She took him in, standing tall before her, wearing fitted jeans and the same blue hoodie as the first time they’d met. Square shoulders and rounded biceps filled out his upper body, and his pushed-up sleeves revealed muscled forearms. A light, scruffy layer of facial hair covered a perfectly symmetrical jaw and his thick, chestnut hair was still very much present, the chemotherapy not having ravaged that part of his body yet.
His brown eyes scanned the tables that surrounded them. Lauren knew they were all full, as she’d hovered for ten minutes for a couple to leave before she’d snagged the one she currently sat at.
“You can sit here,” she offered. She was alone at a four-top table. “There’s plenty of room. It gets packed here on Friday nights.”
“You sure?” At her nod, Andrew set his stuff down diagonally across from her. “Thanks.”
Lauren had spread out all over the table and pulled her materials closer to her corner. “If I remember right, your sister said you’re soon to be a mediocre attorney…that must mean you’re in law school?”
“Yep. I’m in my third year.”
“What kind of law do you want to practice?”
“Criminal justice.” He opened his laptop and leaned back in his chair. “What are you studying for?”
“The oncology pharmacy board exam. It’s an optional certification, but if I get a permanent job at the cancer center after my residency, they’ll expect me to take it.”
A slight frown formed between his eyebrows. “What is a pharmacy residency, exactly?”
“After I finished pharmacy school, I could have gotten a job at a retail pharmacy, like the chain drugstores, right away. Or gone back home to work for my dad—he owns an independent drugstore in Oklahoma.” A wave of guilt rose up at the thought of her dad, but she forced it down. “But during my second year of pharmacy school I got a job at Children’s Hospital for some extra money.
“There’s a clinical oncology pharmacist who helps manage their medications, and before that I’d never seen that side of pharmacy. Kind of like physicians, we have to do extra training if we want to specialize. After I got my degree, I applied for residencies in oncology. There aren’t many of them, but they’re becoming more common. It’s two years for oncology, and I’ll finish next spring.”
“That’s cool,” Andrew said. “I didn’t know pharmacists did that sort of thing. My sisters couldn’t stop talking about how great you were, telling us about the chemo.”
Lauren smiled at the compliment. “I really want to stay. I love it here.” Kansas City had become home to her, and the girls from the cancer center were like her family. It had been a long time since she’d felt like she belonged somewhere.
She wasn’t eager to go back to being nothing but an afterthought (by her mother) or simply a solution to a business crisis (by her father). But if this job didn’t pan out, she wasn’t sure she’d have another option.
“You’re from Oklahoma, you said?”
She nodded. “Cedar Creek. It’s a suburb of Oklahoma City. What about you?”
“A tiny town in Nebraska. I moved here for law school.”
“Your whole family moved with you?” The involvement Andrew’s family had in his care warmed Lauren’s heart. His family seemed nothing like hers, and though she found it overwhelming, she was envious of the obvious love between them.
“Hell, no. Thank God,” Andrew said with a laugh. “Just my twin sister, Jeni, lives here. She moved here for a job a few months ago. The others still live up north. They all came down for the first oncologist visit and chemo treatment. We have a farm, so my dad had to stay behind to keep an eye on things, and I guarantee he enjoyed having peace and quiet for once. Those women are suffocating.”
“They seem wonderful.”
“Wonderfully annoying.”
“They obviously adore you.”
“Who wouldn’t? I’m adorable.” He grinned at her, his white teeth flashing.
Returning his smile, because she couldn’t possibly respond in any other way, Lauren searched for something witty to say.
Her buzzing phone saved her, but as she retrieved it her elbow pushed several papers off the table.
“Peter Parker,” she said under her breath, as the pages fluttered to the floor like snowflakes.
Andrew immediately joined her on the floor to gather them together. Papers in hand, Lauren straightened and slammed her head on the underside of the table. The grunt that came out of her mouth was exceedingly unladylike, and her cheeks flushed scarlet.
“You okay?” Andrew’s hand brushed the top of her head as they both stood up. Her breath caught at the contact.
She stepped back and sat down. “I’m fine.”