The Best Laid Plans

“We’re going to lose this game if we don’t convert on this power play.”

“The Hawks will pull this out. We just need one. We can get one.” Charlie had faith. He believed things would work out in the end—they always did. “Don’t tell me your fiancée is driving you nuts.”

“No, not Kendall. We agreed that we wanted our wedding to be low-key. We talked about just going to the courthouse and making it official. Her sister, on the other hand, has other ideas. Emma thinks we need to have a ‘real’ wedding, and if we can’t put it together, she will.”

“Emma, huh?” The game no longer held Charlie’s interest. Emma was the complete package. She was the perfect combination of sweet, sexy, smart and interesting. Every time they bumped into one another, he became more enamored. She was cool and exuded an easy confidence, as though she always knew exactly what she was doing and why she was doing it.

“Yeah. Kendall swears there’s no one better at organizing things, but I think we should keep it simple. Just family and a justice of the peace.”

“I’m with the Nightingale on this one. You’re marrying Special K! You can’t marry a woman like that at city hall. Plus, if you have a real wedding, you’ll get gifts and I’ll get to drink out of a real glass when I come over to watch the game.” Charlie held up his plastic kiddie cup filled with Coke.

Max snorted when he laughed. “That’s one way to look at it, I suppose.”

Finding the bright side was Charlie’s gift. He was a silver-lining kind of guy. His optimism was a trait passed down through the generations; his father and grandfather had similar personalities.

Charlie’s grandfather swore it was the power of positive thinking that had won the two elder Fletcher men the women of their dreams. Unfortunately, Charlie hadn’t experienced the same kind of luck in the romance department. Women found him funny and charming when they met him, but eventually they all broke his heart, perpetuating the nice-guys-finish-last theory.

Emma had dream-woman potential. Charlie hadn’t pursued her yet out of fear. One more failed relationship and his optimism might be lost for good. Then he’d be lonely and depressed. He couldn’t let his thoughts drift in that direction.

“What if I helped her? I could make sure she doesn’t get too carried away. Make sure it’s how you want it.”

Max lifted one eyebrow. “You want to help plan my wedding?”

“Honestly? No. But I would like to spend some time with Kendall’s sister.” Charlie grinned. “Is that wrong?”

This garnered all of Max’s attention. He sat forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “You want to spend time with Emma? When did this happen?”

Charlie scrubbed his face with his hands. There would be no going back once the cat was out of the bag. “Pretty much since the first time I saw her.”

“What? How did I not know this?” He reached for his phone, but Charlie smacked it out of his hand.

“You can’t tell Kendall.”

“I have to tell Kendall.”

“You cannot tell Kendall.”

“I don’t think you understand,” Max said seriously. “Kendall will be told. If not now, then later.”

“Later. Please.”

“Fine.” A smile spread slowly across Max’s face. “Charlie Fletcher, I thought we were friends, but you’ve been holding out on me.”

Charlie hadn’t been intentionally keeping secrets. There wasn’t much to tell other than he had a crush. “There was nothing to say. I like her. I’ve been holding back a little because the women who somehow resist my good looks completely fall at my feet when I turn on the charm. It’s embarrassing, really.”

Max laughed into his fist. “Okay, but seriously. Emma’s cool. Now, if you were head over heels for Lucy, I’d tell you to run for your life. Emma’s usually easy to get along with, but I think she’s dating some doctor. If you let me call Kendall—” he reached for his phone “—I could find out.”

“No way.” Charlie smacked his hand again. “I have sisters. Sisters tell sisters everything. If you tell Kendall, she’ll tell Emma and things will be weird.”

“Okay, then just ask her out on a date,” Max suggested.

“But you think she’s already dating someone?” He’d worried this was the case. A beautiful woman like Emma probably had a boyfriend.

“Kendall and Lucy always say things about Emma marrying a doctor, but I feel like I’m missing something. I’ve never met any doctor boyfriend, so I’m not sure.”

Before he made a fool of himself, Charlie needed to find out if Dr. Boyfriend was real or not. If he wasn’t, he’d ask her on a date. If she was already taken, Charlie would have to reassess the situation.

“Well, you wanna be my best man?” Max asked.

