Page 38 of Tell Me Again

I help Mel as much as I can—yeah, I’m still not a cook, but I can plate stuff when I need to—and we manage to get their orders out fast while keeping everyone’s coffees topped off. Everything seems to be going really well until about nine thirty or so.

That’s when the door opens behind me, and I feel Josh walk in.

The feeling is just this immediate change, like a burst of light and warmth enters the room and washes over me. And god, it’s just so—

Ah, fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Distracted fucking me spilled the fucking coffee all over the fucking table. God dammit.

I jump back a step, tipping the coffee pot upright again, and I try not to curse out loud. “Ah, I-I’m so sorry, Dr. Richards. Here, let me grab some extra napkins, and just—”

It didn’t spill that much, really, but it’s enough to disrupt the meeting while I clean up the mess. And when I’m finished a moment later, Dr. Richards nods what seems like a thanks, and the meeting starts back up again. It’s right about then that his eyes shift past me and then turn dark and angry and narrow and—oh, fuck again.

Something’s fucking wrong.

I glance back over my shoulder and see Josh sitting on one of the stools at the counter, staring at his phone with his shoulders slumped. My heart immediately leaps in my chest, and I feel myself drawn in his direction, that same magnetism shit from the other day. He must know I’m looking, because he lifts his eyes from the phone and for just a split second, there’s this flicker of whatever the fuck it is—magic, fireworks, I don’t even know—as he grins at me.

God, he’s just fucking gorgeous, and of course, I’m grinning back.

But the moment is over much too quickly. He glances past me, and his face falls—like dramatically. His eyes go wide, and his smile is just gone, and at the same time, there’s this massive wave of anger flooding off Dr. Richards as the older man starts to stand up from his seat at the end of the large booth.

“Excuse me for a minute, Helen,” he says, addressing one of the other board members who’s speaking to the rest of the group. She nods and continues talking as he pushes past me—actually shoving me out of his way a bit—and starts across the diner toward Josh.

Shit, shit, shit. Something about this feels wrong. Fucking scary, actually. Even though I’ve always known Dr. Richards to be a nice guy.

I smile at the group and then spin around and follow him. Josh is standing up and grabbing his coat, and he looks fucking terrified as he shoves his phone into his pocket.

I snake around Dr. Richards to put myself between them because that feels like the thing I should do.

“Dr. Richards, sir—”

“Move, Coop. I need to talk to Josh. Now,” he says, his low whisper not hiding whatever this rage is that’s still coming off him in waves.

I’m directly between them now, and I can feel Josh only a couple of feet behind me. He seems to stumble over some words that don’t quite make sense to me, something with an “I’m sorry” and “I didn’t mean to hurt her.” But whatever’s going on, Dr. Richards isn’t having it because he actually tries to fucking push past me again to get to Josh.

And I’m not fucking letting that happen.

“Sir, please back off.”

Fucking back off, you jackass. That’s what I really want to say. But, you know, decorum and all that shit.

“Out of my way, Coop, I—”

“Dr. Richards, with all due respect, sir, it’s not a good idea to cause a scene in front of your colleagues.” Damn, look at me sounding all grown-up and shit. Fuck if he tries to push past me again though. What the fuck is going on?

He closes his eyes and lets out a breath, and when he looks at me again, most of his anger is gone, or at least cooled down to a hot simmer. He scowls a bit but then nods.

“You’re right. Dammit,” he curses, but it’s quiet.

A quick glance past him to the table where the rest of the hospital board sits tells me they’re not really paying much attention. Helen’s still talking, and no one’s looking over at us. So I guess that’s good?

Dr. Richards shakes his head and shifts so he can look around me to Josh. Some of the anger returns to his eyes, and I prepare myself in case I need to step back in. But he just blows out a frustrated breath and then scowls again.

“You know, Josh,” he says, his voice still low but with a clear threat in his words, “I’ve never seen my daughter cry more than she did this morning. And that’s on you. You’re not the man I thought you were. Don’t you fucking come near her again, you hear me?”

Holy fuck. What the fuck happened?

He turns and heads back to the booth on the other side of the diner, his hands balling up into fists briefly before he seems to shift gears. I hear his normal, jovial voice as he apologizes for the disruption and asks Helen to repeat whatever it was she just said.

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