My Perfect Fiance (Perfect Guy Book 2) Page 11

  “What are we watching?”

  “Big Bang Theory.”

  He rolls over to the couch and transfers himself to the seat next to me in one swift motion, making sure the loose ends of his pants stay tucked under him. He winces slightly during the transfer. I wonder if his legs are still hurting. Or maybe his back—he says it always aches after a full day in the chair. Or maybe I shouldn’t ask. Except I can’t help myself.

  “How are you feeling?”

  He shrugs. “I’m fine.”

  “The pain is better?”

  He gives me a look. “I said I’m fine.”

  He doesn’t want to talk about it. That shouldn’t be a surprise. Not only does Noah have a thing about not taking pain meds, but he also has a thing about not ever letting on how much he’s hurting.

  “Was work awful?” I ask.

  He tugs at the collar of his scrub top. “Uh… work was okay, but…”

  I narrow my eyes at him. “But what?”

  He slumps down on the sofa. “Well, for starters, your ex-husband is an orderly at our ER.”

  “He what?” I shake my head. “How did that happen?”

  He averts his eyes, looking down at the bunched up legs of his scrub pants. “Well, I sort of… I got him the job.”

  “You what?”

  “I wasn’t going to tell you.” He rakes a hand through his hair. “Theo came to me a couple of weeks ago because he lost his job bartending, and he asked if I could help him out. For Lily’s sake. So… I went to HR, talked the guy up, and…” He grimaces. “I told them to put him anywhere but the ER. Anywhere else. So where do they put him?” He shudders. “Jesus.”

  “So you have to work with him?”

  He flips his hand back and forth. “Sometimes. I mean, it’s a big ER. And there are a lot of shifts. I won’t see him much. But… I’m not thrilled about it.”

  I don’t know how to feel either. Noah and Theo working together? That leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Especially considering my plans tomorrow with Theo.

  Let’s meet tomorrow for drinks. I need to talk to you.

  That was a mistake. I never should have agreed. I’m going to call Theo up to cancel.

  Except what if it’s something important about Lily?

  “Anyway, the last thing I want to do right now is talk about Theo.” He yawns and stretches out his arms on the sofa. “I’ve been waiting to see you my whole shift.”

  “What about me? I couldn’t even sleep without you!” I start to cuddle up close to him, but then pause. “Before I get too comfy, do you want anything?”

  He grins sleepily at me. “You.”

  I roll my eyes. “I meant to eat.”

  “Yeah, you,” he breathes in my ear. Tingles go down my neck as he nibbles on my earlobe, but then he has to stop to yawn again. “Christ, I’m sorry about that, Bailey. It’s been a long day.”

  “I’m tired too,” I admit. “How about we watch the rest of this episode, then turn in?”

  “Yeah, but I hate this show.”

  I gasp and clutch my chest. “How could you hate it?”

  “I don’t know. It just doesn’t seem very believable that a guy obsessed with video games and binge-watching sci-fi shows and dressing up as Star Wars characters could have a successful career as a theoretical physicist.”

  I arch an eyebrow at him.

  “But,” he says, “I’ll watch it because you like it.”

  So we do. We watch about half an episode of The Big Bang Theory, but before it’s over, I pass out in his arms.

  Chapter 24: Noah

  Bailey had to work late today so I told her I’d grab Lily at her afterschool program. I’d picked her up there a dozen times before, maybe more, but this was the first time I ever picked her up in a wheelchair.

  It was… an event.

  First off, it took me fifteen minutes of circling the building before I found the elusive wheelchair-accessible entrance. And when I got inside, I had to show two forms of ID before they let me go to the first grade classroom to get her. Not that I don’t respect their need for security, but I’d been there before and shown no forms of ID. They just waved me in.

  I have no clue why my being in the chair made me more threatening. You’d think it would be the opposite.

  And then in the classroom, all the kids surrounded me and wanted to know what happened to me. A car accident sounded so boring though.

  “I used to be a lion tamer,” I explained to a solemn-eyed Asian boy. “And one day, the lion just… lost it. He jumped on me and wouldn’t let go of my legs for anything.”

