I had just enough energy and motivation every day to get the absolute minimum done. It was enough to keep my clients happy and the workflow going so I could maintain my usual income. But it wasn’t enough to increase at all. Now that I had the need to save up for my seed money in front of me, I had to get it together. That money wasn’t going to make itself, and I didn’t want to have to wait for months and months to have it.
The chance to make my money back was intriguing and obviously appealing. I didn’t even think about that possibility before Nick brought it up. It was a way for me to right the wrong in that I would have access to my nest egg again. I would no longer have a constant reminder of how much Justin screwed me over. But it wasn’t just wanting the money back in my account that was urging me to get my act together and increase my workload.
Part of me worried Nick wasn’t going to be this kind and generous too long into the future. He said there was no rush and we could get started whenever I was ready. But I wasn’t sure he actually meant that. If I took too long, he might have filled up his schedule and not be able to work with me anymore. Or he might not be willing to do it without commission anymore.
I needed to get in while the getting was good. Which meant I needed to get into the clinic.
Just the thought of it made me even more miserable than I already was. I hated going to the doctor. I had since I was a little girl. The whole thing creeped me out, and I dreaded every aspect of it. From walking into the waiting room full of sick people and gross, germy magazines, to weighing myself in front of people, of sitting there in that cold, stark examination room and explaining why I was there to every person who came in. It just wasn’t my scene.
But I couldn’t deal with feeling like this for much longer. I needed to get to the bottom of it and find out if there was anything I could do to hasten recovery along.
Fortunately, my doctor had an appointment early in the afternoon, and I snagged it. The time should be right during the fairly functional portion of my day.
I timed my arrival perfectly, so I barely had to wait for the nurse to call me back. She brought me over to the scale, and I noticed I had lost a few pounds.
“What brings you in today?” she asked when we got into the examination room.
“I’ve been having a lot of trouble with my stomach over the last week and a half or so. I feel really sick when I first get up in the morning and for a while after. Then things get better, but I’m completely exhausted. I’m pretty sure I either ate something bad or picked up a stomach bug somewhere along the lines. My appetite has been really off, too,” I said.
The nurse nodded and put a thermometer in my mouth. “That would explain the weight loss. And by the look of your skin, I would say you are pretty dehydrated.”
“You can tell something like that just by looking at my skin?” I asked.
She nodded. “Absolutely. Remember, your skin is the biggest organ in your body. It uses water just like all the other organs. But if you aren’t getting enough water, your body will draw it out of your skin to make sure the vital systems get to it first. Dehydration is common, but it gets worse when you’re dealing with a stomach illness. I’ll get the doctor. She’ll be right in.”
I didn’t have to wait long for the doctor to come in, but as soon as she did, had to go back through the explanation of how I was feeling all over again. She looked at my chart and nodded.
“Are you having sex?” she asked.
“No,” I said. “Not in a little while.”
“And you said it’s has been going on for about a week and a half?”
“Yes,” I said.
She nodded. “Well let’s do a pregnancy test anyway just to rule it out.”
I nearly threw up right there. “I’m positive that’s not it,” I said. Thinking back, it had been at least three months since I’d last slept with Justin. I’d have known if I was pregnant by now right?”
The doctor gave me a cup and directed me to the bathroom. My hand shook as I held the cup and deposited my sample. After a few tense moments in the exam room, the doctor came back in. “Well you aren’t pregnant.”
I nearly wept with relief. Not that I didn’t want to be a mother someday, but this wasn’t how I’d wanted to go about it.
She continued. “There’s been a particularly nasty stomach bug going around this season. We’ve seen a couple of people every day dealing with it. It looks like you might have gotten a bad case of it.”
“Okay,” I said. “Is there anything I can do about it? Any medicine I could take her anything?”
“Not really. It’s a virus, so there aren’t any antibiotics or medications like that you can take. With things like this, you usually just have to let it run its course. What I recommend is making sure you get plenty of rest and are staying hydrated. I know that’s not always easy when you’re sick to your stomach, but not having enough fluids can actually make you feel sicker. If water doesn’t appeal to you, or you find you feel queasy after drinking it, try ginger ale,” she said.
“How long is this going to last?” I asked.
“There’s no guarantee one way or another. For some people, it only lasts a few days. For others, it can take a couple of weeks to get through. You will recover from it faster if you get plenty of rest. Eat if you have an appetite but focus on foods that are gentle and easy on your body. Toast, rice, pudding. Things like that. Avoid extra spice, oils, fats. All those things can make you feel worse.”
She told me to go home and rest, gave me another warning about getting dehydrated, and said to call back if I wasn’t feeling better within a couple days. I left the clinic with a recommendation to try electrolyte drinks and protein shakes if I was having trouble with solid foods.
I went home and took the doctor’s advice to try to eat while I had the chance. Nick had sent me home with a lot of the leftovers from the lunch I had at his office, but I couldn’t bring myself to heat them up. The idea of the smell already made me feel nauseated. Instead, I picked out the dishes with the least amount of spice and sauce, grabbed a fork, and headed into the living room to eat them cold.
