The Exception by Lauren H. Mae

Forty-one

It was a good thing that the rolled up piece of paper Trav had been handed on the stage wasn’t his real diploma. He was holding it so tight that it was most likely permanently crumpled in the middle.

Something deep inside him sighed in resignation. He should’ve known his father couldn’t go one day without being his asshole self, and as much as he’d love to finally have it out with the old man, his heart wasn’t up to it. It wasn’t up to much these days.

Marielle looked past him and Trav could tell by the way she glared at his father that she was about to give her ex-husband an epic cursing out in Spanish. He placed a hand on her shoulder and shook his head. While he appreciated her sentiment, it would only make his dad stick around longer.

Marielle muttered something under her breath but nodded.

Steeling himself, Trav turned to find his dad standing with Shelly. “Dad. Glad you could—”

“Do you ever get tired of hearing yourself talk?” A voice rang out from behind his dad, making Trav’s heart stutter and cutting off his words.

Sonya.

He hadn’t seen her in the crowd when he’d looked out from the stage to see his personal cheering section, and he hadn’t realized how much he wanted to see her until right then.

An indignant Jack stepped to one side to see who would dare speak to him that way, and like a curtain being pulled to the side, Trav caught his first glimpse of Sonya in a pretty yellow sundress, her braids pulled up in a bun on top of her head. If he was wondering if he was still angry with her, the way his breath stopped when he saw her answered that question.

Was it possible that she had somehow gotten even more beautiful? When they’d run into each other that day at the hospital, he’d done everything he could not to look at her because he knew it would weaken his resolve just like it had since the day they met. Now, he couldn’t look away and everything he’d been distracting himself from by focusing on work and graduating, demanded his full attention.

Sonya’s face was contorted in fury as she pinned his dad with a look that would’ve killed a normal man on the spot. However, Jack Travis was nowhere near emotionally intelligent enough to see it that way.

“Nurse Pope. Who do you think you’re speaking to that way?”

Sonya stood her ground. “I’m speaking to you! You can’t even find it in yourself to be civil to your own son on his graduation day? Why did you even come?”

Jack scoffed. “You should stay out of things you don’t understand.”

“I understand more than you think,” she said, pushing to her full height. “Trav served his country with honor, then chose to work his ass off to become a paramedic so that he could continue helping people. Do you even remember what it feels like to practice medicine with the only goal being to help people or are you too invested in the prestige?”

Jack’s face turned a ruby red. “You’re walking a line, Nurse Pope,” he warned.

“Good. I should’ve walked it in Abi’s office that day but I was too caught up in my head about rules and my own mistakes to see that Trav was right to go see that patient. Without that visit, the patient would not have continued his treatment plan. Your son saved that patient’s life and you should be proud of him. He’s going to be a good paramedic but more importantly, he’s a good man… the best man… and he deserves better from you.”

Trav blinked, barely believing what he was seeing. No one besides Marielle had ever stood up to his dad for him. He rarely did it himself. But here was this woman who he was convinced didn’t feel as strongly for him as he did for her, going toe to toe with Jack Travis. For him.

“That’s it. You should know that I will inform Nurse Chen about this ridiculous outburst first thing Monday.” Jack was practically snarling but the laugh that burst out of Sonya was as close to hysterical as Trav had ever heard it.

She shrugged. “Go for it.”

The glee his father had over possibly ruining Sonya’s career showed in his smirk. “You laugh now, but when your career stalls out, I hope you look back at this moment and understand why.”

That was enough. Trav pushed between Sonya and his father. There was no way he would let Jack Travis do anything to make life difficult for her. Here she was raising the bar on having his back like the overachiever she was. She was with him and he needed to show her that he’d have her back too.

Trav was taller than his dad by a few inches, and he maximized the difference by standing as straight as he could. “That’s not going to happen.”

“Benjamin—”

Trav cocked his head in a dare to his dad to keep talking. “You’re not going to say a word about this, Jack. How would it look if you were reported for threatening the career of a nurse with an impeccable record just because she hurt your feelings? That wouldn’t be good for your pristine reputation, would it?”

His father stared at him in fuming silence and Trav could see him mulling over whether he was worth the fight. Finally, Jack turned on his heel and stormed away. He was a good ten feet away before he remembered his wife. “Shelly, we’re leaving now.”

Shelly smiled nervously before stumbling across the grass in her heels to catch up. She called over her shoulder, “Congratulations, Benjamin.”

“Thanks, Shelly.”

Trav turned to face Sonya and the air felt weighted by the things they needed to say. Her being there, it had to mean something. There was no way she’d come out there with all of her friends just to watch him walk across a stage.

“Not that I’m complaining, but what are you doing here, Sonya.”

