“I can’t believe we stayed on budget and got all of this stuff,” I said, manhandling the bags from Pottery Barn kids, Restoration Hardware, and Dillard’s. “Liliana, you are the perfect woman to go shopping with. You absolutely know what you want and we are in and out.”
Saryn chuckled. “She’s her mother’s daughter. I hate shopping. I go as fast I can.”
I glanced her way. “I don’t think I’ve ever met a woman who didn’t like to shop.”
She shrugged. “I mean, I enjoy shopping for other people, but for me, I hate it. If I could live in a pair of sweatpants and my old favorite T-shirt for the rest of my life, I’d do it.”
“A girl after my own heart,” I said as our eyes met. I gave her a wink, and I couldn’t help but notice how her cheeks turned a soft shade of pink. I was quickly liking that look on her.
After a few moments of silence went by, we both went to speak at the same time.
“So what…”
“Why did…”
We both laughed.
“You go first,” Saryn insisted.
“So what made you decide to come back to Boerne after the divorce?” I asked.
With a shrug, Saryn answered, “It’s home. My family is here, and I want Liliana to be near my folks and brother.”
“What about her dad?”
She laughed. “He didn’t want a family, he made that very clear.”
Anger boiled up inside of me. “So you mean to tell me he was willing to let y’all just walk away?”
She nodded. “Yep. He wants a different life.”
“Then why the F. U. C. K. did he marry you?”
Saryn looked up at me and smiled with a twinkle in her eye. “You spelled that out.”
“Of course, I did. I’m not going to swear in front of Liliana.”
Something moved across her face. She looked away and chewed on her lip. “Thank you, for that, for thinking of her little ears.”
“Comes with the job,” I said.
She bumped against my arm and laughed. “Don’t play it off, Truitt, you’re different from any other guy I’ve ever met.”
“Different good or different bad?” I asked with interest.
Saryn paused for a few moments before she replied, “Good.”
Our gazes met and I swore my body heated from her intense stare. The feeling quickly vanished when her daughter cried out from on top of my shoulders.
“Ice Cweam!”
Smiling, I headed over to the yogurt shop.
“Can she have some?” I asked.
“I think some ice cream sounds good right about now,” Saryn said.
After ordering Liliana a small chocolate yogurt with sprinkles on it, Saryn ordered a small peach and I ordered vanilla with crushed Heath on top.
“Mmm!” Liliana said when she took a bite. Her blue eyes sparkled with delight, and I swore I felt my heart beat a little harder and faster. This little girl was quickly winning a gigantic place in my heart. How in the hell could her own father just let her walk out of his life?
“Will Tim come and visit Liliana?” I asked, watching the little girl gobble up her ice cream, getting more of it on her face than in her stomach.
A look of sadness crossed over Saryn’s face as she gazed down at her daughter. “I don’t think so.”
“How? I mean, why would he not want to be a part of her life?”
“Some men just don’t care.”
I watched her as she smiled and wiped yogurt off of her daughter’s face.
“He’s a D.A.M.N fool.”
“Damn!” Liliana said, a proud look displayed on her face.
My eyes widened in shock. “Oh, my God, she can spell? She’s a prodigy at three!”
Saryn lost it laughing. “No, she can’t, but she’s learned that word because I say it all the time, then correct myself by spelling it.”
“So, basically, you taught her how to spell a bad word.”
She nodded and then shrugged.
“You do realize she’s putting two and two together. Your daughter is going to be brilliant.”
“You’re right, I didn’t really think about her making the connection like that.”
Pointing to Liliana and then back to Saryn, I chuckled. “You’re screwed with this one.”
With a roll of her eyes and a sigh, Saryn said, “Tell me about it.”
We spent the drive back to Boerne singing some song that Liliana insisted we all sing. When I pulled up to drop them off, Evie scooped up Liliana and whisked her away, the little girl chatting her grandmother’s ear off about how much fun she had as Will carried the three boxes of Build-A-Bears.
“Thanks for helping me out like that,” I said, smiling down to Saryn.