“Yeah?” Charlie grinned. He hadn’t expected to get a title. “You want me to be your best man?”

“If you’re going to help my future sister-in-law plan my wedding, you should probably be my best man.”

“You’re a good man, Floor Three. I’m in.” Charlie had never planned a wedding, but he’d been to a few. Something told him he’d have to look at flower arrangements and discuss things like color palettes—things he had no interest in whatsoever. Spending some time with Emma could definitely be worth it, though.

Max and Charlie shook hands just as the Blackhawks’ forward scored a goal with only seconds left in the third period. Both men jumped up, cheering loudly. They high-fived and clapped for their team as if they were fans in the stands. A win for the Hawks had to be a sign that good things were going to come Charlie’s way.

* * *

“PEOPLE NEED TO turn down their music and look in their rearview mirrors every once in a while,” Charlie’s partner complained as she honked the air horn and drove the ambulance around some guy who simply refused to pull over.

Charlie stared him down as they passed. “He’s on his phone. I knew it!” There was nothing more frustrating to a paramedic than not being able to get to a call because of negligent drivers.

Serena made a wide right turn onto a one-way street. She double-parked in front of the brownstone where the 911 call had been made. Charlie grabbed his jump bag and headed for the building. A new life was about to begin today. The caller, Mr. Garrison, said his wife was in labor and was too far along to leave the house.

He wasn’t kidding.

The young woman lay on the bed clutching her swollen belly and shrieking as another contraction brought her one step closer to motherhood. Her husband ran back to her side and held her hand until it was over.

“I told her we should go to the hospital when they were coming every ten minutes, but she thought she had enough time to shower.”

Charlie noticed Mrs. Garrison had done more than shower. Her hair was styled and she had a face full of makeup. Something told him she’d been more worried about how she would look than about getting to the hospital on time. This had to be her first child, because most women didn’t wait when they’d been through the “joys” of natural childbirth before.

Serena instructed Mrs. Garrison not to bear down and asked the husband to get them some clean towels or blankets. Charlie pulled out the necessary equipment from his bag and put on a pair of gloves. Speaking as calmly as he could manage, he let the very-soon-to-be mother know everything that was happening as it happened. He got her positioned correctly and found the baby’s head was already crowning.

“You need to take me to the hospital! I can’t have my baby delivered by an ambulance driver!”

Sometimes Charlie’s profession got no respect. People didn’t realize how much training was necessary to be a paramedic. No, they weren’t doctors, but they were medical professionals capable of providing treatment until the patient could get to a hospital.

“Can you give me some drugs? I need some drugs,” Mrs. Garrison grunted. First timer for sure.

“I need you to breathe like this.” Charlie showed her how to puff air out so she didn’t push before they were ready. “There’s no time to get you to the hospital, or for drugs, I’m afraid. This baby is going to be out before anything could start working.”

Mr. Garrison returned with towels, and Serena got busy turning the bedroom into what would now be the delivery room. Mrs. Garrison grimaced and then screamed out again.

“I need to push!”

Charlie told her to go ahead as he helped ease the head out. He checked to make sure there was nothing wrapped around the baby’s neck and let her push again. In a matter of seconds, Charlie held a tiny baby boy in his hands. He suctioned the mouth and nose, and the baby let out the kind of cry that every parent loves to hear. Charlie cleaned him off and wrapped him up in a clean towel. Serena handed him the oxygen to administer to the little guy until he pinked up nicely.

“You’ve got a good-lookin’ son here. Now we can take you guys to the hospital to make sure.”

These were the kinds of calls that made Charlie’s day. Not only had he helped bring a life into the world, but he also had to transport this new family to Saint Joe’s, where Emma worked. He felt as if it was a good omen that something as joyous as a newborn was bringing him to her hospital today.

As soon as Mrs. Garrison was no longer in agonizing pain, she realized her husband did not have his camera at the ready. The hair and makeup made perfect sense after she got him to take a few dozen pictures of her and their son. Mr. Garrison gave his wife her phone so she could post some selfies and make the announcement that she’d delivered a healthy boy on every social media site out there.

Serena’s face gave away her annoyance. Charlie could only smile. “Come on, Serena Hayes. I bet you looked like a million bucks in all the pictures when your babies were born.”

