Summer of Love Marie Ferrarella (easy books to read in english TXT) 📖

“I have one more to see in about an hour and a half. What time is her surgery scheduled for?”

“Five.” Her hands came back onto the table and wrapped around her mug.

“I’ll be done in plenty of time to get to the hospital.” He waited until her eyes came up and met his. “Unless you don’t want me there.”

There, if she wanted reassurance, he would give it to her. And he had a feeling she could use a friend right now, even if they could never be anything more than that.

“I’d actually like you to be there, if it’s not too much trouble.”

“Of course it’s not.”

This time her fingers crept across the desk and touched the top of his hand. He turned his over so it was palm up and curled his fingers around hers.

“Thank you so much, Clint. I know it’s hard after everything that went on between us.”

“Not hard at all.”

They sat there in silence for a few long seconds, hands still gripping each other’s. Only now he’d laced his fingers through hers, his thumb stroking over her skin.

A few minutes later she left—with his promise to be at the hospital before her mom’s procedure.

And somehow in that period of time he was going to give himself a stern pep talk about what he should and shouldn’t do as he sat with her in the waiting room.

And all he could do was hope that—for once—his heart decided to cooperate.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

JESSI PACED THE waiting room of the hospital an hour into her mom’s surgery, her chaotic thoughts charging from one subject to another. Her daughter had been so upset by the news that she hadn’t asked if Jessi had told her about the baby.

Or asked any deeper questions about why Jessi had told Clint before she’d told her.

That was good, because the last thing she needed to do was heap one more tricky situation onto the pile.

And tricky was the best way she could think of to characterize her and Clint’s relationship.

There was no way she could be falling for Clint all over again. They hadn’t seen each other in over twenty years. But as they’d worked together, treating patients at the fair, there’d been a feeling of rightness. A rightness that had continued when they’d made love at her house a week later.

Except feelings didn’t always mean anything, at least where she was concerned, because she’d always had a thing for Clint. Even back in high school.

It didn’t make a difference then, Jessi, and it’s not going to make a difference now. He’s going to leave. Just you wait and see.

All those confused feelings had to do with Clint being her first. After all, you never really forgot your first love, right? And she had loved Chelsea’s father. Very much. If it hadn’t been for their argument, Larry would still be alive. Would she even be giving Clint a second glance if he were?

Something else she didn’t want to think about because it just made her feel that much worse.

The man in question was seated in one of the cushioned chairs in the hospital waiting room, elbows on his knees, watching her pace. She went over to him. “How do you think it’s going?”

One corner of his mouth turned up. “You mean since the last time you asked me? All of five minutes ago?” He patted the chair next to him. “Why don’t you sit down? Wearing a hole in the linoleum isn’t going to help anyone right now.”

She blew out a breath, worry squeezing into every available brain cell and wiping away any other thoughts. Plopping down in the chair, she leaned back and closed her eyes. “What if Mom or Chelsea finds out what we’ve done?”

“Where did that come from?” His arm went around her shoulders and eased her closer.

“I just don’t want to make anything worse for either of them.”

“No one’s going to find out.”

“Larry did.” She was immediately sorry she’d said it when his body stiffened.

“Sorry, Clint. I’m just worried.”

“I know.” He sighed. “You need to stop pacing.”

Her eyes opened, and she cranked her head to the right to look at him. “I already did.”

“Not there.” He nodded at the floor, then his fingers went to her temple and rubbed in slow circles. “I mean up here. You’re driving yourself crazy. Nobody’s going to find out, unless one of us tells them. And I don’t see that happening.”

“Thank you,” she murmured. “You’ve been a lot cooler about all of this than I have any right to expect.”

He chuckled. “Cool, huh? I don’t know if I would call it that, exactly.”

She wasn’t sure what he meant by that, and she was too nervous to try to figure it out right now. All she knew was that she was glad he was there with her.

Jessi leaned into Clint a little bit more, allowing herself to absorb a little of the confident energy he exuded. That energy was something that had drawn her to him as a high school student, and it wasn’t any less potent now.

“How long are they going to be?”

“Jess, it takes time. The doctors felt pretty sure going in that everything was going to run according to plan.”

“Yes, but anything could happen.” Even as she said it, she allowed her eyelids to slide together, letting his clean scent wash through her, canceling out the sharp bite of disinfectant and illness that came with being at a hospital. She was used to those smells, for the most part, but right now, when she was worried about her mother, they were reminders that sometimes things went wrong, and people died.

“It could, but it probably won’t. I think she’s going to be just fine.”

His words were so inviting, offering up a reality that was in stark contrast to the gloomy paths her own thoughts were circling.

“I hope you’re right.”

This time when her eyelids slid closed, she allowed them to stay like that, lulled by his easy assurances.

Maybe because that’s what she wanted