Page 76 of Very Unlikely

He cuts me off. “I wasn’t asking, Dr. Ramsay. I’m telling you to take the rest of the afternoon off.” He shouldn’t be able to pull off the stern, bossy demeanor with a newborn baby nestled in his arms, but he does. It might have more to do with his killer three-piece suit than his glare, but there’s no denying it. “One of the privileges of being the boss is that you can boss people around.”

“Technically, you’re my boss’s, boss’s boss.” While taking a giant step back, I hold the clipboard into the air like I’m about to be arrested by Isabelle like he was many moons ago. Once I’m out of the danger zone of his deadly stare, I mumble, “I’ll leave the instant I’ve finalized my last set of obs, and I won’t come back until Monday.”

“Good.” On that note, he paces to the door, his brisk strides only slowing when he mumbles, “And on the way out, stop in to visit Isabelle. She’s been dying for an update on you and Lennox since he proposed on the pitch last summer.”

As memories fill my head of that beautiful day, my engagement ring shimmers in the lighting above my head. “Tell her I’ll be down in an hour.”

He lifts his chin before he leaves the ward as quickly as he entered it. I commence my rounds two seconds after that. The children are well taken care of in this hospital. Isaac knows firsthand how horrendous fighting a disease like this is, so he personally ensures the children on this ward never want for anything.

It’s a trait every father should have, and one I am confident Lennox will ace once we have kids. According to my beloved spreadsheet, that will happen in exactly four years and thirty-seven days. Exactly three years after we’ve wed on the cliffs of Bronte’s Peak.

I laugh about Isabelle grumbling at Isaac to stop fussing over her when I exit her room. My visit went a little over the allotted time, meaning I’m late for my meeting with Lennox. We usually convene outside the locker room I’m not brave enough to enter after each game. There are only so many penises a medical student can handle. Since Lennox’s cock needs two hands, I reached my limit four years ago.

My almost jog out the hospital doors slows when I spot a classic sports car idling in a tow-zone at the front of the hospital. It doesn’t matter who you are in this town, if you park illegally, your car will be impounded. The tow truck driver is a jerk.

When I tell that to the driver, his grin stops my heart. “Are you saying that because she wouldn’t remove the boot from Cubie last month until I showed up? Or are you jealous about her trying to slip her number into my pocket when you weren’t looking?”

Lennox grunts when my fist lands into his stomach. It’s all for show. I barely touch him. I didn’t hit him to maim because as you heard in his reply, the tow truck driver ‘tried’ to give him her number. She failed not just because Lennox stepped away from her like she told him she had herpes, but also because he let her know in no uncertain terms that he was a taken man.

The remembrance sees me locking lips with Lennox like our kiss isn’t being eyeballed by the beady eyes I feel gawking at us from several levels above. Lennox adores the children on the cancer ward as much as me. He often visits them, and more times than not, he arrives with a ton of merchandise in stock and his grinning yet still slightly moody big brother.

Lennox and Cody still have a way to go to mend their relationship to that of siblings, but they’re getting there—slowly. Even more so since Cody was the one who told me about the massive payout Lennox was awarded after his mother’s death. That’s one of the main reasons he went after him. He thought Lennox was living it on easy-street thanks to a seventy-eight million dollar divorce settlement. Cody had no clue Lennox hadn’t touched the money, neither now or back then.

“Don’t you fucking dare, Cocoa,” Lennox murmurs against my mouth when I attempt to pull back from our embrace to praise him about today’s game. “Stay right where you are.” As he tugs me closer by fisting my baby pink smock in his hand, his eyes scan the area. “The last time you got me worked up and left me hanging, my dick imprint was splashed across the tabloids from here to Los Angeles.”

Even with his comment being one hundred percent honest, I throw my head back and laugh before taking a giant step away from him. When a camera flash lights up his face two seconds later, I say with a playful wink, “It’s not like they haven’t seen it all before, Lenigan69.”

His grumble that he’s going to kick his old roommate’s ass the next time he sees him takes care of the jealousy heating my cheeks, as do the seven words he speaks next, “Are you ready to go home, Cocoa?”

Home.Such a simplistic word for something with so much meaning.

When I nod, Lennox mutters, “Good… because I have a surprise waiting for you there.”

His promise keeps my heart rate high the forty-minute commute to our home. It’s a cute little bungalow nestled in the cliffs of Bronte’s Peak. It is a modest house for a baller who makes as much money as Lennox, but it’s on par with the man he’s grown to become. It’s humble, a little edgy, but very much a show-stealing piece of property that required only the slightest bit of TLC.

Confident my gift is most likely another weekend visit from my dad, I race into the front door without stopping to check if I’m presentable in the massive mirror in the entryway. He’s seen me at my worst, so the glow up I went through during my early to mid-twenties won’t bother him. To him, I’ve always been perfect.

A groan rumbles in my chest when I discover Lennox’s gift. It isn’t a puppy or a home-cooked meal. It isn’t even my overbearing father who still threatens to kill Lennox every couple of months. It’s a massive basket of egg-free condiments, including egg-free mayonnaise.

“What?” Lennox chuckles out when I spin around to face him with a cocked brow. “It’s coming into barbecue season. I didn’t want you missing out.” I feel his chuckles more than I hear them when he cozies up behind me. After playfully biting on my earlobe and sucking it into his mouth to soothe the sting, he mutters, “It also came with this.” My pulse quickens for an entirely different reason when he holds a bottle of sunscreen in front of me. “So, what do you say, Cocoa? Are you ready for another swimming lesson?”

He commenced teaching me how to swim the weekend I returned to Ravenshoe, so I am more than a competent swimmer. I just pretend I’m not so his lessons never end.

We all have our place in thebig-fivepersonality traits.

Lennox is the jock, and I’m the only girl who knows that isn’t his sole quality.

And I wouldn’t want it any other way.

The end…