Serena had heard about Charlie’s proclivity for giving nicknames when she came to work at Station 22. She was an African-American woman in her thirties. No one was going to call her anything childish or foolish. She’d introduced herself and let him know he had a couple options. He could call her by her first name or last name. She would respond to either, but nothing else. That led to him calling her by both her first and last name. Sometimes he slipped in a Serqueena when he was feeling rebellious, but that didn’t happen too often.

“I look good all the time. I don’t need to post it all over the web to prove it,” she said under her breath. She gave Mrs. Garrison one more minute to finish her announcements before they loaded her and the baby into the ambulance and headed to Saint Joseph’s Hospital.

* * *

THE TRIAGE NURSE on duty loved Charlie. She congratulated him on his successful delivery and offered him a chocolate kiss from the little jar that sat on her desk.

“I think you missed your calling. You should have gone to medical school,” she said.

“I’m not doctor material. Too many years in the classroom and then the rest of your life spent in the hospital. Not to mention, I look terrible in white. But blue, I’m to die for in blue,” he said with a wink. Charlie unwrapped the chocolate and popped it in his mouth. He attempted to nonchalantly scan the ER for any sign of Emma, but she was nowhere to be seen. He worried she wasn’t on duty today. “Any chance Emma Everhart is around?”

“Emma?” The woman’s forehead creased. “What do you need Emma for?”

“I’m the best man in her sister’s wedding. I just wanted to touch base with her.” His eyes continued to search for her.

“Her sister is getting married? You know her sister?”

“Her sister is marrying my neighbor. Small world, right?” Just then, Emma stepped out from behind one of the curtained-off care rooms. She changed the colored marker outside the room from orange to green. Her hair was pulled up in a messy bun and her blue scrubs were nothing fancy, but she wore blue better than Charlie did. His throat tightened at the thought of talking to her.

“Emma!” the triage nurse screeched. Emma turned at the sound of her name and Charlie’s heart began to pound. Her eyes fell squarely on him, as if he was the owner of the painfully shrill voice. The triage nurse waved her over. “Come here.”

The closer she got, the warmer he felt. He practiced greeting her in his head, trying to sound cool. Then she smiled and he lost the ability to speak.

“Hey, Charlie. What’s up, Diane?”

The sound of his name coming from her lips was magic. He wanted to sweep her up in his arms and hear her say it again, breathlessly this time.

“Why didn’t you tell me your sister is getting married?”

Emma glanced at Charlie, who could only grin like an idiot. She spoke to Diane. “I don’t think I’ve had a minute to talk about it with you. But I see it’s already ER gossip.”

“He wasn’t gossiping,” Diane said in his defense. “Charlie was just telling me how he’s the best man.”

Those eyes that were this mesmerizing mix of brown and green fell back on him. “Max asked you to be the best man?”

This was when Charlie wanted words to come out of his mouth, but all he could do was nod. She had this way of turning him into a mute.

“Huh.” She smiled and said, “Well, you better start writing a fabulous best man’s speech because the maid-of-honor one is going to be pretty awesome.”

No doubt she would knock it out of the park. She exuded a confidence that had to come from being successful at a thing or two.

“I’ll do that,” he said, knowing full well he’d wing it when the time came.

“Good. I’ll see you around.”

She started to go and Charlie panicked. “Nightingale, hold up.”

She stopped and her eyebrows arched while she waited for him to continue.

He didn’t have anything else to say. His mind went blank, then filled with things he couldn’t possibly do. He wanted to take her by the hand and pull her out of this busy hospital. He wanted to walk the city’s streets and find out what she loved about it. He wanted to know what she put on her hot dog and who she thought had the best pizza.

“Did you want something or are you planning on just smiling at me like that? Because it’s borderline creepy and I really need to get back to work.” She jerked her thumb over her shoulder.

Charlie felt himself smile bigger. “Do you want to meet up sometime?”

“What?” Emma and Diane said at the same time.

“I mean, I heard you were planning the wedding, and I thought, since I’m the best man and you’re the maid of honor, maybe we could get together and talk about what would make Kendall and Max happy.”

