It was weird how much he liked the kid. Apart from Belle, he hadn’t come into contact with children that age outside of work, and he was a child himself when his sister was a kid. His friends in psychiatry would probably see something deep in his reaction to her. Say he was trying to recreate his sister’s childhood, but with a better outcome.
Yeah, he knew how they worked. But the fact was, she was easy to like. The same as her mom was. But while his feelings toward Isla were easy to classify, his feelings toward Meghan were messy.
Too messy to think about right now.
It didn’t stop him from feeling a spring in his step all afternoon as he dealt with a head injury, two broken limbs, and a patient with an abnormal heart rate who they had to stabilize before the cardiac team made it down and rushed him into the operating room. And when the evening shift arrived he was able to hand over his cases without any issues, feeling no guilt thanks to the almost-empty waiting room.
“Do you have plans tonight?” Lianne asked, as they headed out to the parking lot. He knew Lianne had a hot date, she’d been bragging about it all day. He was pleased for her – she’d been through a bad breakup last year, and deserved some happiness.
“Heading to the beach to meet a friend.”
“Ooh. That’s nice. It’s a lovely evening. You going to swim?”
“That’s the plan.”
“Rather you than me.” She gave a mock shiver. “I’ll be thinking about you while I drink my cocktails and keep warm.”
“You do that.”
He was still smiling as he drove toward the beach. He had the windows down, a breeze wafting through and ruffling his hair as the sparkling blue ocean came into view. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt this content. Was this how James felt every day, driving home to Harper and Alyssa? For so long, work had been the anchor of Rich’s life, he’d forgotten that people lived their lives outside of it.
Parking in the lot behind the pier, he grabbed his bag and hooked it over his shoulder, slipping his shoes off to walk across the sand. He’d gotten changed in the locker room, and was wearing the pair of jeans and t-shirt he kept in his locker just in case. The air was definitely on the cool side – not a day he’d choose to swim if he had a choice. But he couldn’t help grinning as he saw Isla running around the sand in her Disney swimsuit, attempting a cartwheel that ended up in her tumbling onto her behind.
Meghan was sitting on a blanket, her deep auburn waves cascading over her shoulders and back. She was wearing jeans and a light cream sweater that contrasted perfectly with her coloring. Her shoulders were shaking as though she was laughing at her daughter’s antics.
Rich’s throat felt thick. This was the life he could have had, if he’d made different choices. He was thirty-six-years-old. Most of his friends had either settled down or were in the process of settling. They had wives and kids and home lives that balanced out the hard toil of their working days. They swapped shifts for school recitals and pediatrician appointments, and tried to work days so they could spend quality time with their families.
And he’d pitied them. Because they couldn’t give the job everything they wanted to. And if he was honest, he’d seen more than half his older colleagues go through painful breakups and divorces thanks to the demands their jobs put on them. Being a doctor – particularly in the ER – wasn’t really compatible with family life. He’d made a decision, the right one.
Even if right now he was wondering how things could be different.
“Hey!” Meghan waved at him. “I wasn’t sure you’d make it.” She stood, dusting the sand from her jeans. She’d rolle
d them up to reveal her slim, pale ankles, her toes painted with ballet-shoe pink nail polish.
“I came straight from work.” He grinned as Isla threw her arms around his legs, reaching down to pat her head. “Aren’t you cold?”
She shook her head, her eyes wide with excitement. “Nope. I want to go swimming.”
It was colder than he’d thought it would be. Any minute now his balls would shrivel with fear at the thought of the ocean. “Why don’t we swim in the pool back at the apartment?” he suggested. “It has to be warmer than the Pacific.”
Isla pouted. “I want to go in the ocean. Please come with me?”
Meghan looked up at him, and he had to swallow not to want her. Everything about her was delicate and beautiful. “You don’t have to,” she said. “You’re probably exhausted after working all day.”
His heart softened at her offer of getting out of this. But a deal was a deal. “You worked all day, too,” he pointed out. And then she worked all night as a mom. “Anyway, it’ll do me good.” He pulled his t-shirt off and threw it on the blanket. When he looked at Meghan, she quickly pulled her eyes away from him. Was she staring at his body? Damn if that wasn’t hot.
He bit down a smile as he slid off his jeans, and her cheeks began to blush. She felt it, too, he knew she did. This weird thing going on between them.
“You ready?” he asked Isla.
“Yep.” She was grinning from ear to ear. Damn, she reminded him of Belle sometimes.
“Okay, let’s race. First one to the water gets to splash the other. Ready, set…”
But Isla was already off. Meghan started to laugh. “Sorry, we’re still working on the playing fair thing.”
Rich took off down the sand, not bothering to run too fast. Isla’s legs were flying up behind her, gangly and uncoordinated as a colt. But she made it first and started doing a little victory dance, kicking at the surf as it reached the shore.