What Love Is

Chapter 21

Rowan stood in the doorway of her home, watching Kate’s car pull away in the distance. Behind her, the various men in her life groaned and muttered about the hard labor they’d recently put forth. Katie’s car was thoroughly stacked with furniture - cluttered with the old, worn items that she’d chosen the day Rowan had discovered she was pregnant.

January had skipped by surprisingly fast with the heavy winter it had delivered. A few days out of that month had been spent snowed in, curled up by the TV with nothing to do but chat with Seth and sip hot chocolate. In all reality, January had given her time to think, and relax. Both were things she’d needed desperately.

During that peaceful time, she’d realized a few things. 

Firstly, she’d missed her brother desperately, and was over the moon with joy to hear him walking through the huge house. At one point, his heavy footfalls early in the morning had driven her positively insane, waking her up only to signal that he was awake. Rowan did not mind it as much now. All that mattered now was that her brother was safe, warm, and the cuts and injuries on his body from traveling were disappearing. His hair was sprouting back, slowly but surely, forming a pale red fuzz on his head that would darken as it grew out. It reminded her strongly of his hairstyle when he was a baby, and that fact did not bother her at all, though it did appear to have a negative reaction on Seth’s side.

Secondly, she was confident that her father was the most generous, loving man that she would ever meet in her life (as if she had doubted it before). His reaction to Seth coming home had been simple: a hard squeeze around the shoulders, a deep breath, and a murmured sentence that Rowan had been unable to overhear. The scene had brought unashamed tears to her eyes. 

After the homecoming, Peter had set about making arrangements for the two of them to move back to Oceanview, much to Rowan’s disagreement. He had made the offer for her to stay behind, and Seth move on his own back into their house, but the thought of leaving him to his own devices - even with their father - made her uncomfortable. After hours of debating over living arrangements, it was decided that Grandpa Jack’s house would be sold, and Seth and Rowan would move back to Oceanview together. Their retreat into North Carolina was officially over, and it was time to make the adjustment back into the small town life where they’d grown up. It had saddened her to imagine leaving the barn and the beautiful memories behind, and she’d retreated into a nostalgic shell for a period while she tried to cope with the impending loss of a section of her childhood. In that time, the famous Andrew Mathis himself had called, and her third realization had come upon her…

Though he was forced by Frank’s complaints to the corporate committee to terminate her career at the hospital, there was no other man capable of handling her like he did. No one else could turn her legs and belly to jell-o by simply walking into a room, or steal her breath out of her lungs by just brushing against her. When she thought of her time at Oceanview Medical Center, she did not think about the tragic and horrific encounters she’d come across working the emergency floor. She thought of stolen moments in Drew’s office, kisses exchanged secretly when they thought no one was looking, and the sexy way he leaned in his chair behind his extremely organized desk. It still amused her to remember times she’d suggested messing up his desk a smidge, and he’d outright refused. She couldn’t blame him; those files and folders looked all too perfect to rearrange, especially with the threat of messing them up with sex.

After a heartbreaking conversation, one spoken in sighed tones and weary voices, Drew finally announced that she was being fired. She’d taken the news in stride rather easily, having already found her mental closure with her mother’s death on the day she’d walked straight out those doors without looking back. Though she had to admit, it was nearly funny to hear Drew explaining the terms of her termination, when just a short five months ago he was interviewing her for the job. After they’d hung up, she couldn’t help but to laugh.