The corners of her lips curved up into a crooked smile. “It’s your graduation day. This is the only place I wanted to be.”

Trav’s heart threatened to beat out of his chest. It was the only place he wanted her to be too but after what went down between them, it was the last place he’d expected to see her.

He couldn’t get his hopes up. Not yet.

“I’m glad you’re here,” he offered.

Silence fell between them again and he thought that might be all he was going to get, but Sonya’s body language told a different story. She always rolled one of her braids between her fingers when she was nervous but with them pulled up, she was using the strap of her tiny purse instead. She had more to say and that could only be a good thing, right?

“I didn’t think you’d be happy to see me after my friends acted like idiots.”

He chuckled. “I kinda liked having a cheering section.”

She laughed too but then her smile dimmed. “I was also terrified that you wouldn’t want me here after what happened with Abi and after.”

“We both said a lot that day, Sonya. It wasn’t exactly our finest moment.”

She nodded and lifted her eyes to his. “I should’ve had your back with Abi about Frank. What you did was the right thing for him. Instead of trying to put together a recovery plan, I should’ve been telling Abi everything I could to avoid needing one. I’m so sorry I didn’t.”

Trav swallowed. He’d been praying for a chance to have this conversation since he left Mike’s, and now that he had it, he wasn’t going to let her take the fall. “I’m not blameless in what happened,” he said. “No matter how right I thought I was, we were supposed to be partners. I should’ve talked to you before I went to see Frank, and I shouldn’t have acted like an ass when you called me out on it. I’m sorry too. You were right when you said I was lucky it all worked out.”

Sonya’s gaze fell to her feet. “Almost,” she said. “Everything worked out except you and me.”

The haircut Marielle had forced Trav to get hadn’t left much to run a hand through, so he shoved his hands into his pockets. That was the crux of it, wasn’t it? Everything had worked out except the one thing that was the most important. Even while he was walking across that stage earlier, it hadn’t felt like he’d imagined it would. Not like it would have if they’d been here together.

Now she was standing right here and he still didn’t know if this was a goodbye.

“Sonya, I—”

She interrupted. “Letting you walk away will always be something I regret. Not only did I break my own heart, I broke yours too by allowing you to think I didn’t care enough to try stopping you. Because I did care. I do care. I’m sorry for ever making you feel like I didn’t.”

Her voice cracked and Trav shook his head. “It was me who shouldn’t have walked away.”

“No. I used overthinking to protect me from over-feeling and I pushed you away,” she corrected. “Before you left, you asked me to tell you what I wanted and I didn’t answer you. It’s just… I’m used to staying inside the lines I’ve drawn for myself when it comes to my career, my life… everything. But then you came marching in like a cocky force of nature and forced me to see all of those things differently. You made me see myself differently and showed me that beautiful things can happen when I allow myself to drift outside the lines.”

Sonya paused, and her chest rose with a large breath before her teary but determined eyes met his again. “I have an answer for you now. Do you still want to know what I want?”

Trav cleared the emotion clogging his throat. “I do.”

“You,” she said. “All I want is you. I made so many lists of things I thought I wanted, but I threw them all away because it kept coming down to you. I know it’ll get messy at times and we won’t always agree, but what we have together is worth fighting for… you’re worth fighting for. This… this is my parachute moment and I really hope it opens.”

Nothing could’ve stopped Trav from covering the last space between them and cupping her gorgeous face in his hands. Her brown eyes were red and glassy, but filled with so much love and it was all for him. That look stole his breath and made his heart seize in his chest. Had anyone ever made him feel like that? He didn’t know, but he’d spend the rest of his life earning those looks, if she’d let him.

He brushed at the tears on her cheeks with his thumbs. “I told you that I’d catch you, so that makes me your parachute. You never need to worry about it not opening.”

“Yeah?”

Sonya’s tears were coming faster but she was smiling so wide in spite of them. It was contagious and Trav felt his cheeks tighten with a smile for the first time in weeks.

“I’m so in love with you, Sonya Pope, PMHNP. You’re the only thing I’ll ever want.”

Her hand covered his and she pressed her lips to his palm. “I love you too, soldier.”

Trav couldn’t wait another second. He crushed his mouth to hers and the contented sigh that his kiss pulled out of her was enough to have him thinking about when they could be alone again.

But he was quickly reminded that they weren’t.

A quiet sob pulled Trav’s attention away from his girl and he turned around to see Marielle and Tif standing with their arms around each other and tears streaming down their faces. That wasn’t at all surprising, but Mike standing there holding Asia and rubbing at his eye was an image Trav was looking forward to never letting him live down.

Grinning, Trav entwined his fingers with Sonya’s. “Come on. I want you to meet my family.”