  All their little jaws were hanging open. One kid had drool dripping from the corner of his mouth.

  “Did it hurt?” a sandy-haired boy asked me.

  “It sure did,” I said. “So that’s why when your parents tell you not to climb into the cages at the zoo, you should listen.”

  May as well throw a lesson in there.

  I’m the hero of the afterschool program after that story. Even the teacher seems to be buying it, despite the fact that it’s very clearly fictional. I’ve been an ER doc a while and I’ve seen all sorts of crazy things, but never a lion ripping off someone’s limbs or anything close to that. Last week, we had a guy who got a fidget spinner stuck up his ass, but no major lion injuries.

  “Noah?” Lily asks as she buckles herself into her car seat.

  “Uh huh?”

  “Did you really get your legs eaten off by a lion?”

  I crane my neck to look back at her. “Lily, you know I was in a car accident. I was just joking around.”

  Her face falls. “Oh.”

  She’s making me wish I did get my legs eaten off by a lion. It would be cool, that’s for sure.

  “Can we go the yogurt place?” she asks hopefully, lifting her chin in the air.

  “Uh…”

  She latches on to my hesitation. “Pleeeease, Noah? Pleeeeeeeease?”

  So the yogurt place is a frozen yogurt bar that has ten varieties of self-serve frozen yogurt and toppings that make my cholesterol go up just by looking at them. Oreo cookies. Brownie bits. Peanut butter cups. Chocolate chips. Twix pieces. Bailey and I take her there sometimes, and we’ve had to limit her to two toppings, because it was out of control. In any case, this isn’t the healthy yogurt people eat when they’re on a diet or to regulate their bowels. This is most definitely dessert.

  “We haven’t eaten dinner yet,” I say.

  Lily looks even more disappointed than she did when I told her my legs weren’t eaten by lions. “Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease?”

  “How about this,” I say. “We go get some pizza, and then we’ll get yogurt.”

  “What about Mommy?”

  “We’ll bring back pizza for her.”

  Lily thinks this over. “Okay!”

  We go to Lily’s favorite pizza place, which has the absolute worst pizza I’ve ever eaten. New York is known for having great pizza (and great bagels) so I’m not sure how Lily found the one pizza place in all of Manhattan that’s awful. Cardboard doesn’t even begin to describe it. I can’t fathom how she likes this shit.

  “This place is my favorite,” Lily says as she chews happily on a slice of… well, I guess it’s pizza. It’s got a crust, tomato sauce, and cheese.

  “Yeah,” I say.

  “Mom and Dad won’t take me here ever,” she says, a tiny crease forming between her brows.

  “Why not?”

  “Because they say the pizza tastes bad.”

  Apparently, I’m the only sucker willing to take her here. Oh well. At least I didn’t give in to that whole dessert-before-dinner deal.

  Lily pulls a glob of cheese off her pizza. The way she eats pizza is fascinating. First she pulls off the cheese. Then she licks off the tomato sauce. Then she uses her front teeth to gnaw the soft bread from the burnt crust.

  “Did you see my dad’s head?” she asks me between bites of cheese. “It’s all bald!”

  “It sure is,
” I say. And I don’t know why I say this next part: “Do you like it?”

  “No, it’s weird.” She crinkles her nose. “But Mommy likes it.”

  My stomach turns, although it’s not clear if it’s from what she just said or from the questionable pizza. “She… she does?”

  Lily nods. “She said to him it looks good. And then her face got really red.”

  Well, great. Looks like the nurses at work aren’t the only ones salivating over Theo.

  I push my pizza away. Any appetite I had for this disgusting pizza is gone. I don’t know why I’m so upset though. So Bailey thinks Theo is attractive. No surprise there—she married the guy, after all. That doesn’t undo the fact that he’s an irresponsible loser.

  I’m not Bailey’s type. I’m plenty of women’s types but not hers. She likes the scrawny artist type. A guy who can draw. Who can stand up in front of a room with a microphone and sing his heart out. I can’t do that. I can place a chest tube in a guy whose lung has collapsed, but I can’t be the artistic type Bailey loves. Back in college, it was something we used to laugh about—that she was marrying a guy who wasn’t even her type. Because I knew she loved me, and it wasn’t like I ever had any trouble with the opposite sex back then.

