Page 90 of The Exception

“You know me and my girls are going to have a real good time.”

Sonya smiled into the phone. Her mom was going on a fourteen-day Caribbean cruise, and if anyone knew how to have fun no matter the situation, it was her mom and her girlfriends. They were going to turn that ship into a party for the whole trip.

Sonya chuckled and spun her office chair to look out the window. “Oh, I know. Just don’t get your groove back and come home with a guy my age in your luggage.”

“Please. If I was bringing back a man, he’d be for you.”

Good thing her mom couldn’t see her because Sonya’s eye roll would’ve set her off on a lecture. “Do I hear them calling your flight?”

“I know you’re rushing me off the phone, but I’ll let it go… this time. I love you, baby, and I’ll see you next month for family dinner.”

“I’ll be there. Love you too, Mom.”

Sonya slipped the phone back into her pocket and walked out of her office as two words rolled around in her head.

Family. Dinner.

It was over a month away but Sonya was already trying to anticipate her family’s reaction to her showing up with Trav after she’d announced the end of her engagement to Marcus just a few months prior. That is… if Trav even wanted to go meet her family. Was it too soon to even consider that? Marcus hadn’t been invited to family dinner until they’d been dating six months. Maybe she should wait…

Stop it, Sonya.

Her thoughts were on a ferris wheel, but whether or not to invite Trav to the next family dinner wasn’t at the root of it. The fact that she wanted to invite him after being with him for such a short amount of time was the real culprit, but that was a rabbit hole she’d have to wait until she was off work to explore further. Right now, she needed to focus on work and not the man she was becoming more enamored with with each passing day.

As if she’d conjured him up, Trav appeared at the other end of the hallway—with Nurse Sullivan at his side.

Ugh. Really?

Sonya busied herself with the intake paperwork on her clipboard and pretended not to notice when Trav stopped just a few feet away and Heather lingered with him.

“Oh my God! I can’t believe you did that.”

Heather was too loud to ignore, and Sonya’s fingers tightened around her pencil when she noticed Heather holding on to Trav’s arm and cackling like he should have his own Netflix special. He wasn’t that funny.

Okay, maybe he was. And smart and sweet and he had the biggest heart. Not to mention the fact that he was handsome as hell and had abs you could bounce a quarter off of. Sonya could see why Heather kept trying, but Trav was alsohersand something primal inside of her made her want to go over there and wrap herself around him just to see the look on Heather’s face.

God, being with Trav was forcing her to explore things about herself that she’d never really considered before—like this new possessiveness—and the jury was still out on if that was good or bad.

Trav shrugged. “It was a crazy night.”

“So… your internship is almost over, right?”

“I’m down to my last few weeks. I’m sure Nurse Pope will be happy to be rid of me.”

For some reason, Trav thought it would be a good idea to draw her into the conversation. He was wrong. If Sonya opened her mouth, she wasn’t sure of what might come out, so she ignored him and pretended to focus on her paperwork.

Heather’s voice dropped into a whisper. “Not all of us will be happy to see you go. I know I won’t be.”

That comment had Sonya’s new possessiveness clawing back with a vengeance. Especially when from the corner of her eye she saw that Heather had moved in closer to Trav, and was wielding her cloying smile and seductive eyes as weapons.

Trav took a step back, but being the nice guy he was, he only said, “Uh… that’s nice of you to say. It’s been a fun rotation.”

Heather stepped closer and leaned lightly into him, tilting her face toward his. “How about you let me buy you a drink once you’re done to celebrate?”

Sonya narrowed her eyes at her file and the pencil in her hand snapped in half. They both looked at her in surprise.

Her authority as nurse manager allowed Sonya to nip that entire conversation in the bud, and normally she would’ve. Now, it felt like doing so would show all of her cards and blow the secret they needed to keep for a few more weeks. Instead she knelt to pick up the pieces of her writing utensil, pretending she wasn’t eavesdropping.

Trav’s cheeks were bright pink and he sighed before raking a hand through his hair. “Look, Heather. You’ve been really nice to me during this rotation, but I’m seeing someone so getting drinks with you isn’t going to work.”

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