Page 106 of Doctorshipped
“Okay.”
My heart does this flippy thing. I’m eager and scared to tell her. What if she hates the idea? Our bubble will pop and we may never be able to inflate it again. But, if she’s not opposed, Grant and I can date openly. Which means we’ll then pass through the second gauntlet of relational endurance—the gossipy nature of this town.
I pull away and Grant stands there with his arms crossed over his chest, watching me until I turn at the end of his street.
When I get to the old Finch place, I park and step up the front steps carefully, trying not to cause any of the old boards to creak. I open the door softly and tiptoe into the entryway. I’m halfway down the hallway when I hear Lexi’s whisper coming from the living room off to my right.
“Jayme?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m so okay there’s not even a word for it,” I whisper into the dark. “Were you up waiting for me?”
“No. It’s the pregnancy. I wake to pee, and then I can’t sleep. After lying there trying to settle, I come down here and grab my Kindle so I don’t wake Trevor. Then, when I start yawning enough, I head back upstairs, slip into bed and fall back asleep. It’s a regular party.”
“Have you talked to Hazel about this?”
“Yeah. It’s normal. Or at least it can be. Hormones are no joke.”
“I know that much. They’re tyrannical little misanthropes.”
Lexi groans softly. “Please don’t use words with more than two syllables at this hour.”
I smile. “It just means they hate humans and are rebelling against us like an army of haywire minions.”
“Cheers to that!” Lexi whisper-shouts. “Or, not cheers, since they’re evil. You know what I mean.”
I’m still standing in the hallway, whisper-talking to the dark silhouette which is Lexi.
“Come in here, I’ll turn on a lamp and we can chat.”
“That’s not going to help you get drowsy,” I warn her.
“As if I’m going to sleep when my mind is whirring with the need to know all the juicy details of your evening at Grant’s.”
I smile, glad the light is still out so Lexi can’t see the blush steal up my cheeks. Not that she’d tease me, but everything feels tender and fragile—even my joy over my time together with Grant tonight.
I walk into the dusky room, the light of the moon falls through one of the side windows, casting a beam of muted light onto the hardwood floor. Lexi reaches over and turns the lamp on.
“So?”
I plop into the side chair. “It’s pretty awesome. He said we’re going to tell Fiona soon. What we’ll tell her is still up for grabs, but we’re telling her. And he wants to take me on dates. And …”
I pause, trying to sort what I want to say and what I want to keep tucked into my heart for me and Grant alone. Lexi must sense this because she doesn’t pry. Laura would pry—with a crowbar. Shannon would just cajole it out of me. But, Lexi and Em have more maternal personalities. They know how to give me space, and right now I appreciate that quality more than I can say.
“... And he said really, really sweet things.”
“Awww. I love that for you.”
“I kinda love it for me too.”
And it also freaks me out a little. I may be a romance author, but I’m also a realist, whether Grant thinks I am or not. Of course, compared to him, the whole world is a cluster of overly-happy optimists—at least that’s what he’d claim.
No romance stays on the clouds forever. Eventually your balloon of new love pops and you have to live in the real world, make a life together—fight, even.
“You okay?” Lexi asks in her careful voice.
