Easy (Chicago Blaze 6)

She takes a step closer to me. “I’m the fun one, you know. I’m not uptight at all. And I don’t kiss and tell.”

“Is that right?”

“Yes.” She licks her lips, probably thinking she looks seductive. “Hope you come by so you can find out.”

She jogs off then, leaving me shaking my head in amazement. I walk down the sidewalk back to Aunt Jo’s house and as soon as I walk inside, I hear her squawking at the nurse.

“I’m not taking a shower during The View!” she cries. “Have you lost your mind? I told you when you started, I watch The View every day and on time.”

“I was hoping maybe we could record it?” the nurse suggests.

I try not to laugh, because I know the silence means Aunt Jo is winding up to respond.

“I don’t miss Whoopi,” she says. “Now I can tell you’re fresh off nursing school graduation, so let me give you some advice—listen to your patients. At least act like their wants and needs matter.”

“Of course it matters, but I’m here to make sure you get a shower, get your medications and get to your doctor’s appointments on time. We don’t have time for all that and The View, but if we record—”

“You’re fired!” Aunt Jo cries. “But pass me the remote before you leave.”

I walk into the room and the nurse gives me a helpless look.

“This young gal thinks I’m gonna just skip The View,” Aunt Jo says to me. “She’s fired.”

“You’re not fired,” I tell the nurse.

“Excuse you?” Aunt Jo gives me a look and calls out, “Naomi, get in here and get your son in line, please!”

“Mom went to her church meeting, remember? Why don’t you let this nurse help you shower real quick and then you can catch The View?” I glance down at my watch. “It starts in fourteen minutes; you can make it if you hurry.”

“I don’t move as quick as you.” She glares at me. “I can’t shower in fourteen minutes.”

“You can if you quit talking and start moving.”

“Is this how kids are these days? Impertinent and disrespectful like the two of you?”

“I’m thirty, Aunt Jo,” I remind her.

I gesture for the nurse to come over and together, we help Aunt Jo into her wheelchair, though she complains every step of the way. The nurse figures out she needs to tune out about eighty percent of what Aunt Jo says, and helps her shower and dress in record time. Just in time for the show’s opening credits.

Whatever that nurse gets paid, it’s not nearly enough.

After Aunt Jo gets settled, I take a quick shower and put some clean clothes on, make my post-workout protein shake and drink it, and talk to my mom for a little bit when she gets back from church.

“I have to go,” I tell her, looking at the time.

“Where are you off to?”

“Lunch with Allie.”

“Oh.” Her face lights up. “Good.”

She practically pushes me out the door and I squeeze into the driver’s seat of the rental car I’m starting to get used to. It seems like it’s been longer than it has since I showered in my own very large and very spacious bathroom, slept in my king-sized bed, and drove my Audi Q7. Despite all that, this visit hasn’t been bad. Pretty great actually.

When I walk into Fox Foods, I pass Allie having a conversation with an employee. Her lips tug up in a smile when our eyes meet, and I wink at her.

I get stopped at the snack bar by a table of older men who want to talk hockey.

“What’s with that new Las Vegas team?” one of them asks, scowling. “Vegas has enough, that team should’ve come to the Midwest.”

“That would’ve been good,” I say.

“I haven’t missed a Blaze game since ’98,” another man says. “I was in the hospital with kidney stones.”

“Hospital rooms have TVs,” another guy points out.

The first guy scoffs and I smile, wondering if one day, I’ll end up just like them.

Allie walks up and loops her arm in mine, saying, “Guys, can I steal him away?”

“You want to take me instead?” one of the men asks, giving her a grin.

“Next time, Frank,” she says, tugging my arm.

“Nice to meet you guys,” I say, waving.

Allie slides into an open booth and I lean down to kiss her before sitting down on the other side.

“Thank you for the flowers,” she says. “They’re beautiful.”

“You’re welcome. How’s your day going?”

She shrugs. “The usual. Vi’s not giving up on the living with Jenna thing, and Jenna’s staying in town longer.”

I exhale hard and decide to just dive in and tell her what happened earlier. “Hey, I’m not sure what the best way to tell you this is, but…I think Jenna was hitting on me earlier.”

She narrows her eyes. “She was?”

“She came up to me while I was cooling down around my aunt’s house after my run and said some stuff.”