Another couple gathered around a craps table. As they played, they always had their hands on one another. On each other’s waist, or arm, or shoulder, or back. Their closeness was so intense that it seemed like they were one person.
“You know, Meek,” I said, looking over at my friend. “You need to find yourself a woman. I know you think they only want you for your money, but you’re mistaken. A good woman will make you question everything you know.”
“Pass,” Meek said with a soft chuckle.
“You don’t know what you’re missing.”
“Oh, I think I do. Heartache. Arguments. Compromising. I like being on my own. My decisions only impact me. Less responsibility, more time and money to do the things I want to do. I’m happy on my own. Trust me.”
I scratched the back of my neck and rocked back in the chair. “You have a bad experience with a girl or something?”
Meek narrowed his eyes at me. “Perhaps.”
I nodded and didn’t press him any further. I knew firsthand what it was like to suffer heartbreak. I was enduring it right now, and I didn’t wish it on anyone, especially my best friend.
“If the right girl ever came along, maybe I would change my mind,” Meek said suddenly. “But she would have to check a lot of boxes.”
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. “Is everything you do a security check? You have to make sure all the ducks are in a row before you commit to something?”
“Absolutely,” Meek said flatly.
I laughed again and shook my head at my friend. “Maybe you’re the one who needs a change of pace. Throw caution to the wind, Meek. I think it would be good for you.”
“Who are you? Grandmother Willow?”
“What?” I asked.
Meek laughed this time. “Never mind. How about you just worry about your love life, and I’ll worry about mine? Or the lack of mine.”
“Fine,” I agreed, but my curiosity had been piqued. “But now you have to tell me. What are some of these boxes this mystery lady would have to check?”
Meek put his coffee down and clasped his hands behind his head. “You really want to know?”
“Oh, absolutely.”
“Very well,” Meek said. “She would have to be able to put me in my place when I pushed too far. You know how I am. You handle it. She would need to do the same. I want a woman who laughs easily and isn’t afraid to crack her own jokes. I like a woman who isn’t afraid of dirty talk and doesn’t concern herself with being ladylike. I just want her to be herself. She would have to look good in sweats. There’s nothing sexier than a woman with bedhead wearing sweatpants and a tank top.”
“I can see where you’re going with that one,” I agreed, thinking of Skylar in the morning before she caught her plane.
“I also like a woman with dark eyes. A woman who can get physical. A woman who likes competition and will do whatever it takes to win.”
“All right.” I laughed. “Jesus. I see why it’s taken you so long to find someone. Ever consider the fact that maybe you’re missing out on some great women with qualities that aren’t on your checklist? You might just find that they’re better than what you were looking for.”
Like Skylar for example, was what I wanted to say. I never imagined I would fall for a woman as shy, private, and innocent as her. But I did. And I fell hard.
Chapter 34
Skylar
The smell of sterilizer, gauze, and rubber gloves was overwhelming, but pleasant, familiar. I was back at the hospital for my first shift, and I felt a little more like myself than I had when I was back at my apartment. Adjusting to life back home was proving to be difficult, but at work, everything felt the same as it always had.
I made my rounds and visited patients. Some were old patients who had been there before I left. They all asked me about Las Vegas, and I took the time to sit beside their beds and tell them all about it, minus any details concerning Greyson. Most questions were about the city itself. Was the Golden Nugget still on Freemont Street? Did I go to the M&M store? What was my favorite hotel?
I answered all their questions with a smile as I tended to my patients.
When I went back to the nurses’ station during rest time, none of my coworkers asked me about my trip. I sat in one corner while we had our meeting and went over all the rest of the day’s duties. My shift would be done at six o’clock. I still had a few hours to go.
I sat and ate the snacks I had brought: an apple and peanut butter and carrot sticks. All the while, the other nurses sat and chatted amongst one another. For the first time since working in this hospital, I found myself wishing that they would include me.
When I was done eating and rest time ended, I went back out into the ward to visit a new patient. Her name was Gloria. She was being prepped for open heart surgery the following morning. When I went in, her husband was just leaving to grab dinner. I smiled at him as he left and then went and took a seat beside Gloria’s bed.
“Hello, Mrs. Hutchins. My name is Skylar. I’ll be your nurse until six this evening, and then I’ll be the one coming back tomorrow morning to be with you before your surgery. Do you have any questions or concerns you would like to run by me?”
Gloria smiled softly at me. She had full lips that I was sure were not natural. They were lined in a shade that was three times darker than her natural lips, and I wondered if it was tattoo liner. Her eyes were dark brown but twinkled with life.
“Nice to meet you, Skylar,” she said.
I smiled.
“I don’t think I have any questions, my dear. I’ve been well taken care of since arriving here. I confess, I’m quite nervous. I don’t really know what to expect.”
I nodded knowingly. “This is a daunting procedure, but you are the perfect candidate for it. You are in great shape, and you have no health complications. This will make your recovery much faster and easier than someone who, say, smokes a pack of cigarettes a day or suffers from diabetes. It’s scary, but this is routine surgery. This hospital performs six per day.”
