Page 15 of The Seal's Promise
“That’s really cool. I’ll be there,” Dalton said. Brooke’s son was giving him every lead he needed to see her again.
“Great, you can ask my mom about career day then too.”
“Alright, Max, we gotta go or your mom will start to worry,” Miles said. “Good night, Dalton.”
He could hear the warning in Miles’s tone, but he didn’t care.
“Bye, Dr. Dalton, super ninja SEAL.”
“Bye, Max.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Brooke
Getting to Third Base
“Just come sitwith us to watch the game, what’s the big deal?” May said on speakerphone.
“The big deal is, I’m not trying to be friends with Dalton Hart—in fact, I’m mad at him for telling Max he should be a SEAL when he grows up.”
“I’m sure he didn’t say it like that,” May defended Dalton. “We’ll see you at the field,” she said, and hung up.
Brooke was trying to wrap things up at the office so she could get to the ballfield before the game started. Being the manageranda nurse on duty at the short-staffed hospital made it more and more difficult to be a good mom. The truth was they needed two more full-time doctors, a nurse, and a new director, because she didn’t want that job anymore. She wanted to be in the parent pickup line and spend more time with Max. If she went after her ex for child support she could more than afford it, but her pride had stopped her. She didn’t want to need Tyler’s money.
Not bothering to swap out her scrubs, Brooke grabbed her work laptop and raced out of the hospital to cross the street and head for the ballfield. She was just cresting the hill as the teams were announced. Huffing, she made her way down the other side of the hill and then remembered she forgot her baseball bag in her car with her blanket in it. She’d have to just sit on the ground.
Before she could find a spot in the shade, a text from May chimed on her phone.We can see you. Come sit with us.She looked up and spotted May under her favorite tree waving her hands like a crazy woman, with Dalton sitting next to her. Brooke stomped across the green grass, dropped her things on the blanket, and sat on the other side of May—even though her sister had left next to no room.
“Oh, I forgot to get my hot dog!” May jumped up and headed over the field to the concession stand.
“You made it,” Dalton said. “Your sister said you get stuck at work a lot.”
She sighed. “It’s a busy and understaffed hospital. The town gets bigger, but it’s tough to recruit.”
“Maybe it needs new management.”
She laughed. “It does, because I started as a nurse, and now I’m managing the entire hospital too.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize you were the administrator too.”
“Yup, for several years now. But, actually, I’m hoping that will change. If we can just replace Dr. Jones, then the new head doctor can take over all the administrative decisions.”
“How’s that going?”
“Not great, but it’ll be fine. We’ll find someone. How’s your gran?”
She didn’t know why she was sharing so much information with him.
“We had an appointment in Savannah today and they ran a few preliminary tests. Then she made me take her shopping and buy her enough pairs of shoes to make up for every year I was away.”
Brooke laughed. “She does love her shoes.”
“I met Max yesterday, officially.”
“I heard. He was very impressed by your secret ninja training, but please don’t encourage him to join the military. That’s the last thing I’d want,” she said, pulling at the tiny yellow flowers in the grass.
“He asked me to go to career day, but I could focus more on being a doctor. I won’t encourage him about the military; I’ve lost enough friends to know that there’s no mother in the world that wants to see her son go off to war. I didn’t have to worry about that when I joined up.”