“It was our pleasure. I had fun today, thank you.”
Our eyes locked for a moment before she looked away.
“Yeah, me, too,” I said. “I guess I should be heading on out.”
She nodded, then took a few steps back.
“Hey, if you ever think nursing isn’t your thing anymore, you can come work for me. You have a good eye for decorating.”
I couldn’t help but notice the way her eyes lit up for a quick moment before she let out a nervous laugh. “Well, if they don’t get me out of the ER soon, I may take you up on that.”
We stood there, simply looking into each other’s eyes. I took a step closer to her, and that seemed to draw her out of whatever spell we had been under.
I leaned down to look at something she had stuck on her face. But before I could say anything, she took a giant step away from me.
“I’m not looking to start anything with you, Truitt. I mean, other than friendship.”
And that felt like a five-gallon bucket of cold water pouring over my body. Before I had a chance to respond, her mother called out.
“Saryn!”
For a moment I swore I saw something like regret in Saryn’s eyes, but it was gone as fast as it had appeared.
“Bye, Truitt.”
The way my chest ached wasn’t new to me. In fact, I’d felt it at the very young age of eighteen, the first time she rejected me.
The fact that I wanted to kiss her now and she didn’t want to kiss me in return depressed the living hell out of me. This woman and her little girl had completely turned my entire world upside down since they swept back into town.
“See ya around, Saryn.”
Even I could hear the disappointment in my voice.
I watched as she headed into her folks’ house, not turning to get into my truck until the door shut and she was completely out of sight.
Saryn
I MADE MY final notes in a patient’s file, surprised I’d been able to focus at all. I hadn’t been able to get the other day out of my mind.
No, I hadn’t been able to get Truitt Carter out of my mind. The way he took to Liliana: laughed with her, played with her, sang that stupid little song at the top of his lungs in his truck just to make her happy.
The way he looked at me. I could have sworn he had wanted to kiss me. Or maybe he was going to ask me out. I’d freaked out when he stepped closer to me. The urge to have him kiss me and turn and run away had been a battle. Was he truly interested in me, or was it like last time? Did he simply want to sleep with me?
A part of me knew that wasn’t true. That Tim had lied to me that day. I saw the look on Truitt’s face, the hurt in his eyes when I said I was going out with Tim. But then he simply turned and walked away. If he had truly wanted to ask me out, why would he just walk away?
Glancing up when I heard a commotion at the main door of the ER, I nearly dropped the chart. My brother was in a mad rush to get over to me.
“Liliana?” I asked, my voice panicked.
“She’s fine. It’s Truitt.”
A sense of dread washed over me, so intense it was almost shocking. “What about him?”
Looking past Ryan, I saw Phil, one of the male nurses, and Pete helping Truitt into a wheelchair.
“Oh, my gosh, what happened?” I asked as I rushed over to help them.
Ryan came up next to me. “Well, I stopped by Truitt’s place to check on the playhouse. I asked him if I could help with some of the framing, and we had a bit of an accident with the nail gun.”
Sickness rushed through me. “The nail gun?”
Lucy rushed past me and made her way over to Truitt. “Get him into bay seven.”
“My lucky bay!” Truitt said with a humorless chuckle.
Spinning back to face Ryan, I gave him a look that demanded he told me everything.
“Fine! Fine! I accidentally shot a nail into his foot.”
My hand came up to my mouth as I gasped. “How in the world did you do that, Ryan?”
“It got jammed, and Truitt was trying to tell me what to do, and for some reason it went off.”
“How far did it go in?”
He shrugged. “He had on some pretty thick boots, so hopefully it isn’t in too deep. Although, he did let out a pretty long string of curse words after it happened and told me he was going to pull my balls through my throat, so I’m going to guess it hurt.”
“For the love—!” I said, pushing past him as I made my way over to where they had taken Truitt. Pete and Lucy were both trying to see how far the nail had gone into Truitt’s foot.
“Let’s order an X-ray so I can see where the nail’s path went. Then call and get me an orthopedic surgeon on the line to take a look at it.”
