by Stacy Borel
“Uh oh.” He leaned down to whisper in my ear, “Might want to release me soon or I may have to roll around and throw a few punches with my big brother over there. Somebody looks jealous.”
My eyes flew to Turner. Sure enough, his jaw was ticking and he was holding himself back. “I’m not scared, are you?” I had no clue why I was testing him, but I didn’t actually think that Turner’s current expression was just because I was touching someone else. Someone that was his freaking brother!
“If you’re trying to see who the strongest brother is, I can tell you that without coming to blows. Turner can hold his own. I battled it out with him one time when he was in high school, and I’d accidentally kissed a random chick in front of the locker rooms. Apparently, he’d told her to wait for him while he showered after practice, and I caught her eye.” He shrugged. “How was I supposed to know he was interested?”
I giggled. “Okay, okay . . . you can have your arm back.” I released him. “Just trying to figure him out is all.”
“Good luck with that. Most girls try and fail.”
What was it with these boys comparing me to most girls? I knew Dodger didn’t mean anything by it, so I let it go. I simply responded with, “Well, unlike most girls, I’m not interested. I’m just trying to figure out his game.”
He chuckled. “Again, good luck.”
I decided to drop it. The congregation moved out of the church and everyone filed into their vehicles to head to the Brooks’ residence. The reception was set up to take place in their expansive backyard, and no doubt was it decorated immaculately. I managed to remain unscathed and not be spoken to again by Turner during the wedding photos. I’d briefly bumped into him during one shot, to which my eyes glanced up to his and quickly moved away. I felt that pulling towards him even in that short moment, and I refused to be sucked in again. Most of the wedding party climbed into two different limousines to head to the party, but I decided to drive myself. Keegan understood my need to have that little bit of control and thankfully she didn’t mind. I likely wasn’t going to stay that late because I had an early morning shift anyway.
Arriving at the house, the guests were greeted with white twinkle lights strung up in the birch trees and hanging lanterns in the willow trees. The backyard had a large tent and music was playing from speakers placed throughout the property. The DJ was busy keeping the guests entertained and the wedding party was lining up to be introduced to enter. When we all got inside and to our designated spots at the head table, Camden and Keegan immediately went into their first dance together. “When You Got a Good Thing” by Lady Antebellum was what Keegan chose. It was beautiful and absolutely fitting for them. They did all the traditional things that go on during a wedding—cutting the cake, mother and son dance, Keegan danced with Paul Brooks. He’d been more of a father to her than she could have asked for.
Standing at the bar, I had my elbows resting on the bar top asking the bartender for a bottle of water when a deep voice that caused my the butterflies in my tummy to flutter up said, “May I have the next dance?”
Spinning around, Turner was a little too close for comfort. His electric blue eyes were level with mine and my heart galloped in my chest. The scent of his cologne and mint on his breath blew across my face as he gave me the most glorious smile I’d ever seen. Turner had one of his arms leaning against the bar, and it trapped me where I stood. Never mind the draw, that line that pulled me in would have kept my feet planted.
“Uh, what?” Genius response.
Why was he piercing me with those damn eyes? “I said, may I have the next dance?”
Heat crept up my cheeks and I was tempted to look down. Instead I held his eyes and said, “I don’t really dance.”
“Oh now, Annabelle, we both know that’s a lie. I’ve seen you dance.”
Okay yeah, definitely blushing now. “That was a rare occasion.”
He bent down and spoke into my ear, “Make it another one.”
I swallowed hard. Feeling tingly all over, I shook my head. He was crazy if he thought I was going to dance with him. If I was reacting to him like this and he wasn’t even touching me, I could only imagine how I would be if he were.
“Oh, come on, Belle, give my big brother a chance.” Wrigley sidled up to Turner, with an identical smirk.
“You heard the kid.”
My eyes bounced back and forth between them. “Why do I feel like I’m being ganged up on?”
“‘Cause you are,” Turner replied.
