“I have fantastic news. Are you ready for it?”
Kacie moved on to the next bag and unloaded a container of apple fritters she’d found in the bakery. While they weren’t peach, they were close enough. “Absolutely. Hit me with it.”
“You are going to be an auntie.”
The silence stretched too long as she tried to process the words.
“Kacie?”
She pressed the heel of her hand to her eyes. Surely she heard wrong. “I’m sorry, Sam. I’m going to need you to repeat that.”
“I’m pregnant! Bryce and I are going to have a baby.”
Suddenly, Kacie was struggling to swallow around the lump in her throat. “Congratulations.”
She slid down the kitchen cabinets and sat on the cold, polished concrete floor, holding her head in her hand while Sam spent the next forty-five minutes recounting every symptom, every second of the first doctor visit. She even forwarded the ultrasound images, pictures that looked like nothing more than a white bubble floating on a sea of black.
An hour later, she was finally able to get off the phone. By that point she had no desire to eat, to read, to watch TV, to unpack. She had no desire to do anything. So she climbed into bed, closed her eyes, and cried. Like she had done every other night since she arrived. Because if she’d learned one thing over the course of the last year, it was that happy endings weren’t meant for her—they were meant for everyone else.
The following day, Michael found Danny in his backyard, coated in sawdust and drenched in sweat as he sawed through a large sheet of plywood. As the wood began to slip and fall from the sawhorses, Michael ran over and grabbed the opposite end, stabilizing it. Only then did Danny even realize he was there.
His brother gave a nod of thanks, finished the cut, then lowered the circular saw to the ground. “That was good timing,” he said while shoving his safety glasses onto the top of his head.
“No problem.” Michael stacked the two pieces on the grass. “What’s this for?”
“The subfloor in the mudroom has rotted. I moved the washer and dryer out first thing this morning and started tearing out the existing floor. I need to get this nailed down, install some linoleum, and move everything back in before the weekend is up.”
Michael chuckled. “Bree’s got you on the clock, huh?”
“You know it.” His brother smiled at him, then took a moment to brush the sawdust from his clothes. “Okay, then. Let’s hear it.”
“Hear what?”
Danny folded his arms over his chest. “How you’re pissed off that I called Dad and made him worry to the point he drove down here to check on you.”
Michael shook his head. “I’m not pissed.”
His brother stared at him in surprise. “Huh,” he finally said, then gestured to the back porch where a large cooler sat between two deck chairs. “Want something to drink?”
Michael was indifferent about the drink, but followed anyway, because this conversation was a long time coming. He’d just sat down when his brother tossed him a bottle of Gatorade. But instead of cracking it open, he stared at the orange top a few seconds, trying to decide how best to start the conversation. Ended up, he didn’t have to.
“Were you able to talk to Dad about what’s got you all twisted up inside?” Danny drank down half of his bottle and swiped an orange droplet from his chin. “That’s why I called him, you know. Since you wouldn’t talk to me or Bree, I’d hoped you’d at least talk to him.”
“I didn’t realize you were wanting me to talk to you.”
Danny scoffed. “You haven’t noticed how often I’ve been stopping by your office? Especially when I haven’t seen you in a couple of days? What about the number of dinner invites Bree has made in the last six months? I thought you’d talk when you were ready. And just for the record, Bree got tired of waiting before I did.”
“Jesus.” Michael shook his head. “You act like I should have had all sharp objects and my shoelaces taken away from me.”
“Hey.” Danny said it with such force, it got Michael’s attention. “We’ve just been worried about you. And when I found out you were dating someone I thought, ‘Maybe this is what he needs. This will help.’ And I think it did for a while. But since Kacie left for North Carolina, you’ve had the look of a man on the edge.”
“Don’t be so fucking dramatic.”
Danny grabbed his arm. “Really? You’re calling me dramatic? Dad phoned me the minute he got to your apartment yesterday. Said there was a fresh patch and paint job on your living room wall. I may not be a fucking doctor, but I seriously doubt punching holes in apartment walls is some newfangled form of therapy.”
He was silent for a long time as he thought about all Danny had said.
“Tell me what’s running through that head of yours?”
Michael set his drink on the ground and looked his brother in the eyes. “I’m thinking about leaving the 75th.”
A smile spread across his brother’s face. “I’ve been waiting a long time to hear you say that.”
“You’re serious?”
“Hell, yes, I’m serious. As a matter of fact, this calls for a celebration!” Danny rose to his feet and slapped him on the shoulder before he headed inside. A few minutes later he returned, handing one of the opened longnecks to Michael. “The scotch will have to wait for another time. Preferably when I’m not required to use power tools and on a tight deadline. But for now, here’s to new adventures!”
Danny held out his longneck, waiting for Michael to join in on the toast. “I didn’t realize you wanted me out of your hair this bad,” he said, finally tapping the neck of his bottle to Danny’s.
“Don’t get me wrong, I like having you around. But you need to do your own thing.” Danny dropped into the empty deck chair beside him. “What finally changed your mind?”
“Dad.”
