“If you start right this minute, you’ll have time to eat before you have to leave, so don’t talk,” she ordered, turning back to the counter to make her own breakfast burrito.
Nicholas obediently began to eat, watching her graceful movements as she quickly straightened up the kitchen and sat between him and Conor, drawing one foot up on the seat of the chair and exposing her long thigh. Nick reached out with one finger and traced it down from her knee to her hip. Jena smiled, glancing swiftly at Nick and blushing.
“You two are getting almost as sickening as Leisa and Travis.” Conor gagged as he rose and rinsed his plate. Shouldering his monster backpack, he looked at his tablemates, his smirk turning into a genuine smile. “Listen, I wondered if you guys have anything going next week. Sam’s dad gave her tickets to the Jimmy Buffett concert, and we wondered if you’d like to go with us.”
Nick looked at him with one eyebrow raised and nodded toward Conor’s firmly closed door.
Conor shrugged. “What can I say? I’m irresistible to women everywhere. She’ll eventually wake up and go home, right? So what do you say? Parrotheads? ‘Cheeseburger in Paradise’? C’mon, live a little, Dorkolas. Who can’t use a little summer this late in the year?”
“That would be nice, Conor,” Jena replied. “I hate it when it starts to get cold.”
Conor laughed. “Cold? Someday you’ll have to visit Boston in January, dollface. That’s cold.” He turned to Nicholas, spreading his hands in a questioning gesture with his thumbs tucked under the straps of his backpack. “So?”
Nick ran over his schedule, realizing with a sinking heart that he was scheduled to work every day for weeks. Jena’s face held fleeting disappointment as she read his expression, but then she smiled. “That’s all right. Thanks for asking, Con.”
“No freaking way. You’re supposed to be on early shift for the next month, right? Should leave plenty of time to eat and get to the concert.” Conor sounded determined.
Nick sighed. “Maybe, if I didn’t have Dr. Dick riding my ass.”
Jena snorted into her coffee cup as Conor bellowed laughter. Nicholas ran over what he’d said again. “Shut up.”
Conor was still snickering as he headed to the door, shaking his head. “You two are beginning to share a brain. I’m glad it’s Jena’s—she’s funny.” Turning at the door, he looked at Jena. “You’re coming anyway. Don’t argue. Ask someone to come with you, if you’d like, but you’ll have your butt dancing in front of one of those seats if I have to drag you out your door. I owe you for all the deliciousness you’ve fed me the last few days.” He looked at his watch and grinned at Nick. “You’re going to be late, kid.”
“Crap.” Grabbing his cup, Nicholas jumped up and pulled Jena into a one-armed hug. “Tonight?”
She looked torn. “Well…I have to work on my paper, and all of my stuff is at home…” Nicholas tried to keep the disappointment off his face, but he knew she caught it. “How about you come over to my place tonight? I’ll make chicken enchiladas,” she wheedled. “And I promise that I’ll remind Trav that you might be coming in late.”
Nicholas kissed her on the forehead, trying not to sound as relieved as he felt. “Sounds good. Don’t forget about Travis, though. He almost took my head off with a bat last time.” Jena snickered and promised to remind him and to bring Nick’s clothes for the next day.
Dashing onto the floor where his group was participating in rounds at two minutes after eight, Nicholas tried to blend in at the back of the group.
No such luck.
“Glad you could make it, Cooper.” Kapos pointedly looked at his watch. “When you’re making a half mil a year, you can make people wait. Until then, don’t ever think you can get away with that crap.” He led the way to the next room as the other students smirked.
The rest of the day was a nightmare. Kapos seemed determined to drain every bit of life out of Nick before his peds rotation was up at the end of the week. Nick had been looking forward to the surgery rotation that would start next, though it would be rigorous, thinking that it might give him some common ground for discussion with his father during the six weeks of the rotation. Not that it was an issue now.
Kapos caught Nick in the lounge about four p.m., nodding off as he tried to catch up on charts before the next round of bed checks on his little patients.
“Finished with those?” The resident’s face was stern.
