Cocktails & Dreams (8 page)

“So, Conor,” Nick said smugly as he flopped on the couch when he and Conor got home. “I guess you owe me for finding you some women. You’d better get to work.”

“Bullshit.
I
found my women. In Dr. Call’s office and in his house.” Conor was smiling up at the ceiling, arms outstretched on the back of the couch.

“Ah, but they were places you wouldn’t have seen if my shoulder wasn’t fucked up. My win.”

“Yes, but your shoulder was fucked up because I shoved you off that chair, trying to catch the stupid TV.
My
win.” Con grinned at Nicholas. “Besides, do you even want to find Ms. New Year’s Eve anymore?”

Nick was startled to realize that he hadn’t given the Angel a thought since the night at Rich’s. Jena had filled his mind nearly every minute since then. Still, now that he remembered that night…

“Not sure, Con.” Nicholas recalled all of the fun he’d had in the last couple of days and sighed. “Probably not. Of course, if
she
was to find
me
…I don’t know.”

Conor laughed. “Did you ever consider that might be a moot point, my friend?”

Nicholas stared at Conor, not getting his point.

“Fuck, you can’t be so dense. Remind me never to come to you for treatment when you’re a doc.” Conor started speaking very slowly, as if Nick were slightly backward. “You were with a girl you knew from college, right? With dark hair, right? Sooooo…” He spread his hands in a “there you have it” gesture.

Nicholas stared blankly at Conor.

Then it hit him.

“Are you saying it was Jena?”

Conor raised one eyebrow.

Nicholas started to shake his head, unable to reconcile the sweet if a bit naughty woman from the last couple of days with the sex kitten from New Year’s. “No fucking way, Con. Why wouldn’t she say something? Unless…do you know for sure?” Nick’s mind was boggling, running over the possibilities.

Conor backed down. “Hey, I told you—I barely got a glimpse of the girl. It just seems like a possibility you shouldn’t rule out.” He rose from the couch and grinned wickedly. “And, if that’s the case, I
found
your girl, asshole! If I hadn’t pushed you off the chair…” Conor stopped, chuckling. “You should see your face, man. This is priceless.” He slapped Nicholas on the shoulder and then headed to his room, pulling his shirt over his head as he went. “You should ask her, dude. Her answer could be interesting.”

“J
ENA
…”

“Yo, girl…”

“Hey! Jen!”

Leisa’s small yet painfully pointy elbow jabbing into Jena’s ribs brought her back to the present.

“Holy shit, Leis! Was that necessary?” Jena rubbed her side and glared.

Leisa shrugged, unmoved. “Quitcha bitchin’. I have to get your attention somehow. So…what’s going on with Mr. Studly? Travis has been treating him for weeks—how long are you going to avoid the topic of New Year’s?”

The salad in front of Jena suddenly became of prime importance. She put a huge forkful of lettuce in her mouth and made exaggerated chewing motions, hoping Leisa would let the topic lapse.

Travis laughed, kicking Jena under the table. “Like that will stop her, Jen. You know my sugar is like a pit bull when she gets her jaws into a topic.” He lifted Leisa’s hand and kissed it.

Jena swallowed and made a gagging noise. “Do you guys have any idea how sickening you are? Seriously.”

Leisa took a long swallow from her ever-present coffee cup. “Don’t try to change the subject. Is this just because you’ve seen Nicholas’s peepee?” Jena choked on her water. Leisa continued calmly, slamming Jena between the shoulder blades with the fist of doom to make sure she didn’t drown before she died of humiliation. “You’ve seen Travis’s peepee and you’re still friends, right?”

“That was totally not my fault, jackass!” Jena hissed. “If you guys would keep your extracurriculars in Trav’s room, I could still look at the couch without wanting to bleach-wash my brain.”

Travis winked, completely unconcerned. Jena thought in another life he must have been an exotic dancer. “Bet it ruined you for every other man, right, Jen?”

“Oh, my
God
.” Jena thumped her head on the table. Amnesia surely couldn’t avoid her this time, she thought. “Don’t talk about it! Ever,” she moaned. “All I wanted was some pizza, and now I’m scarred for life.”

Leisa snorted. “Don’t be so dramatic. So you saw a little peepee action. It didn’t kill you, Jena.”

“Would you stop saying that
word,
Leisa? It’s weird.”

Leisa stood up. “And not little, right, Trav?”

Travis grinned as Jena groaned. She was sure her head would explode at any minute.

“Sweetie, I have to get back to work now and tell them I need the rest of the afternoon off. I actually wanted to assure you that your brain need not be bleached again, as I have finally found an acceptable apartment.” Leisa smiled.

“Leisa! That’s great! Not to say that I haven’t enjoyed having you stay with us, but I know you wanted your own space.” Jena’s face fell. “Will it be
your
space? I mean, is…”

“Travis moving in with me? Not yet, but my guess is he’ll be around your apartment a little less than he is now. Starting this afternoon. I want him to come with me to do the final paperwork and get some furniture. So do you think…?”

