28. Angie

Chapter 28

Angie

F ood. I needed food. Only an hour into my shift, my stomach gurgled like an active volcano. I’d managed to avoid running into Remi for a few more days, but it was getting difficult with him practically living at the farm. He was everywhere. The stable. The garden. The pasture. The fields. The toilet. Remi. Remi. Remi. Remi. Remi. Fracking man was going to drive me batty.

Gabby sat next to me, twirling in her office chair. I’d taken over for her, but like usual, she stayed behind to catch up on the happenings in my life before she went home. She lived alone and only had the hospital as a social life. Lili lounged next to Gabby in a rollie chair while Ryan and I filled in our notes about the babies we’d examined. All of us had our blue medical masks covering our chins.

My phone buzzed on the counter next to my laptop. It was Dan.

Fourteen days can’t go by fast enough. I hate that work gets in the way of me seeing you.

We’d discussed marriage several times, but I couldn’t let myself think about the possibility of a proposal. We’d talked of our future, about how many kids we wanted, our ideal home … of his goal to be married by his fortieth birthday this fall. He wanted kids and didn’t want to be too old to play football with them in high school.

We’d been together for almost three months, he’d met my parents a few times, and still, I hadn’t slept with him. Dan only knew the person I pretended to be. How could I be intimate with him without confessing everything? If I came clean, he would surely abandon me, and I could kiss his possible marriage proposal goodbye. I couldn’t tolerate liars. Why should he?

Our relationship was disjointed. It was too serious too fast, yet he was my only viable option for making Papa’s dream come true, so I pressed forward.

I gnawed on my lip. Dan was on a work trip, taking some execs on a skydiving tour. We’d had to postpone our next grand adventure for another two weeks. Dan had something big and secret in mind after I’d told him my dirt bike was out of commission after a gnarly wreck, which was true. He’d immediately suggested BASE jumping the bridge. When I’d made up that lie, I hadn’t understood the hundreds of skydives you had to accomplish before even qualifying to attempt your first BASE jump. I’d assumed all you had to do was strap on a parachute and go for it.

Thankfully, I got Dan to back off that train easily enough, but he mentioned we could go canyoneering since I enjoyed it so much. I couldn’t exactly tell him I’d lied about Deer Creek Falls. Whatever he had planned would have something to do with heights. If anything went wrong while hanging from a rock ledge … I could die. I thought back to my failed dirt biking attempt. I’d only sustained a few bumps and bruises, a scratch here and there after wrecking, nothing serious.

The pain of my crash was nothing compared to the ecstasy of Remi’s kiss. Anytime I had a quiet moment to myself, I’d find myself reliving that moment. Dan’s kisses paled in comparison to the way, with one touch, Remi lit me on fire.

Remi’s plea for me to be safe came back to me. It was one of the first times he’d looked at me without a selfish thought. He hadn’t wanted to take advantage of me or find a way to buy my land. He looked straight into me, genuinely worried about my wellbeing. Not because of some land-deal falling through.

No. He cared for me.

And yet, he’d still find any way to get his hands on my land. Plus, he didn’t believe in monogamy. He couldn’t give me or Papa what we wanted most, what I’d been dreaming about since childhood. Finding someone to spend the rest of my life with. Someone who would love me like Papa loved Mama.

Therefore, Remi’s attention, no matter how sincere, couldn’t be trusted. True, I didn’t love love Smoot yet, but those feelings would grow even after marriage.

I texted Smoot back.

I can’t wait.

My finger hovered over the send arrow a second before I pressed it. The pressure of my tangled lies tightened my chest.

His response came quickly.

Are you at work?

Yep.

Thinking of you in your nursing outfit turns me on.

My nursing outfit? I glanced down at my bland hospital-issued scrubs.

“Is that Smoot?” Lili snatched my phone. I wouldn’t expect a pregnant woman to be so fast.

“Give it back,” I whined like a two-year-old.

Lili’s pregnant belly had reached epic proportions. She had a month and a half to go, but if her belly button was any indication, those turkeys were well past done. I couldn’t believe she managed to keep working. Most moms pregnant with twins were on bed rest at this point, not in operating rooms.

Sometimes, she snuck into the quiet of the NICU after surgeries. I think the hospital let her do whatever she wanted. They were too afraid to lose her.

Gabby huddled with Lili. “You’re such a turn on,” she teased and laughed.

“Scrubs are so hot,” Lili chimed in, tucking her chin and lifting her eyebrows at me.

“ Daniel is excited to see me again.” I gave up trying to get my phone.

“Yeah. After he canceled on you two weeks ago?” Gabby swiveled on her chair to face me.

“What if the guy is a closet criminal?” Ryan paused and looked at me. “I’ve heard so many app dating horror stories.”

