by C. Morgan
“You are so good,” I told her. “I am amazed by how resilient you are. I never really understood before, but I think I get it now.”
“Understand what?”
“I’ve seen you with the patients. Someone told me about you comforting a woman who lost her cat. You can relate to everyone’s worst day and provide sympathy and advice. You’re empathetic.”
She looked embarrassed. “It’s just giving people an ear to bend.”
“And a shoulder to lean on. If that woman would have told me about her dead cat, I would have offered her an apology and basically a pat on the head. I wouldn’t have known what to say or, honestly, cared enough to really give it a lot of my time.”
“Stop,” she said. “You’re embarrassing me.”
“I don’t want to embarrass you.” I hopped off the barstool. “Let’s go for a swim.”
“Right now?”
“It’s probably eighty degrees right now. The pool is heated if it’s too cold.”
She shrugged. “Okay. I didn’t bring a suit.”
I grinned. “I know.”
She burst into a fit of giggles. “You’re so bad.”
“You weren’t saying that last night.”
She let out a little yelp. “There you go again with that dirty talk.”
“Come on,” I said. I walked outside and stripped off my underwear before diving in the pool. I knew there was no chance of anyone disturbing us.
I came up for air and looked up at her. She was still standing on the edge of the pool. “Coming in?” I asked.
She flashed me that familiar smile and stripped off the T-shirt she was wearing before stepping out of her panties. A moment later, she dove into the pool. She swam toward me and emerged just a few inches away.
“This is one really great way to wake up,” she said as her arms slipped around me.
“I thought you would like this.”
She released me and swam away. We played a little game of cat and mouse. I loved chasing her around the pool. “I’m starving,” she said after a while.
“I bet the delivery has already come,” I told her. “I’ll make you breakfast.”
I swam to the ladder and climbed out of the pool. I strolled naked to the small cupboard that held fresh towels. I dried my hair before wrapping the towel around my body. I grabbed another towel for her and walked to where she was just climbing out. I wrapped the towel around her naked body before giving her a quick kiss.
“I’m going to change and then I’ll help make breakfast,” she said.
“No. You are the guest. Sit and relax.”
“Not a chance,” she called out as she walked barefoot down the hall.
When she came back, I had already put away the grocery order. I was just slicing mushrooms when she came to stand beside me. “I’ll chop the mushrooms.”
“Baby, I want you to relax.”
“And I want to help. What are we making?”
“I was going to make omelets. Does that work for you?”
“Yes. I could eat just about anything right now.”
“I have some peppers as well,” I told her. “I’ll cook the bacon.”
We worked together chopping and cooking and doing a dance around the kitchen in perfect harmony. I could get used to this. I could get used to spending my days with her. And my nights. We sat down with our breakfasts and enjoyed each other’s company.
“I should probably go home,” she said after we ate and cleaned up.
“Why? To feed your fish or water your plants?”
She smiled. “No, to clean my house and do my laundry before work tomorrow.”
“Stay.”
“For how long?”
“Stay the night.”
She raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know.”
“I want you to stay, please?”
“You are so damn cute when you’re pleading,” she teased.
“I can pout,” I said and popped out my bottom lip.
“All right, but I have to leave early to go home and get work clothes.”
“I’ll take you home early,” I promised.
“What should we do for the rest of the day?” I asked her.
“I don’t know. Want to go swimming again?”
“I would love to.”
We swam before moving to the hot tub and soaked away our troubles. “I want to make you dinner,” she announced.
“You’re supposed to be my guest,” I told her. “I can’t have you make me dinner.”
“But I want to,” she insisted. “I love to make my mom’s meatloaf recipe. It’s really the only recipe I know.”
When she said that, there was no way I could reject the offer. “I would love meatloaf. Tell me what you need, and I’ll order the ingredients.”
“We could just go to the store,” she offered. “Wouldn’t that be a lot faster?”
I looked down at my bare chest. I was wearing underwear and she was wearing a T-shirt. “Does that mean we have to get dressed?”
She laughed. “I don’t think we’ll get much service if we go in like this.”
“I was dedicated to spending the day naked with you.”
She leaned over me. “If I promise to make you dinner wearing this lovely little outfit, will you agree to go to the store?”
“When you put it like that, I would love to.”
Twenty minutes later, I was dressed and driving her to the grocery store. “Would you laugh at me if I told you I didn’t know how to grocery shop?”
She raised an eyebrow. “How do you not know how to go grocery shopping?”
I held up my phone. “Because I do it like this.”
“Then you are in for one hell of an experience,” she said with a laugh. “Hold on to the cart and do not let go.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want to lose you.”
She walked me up and down the aisles picking up things and putting them in the cart. It was a new experience for me. I ended up adding a lot more to the cart than we needed.
“We should have gotten another cart,” she said with a laugh.
“This is awesome. Look at all this stuff.”
“It’s called groceries,” she said. “You really did grow up with a silver spoon in your mouth.”
