He groaned and adjusted his pants to accommodate his need.
Monica chuckled as he walked away.
Monica dropped Trent off at Joe’s to pick up his rental car. The yellow Jeep made her laugh. “Not leaving anything to chance,” Trent had said.
With a list of errands to run and a physical therapy session to occupy her day, Monica knew she’d have plenty to keep her mind busy for the few hours she’d have by herself.
Trent had kissed her again as she dropped him off.
“I’ll pick you up at six,” he told her between kisses.
“You will?”
“For dinner. Wear something nice.”
She huffed out a breath, pretending disgust. “What, you don’t like my workout clothes?”
He ran a hand down her back and cupped her butt in his palm. The sparks his touch created were better than any Fourth of July.
“These clothes make my mouth water.”
She kissed him, tasted the water he spoke of.
“Are you asking me out on a date, Barefoot?” she managed once she came up for air.
“Do I need to ask?”
She thought about that. Releasing some of the control in her relationships had always been hard. With Trent, it felt right. Even if it was just asking if she wanted to go out. She knew she wanted to spend time with him. He knew it, too. “You don’t need to ask.”
“Good.” He managed one more quick kiss and opened the door of her car.
Physical therapy wasn’t as daunting as it had been two days before. The therapist thought they’d have her walking fast on a treadmill before her follow-up appointment with the orthopedic. She was one step closer to her morning runs, and one step closer to being released from disability and able to return to work. It was one thing to not be able to work and not have a job, it was quite another to be physically able to work, and be told you couldn’t.
Monica shoved those thoughts aside while she prepared for lunch with Katie and Jessie. They hadn’t brought the kids over when they’d all but ambushed her for an intense “girl talk” session. But that was yesterday afternoon, before Trent had found her… before he spent the night and didn’t sleep with her. Well, didn’t make love to her. She was thinking about their no-sex deal as she walked into the restaurant where she was meeting her family for lunch.
The Morrison Family Inn was the brainchild of Jack. It wasn’t the luxury hotel that the Morrison chain promoted itself as, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t posh in many ways. The family-friendly and family-affordable accommodations were evident in every foot of the establishment. All the rooms were at least one-bedroom suites. There were rooms pre-equipped with cribs and Murphy beds, hide-a-beds in the sofas, everything a family could need. The grounds were a child’s paradise. Even the restaurant Monica was walking into had families on the mind when it was laid out. The round tables left room for toddlers to move around without bumping into others. The lower ceilings helped muffle the noise of the room and instead of every television in the room hosting the local sports team, half of them were dedicated to kids’ television. Although the restaurant was part of the hotel, it had become an instant hit with the suburban community of Ontario.
For Monica, it was always a pleasure to eat with her family. Danny always had a smile when he was with them. Which might have less to do with the fact that mac and cheese was on the menu, and more to do with the fact that Jack had named the restaurant “Danny’s.”
Monica noticed Jessie waving at her from one of the booths across the restaurant and made her way to their table. Danny jumped up from his seat and ran to her with a hug. She missed her nephew and knew that one day those hugs and kisses would become gross and out of the question, so she made the most of them now and kissed his cheeks until he pushed her away, laughing. “Hey, cowboy.” She tilted the cowboy hat he wore down on his head a little farther. Ever since Gaylord had bought the hat for her nephew, he hadn’t taken it off. “How is your restaurant running?”
“It’s not really mine, Auntie Monica. It’s just named after me.”
She didn’t want to correct him. He’d own that restaurant and more when he grew up.
“Hey,” she said as she approached the table.
“Someone looks happier today,” Katie said.
“That’s because I get to see the kids.” She leaned down and dribbled kisses over Savannah’s cheeks. “Look who grew a foot.”
Savannah was nearing her second birthday and stringing enough words together to actually understand her.
Monica settled next to Jessie made a fuss out of looking at the pictures Savannah and Danny were creating. Savannah was great training for Danny. Monica had commissioned a custom T-shirt with Brother in Training written over the front. He’d loved it.
When the table grew quiet, Monica looked up to find Katie and Jessie staring at her.
“What?”
“What’s up with you? Yesterday I wasn’t sure you had teeth for the lack of smiles. Today you’re… you’re…” Jessie squinted her eyes as if searching for the answers would be easier by wrinkling the skin on her face.
“I’m what?”
“Happy,” Katie managed.
“Auntie happy,” Savannah giggled at Katie’s side.
“Almost glowing,” Jessie said.
“There are only two reasons a woman glows and I don’t think you’re pregnant,” Jessie told her.
“I’m not preggers.”
Jessie glanced at her son and asked, “Any special hugs you wanna talk about?”
Monica thought of all the hugging, which was special, but not that special. “There was some hugging.”
Katie’s eyes grew wide. “Trent?”
She sighed. “He came to the apartment last night after you guys left.”
