12.
S ANDI
“When you get the urge to settle down, I hope you’ll do it here, Sandi. It’s been a pleasure working with you.”
“Thank you, Dr. Parker.” When Terran narrowed his eyes, I said, “Terran, it’s been a pleasure to work with you too.”
“I added my letter of recommendation to the folder that Jewel passed around, and I want you to know that I meant every word of it.”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were about to hug me,” I teased.
“And that letter is going in the shredder,” Terran muttered before he pulled me into his arms and squeezed me tightly before he let me go. “I’m serious, Sandi. You come back anytime you want, and we’ll make a place for you here.”
“I second that,” Roscoe Hamilton, another doctor at the practice, said before he gave me a hug. “You’ve almost been a pleasure to work with. If anything, you’re like a stepping off point to train people on how to deal with Jewel.”
The nurses around the room laughed, and my friend Jewel stood up and took a dramatic bow before she smiled and flipped off her employees with both hands.
“Thank you all for being so nice to me, and believe me when I say I’ll miss you. There have been many contracts where that would have been a blatant lie, but I really liked it here and would love to come back whenever you need it. Just call me, and I’ll make it happen,” I assured them.
“When are you leaving town?” Jovi, another nurse on staff, asked.
“As soon as I walk out the door, actually. My things are waiting in the car.”
“Any chance you might come visit soon?” True, a nurse I’d become very close to during my time in Rojo asked.
“I’ve been invited to a wedding next year, and I’ve already requested time off so I can spend a few weeks here then.”
Amethyst Hamilton, the pediatrician on staff, gave me a hug before she said, “And you should bring Tiny’s friend to visit him before that.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” I assured her before I looked around the room. “Thank you so much for being so welcoming. I’m glad to have met all of y’all !”
There was laughter and cheering from everyone at my attempt to mimic their Texas twang, something I’d been teasing them about since my arrival. My time in Rojo had been wonderful, just like Jewel had assured me it would be, and I wasn’t lying when I said that I would miss them and was already planning to come back.
I’d worked contracts at several places that I would never return to willingly, but this clinic was not one of those.
As everyone trickled out, headed back to finish their busy workday, I followed Jewel into the hall and walked with her to her office on the pretense of finishing some last-minute paperwork. In reality, we just wanted one more gab session before I got on the road.
Once the door was closed behind her, she asked, “So, what’s the status with you and Eric? Are you still excited to see him or secretly planning his painfully horrible death?”
“I can’t wait to see him again. I held out longer than you thought I would while I made him grovel and see the error of his ways, but the night before he left was eye-opening. I saw things in a whole new light.”
“And you were walking on air for at least three days. Bitch.” I laughed at the look of disgust on her face, but I knew that she was just jealous since she’d already admitted as much. “Are you really getting on the road today? Don’t you want to wait until morning and get a fresh start?”
“I’m not driving all that far this afternoon. My friend Stacy lives in Little Elm down by Dallas, and I’m going to stay at her house tonight. I’ll finish the trip on Sunday.”
“I’m sure you’ve made lots of friends during your travels.”
“I have.”
“I couldn’t do it. It’s taken me years to train all these yahoos around here. I’m too old and tired to expend that much energy over and over again. I’d just end up killing someone for the fun of it, and you know how messy that would be.”
I snickered because Jewel wasn’t stretching the truth much. She had a way about her that most people found very abrasive, but I appreciated it since most people thought the same thing about me. One of the doctors at the hospital where I worked while Jewel was completing her residency had noted that it was a good thing that Jewel and I had instantly hit it off. Otherwise, the hospital would have become a war zone, and he wasn’t sure he’d have survived the fallout.
I had to admit that he was probably right. Jewel would make a formidable enemy, but then again, so would I.
“Seriously, are you going to be okay down there with Eric? If that man breaks your heart, I’m going to have to amputate your favorite appendage.”
“You leave that alone! I like it way too much.”
“You disgust me,” Jewel said before she gave me one more hug. “Get out of here before you make me cry.”
“I’m almost willing to stay a while longer just to witness that.”
“I hate your face. Call me while you’re on the road to let me know you’re okay.”
“Of course.”
◆◆◆
“You have got to be kidding me. There is not a town in Georgia called Climax!”
