Page 91 of Beating Heart
“My Sunny calls me angel face.”
“Angel face? That’s lame, Emmy. Beefcake is probably the coolest handle I’ve ever heard. I’m Emmy’s evil twin, Easton. Nice to meet you, buddy.”
“Well, then, you can call him Beefcake, and I’ll call him angel face.” Emerson waggled her brows at my son, and he laughed.
“Nice to meet you, too. Tell me all of your names,” my son said.
They went around saying their names, and Emerson raised a brow at me, waiting for me to come sit beside her, and I didn’t know why the hell I was so nervous.
I sat in the seat next to them, and the conversation flowed easily. There was Easton, who I’d already met. Her superstar hockey player brother, Clark, who Cutler grilled endlessly about hockey. Rafe and Bridger rounded out her brothers, and then Axel and Archer were her cousins, and the group of them were funny as hell in the way they gave one another shit.
They were telling Cutler and me old war stories about Emerson and all the trouble they got into as kids. My son was laughing his ass off. They insisted we’d need to make a trip to Rosewood River sometime soon.
The lines were blurring.
I was doing my best not to overthink it, but it was getting more challenging.
Because when Emerson left, I didn’t know how my son would handle it.
My job had always been to keep everything together.
But I wasn’t so sure I could do that this time.
I was too invested.
I needed to pull back, but I didn’t know how to do that.
And I already knew it was going to hurt like hell when she left.
twenty-four
. . .
Emerson
I’d been slammed at work, as all the kids had gone back to school, and now they were all getting sick. It was typical when school first started, and the weather was starting to change now. Doc Dolby had even come in for a few hours this week to help me with the overflow of patients, and I’d grown close to the man since I’d gotten here.
“I’m going to head out. You’re doing an amazing job, Emerson. I’ll be here tomorrow morning so you can focus on your interview with Boston Children’s. I know that’s the one you’re most interested in.”
It was the top pediatric hospital in the country. I’d been thrilled when they’d had an opening and offered me an interview.
It would be a fresh start.
One I’d longed for.
But the thought of leaving wasn’t as exciting as it should be. I’d grown to love this town. The people. My life here.
Nash and Cutler.
All of it. I hadn’t expected that. This was my interim place. My short-term stop to figure out what I wanted to do with my life.
But I was more confused now than ever.
I cleared my throat. “Yes. Thank you again for covering for me tomorrow. And you have a few prospects to take over your practice, right? How are those interviews going?”
Why was I holding my breath? Why was I nervous to hear that he’d found my replacement? I wanted the best for this place. Whoever replaced me would be taking care of Cutler. They had to be the best.
Because I loved that little boy in a way I’d never known possible. I missed him when I wasn’t with him. I’d worried all day when he’d started school a few days ago. Doing my best not to overstep, I’d made baseball cupcakes for Nash to take to the classroom for him, and Cutler had thanked me no fewer than a hundred times.
