by Tina Beckett
Well, honey, your wish is my...
He met her thrust for thrust, never stopping his contact with her breast. Every pump of his hips was hitting the right spot, if her moans and sinuous movements were anything to go by. His intent to reach between them and make sure she was getting as much pleasure as possible was stopped by the way her hands abandoned his hair and gripped his upper arms as if needing to anchor herself to him. It was a heady sensation and one he would never forget. Didn’t want to forget.
He released her breast and glanced up at her. The sight of her head leaning against the upper cabinet, sliding upward with each thrust of his hips was the most decadent thing he’d ever witnessed. For a second he couldn’t move his gaze. And then her eyes opened and caught him staring, her lips parting.
“Clance...”
Her breathing of his name was his undoing and suddenly he was thrusting into her at atomic speed, her cry warring with his groan as she contracted hard around his flesh. Over the edge he went, into the oblivion beyond, eyes jammed shut once again as pleasure poured over him, hot and wet and unbelievably long.
And then it was over, his movements slowing as things around him began to fall back into place. Her hands were again on the back of his head, but not frantic the way they had been, body softening as it accompanied his to the other side.
“That was...” Her eyes closed, and another tiny spasm gripped his flesh. “That was luscious.”
Luscious. The word struck him, and he couldn’t stop the chuckle that came out.
She frowned. “Is something funny?”
“Not funny. No. Not...not at all.”
Her frown was still there. “Then what?”
“Luscious is not a word I’ve heard used before in reference to that.”
She blinked. “And you’ve heard a lot of those words?”
He wasn’t sure what to make of that. She didn’t sound angry, but there was something there that had a little sting to it. Had she thought he’d been celibate all these years? “My share. As I’m sure you did as well.”
With Jacob? Why the hell had he even said that?
He separated himself from her, unsure why they were even talking about this.
“I haven’t been with anyone since my husband passed away.”
And that did it. Hearing her call Jacob her husband made him turn and gather his clothes together. He knew exactly who she’d been married to. He didn’t need anyone—especially her—to announce it to him. Especially after everything that had happened. After what Jacob had done.
If her aim had been to keep this simple and a one-time event, she’d just gotten her wish.
Only as he headed into the other room to get dressed, he wasn’t sure exactly how he could use the word simple to describe what had happened between them. Because nothing in his life, including Hollee, had ever been more complicated than it was right now.
CHAPTER SEVEN
THE LAST TWO days had gone by with alarming speed.
Hollee was at the hospital with her bags, joining the others who were waiting on the bus that would take them to Bender. Rather than the tents she’d joked about staying in, FEMA had sent in small trailers to house emergency workers.
She hadn’t actually talked to Clancy since that episode in her kitchen. By the time she’d dragged her clothes on and gathered her thoughts, plastering an empty smile on her face, he had gone, along with Gordy. Poor Tommie had stood at the door, whining after them.
“I know, girl,” she’d said. “I think I just made a huge mess out of that.
Her emotions had already been starting to fray and to hear him talk about what he had and hadn’t heard during sex had made her snap. All of a sudden she’d pictured that woman at the dog park and the dozens of women he’d probably been with, and it reminded her of how casually he’d turned his back on her ten years ago. How he’d found someone else almost immediately afterward.
His behavior had devastated her, and she wasn’t sure why. Had he changed in the intervening years? She had no idea, because she’d blurted out the first thing that had popped into her head. It had been a mistake.
So was what had happened between her and Clancy? When he’d asked what she was doing, she should have made something up. Instead, she’d practically begged him to stay, saying they were both adults. It might have been true, but they weren’t two objective bystanders brushing shoulders as they passed each other on the sidewalk. They had a past. Not much of one, granted, but still.
They’d shared an intense, heady kiss one day, and the next thing she knew he’d dropped her like a rock. That should have warned her that having sex with him—ever—was off limits. It was bound to make an awkward situation even worse.
And now she was going to spend two weeks with the man.
Thankfully she spotted Kristen getting out of a car with her bags and headed toward her, giving her friend a quick hug. “I’m so glad you got to come.”
Kristen smiled back. “Me too!” Her friend flipped open a hospital newsletter. “And it looks like the hospital thinks you and the new doctor are getting along. Really getting along.” She handed Hollee the paper, and she felt the blood rush from her head, her vision going white for a split second.
She and Clancy were on the cover. Well, not just them, there were a lot of other pictures as well. But the one of Clancy, her and Kristen was all she could see at the moment. And it was as damning as she’d thought it’d be. She and the plastic surgeon were gazing into each other’s eyes, her mouth a round “O” of surprise, while Kristen smiled at them both. God. Just a couple of days ago, she’d joked about the communal showers and the rumors that could be set into motion.
It turned out it wasn’t a shower that would set those wheels turning. It was a picture.
And the rumors would all be true.
Well, not exactly, because she had no intention of ever having sex with him again. She’d learned her lesson. At least she hoped she had.
