“Well, I guess that is a type.” Sharon smiled. “And how are things with Ana?”
Riley leaned against the rumbling dryer. “Good. A little too good, actually. I really like her and I think she really likes me. And you are thinking that I’m completely crazy for even thinking about this. Right?”
“Yes. And I do think she likes you quite a bit. She mentioned something this morning that I’m not going to repeat, but it was enough for me to be convinced.”
“You’re not going to tell me?”
Sharon shook her head. “She’ll have to tell you herself. It won’t sound as good coming from me.”
Riley sighed. The hardest part of this whole situation was that it didn’t matter if they liked each other or if Ana was more the type of person she longed for than anyone she’d ever been with—if she had a type at all. “Napa and Denver are more than a thousand miles apart. As much as I rack my brain, I can’t make it work out to be anything more than a vacation fling. There’s no way I’m ever moving states for a woman again. No one’s that cute.”
“Maybe she’d move. She travels for work anyway, right?”
“I wouldn’t want her to move.”
“Just because it didn’t work for you and Lisa doesn’t mean this time wouldn’t be different.”
“But it’s crazy to even be having this conversation. I only met Ana how many days ago? And I broke up with Lisa a few days before that. No, she just has to be my beautifully sexy rebound.”
The dryer buzzed and Sharon looked over at it. “Want to help me fold sheets?”
Riley went over to the winery after she’d finished helping Sharon fill the guest rooms with clean towels. The street sweeper and bulldozers had done a good job on the main street along the river, but most of the lower streets were still clogged with mud. The machines had stopped now, however, and the town was strangely quiet with few volunteers out and about and little traffic.
Riley crossed the footbridge, eyeing the river’s water level, which was down a foot or more from the day before. She passed the restaurant with its damaged furniture still stacked along the walkway and then came up to the entrance of the winery. She paused, seeing Ana at the bar with a cluster of three men around her. One of the men was Joe, and Riley thought she could guess which one was the accountant. He had wire-rimmed glasses, a trim gray suit, folders under one arm and a briefcase in his other hand. He might have been the guy she saw Ana and Joe and his wife with the day before the flood. Riley watched as he shook hands with Joe, nodded to the others and then turned to leave. Joe picked up a folder, stared at it for a moment and then turned to head into the kitchen. As he did, the third man turned toward Ana and kissed her. She returned the kiss as his hand caressed her shoulder.
Riley felt her breath catch in her throat. The accountant, or whoever he was, passed her just then, saying, “I’m sorry, the winery is closed today, ma’am.”
Riley nodded, unable to manage a response, and continued staring through the glass at Ana and the man, still standing too close to each other. The accountant repeated himself, adding something about the flood, and then shrugged and turned to leave.
Ana and the other man stepped apart as Joe came back into view. Joe handed a bottle of wine to the man, who studied the label, one arm still wrapped around Ana. Then Ana looked out the window and met Riley’s gaze. Her hand came up to her lips. They stared at each other for a moment. Riley felt numb. Ana was only a nameless stranger in someone’s painting, a beautiful woman casually embraced by a handsome man as he chose a bottle of wine for their evening together. Riley finally turned and walked away.
Part Two
Sacramento, California
(Two Years Earlier)
The fluorescent lights of the hospital obscured any sense of day or night. Riley took the stairs to jolt herself awake. She’d found it was more effective than coffee at this time of day. She paused at the nurses’ desk to check the patient’s room number. Two nurses were seated at the desk, busy with records. One of them looked up finally.
“Can I help you?”
“Joe Granzig? Had a stroke five days ago and was cleared for PT by Dr. Jennings?”
The nurse with short curly brown hair and an easy smile nodded. “Room 306. He’s had family visiting for a while. Would you mind kicking them out so I’m not the bad guy? I’ve already tried to convince them to let the guy rest.”
“Do you want them to hang out in the waiting area or are visiting hours over?”
“You guess.”
