City Beautiful

by CM Foss

  I threw open the door to my room, and turned to kick off my shoes, letting them thump against the wall. I tore my shirt off and tossed it behind me. As I turned to walk into the bathroom, I began to unbutton my jeans, when I caught movement from the corner of my eye. I froze.

  Stacy sat up groggily from my bed, pushing the hair from her face. She was wearing a pink, silk negligee, low-cut and pretty fucking sheer.

  I blinked slowly and snapped my jaw shut.

  “Stacy?” I asked.

  She looked around as if disoriented, suddenly realizing where she was. “Patrick.”

  “What are you doing?”

  “Um”—she sucked her lips into her teeth—“I guess I fell asleep. I… I came in last night. I thought you were out for a smoke.” Her eyes met mine. “That must have been a lot of cigarettes.”

  “You need to leave. Now.”

  She rose to her knees, letting the comforter fall around her. “Just hear me out.”

  I held up a hand, averting my eyes. “No. Just… no.”

  I heard her hand smack the mattress beside her as her voice grew petulant. “You can’t tell me no. I’m talking.”

  I raised my eyebrows as I looked back at her. With the enormity of life circumstances being flung my way, suddenly I was through with being nice. “Stacy. Go.”

  “Where were you?”

  “It’s none of your business.”

  “Of course it is!”

  “I’m not sure where you got that idea. It wasn’t from me.”

  “Patrick, we’re perfect together. I don’t understand how you could not want me.”

  Her face was so genuinely confused, it was almost funny. Almost. I walked to the door and flung it open.

  “Out.” I pointed.

  She huffed and stomped out of the bed in nothing but the scraps of silk. Pausing as she passed me, she poked a finger to my bare chest. I raised an eyebrow as I watched it, my body recoiling from her touch.

  “Come get me when you’re done slumming with the farm girl.”

  I looked at her face, traces of mascara smudged under her eyes and a crease from the pillow still marking her cheek. “No chance.”

  Her eyes hardened as she stomped out. I watched in amazement as she turned down the hall, then caught more movement from the stairwell. Ivy stood frozen, her eyes following the disgruntled woman stomping away.

  “That is not what it looked like,” I said. My heart was racing as though I’d been caught doing something wrong. I held my breath, waiting for her reaction.

  Ivy just looked at me, one eyebrow raised but otherwise her expression was unreadable.

  “Seriously?”

  “Ivy, I just got here. You have to know that nothing just happened.”

  She walked toward me, and I backed up to allow her through the door, shutting it behind her quietly.

  She spun around. “I have too much to do today to deal with this aggressive brand of crazy. So I have a couple of questions.”

  “Shoot.”

  “Have you slept with that woman?”

  “No.”

  “Do you want to?”

  “No. Not even close.”

  “Does she think you want to?”

  “Probably not anymore.”

  She was nodding to herself and sat on the bed. She’d put a soft-looking pair of jeans on with a white pearl snap shirt, sleeves rolled to her elbows. Her bare feet were folded beneath her. She was so comfortable in her own skin everywhere she went, it seemed. Her hair was braided to the side again, halfway looking innocent but also revealing the neck I wanted to put my lips on.

  “I don’t have any… rights to you. I know that. But we have to spend the weekend together, and turns out we’re having a baby. And we slept together last night. So forgive me for seeming possessive. But… are there any other women I should know about?”

  “I haven’t looked at another woman since you,” I answered honestly.

  “You mean since this morning?” she asked wryly.

  I let out a soft chuckle and walked to stand over her, letting my fingers trace her exposed neck as she looked up at my eyes. “No. Since the first time I saw you. There hasn’t been anyone else. I don’t think there ever will be.”

  “That’s crazy.”

  I shrugged. “I’m crazy about you.”

  She rolled her eyes.

  “I’m serious.” I laughed. “I am. And you are too, about me.”

  She smirked. “Maybe a little.”

  I leaned down and kissed where my fingers had been. She sighed and let her head fall to the side. “Am I forgiven? For… whatever I need to be forgiven for?”

  “That may be the worst apology I’ve ever heard. If it even was one.”

  “Get used to it.”

  She started to push at my chest but I captured her lips softly in mine, teasing her into submission. Soon her hands began wandering and pulling me closer, drifting under the waistline of my jeans.

  “Shower with me,” I whispered against her mouth.

  She groaned and scrambled backward. “I can’t. I have work to do.”

  I shucked my jeans off and winked at her as she gaped at my nudity.

  “Your loss.” I stalked toward the bathroom without a backward glance, but I could feel her eyes on me.

  “I can tell you this,” she called after me. “No one here has earned any bacon!”

  Ivy

  The day was a special form of torture. Starting with the fact that Connie made me serve bacon. And Barbie ate half a piece. Who the fuck only eats half a slice of bacon? That’s unnatural and, honestly, really rude. I may be unable to eat it because of a sick and unfunny joke that God was playing on me, but I still respected it.

  The pregnant one, Gillian, she ate enough bacon to compensate. I respected that too.

