“Is this a goodbye then or just a goodbye for now?” he asked as he set down the file he’d been reading when she’d entered.
“For now, I hope. I know you’re busy, but I did want to talk to you about the job. I haven’t talked to Reese about it, but I am considering it. Is it still on the table?”
“Of course. I’d love to talk to you about it more. I’m sure you don’t have the time now, but when you return, we can meet.”
“That sounds great. I’d like to keep this as a possibility from her for now. She’s still healing and not completely out of the woods yet. I don’t want to give her anything else to think about; good or bad.”
“I understand.”
“Dad, I’m going upstairs.” A woman stood in the doorway.
“Oh, Riley. Come in here and meet Kellan.” He stood up behind his desk. “Kellan, this is my daughter, Riley. Riley, this is Kellan Cobb. I mentioned her to you the other day.”
“Right. Hi, Kellan. It’s nice to meet you.” The woman was a little taller than Kellan and had sable-colored hair with eyes that near-matched. “I’ve heard a lot about you from my father.”
Kellan shook Riley’s hand and gave her a smile.
“I hope good things.”
“All good,” he answered for his daughter. “Riley is in town for a visit.”
“I was going up to the apartment to try to get some work done,” she said to her father.
“She insists on staying in the apartment when she visits, even though her bedroom is always available at the house,” he said to Kellan but looked at his daughter, who must have looked like her mother because Kellan saw almost no resemblance to the old man.
“There’s an apartment up there? I saw the stairs, but I never thought to ask.”
“It’s an old building. My old practice was a few blocks down. I bought this building about ten years ago to expand,” he began. “When I bought it, we originally thought about renovating the upstairs and renting it out. We renovated it but mainly used it for storage until a few years ago. Now, the kids use it when they come back if there’s not enough room for everyone at the house. It’s a two-bedroom. Riley oversaw the remodel and benefits from it when she stays.”
“It has a garden tub,” she offered Kellan as if in explanation for why she’d prefer to stay there instead of at her parents’ house.
“You could always move back here and live there, dear,” Edward told his daughter.
“My work is over an hour away in good weather, dad,” she reminded.
“There’s law to practice everywhere, Riley,” he countered.
“I should go.” Kellan suddenly felt very out of place in this family conversation. “I need to get back to Reese.” She turned to Riley. “That’s my girlfriend.”
“I know Reese.”
“Right. Small town,” Kellan remembered.
“Last I heard, she was still dating Morgan Burns. I guess I do need to come around more.” Riley turned serious. “Dad told me she was in the hospital, though. I hope she’s okay.”
“She’s on the mend.” Kellan smiled at the truth of that statement. “But I should be getting back to the hospital. I promised her mint chocolate chip ice cream, and I need to pick some up on the way.”
“It was nice to meet you,” Riley said.
“You too.”
“Kellan, we can talk when you visit,” Edward offered.
“Can we maybe meet sooner?” she asked.
“Of course.”
“I’ll call you?”
“Sounds good, dear.”
◆◆◆
“Reese, I swear to God, if you ever do this to me again, I will kill you myself.” Remy threatened her sister as she helped her into her wheelchair on Friday evening.
“I promise, I will do everything in my power not to end up back at this hospital again.” Reese gave her a light laugh.
“Or any hospital.”
“Or any hospital unless Kellan or I is popping out a kid. That’s what you said, right?”
“Right.” Remy nodded as she began to push the wheelchair toward the hallway.
“Where is my girlfriend?” Reese asked.
“Right here.” Kellan stood in front of her as they exited the room. “I was just pulling the car around. It’s right outside.”
“Hi, babe.” Reese smiled at her and lifted her head expectantly so that Kellan could lean down and give her a gentle kiss. “Well, I guess that’ll have to do,” she teased.
“You’re still healing,” Kellan reminded. “And we’re not doing anything until you’re fully healed. I won’t make the same mistake again.”