“I already met him and kissed him, remember?” I’d told them about locking lips with Dan but not about doing the same with Remi. Given how much time my brain focused on the two, Remi’s performance far more impressed me than Dan’s. Not that Dan wasn’t a good kisser; he just wasn’t … Remi. “Besides, we all know you’ll find his social security number and take him out,” I continued.

Ryan gave me a non-committal grunt. His Ex-Navy Seal background had never left him. He could be intimidating when he wanted to be, but it all melted away when he took care of his babies.

“Look, I like Daniel. He could be the one.” I slouched back into my seat. Ironically, a few months ago, Lili was egging me on to swipe right on every profile on my screen. Now, she was the one waving the biggest caution flag.

“Are you two going to make a big deal about deleting the app from your phone together?” Gabby became more animated. “I think that’s kinda romantic.”

I shook my head and rolled my eyes. After her break-up of blockbuster proportions at the end of February, she’d sworn off dating altogether. That’d lasted three months, and she was back to her hopeless romantic self.

Lili splayed her feet apart and leaned back in her chair, still looking unbearably uncomfortable.

“When are you going to start maternity leave?” I deliberately changed the subject. I finished up the note, pressed submit, and focused on my best friend.

“Once the babies are born. Blake thinks I’m crazy, but I want to work until I go into labor or until Dr. Rusk puts me on bed rest.”

I couldn’t stop the wave of jealousy that hit me. Loving husband. Not one but two babies on the way … after all Lili had been through, she deserved this level of happiness. It was just … I did too. Didn’t I?

“Can’t wait to meet these two.” Gabby leaned toward Lili’s belly and scrunched her face.

“As long as they’re not guests in our wing for too long. Hopefully, not at all,” Ryan mumbled while his fingers moved across his keyboard.

My phone buzzed again in Lili’s hand. She glanced at the screen, and her eyes widened.

“What?” I asked. “Whatever he said, it’s confidential, and you’re not allowed to tease me about it.”

“It’s not Smoot. It’s Remi. You gave him your number too?” Lili asked. She tugged at her mask. “My my … Look who’s love life has exploded.”

“Who’s Remi, again?” Ryan asked, and my other two friends shushed him.

As if he needed shushing for a text.

“He’s Angie’s drop-dead gorgeous employee she hired to help her with the farm,” Gabby answered while not looking away from my phone.

“My parents hired him,” I pointed out and focused back on Lili. “You call two men an explosion? I was tired of communicating through Papa. It’s easier this way.” But Remi and I had done more texting since I’d started avoiding him.

Our all-out battles we’d waged against each other in person had moved into texts. I asked him to move pipe to the dry section of the cornfield. He told me he’d get around to it in two millennia when he finished hoeing the beets.

Fun times like that.

“You’ve been talking about Remi a lot lately. And I’ve never seen you look happier than you have this past week.” Lili leaned back in her chair.

Even relegated to only using Oscar, Remi had taken over a lot of the responsibilities at the farm. Which meant he must be sneaking into the other tractors without me knowing, but I didn’t care as much as I once would have.

This round of hay harvest had been the easiest in history. More than half the field had been baled by the time I’d napped and gone out to the tractor. I couldn’t figure out how Remi managed to do it all. It was like he was three people. One step ahead of me and done with my check lists before I could make them.

Lili tapped her thumbs rapidly over my screen.

“Wait. What are you texting him?” I moved to take my phone, but Gabby held me back. I looked to Ryan for assistance, but his eyes simply crinkled at the corners as he smiled and went back to typing his notes. “You two are going to get us in trouble with Janice. She doesn’t like cell phones out on shift.”

“You and I both know Janice never checks in on the night shift.” Gabby allowed me to sidestep her.

Lili tossed me my phone. “He’s outside. He brought you food.”

My stomach gurgled loudly as if sensing its torture was nearing a close. “What? Me? Food?” I gestured dumbly to my chest. I couldn’t form sentences.

“I told him to meet you at the main entrance.” Lili shifted to the front of her chair. “I’ll come with you.”

Of course, she would come.

“I might as well leave now too. My shift ended over an hour ago. And I need to feed my fish.” Gabby stood and walked into the breakroom.

Ryan froze, and his eyes laser-locked on the door Gabby had gone through. Not one minute later, she marched out to Ryan and threw a handful of leftover hole punch confetti at his scrub top.

“You filled my purse. It’ll take me forever to get these out.” She hit him on his shoulder with her bag, and little, round, white pieces of paper fluttered to the floor.

Being an immovable wall of muscle, Ryan didn’t budge with the impact. “Payback for the chickens,” he said.

I laughed and helped Lili stand as we followed in Gabby’s furious footsteps. She paused at the door to the washroom and flipped her middle finger at Ryan as she pushed through.

With a laugh, Ryan looked at me. “Take as long as you want. I’ll cover for you.”

I held the door open for Lili. “You know her revenge isn’t going to be pretty.”

The crinkles around his eyes grew. “I’m planning on it.”