Page 105 of Phoenix

Chapter 25

Nora

It’s been a few days since I flew out of Savannah, and Case hasn’t contacted me once. I don’t know why that hurts me. I didn’t expect him to. Hell, I even asked him not to, but it still hurts.

Fuck my stupid girl brain.

I took this time to think. To reflect.

Marco was right, though I’ll never say those words out loud to him. We talked more that day after breakfast about my fears and worries. He said, just like with the fire, the only way to get over fear is to put yourself right in the middle of the situation. Take control back.

At the end of the day, I know I want to be in Savannah with Amelia—with Grayson and Cadence—and especially with Case. But I don’t know if it’s the right choice in the long run, and that, in and of itself, is what is stopping me.

Today is my first day back to work, and while part of me dreads it, the other part of me welcomes the distraction.

I step into the emergency department and find Trina behind the desk in the nurses’ station.

“Would you look at that!” she says loudly. “You’re back!” She rounds the desk and basically tackles me in the biggest hug.

“I’m am.” I hug her back, squeezing even tighter.

“Did you enjoy yourself?” She steps back a bit as if to examine me.

“I did. Very much so.”

“I sense there is more to that.” She pulls me around to the back of the desk and plops me onto a chair. “Spill.”

“What do you mean?”

“Honey, you have that look all over your face.”

“Which look is that?” I say, with a cock of my brow.

“The look like someone kicked your dog.” She sits in the chair next to me.

“You’re the second person who has used that analogy to describe me. Surely, I can’t seem that pathetic, right?”

“Tell me what happened,” she insists, and so I tell her.

I tell her everything. Seeing Case again, sleeping together in Atlanta, the casual arrangement, the ghost hunting, the fight, the pool...all of it.

“Well... hmm,” she says, tapping her nails on the desk.

“Hmm? That’s it? You insist I spill my guts and you just give me hmm?”

“I’m processing. You know I process before I speak,” she says, and I laugh.

“Since when?”

“Respect your elders, child.” She laughs with me. “This Case, the only reason you don’t want to go further with him is just because he’s a cop?”

“It’s not that per se. He could be a firefighter, or in the military, or the Coast Guard, it’s not the career. It’s the danger that comes with it. It’s the hero complex. It's the fact any time he walks out the door; he may never come back. I can’t live with that pain again.”

“While I understand, Nora, but at the same time, I think you’re being stubborn and foolish.”

I blink twice, slightly taken aback. “What? Why?”

“Because you love this boy, and you’re letting the fact he’s a good man keep you from him.”

---