“I don’t dance.”
“How about a date?”
“Yeah, how about a date?” Wrigley repeated as if he were asking for himself.
I giggled. This conversation was ridiculous. “Who’s asking?”
“Me.”
“Me.” Turner chimed in right after Wrigley. He glared at his brother and elbowed him in the ribs. Wrigley exhaled loudly with an “ooof.”
“Didn’t you ask me out on a date just a couple months ago?” I taunted for fun.
“Yes, ma’am. But I’m fairly certain you hit your head, not twisted your ankle.”
I bit the inside of my lip to hide my smile. Why was he so charming? “Definitely didn’t bump my head. My poor ankle took weeks to heal.”
Shiny white teeth glistened in the lights as he flashed me a brilliant grin. “What do you say, Annabelle?”
Just before I was going to answer, Camden and Keegan strolled up hand in hand. They were glowing from happiness. Camden was laughing hard at something Keegan had told him.
“Hey you two, what’s the happy couple going on about?” Wrigley asked.
Turner was drilling a whole in the side of my face with his stare. I was going to make him stew a bit longer. Plus I was interested in what these two love birds were about to say.
“Did you see who snuck into the pool house, drunk as a bunch of skunks?” Keegan asked.
“Nope.”
“Dodger and Macie. Those two better put away some of Mom’s breakables. I have a feeling between how drunk they are, and all that aggression those two have been taking out on each other, some things may get broken.” Camden laughed.
“Oh geez,” Turner said.
“He loves her,” I announced out of the blue.
They all turned in my direction. My eyes got big and I raised my hands in the air. “What? I’m just saying.”
Keegan stepped beside me, unable to remove her permanent smile. “Oh, that boy has loved her since the day we walked into Camden’s apartment. But both have a stubborn streak a mile long. They will fight their feelings ‘til one of them breaks. That much we all know. Maybe the alcohol, just for tonight, is what they need.”
“Or a good orgasm or two.” Wrigley twitched his eyebrows.
Camden slapped the back of his head. “Do girls actually like you?”
“They flock to me,” he said, fixing his hair.
“Right,” Camden retorted.
Stepping back into my little bubble, Turner asked me again, “So about that date.”
I gulped and glanced around. All eyes were on me. Keegan and Camden appeared curious as to what they missed. “Can we talk about this privately, please?” I tried to say under my breath.
“Nope.”
I wanted to glare, but Wrigley jumped in again with his unwanted commentary. “Would you please put my big, pathetic brother out of his misery and just go on a date with him?”
Ever have one of those times in your life where you felt like the world just pauses and waits for you to figure out what in the hell is going on? I was in one right now. A date sounded nice, it really did. I haven’t been on one in a couple of years. In fact, the last one I went on was my first year in college and I was pretty certain the guy wasn’t very interested in girls. Probably why I said yes in the first place. He was safe. Turner makes me nervous. He’s the furthest thing from conventional. Let’s not forget he has been with half the hospital staff.
Besides the music playing around us, you could
probably hear a pin drop waiting for me to answer. No pressure. Looking into his sparkling blue eyes, something in my gut said to take a leap. I may be scared, but I had a feeling Turner wouldn’t do something that would make me uncomfortable.
“Okay.”
His smile dropped a little. “Yeah?”
Did he really think I’d refuse?
“Yes.”
That smile came back in full force. “I’ll pick you up next Saturday at five.”
Whoa, he wasn’t giving me much time to realize what I’d just done. “Where are you taking me?”
Everyone who was standing around us scattered. Apparently they felt the need to give us privacy now. His face changed from happy to devious and troublesome.
“Don’t worry about it. But you’ll want to wear jeans and a tank top or something with short sleeves.”
Crap. “Okay, I can do that.”
He tapped his hand on the bar, and took a drink that had been sitting beside me. It looked like a whiskey and coke. “Thanks, buddy,” he said to the bartender over my shoulder. “See you next week.” He winked and walked away like he just won the lottery.
