Page 46 of Forever Flirting

“Ohhh yayyyyy!” a voice called out happily. “Look Madison and Michael – Dr. Briscoe came to have dinner with you, my sweet patooties.”

Everly raised her hand to wave at Mr. and Mrs. Petersen in the distance awkwardly, noticing there were a lot of parents.

“Hello Mrs. Petersen, Mrs. Saxon, Mrs. Sloan, Mrs. Fuller, and Mrs…”

“Ohhh no,” a woman began easily. “No, no, no. We are away from work, offices, doctor’s offices, and duty stations… am I right everyone? What’s your first name, hon… I’m Delilah – and you already know the kiddos.”

Her head was spinning as everyone rattled off their names, and she caught Alex smiling gently at her, urging her towards a small table that was set up with paper plates, buns, sliced cheese, and burger patties.

Everyone went back to talking, and she listened avidly to some of the discussions, just keenly aware of the company sitting beside her.

This felt so strangely normal and wonderful.

“Your brother is Ricochet, right?” Houdini asked her. “I recognized the last name, and you look similar. How’s your brother doing?”

“No, they don’t look alike – at all,” Alex retorted right away, causing the other man to laugh.

“Relax, dude…”

“Jana and Hot Cakes don’t look alike either – and they are siblings.”

“I bet Vapor would react the same way Maestro just did…”

“No kidding.”

“Last I heard, Killian was doing well,” Everly answered, feeling easy talking about her brother and realizing that they knew him. “I sent him an email and waiting to hear back, but he mentioned last time he wrote he was thinking about coming for a visit.”

“That would be great!”

“Is he single?” Glory chimed in – causing several groans around the circle where they were sitting. “What? It’s a valid question…”

“Not everyone is looking to be set up in a relationship, Glory.”

“Oh gosh,” Everly laughed nervously, and glanced at Alex, who was smiling at her. “I think my brother would run for the hills at someone setting him up. He’s a bit of a control freak and it has to be his idea, you know?”

“Hmm…”

“So how did you two meet?”

The seemingly innocent question caused both of them to hesitate at answering, before Alex spoke up.

“I happened to meet Everly a few years ago, and was quite swept off my feet when we lost track of each other… I didn’t know her last name or anything about her, so it was really great to reconnect unexpectedly,” he said simply – and reached for her hand.

She looked at him as he laced his fingers with hers, meeting his eyes, and giving him a single slight nod in agreement. Their past, their meeting, their moments were private, and while she wasn’t ashamed, she also knew that neither was ready to tackle the questions that would surely come.

“Before Caleb?”

There was a heavy silence at the simple question that she answered.

“We met before Caleb – and I’m actually Caleb’s pediatrician.”

“Is that how you met again?”

“At my office,” Everly said, which was technically true… slightly.

Again, she met Alex’s eyes and saw the look of gratitude in them. No, there was no reason to go through the entire debris field that was their past. It was time to let things lie, heal, and slowly begin again… as friends.

“Guess what I heard?” a man said quietly, grinning, causing Everly to hold her breath, wondering if he was going to say something that would impact this fragile peace.

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