Charming Hannah (Big Sky #1)(38)

“I don’t want to embarrass you in front of our friends.”

“Aww, aren’t you sweet?” I stick my lower lip out in a pout, bat my eyelashes. “So chivalrous.”

“Just looking out for you, sweetheart.”

“Thanks, but I’ve got this.”

I serve the ball perfectly, and he volleys it back, but he’s no match for my backhand, and he misses my next shot. He whips those hot green eyes up to mine and looks genuinely surprised.

“You’re good.”

“I know.”

I serve again, and before long I win, not even giving him a chance to score on me.

“Who’s next?”

“Me!” Grace jumps up, stretches her arms across her body, and takes the paddle from Brad, who is scratching his head and watching me like he doesn’t know me at all.

Which only makes me laugh.

“How did you get so good at this?” Grace asks as she serves the ball and I volley it back to her. We volley back and forth more than a dozen times before she gets the point.

Grace is good at this.

“College,” I reply. “I didn’t play beer pong, I played ping pong.”

After a ferocious match, I win by just two points.

“You are a worthy opponent,” Grace says, bowing before me.

“As are you,” I reply, bowing in return, and then we dissolve in a fit of giggles, hugging each other. “How did you get so good?”

“I practice a lot. I may be clumsy, but this seems to be one of the things I’m good at.”

“I’ll play with you anytime.” I give her a high five and then head straight for the food again. “Ping pong makes me hungry.”

“I have dessert coming down soon,” Grace says as I take a bite of a chip. “Cheesecake.”

“Good lord,” Jenna moans, covering her belly. “Give me thirty minutes to get this food baby to settle.”

“Same,” Max says. “And then bring it on.”

The rest of the evening is full of laughter, ping pong, and food. Stolen kisses. Conversation.

I notice both of Brad’s parents watching us closely, but kindly, throughout the hours that follow. It’s a relief to know that his mother likes me. I mean, we’re grown adults, but having their approval means a lot.

Suddenly, just before ten, Brad’s radio goes off.

“They’re going to start the light show,” Brad says.

“Let’s go up to the deck,” Grace says with excitement. We follow her up and all lean against the railing.

Brad walks up behind me and wraps his arms around me, caging me against the railing. Just as the first fireworks burst into the sky, he lays his lips against my ear.

“Thank you,” he murmurs as the others ooh and aah over the lights in the sky.

“For what?”

“This. All of this.”

He kisses my cheek, and then we’re silent, watching the sky light up, surrounded by those closest to us.

It’s been the best day that I’ve had in a very long time.

Maybe ever.

***

“The boss man wants a word,” my nurse, Melissa, says. She’s poked her head around the doorjamb of my office. We had a long one today, and it’s only late morning.

“You look tired.”

“I am,” she says with a shrug. “I hate it when the fourth falls on a week day.”

“I know.” I smile, feeling the effects from being up late last night myself. “Thankfully our patient load is light today.”

She nods and offers me a grin. “You have a patient in room four, and then you’re done until after lunch.”

“Cool.” I grab my stethoscope and my computer. “I’ll go talk to Jim and then see my patient. This shouldn’t take long.”

She nods and I walk to Jim’s office. He calls me inside.

“Hi there,” I say and sit in the chair in front of his desk.

“Good morning,” he replies with a kind smile. Jim has been an OB/GYN in Cunningham Falls for forty years. He’s no longer delivering babies, but he’s still the head doctor in this practice, and I respect him immensely. I’ve learned so much from him since I came on. “Hannah, we need to talk.”

“Okay.”

“I’ve decided that it’s time for you to stop taking call 24/7.”

I sit quietly, blinking at him, sure I’ve heard him wrong.

“Did you hear me?”

“I don’t think so.”

He repeats himself, and I frown. “I don’t understand. Have I done something wrong?”

“Not yet,” he says and takes his glasses off, rubbing his eyes. “But you work too much, Hannah. There will be no more taking call on your nights off.”

“My patients hire me to be there when their babies are born, Jim. It’s important to them that I follow through with their care from beginning to end.”

“I get it,” he says, raising his hands in surrender. “I know what you’re saying. But Hannah, we have five perfectly capable doctors in this clinic who can all deliver babies. It’s too much for you to work twenty-four, sometimes forty-eight hours in a row, and then show up here to take appointments as well. You’ll burn yourself out before you’re forty, and I won’t allow that.”