Page 38 of Grumpy Sunshine

I felt my cheeks heat, and it definitely wasn’t because of the insane temperatures at seven in the morning.

Seeing him arrive was an abnormal thing.

Seeing him arrive and leave in the same week?That was damn near impossible.

He was always here balls early because most surgeries were started in the morning if they had a choice.

His eyes caught mine, and I felt my heart nearly leap out of my chest and head straight toward him.

I timidly smiled at him and said, “Good morning.”

I closed my door and went to the back seat to grab my bag.

It wouldn’t do to leave that in the car, or I wouldn’t get to have my birthday lunch of frozen Hot Pockets, a splurge for me.

Usually it was ramen or something equally as cheap and unhealthy.

Beggars couldn’t be choosers when they were living on a part-time salary and going to school full time, even if they did have a few scholarships to pay for it.

I was still absolutely stunned that I’d gotten chosen for the scholarship.

I mean, I didn’t have great grades.

They were passing, sure, but they weren’t great.

I didn’t have a background that would say “hey, she definitely deserves this.”

In fact, my background had almost kept me from getting into the surgical tech program to begin with.

It was the weirdest thing.

One second I was scraping pennies together, selling feet pictures on the internet—don’t judge me, at least I wasn’t selling my underwear—and the next I had the program director calling to let me know I was fully covered for the semester.

I had cried tears of excitement right in the middle of the hospital corridor in the middle of work.

Unless you’re poor, you have no clue how much even the smallest things could help.

Finding a dollar on the floor?That was gas for half the week.

Getting a scholarship to pay for my semester of school?That was life changing.

Which got me to thinking about all that money my mom had in her trunk.

That kind of money would’ve been life changing for me.

Too bad I had a moral compass.

“Hey, sweetness,” he replied, his voice husky and deep.

My knees quivered.

“Sweetness?”I laughed softly.“You’re awfully nice about what you saw last night when I lost my crap.”

“Everyone does that every once in a while,” he stated.

I doubted everyone did it like me.

Ten

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