Page 1 of Good Girl's Guide to Love
guide to love rule #51
When you meet a hot-as-sin professional athlete, make sure you know your name. Or remember how to speak in general.
1
ainsley
“I have nothing appropriate to say…”
I fling myself back into my chair at the nurse’s station as Mia, my best friend and the only reason I’m working today, stares ahead as she bites on the tip of a pen cap.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but do you ever have anythingappropriateto say?”
The answer is no, but she doesn’t respond, which is strange. Mia’s always one for a witty comeback or some sort of playful dig. She’s a lot like my sister Quinn in that regard.
Instead she’s just staring ahead, pen dangling from her lips as a touch of drool escapes her mouth.
“Earth to Mia!” I say as I snap my fingers in front of her face. “What is with you?”
She nods toward the doors at the end of the hallway of our unit and then tells me everything I need to know. “It’s Fury day.”
I look toward the direction, and frankly, I’m disappointed in myself for not realizing that it’s a group of huge, attractive men who are making my best friend catatonic. This is what happens to Mia every time the Nashville Fury comes for a visit to Nashville Children’s Hospital. The pro football team comes in fairly regularly to spread good will and to brighten the spirits ofour patients. You’d think Mia would be used to it by now. But my football obsessed best friend always ends up with a dry mouth and bulging eyes.
As for me, sure, I can appreciate a good-looking man. I’m a red-blooded female in my late twenties. But the muscular, athletic guys aren’t my type. No, give me a straight-laced, trim build any day of the week.
“They’re just men,” I say as I sit back down, knowing I have a ton of charting to do before shift change in twenty minutes.
“If they’re just men, then the Mona Lisa is just a painting.” Mia pulls me up from the back of my scrubs, making sure that every inch of my five-foot-four self can see over the nurses’ station. “Look at them. Tall. Handsome. Strong. Like, you just know they can hold you against a wall like it’s nothing while murmuring you’re a good girl and you can take it.”
I look back to her because, frankly, that sounds dangerous. And a little threatening. “You want a man to pin and hold you against a wall?”
She slowly nods, and I’m pretty sure she licks her lips. “Like I need air to breathe.”
I shake my head, but not before really trying to see what she’s literally drooling over. Maybe I’m missing something.
Walking down the hall is a group of about eight football players, all carrying stuffed animals, balloons, and signed paraphernalia as they start popping into different patient’s rooms. Yes, it’s sweet and all, and while they are very attractive, I’ve seen this dozens of times. And heck, I don’t even normally work on this floor anymore. I’m now in labor and delivery, but since I used to work here, I’m used to this kind of circus. And while it’s amazing for the morale of the patients and families, and I’m sure great PR for the players, it’s just another day.
And despite what my best friend says, they’re just men.
“I’m loving this for you, but I need to finish up,” I say as I sit back down. “If you recall, per our agreement of me picking up this shift, I have to leave by five. Not a minute later.”
Mia waves me off as she angles her neck to better see the players making their rounds. “Yeah, yeah. Gotta leave. Family stuff, blah blah. You go finish those charts; I’m going to watch a linebacker read to a seven-year-old.”
All I can do is shake my head and laugh as Mia walks away. Now, most days I would watch with her. But not because I want to drool over one of her many football player crushes. No, it’s because days like today are the reason I originally wanted to become a pediatric nurse. Because days like today give hope and joy.
I’m settled back into my patient charts when a bump at the back of my chair nearly sends me into the floor, scaring the bejesus out of me. “Ainsley, you need to come with me. Now.”
I scowl at her and rub my chest, where my heart is pounding. “Were you running? Wait, where did you come from? Is it a kid?” I’m already halfway out of the chair, thinking the worst.
Mia grabs my shoulders and turns me to face the hallway where the football players disappeared. “No, no. Nothing like that. But really, you need to come with me for thirty seconds to see what I just saw.”
I quickly check the time on the computer. Fifteen minutes until I have to get on the road to my hometown of Rolling Hills. And I can’t be late. I have important papers I need to deliver to help take down my sister Quinn’s boyfriend’s mother, who’s trying to extort him.
How my family gets wrapped up in these things, I have no idea…
I tug out of her grasp and drop back into my chair. “I really can’t.”
“Ugh, you’re no fun,” Mia groans. “You really don’t want to see a six-foot-five, tattooed football player taking selfies with your favorite patient?”
