I’m trying not to freak out, but it’s not easy. When Anne told me that Charlie had stuffed raisins up her nose and there was one stuck, I was horrified and honestly a little pissed. She’s a smart kid, and this was stupid. I’m fairly certain a raisin up her nostril won’t kill her, but I can’t help considering all the worst-case scenarios. Maybe she could aspirate it into her lungs or something? Was that even possible? I get to Anne’s place in record time, and she opens the door, looking even more distraught than me.

“I am so sorry. Jennica’s brother dared them to do it,” she confesses. “Trust me, he’s in trouble. Big trouble!”

Charlie is standing in the hall behind her, big hazel eyes wide and scared. I’m not sure if it’s the thing trapped in her nostril that has her freaked out or if she’s scared of the trouble she might be in. I give Anne a small, reassuring smile and motion for Charlie to join me. “Kids are kids. Thanks for calling me. I’ll take her home and fix her right up.”

“I think you’re going to need professional help,” Anne recommended. “I tried to snag it with tweezers but I couldn’t.”

Fuck.

I smile again. “Okay. It’s not a big deal. Don’t beat yourself up.” I look down at Charlie and her little lip trembles. “Thank Mrs. Kesler for having you over.”

“Thank you. And I’m sorry,” Charlie says in a shaking voice.

Anne bends and pats her head. “It’s okay, Charlie. I hope you get it out.”

We head down the front path to the car. As soon as I have her buckled into her booster seat in the back, she bursts into tears. Now I’m worried the snot will loosen the thing and send it shooting down her throat, choking her. I hug her. “It’s okay, sweetie.”

“Is it going to be in there forever?” she asks, panicked. “Is it going to get all gross and stinky? Is it going to make my nose rot?”

“No, honey.” I try not to laugh at her questions. “Does it hurt?”

She shakes her head no. I kiss her forehead. “I’m going to take you to a doctor, and they’re going to remove it. It’s going to be fine.”

“Will it hurt then?” she asks, voice still shaky.

“I hope not,” I say, which is the only honest answer I can give. I close the back and as I walk around the car, I quickly text Sadie.

I don’t get an immediate response, so I hop in the car, but before I can pull out of Anne’s driveway, she texts back.

I put down the phone and let out a sigh of relief.

“Don’t worry, Charlie. I just texted my friend who works at the hospital and she said she will get it out, easy-peasy.”

My daughter gives me a wobbly smile. She’s still scared as hell. Poor kid.

I try not to speed as I head toward the hospital. Charlie, thankfully, has stopped crying, but she’s sniffing now. I dig around my console and pull out a small pack of tissue. “Try blowing, sweetie. I don’t want you to sniff too hard.”

I hand it back to her and I hear her blow. “It didn’t come out,” she reports.

“No worries, kiddo. We’ll get it out.”

“Will your hopsital friend laugh at me?” she asks nervously, and I bite my lip to keep from laughing at the way she said “hospital.” She’s started to develop self-consciousness lately, and it makes me sad. I don’t remember having those worries at her age and I wonder if it’s a gender thing. I hate it. It’s not fair. I want her to be carefree and confident forever, even though I know that’s completely unrealistic.

“No, Charlie, nurses and doctors will have seen this type of thing before. A lot,” I reply soothingly. “I promise you’re not a weirdo.”

I glance in the rearview mirror and watch her stare despondently at the tissue in her tiny hands. “Cale laughs at me sometimes.”

My blood turns to ice in my veins. Stay calm. Stay calm… “What do you mean, Charlie?”

My voice is soft and calm, but I’m griping the steering wheel so hard I could probably rip it out of the car right now. We stop at a red light. She shrugs her delicate shoulders. “I spilled my drink last week and he laughed really loud and people looked at me.”

“Where was Mommy?” I’m going to fucking kill this dude.

“She was there. She told him to stop and helped me clean it up and the lady brought me a new drink,” she explains. “But I cried and that made him mad.”

“Well, he was wrong,” I say firmly but still calmly, because I’m scared if I show her how enraged I am it’ll scare her or, worse yet, make her hold on to this shitty moment even more. “He wasn’t nice. You had an accident. It happens. No one should be made fun of for accidents.”

“That’s what Mommy said later,” she says, her voice getting a little stronger and a timid smile on her lips.

Later? Lauren should have said it immediately. And then thrown Charlie’s new drink at him.

The hospital is visible now half a block up, and I push my anger at Cale aside and concentrate on the problem at hand. “Try blowing again, nugget.”

She does. “It didn’t come out.”

“Okay. No worries,” I reply and pull into the parking lot.

The nurse at the desk is the friendly blond lady Sadie sent in to check on Eli. I tell Charlie to sit in the plastic chair nearest the counter and walk up. I smile. “Hi. How are you tonight?”

“I’m doing okay. Thank you for asking.” She seems surprised I asked. She smiles and glances past me at Charlie. “Your little one under the weather?”