“How long is the surgery?” Gloria asked.
“Four hours. You will wake up probably after eight. Has anyone gone over that part with you yet?”
Gloria shook her head and her fingers tightened in her blankets. I reached out and put a hand over hers.
“It’s okay,” I said. “I promise. Everything will be fine. When you wake up, you will be disoriented. That man who just left, who is he?”
“My husband,” Gloria said. As the words left her mouth, her grip on the blankets loosened, and she relaxed against her pillows. That sparkle returned to her eyes, and color returned to her cheeks. “His name is Bruce.”
“Will Bruce be here tomorrow after your surgery?”
Gloria nodded. “He told me that he’ll be waiting outside the operating room until I wake up.”
“Okay, wonderful. I’ll let the nurses in the cardiac surgery recovery room know that he’s there. When they know you’re going to start waking up, one of them will come get him so that you wake up to see a familiar face. That will make it so much easier. All the confusion as you come to will be easier to navigate if you see his face and hear his voice right away.”
“Oh, thank you so much,” Gloria said, her eyes filling with tears. “Bruce is my everything. This makes me feel so much more at ease, knowing he’ll be there. He’ll feel better, too.”
I patted her hand. “Good. I promise he will be there. He’ll help you through it. You will have one nurse with you when you come to, and she’ll make sure Bruce has proper instruction on how to help you best. When you first wake up, you’ll have a breathing tube in. Just try to remember that it’s there for your own good, okay? Your lungs have to be collapsed before the surgery begins, so the breathing tube is necessary. After waking up, you’ll probably have to keep it in for an hour at the least. It’s not comfortable. Your body will want it out. Bruce will be there to remind you why you have to keep it in.”
“Okay,” Gloria s
aid. “What about pain? Every other doctor I’ve asked hasn’t really been able to tell me anything other than I’ll be really uncomfortable for the next little while.”
I always shared the truth with my patients. I pulled my chair closer to her bed and put my clipboard behind my back. “Uncomfortable is not the right word,” I started. “When you first come out of surgery, the breathing tube is what you will hate the most. Once that comes out, you will just want to sleep. You will be on a lot of pain killers. This is important. With a surgery like this, it is best to keep the pain at bay because you need to push yourself hard if you want to get better. Nurses, me included, will be coming in about fifteen hours after surgery and making you stand.”
“Really?” She blinked.
I nodded. “Yes. The painkillers keep the pain at bay, but not all of it. You will still be seriously hurting. You will have breathing exercises that aren’t pleasant, but they are crucial. You need to inflate your lungs again, and that is the only way. You will probably wake up several times feeling short of breath. It will scare you when it happens, but try not to panic. Take breaths as deep as you can. Press the red button at your side if you need one of us to come help you. That’s what we’re here for.”
“Okay.”
“And remember this, okay: day one, you’ll be feeling groggy. The pain will definitely be there, but you will have been expecting worse. Day two is the worst. The pain is intense. We cut back a bit on the pain medication so that you can be more active. You will enjoy this day the least. Sleeping will be difficult, and it’s all you will want to do. Day three, you will notice significant improvements. You’ll be up and walking and doing physiotherapy sessions. On day four, if all goes well, you will get to go home to your husband.”
Gloria nodded. “Thank you for sharing all that with me. You are so much more helpful than any of the other nurses I’ve spoken to.”
“I try my best,” I said. “The best part of this is you have Bruce.”
Gloria beamed. “I know. I am so truly blessed to have him. I couldn’t do this without him.”
“You are,” I said, getting to my feet. “I’ll come say goodbye before I go home tonight. Then I’ll see you again in the morning.”
“Thank you, Skylar.”
***
At the end of my shift, I said goodbye to Gloria and a couple other patients. Then I grabbed my things from my locker and headed toward the elevators. When the doors slid open, I found myself staring at the two women inside.
Renee and Nikki grinned at me.
“Hungry?” Renee asked.
“Famished,” I said.
The three of us went to a seafood restaurant that Nikki had heard good things about. The food was delicious, and after we ate, we sipped on white wine and picked at a dessert platter that hosted cheesecakes, chocolate mousse, and a mini Crème Brule that was to die for.
“So,” Renee said. “Feeling any better than last night? How did it feel to be back at work?”
I nodded and covered my mouth as I swallowed a bite of raspberry cheesecake. “Yeah, it was nice to be back in action. I was happy to see a lot of my patients. My coworkers still kind of suck, but I have to remind myself that they’re not the reason I do this job.”
Renee nodded. “Do you still really miss him?”
I nodded. The mention of Greyson made me gravitate to the chocolate mousse. “I think about him constantly.” He had been all I was thinking about when Gloria told me how blessed she was to have her husband by her side.
If I went through something as traumatic as open-heart surgery, I would have Renee by my side. I would appreciate that, but I couldn’t help but think that Greyson would be the person I would want to wake up to. He was the one who would chase away any of my fears.
“Maybe you should try calling him?” Nikki suggested. I met her eye, and she shrugged a shoulder. “I mean, what harm could it do? I’m sure he would be thrilled to hear from you.”
