me and steps back.
I’m gratified to see the sizable bulge in his pants.
“Stop looking at it.”
“Don’t want to stop.”
“Gotta stop. You know the number for Miami-Dade, by any chance? I need to check on Mateo.”
“I do.” I rattle off the number for him.
He asks for surgical ICU and is connected to the nurse’s desk. “This is Dr. Northrup checking on Mateo Diaz.”
I try not to listen too closely as he talks to the nurses, but hearing and seeing him in doctor mode only adds to my interest in him. As he asks complex questions and listens to answers, he’s competent and concerned for his patient. After five minutes on the phone, he thanks the nurse and ends the call.
“How is he?”
“Doing great. He had a good night. I’ll swing by later to see him in person.”
I grab my purse and head for the door, aware of him following me. I can’t be anywhere near him and not be aware of him, even when we’re doing nothing more exciting than walking to the stairs. When we’re on the way down, I hand him my phone to hold while I dig through my purse, looking for his keys.
“You got a text from Mama D.”
“Oh. Okay.” I find the keys, take the phone from him and read the text. Can’t wait to catch up. I have to tell her about Jason. Abuela invited him to Sunday brunch, and Tony’s parents always come. I have to tell them about him before Sunday. I can’t believe what’s happened since this past Sunday.
“Everything okay?” Jason asks when we’re in the parking lot.
“Uh-huh.” I feel queasy at the thought of managing Tony’s family in the context of my new relationship. And is this a relationship or a fling? I’m not entirely sure, which has me wondering if I should even be mentioning it to them. Ugh.
He holds the driver’s door of my car and waits for me to get settled before closing it. After he gets into the passenger seat, he turns to me. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
“Mama D is Tony’s mother.”
“Oh.” He takes a minute to process that. “Are you feeling, you know, guilty . . .”
“No!” I sigh. “Maybe a little. I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel.”
He reaches for my hand and cradles it between both of his. “I assume you’re still close to them?”
“Very.”
“And is it safe to assume that they love you and want the best for you?”
“Yes,” I say softly. “They’ve been incredibly supportive of me.”
“So would it also be safe to assume that they’d be glad to see you happy, even if it’s still a raw wound for all of you and probably always will be?”
I appreciate that he gets that Tony’s death is still a raw wound for us, that it probably always will be. I nod in response to his question. “It’s hard.”
“I know, sweetheart. Well, I don’t know. Not really. I can’t possibly know what it was like for all of you to lose him the way you did. I only know that I really like you. I may even more than like you, and I want to be with you. But I also want to be respectful of how difficult it is for you to take this step with me and for those who love you to see you with someone new.”
My heart trips over the words “more than like you.” My gaze connects with his. “It means a lot to me that you get it.”
“I’m trying to get it. Tell me if I screw up?”
“I’d be happy to.”
We share a warm smile that leads to another kiss.
“Are you going to tell her about me?”
“I want to.”
“But?”
“I guess I’m not sure if it’s too soon to be saying anything to anyone. We don’t even know where you’ll be next week, and I just don’t want to get too far ahead of myself.”
“I suppose that’s fair enough, but you should know . . . Regardless of what happens with Miami-Dade, I want to be wherever you are.”
I’m dumbfounded by his candor. “Oh. Um, you do?”
“Yeah, I do.” He presses his lips to mine once again, this time sliding his hand around my neck to kiss me for real. By the time he pulls back, I’m dizzy and drunk on whatever it is that comes over me when he kisses me that way. “I wish we had nowhere to be today so we could go back upstairs to your bed and I could show you some of