And then he told Danny everything. About the conversation he’d had with their dad the night before, about the nightmares, the constant worry. He told him why he changed specialties in medical school, all he had done to make sure he’d become battalion surgeon for the 1st/75th. Even told him about that late-summer afternoon when their mother asked him to take care of Danny.
When he was finally done telling the secret he’d carried around for twenty-five years, he looked up to see his brother smiling at him, almost on the verge of laughing.
He frowned. “What’s so damn funny?”
Danny shook his head in disbelief. “Mom told me the same thing.”
Michael stared at his brother. He couldn’t have heard right. “She what?”
“Before she died she asked me to watch out for you. She told me that it was my job as your little brother to make sure you remembered to have fun. Because even at ten years old you were so damn serious.”
“You’re lying.” But even as he said the words, Michael knew Danny was telling the truth. And as the fact sunk in, it felt as though a weight was finally lifting off his shoulders.
“You can ask Bree. I told her years ago,” Danny said with a chuckle. “So, big brother, the question now is what do you want to do?”
Michael stared down into his longneck, nearly overwhelmed by all the possibilities. “I don’t even know where to start.”
“Okay, then. Let’s do this.” Danny leaned forward in his chair and looked him straight in the eyes. “You can go anywhere in the world. You can see or do almost anything. Scuba diving in Hawaii. Golfing in Scotland. Skiing in the Alps.” He poked Michael in the chest. “Who do you want to do it with?”
“Kacie.”
He said her name without hesitation. She was the first answer, the right answer, the only answer that would ever come to mind.
“There you go,” Danny said with a smile. “I think you know exactly where to start.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Three months into her fellowship and Kacie had to remind herself every day this was everything she had ever wanted. Her clinical work kept her unbelievably busy, a
nd the research for her fellowship took up the rest of her time. She loved working with kids who needed her assistance to have as normal a life as possible—it was far more rewarding than working with grown men who strained a muscle or hurt their back in a pickup basketball game. And when her residency was over, she shouldn’t have any trouble finding a job since she was participating in one of the most prestigious programs in the country.
So why was she so damn miserable?
Well for one, her imagination had been running away with itself, coming up with scenarios where Michael had met someone new. Someone prettier. Someone who wasn’t so rigid. Someone who knew how to dance.
Meanwhile, she sat in her closet-sized office facing the prospect of eating another lunch at her desk, all alone. What a pathetic sort she’d become when it came to her social life.
A knock on her open door interrupted her thoughts. She spun around in her chair to see a fellow therapist leaning against the doorjamb. “My lunch meeting was canceled,” Valerie said. “Want to go down to the cafeteria with me?”
“I’m not very hungry.”
“You don’t have to be hungry, but you do need to get out of this office even for a little bit. Just a thirty-minute break. You’re allowed that. And it just so happens it’s unseasonably warm today. So let’s sit outside and soak up some vitamin D.”
It was all the prodding she needed. Kacie grabbed her wallet and headed downstairs with her coworker. She couldn’t very well expect to move on with her life if she spent every spare minute of her day hiding in her closet, could she?
The moment they stepped off the elevator, Valerie’s phone beeped; she pulled her cell from her pocket to check the message.
“Ooh . . .” Her face lit up as she read the message on her screen. “Seems like this break is even better timed than I imagined.”
“Oh, yeah? Why is that?”
Valerie’s thumbs flew across the touch screen keyboard as she typed out a reply. “Georgia from radiology said she just saw one fine hunk of man down in the solarium. Word on the street is he’s a new hire in the ER.”
If there was one thing Kacie had learned in her short time here, a new doc in town always caused a stir.
The message chimes came faster and faster and the typing continued as they made their way to the cafeteria.
“What is going on?” Kacie finally asked.
Valerie looked up at her with a smile that stretched from ear to ear. “Group text. We’re tracking his movement.”
“Oh, my God. Y’all are stalking this poor guy now?”
Valerie laughed. “Hey now. We’re just having a little fun.” Her phone chimed again and she looked to the screen. “I wonder if anyone has been able to snap a picture of him.”
Kacie chuckled as she selected a large chef salad and placed it on her tray, then followed it with a small dish of banana pudding with vanilla wafers. She looked over at her friend only to realize she didn’t have one. “Are you getting a tray or what?”
Valerie thunked her forehead, then raced off to grab one. She’d barely returned to her spot in line when she let out a whoop. “Yes! Someone got a pic. And my goodness. He is pretty.”
Valerie held out the screen for her to see, but Kacie wasn’t really interested. “Later maybe,” she replied, fishing through her wallet for change.
With her curiosity now satisfied, Valerie was able to focus on lunch once again, and the two of them headed outside to an empty table in the small courtyard and took a seat in the sunshine.
Valerie’s phone continued to chime as they ate, but she didn’t bother to reach for it. “Do you need to check those?” Kacie asked, pointing to the phone.
“Nah.” Valerie stabbed a bite of pasta with her fork. “They’ll be going on all day. Lord help the man if he truly is single.”
They shared a laugh, at least until something caught Valerie’s attention. “Oh, my God, Kacie. He just came outside,” she said without really moving her mouth.
“Really?” Kacie made a motion to turn around and check this guy out for herself, but Valerie stopped her.
