“Fuck you,” I said, sinking down on my haunches. I hung my head in my hands as I thought about the disastrous visit with my parents. I’d gone home to take a break from Brooke and the mess I’d created. Instead, Mom and Dad yelled at me for an entire evening. They’d said they didn’t blame me for what had happened to Kayla, but I could see it in my mother’s glassy eyes and smell it on her whiskey-laced breath. I’d managed to ruin everything for everyone who got close to me. I was fucking cursed.
“I just need to see her,” I pleaded to the nurse.
She looked down at me, sad. “I’m sorry, I can’t allow that. Family only.” Her painful words were cut off by the door opening behind her.
I quickly pushed to my feet as Brooke came into view. Not so long ago, we had been strangers. The past two months had been a crash course of getting to know each other once she told me she was pregnant, and that the baby was mine.
Her eyes were red-rimmed and swollen, her platinum hair mussed. Her russet irises fell on me, and she wrapped her arms around her waist.
“It’s done?” I asked, feeling the blood drain from my face.
Brooke nodded, a fresh sob racking her body. I wanted to wrap my arms around her, but it felt too familiar for two people who’d spent one drunken night together.
“I had to do it, Josh. I’m not ready to be a mom.”
I nodded, linking my fingers behind my neck and blowing out a long breath. There was a lot I wanted to say. I couldn’t understand how she could be so impulsive, why she didn’t wait for me to call her back so we could discuss it, but I wasn’t angry. We had both been so scared, and now I wasn’t sure how to feel. She’d made her choice, and neither of us could take it back.
I watched, helpless, as Brooke fell into Daniel’s arms. Daniel’s. He’d made sure it was him she ran to for comfort, and I stood there alone, feeling like I’d stepped into an intimate moment between them that I had no business interrupting. Perhaps I didn’t. Daniel had told me after I’d slept with Brooke that he’d been in love with her since high school. When I told him the news about the baby, he had gone to her and promised to stick around, no matter what I decided.
Brooke’s cries from the night before rang in my ears. She had said she didn’t know me, didn’t trust me, and she was at home worrying about the future while I was busy trying to deal with my own feelings about it all. She was right, and I couldn’t blame her for saying it out loud.
Brooke’s knees buckled, and Daniel held her, stroking her hair. He looked at me as if he felt I was intruding, too.
“Should I go?” I asked Brooke.
She turned to look at me, her cheek against Daniel’s shoulder. “You’re free, Josh,” she said, sniffing. “We both are.”
The sliding doors opened across the lot as the air whooshed, and Deb slipped outside, smiling brightly at Quinn.
I was gripping the JayWok bag so tightly in my fist, my knuckles hurt.
“You all right, man?” Quinn asked as he stood at the rear bumper of the ambulance.
“I’m good.” I turned my attention back to Deb. “Where’s Avery?”
“She’s talking to Dr. Rosenberg.”
My body moved toward the door of its own accord, but I stopped as the doors opened. Avery stepped out, laughing as she glanced back over her shoulder to Doc Rose, who followed closely behind. His palm was pressed against the small of her back as they walked, but she didn’t seem to notice, or maybe she didn’t mind.
When the doctor saw me, he smiled, laughing to himself as if he’d won. My blood boiled in my veins, and it took serious restraint not to take that first step, because after that, I knew I wouldn’t stop. They separated, him heading toward his car and Avery in my direction.
“Hey,” Avery whispered as she met me in the center of the lot. She pushed up on her toes to kiss me square on the lips.
I hoped she had done it on purpose, to show us all who was the friend and who was more. Her gesture helped my anger dissipate, and I looped my arm behind her back, lifting her from the ground, deepening our kiss.
Setting her back on the ground, I chuckled, watching her cheeks burn with embarrassment.
“What was that about?” she asked.
I shrugged, glancing over her shoulder at Doc Rose, who was yanking open his car door and slipping inside, clearly irritated. Fucker.
“What’s that?” I asked, glancing down at the book she was clutching in her hand.
“Oh, it’s just a book Rose was telling me about.”
“Really?” I took it from her hand, flipping it over to read the back. What kind of stupid shit is this? “Looks good. Mind if I read it?”
“You read?” Her eyebrow cocked up as she eyed me suspiciously.
“What kind of uncultured swine do you take me for?”
“Does it have anything to do with the pissing contest you have going with the doc?”
“Hungry?” I asked, changing the subject.
She pulled her mouth to the side, likely deciding if she was going press me further. She nodded, her high ponytail bobbing behind her. “Starving.”
“You are insatiable.”
“Have I told you it turns me on when you use big words?” she asked.
“You should see the other big things I use,” I said, handing her the white sack.
I groaned, stretching my back at the end of my long shift. I couldn’t wait to see Avery, but I had a few errands to run. I glanced at the book that had been sticking out of my glove box for the past two weeks. It was about time I got it back to Doc Rose. That asshole had been doing everything he could to get closer to Avery. I could only ignore it for so long. When he had put his hands on her hips from behind, it had taken all I had not to kick his ass all over the emergency room.