“It’s only been a day.”
Nikki smiled. “A day apart can feel like an eternity for lovers.”
“Stop it,” I said, unable to stop myself from smiling and blushing.
Nikki giggled. “Okay, I will. I just had to get my two cents out there. You know how I am.”
“I couldn’t call him anyway. I didn’t get any of his information. I knew it would be a bad idea. Long distance things never work out. His life is there, and mine is here. Neither of us should have to sacrifice what we love for the other, right?”
Neither Renee nor Nikki answered me. They poked at the dessert plate, and we all sat in temporary silence until someone changed the subject. Predictably, it was Nikki.
“So,” she said. “As you both know, I have decided to turn over a new leaf. I have some apologies to make to a lot of people over the next couple weeks. I want you girls to hold me accountable. If I say something mean, I need you two to check me, all right?”
Renee and I nodded.
“I mean it. You put me in my place fast if I backslide.”
“You got it,” I said. “I have personal stakes in the matter, so you can count on me. I like the real Nikki. I don’t want to lose you as a friend.”
Nikki smiled. Her face lit up, and her eyes filled with tears. “Thanks, Skylar,” she whispered.
“You can call me Sky, if you like.”
Renee looked back and forth between us.
“Okay, Sky,” Nikki said.
As we finished enjoying dessert, Nikki’s smile never faded. Things felt good between the three of us. Even though I felt like I was missing part of myself back in Las Vegas, I couldn’t deny that I was happy about the way my life was going here at home in Houston.
This was why I had wanted to come back here. I knew that this was the place for me. Renee and Nikki were my family. We cared for one another. We would take care of one another.
This was what I had been needing for a long time. I just hadn’t known it. Renee had been trying to show me for the past few years that I was missing out, but I hadn’t been ready to hear her.
Now, surrounded by their love and smiles, I finally understood why she had wanted this for me.
It wouldn’t do to go home after work every single night and languish in my apartment by myself. Some nights I would, of course, because solitude was still important to me. I liked running baths with lavender oil and lemon bath salts. I liked reading my books.
But I also liked spending time with Nikki and Renee. I wanted to be included in things. I wanted to go shopping with them, which was a surprising urge to have since I had never been much of a fan of shopping. But I wanted to go out and do things together.
I knew how important it was now. That was living.
Not to mention, spending time with them helped me keep my mind off of Greyson. The only place I hadn’t managed to silence thoughts of him were in my dreams. Part of me didn’t want to stop dreaming about him. It was a safe place no one could enter that was reserved just for the two of us.
Chapter 35
Greyson
I was resisting the urge to try to find some of Skylar’s social media profiles on Friday morning when someone knocked on my office door. I exited out of the browser on my computer and called for them to come in.
Meek stepped inside. His expression was unreadable. “There is someone here to see you, Greyson.” His tone suggested it was not the usual sort of meeting I should expect.
“Let them in,” I said.
I was surprised to see Don Bravo step in behind Meek. He was dressed in a plain blue suit. Gold rings still flashed on his fingers, and there was a feather in his blue fedora. Had he been anyone else, the look would have been comical. But on Don Bravo, it was somehow intimidating.
I stood as Don Bravo looked around my office and approached my desk. When his eyes fell on me, I swallowed.
“Mr. Kline,” Bravo said with a smile. He held out his hand, and I shook it. “It is nice to see you under more normal circumstances. You look well. Much bette
r than the last time we saw one another.”
“I should hope so,” I said lightly. “I don’t make it a habit to get in fights I know I can’t win.”
Don Bravo chuckled as he sat down across from me. He undid the buttons of his suit jacket and crossed one leg over the other. His arms rested on the armrests, and he watched me as I took my seat.
I nodded for Meek to leave. He did so without objection, but I could see his shadow on the other side of the door. I knew that was where he would stay for the duration of the meeting with Vegas’s biggest crime lord.
“What can I help you with today, Mr. Bravo?” I asked.
Don Bravo pressed his fingertips together and regarded me over the tops of them. “I heard through the grapevine that a certain casino on the Strip might be going up for sale in the next little while. Did I hear correctly?”
“Perhaps,” I said.
Bravo nodded and smiled wryly. “Your father would be surprised to see you selling it, I believe. He invested a lot of time and energy into this place. Not nearly as much as his son, I will admit, but a lot. He was a good man, your father. I was sad to hear about what happened to him and your mother.”
“Thank you,” I said, unable to think of anything else to say when a mob boss pays his sympathies.
“I knew your parents quite well, Mr. Kline. Your father was a brilliant man. A very brilliant man. He knew the ins and outs of almost every aspect of building this place. Everything from architecture to guest services. It was impressive. You inherited your business smarts from him, no doubt. And your mother, Gwen. What a beautiful woman. She was quite the charmer, you know? Your father always used to tell me he had no idea how he managed to marry her. He always thought she was way out of his league. I told him numerous times that she was.”
I laughed. Hearing inside details about my parents was refreshing. I had only known them as a child. I wasn’t aware of the intricacies of their marriage.
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