“Oh, I get it now. Lunch was a clever ruse to embarrass me and get me to take Travis’s afternoon appointments on my day off.”

Travis gave her a smacking kiss on the cheek, knowing Jena couldn’t resist the combined charms of her friends. “Thanks, Jena. It’s not much. The worst one is Mrs. Ellemen’s knee. That’s a water routine, so take your suit. Then a couple of easy ones and you’re done.” He stood and picked up the check. “I’ll even take care of this for you.” He smiled down at Jena and then swiftly stooped to kiss her on the head. “Don’t be mad, Jen, okay?”

Jena was surprised to feel tears prickling behind her eyes at his un-Travis like thoughtfulness. “Get out of here, you fools. I’ll call you when I’m done, and you can show me the new digs. And buy me dinner to go with my lunch, of course.”

They laughed, and Travis wrapped his arm around Leisa, guiding her to the door.

The trip to the university was a nightmare. It seemed like every idiot in Davis had decided to take a leisurely drive that afternoon, and Jena barely had time to get her suit on before Mrs. Elleman hoisted herself into the pool. Of course, the patient was peeved not to get a chance to ogle her favorite therapist, and that made it even more irritating for Jena to be in the water with her as she complained and made half-hearted attempts to complete her workout. By the time she was finished, Jena was five minutes late for the next appointment, even without changing or taking a quick peek at the chart. Maybe she could get the receptionist to stall for a few minutes, Jena thought distractedly, or ask if the patient wanted to reschedule.

Dashing toward the office, Jena stopped dead. Nicholas was sitting on the massage table.

“Hi, Nicholas. I’m just on my way out to see if Carrie can stall my next appointment, so…” Jena blurted out.

“Too late. She just sent me in here and told me to wait for you. I can. Wait, I mean, if you want to change.” His eyes traveled slowly down Jena’s body and back up, and he grinned devilishly. “You don’t have to.”

“Two minutes.” Jena fled to the locker room, slamming the door against the wall. “‘Don’t be mad, Jena.’ Jackass!” she muttered, quickly stripping off her swimsuit and pulling on her clothes. No time for a shower. She took a deep breath as she paused at the door and counted to ten. She could do this. She was a trained therapist, for God’s sake, and Nicholas was a patient.

Plastering a professional smile on her face, Jena strode confidently from the dressing room, taking a second to pull Nicholas’s chart from the office before she returned to him. “Your shoulder seems to be healing remarkably well, Nicholas. You must be taking good care of it and following your outside exercise plan.” She kept her eyes on the chart, flipping through the pages.

“Sure. My dad is a surgeon, so I know better than to disobey doctor’s orders. All I need is for Dr. Call to tell him I’m slacking off. I’d be dead meat.” He caught Jena’s hand. “Did I do something, Jena? You seem a little…”

She chuckled, still not meeting his eyes. “Just a busy day. I’m fine. Okay, so this says that Travis has been starting off with massage and then moving on to the machines.” Jena cursed her roommate once again. Professional, she reminded herself. “Let’s get that sling off, okay?”

Carefully releasing the tight chest binding, Jena slipped Nicholas’s arm out of the sling and moved to unbuckle the strap around his neck.

“Would you mind just lifting it over my head, Jena? It takes forever to get right if you undo that strap.”

“Of course.” Reaching to lift the webbing over Nicholas’s head, Jena felt his hair brush under her chin as his head was pressed briefly against her chest. “Sorry,” she said a little breathlessly. “I guess I’m too short to do that without a step stool.”

“I don’t mind.” Nicholas cleared his throat, shifting a little on the bench as he started to unbutton his shirt.

Jena dropped her eyes to the file on the desk. How the hell was she supposed to do this?

“Can you help me?” Nicholas asked.

Jena saw that his left hand was caught in the sleeve of his shirt. “Sure.”

After helping him get the sleeve off and bringing the shirt around his back to ease it off his right arm, Jena set to work on his shoulder, determined not to look at his broad chest and flat, toned middle. Too bad the long muscles of his back were equally distracting.

Mentally resolving to murder Travis the Traitor, Jena asked Nicholas how he and Conor were settling into their new town. Nicholas chuckled and proceeded to tell her funny stories about Conor’s job at the fire station and how he was adjusting to life in California. Apparently, people were “too nice.” It made Conor nervous.

“He should be better this weekend, though. Samantha’s coming to town. She’s no one’s idea of nice.” Nicholas chuckled, eyes closed. “That feels so good. You have magic hands, Jena. Are shoulders your specialty?”

“Nope. I can make you feel good anywhere.”
Crap.
Jena felt Nicholas repressing laughter. “Just shut up and put your shirt on, fool.”

