One Moment Please (Wait With Me #3)(34)

Her brows pinch. “Are you close to your family?”

I nod on reflex even though things have been different since I returned to Boulder a few years ago. “My parents live here in town and so do my grandparents. Except for my dad’s parents right now. They winter in Arizona.” A pang of unease creeps in as I imagine telling my parents about this situation. I push that thought to the back of my mind. I have weeks to tell them. Months even. There’s no need to bring them into this situation anytime soon.

Lynsey is quiet for a while as she absorbs this information. “My parents are local too. And I have one grandma still living,” she says quietly. “She lives on acreage outside of Greely.”

I nod and glance down at the paper. “Be sure to put that all on the medical history. There’s a clipboard in the side pocket of your door.”

Fifteen minutes later, Lynsey has finished her form just as I pull up to a brown brick building with a big sign that says Frontera Street Wellness Center.

Lynsey frowns over at me. “Seriously, what are we doing?”

Without answering, I slide out of the car, open her door, and guide her inside. We turn left down a hallway and she stops dead in her tracks when I reach to open a door that has the text: Eve Gunthrie, LMFT scrawled on it.

“Are you taking me to see a freaking therapist?” she hisses, her eyes wide and accusing. “I thought you accusing me of being crazy was a joke. Like some sick form of flirting that only a true sadist could pull off.”

Her hands are balled into small fists.

I frown. “I’m not taking you to see a therapist. I’m taking us to see a therapist. You said we didn’t know each other, Lynsey. This woman is the best family and marriage counselor in Boulder. I had to call in a favor to get an appointment. You should see her credentials.”

“I know her credentials!” she exclaims, her voice reaching that shrill volume that I’ve heard a handful of times by now. “I read her book on split families, and it was really insightful. But I think you’re ignoring the important fact that you and I are not married!”

I turn to face her, feeling the tension billowing off her like steam. “A relationship between two people having a baby together is a unity…of sorts. This woman is a professional and doing a session together will help us get to know each other. I thought with your background in psychology, you’d respect this.”

She rolls her eyes and pinches the bridge of her nose. “I can’t believe this is your idea of getting to know each other.”

Fuck. I can’t believe she’s not into this. Maybe I had it wrong.

Suddenly, her eyes shoot to mine, and she jabs her finger into my chest. “We’ll talk to this woman because it’d be disrespectful to cancel now. But the first thing we’re going to talk about is the fact that you need a wake-up call on how relationships with humans actually work.”




An hour later, we’re back in my car, and my mind is reeling with everything that was discussed in such a short amount of time. The session started off rough when the counselor said her normal couples are people who have been romantically involved more than one time. But when I explained our situation and our goals, she adjusted her protocol and ran with it. Thank fuck.

We discussed our parents and the fact that we both have siblings. Lynsey’s lives nearby and she spends loads of time with her nieces, whereas my younger brother lives on the West Coast and I rarely talk to him or his wife.

I was much more comfortable when we moved on to career goals and aspirations. I confirmed that I wanted to continue working in the ER, which is true. And I learned more about Lynsey’s dreams of opening her own group therapy clinic for children. Hearing her discuss her future business plan, it’s clear she’s extremely intelligent and motivated.

Guilt coursed through me. This baby could potentially derail all her plans. I don’t want that to happen.

At one point, the doctor asked me why I never planned on having children. I blamed it on my career being my top priority, but now that I was faced with this situation, I was perfectly willing to step up and be responsible. It was easy to avoid getting too deep with the session, and that’s one reason I don’t actually like therapy.

Patients can lie. Patients can omit. Patients can feed you a line of complete bullshit. In the ER, the tests don’t lie. Sure, I deal with patients who try to tell me they don’t use recreational drugs all the time. But I have a blood test that provides the truth, so there’s no gray area in my charts.

“How did you feel about everything in there?” I ask, turning the car on and angling myself to face Lynsey while it warms up.

She stares forward, long lashes fanning her cheeks with every blink. “It was more enlightening than I thought it would be actually.”

I nod. “We learned a lot about each other.”

She rolls her eyes. “We learned a lot of basic things.”

“Why are you saying that like it’s bad?” I went to a lot of trouble to put this together, the least she could do is appreciate it.

Lynsey points at the building. “You basically took me on a job interview, Josh. I felt like an employee taking a personality quiz so you’d know how to handle me.”

“I think we should take that enneagram personality quiz she recommended.” I pull my phone from my pocket to look at the note I took when she mentioned it. “That might be helpful for us.”