Page 24 of Forever Flirting

“Perfect – and just a physical today?”

“Yes.”

“Sounds good,” Everly smiled, moving to check each child, listening to their hearts, pressing against their feet, tickling their mouths so she could get them to smile as she counted the teeth… before tickling their bellies, checking the diapers, and then straightening up.

“Everything looks spectacular,” Everly began, flipping through the two charts. “My nurse got their weight and height already, and you aren’t due for any immunizations…”

“Oh, thank goodness…” the man muttered openly.

“But,” Everly countered. “I would recommend a flu vaccine. I am telling everyone, because this year is supposed to be bad. In fact, my roommate was just here with her two-year-old a few months ago, and Caleb got one.”

The couple looked at each other silently – and then the man sighed heavily.

“Yup,” he said evenly. “I can’t handle my wife worrying about the children, and the smallest sniffle has her in knots.”

“Thank you for doing this for me,” she smiled gratefully, looking at him with so much love it was easy to see. Her eyes were glistening, and her whole focus seemed to be on this man, like he was the center of her world.

What would it be like to have someone look at you like that? she mused silently to herself, watching the couple. The only person that had… well…

Alex-the-mystery-man was gone.

She needed to face that fact one of these days.

“I’ll get the shots, if you want to hold the children so you can comfort them? Are suckers okay - or do you want stickers instead?” Everly asked, opening the door.

“Suckers – four please,” she asked, winking at Everly, causing her to laugh. The woman was certainly outgoing, that much was for sure. As she closed the exam room door, she couldn’t help but hear them whispering to each other.

“No ring, did you see that?”

“Glory, I don’t know…”

“She’s so sweet and nice…”

“But who? Most of the guys I once knew are here now…”

“I’ll ask Reaper…”

“I’m out on this one…”

“What about Maestro? He’s in town visiting his kid, and it would be perfect.”

“He’s spending a lot of time at his grandmother’s with the boy, and I don’t know that he is up to any of this either. Let’s just leave it alone…”

“Hunterrrr….Please?”

Everly almost put her ear to the door to listen.

They were planning something and up to no good – talking about her being single?

Oh no. No, thank you.

She wasn’t going to be set up with anyone, anytime soon. The last time she had deviated from her path had been when she met Alex – and it left a mark no one would understand.

Grabbing the syringes, she drew the fluid into each, tapping them gently to get any air bubbles out, before grabbing some alcohol wipes, colorful Band-Aids, and four suckers.

Knocking on the door, she hesitated, wanting to give them a second to get quiet… only to see the woman looking at the man openly, causing him to roll his eyes and sigh.

“Fine…” he muttered, adjusting the child on his lap. “Madison, your momma is going to be the death of me.”

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