Me: I think what you meant to say was that I am an exceptional kisser and you miss me very much.

She typed for a long time, but only a quick message came through.

Emma: You are an exceptional kisser. But you are still the asshole.

I was in an uncomfortable hotel bed at a water park. My mom went to prison today and I officially took custody of my three siblings. And I still smiled myself to sleep.

CHAPTER 26 EMMA

What is it about getting rejected that makes you want them more?” I asked, typing into my charting computer. We were at Royaume at the nurses’ station on the Med Surg floor.

“You’re still talking about this?” Maddy said from the computer next to me. “It’s been over a week. And anyway, he didn’t reject you, he just didn’t kiss you as much as you wanted, which shouldn’t be a big deal since he’s not a lifestyle match and all that.”

She smirked, and I narrowed my eyes at her.

“That must have been some kiss if you keep thinking about it,” she mumbled.

It was.

I’d played it over in my head a thousand times. The turn, the pull into his chest, the split second where his eyes had locked with mine before they dropped to my mouth.

His lips were so soft. I’d liked that he’d smelled like toothpaste and Downy, like he’d just washed the hoodie he’d been wearing. I’d liked how tightly he’d held me to him. How his arms had felt wrapped around me. But mostly I kept thinking about it because the way he’d grabbed me and kissed me felt like he’d been waiting all day for a chance to do it. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized I’d been too.

The kiss was a sure thing. I knew it was coming. But it was one thing to expect something, and something very else to long for it. I’d been longing for his kiss. I’d been hoping he’d kiss me the whole time we were at the mall. Every time we were somewhere that gave us a few seconds alone and out of sight, I’d been wishing he’d lean in.

“You okay?” Maddy asked.

I’d stopped typing and was staring blankly at my screen.

“Yeah. Fine,” I said, picking up on the chart where I left off. “I just think Justin and I have some sexual tension we need to work out.”

“And how you gonna do that?” she asked, giving me a look.

I gave her one back. “How do you think?”

“You think he’s gonna be cool with a hookup? I don’t get the sense he’s a one-night-stand kind of guy.”

“All guys are one-night-stand kind of guys,” I said, typing.

She grunted. Then she looked up over my shoulder and wrinkled her forehead. “Is that… Amber?”

I turned in my chair to see my mom walking down the hallway, a brown paper bag in her hand.

“Did you know she was coming?” Maddy asked.

I smiled. “No.”

Mom had never visited me at work before. She spotted me and her face lit up. I watched her make her way over.

She looked like a Greek goddess wearing a dark blue maxi dress with gold sandals. Ankle bracelets that jingled while she walked.

“Hey, girls!” she said, setting the bag on the counter.

“Hey,” I said brightly. “This is such a nice surprise.”

“Meeting Neil for lunch,” she said, twisting to look around.

I felt myself deflate. “Oh,” I said. “He just went into surgery.”

Now her face fell. “Oh. Well, how long does that take?”

“Hours,” Maddy said. “Depends what it is.”

“Huh.” Mom chewed on her bottom lip. “He missed dinner last night, and so I just thought—” She looked around like she might see him.

“That’s really nice of you to bring him lunch,” Maddy said, her tone a little dry.

“Yeah,” Mom said distractedly. She put a thumb over her shoulder. “Hey, when I came in, I told that nurse with the blond hair who I was and she didn’t know me. Neil talks about me at work, right?”

Maddy glanced at me. “I mean, not really.”

“He doesn’t really talk to the nurses,” I said.

Mom chewed her lip again. “Okay.”

There was a moment of silence.

“Do you want me to give this to him when he’s done?” I asked, nodding at the bag.

She seemed to snap out of it. “Yeah. Yes. I baked him some zucchini bread. There’s a mushroom frittata, a cucumber feta salad—I mean, we’re living together. That’s a little weird, right? That nobody knows he has a girlfriend?”

Maddy and I looked at each other.

“I bet the other doctors know,” I volunteered.

“Oh, totally,” Maddy said, nodding.

“I don’t think he gets into his personal life with the nurses,” I said.

“We’re small beans,” Maddy added. “The doctors have their own lounge. There’s not a lot of mingling.”

Mom nodded, but she still looked off.

“Okay. Well, I gotta go,” she said. “See you girls at the house.”

We watched her walk out.

Maddy took the bag from the counter and peered into it. “Funny she brought him lunch and didn’t think to make any for you.”