Indiscretion

Naomi: Hey. Do you think you’ll be back in the office between appointments today? Mr. Hargrove said he received some documents you asked him to get. He wants to drop them off when you’re in so he can speak with you in person. He said it won’t take more than a few minutes.

The nurse hooking me up to a bunch of monitors smiled as I stared down at my phone.

“Are we going to have to pry that thing out of your hands when we wheel you into the procedure room?”

“Sorry. Just trying to take care of a few last-minute work things.”

“What do you do?”

“I’m an attorney.”

She wrinkled her nose.

I raised an eyebrow, and she laughed.

“Sorry. I’ve learned to control my mouth over the years, but my face? Not so much. My ex-husband was an attorney.”

“No problem.” I smiled and looked back down at the text from Naomi. Lying to her didn’t sit right, even when I had a damn good reason. But it wasn’t like I had a choice today.

Dawson: Probably not. I’m running late already. Would you mind seeing if he can stop in tomorrow instead?

Naomi: Sure thing. Have a good day.

The nurse finished hooking me to a bunch of EKG leads and picked her iPad back up. “I just have a few questions to go over with you.”

“Okay.”

She reviewed the answers I’d already given when they’d checked me in this morning—the last time I ate or drank, what medications I was on—and then she asked if I had any questions or concerns about the procedure and the risks that the doctor had explained a little while ago.

“Nope, no questions.”

“Did admissions tell you about our anonymous-update program when you were checked in earlier?”

“No, what’s that?”

“If your recipient agrees, we can provide you with updates on their health status during the first year after the transplant. It’s something we do so our donors can see the difference they’ve made in someone’s life. Would you like to sign up to receive updates?”

“Don’t need to. I know the recipient.”

The nurse lifted her iPad closer. “Oh, I’m sorry. I thought I read this was an anonymous-donation case and not a directed one.”

“It is. To the recipient at least. She’s my girlfriend’s sister, but neither of them knows I matched with her.”

“Wow. That’s amazing. And very generous. But do you mind if I ask why you aren’t telling them?”

“I just want to help, not make a big deal about it.” That was the truth, but maybe I also wanted to right some of the wrong I’d done with Bailey. And I wasn’t sure how Naomi would feel about that.

“Well, they’re both lucky ladies.” The nurse smiled and hugged her iPad to her chest. “I guess the last thing is, I’ll need you to remove your bracelet. All jewelry has to come off before going into the operating room.”

I felt my brows pull together. I didn’t wear any jewelry except a watch, and I’d left that at home this morning. Though when I looked down, I saw the friendship bracelet I hadn’t taken off in fifteen years, except for the half-dozen times I’d had to ask Mom to restring it. “You mean this? It’s just string and a few beads.”

She nodded. “The material doesn’t matter, but germs do. It’s a precaution to prevent infection.”

Of all the days to take this thing off, today definitely didn’t feel like the right one. “It’s—it might not look like much, but someone important made this for me, and I never take it off. It’s been on my wrist for fifteen years. Is there any way I can keep it on?”

“Hmm… I once had a patient who couldn’t get his wedding band off. The only way it would’ve come off was cutting it, and the patient was distressed about doing that, so the doctor let him put a glove over his hand. Our gloves cover the wrist. Let me check with your doctor and see if that would be acceptable.”

I let out a deep breath. “Thanks, I appreciate it.”

The nurse disappeared and didn’t come back for twenty minutes. When she returned, she had a tall guy with her. “This is Eric from the transport team. He’s going to take you up to the operating room for your procedure.”

I held up my wrist. “What about this?”

“The doctor said it was fine to keep it on.” She walked over to a box on the counter and pulled out one latex glove. “We’re just going to slip this on to make you look like Michael Jackson and keep you safe.”

She helped me put on the glove and patted my hand. “I hope your lucky charm there brings you good luck and you have a speedy recovery.”

“Thank you.” I hope she does too.

***

Two days later, I winced as I settled into my chair. For the most part, the incisions didn’t bother me at all, except when I forgot they were there like I just had and slammed down too hard. Ben strolled into my office while my face was still showing the pain. He’d texted earlier to say he was stopping in after a meeting nearby.

“You alright?”

“Yeah. My, uh, back is just bothering me.”

