I waited for my dick to react. Hell, even a slight twitch, but there was nothing. No dirty thoughts in my mind. Nothing at all.
“Later, Raven.” I lowered my phone and ended the call.
I spent the remaining half of my thirty-minute break shooting the shit with Rhett and listening to his little guy make whining noises because, apparently, he was hungry, and Mommy wasn’t out of the shower yet to feed him.
It still amazed me that Rhett had a son. Blake was a surprise, and I could honestly say that, even if he hadn’t been here, AJ and Rhett would still be just as in love. Rhett had it all, and at times, I’d allowed myself to imagine what a life like his would be like. One with a girl by my side, looking at me the way AJ looked at him. Like he was her everything. Waking up every morning with that same woman by my side, as we lay still listening to the sounds of our child echoing through the monitor.
My visions had always been unclear, the face of that woman always unseen…until lately. The last couple of weeks, I’d surprised myself when I’d pictured Maddison as the one staring back at me when I dreamed of rolling over and grabbing her by the waist to pull her close.
The most astonishing thing about those visions was the fact that they didn’t scare the fuck out of me. Instead, they had me wishing for more of them, looking forward to the time when I would close my eyes again so they would return.
Chapter Twelve
Maddison
Digging through my closet, I found the shirt I was in search of and pulled it out from the back, turning around to face Raven, who sat on the end of my bed. She jumped up and grabbed the hanger out of my hands.
“Yes, this one.” Her eyes roamed over the sheer red top with excitement. “I love this shirt. It makes my boobs look amazing.”
It would make anyone’s boobs look amazing, but I’d let her have her moment.
“Paired with my tight black pants and my heeled boots, it’ll be perfect.”
“Perfect for?” I still wasn’t sure why she had showed up at my place just before nine at night to beg for the top of mine that I had to steal back from her the last time she borrowed it.
“So, he hasn’t actually agreed to a date, per se, but I plan on seducing Mike in this top.” My stomach felt sour, and I fought the urge to snatch my shirt back and to tell her hell no and to get her own fucking clothes.
“How exactly do you seduce someone who may or may not even be present while doing so?” I stepped past her and walked out of my room, hearing her footsteps following closely behind.
“He said maybe we could hook up this Saturday, so if that pans out, I want to be prepared.” I focused on taking one calming breath after another. “Do you think I should buy new panties too?” Crack. My heart split right down the middle, or so it felt when I thought of her and Mike together. “Then again, maybe I should just forego them, because they’d only get in the way. I imagine him to be aggressive, hurried, demanding movements. I bet he likes control.”
“Not really something I want to think about.” It was making me nauseous.
“Come on, girl.” Raven flopped down in a chair at the island that separated my small kitchen and living room, placing her hands upon the countertop. “Don’t for a minute try to convince me that you haven’t thought of what that man would be like in the bedroom. If I recall, once, during a late-night drink session with my sister, we discussed that very thing.”
Just let it go already.
“First it was Rhett, but quickly we shifted to Mike. At which time, you expressed a great interest in how you believed him to be a ravishing lover.”
“Oh, my God. I did not call him that.”
Raven shrugged with a little laugh. “Close enough.”
“Not even in the same area code,” I corrected her, and again, she ignored me, continuing on with her thoughts of Mike and his bedroom capabilities. I spent the next fifteen minutes forcing a smile when it was called for and rolling my eyes more times than I could count when she wasn’t looking. I wasn’t sure how much more of this I could take.
“Wanna go out and grab a drink?”
“I have an early surgery tomorrow.” It was my go-to, my saving grace. Something I lived for. I originally thought I wanted to go into pediatrics. As much as I loved kids, I thought that it would be amazing to spend my days caring for them when they needed it most. That was until I was assigned a septic case where the child didn’t make it, and it crushed me. Broke me to the point that I spent three days curled up in bed crying for the sweet little boy who wasn’t even my own.
Not that losing an older patient was any easier because it was still a life, but knowing that little children, those that had not yet even gotten the chance to experience life, had theirs ripped from them so early, was devastating.
After three days, I got out of bed, with the help of my mother, who refused to let me hide away, and I put in for a transfer. Now, I was a surgical nurse, one that most surgeons requested, and I loved it. General surgery was my go-to. I had found my calling.
“At least tell me that you’ll come this weekend.” Before I knew what I was