I shake my head. “No, she stuck a raisin up her nose and we can’t get it out.”

The blonde, whose name tag says Shelda, doesn’t even blink. “Right. Sadie just told me you’d be coming in. We can handle that. You know my kid once wedged three marbles up his nose.”

I chuckle. “Is there a support group for parents who go through this? Because I could use it right about now.”

Shelda laughs. “I wish.”

She asks for my insurance card and gives me some paperwork to fill out. I sit down next to Charlie and fill it in. Charlie looks nervous again. I rub her back. “It’s okay. This place is big and smells funny, but the people are really nice and they’ll get rid of the raisin. The nurse told me her son shoved marbles up his nose.”

“Really? I wouldn’t do that. They’re too big!”

“Why did you do this, Charlie?” I ask without condemnation.

She shrugs and looks sheepish. “It’s so embarrassing…”

I open my mouth to talk her into telling me, because eventually I’m going to make her. This is a life lesson we need to talk out so it doesn’t happen again. But she looks so ashamed I worry she might cry again if I push her right now. I tell myself we can talk it out after the raisin is removed. Instead I finish the paperwork and bring it back to the counter. Shelda gives me a big, soothing smile. “I’m going to slide you into room two. Sadie will be in to help you right away. She’s the best nasal extractionist we have. She’s also every kid’s favorite.”

“Thank you so much.”

Five minutes later, as Charlie sits on the edge of the bed swinging her legs, the curtain is pulled back and Sadie is standing there. She’s in pale pink scrubs that give her porcelain skin tone a healthy glow. Her blond hair is pulled back in the same low ponytail it was in last time I was here, and her wide, light eyes are free of makeup. She looks gorgeous. Our eyes meet and she gives me a bright, confident smile and reaches out and pats my shoulder. “I got this. Don’t stress.”

My tension instantly dissipates. She drops her hand from my shoulder and turns and waves at Charlie. “Hey. You’re Charlotte?”

“Charlie,” she corrects quietly.

“Charlie is a cool name,” Sadie replies. “I’m Sadie.”

“I have a friend at school named Sadie,” Charlie offers.

“Awesome!” Sadie smiles, and it’s soothing even to me. “I hear you got a raisin stuck. I want to help unstick it. Is that okay?”

Charlie nods profusely. Sadie directs her to lie back on the bed. She grabs some instrument with a light at the end and angles it up Charlie’s nostril. She looks over at me. “This is going to be over in no time, Charlie. I promise.”

Charlie looks at me. “Can we keep it secret, so Cale won’t laugh at me?”

I can feel my expression darken. “I won’t tell Cale.”

Sadie doesn’t miss the shame on Charlie’s face, and she handles it like a hero, in my opinion. “This isn’t anything to laugh at. It happens to tons of kids, Charlie. I promise. My brother once shoved a Lego up his nose to keep my sisters and me from playing with it.”

“A Lego would hurt!” Charlie exclaims. Sadie nods emphatically.

“It did. And he cried a lot, but I never laughed at him,” Sadie replies. “And nobody is going to laugh at you.”

She turns to me. “This is going to look scary to her,” she explains quietly. “You might want to hold her hand.”

I nod and stand up and walk over to the side of the bed as Sadie grabs a long metal tong-looking thing with bent, pointy-looking ends. Yeah, I would freak out at seeing that thing at Charlie’s age. I watch her eyes flare. “Daddy…”

“It’s okay, Charlie,” Sadie says and puts the thing down on a sterile paper on the movable tray table. “First, I’m going to swab your nose with something. It’s going to feel cold and wet, but it won’t hurt.”

“O…kay,” Charlie says cautiously. I squeeze her hand.

Sadie glances at me but looks away. “It’s a wee bit of numbing cream. The extraction shouldn’t hurt, but this will make sure of it.”

“Thanks.”

She nods without glancing back up at me. Charlie squeezes my hand as Sadie works, but she doesn’t cry and she doesn’t wince. Sadie talks throughout the whole thing in a smooth, easy tone. She’s incredible with kids, that much is clear, and it only makes her even more attractive to me. Within a minute the smushed raisin is in a little disposable cup.

“Okay, all done!” Sadie announces as Charlie sits up and looks into the cup. “Your nose is a raisin-free zone. Promise me you’ll keep it that way.”

“I will. Promise!” Charlie replies, and without me having to remind her she adds, “Thank you.”

Sadie tosses the raisin into the garbage along with her gloves and turns to a computer station in the corner. She starts to type stuff up while glancing at Charlie. “Charlie, can I ask you why you put the raisin up there? I promise I won’t laugh.”

“Because Kevin said he could shove seven raisins up his and that we couldn’t beat him because we were girls.”

Charlie’s attitude and competitive spirit leave no doubt she’s my kid. I bite back a smile and look up to see Sadie doing the same.