“Again?” Remy asked. “Did you two have such good sex, it caused my sister to pass out?”
“The car’s right outside.” Kellan avoided that question.
“She’s ready to roll.” Remy pushed the wheelchair a little further into the hall. “And all yours,” she added and stood aside.
“Thanks.” Kellan moved behind the chair and began pushing Reese down the hall.
“Ryan and I are staying at the house tonight just to make sure you’re all settled in and everything, but we’ll stay out of your way if everything’s okay. I’m sure you two will want your privacy.”
“It’s fine, Rem. I kind of like the idea of all of us being there tonight. Maybe tomorrow night, though, Kell and I could have the place to ourselves? It’s her last night,” Reese requested.
“She just said you’re not getting any until you’re fully healed. And according to the team of doctors that treated you, that’s another couple of weeks just to be safe. You need to pay attention to them, Reese,” Remy demanded as she walked beside Reese. “I mean it. You’re not like the rest of us, poor saps, that know when we don’t feel well, so we know when we feel better. You need to take the full two weeks to heal, go to every doctor’s visit in-between and then whatever follow-ups they tell you about.”
“Fine. Fine,” Reese agreed.
“Maybe I should–” Kellan began.
“No, Kell. You’re going home. As much as I want you to stay forever, you have a life back there and a job that pays you money.” Reese placed her hand on top of one of Kellan’s that was on the handle of the wheelchair. “Besides, now it’s only a couple of weeks before I get to see you again, since I was in the hospital for so long. In a way, it was good I got sick. I don’t have to miss you for as long.”
“That’s not funny,” Kellan and Remy both chastised at the same time.
◆◆◆
“You should be in bed,” Remy scolded her on Sunday morning.
“I’m so tired of being in bed,” Reese responded and lowered herself on the couch.
“Yes, but today is the last day your girlfriend is in town for a while. Shouldn’t she be waking up beside you about now?”
“She did a few minutes ago,” Reese told her and rested her head against the back of the couch. “She’s brushing her teeth and stuff. I told her I’d make her coffee. She told me I would not make her coffee. So, we compromised and decided you would make us both coffee.”
“Joke’s on both of you because Ryan made us a pot of coffee before he went on a run,” Remy returned. “I will get you a cup though.” She stood, made her way into the kitchen, poured Reese a cup of coffee just the way she liked it, and returned to place it on the table in front of her. “How are you?”
“Healing-wise?”
“Kellan-wise.”
“Trying not to think about it.” Reese leaned forward slowly and picked up the mug. She held it between her hands and stared at the fireplace beyond the coffee table. “In a way, I’m lucky she’s still here, since she was supposed to leave last Sunday, but-”
“But you didn’t actually get to spend any real time with her all week?”
“Exactly.” Reese took a hesitant sip of her coffee. “I think I scared the shit out of her, Rem.”
“You scared the shit out of all of us.”
“I know. But you and Morgan
know the drill. Well, you know the drill. Morgan went through this last year though, and so did Ryan. This is all so new to her. We’ve been together less than a month, and I’ve already told her the story of one coma, and she had to witness another.”
“Extraordinary circumstances, though, Reese,” she reminded.
“Are they, though?” Reese glanced at the closed bedroom door and lowered her voice. “This is my life, Rem. I get hurt, don’t realize it, and end up in the hospital. I don’t want to keep putting her through this.”
“But you’re fine putting me through it?” Remy chuckled at her.
“You’re my sister. You don’t have a choice.” She took a longer drink from her coffee this time.
“She doesn’t either.”
“Of course, she does. She’s going to go back to San Francisco, spend time with her friends and her family, get back to work; and she deserves to have someone she doesn’t have to worry about like this.”
“Reese, has she said something to you like that?”
“What? No.”
“What’s making you talk like this then?” Remy took a drink of her own coffee out of her matching mug. Their mom had purchased them both brown coffee mugs with the letter R on them in white a few years ago, in Reno. “She loves you, Reese.”