“You were there. You know pictures don’t always tell the whole truth.”
“All I know is that I would have given anything to have one of those steamy glances aimed at me.”
“You’re crazy. There was nothing steamy about it.”
Speaking of steamy, she sensed Clancy coming onto the scene even as she talked to her friend. Forcing her voice to sound more animated than she felt, she quickly changed the subject, aware that Kristen was still holding that newsletter. And it was still showing the damning cover. There was no way she could ask her to put it away without the other nurse reading more into it than there was, or without Clancy noticing and wondering why she was reacting so oddly. Maybe he’d already seen it and thought it was no big deal.
Kind of like their night together?
That thought hit her in the solar plexus and knocked the wind out of her for a second, because to her it had been a big deal. A very big deal. And that’s what hurt the most.
She’d done all this talking as if their time together had been about two people having casual sex and then moving past it. Her problem was that she had trouble being objective when it came to Clancy de Oliveira. If she thought the sex would serve to close the book on that little crush she used to have on him, she was wrong. The book had crashed wide open instead, ripping a hole straight to the past. Then she’d had the gall to judge him for sleeping with other women. He had the right to live life the way he saw fit. How dared she act like he didn’t?
Just as she’d run out of things to say to Kristen and had gotten the rundown on what their responsibilities were going to be, there was a call to load up the bus. Thank God. She didn’t have to worry about facing him. In fact, she’d chosen the coward’s way out and had left her mom to welcome Clancy and Gordy to her house. Hopefully that had gone well. She got on, sliding into the first empty seat she could find. Kristen sat next to her.
Clancy gave her
a nod as he went by before he too sat down. In the seat directly behind hers. Great. Maybe she should have tried to find a time to meet with him and have it out, rather than just run every time she saw him.
Why did she need to, though?
They weren’t involved as a couple, so she really didn’t owe him anything. And he hadn’t tried to contact her in the last two days either. So maybe that was how things were going to work. They’d just each stay in their own little corners of the world and not talk or have anything more to do with each other, except where Ava was concerned.
That made her incredibly sad.
No, sometime in the next two weeks she was going to make time to have a conversation with the man and see if they could get to a place where they were both okay, both on the same page.
About everything.
And at least she finally knew what it was like to have sex with him.
It had been fantastic. More wonderful than she ever could have imagined.
Ugh. And that just made it so much worse.
But she would find a way to make it better. Somehow. She just had to do it in the next two weeks.
* * *
After a six-hour bus ride, Clancy looked out at a scene of devastation. There were still huge puddles where the rivers had overflowed their banks and the smell of rot seeped through the closed windows of their vehicle, despite the cold temperatures.
Somewhere around ten trailers were lined up side by side, looking pristinely white compared to the neighboring mud-covered structures, many of them damaged by the tornado. Not a single sign of Christmas was in evidence.
Next to the trailers stood a huge wooden barn, which he assumed was being used for a staging area.
The bus stopped, and Hollee and her friend were two of the first people off. The other woman had left the hospital newsletter on their seat. He picked it up, so he could return it to her and caught sight of a picture of him and Hollee. He tensed.
It was a reminder of that day in the hospital—the place where he’d made his first big mistake. Right there in that room of Christmas cheer. Instead of letting the photographer handle the picture, he’d taken matters into his own hands in a very literal sense.
The memory had primed the pump and tickled the back of his skull every time he saw her, until it had finally gotten its way in her kitchen. The aftermath of that encounter hadn’t been pretty.
He stepped off the bus and saw a small group of people shaking hands with the medical team. The weather was noticeably warmer than it had been in Arlington, but then they were further south. A little boy ran over to him, and turned his head, peering at the newsletter. “What’s that?”
“Randy, leave the man alone.” A grizzled figure came over and shook Clancy’s hand. “Sorry about that. My son is excited that you’re here, as you can tell.”
“He’s fine.” He crouched in front of the boy. “Hi, Randy, I’m Clancy. This isn’t anything that would interest you, but we have a few things that might. We’ll tell you about them a little later.”
The boy’s father smiled. “We appreciate the help.”
Clancy stood. “You live here in Bender?”
“I do. Rather, I did. Our house is gone. We’re living with my sister and her family until we can decide what to do.”
The man had a ring on his finger. “Your wife?”
“I lost her...” His throat moved and his voice stopped for a second. “I lost her and my daughter in the tornado.”
“I’m sorry.” Clancy had seen the physical evidence of the horror these people must have gone through, but hearing it spoken was a punch to the gut. He glanced at Randy, who probably didn’t understand the full extent of what had happened, and a lump formed in his throat.
“Thank you. There are a lot of others in the same position. Whole families have been lost.”
“I know nothing can bring your wife and daughter back, but we want to help however we can.”
Someone motioned them toward the barn, and he grabbed his bag, smiling at Randy and his dad as he headed in that direction.