“There is,” Abigail, the woman who was traveling with Ajax, said cheerfully. “Ajax bought you a T-shirt.”
“Well, at least that way I’ll get a little climax out of him,” I teased.
“Hey! Do I need to remind you of what happened right before I left to pick up our new friend here?” Ajax asked.
“Please don’t!” Abigail warned. “Little ears don’t need to hear that.”
“Speaking of little ears, how hard do you think they’re going to take it when you put them back in the car for the last leg of your trip?”
“If they were old enough, they’d probably stage a revolt,” Abigail said nervously. “Ajax suggested that we get on the road late this evening so they’ll sleep through the majority of the trip, and I think that’s a great idea.”
I heard a baby start to fuss in the background, and Abigail said, “I’ve got to go back inside, Sandi. I can’t wait to meet you!”
“I can’t wait either, sweetheart.” I heard a toddler chattering and then a door open and close before I told Ajax, “I really can’t wait to see you.”
“Honey, you have no idea how excited I am to get back to you.”
“You just want a break from the kids.”
“You have no fucking idea how badly I need that. I’ve never aspired to have children of my own, and this is the closest I’ve ever come. It has cemented the fact that I was not cut out for fatherhood.”
“Taking a road trip with two that age is probably a trial by fire. There’s only two years between Wyatt and Garrett, and I remember what road trips were like when they were young. That is not something I ever thought I’d be willing to go through again, but I suppose I will once they finally give me some grandchildren.”
“You’ll be the hottest grandma ever,” Ajax assured me. “How long do you have left before you get to the house?”
“My dashboard is telling me that I’m on your street, but all I see are businesses and . . .” I fell silent when my navigation system said that I’d reached my destination.
“Shit! Hold on!” Ajax said just before the wall to my right started to raise up. “Pull into the garage, and I’ll shut the door behind you.”
“What?” I asked as I did what he said.
“Are you inside?”
“I’m in.” I looked in the rearview mirror and watched the street disappear and was glad that the lights stayed on inside the large space.
“Your car is safe inside there. I’m going to text you the codes in a bit, but while we’re on the phone, I’ll walk you through getting inside.”
“You live here?”
“That would be my primary residence, but I’m not there nearly as often as I’d like.”
“But it’s . . .” I looked around the large space and realized that it wasn’t as empty as I’d first thought. I pulled up a little further so I could see through a wide doorway to my left and saw a pool table, complete with a hanging light above it with the familiar horse-drawn carriage from an old beer company. “Where do you sleep?”
“Get out of the car, Ratched,” Ajax ordered. “Jeez, woman. Do you think I sleep on the concrete down there or what? I cleared that space out in case there’s another flood. I didn’t want to lose all my shit again.”
I turned the car off and put Ajax on speaker before I got out and asked, “Should I go to the alarm panel?”
“Yes. There’s an exterior alarm that covers the door you drove through, but I added another layer of protection on the interior too.”
“Okay,” I said hesitantly as I walked toward the door. Ajax gave me the code to enter, and once the alarm was disabled, he gave me the code to get inside the thick metal door. I was surprised to see sunlight inside and looked up to find the ceiling was a few stories high and completely glass. “Wow!”
“Turn around and reset the alarm on the panel there,” Ajax ordered.
“I’m going to be in and out, so . . .”
“Honey, I love the place, but it’s not exactly the safest area. Reset the alarm the second you walk inside, and don’t turn it off until you’re leaving again.”
“Yes, sir!”
“That’s what I like to hear. Now, go up the stairs. That first landing has two apartments. The one on the left is there for my friends when they come to visit, and the one on the right is mine.”
I entered the code he gave me and gasped when I opened the door. “Holy shit, Ajax. I know it’s early in the relationship and all, but I’m never leaving.”
The apartment was a large loft with a library area to my right, complete with two plush recliners tucked in by a corner fireplace with built-in shelving on either side. I made a mental note to come back and see what titles he thought were important enough to keep, and then turned to my left and found a comfortable sitting area with a huge television on the wall.
I walked further into the room and stepped onto a thick rug with a pool table in the center. There was a cafe table off to the side that had coasters and what looked like a humidor sitting on it. Further in was a heavy wooden dining table with benches on either side and armchairs on each end. A large island with barstools separated the area, and I saw a kitchen that was swoon-worthy with an eight-burner stove and a double oven.