  I wouldn’t feel as shitty about it if I could walk right now.

  “Don’t worry, Noah,” Lily says. “Mom likes you better than Daddy.”

  I lift my eyes. “Uh… she… did she tell you that?”

  Lily lifts her pizza to start licking off the tomato sauce. “Uh huh. All the time. Also, you’re nicer than Daddy. He’s always yelling. You never yell.”

  “I sometimes yell.”

  She squints at me. “Not too much. Also, you’re smart. Daddy can’t read.”

  Man, I would love to let that one go. But I can’t. “Your father can read, Lily.”

  “Well, that’s what Mommy said when I asked why he doesn’t have any books in his apartment. Also, your apartment is nicer. His is small and has dirty socks all over the floor.”

  Smart, nice, and has a great apartment. Sounds like a laundry list of characteristics of an unattractive blind date. None of this is making me feel like the better man.

  “Also,” Lily adds, “you’re way handsomer than Daddy.”

  I manage a smile. “Gee, thanks.”

  Lily shrugs because she wasn’t saying it to be nice. Lily doesn’t say things she doesn’t mean just for the sake of being nice. She’s says what she thinks. She won’t purposely be mean, but she doesn’t have much of a filter.

  I look down at my pizza. Somehow, I still don’t have much of an appetite.

  Chapter 25: Bailey

  I don’t cancel on Theo.

  I started to. I picked up my phone at least a dozen times with the intention of telling him I wouldn’t be able to meet him today. But I didn’t do it. And not because I want to see Theo so badly, but because I know my ex-husband very well. If I cancel on him, he won’t give up. It will make him even more frantic to see me.

  I’m better off just getting this over with.

  So at two o’clock the next day, I clock out for a break and head downstairs to meet Theo in front of the building. Even though he was on time at the playground the other day, he can’t manage a repeat performance. By ten past two, I’m so pissed off, I’m ready to kick the nearest lamppost. I know it’s only ten minutes, but on a busy workday, that’s a lot of time. It doesn’t matter if Theo changed his hair—he’s still the same irresponsible guy I married and then divorced.

  “Bailey!” I turn my head and see him at the end of the block, hurrying toward me. He waves at me. “Hey!”

  I’m not impressed by his slow jog. Considering how late he is, he should be sprinting. He should be out of breath.

  “You’re late,” I say flatly.

  “Sorry, I got held up.”

  No real explanation. Held up. How many times have I heard that before?

  “Well, that’s a shame.” I look down at my watch. “I don’t have time for coffee anymore. I used up my whole break standing here, waiting for you.”

  His face falls. “You can’t spare ten minutes?”

  I look at my watch again. Either I spend the next five minutes standing here, arguing with him, or I give in and go. Sometimes Theo is much harder to deal with than my headstrong daughter.

  “Fine,” I say. “Ten minutes. That’s it.”

  It takes us two minutes to walk to the coffee shop down the block and then another minute or so to be seated. At this point, I’m going to be really late getting back from my break. And this is why Theo can’t hold down a job and needs Noah to find him one.

  “So what’s this about?” I ask Theo as we face each other across the booth.

  He rubs at his bald skull. I don’t take it back—it’s very sexy. But there’s more to a guy than how sexy his scalp is. And overall, Noah is still much hotter.

  “Something about Lily?” I prompt him.

  “Oh.” He grins crookedly. “It’s not really about Lily.”

  What a shocker. “Theo, I have a lot of work to do…”

  “Listen, Bailey.” He reaches out to take my hand resting on the table, but I yank it away. “Ever since you and Noah got engaged… I can’t stop thinking about you. About us.” He lifts his eyes. “I made a horrible mistake letting you go.”

  “You didn’t have a choice,” I say through my teeth. “I kicked you out.”

  “I could have tried harder to keep us together.” He squeezes his eyes shut for a moment. “I could have fought for you. Why didn’t I fight harder for you? I would have died for you.”

