Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 97592 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 488(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97592 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 488(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
“Well…it was, but…” I pause and purposely lower my voice as I add, “Noah called in a few favors to make sure Grant was with the head of pediatric ortho at St. Luke’s.”
“Noah called in a few favors?” she asks, her eyes lighting up with the kind of curious excitement I pointedly avoid by taking a long drink from my iced tea that our server just dropped off at the table. “So…Noah made sure your son was being seen by the head of pediatric ortho…?”
“Mm-hmm.” I nod. Take another drink of my iced tea.
“Wow.” Her squinted eyes search mine so hard, I’m wondering if she can actually count my freaking eyelashes. “That was, like, really nice of him.”
“It definitely was.”
“And what did Gavin think about this?”
It’s my turn to narrow my eyes. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I don’t know.” She shrugs and takes a long pull of her chocolate milkshake. “I mean, you’re dating Gavin, but Noah keeps popping into the picture to do nice things for you and your kids. Surely that might cause some insecurity.”
“But I’m not dating Gavin. I’m not dating anyone. So, there’s nothing to tell.”
“Oh, that’s right.” Her smile reeks of sarcasm. “You’ve just gone out to dinner with him—twice—and the night Grant broke his arm, he stayed at the hospital for an insanely long time to make sure your son was okay. But yeah, you’re not dating. I have no idea why I keep getting that confused.”
“Brooke.” My sigh is exasperated. “Seriously?”
“What? I’m just trying to understand what’s going on in my big sister’s life, even though she keeps hiding shit from me.”
“I’m not hiding anything from you.”
Yeah, okay, so I purposely didn’t tell Brooke about Gavin. Or the almost-kiss with Noah at the hospital. But I count those as exceptions to our sisterly rule. In her current pregnant state, I’d like to avoid getting her all worked up, and Lord knows, these days, her nosy ass gets pretty dang worked up over being my unauthorized matchmaker. If anything, I didn’t tell her those things for the health of my future niece or nephew.
She purses her lips. “The only reason I even know about Gavin is because of Grant’s accident. Otherwise, you probably would’ve waited until you married the guy to tell me about him.”
“I’m not marrying anyone, you lunatic,” I retort. “And speaking of people who hide shit from other people, why was Seth asking me if I was going to date Noah because he heard his aunt Brooke tell his uncle Chase that Noah and I are lobsters? You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”
She shakes her head and pointedly uses the time to suck on her stupid milkshake.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” I mutter and pick up my discarded straw wrapper to ball it up and throw it at her head.
She avoids it on a laugh, and I roll my eyes at her as our server drops our lunch plates at our table.
“Can we drop the ‘Sammy’s love life’ convo and talk about something else—anything else—while we enjoy our lunch?”
“Yeah.” She pops a fry into her mouth. “After I get one thing off my chest.”
I let out a deep exhale, but I also meet her eyes and give her the courtesy of my attention.
“I know you don’t think Noah is into you, but you’re wrong. He hasn’t asked you out because you’re too closed off,” Brooke states, and I start to open my mouth, but she’s quick to hold up her hand in the air, continuing before I can get a word in.
“I get why you’re closed off, Sammy. I really do. Anyone in your shoes would be, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t deserve to have a man in your life. You can be a mom, and you can be in a relationship. You can have both things. And…I know that Noah cares about you. Like, really cares about you. A man wouldn’t go above and beyond for your kids unless he cared about you too. And I sure as shit wouldn’t try to get my big sister to date a man I didn’t deem worthy of her and my nephews.”
The thing is, I know my sister means well. I know she just wants me to find happiness and be treated like a fucking queen. Her intentions are pure, that’s for damn sure.
But she apparently isn’t aware that Noah Philips really likes to date around. I’ve seen him out with not one, but two different women in a very short amount of time. He might be an extremely eligible bachelor. But he’s also just that—a bachelor who is very much seeking out all of his options.
And I’m a single mom with two boys who is still recovering from a shitty divorce. If I would ever even consider being in a relationship with a man, I would need to feel certain I wasn’t setting myself up for a repeat of my past.