“Kevin was wrong,” I tell Charlie. “Sometimes when people say stuff like that you have to walk away knowing they’re wrong and you don’t have to prove them wrong. Especially if it’s something that could hurt you.”

Charlie looks up at me and then to Sadie, who hides her smile easily. “Your dad is right.”

“Okay.”

Shelda walks into the room. “Everything okay?”

“Raisin has been evicted,” Sadie announces, and Shelda smiles. “Just finishing up the report. I can forward to your local pediatrician if you’d like.”

My face drops, and Shelda notices. “I…umm…It’s just…”

Sadie glances up at me. Shelda motions toward Charlie. “No sense in you sitting around this stuffy room. Would you like to sneak up to the cafeteria with me? They have some yummy oatmeal cookies tonight.”

Charlie looks up at me, and I pull out my wallet and hand her a five-dollar bill. “No soda, though, Charlie. Apple juice or milk only.”

“Okay.” She nods. “And I won’t put anything in my nose.”

“Atta girl!” Sadie smiles as I try not to laugh. Shelda takes Charlie out of the room, and I walk to the door and watch them go. As soon as they are out of sight I collapse against the wall in relief and run my hands through my hair. “Holy shit, this kid thing really does kill you slowly.”

Sadie laughs. “She is absolutely adorable. And by the way, please feel free to tell Jude’s teammates about the Lego incident and make fun of him mercilessly.”

My eyes narrow on her. “You did laugh at him when it happened, didn’t you?”

“Cackled for days,” she replies with an evil grin that is still somehow sexy as hell.

She finishes typing on the computer and turns her head toward me. “So you don’t want the file sent to your pediatrician? You don’t have to do it. We just generally offer as most parents like to keep all the records with one physician.”

“No. I’d rather not,” I reply and move around the bed so I can stand closer to her. She doesn’t notice or at least she doesn’t react. “That Cale person Charlie referred to is my ex-wife’s boyfriend. If I keep this from my ex, I keep this from him, which means I won’t have to punch him in the face for laughing at her over it.”

Her eyes hold mine for a long moment. I can’t read her expression so I get worried she doesn’t think I’m doing the right thing. “Does that make me a bad parent?”

She blinks. “Of course not. Charlie is not going to need any follow-up care from this and there’s no possibility of a side effect or anything, so it’s not a big deal. Don’t worry. Oh, and for the record, even the fact that she shoved the raisin up her nose isn’t your fault and doesn’t make you a bad parent. And also for the record, your ex is dating a dick.”

“Yeah. She is,” I say.

“You can finish up at the desk when Shelda gets back. She’ll print out a copy of the report, for your records,” she says and moves the computer out to the side.

“You’re a great nurse,” I say.

She reaches out and squeezes my arm. “You’re a great dad.”

I know it’s probably not appropriate, but I give her a hug. “Thank you.”

She hugs me back, squeezing me as tightly as I’m squeezing her. I meant it as a friendly gesture, but it feels like much more. Seeing how incredible she was at her job, and most importantly with my daughter, has only made my feelings for her stronger.

“I know this sounds crazy, but I miss you,” I confess. She breaks the hug and takes a step back. “I miss all the time I never got to spend with you.”

“I feel that way too.”

“So let’s hang out. As friends,” I suggest, and it sounds as impulsive as it feels. “We can finally grab a coffee or maybe a few drinks or something.”

“Griffin…” She shakes her head. “I think the only thing that would make my life more complicated than dating you would be being around you but not dating you.”

I know the minute she says it that she’s right. “I like you.”

“I like you too,” she whispers. A slow, unbelievably sensuous smile spreads across her face as her cheeks get pink. She has this way of looking angelic and sly the very same time, and it’s making my dick hard. I can’t remember the last time I had such an intense reaction to a smile. I don’t know if I ever have. We’re standing as close to each other as we can without touching. “But are you attracted to me?”

“So much I can barely stand it,” I admit in a rough whisper.

“Me too.” She gently bites her bottom lip before she blinks, steps away from me and the sexy-as-fuck, wicked smile disappears, and her professional smile is back. “And that’s why we can’t just be friends. I understand, Griffin, why the timing is off and I accept it. Honestly I’m dealing with a lot in my life too, and all my emotions and energy should be directed at my family right now, so this is probably for the best.”

She says out loud what I’ve been telling myself every day since I bailed on our date. It should make me feel better, it should validate my decision…Why doesn’t it? She steps back behind the computer.

“Shelda should be back with Charlie by now,” Sadie explains, and then her expression softens a little. “It was good to see you again, Griffin…and to meet Charlie, even though it wasn’t the best circumstances. She seems like a great kid.”

“She is” is all I can think to say because everything else running through my mind goes against what we just mutually established—this isn’t the right time for us.

“Take care.” I take one last, long look at Sadie’s beautiful face and leave the room to find my daughter.