“I know she does.”
“You do, but you don’t. You didn’t see her when you were out, little sister.” Remy sat her cup down next to Reese’s on the coffee table. “She literally passed out from the anxiety of possibly losing you.”
“See? This is what I’m talking about. I can’t keep putting her through this.”
“You don’t have a choice, baby sis. She loves you. It comes with the territory.”
“But, with most people, it’s just the normal stuff. With me, you have to check me every day to make sure I didn’t hurt myself and failed to notice.”
“Somehow, I highly doubt Kellan’s going to mind getting free looks at your entire body on a daily basis.” She lifted an eyebrow. “Reese, you love her. She loves you.”
“She’s going back soon.”
“And you’re worried she’ll forget about you or something? She’s coming back in like three weeks.”
“Maybe she won’t, though.”
“You want to run scared now? Is that it?” Remy pressed. “You pulled this crap with Morgan, but I thought Kellan was different.” She stood.
“She is different,” Reese nearly yelled and then glanced at her bedroom door again.
“Then, act like it,” Remy told her. “Don’t push her away because you’re scared she might leave you when she’s given you no reason to think that.”
“Quiet down. She’ll hear you.”
“Maybe she should hear me so she knows what a big wuss her girlfriend is,” Remy suggested. “Better to learn that now instead of later, right?”
“Knock it off.”
“Are you really going to push her away?” She sat back down next to Reese.
Reese thought about what Remy was saying. She hadn’t thought about pushing Kellan away when she’d woken up next to her that morning. She’d thought about how beautiful Kellan was. They’d hardly even kissed since Reese had gotten home, and she’d missed every touch they’d shared. She’d decided that, even though she wanted Kellan like crazy, she needed to listen to the doctors. It did help that Kellan had refused to put out until she was given the all-clear, but not nearly enough. She’d seen Kellan fresh out of the shower on Saturday. It had taken everything in her not to devour her on the spot.
She hated the fact that Kellan was leaving later that day, but she believed she was doing the right thing. She wasn’t pushing Kellan back to the city. She was pushing her to get back to her life; to the life she’d left behind for a quick two-week trip to Tahoe that had turned into an over-a-month one and had gotten a lot more complicated. Reese was being practical. Kellan had a job to get back to.
“Hey, I was promised coffee.” Kellan emerged from the bedroom, wearing a pair of well-worn jeans, tennis shoes, and a black long-sleeved shirt. She dropped her bag by the door of the bedroom and made her way toward the sofa. “Hi,” she greeted as she leaned down, giving Reese a peck on the lips.
“Coffee’s in the kitchen,” Remy directed.
“Thanks.” Kellan made her way toward the kitchen.
“So?” Remy asked Reese softly. “What’s it going to be, baby sister?”
CHAPTER 30
“Are you sure I can’t stay?” Kellan asked Reese as they stood in front of Kellan’s Jeep.
“I’m sure.” Reese had her arms around Kellan’s neck and her face pressed to it. “I want you to, though. You know that, right?”
“I do. I also understand why you’re making me leave,” Kellan explained and tightened her grip on Reese’s waist.
“Call me when you get back? And tomorrow when you get home from work? And maybe text me in the morning so I know you woke up, and–”
“Reese, I’ll call you when I get in. I’ll call you tonight when we’re both about to go to sleep. I’ll text you when I wake up every day, if you want me to. I’ll text you when I get to work and when I leave the office, and again when I get home. I’ll call you before I’m about to go to sleep every night.” Kellan kissed Reese’s neck just below her earlobe. “I’ll do whatever it takes for us.”
“Now, you’re making me sound clingy,” Reese said and felt the ripples of Kellan’s laughter as they continued to embrace. “I love you.”
“I love you.”
Reese hesitantly pulled away and said, “I promise I’ll follow all the doctors’ orders.”
