Page 11 of The Exception

Mike had bought a house a few miles from the base they’d both been stationed at. He was a creature of habit and the place had grown on him. Besides, that was where he’d met Tif. It was natural for him to put down roots there. Trav had a different experience. A mostly rootless one.

“Marielle is here,” he said.

“I know, I know. She stuck around for you and you want to do the same for her.”

Marielle was his second stepmother, but the first who’d actually paid any attention to him. She’d put up with his dad for longer than she probably should’ve, and Trav had to think that was because of him. His senior year of high school had been straight out of an after school special, and by the end, his dad would’ve been okay with him ending up on the streets or locked up. Marielle had been the one to suggest the army, and that was the beginning of getting his life on track.

She and his father had finally split when he was in boot camp, but Marielle sent him letters and care packages the entire time he’d been in. She’d given him more over the last decade than his own father and Trav didn’t know how to repay her for that, but he was going to try.

He nodded. “She’s my mom.”

“Well, at least buy some damn furniture and put some pictures on the walls or something before our next video call. Your place looks depressing.”

Trav agreed with that assessment. All he’d bought so far were the matching bar stools at the kitchen island and that was only because he needed someplace to sit while he did his homework.

“I will.”

“You find some guys to hang out with yet?”

Mike wasn’t going to come right out and say he was worried about him, but his questions made his concern clear. Mike had been guarding his six for years and apparently being out of the military wasn’t going to change that.

“Not yet, but I get a free gym membership from the hospital. Maybe I can join a pick up basketball game or something.”

Mike nearly choked on his beer. “Yeah, they’ll love dunking on you every chance they get.”

Trav looked around to make sure Tif and Asia were nowhere in sight before whispering, “Fuck you. Not all of us can be All-American in three sports like you.”

“It doesn’t take an All-American to beat your ass.”

Trav smirked. “Maybe. But all it takes is a pint-sized school teacher to have you shook.”

Mike shrugged and took a swig of his beer. “And all it takes is a nurse to do the same to you.”

Trav did have a comeback for that so he just drank some of his beer like it was the penalty in some kind of drinking game.

“So how hot is she?” Mike asked.

Trav fought a grin as he thought about Sonya in her dresses and heels, her full lips pursed in annoyance and exasperation filling her dark eyes. There was no measuring how hot she was, and that was especially aggravating because he wasn’t supposed to have those kinds of thoughts about her. Especially since he’d blown any potential shot he had with her the second they met.

After downing another penalty drink, he finally groaned. “So hot that I think I must’ve really pissed someone off in a past life to deserve this.”

Seven

8:01. Precept is punctual… No.

Sonya checked the box on Ben…Trav’sevaluation form and allowed herself a satisfied smile. She took no small amount of delight in handing the liar his first official demerit. While she abhorred lateness, she did enjoy having her instincts proved right. If this was how he kicked off the first full day of his internship, failing him was a forgone conclusion.

His first half day hadn’t been much better. Trav was hands down the cockiest, most mansplaining know it all she’d ever met, and she worked with doctors. Between him questioning everything she did and telling her about a better way he’d learned in the army, she’d been one more “why not do it this way” away from making him wait for a space in ED to open up. She’d been so tense after her shift that she’d gone directly to the hospital gym to put in five miles on the treadmill and she still had to stress clean when she got home.

If the first six hours were any indication, she’d probably be able to perform surgery in her living room and run the D.C. Marathon by the time his rotation was over.

She’d just taken another sip of her very necessary hazelnut latte when she spotted her wayward intern strolling toward the nurse’s station. He seemed nonplussed as he made his way down the hallway, smiling at everyone he passed like he’d known them his entire life. He moved like the fact that he was now three minutes late was no big deal, and the sugar and caffeine flooding Sonya’s bloodstream couldn’t counteract her annoyance.

When he was standing less than a foot away from her, wearing that half grin that plucked her last nerve, she frowned and didn’t give him a chance to speak. “You’re late.”

That grin didn’t falter and she wondered if it was just his nature to be unbothered.

“Good morning to you too,” he joked, but when she narrowed her eyes in the universal sign of not having it, he cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck. “There was a delay on the yellow line and...”

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