  Interestingly enough, Patrick opted out of the bacon, which was strange but also kind of sweet, because I knew he was doing it out of a show of solidarity.

  It was harder than I thought it’d be to serve him as a guest, but at the end of the day, he and his colleagues had come here for a reason and I had a job to do. We were too new and things were too hard to explain to the group, so I shoved him out of my mind and did my best to pretend he was nothing more. From the glances he threw my way, he was trying the same thing but doing a pretty cruddy job of it.

  I set the group up with a series of exercises for the morning. We worked in the garden and they gathered ingredients for me to make lunch and dinner. We collected eggs and moved cattle to a new field. They learned to milk, which was always entertaining. Stacy was pretty freaked out by that, which was also super fun.

  It was kind of a mismatched bunch, with Roger and Bob being a bit older, Stacy being plastic, and Gillian being pregnant. I’d had to get creative to think of things they could do together safely. So I’d organized Luke to come out in the afternoon and do some routine medical work that the doctors could observe and even help out with. That was entertaining as well. I hoped that it opened their eyes to some alternate practices, especially when I convinced Patrick to get some acupuncture. There were skeptical glances all around, but they were good sports.

  By the time we’d made it through dinner though, I was done. I was tired and cranky and wanted wine but couldn’t have it. Okay, I snuck a sip or two during dinner service. But that didn’t count.

  Additionally, it seemed Patrick had awakened a beast. I could not stop thinking about sex. Sex, bacon, and wine. Those three things had been running through my head all day, and apparently sex was the only thing I could have, so I wanted it with a vengeance.

  Connie offered to finish the dishes so I could take care of some last-minute farm chores, and my body screamed at me to take her up on it. Fr
esh air and some physical activity would do me good. As well as escaping the Barbie glares. I wished the group good night and escaped into the starry night, Dimple by my side. I tickled her head and she reached up with her mouth to hold my hand as we walked. I laughed at her, loving her quirkiness, especially in that moment.

  It was another hour of work before we were back at my house, and Dimple hopped straight through the dog door without waiting for me. I was tired enough to consider following her through the hole, because then I wouldn’t have to open and shut the whole door and I could get off my feet. Things were bad. I did restrain myself though and swung it open with a groan to find Patrick lying lengthwise on my couch, flipping through a farming magazine.

  I only hesitated for a moment before walking straight past him.

  “Pretty sure of yourself, aren’t you, city?” I asked over my shoulder.

  He set his reading material aside and followed me with his eyes. “I figured you were a sure bet,” he retorted.

  I shouldn’t have, but I couldn’t help but laugh. I filled a glass of water at the sink and drank it slowly before setting it back down. Then I turned and began stripping off my clothes as I walked back to the couch. Patrick’s eyes widened in surprise and a grin spread over his face. Once I was fully naked, I walked around to straddle him, reveling in the rough scratch of denim between my thighs. His hands automatically gripped my hips and I shifted on him slightly, enjoying the way he tensed beneath me when I did.

  “I have a bit of a problem,” I began.

  “You do?”

  I nodded. “You see, suddenly I can’t stop thinking about… bacon.”

  A brief flash of surprise lit his eyes. “Bacon makes you sick.”

  “A sad fact, but fortunately temporary. I also can’t drink wine. Wine was typically how I concluded my evenings.”

  “That is a problem.”

  “So that only leaves one unresolved issue that is actually… resolvable.”

  “Are you saying you’d like to use me for sex?”

  I nodded and slowly lowered my face to his. My eyes fell shut as I brushed my lips over his, nipping and teasing and coaxing them to open. At the first touch of our tongues, I inhaled sharply and my heart skipped a beat. His hands didn’t move from my hips, but his fingers dug firmly into my flesh. Mine started roaming, feeling the hard ridges of lean muscle under the softness of his shirt, pushing up the fabric to absorb the heat of his skin. I took my time exploring, and he allowed me free rein over his body. I relished in the power and confidence it gave me.

  But being naked while the other person is dressed is like being the only drunk one at a party. You may be having a grand time, but it’s much more fun if everyone’s drunk. Or naked. Or, let’s be honest, both.

  Patrick must have read my mind, though hopefully not all of it because my inner ramblings were weird, even to me. Before my brain could form another thought, I was flipped around to my back. He grinned over me and pulled his shirt off one-handed, revealing the peaks and valleys of his striking abdominal muscles above me. I let my fingers play across them.

  Somehow, he got rid of his jeans without getting off the couch and lowered his skin closer to mine, the crisp hairs on his chest deeply sensitizing every facet of my body. My knees rose around his hips, and I arched up to relieve the tension, increase the friction.

  When we finally melded, skin to skin, I breathed out a sigh of completion, my muscles relaxing and giving in. When the softness of my stomach pressed against his hardness, my heart raced and found its rhythm by matching his. And that didn’t sit right with me because… because it wasn’t right. It wasn’t rational. So it couldn’t be right.

