Keegan’s eyes were wide. “I heard about that one. Didn’t know you were the delivering nurse. When was this?”
“My shift right after the wedding.”
“How’s the baby?”
I paused. “Actually, I don’t know. I had planned on stopping in to check on him yesterday, but was beat after I clocked out. I think I’ll head into the NICU tomorrow before I go in. He was such a little guy. Hoping he’s a fighter.”
She rubbed my arm. “No doubt. And it’s probably a good thing I wasn’t on that day. Lord knows I would have throttled that woman.”
“Oh, it took everything in me to not grab her by her face and say, ‘wake the hell up, your baby needs you.’ Of course I didn’t and went and blew off some steam in the stair well. Speaking of, someone really needs to put a dart board in there. Sure would help when I’m catching a breather.”
She giggled. “Definitely.”
“Hey, baby, I need you to come over here and sign some papers,” Camden called for her.
Awe, puppy time for the happy couple. I took a step back and let her go be with her husband. Heading to the cat room, I sat down as the little purring furballs surrounded me. Sighing I thought to myself. Ah yes, destined to forever be a cat lady. I didn’t know if that made me happy, or sad. Either way, it’s how it was going to be.
Sitting in my office on the fourth floor of the hospital, I was staring out my wall of windows instead of doing the paperwork that I was desperately behind on. This was ludicrous. It had been almost two weeks since I’d taken Annabelle out on our first date, and I had yet to plan our next one. Things in the operating room had been hectic, and I barely had any time to myself, let alone trying to schedule something. I felt terrible. Even worse, I had a fucking hell of a time concentrating on anything that didn’t have to do with her.
The one time I’d managed to pick up the phone, her line had just started ringing when I had been called out to an emergency surgery. I’ve been frustrated. So frustrated, that one day not too long ago, I found myself down on her floor, outside the nursery window, peeping in on her like some creeper. I’d watched as she tenderly gave a newborn its first bath. There were other nurses in the room, and a couple had taken notice of me, but thankfully none of them tipped her off that I was around. I watched her for a couple minutes and decided it was best to leave. I’d considered poking my head in to see how she was doing since we hadn’t spoken, but it didn’t seem like the time or the place to do it. Women got all weird being around babies, and I swear it was like you could hear their ovaries exploding when they saw, heard, or smelled a newborn. I didn’t want any part of that. Instead, I went back to my office, called her cell phone, and left her a message apologizing for being MIA for so long. I’d consider myself lucky if she actually called me back.
I was relentlessly clicking my pen when my cell on my desk buzzed. I sighed. Whoever was calling was going to get the not so pleasant side to me. I was not in the mood to shoot the shit or talk. Picking it up, I looked at the screen and stopped in my tracks. It was her. Jesus, she was the last person I was expecting to hear from.
“Hello, Annabelle.”
“Hi,” she responded.
“You must’ve got my message?”
“I did,” she stated matter of fact.
I twisted back and forth. “Good. I apologize for not getting back to you sooner. I tried calling a while ago, but timing didn’t work out to well.”
“Apology accepted. Everything okay up there?”
“Yeah, just busier than normal. Kids are busting their asses at football practice and coming in left and right with injuries. Regardless, I have a day off on Friday. You working?”
“I’m pretty sure I’m off, let me check.”
She was rustling through some papers, when she finally came back on the line and said, “I’m free.”
I smiled. “Okay, I was thinking we could do something a little more active this time. You down?”
“Turner,” she said with a tone that dared me to not push her limits again. Too bad, Princess, it’s happening.
“No race cars or tracks this time, I promise. Just light walking, and fresh air.”
She stayed quiet for longer than I’d hoped. I was about to ask her if she was still there when she responded, “No race cars?”
Annabelle’s sweet voice caused things to stir under my scrubs. “Cross my heart.”
“Alright. When will you be by to get me?”
I thought about it. “I’ll be by around eight in the morning. And again, dress casual.”
“Sounds good.”
“See you soon, Annabelle.” My voice was deeper than before.
Her breathing was a little heavier. “Bye, Turner.”
“Bye.”
I hit “End” on my phone and set it on my desk. It was most definitely wrong that I led her to believe that this was going to be a docile outing. But I didn’t care. On this date, she was going to have plenty of time to talk to me and tell me more about herself. I also didn’t mention that she wasn’t going to be able to get too far away from me either if conversation got to be too much for her. Come to think of it, she may hate me by the end of Friday, but at least I will have spent the time with her that I was in need of. Now, it was time to make a couple of calls and get this shit set up.
TURNER HAD PICKED ME UP almost an hour ago and we’d been driving west for quite some time. I had no clue where he was taking me, but we were definitely headed into the mountains. I did my very best to hide my discomfort with the twists and turns and being this high up. Turner didn’t know that my parents had died on a windy mountain road, and I didn’t plan on telling him either. He made a turn into a national forest preserve and drove back a couple of miles. When he parked, I looked around. All my eyes could see were pine trees, and a creek that ran next to a paved trail. There were no signs indicating what he had planned for us. I started to wonder if it really was going to be a low key date and maybe he knew of a spot that we would walk too and sit and talk. Oh God, talking. Just as scary as riding in a race car.
“You ready?”
“Mhmm.” I stated, “I have never been here before.”
He smiled a dazzling grin at me. “I haven’t either. Let’s go.”
He hadn’t been here before? Then how in the world did he know where he was taking me? I’d assumed he was taking me on a hike or walk. Maybe a friend or one of his brothers told him about this place and he was going to see if we could find it together. I didn’t wait for him to help me out of his Jeep. Yes, this time he picked me up in a two-door, Jeep Wrangler. It was lifted and had massive tires on it. He helped me up into it when he picked me up. Getting out of it, there was nothing graceful about it. You simply fell out. When he got to my side, he chuckled.
“You alright there?”
I stood straight. “I’m good.”
He took my hand with no hesitation and led me to the trail. Turner had a back pack with him and I wondered what was in it.
“You have some sort of weapons in there you plan on massacring my body with and burying me out in these woods?”
He burst out with a full bellied laugh. “No, but that was creative, I’ll give you that one.”
I slowed to give a small bow.
“I have some snacks and a couple water bottles in case we get hungry,” he answered seriously.
“Gotcha.”
“So any clue where we are going?”
“Not a single one.”
“Perfect.”
He wanted me in the dark. This trail we were walking on was beautiful. Wild flowers lined the edges of the path and the water running through the creek bed was so serene it made me want to sit and stick my feet in it. We walked around a corner and a wooden sign was off to the left with a couple arrows pointing in different directions. Up ahead, the pavement split in different ways. As we approached the split, we took the path that made my stomach drop. It was titled, “The Gulch Zip Line.”