“Hang on a second,” she whispered. “If you turn around right now it’ll be obvious.”
Kacie laughed. “As opposed to all the women already staring at him with their mouths hanging open? Including you?”
But Valerie wasn’t listening. Instead, her jaw dropped and her eyes widened. “He’s coming this way,” she said while sitting up a little straighter in her chair.
Although she really wanted to turn around, Kacie didn’t want to make a scene. She watched Valerie’s eyes grow wider and wider, her line of sight now somewhere directly above Kacie’s head.
“Kacie?”
She knew that voice. Knew who it belonged to without any need to see his face. She took a deep breath and scooted her chair back so she could stand and face him.
It was no wonder he’d caused such a stir. His hair was a little longer now, and the way the sunlight hit the golden strands, he looked like an actor from a movie, an image only enhanced by the fact that he was dressed in a tailored navy suit, starched white shirt, and patterned tie.
She swallowed hard and tried to find her voice. “What—what are you doing here?”
“Getting the full tour.” He flashed that charming smile, the one that showcased his dimples, and Kacie was almost certain she heard a half dozen women behind her swoon. “My new boss thought it was important I knew my way around the hospital before I officially start next week.”
At some point her heart migrated northward and was now pounding out a rhythm in her throat. “You took a job here?”
“I did.”
“You left the regiment?”
“I did,” he said, staring at her with those intense blue eyes. “For the moment I’m on inactive ready reserve. I haven’t made a final decision yet as to whether I’ll stay my full twenty. I was hoping to talk to you about it. Get your thoughts.”
Kacie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “But what about Danny?”
Michael took her hand in both of his and stroked the back of her knuckles with his thumbs. “He’s a big boy. He’ll take care of himself.”
She couldn’t believe this was happening. Kacie grabbed hold of his suit jacket and buried her face against his chest, unable to hold back the tears of joy and relief any longer. She’d thought she had lost him forever—and that she would regret losing him every day of her life.
He wrapped his arms around her, pressed kisses to the top of her head. It wasn’t until this very minute, having been without his touch for so long, that she understood just how much she really missed him.
Once she caught her breath, she put just enough space between them so she could look up at him.
Using his thumbs, he swiped the tears from her face as he smiled down at her. “I hope these are tears of joy. Otherwise I’m kind of fucked.”
Kacie laughed in a way she hadn’t laughed in months, not since the last time she was with him. “God, I’ve missed you. You’ll never know how much I missed you. I kept telling myself that this new job, new fellowship, new life, would somehow be enough, but it just wasn’t.”
He grasped her face in both hands and kissed her. He was not gentle. He was not polite. He kissed her like she was the air he needed in order to survive. He pressed harder, deeper, with his mouth, bruising her lips, marking her in such a way everyone in this place would know she belonged to him. And then his kiss softened into the merest brush of his lips against hers, once, twice, and one more for good measure.
Their private moment was interrupted by the shutter sound from a camera phone. Kacie turned to see Valerie typing out a quick message. “What are you doing?” she asked, bewildered.
Valerie smiled. “Just letting them all know that this man is taken.”
Michael cupped her chin and tipped her face upward to his. “Am I?” he whispered so only she could hear. “Taken, that is?”
She smiled at him through her tears.
�
�Absolutely.”
Michael hated letting Kacie go, even for a matter of hours. But she had patients to see and work to do and that was priority. He wouldn’t ever make such a stupid mistake again, implying her work was somehow less important than his. So he kissed her goodbye and headed off to the human resources department to complete his new-hire paperwork.
They planned to meet in the solarium at the end of the day, since it was one of the few places he was able to find on the sprawling hospital campus. And for the third time in less than ten minutes, he checked his watch. She was only five minutes later than she’d said she would be. But the time seemed to crawl.
He took a seat on an empty bench and waited. He’d wait a lifetime for her if he had to, without complaint.
From the night he returned to his apartment to find his dad kicked back in his reclining chair, he knew what needed to be done. Although he didn’t resign his commission, he did give notice to the new battalion commander that he no longer wished to serve as 1st Batt’s surgeon. He had stayed long enough to assist with the transition once a replacement was found, but that was all.
As fate would have it, once he decided to go inactive ready reserve, an opening came available in the emergency department at Duke. He was told by his new boss that his top notch education and years of trauma experience made him an easy selection. The job was his if he wanted it.
In that time, he hadn’t heard from Kacie. He didn’t know how she’d react. Part of him feared being kicked to the curb, in much the same way she’d rejected her ex at the wedding.
But he knew it would have to be all or nothing. He wouldn’t have been able to approach Kacie and say he may or may not take a job with Duke. Or that he may or may not leave the army. He needed to make these decisions on his own. Like she had told him, he had to be responsible for his own happiness. So he had done that. And he was all the better for it.
“Hey there, handsome.” His heart jumped as she approached his bench and gave him a shy smile, followed by an unexpected wink. “Care to give me a ride home?”
After how things ended between them in Savannah, he never expected to see her smile like that at him again. God, how he’d missed the sight of it. Missed her.
From the Start Page 23
