Page 62 of Forgotten Dreams
“You can hit up the bar on Thursdays instead of Friday and Saturday. There are a lot of business people that now come through the town and head to the distillery.”
“Unlike you”—he walks over to pick up the nail gun, undoing the hose before he puts it down and starts to roll up the hose—“I like to take my time when I have sex. Not be like a school kid on a weeknight.”
“You need to decide if you are staying for good,” I tell him and he looks down at his boots, not answering me before walking to the side.
“I’m leaving, Sierra!” he shouts toward her office.
“Have a nice weekend!” she shouts back as he salutes me with his hand and then I walk from the front door to her office, which she moved into a couple of days ago. Took Theo, me, and two other guys an hour to bring down all her stuff, including the whiteboard.
I walk toward her new office space, leaning against the doorjamb as I take in what she’s done in the last two days. I see her standing and looking at the whiteboard. I look over at the bay window, which now has two beige chairs, side by side, with a round glass table between them with a vase with green flowers. A matching footstool is in front of one of the chairs with a plush gray cover. “This is new.” I point at the sitting area and she looks over her desktop at me.
“It is.” She looks over her shoulder at me and smiles, making me want to take her in my arms and hug her. “Isn’t it pretty?” I nod at her and walk in, going toward the chairs. “If you sit in those chairs in those dusty-ass pants”—she doesn’t even turn around to threaten me—“you will lose all access to coming into this room from this day forward.”
I detour from the chairs and toward her, standing beside her as I look at the board. “What is that?” I point at the part of the board that has red writing on it.
“Those,” she says of the writing, “are some of the names I got on some of the message boards I searched up.” She folds her arms over her chest. “That was a good idea you had there.”
“I’ve been known to have a couple of good ideas.” I smirk at her.
“Sleeping naked isn’t that great of an idea,” she mumbles. “Two of these doctors have lost their licenses because they were billing for procedures that never happened.”
“Any word from the nurse yet?” I ask her and she shakes her head. “It’s almost been a week, so why don’t you try to call her again?”
“I didn’t want to be pushy,” she states, walking over to her desk and sitting down in the white chair, “but it’s been long enough, right?”
“I think so,” I tell her as she presses things on her phone and the sound of ringing fills her office.
“We’re sorry; you have reached a number that has been disconnected or is no longer in service.” She gasps and disconnects the phone.
“That is no coincidence.” She slaps her hand on her desk. “That was done on fucking purpose.” The burn in my stomach starts when she shakes her head, looking down, then back up at me, and I see the big tears in her eyes.
“Baby,” I say softly and she just keeps shaking her head.
“No, they aren’t going to win.” I don’t cut her off, knowing she needs to vent right now. “I’m not backing down.”
“Okay.” That’s the only thing I can say before going to her and holding my hand out to her. “Come on.”
She puts her hand in mine as I pull her up to her feet. “Where are we going?”
“First things first,” I say, bending to kiss her lips, “we should always kiss hello.” Her mouth goes into a smile as she puts her hands on my chest, and I wrap one arm around her waist. “Second, let’s go take a bath.”
“Oh, that sounds really, really good,” she admits to me.
“Why don’t you go get a bottle of wine”—I kiss her jaw—“and I’ll get the bath started for you.”
“Meet you in the bathroom,” she replies, dislodging herself from my arms.
“It’s a date.” I follow her out of the office and go up the steps, two at a time, until I walk into the bathroom. I take a look around to see what I’m working with. “Don’t come in the bathroom yet.” I go searching for things to make it romantic, and all I come up with are five candles.
I shake my head and start the bath before filling it with her favorite bubble bath, and then I go to light the candles when I see they aren’t even real, so I switch them on. “Can I come in now?”
“Might as well,” I huff out as the door opens and she steps in carrying a bottle of wine and two glasses. “You have the best taste in the world,” I tell her as she looks around, “but not a romantic bone in your body.”
“I’m romantic,” she gasps. “Tomorrow night I’m going to romance the shit out of you.” She walks over to the side and pours two glasses of wine. “Prepare to be romanticized.”
“That’s not a word.” I shake my head.
“I think it is.” She turns and peels her sweater over her head, leaving her in the dark burgundy lace bra I saw her put on this morning. She undoes the button on her jeans, and I know she’s wearing the matching panties. “Are you going to stand there all night gawking at me, or are you going to get naked and show me your package?”