Nick shook his head briskly. “Almost. Ready to go?” He put the final mark on the last paper and stood up, straightening his tie and taking a gulp of cold coffee. He checked his coat pocket for the pig puppet he had found useful in making the little ones laugh.
Kapos studied Nick’s face closely and then smiled. “You’re learning, Cooper. No more arguing with me, no more moping around. I take it things are going better with the hottie?” He laughed as Nick shrugged noncommittally. “No personal life, either. God, you might become a doctor yet. Go home. You were here late last night, and it’s slow tonight.”
Nick hesitated, wanting so badly to believe he was really going home on time, but then he squared his shoulders. “Thanks, but I’m okay.” He stifled a yawn behind clenched teeth, and Kapos rolled his eyes.
“Get the hell out of here, stupid. I don’t offer these little boons often.”
“Thanks,” Nicholas said quietly, turning toward his locker and starting to shrug off his white coat. He suddenly remembered the concert and turned back toward his boss. “Listen, I’d gladly stay tonight if I can go home on time in a few—”
“Don’t push your luck, Nick,” the resident warned, heading out the door. “Take what you can get. Tonight’s a guarantee.”
Nick slammed the coat in his locker. “Right. Thanks.”
One drive later, he was hesitating outside Jena’s door, thinking that maybe he should have just gone home. Jena did say she had to study. Maybe she was counting on this time before Nick could reasonably be expected to get away from the hospital to get stuff done. Nick decided that he should head back to his apartment. He had his own studying to do, and laundry needed to be done, and he hadn’t spent much time with Conor lately, and…
Nicholas’s body bypassed his brain and knocked.
Jena pulled the door open, book in hand and a questioning smile on her face. Any doubts Nick had about coming over were erased immediately when her eyes lit up and she flung her arms around his neck, dropping her book behind him and kissing the hollow behind his ear before she pulled him into the room.
“How did you escape? Did Dr. Dick drop from exhaustion?” She snickered and nudged him.
“Funny.” Wrapping his arms around Jena, Nicholas buried his face in her hair before kissing her lips hard. “He just found a slight human impulse and let me go before I passed out on the floor. Do you mind me coming over?”
She rolled her eyes and didn’t bother answering.
As promised, Jena had made chicken enchiladas, and they each ate a couple, saving the rest for Travis who was playing again that night. After dinner, she insisted that Nick “get comfy” and raided Travis’s room for sweats and a T-shirt.
Nicholas guessed that after stealing a man’s condoms, his clothes were easy to take.
They settled down in the living room with their books and files, and the next couple of hours passed quietly as they studied. Actually, as Jena studied, because the more time went by, the less Nicholas read, preferring to watch her instead. He’d never seen her quiet intensity before, aside from work. Even there, she was kind and encouraging to her patients first. You had to look closely to see how intently she watched each motion the patient made, making sure it was correct. Outside of work, she was playful and funny and often endearingly silly. Watching her tonight, though, it was clear even that was somewhat of a cover for a fierce intelligence. She worked from an outline, checking and rechecking her facts from several sources before she wrote anything on her paper.
Nick finally gave up any pretense of reading his own files and lay o
n the couch with his head next to her leg. Jena smiled down at him, stroking his cheek with one hand.
“Just a few more minutes, okay?” she said. “I’m almost done for tonight.”
Nicholas struggled to keep his eyes open as she began running her fingers through his hair. She turned her eyes back to her book, chewing her lip absently and mouthing certain phrases as she read them from her paper, as if making sure they sounded right. His heavy eyelids finally drifted closed.
Quiet voices awakened him, and he struggled to logy awareness.
“Sshh…I’m here, Trav. Use the kitchen light, okay?” Jena’s quiet voice came from above Nick, and he realized that he’d moved his head onto her lap at some point. Soft fingers ran soothingly over his shoulder, and he relaxed again. Faint light glowed through Nick’s eyelids from behind the couch somewhere. He heard the refrigerator door open and close, and the microwave run briefly.
“How was the gig?”