Both the other women squirmed and glanced at their kids. Monica knew they had a thousand questions and they’d all be asked in code. As to keep the delicate ears and even more transparent tongues of the kids from listening and wagging.
“He did?”
“How did he find out where you lived?” Jessie asked.
Monica glanced between the two women. “Someone told him that I used to hang out at Joe’s after work.”
Katie shrugged. “Don’t look at me. I haven’t seen him since I picked you up at the lawyers’.”
“No phone calls?” Monica asked.
“No.”
She glanced at Jessie. “Not a word with him since Florida.”
“Well someone has talked to Trent. There are plenty of afterwork options for a drink.”
Danny bumped Monica’s leg as he bent down to retrieve a crayon from the floor. “Trent’s nice,” he said.
The three of them focused on Danny.
“You met Trent?” Jessie asked her son.
“Yesterday. He and Daddy were at the hotel when Grandma dropped me off.”
Jessie closed her eyes and shook her head. “Busted.”
Monica had to laugh. Poor Jack didn’t stand a chance. “Go easy on him,” Monica suggested. “He didn’t give Trent my address, just a hangout. He hung out, ran into Walt, and finagled a ride to my place.” It was just this side of romantic how hard Trent had worked to get her address. The thought had her smiling again.
“So what happened?”
“I’ll give you details later, but let’s just say there was a really good reason he spooked and ran off. Once he realized I wasn’t engaged when we met, and hadn’t lied to him, he wanted a chance.”
“A chance?”
“To see me, to date.”
“And hug?” Katie asked.
Monica shook her head. “No, actually. We’re not going to hug.”
Jessie looked at her like she was crazy. “Not hug?”
“I always hug first and get to know the guy later. Which usually ends up with the it’s-not-you-it’s-me talk.” It had always been her and not them.
“Wow!”
The waitress gave their conversation pause as th
ey ordered.
“So if there’s no hugging going on, why are you glowing?” Jessie had always been so observant.
“Can’t a girl be happy about a guy and glow?”
“I guess.”
Their drinks arrived, and Monica sweetened her iced tea while she talked. “It helps that I slept last night. I didn’t realize how much Trent taking off in Florida bugged me.” She sipped her tea. “When I dropped him off at Joe’s this morning, he told me he’d pick me up at six tonight for a date.” She laughed. “I never let guys tell me we’re going out.” The memory of his take charge tone had her thoughts drifting from her current company. When Monica glanced back up, the girls were staring at her again. “What?”
“He spent the night?”
“Uh-huh.”
“On the couch?” Jessie asked.
Monica rolled her eyes. “Aren’t there nights you and Jack sleep without hugging?”
“We’re married,” and as if the bump in Jessie’s belly wasn’t obvious enough she patted it and said, “and pregnant.”
Monica laughed. “You don’t have to be married or pregnant to sleep without hugging.”
The code talk was making Monica dizzy, and the confused expressions on Katie’s and Jessie’s faces were priceless. “The glowing might be from all the kissing without hugging.”
“And he agreed to this?” Katie asked.
“He suggested it.”
“Seriously?”
Monica laughed. “Crazy, huh?”
“Certifiable.”
“Maybe. But it’s kind of nice. I’m not sure how long it will last, but it’s fun.”
Katie disregarded Monica with a flick of her wrist. “You’re nuts.”
Katie looked at Jessie and held out her hand. “You owe me five bucks.”
When Monica asked why, neither woman said a word.
Their food came and the conversation shifted to Katie and Dean and their decision to move back to Texas. The thought would have saddened Monica if there wasn’t a real possibility of her moving away soon as well.
They ate lunch and then took the kids to the swimming pool and continued talking for hours. In what felt like no time, Monica had to break up girl time to get ready for her date.
As she left the hotel, Monica glanced in the rearview mirror and caught her reflection.
She glowed.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“They’re hedging,” Mr. Goldstein told Monica on the phone a few weeks after her first date with Trent. “But they haven’t dropped anything yet.”
Monica sat on the small patio off her apartment with her phone cradled to her ear. “I wonder why they think they’re going to win this. Seems the more information you obtain, the less of a case they have. Didn’t you tell me that the statement from Shandee was fabricated and that she didn’t want anything to do with coming here to testify?” That information had come midweek, at which time Monica and Trent thought the case would be dropped.
Apparently that wasn’t the case.
“She recanted her statement. It wasn’t made under oath, so there was no holding her to it.”
“I don’t get it.”
“It’s the union. The hospital doesn’t want the union there.” The union had only been voted in a couple of years before Monica began working there. So far, the contracts they’d negotiated hadn’t made life for the nurses that much easier. There was some chatter about a vote to eliminate their presence.
“Why? Seems the nurses are the ones who have to pay the union dues and we aren’t getting a lot for it.” Her annual raises weren’t much to write home about.
“When was the last time you sat in on a union meeting?”
She hadn’t sat in on any. “Never.”
