Page 32 of Forced Proximity
Though they were still extra-long.
“I’ll bet these people have some Division One athletes for kids,” she mused.
The baby squirmed in her hold, and I looked away while I pulled out a set of sweatpants and a sweatshirt. “Underwear?”
“Uh, no. I’d rather go without.” She grimaced. “I’m not really one to share other people’s clothes, but I certainly draw the line at things that’ll be touching my vagina.”
I winked at her. “You can borrow some of mine.”
“You just so happen to have an extra set in your pants pocket?” she teased.
I groaned. “No. I have a bunch of nothing in my pants pocket. Wish I’d been able to hang onto my phone, though.”
Lightning once again lit up the windows outside, and I forced myself to gather what I needed and head toward her.
“I think we need to get that bottle washed and add some water to it. Just in case the power does go out, or anything else happens here. Then we can have it just in case we need to add some powdered milk to it if the little one gets hungry.”
“Speaking of little one.” She winced. “Fairly sure he just filled up his diaper.”
“Great,” I muttered. “We can get some dish towels. Make a pseudo-cloth diaper. It won’t be the most secure, but I can look for some duct tape or something. We can improvise.”
“The poor kid,” she murmured. “At least one of us knows what we need to do here. I may be a nurse, but all of my patients are adults. I generally steer clear of the children. They give me the heebie jeebies.”
“You don’t want kids?” I wondered.
She followed behind me as I set all the stuff I’d pilfered onto the kitchen table. “Not yet. Maybe in a few years when I have my life straight. But right now, when I have a shitty apartment and I work a ton? No. I’m good.”
I remembered back to her file, and I questioned why it was that it seemed like she had no money.
The lights flickered, and I hurried toward the mostly empty bottle to wash it out and fill it back up again.
While I was filling, I couldn’t stop myself from asking, “Why do you work so much?”
She hesitated, and I knew whatever she was thinking about sharing wasn’t something she would usually share with anyone else.
But we were danger buddies at this point.
“I work a shit ton,” I told her. “Easier to bury myself in work than think about what life would be like if my son were still here.”
She looked up at me, and her eyes shone with unshed tears. “What happened?”
The old anger rose in my throat as I remembered the day that’d changed my life forever.
I’d had some really bad days in my life, but the day I’d lost Tavi would forever be my worst one.
“A senator’s son was driving his car way too fast on the highway and rammed a concrete construction barrier. He flew over the median and into oncoming traffic,” I replied, zero emotion in my voice. Just cold, hard facts. “His car smashed into several cars, killing several more people. My son was in the car with one of my club brother’s wife. She was out running errands and then taking him to my ex-wife for a visitation after eating lunch with me. He died shortly after arriving at the hospital.”
Her breath hitched. “I was working that day. The hospital called in every single available nurse in the city. I was pulled down from the surgery floor where I work to assist downstairs.”
That’s when it hit me.
I’d seen her before.
The day of Tavi’s death had been hard.
So fucking hard.
It was all a blur.