“I did. I’m not going to deny it. I’ve never actually done any grocery shopping.”
“I guess there truly is a first for everything,” she said.
When we got home, I made her stick to her promise to cook me dinner in nothing but the shirt. I offered my assistance as well. I was relegated to peeling potatoes. I didn’t mind. The more we worked together in the kitchen, the more I knew I was ready to do this thing fulltime.
“This is really good,” I told her. “You did your mom proud.”
“Thank you. I wish I would have paid more attention to her other meals. She cooked a lot and I just took it for granted. I assumed I would have time to learn from her later. She made a tuna casserole that was so good. I hate tuna, but I loved that casserole she made. I’ve tried to mimic it, but I’ve never come close.”
“Did she use a cookbook?”
She tapped her temple with her finger. “My mom had all her recipes in her head. She learned them from her mom. And I didn’t learn.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. The words were completely inadequate.
“Thanks. It makes me appreciate things just a little more.”
When we went to bed that night, I held her. I didn’t need sex. I wanted to be close to her without the sex. Just for tonight. It was sometime later that I woke up with her shaking me. I opened my eyes to look into her face.
“What are you doing?” I asked her.
“You were having that nightmare again.”
I tried to remember what I was dreaming about. “I don’t know. I don’t remember what it was.”
“Something is on your mind,” she said and settled back against me. “What’s worrying you?”
I
sighed and tried to think of what it was that bothered me the most. “I think it’s this.”
She pulled away from me. “This? Me?”
“No, I’m sorry. I mean, this feels so easy.”
“You make it sound like that is a bad thing.”
“I’m just worried that it’s too easy and that means it’s going to get ripped away from me,” I said. “My father always told us we had to work for what we wanted. Anything in life that was worth having had to be fought for and earned. I don’t think I’ve fought hard enough.”
She moved back in. “We had our struggles in the beginning,” she said. “That was the hard part. We hooked up and never thought we’d run into each other. Our beginning was very unconventional. I certainly don’t think it was easy.”
“I guess it wasn’t easy, but this thing we have now is so right. I feel like a puzzle piece that has been fit into an almost complete puzzle. It’s a perfect fit. You are the one thing I was lacking in my life. Now that I have it, I don’t want to lose it.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“I’m not going to let you go anywhere,” I told her. “I will fight to keep you. I am willing to go through hard times if I have a chance to win you in the end.”
“You don’t have to fight,” she said. “I’m right here. Now, go back to sleep. I’m not going anywhere.”
Chapter 39
Trinity
“Are you sure I can’t drive you to work?” he asked again.
“I’m positive. I’ll be right behind you. Well, not right behind you. I need to shower and change.”
He leaned over and kissed me again. “And I’m not allowed to kiss you at work?”
“No. We are already busted. I don’t want to fuel the rumors.”
“But they aren’t rumors,” he said. “It’s real.”
“We don’t have to flaunt it.”
I closed the car door and headed up to my apartment. It was getting harder to resist him. I didn’t have the same conviction I did last week. Now, I didn’t care if we snuck in a few kisses here and there.
I was confident my job was safe. I was confident Naya and Ryan were going to be just fine as well. The only thing I had to worry about was me screwing things up.
I quickly showered and dressed in the typical work outfit. When I got to work, I couldn’t resist stopping at his office first. “Ha, I knew you couldn’t stay away from me,” he teased.
I gave him a quick kiss. “You’re so full of yourself.”
“I am. Do you want to be full of me as well?”
His dirty talk was always on. I loved his quick comebacks and his ability to make me wet with just a few words. “Maybe later. Do you have lunch plans?”
“Don’t tease me.”
“I’m not teasing you. I’m feeling a little, uh, empty.”
I was going to have to work on my dirty-talk game. It didn’t come as naturally to me as it did to him. When he did it, it was like he was talking about ordering a burger. It just flowed off his tongue. That was the key. He was quick on his feet.
“I’m going to hold you to that,” he said.
I kissed him again before going into my office. I knew I was going to have a lot of stuff to catch up on. I turned on the laptop and spaced out thinking about him. Before I did anything, I checked his schedule. I was skimming over it when I stopped and reread one name.
“Oh shit. Oh no.”
I walked back to his office, knocking once before walking in. “Babe,” I said and sat down in the chair.
“Uh oh,” he said with a laugh. “That does not sound good.”
“Have you checked your schedule for today?”
“Yes, why?”
“Kenny is coming in today.”
“I know.”
I stared at him and tried to gauge his reaction. “And?”
“And what?”
“Are you okay with that?”
He looked confused. “He’s a patient.”
“But why would he come here?” I asked. I was stressed about this and he was acting like it wasn’t a big deal.
“He lives in Portland. He called yesterday and got an appointment. I told him to come here if he wanted my help.”
I didn’t want to make the situation worse and decided to leave it at that. “Okay, I am going to get back to work.”
“I miss you already.”
