Page 11 of Fierce-Colson
He got to the door, turned in and saw several kids in there sitting in chairs, some in separate rooms lying down, but no Bella.
“Can I help you?”
“Colson Ryder here to get Bella.”
“Oh, yes. She just went to her locker to get her books. I made sure she got her assignments so she didn’t fall behind.”
“Thanks,” he said. Every kid there was staring at him, then his gun, his badge on his belt, then back to him. “I’ll go wait in the hall.”
“The bell is going to ring in three minutes,” the nurse said. “You might want to wait in here. Bella will come back here rather than the front office.”
“Good idea.” He stepped further in. “Can you tell me what’s wrong with her?”
She stood up and nodded her head toward another room, a private office. He stepped in and the door shut.
“I’m aware of her situation.”
He frowned. “What’s that?”
“That her father passed away and you’re her brother. You’ve got custody.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” he asked.
The nurse smiled, polite and almost sympathetic. “Are you single?”
He didn’t know where this questioning was going. “Yes.”
“This might be a hard topic and I’m giving you a heads up. I believe Bella might get her period soon. It sounds it to me. That she’s having cramps but doesn’t quite realize it might be that. I asked if she had her period and she said not yet.”
The heat filled his face.
Christ.
He wanted to say he hadn’t thought of that, but the truth was, he wasn’t even close to thinking that.
He didn’t have a sister when he was in middle school, and he didn’t talk to girls about that stuff.
Which brought his mind back to his old middle school girlfriend.
The woman he’d just left.
Did he know when she had her period back then? Fuck, no.
It’s not like they were having sex.
They’d done nothing more than kiss and him slide his hand under her shirt a few times.
“Yeah, not a conversation we’ve had,” he said, more pissed at himself than anyone else that he hadn’t thought of it.
That he was trying to do everything right but realized he was so far out of his element still.
“Do you have any women friends or family who could broach it with her?” the nurse asked, lifting her eyebrows some.
His mother. And his mother had been his rock through this all.
How do you ask a woman to help watch her ex’s half child?
But Jane Ryder did it for him and only him.
