“Probably. But I’m also right,” he smirked. “I know you like to control everything, keep everything in order. But what he thinks about you isn’t your decision. You can’t control that, Ms. Stanley.”
“He’s just . . .” My voice trailed off as my eyes met a pair of green ones coming around the nurse’s station. His smile, so sweet and shy, made me melt into a little puddle on the floor.
“What?” Dr. Manning asked.
“Max,” I whispered.
Dr. Manning turned around and saw Max standing at the counter. He looked to the doctor and then to me. I could tell he didn’t know what to think and the fact that he seemed jealous made me happy.
“Did I catch you at a bad time?” Max asked, his voice full of caution.
“No,” I said softly, ignoring the looks from the other nurses shuffling around. I was standing between two of the best looking guys I’d ever seen—it wasn’t a bad place to be. “You okay today?”
“Yeah.” He looked from me back to the doctor again.
“Max, this is Dr. Connor Manning. Dr. Manning, this is Max Quinn.”
Connor extended his hand to Max and they shook firmly. Connor had a coy smile on his face and Max looked apprehensive, his jaw tensing.
“I was just telling Kari here that you can’t make decisions for people. You have to let everyone decide what’s best for them. Would you agree?” Connor asked him.
A slow smile spread across Max’s face as he realized what Connor was getting at. “I do, actually.”
Connor shot me a wink and started towards the hall. “Nice to meet you, Max.”
“You, too, Dr. Manning. If you don’t mind me asking, have we met before?”
He stopped in the hallway and turned around. “Unless you’ve been in here with a gunshot or pneumonia, probably not.”
“Dr. Manning? There’s a Kellie Manning on the phone for you. She said she’s your mother,” Chanda said from the front of the station.
“I need to grab that. Nice to meet you again.”
I looked back to the beautiful, dark-haired man in front of me. His eyes were on me. As he realized I wasn’t going to throw him out of the station, his dimple popped.
“I thought you were going home?” I asked with a huge smile.
“I did.” He leaned against the counter, a slow smile spreading across his lips. “You’re my home.”
I tried not to swoon in the middle of the hospital, but I couldn’t help the ridiculously huge grin on my face.
“I brought you something,” Max said softly. He reached into the inner pocket of his black leather jacket and pulled out 4 little envelopes. He handed them to me.
I turned them over in my hands. “You brought me flower seed packets?” I laughed. “I don’t get it.”
“I was going to stop and buy you flowers to tell you I’m sorry. I should’ve come to you or at least called you last night. But in my defense, I needed to make sure you wanted to be with me. I needed to know that I wasn’t forcing you or pressuring you. But now I see I was wrong. I should’ve went to Cane’s and told you to make sure you were home in the morning. That I wanted you there because you belong with me. And my heart belongs to you. We both know it.”
“So I was going to buy you flowers, but they die,” he went on. “In a week, two tops, they’re done. Forgotten. So I bought you seed packets. You can plant those at our house and then in the spring, we can watch them grow until it gets cold again.” He shrugged. “It’s my way of telling you that I expect you to still be in my life, at our house, this time next year.”
“Oh, Max,” I said, rounding the corner and letting him envelop me in a hug. Everything about being in his arms, surrounded by his scent, his lips on the top of my head, was right.
It was home.
“I love ya, Kari. I woke up this morning without you beside me and I never want to do that again. It really hit me not having you there.”
I squeezed him tighter.
“I’m not letting you leave me. If you still love Blaine—”
“I never loved Blaine,” I interrupted, looking into this eyes. “I thought I did, but then I fell in love with you and I realized that what I felt for Blaine was nothing in comparison.”
“So you’ll come home?”
I bit my lip to keep from smiling. “I’m pretty sure I’m there right now.”
KARI
I slung my bag over my shoulder. “See ya later, Chandra.”
“Night, Kari.”
I brushed my fingers across the seed packets tucked safely in my pocket and smiled. My fingertips touched a stray piece of paper and I pulled out the packets curiously. Attached to the back of one of the packets was a sticky note.
I stroked my thumb across the words written in Max’s handwriting.
I pressed the button for the elevator and was relieved when it opened quickly and was empty. I got in and pressed the P for the parking garage when I saw Dr. Manning walking towards me.
“Can I ride with you?” he asked, entering the elevator.
“Sure,” I smiled. “How was your shift?”
“Not bad, not great. No fantastic stories to remember to tell the grandkids one day, but I’ll survive,” he winked.
I laughed. “I should write a book about some of the stuff I’ve seen.”