I hoped Kenny would keep the flirting to a minimum. Things were good between us right now and I didn’t want to ruin that with an overzealous guy running his mouth. I was going to try and talk to Kenny before he saw Ryker. I would politely explain that the flirting was flattering, but it couldn’t keep up. I would tell him I had a boyfriend. That would hopefully get him to back off.
I kept an eye on the time. When it got close to Kenny’s appointment, I went out front to see if he had come in yet. Just then, the door opened, and the very large man came in. He took one look at me and smiled.
“There’s my pretty lady,” he said when he saw me.
“Hi, Kenny.”
“I’ll check him in,” I said to Rachel. “Come on back, Kenny.”
“You see that? She wants me all to herself.”
I didn’t say anything. I led him into the room and made it a point to leave the door partially open. I didn’t know how to check him in, but I had his files on my tablet. “Kenny, I was hoping we could talk for a minute,” I said.
The man looked at me. His rich brown eyes were full of amusement. “I will talk to you all day long if you want, sweetheart.”
I opened my mouth to tell him I needed him to stop the flirting when Ryker walked in. “Kenny,” he said with a friendly smile. “How are you feeling?”
“My back is still messed up, Doc. The doctor isn’t going to let me practice until I can prove to him this thing isn’t a problem.”
“Have you been icing it?” Ryker asked.
I felt like I was intruding. “I’ll leave you to it.”
“No, sweetie, stay,” Kenny said. “I might need you to hold my hand.”
Ryker sucked in a breath. I saw the anger flash across his face. “I think you’ll be fine,” I told him. “I’m going to go.”
I gave Ryker a look, asking him to just let it go. To my surprise, he walked right up to me and wrapped an arm around my waist. He jerked me against his body and kissed me. I gasped with surprise. The kiss was over as fast as it started.
I stumbled back. Ryker turned around and looked at Kenny. “I would really appreciate it if you could stop hitting on my girlfriend.”
Kenny slapped a hand over his chest and burst into laughter. “You could have said something earlier.”
“I didn’t think I had to.”
“I was wondering what was up with you two. I kept flirting and you just let me do it. Man, if that was my girl and you were hitting on her, I would have laid you out.”
I looked from Kenny to Ryker. I didn’t know if they were joking or serious. “Ryker,” I said his name.
“It’s fine,” Kenny said. “We’re good. I’m glad you have someone like this guy in your corner.”
“Thanks. I’ll be in my office.”
I rushed out of the room and sought the refuge of my office. That was crazy. That could have gone so much worse. I flopped down in my chair. There was a knock on my door a few seconds later. “Come in.”
“You’re back,” Alysha said.
“I am back. How was everything?”
“Good. Not terribly busy.”
“And how about Nick? Is he getting any sleep yet?”
She smiled and sat down. “Yes. I guess the tooth popped through and all is well again.”
“Thank goodness,” I said. “Did you guys manage yesterday?”
“Yes, it was a regular day. Nothing exciting. What about your trip? Was it still all business and no pleasure?”
I was kind of glad I could honestly say it was. “We were strictly professional.”
She groaned. “That’s so bo
ring. Nothing salacious?”
“No, but I did get to watch a game. That was exciting. Really exciting. I cannot wait until the next one.”
“I’m glad you are enjoying it,” she said, and I just knew what she was going to say next.
“I know, I know, this is the part the other assistants hated.”
“I don’t know if they hated it, but it was certainly not their favorite thing.”
I shrugged. “I’m enjoying it. I think it’s all about the state of mind. Or maybe it’s because I have nothing here to keep me.”
She laughed. “Could it be you get to spend time with your boyfriend and that’s what makes it so much more enjoyable?”
“Possibly.” I grinned.
“Who is he with now? When the guy called, he insisted it had to be Ryker that saw him. He wanted to come in yesterday.”
“He’s a player,” I answered.
I thought I could tell her about the drama. I could trust her. “The guy that’s in there is a real flirt,” I told her. “If you like big football guys, he’s your man. He is always hitting on me right in front of Ryker. Just now, it happened again. Ryker told him to back off. I thought they were actually going to fight.”
“Now that is hot.” She laughed. “Two guys willing to fight over you.”
“That is not hot. I hate violence.”
“Is he single?”
“Who?” I asked.
“The football player.”
I thought about it. “Honestly, I don’t know. I didn’t ask because I don’t care.”
“Aren’t you the loyal girlfriend?”
“I am.”
We caught up for a few more minutes before she had to return to her duties. I got back to work. I needed to get caught up on filing and then the normal daily tasks. This was what he meant by staying busy. I felt like I was running uphill.
“Knock, knock,” Ryker called out before he came into the office.
“Hi,” I said with a smile. “You are a sight for my very sore eyes.”
He walked behind me and rubbed my shoulders. “Are you okay?”
“I am,” I said and moved my neck from side to side. “I should have checked my email yesterday. You kept me naked all day and I slacked off.”
