listened to the dog’s heart and lungs. As I moved through the step by step examination I briefly chatted with Tucker.
“So, how are things in the world of tax law?” I asked teasing.
Tucker laughed. “Well, it’s very fascinating, and by fascinating I mean not at all. No, I actually do enjoy it. There is enough variety and lots of work to keep me occupied and busy. If I have too much time on my hands I tend to get into trouble.”
“Trouble? You? No…” I joked.
“You wouldn’t know it by looking at me, but behind the business suit I’m very devious.”
“You never called,” I pointed out.
“Yeah, I kind of got sidetracked,” he replied. “Darlene called me a few days after I ran into you.”
“Really? So, you two are back together now?”
“No,” he replied. “It was a mistake but she fed me a song and dance routine that I totally fell for and we gave it another shot. But I think after a few months we both realized it was a mistake and that we’d both grown so far apart that it just wasn’t working. So, that was that.”
“Well, I’m sorry things didn’t work out for you,” I said as I peered into the dog’s ears. I wasn’t sorry at all, but I felt it was the polite thing to say. I’d never liked Darlene. She was cold and manipulative and didn’t really deserve a good guy like Tucker.
“After that I thought about calling you, but then I thought it might be weird,” he said.
“Why would it be weird?”
“Well, by this time it had been four months or so since we ran into each other. I was even hesitant about coming here today, but I know you are the best vet around.”
“How
do you know that? Just because you know me, does not mean you know my veterinarian skills,” I teased.
“Well, I might have asked around. Plus you’ve got some great reviews on yelp.”
I smiled. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever read any of our reviews on yelp. I should probably check that out.”
“You would be pleasantly surprised,” Tucker said. “So, what do you think about my baby girl, here?”
The dog had a running nose, irritated sinuses with drainage down the back of her throat, and some watery eyes. But only a mild fever.
I smiled and rubbed the dog behind the ears. “She has a sinus infection as I thought. I don’t really see signs of anything more serious, so I’ll prescribe a course of antibiotics and I’ll want to see her again in two weeks just to check up.”
“Great,” Tucker said. “And what if I’d like to see you before then?”
“You can just make an appointment with the receptionist, but I’d give the antibiotics at least four or five days to start to work.”
“I meant, what if I want to see you somewhere outside of here,” Tucker said.
I smiled as it dawned on me what he was getting at.
“Ah, I see what you did there,” I said.
“Yeah, smooth. Right?” Tucker laughed as he put his hands in his pockets. He was such an adorable guy and sometimes I forgot what a goofball he was.
“I’d love to,” I said.
“Fantastic,” Tucker said. “How about I pick you up tomorrow night at seven?”
I started to say yes when I remembered I’d have to make sure my parents could watch Jodie, my sweet little princess. That’s when it hit me that Tucker might not know I had a baby now, unless he stalked me on social media, which I preferred not to know so that I could keep the creep factor at zero.
“That should be fine, but I need to make sure my parents can watch my daughter,” I said. My eyes were pinned carefully to his waiting for the reaction.
I expected shock or even more likely, horror, but instead Tucker just relaxed and smiled warmly as he leaned back. He looked like a little boy who has just heard something so fascinating he can’t formulate the words.
“Wow, Naomi Riggs is a mother,” Tucker said. “I hadn’t heard. Congratulations.”
He opened his arms and leaned forward to give me another hug. It felt nice and warm. I had forgotten what being hugged by someone other than my mother or my sister felt like. Since Jodie arrived I had put all of my focus on her and hadn’t even thought about romance with anyone.
Well, occasionally my mind did wander off when I saw Jay. We shared custody of Jodie. He got her on the weekends. It was a pretty good arrangement for the time being. If there was something special on the weekends or even during the week that we both wanted to do with her (Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremonies, Easter stuff, etc.) then we would both get together.
I’d been worried about how Jay would handle things once Jodie was actually here; he seemed to be having trouble letting go of the idea of us together as a couple at first, but lately he’d been fine. His job was going well and he just seemed like a happier person in general. I was happy for him.
And on lonely nights I did miss him and what we could have had, a lot. The same question kept popping up into my thoughts at random times throughout the days, even after all these months—had I made a mistake?
I still wondered.
“Thanks,” I said. Then I felt the need to add, “You are ok with me having a kid?”
Tucker laughed. “Of course. Why? Did you think that would scare me off?”
I felt instant relief. “It would scare most men.”
“Well, I’m not most men,” Tucker said.
“I remember that,” I said. “I should be able to drop Jodie off at my mom’s. So tomorrow should work fine. I’ll call you if anything changes.”
“Sounds great,” Tucker said.
I got the course of antibiotics for his dog and sent him on his way.
“Nice looking guy,” Heidi said as I prepared to go into another exam room.