“Got it,” Riley said. She started to walk away but stopped when the nurse called her back to sign in. Riley wrote her name on the clipboard.
“You work with Sheryl Oberwein, right?”
Riley nodded.
“My mom’s good friends with Sheryl. Your name came up a few weeks ago. My mom has a PT practice in Denver.”
Riley glanced at the nurse’s name badge. “Lisa Derringer? Yeah, I sent Jeanette Derringer a résumé a few weeks ago. Sheryl told me about her practice.”
Riley had applied for the job despite her misgivings about moving to Denver. Sheryl had been her supervisor through her clinical rotations, and she’d done an internship with her as well. When Sheryl’s associate in the practice took a year off for maternity leave, Riley had the opportunity to fill in for her. Unfortunately, this associate was due back in August, at which time Riley would be out of a job. Sheryl had pushed Riley to apply for the Denver job mostly because she knew the practice owner. By Sheryl’s description of the position, there was a good opportunity to do the work Riley wanted to focus on, rehabbing stroke patients, at the Denver practice. And according to Sheryl, Jeanette Derringer would be a good mentor. “Sheryl somehow knows everyone.”
“Doesn’t everyone know someone else in this business? And everyone thinks they know everyone’s secrets as well.”
“People love to gossip,” Riley returned. The nurse’s innuendo about secrets made Riley pause. She wasn’t out at work, only because she had no reason to be, but she knew people could guess. “I manage to avoid gossip only because I don’t really know anyone. I’m just here to see my patients.”
“And then you get the hell out of this place, right? Well, it doesn’t stop people from knowing things about you.”
Riley paused. “Like what?”
“I know you are from Seattle.”
“How did you know that?”
Lisa shrugged. “Like I said, just because you don’t gossip doesn’t mean someone else isn’t gossiping about you. Blame the nurses’ grapevine.” A man came up to the nursing station and Lisa turned her attention to him.
Riley went to find Room 306, trying to shake off the feeling that the nurse knew more about her than where she was from. Joe Granzig was exhausted and clearly in no shape to listen to Riley’s spiel about the importance of his physical therapy program. She convinced the family to let him rest and made arrangements to come back to see him after he’d had a nap. When she came out of the room, Lisa was still at the nurse’s desk, writing. She considered taking the elevator at the other end of the hall since it would get her closer to her next appointment, but instead she found herself walking back over to the nurses’ desk. “And I’m guessing you’re from Denver?”
“Yes,” Lisa answered, without glancing up from her chart. “But that wasn’t hard to figure out, Sherlock. My mom’s practice is in my hometown, yes.”
“Miss home?”
She nodded. “Do you?”
“Sometimes.”
“Denver’s better than Seattle.” Lisa finally looked up from her chart when another nurse came up to the counter, handed over a file and then walked past them to the elevator.
“Why’s that?”
“We have less rain.”
“I like the rain. And there’s no ocean anywhere near Denver,” Riley countered. She knew she had seen Lisa before, but she hadn’t really noticed her. Now that she had gotten Riley’s attention, she was hard to walk away from. Her curly brown
hair was pulled back with a bright red headband, and her green eyes kept lighting on Riley. She had a smile that made Riley want to forget about the fact that Joe Granzig’s nap had just made her afternoon schedule even busier.
“But Denver’s a mile high.” She tapped her pen against the counter. “Top that.”
Riley smiled at the word choice. She doubted it was accidental. “And why is it important to be a mile higher than everyone else?”
“The sea level’s rising.” She clicked her pen. “Just saying you’d be better off in Denver.”
“I don’t think I have a chance if you’re going to bring in climate change.” Riley wanted to ask her what she was doing that evening. Instead she said, “I’ll let you know if your mom wants me to do an interview. Maybe then we can argue about the merits of Denver versus Seattle.”
“I already know she wants you to do an interview.”
“You’re sure?”
Lisa nodded.
Riley moved out of the way as another nurse came up to the desk. She glanced down at the next name on her appointment schedule and tried to refocus. “I’ve been running behind all day.”