“Holy shit! Do you cook?”
“I didn’t get this svelte, godlike physique by eating takeout, Ratched. Yes, I cook.”
I walked over to the door next to the refrigerator and looked out to find a large patio area with lots of seating, including a few lounge chairs that I could imagine myself sprawled upon while I read my Kindle with a large glass of wine.
“I’m never leaving,” I mumbled to myself.
“I heard that.”
“Ignore it,” I ordered.
“If you’re standing at the counter, look to your left. The big metal door is my office, and the smaller door next to it is a spare room where Abigail is going to be staying with her kids.”
“Where is our room?”
“The other door is the pantry. Go inside and shut the door behind you.”
“Why?” I asked as I did what he said. The light automatically came on, and I was glad because I found myself in what could only be described as a long cave. I walked toward the end, trusting that Ajax wouldn’t lead me astray, and found a door that led into a laundry room. “Okay, I found the washer and dryer. Now what?”
“Turn around and pick up that can of tomatoes on the edge of the shelf. Set it on top of the can of tomatoes behind it.”
“I’m not in the mood to rearrange your . . .” I jumped when something in the wall clicked and the wall next to the shelf popped open and swung toward me. “Holy shit!”
“That’s how you enter the cave of wonders,” Ajax said cheerfully.
“How fucking cool is that? Is there a magnet in the tomatoes? How does that work?”
“There’s a hidden scale in the corner of the shelf. When a specific amount of weight is set on it, the door automatically opens. Now that the door is open, I need you to take that top can off and put it back where you found it. That way, no one can come upstairs without knowing how.”
“Dude! Are you an international spy?”
Ajax burst out laughing and said, “That was the tour, sweetheart. Make yourself at home. I’ll be there sometime tonight and will wake you up with my tongue when I get there. My friend just pulled up, so I’ve got to let you go.”
“Bye, Ajax.”
“Call me if you need me, love. I’ll see you soon.”
I slipped my phone into my pocket and started up the stairs, surprised to see sunlight beaming down from the top. When I got to the landing, I gawked in shock at the sight before me and, once again, thought to myself that I was never going to leave.
If someone had asked me what I wanted in a home, I could never have imagined this, but I realized that was only because I’d never seen such a place.
It felt like I was walking through a huge greenhouse, but instead of grass, there was shiny hardwood that gleamed in the sunlight. The walls were only about chest high, and above them was glass - all the way around the room and extending across the ceiling.
The room was huge - and there were a few areas partitioned off with tall walls that didn’t quite reach the ceiling but made it seem like there was an entire home up here, complete with comfortable couches, an inviting easy chair, and bookshelves that went all the way around the room.
I saw clusters of books with knick knacks and plants scattered all over the place.
The back corner of the room looked like a jungle, and I was taken aback to see pots that were at least three feet in diameter that held different kinds of trees and . . .
“Holy shit!” I yelled as I rushed across the room and put my hand up to touch the fruit hanging from the tree in front of me.
I looked around and realized that there were several varieties, and I recognized the fruit on almost all of them. Lemon, orange, lime, apple, and pear were here, and there were a few other trees that didn’t have any fruit on them, even though they looked just as healthy as the others.
“Oh.My.God.”
I pulled my phone out and called my sister, waiting anxiously for her to pick up so I could show her what was going to be my home for the next few months.
“What’s up?” Tammy asked the second her face came into view.
“I’ve gotta show you something.” I flipped the screen around and showed her the small trees in front of me and asked, “Do you know what that is?”
“Well, sister dear, that looks like a tree. I’m almost positive that you’ve seen one or two of those . . .”
“It’s a lemon tree,” I interrupted, before I slowly turned around to show her the room. “It’s in the corner of what’s now my bedroom!”
“ That is a bedroom?” Tammy asked in shock.
“Yes. It’s the entire top floor of the damn building, house, warehouse . . . I have no idea what this place is, but the ceiling is entirely glass.”
“Poor Clayton.”
“What?”
“I’m going to have to kill him so I can move to New Orleans and become your sister wife like those women on that television show.”
“Do it. I haven’t seen the apartment next door, but he owns that too. If it’s half this fucking awesome, you’ll be more than happy to live there.”
“That’s it. I’m headed to the store for some rat poison right now!”