Tension coiled in his chest like a snake waiting to strike. “I know. That’s why I’m afraid I might fail.” Okay, he could confess that to her even if he didn’t like to admit it to himself.
“Fail? I’ve never once heard you talk like that, even when you were playing ball. If you lost a game, you always chose your words so carefully. You would say the other team played better, but you never referred to yourself or the team as losers or failures.” She kissed his cheek. “Remember that. I need to get back. I’m meeting some friends for a tennis game. Come by anytime you’re in town. I live at 22 Aspen Street near the Community Center right off Main Street.”
“I’m glad you came for a visit, April.” He walked out with her. “I missed you. All of you.”
As she opened her car door, she gave him a playful wink. “We missed you too, Mr. Fancy Pants.”
He laughed as she closed the door and drove off. Natalie had started calling him Mr. Fancy Pants years ago. She’d made sure he knew how unimpressed she was with his status as an NFL quarterback, and to prove it, she’d boldly dubbed him Mr. Fancy Pants. The first time she’d brought him home to meet her Raiders-loving family, she’d broken the tension by using that nickname in her introductions to everyone. From that point on, he’d felt like an adopted Hale and not some star quarterback they cheered for every Sunday.
As he went inside, he found himself whistling. Mr. Fancy Pants needed to come up with some meal suggestions for his party this weekend so he could share the list with his sexy caterer.
Could he entice Natalie to do something friend-like when he swung by to drop off the list and pick up Touchdown? As he entered the den, he caught sight of the red plaid throw on the Italian leather couch, one of the few things he’d brought from Denver as a reminder of better times. An idea formed.
She couldn’t refuse a trip down memory lane with her favorite book characters, and if it happened to remind her of the passionate sex life they used to have, what could it hurt?
Mr. Fancy Pants was on the case.
Chapter 9
One of the new nurses, fresh out of school, gave Andy a smile as he scrawled his name on the last chart on his rotation. She was interested in him and had made no bones about it. And she wasn’t alone. Being a widower and single dad apparently only made him dreamier to his female co-workers at Dare Valley General Hospital. He’d overhead a few nurses say as much in the break room. Some people had watched too many episodes of Grey’s Anatomy, if you asked him.
He’d never thought it was a good idea for doctors to date staff. When things went south, and often they did, simple interactions with patients could turn awkward, not to mention that a simple request for a scalpel during a surgery might be met with a frozen silence. None of that was fair to the patients who’d placed themselves in their hands.
Now that he was single—something of which he still needed to remind himself—he still didn’t think it was smart to date anyone at the hospital. Not that he’d found anyone who tempted him. Sure, some of the female staff were funny and beautiful—or as beautiful as anyone could look in scrubs—but so far he hadn’t felt any attraction.
He changed out of his scrubs into tan shorts, a green T-shirt, and an old pair of Birkenstocks. As he walked out of the hospital into the warm afternoon sunshine, he took a moment to breathe in the air and scan the mountains still dotted with patches of snow at the peaks. Summer hadn’t completely melted away the cold vestiges of winter, but he understood that. Appreciated it. Time hadn’t fully eased the pain of Kim’s passing, and he expected it never would.
Some things weren’t meant to fade. Certainly not the love of a lifetime.
But he knew that was his excuse for not trying to “get out there.” He didn’t expect to find someone he loved or was as attracted to as Kim. But recently, he’d been feeling the internal pressure to try a little harder to move on, to engage with life. He’d been doing his best to ignore it, but today, he was about ready to blast those doors open to help Natalie, and in doing so, himself.
His regular babysitter had agreed to stay a little longer with Danny so he could talk to his sister. His Lexus SUV climbed the road to the foothills where she lived with a purr. When he knocked on her door, he rubbed his stomach, hoping to ease the unsettled feeling in his gut.
Her normal smile of greeting didn’t flash across her face when she opened the door. No, she had a guarded expression he understood all too well.
“I thought I’d give you a few days to settle,” he said, not beating around the bush as Touchdown launched himself at him with a volley of wild barks. “Will you take a drive with me?”
He leaned down to give the Beagle a rubdown, wondering again if he should get Danny a dog. He’d been begging for one since Matt had gotten Henry. Keeping up with his son was a full-time job already.