The Exception by Lauren H. Mae

Thirty-four

“Enjoy your cruise, Mom.”

“You know me and my girls are going to have a real good time.”

Sonya smiled into the phone. Her mom was going on a fourteen-day Caribbean cruise, and if anyone knew how to have fun no matter the situation, it was her mom and her girlfriends. They were going to turn that ship into a party for the whole trip.

Sonya chuckled and spun her office chair to look out the window. “Oh, I know. Just don’t get your groove back and come home with a guy my age in your luggage.”

“Please. If I was bringing back a man, he’d be for you.”

Good thing her mom couldn’t see her because Sonya’s eye roll would’ve set her off on a lecture. “Do I hear them calling your flight?”

“I know you’re rushing me off the phone, but I’ll let it go… this time. I love you, baby, and I’ll see you next month for family dinner.”

“I’ll be there. Love you too, Mom.”

Sonya slipped the phone back into her pocket and walked out of her office as two words rolled around in her head.

Family. Dinner.

It was over a month away but Sonya was already trying to anticipate her family’s reaction to her showing up with Trav after she’d announced the end of her engagement to Marcus just a few months prior. That is… if Trav even wanted to go meet her family. Was it too soon to even consider that? Marcus hadn’t been invited to family dinner until they’d been dating six months. Maybe she should wait…

Stop it, Sonya.

Her thoughts were on a ferris wheel, but whether or not to invite Trav to the next family dinner wasn’t at the root of it. The fact that she wanted to invite him after being with him for such a short amount of time was the real culprit, but that was a rabbit hole she’d have to wait until she was off work to explore further. Right now, she needed to focus on work and not the man she was becoming more enamored with with each passing day.

As if she’d conjured him up, Trav appeared at the other end of the hallway—with Nurse Sullivan at his side.

Ugh. Really?

Sonya busied herself with the intake paperwork on her clipboard and pretended not to notice when Trav stopped just a few feet away and Heather lingered with him.

“Oh my God! I can’t believe you did that.”

Heather was too loud to ignore, and Sonya’s fingers tightened around her pencil when she noticed Heather holding on to Trav’s arm and cackling like he should have his own Netflix special. He wasn’t that funny.

Okay, maybe he was. And smart and sweet and he had the biggest heart. Not to mention the fact that he was handsome as hell and had abs you could bounce a quarter off of. Sonya could see why Heather kept trying, but Trav was also hers and something primal inside of her made her want to go over there and wrap herself around him just to see the look on Heather’s face.

God, being with Trav was forcing her to explore things about herself that she’d never really considered before—like this new possessiveness—and the jury was still out on if that was good or bad.

Trav shrugged. “It was a crazy night.”

“So… your internship is almost over, right?”

“I’m down to my last few weeks. I’m sure Nurse Pope will be happy to be rid of me.”

For some reason, Trav thought it would be a good idea to draw her into the conversation. He was wrong. If Sonya opened her mouth, she wasn’t sure of what might come out, so she ignored him and pretended to focus on her paperwork.

Heather’s voice dropped into a whisper. “Not all of us will be happy to see you go. I know I won’t be.”

That comment had Sonya’s new possessiveness clawing back with a vengeance. Especially when from the corner of her eye she saw that Heather had moved in closer to Trav, and was wielding her cloying smile and seductive eyes as weapons.

Trav took a step back, but being the nice guy he was, he only said, “Uh… that’s nice of you to say. It’s been a fun rotation.”

Heather stepped closer and leaned lightly into him, tilting her face toward his. “How about you let me buy you a drink once you’re done to celebrate?”

Sonya narrowed her eyes at her file and the pencil in her hand snapped in half. They both looked at her in surprise.

Her authority as nurse manager allowed Sonya to nip that entire conversation in the bud, and normally she would’ve. Now, it felt like doing so would show all of her cards and blow the secret they needed to keep for a few more weeks. Instead she knelt to pick up the pieces of her writing utensil, pretending she wasn’t eavesdropping.

Trav’s cheeks were bright pink and he sighed before raking a hand through his hair. “Look, Heather. You’ve been really nice to me during this rotation, but I’m seeing someone so getting drinks with you isn’t going to work.”

Heather folded her arms over her chest and stepped back. “Oh. I thought… you mentioned being single before.”

Trav’s voice was full of conviction. “It’s new but it’s serious. At least, I hope it is.”

Sonya’s heart jolted and her pulse pounded in her ears. She had to bite her lip to stop her excitement over what Trav had just said from showing on her face. She lifted her eyes to meet his and his gaze was a soft caress that stole her breath. Before she could offer her silent answer, loud and familiar voices forced her attention away.

“I’m checking myself out of here right now!”

It was Frank, dressed in street clothes with his duffle slung over his shoulder, headed toward the elevators.

