Broken jaw? Looks like no action for you for a while.
Will
*gif of Michael Jackson eating popcorn*
Wow. Even Mr. No-Personality Will had gotten into the game. I showed the screen to Chief. “You’re killing me.”
Chief shrugged and grinned the grin of a very satisfied meddler. “The only one holding you back is you.” He looked at his watch. “I gotta go. But Aaron.”
“Chief?”
“You deserve to be happy. I know I rib you a little—”
“A lot.”
“Okay, a lot. But it’s because I love you. You’re like a son to me.”
I swallowed the emotion suddenly clogging my throat and nodded tightly. My dad died of a heart attack when I was seventeen. Chief was already in our lives thanks to both my brothers heading straight into the department out of high school, and he’d been the one to keep me from falling apart when neither of my brothers knew how. It was Chief who made sure I ate and went to school. Chief who sat with me at the kitchen table as I filled out college applications, and Chief in the audience at my graduation four years later. “I know.”
“Take the chance,” he said softly. “What’ve you got to lose?”
The last bit of hope that at least one woman will find me worth sticking around for. The thought was like a neon sign in my head, unbidden and unwanted, but true.
Chief searched my eyes, nodded, and turned to go.
“Chief?”
He doubled back. “Yeah?”
I swallowed again. “Thank you. For…everything.”
He nodded again, then left.
My phone pinged again, and my brothers had only ratcheted up their teasing.
Don’t you two have better things to do?
Price
Just give Daddy Will what he wants and he’ll leave you alone.
Will
Fuck off, Price.
I sighed.
I’m waiting on her to get out of surgery. Nothing has happened and nothing is going to happen.
Price
Keep telling yourself that.
“Aaron?”
I looked up. “Hey, LaToya. She out?”
She nodded. “None of her family here yet?”
“I saw her text her brother and his wife, but…” I shrugged.
“Well, you’re close enough since you brought her here. I’ll take you back there.”
I pocketed my phone and followed her to the room.
Devon blinked slowly from the hospital bed, still not quite back to the land of the conscious.
Jessica smiled up from the electronic pad she was logging notes in. “She’s just now coming out of anesthesia. She’ll be a little loopy, of course. We’ll need her to drink that.” She indicated a bottle of apple juice. “But after that, you can help her get dressed and get her out of here.”
I opened my mouth to object. I may have liked Devon—okay, more than liked her—but I had no business getting her dressed. Sure, I’d seen plenty of bodies in plenty of situations in my years as a paramedic, and I really could maintain my professionalism with Devon if it came down to it, but still.
“Um.”
Jessica looked at me expectantly.
Ah, fuck. “Never mind,” I said, resigned. It would be just my luck. Here, Aaron, get the woman of your dreams dressed. Pay no attention to how close you are to every bit of her. Ignore all details of her panties and bra.
Jessica finished up on her pad and left, and I turned my attention to Devon.