“You might be happy to know that the next contract, which will begin negotiation this winter, is going to favor the staff much more than the previous one. Even with the depressed economy the union feels that with all the health care reform dollars going into the budgets, they can find a way to get that into your hands. They want to see that your health care benefits remain the same. A lot of companies are having to downsize, but big hospitals can’t. Instead they’re eliminating raises, cutting benefits. The union wants to be proactive.”
“So if the hospital can make it look like the union isn’t able to keep an innocent nurse employed now, then the members might think, what good are they?”
“Yeah, that’s what we think. It’s not written anywhere, but that’s our theory. You were convenient. Add a boss that doesn’t like you, and you’re the target. The hospital made one fatal error. They underestimated you and your ability to seek counsel.”
Could it have been as simple as the hospital looking at her resumé’s previous addresses to assume she didn’t have a family with money? “That sucks.”
“When you didn’t show up with a union lawyer, they were undoubtedly confused and had to find out how you could afford us.”
“I can’t afford you,” Monica said with a laugh.
Goldstein chuckled at that. “What you can do is see if you can have your union push up the protest. I already spoke with Jack, and he said he’d chat with his sister about making sure the media was there snapping pictures and making the hospital squirm.”
“You think it will make a difference?”
“I can’t believe they haven’t dropped the case yet. Let’s give them a reason to drop it before the fall.”
Before fall classes. She might not have picked a school to apply to, but she had made the decision to go back once the case was behind her.
“I’ll make a couple of calls.”
“I’ll look forward to hearing from you.” With that, he hung up.
The next hour she started her calls with Walt. She asked if he could rally some of the staff in the next twenty-four hours for a protest, to which he told her he’d do everything on his end. The union was just as eager to move on a protest so Monica put all the wheels in motion making calls to Katie, to Monica’s friends at the fire station, even some friends from nursing school.
When it was all set she called Trent, who had left that morning to join his brothers for a business meeting in Connecticut. It was the second time he’d left her side in the few weeks they’d been a kissing and dating couple. He’d returned the jet he’d flown down from Seattle and needed to stay in the Pacific Northwest long enough to confirm that Frank was the employee who was flying their planes for his own pleasure. After Frank was dismissed, Trent decided it was time to put into place a benefit program in which longtime employees could request certain flight privileges to avoid any issues in the future.
As Trent told her, ever since his parents’ deaths, his brothers had taken up the slack in the company and it was time for him to get back in and ease some of the burden. That meant flying back home for a while.
Monica would have worried about him leaving if he hadn’t told her he was coming back. His life wasn’t in Southern California, however, and she knew that eventually if they wanted to keep seeing each other one of them would have to make a residential change. The thought would have scared the shit out of her a month ago.
Now she found herself searching for masters in nursing programs close to Trent’s company. She wondered if she could trust them as a couple enough to make such a leap.
The couple of nights he planned on being away would help give her the space she needed to think. She already knew that sleeping without him would be difficult and figured she could think then.
Their cuddling, kissing, and not making love hadn’t made her want to be around him less. She knew when she saw him their conversations and time together were going to be about something beyond the physical. The overwhelming desire to talk to him about the protest was a testament to the changes happening within her. It wasn’t often she bothered talking about her problems with the guys she dated. Nothing on a deep level in any account. With Trent, Monica talked about everything. Her dreams, nightmares, future goals, and bucket list
achievements.
Share time wasn’t limited to her. Trent told her some of the things he wanted to see happen within the company. Now that he was finished with island living, he wanted to be a larger part of the company. His brothers had carried him for some time. Taking part in the daily decisions was a task he wanted to become a part of again. He was once again putting his life on hold, but this time it was to give their relationship a chance.
At some point, Monica knew she had to take a leap of faith and follow her heart. The leap was from a huge height, however, and the fear of falling made her hesitate.
Her call to Trent went to voice mail, which he returned later that night.
“Hey, California,” he said on the phone, his voice sleepy.
“Did you just get home?”
“I forgot how annoying commercial flights are.”
“Slumming with the rest of us?” Monica joked.
“It’s a pain when I know there’s a better way. Besides, I don’t like someone else driving.”
“Control freak.”
“Look who’s talking.”
She brought him up to date on the protest, told him it would take place in two days right before rush hour. “Katie suggested we blow up a picture I took in Jamaica of me at the clinic, and another one from the ER. Make sure the people in the area know which nurse they’re rallying for. I’ll be at the printer tomorrow and then Katie and I are going to get together with a few of my friends to make the signs.”
“I can change my plans and come back early.” He’d planned on staying home for a few days.
“I’d love for you to be here, but it’s OK. How are your brothers?”
“They’re good. They want to meet you.”
She smiled at that thought. The last woman he’d tried to introduce to his family ended up breaking his heart. “I’d like that.”
“When the hospital drops the case, can I convince you to come here for a visit?”
She curled her feet under her. “You can convince me to visit even if the hospital doesn’t drop the case.”
Not Quite Enough (Not Quite series) Page 25