Dr. Lewis stepped up and tried to block Frank’s path. “Mr. Devers, we advise against checking yourself out. Your treatment plan just started.”

“Sitting around talking about my feelings ain’t doing shit to help me. I’m the only one that can fix me. I signed the papers when you brought me here, and now I’m signing myself out.”

Sonya was afraid of this. Things hadn’t been progressing well since he’d been back. His blood work had suffered exponentially after only one week on his own, proof that he’d spent most of that time at the bottom of a bottle, and she knew his wife had stopped bringing their daughters when she visited. Yesterday at group, he’d been unusually argumentative, and in the back of her head, she’d wondered if he was gearing up for another split.

Sonya positioned herself between Frank and the elevator. “Frank? What are you doing?”

Frank refused to meet her eye. “I ain’t stayin’ here, Nurse Pope. You’ve done all you can for me and I appreciate it, but I’m done with all of this.”

Panic took Sonya’s voice an octave higher. “You can’t quit now. We’re finally making progress and we can get you all the way there if you just give us a little more time.”

“Sorry. I don’t have any more time to give. I’m gonna keep making progress my own way.”

Frank tried to step around her but Sonya reached out and placed a hand on his arm. “Please… please take care of yourself, Frank.”

Frank gave her a stiff nod before walking away, but there was some horrible finality in the ping of the elevator doors closing. Sonya’s optimism was trying to hang on, but her heart was telling her that she’d never see him again.

“We can’t save them all, Nurse Pope.”

Sonya glared at Dr. Lewis and bit back the tirade that was on the tip of her tongue. “His wife is his emergency contact. You need to let her know he checked himself out.”

Dr. Lewis’s eyebrows pinched. “Do you think he’s a danger to her?”

More proof Frank’s doctor had no real knowledge of him beyond what was on his chart.

Sonya responded through clenched teeth. “No. The only person he’s a danger to is himself.”

Dr. Lewis skulked away and Sonya pinched the bridge of her nose as a headache crept up along the edges of her consciousness. The end of the shift couldn’t come fast enough.

“Nurse Pope?”

She opened her eyes and Trav was standing in front of her. He was doing his best to look professional but his eyes spoke the words he couldn’t say.

I know you’re upset.

I wish I could make it better.

What do you need from me?

Sonya offered him a forced smile. “It’s been a day. We should probably start getting things prepped for tomorrow.”

He ducked his head so only she could hear him. “We’ll talk tonight, okay?”

God, she wanted to pull him into her office and just bury herself in his arms until the end of the day. Instead, she nodded. “Okay.”

* * *

Trav was new at this whole date night thing, but he was pretty sure that candles, soft music, and a home-cooked meal were supposed to have more of an effect on a woman.

He set his empty plate on the coffee table and pressed a kiss to Sonya’s shoulder. “Have you outgrown your taste for my cooking?”

“Hmm?”

Trav lifted her plate from her lap, drawing attention to the full baked potato and half of a chicken breast getting colder by the minute.

“Oh. No, of course not. It was delicious. I’m just—”

“Upset about Frank.”

She sighed, shoulders slumping. “Yes. And we’re not supposed to discuss it outside of work.”

“That would be true if he were still a patient. Which he’s not.” He ran a knuckle over her cheek. “Don’t make up rules to avoid telling me how you’re feeling.”

“I’m not. I know you understand. But I don’t know how I’m feeling and that’s the problem. Part of me is very aware that this happens all the time in our line of work. But another part of me keeps whispering, ‘do more.’”

Trav moved closer, pulling her into his side. “That little voice will torture you if you let it. Once he leaves our wing, there’s nothing any of us can do. Not even a superwoman like yourself.”

She sniffed and ran a hand beneath her nose. “Look at you, being the voice of reason.”

“I have my moments.”

“I know.” She turned to press a kiss to his mouth. “I didn’t mean anything by it. I just hate this feeling of helplessness. I’m not used to sitting back and letting things happen.”

He understood that better than she knew. Watching her face crumble at work today, not being able to do anything about it—it took all of his strength.

Now, he took her face between his hands, hoping he could make up for it. “That’s hardly what you’re doing, Sonya. Your hands are tied. Frank knows that, or he wouldn’t have said what he said.”

“That was the worst part, you know? He looked so sorry for disappointing me on top of everything else he was going through. I thought about pushing that back on him. Using that guilt to get him to do what I wanted him to do.” She shook her head. “He needs to want to do it. Guilt won’t work and neither will asking him to have blind faith in us.”

“You’re absolutely right. As usual.”

Sonya chewed her lip, nodding to herself. “I guess all we can do is hope he finds whatever it is that will make him see things differently.”

“I really hope he does.”

“Me too.” She shifted to her knees beside him, throwing a leg over him until she was seated in his lap. “Wanna take my mind off of this for a while?”

His fingers slipped beneath her tank top. “For as long as you want.”