Page 68 of The Exception

“Let me put her to bed and I’ll meet you down there.”

Trav argued, “I can take her upstairs.”

Sonya frowned and held out her arms for the baby. “You’ve already hogged too much of my Lucia snuggle time. Besides, you might want to change your shirt. Your shoulder is soaked with baby drool.”

Chuckling, he glanced at the wet spot and shook his head.

“Yeah, I’ll change and head outside.”

He stood and carefully lifted Lulu from his shoulder, passing her tiny body into Sonya’s arms. After lingering a moment to brush his hand over Lucia’s dark curls, he turned to head to his room.

As he walked away, he reached over his shoulder and tugged off his shirt in that move that men did just to drive women crazy. It worked. You would think she would’ve spent enough time ogling him on the boat that afternoon, but here she was staring at his back like she’d never never seen one before. She didn’t blink out of it until he disappeared into the hallway.

Twenty-six

Trav set the lantern on the dock railing and took a deep pull of the lake air. He could still feel water sloshing around in his ear from his last wipe out on the skis and it made him feel like a kid on summer vacation.

Footsteps crunched in the dirt behind him, and he turned to see Sonya approaching on the footpath with her own flashlight tucked under her arm. She had a glass of wine and the neck of a beer bottle in one hand, the baby monitor in the other.

“Romantic,” she said, nodding at the blanket he’d laid out on the dock. The one he’d swiped from the back of the couch to keep splinters from their asses. It suddenly looked like a lame-ass attempt impressing her.Smooth, Trav.

“I wasn’t trying to—”

She smiled, handing him the beer. “At ease, soldier.” She sat cross-legged on one end and he took the other. “This is nice.”

“It is.” He took a small sip of the beer. His body was already on high alert with this ambiance he’d inadvertently created, and the last time he and Sonya shared drinks, it turned out very well for him, and very poorly for them. Their friendship. The one she wanted to maintain status quo on.

Even after a weekend spent basically proving that she was his dream woman, and an evening acting out the sort of future he’d always wanted, he was still committed to doing the right thing here.

But, fuck, it was getting harder by the minute.

“Thank you for staying behind with me to babysit.”

He chuckled into his beer bottle. “You think I’d go out with your friends and leave you here alone?”

She shrugged. “I wouldn’t have blamed you. I told you, I know what it’s like not knowing anyone. I’m glad y’all are getting along.” Her eyes snapped to his, widening with some sudden realization. “They’re being cool, right?”

He suppressed a smile at the fake hazing Adam had led yesterday. Even if it had been for real, he would have gladly endured it. Sonya deserved a pack of friends who had her back. She deserved everything.

“Of course,” he said. “Your friends are cool. So tell me why you empathize so much with my ‘new kid in town’ plight.”

She propped the monitor up against a deck chair and stretched out onto her back, staring up at the stars. They were like silver dust on a blue carpet, and it reminded him of the mountain villages in Afghanistan, where the nights were so pitch black that every star had its own piece of the stage.

“I’m an Air Force brat,” she said. “I lived on lots of different bases when I was a kid.”

“For real?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“Wow. I guess I can see you being a military kid, you’re more straightlaced than me—” She poked him in the side and he took that as an invitation to sprawl out on his belly beside her. “I guess I’m just surprised it hasn’t come up yet. We’ve talked a lot about Frank. Now I see the connection, why you care so much.”

“I care about all of my patients,” she said, maybe too quickly.

“I know. But you’ve got a soft spot for him, same as me.”

She lifted one of her braids between her fingers, twisting. “Having soft spots isn’t good for anybody. And it’s not something that’s encouraged.”

A few weeks ago he would have let her slink back behind that professional wall, but they were way past pretense. “Maybe not, but it’s human.” He paused, and when she didn’t fire back, he took a chance. “Did your dad have trouble coming home? Like Frank?”

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