Page 62 of The Wish List
“I don’t trust agents.”
“I get that, Freya.” He leaned in. “You can trust me.”
“We’ll see,” she said. He opened his mouth to say more, then closed it again. “If you need anything...”
“Visiting hours are over.” The nurse who’d helped with the bassinet walked past. “Each patient gets one overnight guest.”
Greer stared at Freya as she nodded at the nurse. “I’m sure Beth could pull some strings so you can both stay.”
Freya shook her head. “We’ve already decided Beth is going to stay tonight, and I’ll stay tomorrow night. If everything goes well, Trinity should be released after that. I’m just going to say goodbye,” she said to the nurse.
“Do you need a ride?” Greer asked.
“I can take Beth’s car and bring it back in the morning.”
He looked up to the ceiling as if he could draw patience from the faded tiles. “I’m here, Freya. I can give you a ride home.”
She wasn’t sure why her instinct told her to refuse other than her emotions felt wild and fierce right now. She was too vulnerable as the adrenaline rush she’d had when Beth called her wore off. Her sister had been across the street at Shauna’s helping to assemble gifts for the woman’s clients.
Beth and Shauna were becoming friends, and Freya had no one. She shouldn’t feel jealous of a single mother who was struggling to keep things afloat after such an intense injury but couldn’t quite help it.
Beth had offered to drive both of them to the hospital, so Freya’s car was still at the house. She reentered the room, and her eyes filled with tears at the sight of Thomas latched onto his mother. Trinity and Beth both watched the baby, and Freya’s ovaries did the strangest sort of squeeze when the tiny baby made soft grunts of satisfaction.
She quietly said goodbye then slipped back out of the room.
“What’s wrong?” Greer asked immediately.
“Other than you all up in my business?” Freya shook her head. “Nothing.”
“You’re crying or about to.”
Freya laughed despite herself. “I’m a little emotional. Cut me some slack.”
She deserved an argument or snide comment after her behavior, but he simply nodded and fell into step beside her as they exited the hospital. Sleet came down in icy ribbons, about as close to snowfall as Magnolia got on a regular basis.
“They’re forecasting a white Christmas,” Greer said as he opened the door to the Audi sedan. “It would be the first white Christmas in Magnolia in nearly a decade.”
Freya waited for him to climb into the driver’s side. “How are you an expert on the meteorological history of this town?”
He flashed a boyish smile. “I spend time at the hardware store. I know a lot about the weather and high school sports around here.”
She felt the urge to challenge him, but what was the point? “Does it make me a terrible person that I hate that you fit in Magnolia more than I do?”
He looked almost embarrassed by her comment. “I’m not sure I belong, but I like this town. I never knew anything like it growing up. It was just my mom and me. She did her best, but it was hard to make ends meet a lot of months. Nondescript apartment in a nondescript suburb.”
“You had school friends?”
It took him a moment longer than it should have to reply. “I know the divorce rate in the country is fifty percent, or at least that’s what they would have us believe. Growing up, everyone I knew either had an intact family, or if their parents were divorced, they got along. I didn’t fit in there. Sure I had friends, but it wasn’t...”
He gestured at the houses they passed with their cheery Christmas decorations. Lights and inflatables, like a Clark Griswold fantasy come to life. “It wasn’t like this.”
“If it makes you feel better, Magnolia wasn’t exactly like this when I was growing up either. A lot has changed. In fact...”
She glanced out the window at her mother’s house as Greer pulled into the driveway. He didn’t rush her, just waited patiently until she completed her thought.
The man possessed an infinite amount of patience, at least where Freya was concerned. She found it disconcerting because it made her want to talk to him, to spill her secrets. Perhaps even to mention her writing aspirations even though she’d promised herself she wouldn’t.
“I posted some pictures from downtown on social media. The producers ofThat Special Someonewant me to be part of a reality star special where we share real-life footage of our holiday celebrations. They think Magnolia is the perfect town. Viewers will love the juxtaposition of me with my heels and designer clothes against the backdrop of the down-home charm of where I came from.”
