Page 52 of Kingpin
Dominic
The sun rises and taps on the window until I wake up. She’s still next to me when I open my eyes, just as beautiful now as she was last night. The sun touches her cheek and makes her skin glow. She’s like an angel lying there, so I try not to disturb her as I get up. She covered us with a light blanket before we both passed out from exhaustion, so I make an effort to keep her covered up.
“Good morning,” she whispers as I lean over her, but she keeps her eyes closed.
“Good morning,” I answer. Luckily, she can’t see my corny smile.
How can I not smile? Am I not supposed to because I’ve been a street guy my whole life? This is Alannah Sullivan, the girl I fell in love with when I pulled a bully off her back in the fifth grade. I was eleven then, so it’s almost like loving her is just as much a part of me as This Thing of Ours. So, I’m not ashamed when I smile at her even though she can’t see me. Yeah, it’s weird to me, and it’s corny, but it’s Alannah.
“Go back to sleep,” I whisper to her.
“Can’t. Gotta go to work.”
“Oh, okay then. Well, then you should get up and quit being lazy,” I joke. She smiles, still keeping her eyes closed, and I’m shocked by how adorable I think it is.
She finally opens her eyes and locks them on me. We stare at each other for a minute, both of us smiling, thinking things we’re not sure we should say yet. Her eyes and lips draw me in, so leaning in to kiss her feels like an involuntary action. Her lips are ridiculously soft, and memories of last night jump out of the bushes in my mind and jolt me awake. This woman makes me think things I shouldn’t be thinking. Amazingly good things.
We manage to stop kissing, and Alannah gets up to get ready for work. I grab my clothes off the hardwood floor and start to put myself back together again while she puts on scrubs and throws her beautiful brown hair into a bun.
“You should let me take you to work,” I tell her. “Then I can come get you when you get off, and we can go to dinner or something.”
She smiles into the mirror as she applies her makeup.
“I’d like that, but if we’re going to go to dinner, I’ll have to come back here so I can change first. Can’t do dinner in these scrubs,” she says as she points at the rubber ducky print on her pants.
“So, you’re saying youdon’twanna go out to eat wearing those sexy pajamas?”
“Well, theyaresexy,” she replies behind a soft giggle. “But I’d rather not.”
We laugh together, and it feels like it’s junior high all over again. It’s like we haven’t skipped a day, let alone ten years. Something that was dormant inside me feels alive now, and I’ve missed the feeling of . . . us. I enjoying being around her again, so I’m a little bothered when my phone chimes from a text message.
Charlie:We found him . . .
Alannah comes out of the bathroom just as I stuff the phone back into my pocket without replying.
“Ready?” I ask, as she grabs her purse.
“Ready.”
While we drive to Mercy Hospital, I put my hand on her leg, and she wraps her fingers around it. I’m watching the road, but I feel it every time she gently rubs my skin, and I rub hers back. I want to soak up every second of this car ride, because twenty-four hours ago, I didn’t think we’d ever be together like this again.
“So, what’s work gonna be like today?” I inquire. Not because I’m trying to make small-talk, but because I really want to know.
“Well, I’ve done all my paperwork stuff—new girl stuff, as I call it. So, I might be seeing patients today and working the nurse’s station. I’m actually kind of nervous about it.”
“Why? You did this in Alaska, right?”
“Yeah,” she answers, looking out the window at the big city buildings. “But this is my first time seeing patients here, and working with these nurses is a whole new challenge in itself. Not to mention the new doctors—learning how they like things done, and which ones of them are assholes. It’s a whole new adventure.”
“You’re gonna do great,” I reassure her. “All you have to do is be yourself, and you can’t go wrong.”
I feel her eyes on me.
“Thank you,” she says.
I take my eyes off the road for a second just to look over and see her smile. It shakes me to my core, and I love it.
When we get to Mercy, I’m pissed that we got here so fast. I drive under the overhang, put the car in park, and I clinch her hand so she can’t get out.
