From Now Until Infinity (2) (2 page)

Two hours later, I walk out of surgery and give his wife the good news. She can take him home after he wakes up. She gives me a hug and thanks me. I smile and remind her that he needs to follow up with me next week. God, I love my job!

I take the elevator up to my office. Even though I don’t see patients on Friday, we still have patients that come in for rehab. I keep my head down and make a beeline for my office. I’m in the mood to get showered, dressed, and have a long relaxing lunch with the best personal assistant around.

Brad stops me as I’m headed to my office. “Done for the day?”

“I hope so. Any messages for me?” I don’t take my phone into the operating room so Brad is keeper of my phone on surgery days.

Brad relays my messages to me as if they’re headline breaking news. His messy auburn hair stays perfectly gelled in place while he bobs his head as he speaks. “Rachael called wanting to know the details on this weekend. Chelsea called asking if you wanted to see a movie on Sunday. Your housekeeper called and said that you need more bleach when you go to the store.”

“Wow! I‘ve got some kind of exciting life,” I tease. “I’m headed to the locker room to get changed. Lunch in thirty minutes?”

“Sure, darling,” he confirms. “Oh! And wear something nice.”

I keep five outfits and duplicate toiletries at work so I don’t have to lug an overnight bag to and from work on surgery days.

I take a quick shower, put on a sweater dress, throw some makeup on, brush my teeth (I’m not sure why. We’re about to eat), and twist my long hair up in a clip. By the time I see Colin tonight, my hair will be dry and the twist will give me pretty caramel waves.

I walk back to my office to grab Brad. He’s all smiles when he sees me in a dress. “Don’t you look spiffy!”

“Whatever,” I reply smiling and gently elbowing him in the ribs. “I’m not in the mood for pants, and I do believe that I was told to look nice.” I quickly change the subject off of my appearance. “Where am I buying you lunch?”

“We have reservations at Tony’s.”

“Tony’s?” I ask a little too shocked. “Don’t you think that place is over the top for lunch? I hadn’t planned on five star dining. Besides, I don’t think that I want a steak.” Tony’s is a restaurant that you go to when celebrating your birthday or a promotion. It’s not the kind of restaurant that you just pop into for a random Friday thank you lunch for the best assistant ever.

“They’ve got more than just steak, and you promised me a nice lunch,” he says with a pretend pout.

“Fine,” I whine as I give in. “But you’re driving.” I always make Brad drive when we go to lunch so it’s not like I’m really punishing him.

* * *

“Doctor Caroline Collins,” Brad responds when the hostess asks if we have a reservation.

She smiles a little too much at Brad and asks us to follow her to our table. I wonder if she knows that Brad is gay.

We seem to be winding through the restaurant and passing up perfectly good table choices. I inwardly cringe. I so wish that Brad had picked some place less formal. Everyone in here is dressed in business suits for goodness sake.

Then, to my surprise, she leads us to a door. I look back at Brad shooting him my most confused expression. He’s smiling at me like the cat that ate the canary.

I don’t have time to process what’s going on before the hostess opens the door, and I see him standing there. Colin McKinney. Waves of excitement and anxiety roll over me all at once. I rush into the room and throw my arms around his neck.

He kisses me very sweetly on the cheek. “Hi baby,” he says as he places his hand on the middle of my back

There’s a vibe of trepidation between us. It’s almost as if we’re suddenly waking up from a great dream. No. An amazingly awesome dream, and realizing that we never actually fell asleep. All in one instance, I’m so nervous that I’m shaking, excited beyond belief that he’s actually standing in front of me, and completely scared to death.
What if last weekend was just a fluke, and we really don’t have the chemistry that I think we still have?
What if I’m pregnant?
I hate
“what ifs!”

I step back and look at him. “What are you doing here? You aren’t supposed to be in town until tonight.” It’s not the greatest opening line ever, but it’s the first thing that comes tumbling out of my mouth.

Colin gives Brad and knowing wink. “I thought that I’d surprise you. Are you surprised?” He’s just as nervous as I am. I’m sure that Brad doesn’t pick up on it because he doesn’t know Colin like I do, and Colin’s a master at hiding his emotions. It makes me feel a little better to know he’s anxious to see me also.