“I know you will, because Remy will tell me if you don’t.” Kellan gave her a playful glare. “But please do what the doctors say because you want to be safe and healthy, Reese. Don’t do it for Remy or me or anyone else.”
“I will.”
“You can’t be reckless anymore, because you went and fell in love with me and made me fall in love with you. You have to consider me now, too,” Kellan warned.
“I know. Remy is probably putting those hideous rubber bumper things back in place as we speak,” she said regretfully as she held onto Kellan’s hands between them.
“Babe, if you don’t want those things, get rid of them.”
“You just told me to–”
“I told you not to be reckless. And you won’t be; I know that. It’s your life though, Reese. If you don’t want to take those extra precautions, just take the regular kind of precautions for yourself. I love you. I trust you.”
Reese smiled and squeezed both of Kellan’s hands at that comment. Only a few people in the world had ever known about Reese’s condition. She believed she’d been right not to reveal it to everyone, as her mother had also thought, but she also knew she’d been right in sharing it with Kellan. Reese loved her mother, her father, and her sister more than life, but none of them had ever just allowed her to be without the added worry. None of them had said the words Kellan had.
“Oh, I almost forgot.” Reese reached into the back pocket of her jeans. “I noticed you didn’t have one of these on your car. I actually got it a while ago, when you were leaving the first time. I thought I’d hang onto it until you actually left.” She held out a bright blue bumper sticker. “I had this line I was going to give you before all this happened.”
“A line?” Kellan chuckled.
“Yeah, just remember that I thought you were leaving after two weeks. We had just met. I didn’t know where this was going. You’d mentioned having a kind of open leave of absence. I was going to hand this to you and tell you I wanted to keep Tahoe blue,” Reese explained with a slight blush creeping on her cheeks.
“So, you were going to give me a bumper sticker saying that?” Kellan smirked at her but also had a look of confusion on her face.
“No, I was going to ask you to stay longer. I was going to tell you I wanted to keep Tahoe blue and look into those eyes of yours.” She moved in and pressed her forehead
to Kellan’s, closing her own eyes in the process. “Your eyes are the most beautiful blue I’ve ever seen. I want to look at them every day, Kellan.” Kellan took the sticker from Reese’s hand. “One day?”
“One day what?” Kellan asked, keeping her forehead pressed to Reese’s.
“One day, do you think I’ll get to wake up to you every day?” Reese asked, and with her heart in her throat.
“You want to wake up to me every day?”
“Yes.”
“Then, yes,” Kellan said in a hushed whisper. “One day.” She leaned in to capture Reese’s lips.
It was a slow kiss that Reese knew Kellan was using to show her exactly how she felt. Reese hoped her kiss back was doing the same in return. It was the most they’d been able to share with one another in over a week. Reese wanted more, but she’d wait until Kellan returned and she had a clean bill of health. She’d wait for that visit, the one after, and the one after that. She hoped that Kellan would keep her word and that one day, they’d be able to wake up to one another every day.
“Get on the road. I don’t want you driving in the dark.” Reese pushed at Kellan’s shoulders lightly before wiping a few stray tears off her cheeks.
“I’ll call you when I get there,” she repeated.
“You better,” Reese chided and hoped it was covering the intense sadness that had overtaken her when she pulled entirely away from Kellan’s body.
Kellan stripped the sticker from its paper backing, moved to the back of the car, and returned sans sticker. She handed Reese the paper with a smile and climbed into her car. Reese watched as she backed out of the drive and turned the Jeep onto the street. She noticed the bright blue of the bumper sticker begin to fade as Kellan drove further and further away until she was completely out of sight. Then, Reese started to cry and held her hands to her face.
“I’ve got you.” Remy was beside her, and Reese turned into her arms. “She’ll be back soon, Reese.”
“I wanted her to stay,” Reese finally admitted. “I didn’t want to ask, but I wanted her to stay.”
Keep Tahoe Blue Page 22