“Don’t work too late. I’m off at eight.”
Riley stopped in her tracks at this. She looked back at Lisa. Her smile confirmed the invitation.
It wasn’t exactly a date, but Riley had trouble concentrating on the rest of her patients that afternoon. She went back to her apartment, showered, changed into jeans and a button-down shirt and was back at the third-floor nursing desk five minutes before eight. Lisa was finishing rounds with the lead nurse, so Riley sat down on one of the couches in the waiting area.
Riley had been single for all of a week, but it had felt like an extra long week. She had been with Blair since they’d started PT school together. After graduation, Blair had moved to Austin and Riley had remained in Sacramento. Riley blamed the distance on every problem that had come up since Blair’s move, but she’d finally admitted, at least to herself, that she’d lost interest long before Blair had moved. Blair somehow realized this as well.
“Do you dance?”
Riley looked up from the magazine in her hands. She had picked it up to have something to look at but had proceeded to roll it into a tube and was tapping it against her knee rather than reading it. She unrolled the magazine and replaced it on the stack. “Sometimes. Why?”
“I’m meeting up with some friends at one of the clubs downtown tonight. We’re getting dinner first.” Lisa had changed out of her scrubs and into a pair of tight blue jeans and a white tank top with a horseshoe print on it.
Riley stood up. “Sounds fun. But, as fair warning, I’m a little rusty on the dance floor. I can’t even remember when I last walked into a club. You might decide not to go out on another date with me after tonight.”
“Who said this was a date?” Lisa asked with a straight face.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I thought that—”
Lisa held up her hand. “Relax, I was just giving you a hard time. Now that I have your attention, I’m planning on teasing you a little. You know, I’ve tried getting you to talk to me for a year.”
“A year? No way.”
“After the third time you ignored me, I finally gave up.”
“What?” Riley put her hand over the door sensor as Lisa stepped past her into the elevator. Lisa pressed the ground-floor button. “I’m sure I never ignored you. Before today, I didn’t know I had a chance with you.”
“Or that I existed, right?”
Riley shook her head.
Lisa continued, “I’m not going to admit how many times you have walked right by my desk without even looking my way. You are always in your own little world. Don’t worry, though. It wasn’t like you were the only one on my list.”
“So you have a long list? I just happened to be the one who you caught today?”
“Something like that. Anyway, this isn’t a date. Maybe I’m just bringing you along as a favor to my mom.”
“Really?”
“Or maybe you just happened to be the one I picked today. You’ve been looking depressed lately, and I think you need to get out of the hospital anyway.” Lisa stepped out of the elevator when the door opened again on the ground floor. She was shorter than Riley, but she had a quick stride. Riley had to jog to catch up to her as she slipped out the sliding glass doors. “Maybe you should pay more attention to people,” Lisa continued. “I would have gone out on a date with you a year ago.”
Riley caught Lisa’s arm as she was about to step off the curb, pulling her back just as a car made a right-hand turn in front of them. The driver had his eyes focused on the oncoming traffic and never glanced in their direction.
Lisa drew in a sharp breath. “That was close.”
Riley let go of Lisa’s arm. They stood facing each other. After a moment, Riley said, “Maybe I’ll pay more attention from now on.”
The restaurant served breakfast all day, but it was known as the Burger Joint. The place only closed from three to five a.m., and since it was one of the only alternatives to the hospital cafeteria within a half-mile radius, many of the customers wore scrubs. Lisa quickly introduced her friends, Chris and Marie, who had claimed half of a booth and were sitting close enough to clearly be a couple. Lisa ordered without glancing at the menu as the waitress brought a milkshake to the table. The waitress seemed to know all three of the women but handed Riley a menu. Chris and Marie looked familiar. Riley knew they were nurses, but she didn’t try to guess where they worked in the hospital. By the joking banter between the three, Riley quickly guessed that Lisa had either dated one or both of them.