Emma’s chin dropped. “You want to help plan my sister’s wedding?”

She made that idea sound weird. He didn’t want to seem weird. So he shifted the blame. “Max asked me to talk to you. I think he wants to make sure he has some say in all of this.”

“He thinks I’m not going to include him? I plan on checking with both of them before I do anything,” she said defensively, stepping back in his direction. “It’s their wedding. Of course he’ll have a say.”

Charlie wanted to kick himself for offending her. He tried again to backpedal. “No, of course he thinks you’ll involve him. I think he thought...I think we both thought it would be nice of me to help you out so you didn’t have to do it all on your own.”

Emma smiled, hopefully because she thought he was endearing and not a moron. “That’s really sweet, but I have it all under control.” Again, she started to leave.

“I have a few ideas, though.” He had no ideas, but desperation took over. Who knew getting her to agree to one meeting would be so tough. He watched as she took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Was he annoying her? That was the last thing he wanted.

“I’m off tomorrow.”

Relief flooded his body. “Me, too,” he said, barely believing his luck.

“I’ll be in touch, then.”

“Perfect.”

“Fletcher,” Serena said as she came back into the ER. “We have to go.”

He acknowledged her with a nod before smiling at a retreating Emma. “See you tomorrow, Nightingale.”

CHAPTER THREE

EMMA WENT STRAIGHT to Kendall’s house after work, hoping her sister would have an explanation for her fiancé’s distrust. Did Max really think she wasn’t going to plan a wedding with both him and Kendall in mind? He really thought he needed to send his best man to watch over her?

She knocked but walked in before anyone could answer. “Anybody home?” she shouted from the foyer. Kendall’s house was Emma’s home away from home. It was a cozy little two-story that, thanks to Kendall, was always warm and inviting.

Simon came running from the family room. “Aunt Emma, guess what?” His sock feet caused him to slide across the wooden floor when he tried to stop.

She put her hands out to catch him before he ran into her. “What?”

He smiled and she could see that one of his front teeth was growing in and one had just fallen out. The kid had a constant gap. “At school today, I got to say the Pledge of Allegiance over the intercom.”

“You did?”

Simon nodded proudly. “The principal said I did such a good job, I can do it every Monday if I want.”

“That is so cool.” It was more than cool, but it was a rule not to freak out too much when Simon spoke in public. He suffered from an anxiety disorder called selective mutism, which made it difficult for him to speak to or in front of other people. He went to a therapeutic school that had been helping him immensely. Every day Kendall said she saw improvements.

“Want to see what I drew at school? Mom said we can frame it.”

“Of course I do.” Emma took his hand and was dragged back to the kitchen where Kendall was cleaning up dinner.

“Hey, there,” Kendall said, drying the dishes. “If I knew you were coming over, I would have saved you a plate. You want me to heat something up?”

Emma waved her off. “Don’t worry about it. I ate on my break. I heard someone got to say the Pledge at school today.”

Pride shone in Kendall’s eyes. “I heard that, too.”

“Look at my picture,” Simon said, recapturing her attention and handing her his drawing. In colored pencil, he had sketched a heartwarming picture of his soon-to-be family. There were Max and Kendall, holding hands with each other and with their respective sons. Simon had paid careful attention to the details, even giving Max the five-o’clock shadow the man was so fond of. Her nephew was extremely talented for his young age and so much like his mother. Kendall had always been the most creative member of the family, painting masterpieces at Simon’s age. Emma’s artistic ability was limited to being able to stay within the lines of her coloring books.

“This is a beautiful picture of your family, buddy. No wonder Mom wants to frame it.”

Simon took the paper back. “I’m gonna take a picture with the iPad and send it to Max so he can see it now.”

“Remember he’s at work,” Kendall called after him as he raced out of the room. “If he doesn’t text back, it’s because he’s busy. Don’t send a million texts!” She finished putting the last dish away and turned to her sister. “One night, he texted Max something like a hundred times. Most were just Max’s name over and over. Max got back to his office and saw all these texts from our house. He didn’t read back far enough to see it was just Simon, so he called here in a panic because he was worried something was wrong. I was putting Simon to bed and didn’t answer the phone. Max assumed the worst, left work, came here and scared the crap out of me by busting into the house screaming for me and Simon.”