“Loud.” Travis settled into the chair and breathed a sigh of relief. “Remind me not to wear these boots again for a while. Fuck, my feet hurt.” Jena laughed quietly. Nick heard the clink of silverware on china. “So, when did sleeping beauty get here? Poor guy looks exhausted.”
Jena stroked Nicholas’s hair again. “Pretty much. He got off work early, for once. Where’s Leisa?”
“She has an early meeting.” Travis was quiet for a minute. “Has Nick ever explained why he hung up on you that night and didn’t call for fucking ever?”
“Misunderstanding. Nicholas thought I hung up on him. Probably a dropped call—I never checked.” She let out one bitter chuckle. “What a colossal fuck up. He won’t talk about the rest of it, Trav. That scares the crap out of me. If I don’t know how it happened in the first place, how am I supposed to be sure that it won’t happen again? And I have to wonder if maybe I should just know…”
The quiet sadness in her voice made Nicholas’s heart ache.
Travis leaned over and kissed Jena’s forehead. “You know what I think. Talk. Hang in there, girl.” After a second, his door quietly closed.
Nicholas slid his arm around Jena’s waist and pressed his cheek to her stomach for a minute. “I thought you would be happier without me, Jena. You sounded so sad on the phone, and I never wanted that for you. I went a little crazy for a while, but I tried so hard to let you go…”
Jena drew in a sharp breath, and her fingers stopped moving. “Nicholas, you don’t have to say—”
“Yeah, I do.” Nick searched for her eyes in the gloom. “You deserve someone who isn’t so scared of loving. And whose family isn’t so fucked up. Someone else.” He squeezed her more tightly, glad for the darkness.
“I don’t want someone else, Nicholas. I want you. I don’t give a crap about your family.” Her voice shook as she took a shuddery breath. “I needed you so much and I didn’t even see you once, or hear your voice, and…it hurt.”
“I saw you,” Nick admitted quietly. “I tried to stay away, but I just couldn’t. I followed you around campus a couple of times.”
“Why didn’t you talk to me? I only wanted a little break, to think about how I could balance how I feel about you with having a real life. I didn’t want you to go away forever.”
“I’m a dumbass. Ask Conor.” They both laughed a little, and Nick sat up, pulling Jena onto his lap. She snuggled her head into his chest.
“I’m a dumbass, too,” she said after a minute. “I talked to you in my mind rather than picking up the stupid phone and talking to you. I’m stubborn like that when I’m mad.”
“I called my dad a fucktard.” Nick laughed. “Totally shut him up. I don’t know if he was insulted or confused.” Jena started giggling.
“I threatened to cut my mother’s tongue out and move to Hawaii if she ever spoke to you again without my express permission. And to smash her computer if she didn’t stop Googling you. I’m violent, too, just so you know.”
“I went with Conor to the gym the day you guys played racquetball. I just wanted to see you for a minute,” Nicholas admitted. Jena got quiet. “I waited in the car to see you meet him. You were beautiful and smiling, and I was sure I’d done the right thing by not calling you. I was sitting there, still thinking about it when you came out the side door and that guy met you.”
“Peter.”
“Whatever. It felt like someone punched me in the chest when I saw you together.” Nicholas leaned his cheek against the top of Jena’s head. “Then I made an ass of myself when you went out to dinner. So I win the dumbass prize, with the ‘pitiful’ upgrade.” He yawned hugely. “Sorry.”
Jena slid from Nick’s lap and stood. “Come on. Bedtime.” He waggled his eyebrows at her, and she laughed. “Correction. Sleep time. You can demonstrate your mad bed skills when you’re fully rested. What time do you have to be up tomorrow?”
“Seven.”
Jena began towing Nicholas across the living room. “So, if you go right to sleep, that gives you a full six and a half hours, which will probably feel like heaven. Add that to your nap, and you will have had a human level of sleep for once.”
Nick caught up to her and grabbed her hips, pulling her against him and continuing their walk toward her room. He snaked one hand under her shirt to stroke her stomach. “You feel like heaven,” he said, and she shivered. “Mad skills, huh?” He blew softly on her neck, and she pulled away, laughing.
