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While the playful little guy chewed and nipped at Camden’s hands, Keegan turned her attention toward me.

“You haven’t told me much about your date with Turner. Spill the beans. You going on another one? Was he a gentleman? And race car driving . . . that shocked the crap out of me. I had no clue you were even into racing.”

I held my hand up to her. “Okay, for starters, slow down. One question at a time. He was a gentleman.”

Camden snickered in the background. “Well, that’s kind of shocking. You all thought I was a brut, Turner is worse than I ever was.”

Keegan nudged him. “Hush. She’s talking. Anyway, you were saying?”

I glanced back and forth between them. Their relationship and sweetness made me envious.

“Yeah, so I’m not in to racecars. In fact, I had no idea he was even taking me to the track. Had I known I would have told him he could take his idea of a good date and shove it up his ass.”

Keegan’s eyes got wide. “Then what made you agree to do it if you didn’t want too?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. He pulled into the parking lot and he gave me a look that made me feel like I could . . . I don’t know, trust him? So I went with it.”

“Wow. I’m honestly kind of shocked.”

“Did you enjoy it?” Camden asked inquisitively.

The puppy was vigorously running around the room, tossing toys in the air and making them squeak.

I thought about how to best answer him. “Yes, I enjoyed it. At first, I was terrified. I’d never been inside a car that could go that fast. Turner ended up going around once, showing me that he had complete control of the vehicle. I know he wanted to push it to the limits, but I wasn’t having it.”

I closed my eyes and remembered how the wind whipped around me and everything breezed by so fast I couldn’t make out shapes. What I remembered most though, was the way Turner looked at me, letting me know he had me. I knew when his blue eyes met mine, he was going to keep me safe. He didn’t even have to say anything to me, I just knew.

Camden chuckled. “Turner always was the one to push the boundaries.”

“What do you mean?”

“When we were kids he was always the first one on the roller coasters, or jumping off the roof of the house onto something. I thought Mom and Dad were going to give him up for adoption or give him away on a street corner.”

I tilted my head to the side, more curious than before. “So he’s a bit of an adrenaline junky?”

“Yeah, you could say that.”

A worker popped her head in. “How’s it going?”

“He’s amazing!” Keegan clamored.

“He’s a sweet boy. Would you guys like to see any other dogs?”

Keegan and Camden looked at each other. “There was a female we saw, but it seems like Cam really likes this little guy,” Keegan told her.

The worker beamed. “Well, if you’d like, I can start processing his paperwork while you speak to one of our adoption agents and they can give you all of his info if you are still interested.”

“That would be great, thanks,” Camden agreed. He was holding the puppy on a leash, and I could tell this was the little fella they were going to go home with today.

When the worker closed the door, Keegan turned back toward me. “Okay, so now what? Are you two going to go out on another date?”

“I agreed to a second date. I just don’t know where he’s taking me.”

“How exciting,” she shrilled.

“Calm down, Keegan. It’s just a damn date. Not like they are walking down the aisle,” Camden scolded.

She slapped his arm. “Shut up.”

I shook my head. “Definitely no weddings for me. This girl has vowed to live the life of singlehood.”

“Why?” Camden asked, completely contradicting what he just said to Keegan a moment ago.

I stared at him. “Because I’m not interested. You become so invested in someone, giving your full self over to another person, and then what? What happens when they die? What would you do? How do you go on? I’m sorry, but I’d rather not go there.”

Keegan looked sad. “Didn’t know you felt that way.”

“It’s called self-preservation. I don’t knock anyone who gets married and has a family and all that, but it’s just not for me. I decided this a long time ago.”

Technically, it wasn’t that long ago. Around the time of my parents death I made a vow to myself that that if I didn’t give my emotions to another, I’d spare them the grief and agony if something ever happened to me and vice versa. I didn’t care that most people didn’t get it. In fact, it’s why I rarely ever spoke about it. Everyone who has met me since my parent’s accident just thinks I’m some indifferent cold hearted bitch or a lesbian. When the reality is, I’m neither.

“Oh, can we change the subject for a minute?” I asked. Refusing to actually keep talking about my date and love life.

“Sure, what’s up?” Keegan replied.

We were being led out of the puppy play room and Camden was greeted by one of the adoption agents. They were currently going over the puppy’s records, while Keegan and I sat back and chatted.

“You sure did miss some action the other night.”

“Oh yeah? What happened?”

“We got a mother in that was a severe addict. Any drug you could think of, it was in her system. She was so awful—belligerent, yelling, and the worst part, she didn’t care about her son she’d just given birth too. I’m hoping in all the years I’m a nurse, that’s the worst that I see.”