I kiss him again, but this time on the mouth. It’s more than how friends kiss, but not one of our passionate kisses. “Best surprise ever.” I can feel the anxiety melting away between us. We’re good. We can do this.

It occurs to me that we aren’t alone. As I look around, I notice that the hostess has graciously closed the door and left, keeping the prying eyes of the other restaurant patrons from witnessing our reunion. I turn to Brad. “I guess I should introduce you two.”

Brad laughs. “Oh Doctor Collins, we’ve talked plenty on the phone.”

Brad sticks out his hand and shakes Colin’s. Colin confirms what Brad said. “Yeah, Brad and I’ve become good friends the last couple of days. In fact, I believe his exact words were, ‘Not THE Colin McKinney? The one we’ve been avoiding for all these years?’” He says with humor in his voice and gives me a very sexy wink.

I blush and grab Colin’s hand stepping closer to his side. “Well, WE aren’t avoiding you anymore, are we?”

He wraps his arm around me and pulls me closer to him. “Brad, thank you for all of your help. But right now, I want to spend some alone time with my girl.”

Brad replies, “Don’t do anything that I wouldn’t do.” He turns and sashays out of our private dining room.

The table is large enough to accommodate twelve people, but there’re only two place settings. I let Colin lead me around the table to our chairs right next to each other. He pulls out my chair for me and I sit down as graciously as possible. Colin waits until I’m settled and pushes my chair in for me. He’s always such a southern gentleman.

This feels very much like a first date which is so bizarre. We did the whole dating, getting to know each other thing when we were in college (even though I didn’t know that was exactly what we were doing). Last weekend, we did dirty, kinky things to each other. The man fingered me under a tablecloth during the Clay South retirement dinner while we watched highlights of Clay’s career flash by during a slideshow for God’s sake. Our reconciliation’s way past the first date stage. Yet! Here the two of us are, awkwardly dancing around each other. I decide to quit thinking and just be. Colin and I wouldn’t know a conventional relationship if it kicked us in the shins. It’s not us. We have to find our own rhythm that works for us.

It’s then that I’m distracted by his appearance. He has on a black leather sports coat over a light green T-shirt. His shirt is tucked into black slacks. The man is devastatingly handsome. It’s hard to believe that he just spent four hours in the car driving to see me. I guess he can even command his clothes to not wrinkle.

I turn to Colin so I can look him in his beautiful green eyes. “So tell me how this happened. I thought I was taking Brad out for a thank you lunch.”

Colin gets a knowing glint in his eye. Apparently, my question has relaxed him because he’s the Colin that I’m the most familiar with again. “Well, you see Doctor Collins, Brad and I started conspiring two days ago to make this lunch happen. You’re not an easy woman to surprise. Thank goodness your assistant is a clever one,” Colin says while tapping his finger to his forehead, “And helped me pull this off.”

“So when I was talking to you this morning, you weren’t really in Los Angeles?” I ask.

“Nope. I was at my McMansion in Dallas with Jenny frantically rushing around trying to get me packed to come and see you. By the way, she wants you to know that she generally doesn’t do early mornings so you owe her one.” I love Colin’s voice. It’s jovial and melodic. I swear, the man could read me the phone book, and I’d hang on every number.

I smile. “Well, you tell Jenny that she and I’ll have some girl time when I visit Dallas, and I’ll take her for a spa day as a thank you.”

The waiter enters the room and takes our drink order. Shock of all shocks! Colin orders a sparkling water and I get a glass of white wine.

Colin turns to me and nervously says, “I hope you don’t mind, but I had Brad set the menu for us.” I assume that he had Brad choose the menu because Colin’s not sure what I like to eat which is another reminder that we’ve got a lot to learn about each other.

“Of course not.” I’m still stunned to be sitting here with Colin. I reach over and grab his mammoth hand, which dwarfs mine, because I need a physical reassurance that he’s really here.

I decide to bring up the subject of the private dining room. “Look, I know why you reserved the private dining room, and I appreciate you thinking of my feelings. However, we can’t dine out only when we can be hidden away. I get that you’re a celebrity of sorts. I know that you’re trying to protect me from the media and from constant attention during meals, but that’s your life and I’ve accepted it. What I told you in Los Angeles is still how I feel. I can deal with all the ancillary stuff that surrounds you as long as I get to sleep next to you at night.”