I looked around me wondering if anybody saw the exchange that just took place. Scrubbing a hand down my face, I sighed. Why did I have a feeling I just agreed to something that would make me question my sanity? Something in my peripheral vision caught my eye. Turning towards the pool house, Macie came walking out, adjusting her dress and smoothing her hair back. She looked like she was thoroughly satisfied. What that must feel like . . . It’d been a long time since I’d had that. But I’ll say this right now, Turner Brooks isn’t getting that from me. No flipping way. I don’t care how attractive he was, or how much he could smooth talk. If he thought this date was going to end in me moaning his name, he was going to be going home very disappointed.
Chapter Four
“A PATIENT WAS JUST BROUGHT into room two thirteen. She’s eight centimeters, and seems to be moving along quickly.” One of the nurses was informing me of the patients on the floor. She was getting off shift as I was coming on.
“Okay. She the only one we got right now?”
“We just had a delivery in two fifteen, but I’ll to wheel her into recovery before I leave. And about the momma in two thirteen, she’s an addict. We tried to stop the labor because she’s only thirty-three weeks along, but it didn’t work. We’re still waiting on toxicology to come back with everything she’s taken, but she’s not in good shape. Angry and belligerent. So be careful when you go in there. We’ve considered restraining her.”
Great. I’ve only dealt with one other drug addict before when I’ve been working. She had drank through her whole pregnancy and had started using meth in her last month. Fortunately, the baby had no ill effects.
“Okay, thanks.” I picked up her chart and read through everything they knew about her. Looked like they believed she was a meth user, and maybe some sort of depressant. Wonderful. I could only imagine what I was about to walk in on. The neonatal floor was going to need to be called. Lord knew what kind of shape the baby was going to be in. “Oh,” I said before she walked away. “Have they done an ultrasound to see if baby has anything we need to be worried about besides the obvious?”
“Yeah, he’s just a little smaller than we’d hoped. I gave her a steroid injection to help with his lungs about three hours ago, but who knows if it will help.”
“All right.” I studied the chart, received the tox report, and walked down the hall.
She was screaming before I even opened the door. Her blood work came back positive for methamphetamines and alcohol. This poor baby was going to be a mess.
“Ms. March? Hi, I’m Annabelle, your nurse.” I went to her IV to check her fluids.
“Where the hell is the bitch that said she’d give me something for this pain?”
I looked up at her. “She just got off her shift. If you need something to take the edge off, I’ll get that for you.”
She snapped, “The fucking edge? I don’t want to feel any of this. Now give me the fucking drugs.”
I didn’t do well with people screaming at me. “I can’t have an epidural administered, Ms. March. You have too many drugs in your system that it could hurt the baby. I’m only able to give you something mild to help with the pain.”
She swung her arms around almost ripping the IV out. A contraction wracked her frail, weak body, and she cried with the pain. “Give me something. I can’t do this.”
I left the room briefly to get her something to help control her pain, but I knew she was too far along for it to really do anything. Pushing it through her IV, another contraction hit causing her to curl in on herself.
“Get this fucking thing out of me!” she shrieked.
“Do you mind if I call you Adalyn?”
She didn’t respond.
“Okay, Adalyn, I need you to listen to me. I’m going to lay you back so I can check to see if you’re ready to push. If you give me everything you’ve got when it’s time to push, all this pain you’re feeling will go away.”
“Then fucking do it,” she growled at me.
I wished I could throw the bed back faster than it would electronically move. She was ticking me off with her attitude. I’d been yelled at by other patients, but never out of rudeness. This was just insane.