His eyes twinkled as he carefully eased his shirt back on and left it unbuttoned.

Jena turned, taking a minute to collect herself while making notes on his chart. “Okay, shall we move on?”

Nick nodded, still grinning. They moved steadily through the prescribed exercises, talking a little about their friends and what each of them had been up to since the night in the bar. As Nicholas was working on the last machine, Jena asked about something that had piqued her curiosity.

“Conor and Samantha seem to have hit it off really fast. Is that normal for him?”

Nicholas chuckled. “Because of the speed or because of his general gooniness?”

Jena choked back a laugh. “Well, I wouldn’t have put it that way, but yeah. Both. He doesn’t seem like the type for a girl like Sam.”

“It’s the damndest thing.” Nick grinned. “I don’t know if it’s the confidence or what, but women fall all over the goob. They never last long, but it’s always him doing the dumping.” He shook his head. “It’s a mystery. He’s been fixated on women like Sam since he hooked up with some blonde last New Year’s when we were in San Francisco.” His eyes, suddenly guarded, flicked to Jena. “How did you spend your New Year’s?”

Jena’s mind raced. No way was he getting the truth.
Hey, remember me? Yeah, that’s right. You don’t.

“I usually spend the holidays with my parents, now that my brothers have moved away. You know, family games, sparkling apple cider at midnight. That sort of thing.” That was true of most years, but last New Year Jena’s mom had surprised her dad with a holiday cruise. Thus began the booze fest with the worst roommate in the world.

Nicholas sounded faintly disappointed. “Yeah. Sounds nice.” He sighed as he did the last rep and let the weights gently settle down.

Jena turned from the notes she was taking to see him fumbling at his buttons one-handed. “Here, let me help you,” she said. She stepped forward, between Nick’s knees, inwardly ordering her fingers not to shake as she swiftly buttoned his shirt, leaving the top three buttons undone.

As Jena finished and moved to step back, Nicholas caught her hands and brought them up to his lips, kissing each finger softly. “Thank you, Jena.”

She nodded, feeling her stomach flutter as Nicholas held her hands. Her eyes met his.

“Would you come over tonight and save me from an evening of trying to avoid seeing Conor and Samantha grope each other?” Nick asked softly. “Ask Leisa and Travis, too, and we can play poker or something. Please?” He held her hands against his chest. Jena could feel the warmth of his body against her palms, and she couldn’t look away. She felt herself gradually lean forward.

Suddenly, strong hands grasped Jena’s hips and jerked her back slightly. She felt a face buried in the hair at her neck.

“Mmmm…chlorine. My favorite perfume.”

Jena reached over her shoulder to slap at her roomie. “Travis, you ass! You about made me pee my pants. What are you doing here? I thought you and Leisa had some heavy-duty business to do.”

He laughed, backing up a step and taking Jena with him. He murmured in her ear, “You have an audience, sugar.”

She glanced around, startled, to see a couple of the office staff peeking in the door and gaping. Jena felt a slow blush start to creep up her neck.

Travis continued in a louder voice, “Yeah, she’s some serious shopper, though. I got bored, so I told her I’d be back to get her in a few minutes. I just came to see if you were through so I could buy you the dinner I owe you.” He let Jena go and reached out to shake Nicholas’s hand. “You look like you’re doing pretty well, Cooper. You even shook with your right hand.”

Nicholas looked down, surprised. A grin spread across his face. “I guess I did. You guys do good work here. Can I get rid of the sling?”

Travis laughed and shook his head. “Not quite, but we can loosen it, I think. Might make sleeping a little more comfortable. If you keep progressing like this, I think you’ll be done with it in the next week or so.”

“That is exquisite. Thanks. So, would you guys please come over tonight and save me from Conor and Samantha?”

After a quick call to Leisa, plans were settled, and they agreed to meet at Nicholas’s apartment for dinner. Nick looked at Jena curiously as she stood slightly behind Travis and just waved as he walked toward the outer office.

Jena turned to Travis as the door closed, eyes trained on her feet. “Thanks, Trav. I don’t know what happened to my brain.”

He snorted, reading the notes she’d taken on the day’s session. “I’m not exactly sure that organ was involved at all. I thought you might want to keep your job, and sucking face with a patient in the treatment room is not the way to do that.”

Tears of frustration welling up in her eyes, Jena turned to escape. Travis grabbed her arm.

“Hey, Jen. I was just kidding, sugar.” He wrapped his arm around Jena’s shoulders and squeezed. “After we got to the store, I started to feel guilty about sticking you with my afternoon. I know how the guy affects you, and I’m sorry. It turned out to be mean, though I promise that I didn’t intend it that way. I’m a total asshat. Still friends?”

“Yeah, I guess so. Since you admitted your asshattery.” Jena wrapped her arms around Travis’s waist and squeezed. “Thanks again.”