Once inside the building, he saw that a small room had been fashioned, using partitions. Someone he didn’t recognize climbed up on a platform. “Hi, everyone, and thanks for coming. I’m Matt Gormley, and I’m overseeing the medical portion of the disaster relief efforts for FEMA. We’ve got room assignments for you in the trailers you saw as you pulled in. There will be four people per two-bedroom trailer, but meals will be cooked and served in another area of the barn by volunteers.”
He glanced around at them. “I’m not going to lie to you. We have a lot of hard work ahead of us, since the only hospital within fifty miles was wiped out by the series of tornadoes that came through. We’re flying urgent cases to Mount Retour, but there are a lot of skin infections, damaged limbs and sickness that flowed in with the flood waters. We’ve had long lines ever since we started operations. We want to get all of you signed in and set up with badges today. Current volunteers go home tomorrow, and you’ll be briefed by them in the morning.”
He went on to let them know where they could find their posted hours of service and lodgings. Evidently part of the barn had more walls erected as a makeshift surgical room and several exam rooms, but they were warned that waiting times were very long and they were still triaging patients as they came in.
Clancy could relate to that, since it was what he was used to. Then they were dismissed and asked to go to registration and sign in.
When he went outside, there was no sign of Randy or his dad, but he did see Hollee standing a few yards away.
What did she think of all of this?
He made his way over to her, her face revealing no sign of how the briefing had made her feel. But when he got to her, she gave him a stiff smile. “Did Gordy give you any trouble this morning?”
“No, if anything, he and Tommie seemed happy to see each other again.”
“They hit it off.” She bit her lip and glanced around before continuing. “Listen, Clance, I’m really sorry about...everything that happened. I think we were both tired, and the wine...”
He’d only had one glass of the stuff, so he’d been stone-cold sober. And if she tried to pass this off as a simple reaction to alcohol, he wasn’t going to be happy. But she was right about them both being tired. He remembered saying he was too tired to worry about dinner. In fact, the whole cascade of events leading up to what had happened was a kind of a blur in his mind. Unlike the actual time spent in that kitchen. That had scorched a path through his skull that would be difficult to erase.
“Like you said, it was a one-time thing. We both made it to the other side, so why don’t we put it behind us?”
She gave a sigh, like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. And maybe it had been. Heaven knew, he was happy to finally get this out in the open, since the way they’d left things had been eating away at him.
“I would love that.” She turned toward him and held out her hand. “Friends. Again?”
They would probably never make it back to the friendship they’d had as kids. But maybe they could somehow forge something new based on mutual respect and admiration. His fortune cookie’s message came back to him: the past belongs to the past. Maybe this time he could leave it there.
He wrapped his fingers around hers with a smile. “Friends.”
Hollee bumped her shoulder with his. “Are you ready for all of this?” She nodded at the room.
With her hair pulled back in a ponytail and almost no makeup on, she looked beautiful. There was no fear in her eyes, no hint of complaints about what they might find over the next couple of weeks. Instead, there was an eagerness in her demeanor that was contagious, even to someone as cynical as Clancy, who’d been in situations that had been shrouded in darkness and misery.
He tried to see things through her optimistic eyes. He felt old. Old an
d tired and not quite sure of his place in Arlington Regional, or in civilian life in general. He’d spent so much time in settings where everything had been so ultra-regimented that it was hard to adapt to some of his newfound freedoms. Maybe Bender, Virginia, would prove to be a bridge between those two worlds.
If so, he’d better make good use of his time, because he had a feeling these weeks would be over in the blink of an eye. Just like that night in Hollee’s kitchen, when he’d felt the earth move beneath his feet. He still hadn’t quite found his footing on it again.
* * *
Hollee had never been anywhere where people were treated in an actual barn, though the building hadn’t housed animals in a very long time, instead holding the home owners’ equipment, which had been sold when mining in the area had taken a downturn. And the hopelessness on the faces that lined the walls waiting their turns tugged at her heart. She worked as quickly as she could, but the crowd never seemed to thin.
By the third day she was more exhausted than she’d ever been in her life. To try to inject some tiny element of Christmas where there seemed to be none, she’d strung the Christmas lights in the small bedroom she shared with Kristen. But for the most part she was too tired to plug them in at night. Instead she fell into one of the twin beds feeling like she’d succeeded in moving a pebble up a very steep hill only to look behind her and see the landscape riddled with boulders, making her feeble efforts seem ludicrous. But they weren’t. She had to believe that she—and the team before them—were making a difference.
Although many of the people they saw were poor, they cared for each other in a way that rivaled most families. And so everyone on their team owed it to them to do the best they could with what they had.
She’d barely seen Clancy, as she’d been dealing with pregnant women, and he’d been busy stitching up wounds and giving antibiotic and tetanus shots. Six o’clock found Hollee cleaning and sanitizing the exam room she’d been working in, since they were all taking turns with that chore. She was dead tired, but it was a good tired. She was wiping down the portable metal exam table when Clancy appeared in the doorway, dressed in jeans and a black shirt, holding some kind of tree in his hand. He looked like a lumberjack.