She nodded and took a sip of her coffee.

“What do you think of her? She kept looking at me funny.”

“She just thinks you’re hot.” She giggled. “I don’t really know her yet, but from what I’ve seen so far, I like her. A lot, actually. She’s sweet and really funny. Sometimes inappropriate, but mostly funny.”

“Inappropriate, huh?” I shook my head. “Sounds like the perfect woman for Viper.”

“Do you think Viper will ever get married?”

“No way.”

“Who’s Viper?” Lucy asked.

“Uh… Viper is one of my friends.” I chose my words carefully. No way could I ever accurately describe Viper to a six-year-old without scaring the hell out of her.

“Does he play hockey too?” Piper chimed in.

“Yep. He’s on my team.”

“Why did his mommy name him Viper?” Lucy scrunched up her nose in disapproval when she said his name.

“That’s not his real name, baby, it’s just a nickname.” I laughed quickly. “His real name is Lawrence Finkle.”

Lucy and Piper shoveled their soup in their mouths, seemingly unaffected by what I’d just said. Kacie, on the other hand, stared at me with her mouth open.

“Viper’s real name is Lawrence Finkle?”

“You didn’t know that?” I cocked my head slightly to the side.

“No!” She gawked at me in disbelief. “That’s like… the nerdiest name ever!”

“Finkle Tinkle,” Lucy said to Piper before exploding in laughter.

Piper crossed her eyes and responded, “Finkle Tinkle Winkle.”

Lucy threw her head back and laughed so hard the vein in her neck popped out. A second later, Piper joined her, giggling hysterically.

I looked at Kacie and tilted my head toward the girls. “Easy crowd, huh?”

She didn’t even hear me. She was too busy staring down at the two laughing hyenas with that mommy glow all over her face. If anyone ever asked me to, it would be really hard to describe exactly what love looks like, but I got to witness it firsthand every time Kacie looked at her girls. The way she loved them made me love her more, if that was even possible.

A moment later, she came out of her Twinkie coma and looked at me, her eyes red-rimmed. “Seriously, thank you for this. You guys just made my afternoon a thousand times better.”

I grabbed her hand and pulled the top of it against my lips, not kissing it, but holding it there. We were at her work and with the girls, so I was trying to be respectful, but I needed to have physical contact with her.

We sat hand in hand, listening to the girls chatter about how excited they were to start school and what they were going to be for Halloween.

“Wait, you already know what you want to be for Halloween?” I asked incredulously.

Kacie squeezed my hand gently and winked at me. “It’ll change at least a hundred times between now and then.”

“What are we gonna be for Halloween?”

She frowned at me curiously but didn’t respond.

“Oh, c’mon! We have to dress up! I do it every year anyway; now I have a real reason,” I exclaimed, waving toward Lucy and Piper. “Granted, I might have to tame my costume ideas a bit, but I’m cool with that.”

The girls rattled off all of the princess names before moving on to farm animals.

“So what do you think we should dress up as?” I repeated.

Her eyes slid from the girls back to me. “I don’t know. What do you think—” She stopped talking mid-sentence and the color drained from her face as she stared at something over my shoulder.

“Kacie?” Following her gaze, I spun around in my chair, but there was nothing there. By the time I turned back around, her face had gone to the opposite extreme. Her cheeks were red and flushed as her eyes darted all over the room nervously.

“What’s going on? Are you okay?”

She looked at me, but her eyes didn’t meet mine. Her mind was somewhere else. “Yeah,” she stammered as she rubbed her face. “I’m okay. I think I’d better head back. Maureen just walked by and I don’t want her hating me any more than she already does.”

I didn’t say anything, hoping she’d elaborate. Instead, she gave me a fake smile and turned her attention to the girls, obviously not wanting me to ask any more questions.

“Let’s clean up so mommy can get back, okay?” Kacie stacked their soup cups and silverware on the tray and stood to throw it in the garbage. She was about five feet from the table when the tray slipped out of her hand and everything crashed to the floor.

“Stay here one minute,” I said to the girls as I got up from the table and rushed to help her. I reached for the soup cup in her hand and noticed she was trembling. “Kacie, your hands are shaking. What the hell is going on?”

Sighing heavily, she sat back on her heels with her shoulders slumped, looking at the ground. “It’s Maureen. I think she hates me.”

“Why would she hate you?”

“I don’t know. She’s just… so intimidating.” Her face lifted as her eyes finally connected with mine. “It’s hard to describe. This one person has your whole future sitting in their hands and they can either make you the happiest ever or completely squash you. And they have no clue how powerful they really are. Know what I mean?”

I reached over and tucked a wavy piece of hair behind her ear, “I know exactly how that feels.”

A small smile crept across her face. A real smile.

I needed that smile.

My stomach was still in knots as I kissed the girls and Brody good-bye.

“Hey, you sure you’re okay?” He squeezed my hand, concern evident on his face.

“Yeah.” I sighed. “Just wishing I were leaving with you guys. I’m jealous.”

“Go. Quit. Dozens of little Brodys, remember?” He wiggled his eyebrows up and down.

“Tempting, but I can’t. Independence, remember?” I lifted onto my tippy-toes for one last kiss. “I gotta go.”

The girls waved on their way out the door. I leaned against the wall and watched them for a minute as they passed through the extra-wide automatic hospital doors. The sun was shining bright outside and their dark silhouettes made their way hand in hand, out to the parking lot. They walked in slow motion, as if I was watching a movie. In that moment, I wanted to run out the door after them and jump in Brody’s truck, never having to go back to that damn hospital again.

While we were sitting at the table, innocently talking about Halloween costumes, Zach strolled down the hallway behind Brody. I don’t think he saw us, but it sent my nerves in a complete tailspin.

I felt like a sitting duck in that damn ER. At any moment, he could come in with a patient and I would be face-to-face with him again. And eventually, I would be forced to talk to him. Lauren had grilled me on why I hadn’t told Brody that I saw him, and though I knew I should have, now wasn’t the right time. Brody and I only had a couple days left of being together before his training started, and I wanted to enjoy them. Zach working at the same hospital as me would make him feel protective and edgy, and I didn’t want us going into our first season apart full of tension.