I managed to eat a fairly decent amount before starting to feel tired again. Work deadlines were looming over me, so I knew I couldn’t just curl up on the couch and go to sleep. As much as that sounded like the greatest thing in the world right now. Instead, I got my laptop and dragged it to bed with me so I could work from there.
Setting up my computer, I went back into the kitchen and grabbed an armful of electrolyte drinks and bottled water. I climbed into bed and tuned out the world for a while as I worked. The project I was working on that week wasn’t especially interesting. That made it more difficult to keep myself awake while I fought against the exhaustion pulling down on me.
As I worked, I forced myself to keep up with my hydration. It felt exceedingly silly to set the alarm on my phone and take a few sips every time it went off, but eventually it became like a game. I was hoping my dedication to getting enough fluids would convince my body to not be sick anymore.
That wasn’t the way it worked out. I had gotten a couple of hours’ worth of work behind me when the telltale rippling started in my stomach. I closed my eyes and drew a couple of breaths to try to get rid of the feeling. It didn’t go away, and I pushed my computer aside and repeated my morning scramble to the bathroom.
The wave of sickness was a rough one, and I ended up sprawled on the bathroom floor for almost an hour before I could move again. When I got up the energy and stability to go back into my bedroom, it was only for long enough to grab a pillow and a blanket. I made myself a little nest on the floor and stayed there, clutching a bottle of water, until I fell asleep.
When I woke up, it was two hours later, and my entire body felt like it was permanently stiff. The tile was not forgiving, even with the pillow and blanket, and it hurt to try to pull myself up to sitting. I started to call out for help. I stopped myself, realizing even if I did, there wouldn’t be anyone there who
would come for me.
It made me wish there was someone there to be with me through all this. I wanted someone to help me back into the bedroom and tuck me into bed. To sit with me and pat me to comfort me. To talk to me as I tried to keep my stomach settled. I just wanted someone to see me through it.
But, then again, I didn’t miss Justin at all. Maybe it wasn’t him I was wishing was here.
14
Nick
I tried really hard not to notice that I hadn’t heard from Bryn all week. It really didn’t need to be on my mind, and the fact that I hadn’t heard from her was actually a good thing. At least, that’s what I told myself. If I didn’t hear from her, that meant I was focusing on my other clients. While she was technically a client because I was going to be doing investments for her, she wasn’t one who would be paying an invoice, and I didn’t know if I could look ahead into the future and have her doing any repeat investing.
She’d seemed interested in the idea of the investments when we spoke, but only so far as to possibly replace the money Justin stole from her. It didn’t seem like she was all fueled up to make investments a regular part of her life. That was the thing about financial management and planning. Everybody came about it in a different way. While I was firm in the belief that investment was a good idea for anybody and that everybody had just as much chance at success as everyone else, not everybody had the motivation.
Whatever the reason, Bryn wasn’t one of my regular clients, and I needed to keep them happy so I could keep my firm afloat. That meant actually getting my work done rather than sitting around thinking about her all the time. Knowing that and doing that were two very different things, but I was doing my best to focus more on work and just know she would get back to me when she was ready.
I convinced myself this was probably the new normal for us. We were just doing business together now, as opposed to the quest for revenge or justice that started this whole thing to begin with. When she thought there was a possibility that we could somehow get her money back from the investor, it would be legal recourse for Justin and the investor, so it made sense to talk to her on a regular basis.
She wanted to keep up with this situation and find out anything that might be happening. Now that we were starting out on a plan for investment of her money, it was different. There really wasn’t anything for us to talk about from day to day. She was still working on saving up the seed money to start her investments. Once she was done with that, we would be working more closely together and would probably communicate more. But up until then, she really didn’t have a need to call me.
No matter how many times I told myself that, it didn’t make me feel any better. But I just kept on doing it. Eventually, maybe it would sink in and I wouldn’t keep checking my phone to make sure where the ringer volume was up loud enough for me to hear it or looking up hopefully every time I heard footsteps outside my office door.
I really needed to get myself together. The last thing I needed at this point was for any of my brothers to notice something different about me. If they got even the hint that Bryn had gotten herself in my mind and didn’t seem to be leaving anytime soon, I would never hear the end of it.
Quentin called me on Thursday to remind me about family dinner night. At least that week he wasn’t trying to change up the schedule and was reminding me to come over to his house on Sunday like usual. With no other plans on the docket and the chances of any spontaneously popping up exceedingly slim, I didn’t have to turn him down that time.
I was looking forward to getting together with my family on Sunday, and when I pulled up to Quentin’s house, it made me smile to see all the cars lined up in the driveway. I walked inside and the first person I saw was Lindsey. She had a giant platter of raw steaks in her hands and was headed for the doors to the back deck.
“Hey, Linds,” I said.