Keegan’s eyes were wide. “I heard about that one. Didn’t know you were the delivering nurse. When was this?”

“My shift right after the wedding.”

“How’s the baby?”

I paused. “Actually, I don’t know. I had planned on stopping in to check on him yesterday, but was beat after I clocked out. I think I’ll head into the NICU tomorrow before I go in. He was such a little guy. Hoping he’s a fighter.”

She rubbed my arm. “No doubt. And it’s probably a good thing I wasn’t on that day. Lord knows I would have throttled that woman.”

“Oh, it took everything in me to not grab her by her face and say, ‘wake the hell up, your baby needs you.’ Of course I didn’t and went and blew off some steam in the stair well. Speaking of, someone really needs to put a dart board in there. Sure would help when I’m catching a breather.”

She giggled. “Definitely.”

“Hey, baby, I need you to come over here and sign some papers,” Camden called for her.

Awe, puppy time for the happy couple. I took a step back and let her go be with her husband. Heading to the cat room, I sat down as the little purring furballs surrounded me. Sighing I thought to myself.
Ah yes, destined to forever be a cat lady.
I didn’t know if that made me happy, or sad. Either way, it’s how it was going to be.

Sitting in my office on the fourth floor of the hospital, I was staring out my wall of windows instead of doing the paperwork that I was desperately behind on. This was ludicrous. It had been almost two weeks since I’d taken Annabelle out on our first date, and I had yet to plan our next one. Things in the operating room had been hectic, and I barely had any time to myself, let alone trying to schedule something. I felt terrible. Even worse, I had a fucking hell of a time concentrating on anything that didn’t have to do with her.

The one time I’d managed to pick up the phone, her line had just started ringing when I had been called out to an emergency surgery. I’ve been frustrated. So frustrated, that one day not too long ago, I found myself down on her floor, outside the nursery window, peeping in on her like some creeper. I’d watched as she tenderly gave a newborn its first bath. There were other nurses in the room, and a couple had taken notice of me, but thankfully none of them tipped her off that I was around. I watched her for a couple minutes and decided it was best to leave. I’d considered poking my head in to see how she was doing since we hadn’t spoken, but it didn’t seem like the time or the place to do it. Women got all weird being around babies, and I swear it was like you could hear their ovaries exploding when they saw, heard, or smelled a newborn. I didn’t want any part of that. Instead, I went back to my office, called her cell phone, and left her a message apologizing for being MIA for so long. I’d consider myself lucky if she actually called me back.

I was relentlessly clicking my pen when my cell on my desk buzzed. I sighed. Whoever was calling was going to get the not so pleasant side to me. I was
not
in the mood to shoot the shit or talk. Picking it up, I looked at the screen and stopped in my tracks. It was her. Jesus, she was the last person I was expecting to hear from.

“Hello, Annabelle.”

“Hi,” she responded.

“You must’ve got my message?”

“I did,” she stated matter of fact.

I twisted back and forth. “Good. I apologize for not getting back to you sooner. I tried calling a while ago, but timing didn’t work out to well.”

“Apology accepted. Everything okay up there?”

“Yeah, just busier than normal. Kids are busting their asses at football practice and coming in left and right with injuries. Regardless, I have a day off on Friday. You working?”

“I’m pretty sure I’m off, let me check.”

She was rustling through some papers, when she finally came back on the line and said, “I’m free.”

I smiled. “Okay, I was thinking we could do something a little more active this time. You down?”

“Turner,” she said with a tone that dared me to not push her limits again. Too bad, Princess, it’s happening.

“No race cars or tracks this time, I promise. Just light walking, and fresh air.”

She stayed quiet for longer than I’d hoped. I was about to ask her if she was still there when she responded, “No race cars?”

Annabelle’s sweet voice caused things to stir under my scrubs. “Cross my heart.”

“Alright. When will you be by to get me?”

I thought about it. “I’ll be by around eight in the morning. And again, dress casual.”

“Sounds good.”

“See you soon, Annabelle.” My voice was deeper than before.

Her breathing was a little heavier. “Bye, Turner.”

“Bye.”

I hit “End” on my phone and set it on my desk. It was most definitely wrong that I led her to believe that this was going to be a docile outing. But I didn’t care. On this date, she was going to have plenty of time to talk to me and tell me more about herself. I also didn’t mention that she wasn’t going to be able to get too far away from me either if conversation got to be too much for her. Come to think of it, she may hate me by the end of Friday, but at least I will have spent the time with her that I was in need of. Now, it was time to make a couple of calls and get this shit set up.