Lucy glanced my way and smiled. “We’ve got this, you can head on home.”
My eyes bounced from her to Truitt. Why was I not wanting to leave? My shift was over. Lucy was the attending nurse.
Truitt let out a soft groan, and I knew I wasn’t leaving. I needed to make sure he was okay. It wasn’t like Truitt’s injury was life threatening; it wasn’t, by any means. Unless an infection set in.
Lucy was now staring at me with a befuddled expression. “I haven’t ever seen an injury like this before, I’d like to stay and observe,” I said, quickly thinking on my feet.
With one brow raised, Lucy tried not to smile. I saw the twitch at the side of her mouth, though. “You want to observe?”
I nodded. “If that’s okay with you, Doctor.”
“Pete doesn’t care if you observe, do you?” Truitt asked, a hint of pain laced between his words. He looked as if he was fighting with all his might to keep from crying out.
Pete simply smiled and shrugged. “I don’t care, the more nurses the better.”
Truitt closed his eyes and I knew he was in pain. Then he looked my way. “I think my brother paid yours off to get me into this place again. The odds weren’t looking so good for Roger in the pool, I guess.”
My mouth opened, then snapped shut. For once in my life, I was unsure of what to say. My gaze took in his entire body. I needed to see for myself that he was okay. Something deep inside me cared very much for the man lying on the table…and that confused the hell out of me.
“I’m kidding, Saryn. It was an accident.”
“Something you’re very familiar with,” Pete said.
“Hey, I’m keeping you in business, Pete,” Truitt replied.
“X-ray is ready,” Lucy said.
While they took Truitt to get X-rays, I pulled Ryan off to the side.
“What in the hell happened?” I asked in a hushed voice.
“It’s like I said, the stupid gun got jammed. I was trying to fix it, but Truitt got impatient and walked over to me. He went to take it, and I don’t know, it went off.”
I rolled my eyes, then chewed on my thumbnail as I looked around the ER.
“Don’t worry, he isn’t going to try and sue me,” Ryan said with a chuckle. “That poor guy has the worst luck of anyone I know.”
Hitting him in the chest, I let out a sigh.
“Wait, if you’re worried he won’t finish the playhouse on time, Truitt will get it done.”
I was positive my mouth dropped to the floor. “What? You think I’m worried about the playhouse?”
“Yeah, he’s been a hell of a lot worse off and has gotten projects done.”
“You think I’m worried he won’t be able to finish the stupid playhouse I didn’t even want in the first place?”
I knew my voice sounded more upset than angry. I was pissed at myself for telling Truitt I wasn’t interested in getting involved with him. I was angry he had just accepted it. He’d walked away…yet again.
Ryan pulled his brows down and stared at me. “Why are you so angry?”
“I’m not angry! I’m worried!”
“About Truitt?”
My mouth pressed into a thin line as I looked away.
“Holy shit, do you like him, Saryn?”
I snapped my head back so that my gaze hit his. “Don’t be ridiculous. I do not like him, Ryan. My God, you shot a nail in the man’s foot. How do we know he wouldn’t try to…to do something?”
“Truitt? Do you have any idea how many times he’s stuck, twisted, or hurt himself because of one of his friends? Or simply because he’s…Truitt? You’re overreacting. Why don’t you just go on home, Saryn?”
With my hands on my hips, I glared at my brother. “Are you dismissing me, Ryan?”
“Yes, I am, because you’re acting crazy. It was an accident, Saryn. I didn’t do it on purpose and yes, we may have a pool going about Truitt’s trips to the ER, but none of us would ever put him in any danger or try to hurt him. He knows that.”
I shook my head and walked away from my brother.
So, what if I had spent one afternoon with Truitt. He was sweet to my daughter, and he was sweet to me. That didn’t mean anything.
Pete walked by, and I turned to see where he was going. When I saw him walking into another bay in the ER, I followed. Ryan was on my heels.
Ryan came up to walk next to me. “Why are you suddenly interested in Truitt? I thought you were with Luke.”
