“Hey,” he says, and hearing his voice quells all the nerves I have inside me. “I only have like a minute before I have to go back inside, but I wanted to call and just say hi.”
“I’m glad you did. I’m just about to get on the plane.”
“We just have to make it through tomorrow,” he says. “And then we can say we’ll see each other tonight.”
“I cannot wait.”
“What do you want for dinner? I’ll pick something up on the way home from the hospital.”
“Chicago pizza,” I say without having to even think about it.
“Sounds good. I’ll get—fuck, I’m being paged. I’ll call you tonight. Love you,” he rushes out before ending the call. I’m all fluttering inside, and hearing a call for Dr. Harris is so fucking hot. I’ll text him Friday and remind him to bring home some scrubs so we can role play sexy doctors on TV.
Friday is going to take forever to get here.“Hey, big guy,” I whisper, sliding Spartan’s stall door open. It’s late, and most of the horses are settling down for the night. Only Olivia is here, one of the trainers, and she was getting the barn ready to be closed up for the night when I pulled in the parking lot. “Did you miss me? I missed you.”
My big gray horse comes over, nosing my jacket pockets for treats.
“Really?” I laugh and reach inside, pulling out a peppermint. His nostrils flare and he impatiently waits for me to undo the plastic wrapper. I give him the treat and then move to his side, wrapping my arms around his neck. I landed in LA not long ago, and sat outside on my patio talking to Sam. He sounded tired and said he had a very long second half of his day at work. There was a bad car accident and several victims were brought to his center, needing to be rushed into surgery.
I fell asleep on the plane, and now I’m not tired. Instead of doing what I should do and focus all my energy into my book or take some melatonin, going to sleep and then getting up early, I drove out to the barn to visit my horse. Makes sense, I know. It’s late and the horses have a decent routine here, so I only stay for about fifteen minutes, running a brush over Spartan’s soft fur. His tail has been braided, and Olivia told me the barn girls even added flowers. Spartan had to have just eaten up all their attention…and the tons of treats I’m sure they gave him.
I leave the barn feeling refreshed, as I always do, and end up staying up late again writing. At some point, I should get myself on a sleep schedule, but this works for me now and I don’t have to get up early tomorrow.
I sent everything new that I’ve written to my editor and climb into bed. It feels good to be home, but I’m very much looking forward to leaving again. Exhausted from staying up so late, I fall asleep rather quickly, and sleep in until nearly eleven again, only waking up because Lupe sent me a text message. I probably could have slept for another hour or so, but I need to get my ass up, shower, and pack so I can make it to the airport in time.
I smile when I see her text, which is just a bunch of fire emojis. Yeah, I might have really spiced up my sex scenes thanks to all the inspiration Sam has given me. With the smile still on my face, I get up and make myself coffee, mentally calculating my day down to the last minute. I’m going to have to rush to get to the airport, and I haven’t done any laundry like I said I would. There’s no time to start now.
I repack my suitcase while I drink my coffee, putting in much more clothing than I need. We’re staying in tonight and going out tomorrow. Sam is on-call Sunday, so our plans are up in the air, but lounging around with him does sound wonderful. We were so close for so long, and then we went all those years without even talking. We definitely caught up in more ways than one, but we still have a lot of getting to know each other to do. What are Sam’s annoying habits? What little things will I do that drive him crazy? We both want our relationship to work, and spending time together is the best way to put things to the test.
Which we will pass, I know.
My plane lands at seven-thirty, and Sam wasn’t sure if he’d be able to make it here to pick me up. I know he feels bad about it, but it was either land at seven-thirty or not until close to midnight. I assured him it didn’t bother me one bit to get my own luggage and take an Uber to his apartment. By that time, he’ll probably be home from the hospital and it’ll work out perfectly.