“And no one ever noticed you?”
“Sometimes a doctor or nurse would say something if they found me up here alone. But they come up here to hide and smoke cigarettes. So if they said anything, I’d ask them if their chief and patients knew they smoked. That usually made them leave me alone. A few times they called security and had them chase me out.”
I laughed. “Oh my God. That’s insane.”
Donovan shrugged. “That’s life.”
“Believe it or not, I actually got escorted out of a hospital once.”
He raised one brow. “This I gotta hear.”
I felt sort of proud of my badassery. “Well, I guess I was about sixteen at the time. I lost my mom at twelve to cancer, and I’d grown close to my dad. One night I was staying over at my friend’s house when I got a call that my dad had had a heart attack. I went to the hospital and asked in the emergency room where I could find him. They said they were still working on him, but to have a seat and they’d let me know when I could see him. A woman in the waiting room named Candy walked over and introduced herself as my dad’s fiancée. My dad had just gotten divorced a few months earlier, and I’d had no idea he was even dating anyone. So I was confused. But honestly, my father lost his mind after my mom died, so I didn’t put it past him to get engaged again. A little while later, the doctor came out and spoke to us. He said my dad was stable but needed some surgery and asked if he’d been exerting himself when he started to get chest pain. Candy then proceeded to describe, in detail, how my father was a bad boy and had just finished doing fifty pushups after being denied orgasm during sex as part of his punishment.”
“Shit.” Donovan chuckled. “Did you smack her or something?”
“No. I was kind of shell shocked after hearing that. I smacked her after the doctor walked away because she said she didn’t like her engagement ring—it was too small. I looked down and saw she had my grandmother’s ring on her finger. She acted like I’d stabbed her, making this dramatic scene, so security escorted me out.”
“I didn’t think you had it in you, Red.” He smiled. “There’s a badass hiding in there after all.”
I bumped my shoulder to his. “Well, I am up here illegally on a roof, you know.”
“That’s true.”
A little breeze blew, and Donovan stood to take off his suit jacket. He offered to wrap it around my shoulders.
“No, that’s okay. I’m fine.”
“I’m warm. Plus, if you don’t take it, I’m going to make us go inside, and I like it out here with you.”
Our eyes met. I really liked it out here with him, too. Even though we were outside in the middle of Brooklyn, it felt like our own secret place. So I accepted the jacket. “Thank you.”
He sat back down. “So is that why you and your dad don’t get along that well? You don’t like your stepmother?”
“Oh, Candy isn’t my stepmother anymore. She was three or four wives ago. I’ve honestly lost track.”
“Three or four wives ago? Plus he was married to your mom, and you said he had just gotten divorced before he got together with Candy the dom. So that’s, what, six or seven marriages?”
“Yep. I actually think it’s seven, but he’s getting married again in a few weeks, so that would make eight.”
“Why does he keep doing it?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. We don’t talk much anymore.”
“Because of the string of Candys he married?”
“No. There was a time in my life that I really needed him to be there for me, and he wasn’t.”
Donovan looked into my eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“Thanks. I have mixed feelings about distancing myself from him. I know from the little bit I just told you it probably doesn’t sound that way, but there was a time he was a great dad and husband. He and my mother were high school sweethearts and really loved each other. When she got sick, it broke both their spirits. I remember in my mom’s last days, she was more worried about how my dad would carry on after she was gone than how I would. She made me promise I’d always watch over him for her. So part of me feels guilty that I don’t anymore.”
“I’m sure you have your reasons.” He paused and made sure I was looking at him again. “And I can sit here all night if you want to talk about them.”
That made my heart squeeze, yet I wasn’t ready to go there. “Thanks. But we should probably go see if Bud’s back.”
Donovan nodded, a bit of disappointment lurking behind his eyes. “Sure. Let’s do that.”