Page 106 of Sloane

The corner of his mouth turned up. “Who knows. Maybe Dr. Connolly will even show up.”

“Well, you are supposed to see him at the VA, too.”

“Yeah, but something tells me the chances of him making an appearance will be better if you’re there.”

“I’m sure that’s not true.”

“Mmm hmm. At least the new guy will get the benefit of seeing the doctor twice a week.”

I chose not to take the bait and said, “We haven’t heard anything about if someone is taking your room.”

“When Crash and Stu came, we were only given a day’s notice, so don’t be surprised when they call you tonight and tell you to expect someone tomorrow.”

“That’s okay. The more the merrier, right?”

“Yeah. But I’ll be honest, I’m looking forward to living alone for a while.”

“Well, I’m going to miss having you here.”

“I’ll miss seeing Millie and the guys, for sure. Maybe you could bring Millie every now and then?”

“I’ll see what my boss says.”

With another hug, he got in the SUV as I wiped away a tear. I was such a softie, but I really had enjoyed living with him this last week.

Tammy wrapped an arm around my waist and waved when the car drove off.

“Come on. I brought brownie mix.”

“You’re speaking my love language,” I sniffed.

~~~~

Millie woke up before I had a chance to make the brownies, so as I fed her Tammy asked, “Do you want me to make these?”

“No. Let me. She’s almost done.”

“So, tell me about your date with Dr. Handsome.”

“It was… nice. Jeff’s a nice guy.”

“But…?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “No buts. We had a nice time.”

“What did you do?”

“We went out to a nice dinner, then walked along the boardwalk. It was nice.”

“Ohmygod, that sounds awful,” Tammy said as she pulled one of Millie’s onesies from the clean laundry basket and folded it.

“Awful? Why do you say that?”

“The only adjective you’ve used to describe both him and your date is ‘nice’. You might as well say it was a snoozefest.”

“Okay, so there wasn’t a lot of chemistry. But, maybe chemistry is overrated.”

“It is not overrated. You’re still young. You need passion! Heat. Romance. Promise me you won’t settle for someone just because he’s nice.” Tammy used air quotes when she muttered the word nice like it was a swear word.

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