“Yeah, that’s Tucker Worthington,” I said. “You remember I told you about him a while ago, right?”
Heidi scrunched up her face as if trying to recall a long ago distant memory. “Oh, yeah.”
“He just asked me out,” I said.
“Get out! That’s awesome. It’s about time. Me and the others thought you were taking a vow of celibacy.”
“Funny,” I said.
“Did you tell him about Jodie?”
“Yes,” I said. “Of course. He didn’t even miss a step.”
“Wow, that’s promising. Even the nicest of guys would be a bit caught off guard, right. There is like some weird chemistry in the male brain that causes a momentary stroke when they meet a woman and hear she has a kid. I’m sure it’s a scientific fact.”
“I doubt that, but I do have a feeling about Tucker. Besides he didn’t just meet me, remember? We were pretty good friends in college.”
“I smell something interesting brewing up…” Heidi said.
“You would.”
“I’m a keen observer of human nature.”
“You’re a keen pervert of human nature,” I joked.
As I started to enter the exam room again, Heidi stopped me.
“Would you let me see my patient?” I asked.
“One second,” Heidi said. “This dog’s owner is a bona fide hypochondriac. Can you have that for your dog? I’m not sure, but she does. She can wait. Listen, what does Tucker do? He was wearing a very nice suit and driving a new BMW.”
“You checked out his car?”
“I saw him pull up,” Heidi said. “I made some flirty eyes at him when he came in but he totally gave me the cold shoulder.”
“He probably thought you were a weirdo, which isn’t so far off the mark,” I said.
Or he was excited about seeing me again. I liked the sound of that.
“So, what’s going on? Are you gonna hook up with him?” Heidi asked quietly.
“We are going out tomorrow night,” I said. “I don’t have any plans on hooking up. But then again, if something hot happens then so be it.”
I opened the door to exam room three and stepped inside to see my patient. Heidi was right; this dog was in the clinic every other week dying of something. The dog was totally healthy. Its owner was a hypochondriac.
* * *
“You are an incredible dancer,” Tucker whispered in my ear as we made our way back to our table.
“You are not the first to have told me that,” I said. “You are no slouch yourself.”
“Oh, I was just trying to follow your lead,” Tucker said.
We sat down at our table and Tucker refilled our glasses with a bottle of merlot. He’d taken me to an upscale restaurant in Louisville called the Waric. I’d heard about it here and there, but it was definitely outside of my price range.
The décor was wonderful. The restaurant was inside of an old, historical building. The ceilings were huge and opulent with beautiful murals painted on them. The air smelled of history and romance. It had the perfect blend of history and modernism. Every member of the staff was dressed immaculately. There was a small orchestra playing the most beautiful music in the ballroom which held a large bar on both sides. I could see a DJ booth tucked away in the corner. I believed they probably rented out the ballroom for private parties and so forth. I wished I had friends who booked rooms like this for their private engagements.
“So, your job must be treating you pretty well,” I said.
“Oh, what makes you say that?” Tucker replied.
“Well, I get the feeling that you eat places like this all the time.”
“Nah, I love fast food and pizza,” Tucker said. “My diet’s horrible. It really is.”
I felt a bit uncomfortable talking to him about money, but I was genuinely intrigued. I loved the way it wasn’t a big deal to him.
“My dog already seems to be fe
eling much better by the way,” Tucker said.
“That’s great to hear. She is a sweetheart.”
“She takes after me,” Tucker replied.
I laughed, careful to avoid spilling my wine as I lifted it to my lips.
“So, how old is your daughter?” Tucker asked.
“She is going on three months now, getting pretty close to that.”
“That’s amazing,” Tucker said. “Does it hurt as much as women say?”
My eyes went wide as I instantly had a snapshot of the pain I was in while delivering my daughter.”
“Yes,” I said. “It is even worse.”
“Ouch. How about the father? Is he in the picture?”
“Wow, you are getting right to it,” I teased. With anyone else I would have been offended, but I knew Tucker. As far as I could tell he was still the same guy I used to know in school, but he had grown a bit cooler and sophisticated.
“I’m a lawyer; it’s a curse,” he said. “I’m so used to asking clients very blunt questions.”
“Right,” I said. “Well, yes. Jay is very much a part of Jodie’s life.”
“That’s great,” Tucker said.
“You think so?” I wasn’t sure where he was going with that.
“Yeah. It’s always important for a man to be around for his children.”
“Yes, he has certainly done that,” I said.
I hoped I could go the whole night without thinking of Jay, but there he was staring at me in my head again. I still felt a longing lust for Jay. I had a feeling that no matter who I ended up meeting and being with in my life the sexual experiences that Jay and I had shared together would not be equaled.
It was almost a bit of a downer to think like that, but it was true. What we’d done with each other was pure magic.