  I forcibly shoved all that out of my mind so I could enjoy the sensations I’d soon be missing. Patrick would be leaving and this was my last hurrah before my stomach expanded and I became unmitigated man repellent. Which previously was fine with me, but now I was spoiled. I wasn’t a city girl anymore, but city had his ways.

  Finally, he entered me with no barriers and it was heaven. Well, God probably didn’t want to hear that. But I imagine skin on skin was something heavenly. I mean, God didn’t invent latex so this was intended. Jesus, stop me from overthinking. While having sex with someone I barely knew. But who happened to be the father of my child.

  I’m down with Jesus but I probably needed to stop that train of thought before it bypassed the pearly gates. Too far.

  The point is that sex with Patrick was fun and amazing and memorable. But it had to stay there. So I held my mind back from whirling around irrational topics. Because he was leaving, and while we’d still have a baby together and would have a connection, that was it. That’s where it had to stay.

  As if he felt my drifting thoughts pulling me back, Patrick paused, panting slightly and resting his forehead against mine.

  “Where’d you go?” he asked breathlessly.

  I paused and ran my hands through his hair. “I’m right here.”

  He shook his head. “No. You’re not.” His eyes softened as they stared into mine. “But you will be.”

  With that he hoisted me smoothly in the air and stalked me off to my bed where he proceeded to make me lose every last thought, every consideration of complications. And we simply felt every moment, in the moment, until all the moments swirled together and all I felt was love being made. Which was not what I had intended.

  Chapter 16

  Patrick

  As I repacked my bag the next day getting ready to leave, a heaviness settled over my chest. I hadn’t really come to terms with the fact that I was going to be a father. It didn’t seem real. I knew it was, but I can’t say it had hit me. You couldn’t even tell Ivy was pregnant by looking at her. Maybe that was why.

  Suddenly that heaviness twisted in my chest, making it hard to draw a breath. She hadn’t even been to a real doctor. What if there was something wrong? With Ivy or the baby? The damn woman admitted she hadn’t even had a checkup in years. And I wasn’t talking about the dentist, though I should check on that too. Gums were important.

  I left my bag halfway stuffed with clothes and stomped down the stairs to find her. We weren’t done talking.

  I found her humming in the kitchen with Connie as they cleaned up, and I paused. She had her golden hair piled on her head and an apron tied around her waist. She was wearing a skirt, which I hadn’t seen her do before. It was puffy and girly and reached her knees. Her toned, bare legs poked out the bottom, and she was wearing heels. I couldn’t stop staring, so I decided not to. I just leaned against the doorframe and enjoyed the view, my earlier discomfort easing at the sight before me.

  When she spun around and caught me out of the corner of her eye, she let out a small squeak and threw a dish towel at my head.

  “You scared me!” She laughed.

  Connie didn’t even turn around. “I knew he was there the whole time.”

  “Well, why didn’t you tell me?” she asked.

  Connie shrugged. “Let the boy have his fun.”

  Ivy shook her head. “You’re fired.”

  Without looking at her, Connie put the last plate away in the cupboard. “Sure thing, lady,” she called teasingly as she walked out. She patted my shoulder as she left. “City doc. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around.”

  I bent to kiss her cheek and whispered in her ear. “Take good care of my girl, will you?”

  She pursed her lips and nodded. “As long as you do the same.”

  I lifted my chin, then turned my attention to Ivy, who was watching us curiously.

  “What was that about?” she asked, leaning back against the sink.

  “Just making sure you take care of yourself while I’m gone.”

  “I will,” she said quietly.

  I walked over and slid my hands down her bare arm
s, letting them settle on her hips.

  “You’re all dressed up.”

  She poked me in the chest. “Now that all you high maintenance city folk are leaving, I can head into town and see some friends.”

  “What friends?” I asked.

  “Well, you’ve met Emily, and some others you haven’t met.”

  Her vague response made me want to shake her and question her about every person in her life. I just wasn’t sure of my place. I reached around to tug on the tie of her apron, pulling it over her head and tossing it aside.

  “Someday you’ll have to let me see you in nothing but that.”

  She snorted. “That depends on when someday is.”

  I tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and looped my arms around the small of her back. “Really soon.”

  She sighed.

  “What?” I asked.

  “I don’t know, Patrick. This is all just so… messed up. I don’t know how to do this. You and me, the baby, everything.”

  I pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I don’t either. But we’ll figure it out. I’m going to talk to Bob about my contract, see how to get out of it. I’m sure for a family emergency…”

  “Whoa”—she spun out of my hold, putting distance between us—“what are you talking about? Getting out of your contract?”

  “I can be a doctor anywhere, Ivy. Why not here?”

  She choked out a laugh, a look of disbelief on her face. “Because! Because men like you don’t live out in places like this.”

  “What are you talking about?” I spoke slowly and cautiously. “I can live anywhere.”

  “I’m talking about the fact that you can’t move here just for me.”

  “Why not? And I…”

  “Because I wouldn’t do it for you!” She yelled the words that shocked my heart. I’d never put forth the effort to invest it in a woman before, and with barely a chance, it was frozen, stuck in my chest.