Page 85 of Love Me Fearless

I brace against the counter and close my eyes.

Fuck!

Even though I knew this moment would come, I’m not ready.

It’s too soon.

Too fast.

I shake my head like it can wipe away the dread creeping into my heart.

Haven’t I always felt this way about Ava? Never enough time.

I need to hold on to what we have. Before it’s gone.

With shaking fingers, I type out a reply, then close the app and head out to the fields.

Chapter Twenty-One

A text messagefrom Chris pops up just as I’m leaving my office to meet my first patient.

Are we still on for tomorrow night?

I could pack us a picnic too

Shit! The summer concert. I completely forgot. My face burns when I think about what I need to tell him. How has it already been two weeks since we met for coffee?

“What’s wrong?” Vivian asks from the nurse’s station, her eyes tensing.

I flip my phone screen down, like doing so can somehow make this icky situation go away.

“I have to—” I release a quick sigh “—break some bad news.”

She frowns. “A patient? I can help, if you want.”

“No, it’s, uh, personal.”

“Ohh,” she says, nodding slowly. “Man trouble?”

“Something likethat.”

She grimaces. “Wish I could help, but I’ve sworn off dating for good.”

Vivian’s self-proclaimed Do Not Disturb status regarding men piques my interest, but I’m careful not to pry. In the year we’ve worked side by side, I know only that she moved here from Portland a year before I took over for Dr. Boone, that she dotes on her adorable seven-year-old son, Mateo, and she knits socks for soldiers in her free time.

Sepp strolls in with a bag from Glory Holes and a cardboard tray holding three coffees.

“What’s the occasion?” I ask, giving him a curious smile.

“It’s Vivian’s birthday,” he says, his brown eyes playful.

Vivian clenches her hands in her lap, as if to keep them still. “Um, no, it’s not.”

Sepp shrugs. “Then I’m claiming it as National Celebrate Vivian Day.”

She laughs and shakes her head. “You’re nuts.”

Sepp unloads the coffees on the counter. “Black coffee with cream for Dr. Greely, an English Breakfast with milk for everyone’s favorite pediatric nurse.” He gives Vivian a wink. “Black coffee for me. And donut holes for everyone.”

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