I stopped, causing Ryan to stop alongside me. “Why would you say that?”
He shrugged. “Because you hooked up with him. I heard he stopped by the ER to visit you not too long ago.”
Heat instantly hit my cheeks. Before I had a chance to reply, Pete walked up to me. “If you want to watch this, let’s go.”
As I turned to follow Pete, I looked back at Ryan and whisper-shouted, “I am most certainly not with Luke. Or anyone, for that matter!”
He held up his hands in defense. “Fine. Whatever you say.”
Once we were in the room with Pete and Lucy, I watched as they cut away at Truitt’s jeans, then his sock. After cleaning the area, Pete injected a blocker into Truitt’s ankle in a few different locations.
“Okay, so you want to tell me what happened?” Pete asked Ryan.
My brother shrugged. “It was stuck, the nail gun. Honestly, it was Truitt’s fault for trying to take the damn thing from me. He didn’t give me a chance to fix it.”
Truitt opened his eyes and shot Ryan a dirty look. “So now it’s my fault. You had your fucking finger on the trigger, you asshole!”
Ryan tried not to smile.
“Roger paid you, didn’t he?” Truitt asked through gritted teeth. “I’ll fucking kill him.”
Pete and Ryan both chuckled.
“How do y’all find any of this funny?” I asked as Pete handed Lucy the last needle.
“Surgical pliers, please,” Pete said.
Lucy handed them to Pete as I walked over to Truitt. “After they pull it out, they’ll X-ray your foot again to make sure there are no bone fragments.”
Truitt watched as Pete grabbed the nail and pulled it.
“Fuck!” Ryan and Truitt both said as Pete removed the nail in one swift movement.
Pete snapped his head and looked at Truitt. “Did you feel that?”
“No, but I feel dizzy now.”
“Put your head back down,” I softly said, grabbing Truitt’s hand.
“I don’t think we’ll have any worries about infection,
especially since it didn’t go through the rubber part of the sole. But, just to be sure, I’ll probably start you on a round of antibiotics. Let’s also get him a tetanus shot, Lucy,” Pete stated.
Truitt nodded but didn’t say anything. He only took one steady breath after another.
“I’ll wash it as best as I can. I can’t say if any fibers got into the wound,” Pete said.
After clearing his throat, Truitt spoke. “I’ll be able to walk on it, right?”
Pete nodded. “It will be sore…isn’t this the same ankle you twisted?”
Truitt looked over at Ryan and shot him a dirty look. “No, it’s the other one.”
Ryan tried not to laugh.
“I’ve never in my life met anyone as unlucky as you, Carter,” Pete stated.
When I looked over at Lucy, I noticed her gaze was down on my hand. It was resting on top of Truitt’s. I was rubbing my thumb over his skin. I instantly pulled my hand away, but not before she lifted a brow in a questioning look. I shook my head, then took a step back.
It was my turn to clear my throat. “Well, I guess I can add that to my list of crazy ER moments. I’m going to head on home. Thanks for letting me watch, Truitt.”
He smirked. “Like I had any options.”
His response stopped me for a moment. Had he not wanted me there? Maybe he was embarrassed to be back in the ER. Maybe the pain of having a nail shot through his foot made him cranky. Maybe I was overthinking this.
Without a word, I headed to my locker in the break room. After I grabbed my purse, I quickly made my way outside and to my car.
“Saryn! Wait.”
The sound of Ryan’s voice stopped me. I turned to face him.
He stopped in front of me and asked, “Hey, is everything okay?”
I forced a slight smile. “I’m tired. I didn’t like working in the ER the first time I had to do it, and I hate it even more now. I’m ready to get back to babies. That’s all.”
He nodded and looked at me thoughtfully. “I didn’t mean anything when I brought up that whole thing with Luke.”
I waved him off. “It’s fine. I knew what I was doing and figured the rumors would start eventually. It’s not a big deal.”
“Hey, it’s okay if you have feelings for Truitt.”
Lucky in Love Page 12