Page 75 of Very Unlikely
Not a single fucking objection.
And the relief it hits me with is so immense, I float across the tiles lining the press conference room floor instead of stomping on them, then I scoop my girl into my arms and kiss her like Callie and Nolan aren’t gagging like I’m sure they do when their parents get a little heavy with PDAs in front of them.
“I love you, Cocoa,” I whisper in her ear before dragging the stubble on my chin down her neck.
Summer squirms in a way I’ll easily become addicted to before replying, “I know. My father told meallabout it the past six weeks.” When I gag like Callie and Nolan, she pops her elbow into my ribs before nudging her head to the Ravenshoe Ravens bus parked at the side entrance of the press conference. “What do you say? Takeout and a movie marathon?”
Nodding, I curl my arm around her shoulders, shake Isaac and the blond dude’s hand whose name is still slipping my mind, then guide her outside. “Sounds great.” Everything in the world feels right again when I murmur with a laugh, “On one condition—”
“I hold the mayo?” Summer groans at the same time I whisper, “We do it naked.”
I laugh like a hyena when she quirks her lips and says, “That’s a very high possibility. Ialwaysend up stripped ofeverythingwhen I eat uncooked egg.”
Epilogue
Summer
Four years later…
“Are you ready?”
Cruz, a patient at the Kids Cancer Treatment Ward in Ravenshoe, Florida, lifts his big brown eyes to mine before bobbing his head. He has an inflatable bat held out in preparation for his big swing. His chest is rising and falling in a similar fashion to the batter staring down Lennox with the hope he doesn’t strike him out as he has several other of his teammates today.
Lennox is having a killer game, and I’m confident enough to say it’s because he knows the patients in the hospital Colt Enterprises built next door to the Ravenshoe stadium solely so the patients could watch the games free of charge and me are the reason for his record-breaking stats.
I was rostered to work this shift before we knew Lennox’s team had a shot of getting in the finals, and despite my multiple assurances to Lennox that I could switch my shift with another intern, he was adamant my presence would be felt whether I was here treating the children I’m still seeking a permanent cure for or in the box seats my backside has filled the past four years.
For the first twelve months of our relationship, Cormack fulfilled the offer he made that day at the press conference. He flew me out every single weekend to watch Lennox’s games and massage out his kinks. Then, only two short weeks after graduating in front of the grease monkeys who raised me and half of Lennox’s team, I was interviewed by Isaac and Cormack for a position at Ravenshoe Private Hospital. It was a pro-rata position in the oncology department. On the agreement they funded my tuition to medical school, I agreed to intern at their hospital for a year before undertaking a residency in Oncology under the guidance of their chief of staff.
Since the medical school they were recommending was only an hour’s drive from Ravenshoe, and Lennox wouldn’t have to foot the bill for my half of our dreams, I jumped at the chance. Not only did I get to become a permanent Ravenshoe resident, I had a signed guarantee that my biochemistry major wouldn’t be wasted once I commence my residency later this year.
Isaac and Cormack are vast backers in cancer research. They distribute millions of dollars of funding into the cause each year, and along with other beneficiaries like the number one pitcher in the country, have brought us so many steps closer to finding a cure.
I’m so confident in the research being undertaken at this hospital, I make sure laughter and play are instigated as often as treatments and rest. Laughter can’t cure cancer, but it sure can make it seem nowhere near as bad as it is.
My mother smiled right up until the end. That’s why I had no clue just how cruel the disease can be until I commenced nursing people through it.
Cruz draws me from my thoughts. “Hurry, Dr. Ramsay! He’s getting ready to pitch.”
He giggles when I run the inflated ball we blew up after Dr. Clinton finished his afternoon rounds down my groin like Lennox is doing on the massive flat-screen monitor in the far corner of the stadium.
Cruz’s face takes on a serious note when I rear my arm back in preparation to throw him a curveball. My ball doesn’t sail through the air as fast as Lennox’s does, and Cruz doesn’t miss it like the batter Lennox strikes out, but the roar of the crowd is as loud inside the hospital as it is out of it.
The children fielding on our makeshift baseball field made up of pillows from their beds scramble in all directions in search of the ball Cruz sends flying across the ward. Juliet finds it under a bed before she tosses it to Brad. Brad passes it to Trinity, then she forwards it to Trent.
Trent gets close to tagging Cruz out, especially when he whizzes past the third base so fast, his hospital gown flaps up around his backside, but just as he stretches out his arm to tag him, Cruz bobs down out of his reach and slides into a stack of pillows like a real-life batter!
The crowd goes wild for the second time, and I’m right there with them, hollering and cheering like I don’t have a stethoscope wrapped around my neck and their lives in my hands. Even the fielders Cruz whizzed by pat him on the back and shout his name. It’s a beautifully serene moment that grows more heartfelt when Isaac Holt enters the room cradling his newborn son. The children in this ward love babies as much as they do chocolate.
“Congratulations,” I whisper when Isaac finishes showing off his new edition. He was wrong the first time around, Isabelle had a girl back then, but he was on the money this time. “Only a few more, and you’ll have enough to fill a baseball team.”
He smirks in a way that would make a woman’s heart race if she wasn’t head over heels in love with the sexiest man on earth while replying, “From what I just heard, congratulations are also in order for you?” When I shrug off his compliment, he mutters, “Top of your class in medical school is nothing to scoff at, Summer. I’m sure Lennox will agree with me.”
“I’m sure he will when I tell him tonight.” I glance down at my watch, grimacing when I notice I still have another four hours remaining on my shift. I love what I do for a living, and I wouldn’t change it for the world, but I’d be a liar if I said I wasn’t exhausted. Interns do a lot of hours as it is, but when you cram just as many hours into swooning over a man you still swear is way outside your league, sleep is the last thing on your agenda.
When Isaac spots the yawn I can’t stifle, he taps his finger on the clipboard I collected off the end of Tyler’s bed, then says, “Once you finish your rounds, head off for the day. I’ll smooth it over with Dr. Jae.”
“I can’t, I have—”