“Did you do something to it?”

Yeah, I let a doctor stick a big-ass needle in it. I shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe at the gym.”

He nodded and plopped himself in the visitor’s chair on the other side of my desk. “I’ve been instructed to ask you if you heard from Naomi yet? Lily doesn’t want to bug her while she’s at the hospital. She’d rather bug me so I can bug you.”

I shook my head. “Haven’t heard from her yet. Frannie’s procedure was at eleven, and it takes a couple of hours.”

Ben checked his watch. “Got it. I’ll tell my wife to hold off sending the SWAT team to search for information until at least one or two.”

“Good idea.”

He leaned back and clasped his hands behind his head. “How’s everything going with Naomi?”

“Is this more recon you’re doing for Lily?”

He chuckled. “No. This is me asking. How’s it working out?”

“Do you mean here at the office or outside of here?”

“Both, I guess.”

I tossed my pen on the desk and sat back in my chair. “I couldn’t ask for a better paralegal. She knows the law and rules of procedure better than me, and she writes a better brief. I don’t know why I haven’t thought of hiring disbarred attorneys before. They’re a goldmine.”

“Pretty sure it’s because most of them get disbarred for a real reason—they’re dodgy or incompetent. Naomi is the exception to the rule. But that’s great that she’s working out well. What about the other front? You two looked happy at dinner when we got together, and I heard through the grapevine that you’re exclusive. You’re usually more the elusive than exclusive type when it comes to relationships. Are things getting serious?”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “I think I’m in love with her.”

“Whoa! I’ve known you since before you were even interested in girls, and I’ve never heard you use the L word.”

“No shit.”

Ben smiled. “Give me the signs. What makes you think you’re in love?”

I made a face. “You want me to braid your hair while we talk about our feelings?”

Ben’s goofy smile widened. “These are modern times, dude. It’s okay for men to talk about their feelings.”

I pointed to the door. “Get out of my office.”

But of course, he didn’t. “You’re not good at sharing. I get it. It’ll get easier. Why don’t I start?”

“Start your ass marching out of my office,” I grumbled.

Ben ignored me. “You know how I knew I was in love with Lily?”

Okay, so I might’ve overreacted a bit, and now I really did want to hear his answer. Though I knew my buddy, and if he thought he was torturing me, he would definitely continue. So instead of asking him to elaborate, I folded my arms across my chest as if I was annoyed.

That did it. He couldn’t resist.

“I’m glad you asked.” He grinned. “For one, I started making plans for our future without even questioning whether it was a good idea. Like, we started dating in April, and a few weeks later I was making plans for a ski trip in November. Never occurred to me that maybe I should wait because we might not be together like it would’ve when I dated other women.”

When I spoke to my mother last week, she mentioned that she redid her guest room, which had two beds. I was happy to know she’d replaced them with one queen, so Naomi wouldn’t fall through the middle when I pushed the two twins together when we visited. Though I pursed my lips shut rather than share that shit with Ben.

He pointed to my face and chuckled. “You’re doing the same. I can tell by how hard you’re trying to look annoyed right now.”

“Don’t you have to get back to work?” I sighed.

“I also started volunteering for shit I had no interest in doing, just to make her happy. Took a slam poetry class once because the friend who had signed up with her had to cancel. Dude, I hate poetry. Even Dr. Seuss rhymes annoy me.”

I’d gotten up to walk Leonardo yesterday. Cleaning up dog shit before six AM.

The receptionist buzzed my desk phone, interrupting our girl talk. “Dawson, I have Mrs. Altmann on the phone. She said it’s important.”

“Alright, I’ll take it.” I looked over at Ben. “Get out of my office.”

He stood and gloated like he’d won something. When he got to the door, he stopped. “Let me know if you hear anything about Frannie so I can pass it along to my beautiful bride.”

I picked up my desk phone but fell short of pushing the button to pick up the call. “I will.”

“You going up to the hospital today?”

I shook my head. “No, I’m picking up Molly and Ryder from school. They have swimming lessons.”

He smirked and lifted a brow. “Volunteer for that?”

In fact, I had. “Go away.”

Ben laughed all the way down the hall. And he didn’t even know I’d also volunteered as a bone-marrow donor.