While Chris and Marie were distracted by the chocolate milkshake they’d ordered to share, Riley asked, “So how long have you been at Mercy, Lisa?”
“Two years. It’s a good job. I’d stay longer if a few things were different.”
“Such as?”
“I want a different city. I’m sick of Sacramento. I need a change.”
“Why’d you come here?”
“A girl.” She smiled. “But we broke up. And then I met someone else. That didn’t work either. The one after her wasn’t much better.”
One of the other women reached across the table and jabbed Lisa with a straw. “Hey, I heard that. And I can count. That was me you you’re talking about, wasn’t it? I was second after Jen, right?”
Lisa laughed and turned toward Riley. “I swear I’m not that bad of a girlfriend. Anyway, I’ve already got a job lined up in Denver. I’m so close to being out of this town. You’ll like Denver.”
“Sheryl’s told me about your mom’s practice. It sounds great, but I don’t know about moving to Denver.”
“Homesick for Seattle?”
Riley paused at Lisa’s comment. She hadn’t admitted as much to herself, but it was true. She missed home. But that was only part of it. Seattle was the easy choice and she couldn’t deny that part of her wanted the simplicity of starting a career in a place that was already home. “I’ve got a job lined up in Seattle. I know everyone. It’s a good practice.”
“But I’ve already made the argument for why Denver is better than Seattle.”
“The sea-level thing?”
Lisa grinned. “Why go home now? Seriously, I think you will be surprised at how much you like Denver. You’re going to fit in there.”
“How do you know? You barely know me,” Riley countered.
“Nurses know all,” one of the other women said, kissing her partner as she finished a sip of the milkshake.
“It’s true. We’ve got a gossip ring like no other.” Lisa reached over to her friends’ milkshake and sucked the straw. “Anyway, my mom needs a good associate and you’ve got the rep. The Seattle job can wait.”
Lisa’s smile made Riley realize that she was already considering Denver despite all the reasons she’d piled against it a week ago. She’d flown through the city a handful of times but only visited once when she was a kid. Her parents had insiste
d on sightseeing in freezing temperatures for a day or two before they headed up to Aspen. She could scarcely pull up an image of the city beyond the airport’s white peaked tent.
They headed over to the club on foot since no one wanted to drive home later. Downtown was always crawling with cops on the two streets with gay clubs. Chris and Marie walked ahead, arm in arm. Lisa was suddenly quiet, walking close enough for Riley to have caught her hand if she’d felt ready for that. She wanted desperately to reach out for her, but she kept her hands jammed in her jean pockets.
“I’m sorry I ignored you before. I’ve had a lot on my mind, and I wasn’t exactly available until about a week ago.”
Lisa eyed Riley but didn’t answer. They had reached a busy intersection and caught up with Chris and Marie waiting for the light to change. The club was on the other side of the street and there was a sizeable line of people waiting to get inside. They crossed the street, and then Lisa said, “You know, sometimes I don’t like to leave things up to chance or fate or whatever you want to call it. But I got shy with you. And then my mom called me up and asked me if I’d heard anything about you. She wanted to know if Sheryl was biased. I didn’t tell her that you were the woman I had a crush on for about a year.”
“Thank you for not telling her that.”
“Don’t let it go to your head.” Lisa smiled coyly. “It was a little crush and I had plenty of other distractions.”
“Plenty?”
The line moved quickly and they were inside before Lisa answered Riley’s question, although Riley doubted she was going to answer anyway. Chris and Marie made a beeline for the bar. They ordered beers and found a table that had been recently abandoned by two guys who had gone to grind on the dance floor. The place played a top forties dance selection with enough bass that Riley could feel it in her belly. She hadn’t been out to a club for years, and she felt out of place. The butch women all seemed much cooler than she was with their gelled hair and rolled-up short sleeves showing off a pack of cigarettes, inked arms or machismo-rich muscles. The femme women were equally unattainable with their glances that brushed right past her, their heeled boots, tight jeans and tank tops with necklines low enough to tease cleavage.
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