He flashes me the Colin McKinney half smile that I love so much. “I love you Charlie, and I love hearing those words from you. I’ll do my best to keep you from the fans and the media, but you’re right. We can’t live like hermits avoiding the attention, but just give us one more meal of peace.”

“I can do that,” I confirm with a big goofy grin. I secretly love that he’s so considerate of my feelings and dread when the day comes for us to eat in public and be mobbed again.

Our food arrives and Colin and I both dig in with reckless abandon. I know how much he enjoys watching me eat. He keeps smiling at me as I make soft noises of pleasure as I sample all the delicious flavors. Brad did an excellent job with the menu, and he managed to choose foods without grains to accommodate Colin’s weird diet while not making me feel that I was being punished.

Our conversation during lunch is kept light and flirty. I still haven’t asked what happened with Sasha Stone, the entertainment report and (maybe?) ex-girlfriend of Colin. I’m hoping that Colin will volunteer the information without me having to pry it out of him. But, I’ve vowed that I have to trust him. He’s a gorgeous man who travels frequently and is surrounded by beautiful women throwing themselves at him. I’ll drive myself crazy if I don’t trust him. This’s exactly what I tell myself, but I know that if he doesn’t share with me soon what happened after I left, I’ll have to ask for my own sanity. I can’t live with the doubt that I might be the other woman for much longer.

The waiter clears our plates and brings us one piece of Italian cream cake to share. Colin doesn’t eat flour, but he’s more than happy to feed the cake to me. I lean into the fork savoring each bite as he offers them. It’s so sensual being fed, and Colin’s eyes fill with lust as he watches me slide each bite of cake off the fork using my lips, tongue, and teeth. “Watching you eat cake is making me hard,” he confirms while feeding me another bite.

“Baby, the wind blowing makes you hard,” I teasingly reply. Then, I make sure and moan a little bit louder after each bite that I take.

I do a quick out-of-body and evaluate the two of us together. If you’d have told me a week ago that I’d let some guy feed me cake, I would’ve accused you of being mental. Yet! Here I am letting Colin McKinney shove cake in my mouth, and I’m enjoying every second of it.
Oh the things that we do for love!

Hating to break the mood, but needing to get back to work, I inform Colin, “I’ve got some patient notes that I need to get in the computer. You’re welcome to come with me to the office, or you can wait for me at my home.”

“Brad said for you to call him after lunch,” Colin says flashing me his half smile and a twinkle in his green eyes. The boy has something up his sleeve.

I grab my phone and hit Brad’s name. Brad quickly answers. “I’m done with lunch, and Colin said that I’m supposed to call you,” I ask questioningly.

“How much do you love me?” he asks in his best “you know you can’t live without me” tone.

“I love you a ton. Why?” I reply feeding his ego.

“I took care of your patient notes for you. There’s nothing pressing at the office that needs your attention. Go get reacquainted with ‘he who we’ve avoided for years,”’ he teases.

I smile at Colin and give him a wink. “Thank you Brad. I’ll give you one gigantic thank you lunch on Monday if you get appointments to give me some time.”

“Don’t worry, Doctor Collins. I’ve gotten that taken care of also. Have a great weekend,” he says with such sincerity that it surprises me. Could Brad actually be happy for me and not think that I’m crazy for jumping in so quickly to this relationship? I make a note to ponder that idea at a later time.

I hang up with Brad and look at Colin who has a huge smile plastered on his face.

“What?” I giggle at how ridiculously cute he looks.

He stands up and takes my hand. “Are you ready for the next part of the surprise?”

I look at him and wonder what else he has in store for me. Just having him here six hours early is a big enough treat.

He pulls me to him and kisses my head. Then, he leans back so he’s staring directly into my eyes. “I do believe that I won a bet last weekend. As the loser,” he says putting a little too much emphasis on the word loser for my taste. “You agreed to go anywhere I want to take you this weekend.”

“Yeah, but Colin,” I interrupt. “We agreed to spend the weekend in Houston.” We had discussed it at length a few nights prior and thought it was a good idea to just have some normalcy this weekend.

“Well, I changed my mind. As the winner of the bet, I’ve got the right to do so,” he laughs. God, he can be so cocky sometimes.