She turned around and grinned at me. “There you are! I was wondering if you were going to come tonight.”
I threw my hands up and let out a sigh of exasperation. “One family night. I missed one family night and now everybody’s acting like I have completely shunned everyone.”
“Well, you know how everybody is,” she said.
With a smile, she headed to the doors again. I was still trying to get used to having her at these dinners not as my buddy coming along with me. There were plenty of dinners over the years when she would come to hang out, and my entire family embraced her as one of our own. Now that had shifted over. She was here with Vince and most likely her son, Remy, was outside with everybody else.
I stepped outside with her and immediately heard Remy’s cheerful giggle followed by another from Darren and Kelly’s daughter, Willa. The children were very close in age and had both taken a strong liking to Quentin’s dog, Rosie. Being blind didn’t hold Remy back from developing into a rough-and-tumble boy, the kind who needed a dog companion in his life. Since Vince only had a spoiled and very opinionated cat named Frankie, Rosie was his chance to roll around with and get his face licked by a dog.
It wasn’t Lindsey’s very favorite of his newfound favorite activities, but she would deal with it. She was just so happy to see her son blossoming as a welcome and loved part of a real family.
I walked to the edge of the upper level of the elaborate, several-level deck and looked out over the lawn. The gathering of our family for dinner on Sunday used to just be the four of us brothers and our parents. Then we started adding in friends like Lindsey, or Quentin’s and Darren’s best friends. Then it started to get elaborate. Merry joined up followed by Kelly and Willa. Then we added Remy. Then Merry and Quentin added their little girl to the mix.
When we had everybody there, it felt more like a sprawling reunion than just a simple dinner. And that’s just the way I liked it. It was good to have everybody there together being able to enjoy hanging out and relaxing. I liked watching the little ones play with the dogs. Sometimes my brothers would get in on the action, and my parents would just shake their head as two generations tumbled around in the grass.
Sometimes I caught them looking at each other and smiling in a soft, misty way that seemed filled with so many memories and so much love. There was an unspoken longing in that smile. Both were hoping they were young enough that they might have the chance to see another generation spring up and join in on the fun. But until then, I was going to take every opportunity I got to pick at my brothers who were sturdily domesticated.
Of course, that came with a price. I couldn’t just get away with teasing them. As soon as she noticed me there, Mom hopped up from her lawn chair sitting beside my father and rushed to meet me as I walked down the steps into the yard.
“It’s so good to see you,” she said like she hadn’t just seen me a few days before when I stopped by her house after dinner to snag a slice of her famous lemon meringue pie.
She threw her arms around me in a tight hug, and I squeezed her back. Mom held my face between her hands and smiled at me.
“How are you doing, Mom?” I asked.
“I’m doing wonderfully. How are you?”
“Um. Well…” I started, and she realized she was still holding on to me. Her hands dropped, and I smiled. “I’m fine. Glad to be here. I’m starving.”
She did what I was sure she thought was a subtle look around. “You’re here alone?”
“Yes,” I said.
“No one else coming?”
“No. Who else would be coming?” I asked, though I had a sneaking suspicion I already knew the answer to that question.
“I was hoping we’d get a chance to see that nice girl you brought to the picnic again,” she said.
And there it was.
“Technically, I didn’t bring Bryn to the picnic. You invited her and she drove herself.”
“You certainly spent a lot of time together there though,” she said.
“Yes. Because I’m the only person she knew there,” I said.
“And that’s the only reason? She�
��s a beautiful girl. And the two of you seemed to get along well. There was chemistry. You don’t see any possibility there at all?” she asked.
“Bryn is one of my clients, Mom. She’s very nice, we do get along, and, yes, she’s beautiful. But she is still my client. And even if she wasn’t, I am still not ready to settle down. Not to mention she just got out of a relationship with a not so trustworthy guy,” I said.
I braced myself for an argument, but Mom just nodded. “Alright. I guess I have to accept that.”
“Good,” I said, leaning down to kiss her cheek. “Now, I’m going to go hold my niece and then stuff myself.”
By the time I got home that night, I was exhausted. I stripped down and toppled into bed, then rolled around a bit to get comfortable. But no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t make myself relax. Bryn’s image kept showing up in my mind, and it was waking my body up.
There was no relaxing as long as I was thinking about her. My cock was hard, straining against my boxers, and I slid my hand down to wrap around it. Pretending the touch was Bryn’s, I ran my hand in long strokes up and down my shaft. It didn’t take long for the intensity of the sensation to build up until it was all but unbearable. Finally, I exploded. The tension and energy drained out of me, and as soon as I was cleaned up, I fell asleep.
15
Bryn
As much as I thought it was a little ridiculous how much the doctor emphasized hydrating help me get over my stomach virus, it definitely seemed to work. I woke up Monday morning feeling like a brand-new woman. Just the fact that I woke up because my alarm was going off and not because my stomach was doing backflips was already a step in the right direction.
Millionaire Hero (Freeman Brothers Book 4) Page 7