  For a split-second, I’m touched. But then I realize something. “Those are lyrics to one of your songs.”

  He blinks a few times. “Huh?”

  “What you just said. You… you’re quoting a song you wrote.”

  “Oh.” He smiles sheepishly. “Well, the song was about you.”

  “You wrote it before we broke up. Try again.”

  He rubs at his bald head again. “All right, fine. No sappy lyrics. I’m going to be straight with you.”

  “Good.”

  He heaves a deep breath. “Bailey, I’ll do anything to get you back. Anything you say.”

  “It’s too late.”

  “It can’t be too late.” His eyebrows bunch together. “I gave up my band for you. I shaved off all my hair like you always wanted me to. I got this stupid fucking job as an orderly.”

  “Noah got you that job.”

  He ignores me. “I’m trying to show you I’m responsible.”

  “Good for you.”

  “Bailey.” His eyes grow slightly damp. Noah always claims Lily is fake-crying, and I wonder if that’s what Theo is doing now. “You’re the love of my life. Noah can’t say that.”

  “I’ve known Noah since we were teenagers.” I think back to the night when Noah intercepted the guy forcing himself on me in the hallway of our dorm. He threw that guy against a wall and made sure he never came near me again. “I think he’d disagree.”

  “But,” Theo says, “he’s not the father of your child.”

  Of all the things Theo has said to me, this is the only thing that gives me the tiniest bit of pause. It would, I must admit, be very nice to be married to Lily’s father, on a completely theoretical level. Mom, Dad, and Child, all under one roof. Just like the way I grew up.

  Theo sees my hesitation and quickly plows forward. “And what if you guys have more kids?” he says. “Then Lily will feel left out. Noah won’t treat her the way he’ll treat his own kids.”

  “That’s not true.” Noah’s been nothing but wonderful to Lily. But then again, Lily expressed her own reservations that she’d be left out if we had more children. Maybe there’s something to it…

  “Of course it’s true.” Theo shakes his head. “How could he love her as much as he loves his own flesh and blood? He won’t. He can’t. He’ll never love Lily the way you and I do.”

  I want to pr
otest, but he’s right. As great of an almost-stepfather as Noah has been, he can’t possibly love Lily the way her own parents would. If something ever happened to Lily, I would never recover… but while Noah would surely be sad, he’d move on.

  Theo is the only person in the world who loves Lily as much as I do.

  But that’s not enough. Yes, he shares my love for our daughter, but he doesn’t make me happy the way Noah does. And Lily deserves a mom who’s happy.

  “I’m sorry, Theo,” I say. “I love Noah, and we’re getting married. You’re way too late.” I glance down at my watch. “And now I’ve got to get back to work.”

  “You’re not even going to stay for a cup of coffee?”

  I shake my head. “I don’t have time.”

  Theo gets to his feet as I do. “Fine, Bailey,” he says. “You can walk out that door, but I’m not giving up. Somehow I’m going to win you back.”

  Yeah, good luck trying.

  Chapter 26: Noah

  “And-the-little-bear-went-through-the-forest-as-fast-as-his-little-feet-could-take-him,” Lily recites at rapid-fire speed. “He-wanted-the-honey-more-than-any-thing.”

  When we first started reading, Lily was going slow as molasses. I’ve got a lot of patience, but she was trying even mine. I use the eraser end of a pencil as a pointer for when she loses her place, but she was losing her place every five seconds. And when I redirected her with the pencil, she would just stare at the word blankly, like she’d never seen it before. Even if the word was “she.”

  Then I got the idea.

  I told Lily if she could finish the chapter before her mom got home, she’d get two chips for reading tonight instead of the usual one. And then she took off like a rocket. She really wants that ant farm.

  Lily finishes off the chapter in record time, and we high-five. “That was amazing, Lil!” I say. “You did a great job.”

  “That’ll be two chips, please,” Lily says, holding out her palm.

  Bailey expressed concern that Lily might be stealing chips during the night, and that we should put them up on top of the bookcase. I don’t think Lily would do that though. And on a selfish note, I can’t reach them on top of the bookcase when I’m in my chair. So we compromised and put them in our bedroom.