I got her flat, and checked her cervix for dilation. Sure enough, she was ready. I called another nurse to come in and assist me, and then the doctor when the baby was far enough down the birth canal. We paged the NICU to bring a team down. I wasn’t trained to the capacity that I’d need for a special needs baby. When the full team was ready and set up, Adalyn pushed a couple more times and out came a tiny baby boy. Physically he appeared fine, other than he was definitely smaller than his thirty-three week gestation. But how he really was, I didn’t know. The NICU got him stable in the room, put him in an incubator and wheeled him out of the room. Chances were, Adalyn wouldn’t be seeing her baby for a day or two. Not even sure she would care. She pushed him out fifteen minutes ago and still hadn’t bothered to ask about him.
“Adalyn, do you have a name for your son, so I may put it in his records?”
She gave me a glassy eyed stare. “I don’t fuckin’ care what you call him. Just give me somethin’ for this damn pain I’m still in.”
There wasn’t much that shocked me these days, but that made my mouth drop open. “Did you know you were having a boy? We can leave it all blank for now until you figure out what you’d like to call him.”
She waved her hand at me, dismissing me. “Mistake. How about that? Name him Mistake. If I hadn’t gotten knocked up with the little shit, I wouldn’t be here bleeding, and sore.”
I gritted my teeth. Looking at the doctor whom was currently stitching her up from the small tear from pushing, he shook his head telling me to let it go. I needed a breather.
I asked the other nurse who was remaining quiet, as she cleaned up. “You mind if I step out?”
The look on my face must’ve said it all. “Go ahead, I’ve got this.”
I dropped the basin I’d been holding in my hand on the bedtable and shoved out the door. Making my way to the stairs, I sat down and put my head in my hands. What in the hell was wrong with some people? I know drugs mess you up really bad, but this was beyond anything I could even comprehend. That was an innocent baby. One that wasn’t asked to be conceived and brought into this world in pain. The kid was going to have a long road ahead of him. He was nameless and had a mother that was more interested in her next high than asking if he had all ten fingers and all ten toes. Sometimes I really hated people.
***
Turner
I was nervous. Why in the hell was I nervous? I’d been out on hundreds of dates, and never once would you catch me with sweaty palms. Wiping them on my pants for the millionth time, I pulled up to Annabelle’s house and got out of the car. This girl, made me curious. I knew nothing about her except the little bits she’d let slip her
e and there. Women were normally very forthcoming and wanted to talk about themselves, but Annabelle didn’t. Her life remained private, and it was like a scavenger hunt getting the information out of her. Knocking, she answered right away, the gust of wind from the door blowing her perfume scent across my face. Cotton candy. She smelled like delicious cotton candy, and all I wanted to do was taste her to see if she was just as sweet.
“Hi.” She gave me a shy smile.
“Hi. You look beautiful,” I complimented, my eyes roaming from her head to her flip flop clad feet. She was about a foot shorter than me, and had a tiny waist. She didn’t have large boobs, but definitely a good handful. But that ass . . . and that ass in those jeans. My God, I was an ass man, and hers was perfection.
“Thank you.” She stood in the doorway awkwardly, looking like she was waiting on something. “Sooooo, are we going?”
Jesus, I was staring. The poor thing couldn’t even move to get around me. “Oh, yes. But you might want to change into tennis shoes. Sorry, I should have been specific with everything.” She reached inside and grabbed some pink and black Nike’s and held them in her hand. Okay, let’s do this. Opening the passenger door, she climbed into my black Corvette, and got herself situated. “Comfortable?”
“Mhmm.”
I went around to my side and started the car. The purr of the engine got me every time.
“So, you know anything about cars?” I asked, trying to drop hints where I was taking her.
She looked perplexed. “No, not really. Why?”
“Just wondering.” I smiled.
“You going to tell me where we are going?”
“I will when we get there.”
Her small hands were gently lying in her lap. I wanted to reach over and touch her milky white skin to see if it was as soft as it looked, but I refrained. Trees, and a few city buildings whizzed by as I drove to the south side of Athens. The radio was playing quietly in the background, and I hoped she like country music.
“Okay, I want to play a little game so we can get to know each other a little better. You down?”