“Don’t get a swelled head, Nicholas.”
He grinned and slid between the sheets. “Too late.” Flipping back the covers on her side of the bed, he murmured in a low voice, “Coming?”
Jena shook her finger at him in mock indignation. “No fair using the sexy voice and naughty words.” Her stern façade crumbled, and she smiled. “I’m going back out on the couch if you don’t promise to go right to sleep.”
Sighing theatrically, Nick flopped back against the pillow. “Fine—I promise.” As tired as he felt, he was actually glad to just hold Jena with no expectations of more. The next morning would be a different thing altogether. She got under the covers, snuggling against him with a contented air.
She rubbed her cheek against his chest, resting her ear over his heart where her hand usually rested. “I love that sound,” she whispered and listened for a minute before sliding her head over to his shoulder. “Thanks for telling me why you didn’t call. I’m a big girl, though, and I can decide what I need, okay?”
“Understood. No more me making decisions about what’s good for you.” Nicholas tipped her chin up and kissed her lingeringly.
Jena broke the kiss with sharp intake of breath, trailing her lips over his jaw and nipping at his neck. “I can’t wait for the weekend.” She smiled against his neck. “I miss the scruff.”
Opening his mouth to reply, Nicholas embarrassed himself by yawning. “God, I’m sorry.”
She smiled and pressed one more kiss on his lips. “You’re just too distracting, mister. Go to sleep.” She turned over on her side, and Nicholas immediately wrapped his arm around her waist.
“Mad bed skills and a sexy voice…You are so in trouble tomorrow morning,” he rumbled, already relaxing into sleep.
As he drifted off, Nick heard her whisper, “Promise?” He smiled and struggled to open his eyes, but it was too late—he was asleep.
It didn’t occur to him until much later that in the middle of the confessions and the jokes, they’d missed a chance to consider how well they really did know each other.
Chapter Eighteen
“ONE MORE REP, KAREN,” Jena said, gritting her teeth as her slight patient made a half-hearted attempt to raise the leg weights. “You can do this. Just think about hitting the track again.”
“That’s exactly what I don’t want to think about,” her patient muttered as she let her leg go limp.
Jena closed her eyes briefly and counted to five. She’d suspected Karen wasn’t putting her heart into her treatment plan, but it irritated her beyond belief to have her suspicions confirmed. Thi
s was not a day that she wanted to be worried about her treatment success rate.
“For me, then, kid.” Jena turned to see Travis looming over her shoulder, shooting Karen his most winning smile. “You have no idea how hard Jena can be to live with when things don’t go her way,” he said.
With a reluctant smile, Karen went at her exercises with renewed enthusiasm, under Travis’s encouraging gaze. As she crutched to the door at the end of her session, casting adoring looks at Travis every few steps, Jena sighed.
“Thanks, Trav.”
Travis grinned and ruffled her hair. “No problem. It looked kinda like you were considering whacking her, so I thought I’d help out.”
Jena nodded tightly and headed for the office, Travis following in her wake. He leaned in the doorway, clicking his pen, and watched her toss papers into her bag.
“So today is your meeting with Call, right?” he finally asked.
Jena nodded, feeling her shoulders tighten further. After numerous reschedulings, she’d finally gotten a solid appointment time to talk to her boss about whether her future in UC Davis’s physical therapy program would be affected by Call’s relationship with Nick’s father. The thought of having to bring her personal life into her professional life made her feel slightly ill.
“Yep. Right now, in fact.” She grabbed her coat and swung her bag over her shoulder. “Prepared to find a new roommate if this doesn’t go well?” she asked, forcing a smile.
Travis crossed the room and folded her in his arms. “Don’t even think that way, Jen. This is just…being proactive. Call is a reasonable guy.” He kissed her on the temple, hard. “I’ll see you at home, girl.”
Jena squeezed him back and headed for the door, calling over her shoulder, “Have the Captain primed and ready for me, just in case.”
“Gig—sorry. Call me if you need me?”
Jena nodded and waved as she stepped into the elevator to meet her fate.
Cocktails & Dreams Page 25