Emma laughed. “Whoops.”

“Yeah.” Kendall chuckled, too. “At least I know he really cares, right?”

“Speaking of Max caring, what’s up with him sending his best man to spy on my wedding planning?”

“What?” Kendall seemed genuinely surprised.

Emma took a seat at the kitchen table. “Charlie showed up at the hospital today and informed me Max asked him to be his best man and also asked him to talk to me about the wedding planning. Like he’s afraid I’m going to do something without checking with you two first.”

“Honestly, I didn’t even know he was going to ask Charlie to be his best man.” Kendall sat down next to her. “I don’t think he’s spying on you.”

“Why else would he ask Charlie to meet with me to go over the plans?”

Kendall shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe he didn’t want you to feel like you had to do it all by yourself. Maybe he wants you to have a guy’s perspective when you start making plans. He never mentioned any of this to me, so I have no idea.”

Whatever Max’s reasoning was, it meant nothing but trouble for Emma. What did Charlie know about planning a wedding? What “ideas” was he looking forward to sharing?

Kendall and Max wanted to have a short engagement, which was why they’d been thinking about simply eloping at city hall. Emma had promised to come up with a church wedding that would stay small. She had no intentions of making this into some sort of monster wedding. Was that what Max thought?

“I’ll run some of my ideas by Charlie tomorrow to make Max feel better, but after that, I don’t need the interference. Not if you want to get married over the Fourth of July.”

“I don’t think Charlie is going to give you a hard time. Be nice to him.”

“I’ll be nice.”

“But not too nice. I think Charlie likes you a little. I’d hate for him to think you’re one of those nurses who dates paramedics.”

“Actually, you’d be amazed by how many nurses date cops. I don’t know what it is, but the ladies in my ER love the Chicago PD.”

“But not you, huh?” Kendall knew all about Emma’s life plan. Unlike Lucy, she didn’t usually treat Emma as if she was nuts for thinking she could map out her whole life. Kendall was the sister Emma could tell anything to and not feel she would be judged.

“Nope, not me.” Emma rested her chin on her folded hands and stared off dreamily. “I have my heart set on the handsome new doctor starting next week.”

“Oh, do tell.” Her sister leaned closer.

It was too early to gossip. Emma hadn’t even formally met him yet. Still, she knew he was the one. He fit perfectly in her plans.

“He’s the one I’ve been waiting for, I can just tell.”

“Yeah? He’s the one?”

Emma always got what she wanted, and sticking to her plan was the only way to prevent disaster. The last time she even thought about deterring from the plan, bad things had happened. “He’s got to be.”

The phone rang and Kendall jumped up to answer it. Emma could tell by the smile on Kendall’s face that it was Max calling.

“I know, isn’t it the sweetest thing you’ve ever seen? I told him we could frame it.” She paused to listen. “Emma’s here, by the way. She wants to know why you asked Charlie to help her with the wedding plans.”

All of a sudden, Kendall’s eyes widened and she turned her back, piquing Emma’s interest. Emma strode over and tried to overhear, but Kendall pushed her away.

“I knew it, I knew it, I knew it. We should talk about this. I’m not so sure that’s a good idea,” Kendall said to Max.

“What did you know? What’s not a good idea?” Emma asked, trying again to hear what he was saying. Kendall ran out of the room. Emma followed. “What is he saying?”

Kendall swatted at her sister as she attempted to take the phone away. “She’s trying to get the phone,” she explained to Max. “Cut it out, Emma. I will pinch you if you don’t stop it.” Just like when they were children and only had one cordless phone in a house full of adolescent girls, Emma was undeterred by her sister’s warning and wrestled it away.

“What’s not a good idea?” Emma asked Max. “Why did you tell Charlie to meet with me?”

“Hi, Em. How are you tonight?”

“Don’t ‘Hi, Em’ me. What is not a good idea?”

“I was telling Kendall I really have to get back to work. Charlie just wants to help out. He’s my friend. Be nice.”

“Be nice? I’m always nice. That doesn’t answer my question. What is not a good idea?”

“Gotta go. Tell Kendall I’ll call when I get home.”