Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 69794 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69794 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
I smiled at that.
She was right.
Beau was my new man.
But…
“No,” I admitted. “He’s taking Iris to school, and this is her first day back after she was hurt. I’m imagining that it’ll take longer than usual, and he doesn’t really need that distraction right now.”
She muttered something under her breath. “I’m calling back in ten minutes. If you don’t answer, I’m calling him.”
“You don’t have his number,” I pointed out.
“Sure, of course I don’t.”
Then she hung up, letting me know that she did have his number, and she’d probably had it for a while.
Did they ever talk about me?
Surely not…
“Ahem.”
I reluctantly looked up and found Eloy now completely in my room, looking chagrined.
It was too bad that he didn’t show up two hours from now. I was being discharged from the hospital, and I’d already asked Beau to pick me up in an hour.
He’d done the get-Iris-to-school routine today, so he wasn’t here when I’d gotten the news that I would be released soon. But he’d promised that he would be here as soon as he was done.
Not soon enough, though.
“Mag?”
I gritted my teeth at the nickname that only he’d called me.
Noli, which Beau sometimes called me, was okay. But Mag made me want to set things on fire.
I instantly wanted to ask him to leave, but something stilled my verbal reprimand.
“Hey,” he said.
“What are you doing here, Eloy?” I grumbled.
He surprisingly didn’t beat around the bush.
“I realized that I love you still.”
I blinked. “You could’ve texted me that.”
He shifted from foot to foot. “I think that’s something that needs to be said face-to-face.”
Was it?
“Then why did you break up with me over text message?” I wondered. “Same logic applies.”
He again started shifting from foot to foot.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I really wish I could take it all back. Get a do-over.”
“Well, you can’t.”
That hadn’t come from me.
That’d come from Beau who was standing in the doorway, Iris on his hip.
She had a death grip on his t-shirt, and she looked like she’d had that death grip on him for a while.
“I’m having a private conversation—” Eloy started, but I interrupted.
“What happened?”
Beau ignored Eloy and came farther into the room. “She didn’t have it in her to go to school today.”
My stomach sank. “Really?”
Iris shifted toward me, and I pulled her into my good arm, surprised and relieved to get a hug from her. Soaking it up, I closed my eyes and just…breathed.
I didn’t get these very often, and when they came, I cherished every second.
“You okay, Iris?”
She nodded against my chest.
“Maybe we can try again tomorrow,” I suggested.
She nodded but didn’t say anything.
“Is this her?”
I felt a shift and opened my eyes to see that Beau had placed himself in front of Iris and me. “It’s time to leave.”
“I…”
“Aren’t welcome,” Beau interjected before he could give his excuse. “Thanks for stopping by.”
Silence.
I felt my lips stretch up into a grin and couldn’t stop the small laugh that bubbled out of me when Eloy continued to stutter out his excuses.
In the end, Beau helped him find his way out of the room, leaving Iris and me alone to snuggle.
Though not for long.
Beau and Eloy weren’t gone but for a few seconds when the nurse came in and declared, “Time to bounce!”
I liked her a lot.
She was a great nurse and an even easier person to talk to.
I hoped that I got to see her a lot when I officially started working here after the Christmas holidays. She seemed like she would be a great friend.
Especially when she started to whisper all the things that Beau was saying to Eloy in the hallway.
“That man…” She fanned her face. “He is HOT!”
I grinned. “He is.”
“And so sweet and concerned about you,” she said. “I’ve known him for my entire life, you know. Never seen him like this with a woman. You would think that his world starts and ends with you.” She shook her head. “I always knew that it’d take a special kind of woman to tie him down. So wild. Racing horses. Running wild at his friends’ parents’ ranches. Hell, one year he even decided to start rodeoing. Then he found the Marines and it was like his world finally clicked. We all thought he’d forever be single, but seeing him now? Like this? With you? It’s obvious that it just took the right woman.”
Of course she knew him.
They’d been casual around each other, and it’d never occurred to me until now.
“Was he a bad boy?”
That came from Iris.
“Oh, yes.” My nurse, Tina’s, eyes lit with an inner fire. “I swear, there wasn’t a day that went by that he wasn’t in trouble in school. I think he was in the principal’s office more than he was in class.”
“Telling lies about me, Tina?” Beau drawled.
“Of course not,” Tina razzed him. “I’m telling only the truths as I know them to be.”