37. More Time For Them
37
MORE TIME FOR THEM
“Y ou’re staying until the end of the year?” Garrett asked three weeks later when she arrived at his house. “They told you you had to or you asked?”
He was holding his breath over that piece of news.
He needed something good after what he’d found out last night.
Since Justine was working, he hadn’t been able to tell her yet.
“I asked,” she said. “I thought of it a few weeks ago and decided that it’s the best thing. I don’t want to rush anything and I’m not avoiding it either. I just would like to have more time to get my ducks in a row.”
“The looming thought of having to decide in less than sixty days was getting to you?” he asked.
It was early August, and she was supposed to be done by the end of September. He was glad that wasn’t the case now.
More time for them to work this out together.
“It was,” she said. “It’s a big decision. I can lean one way now, but a lot can still happen. As Jordan said, I don’t have to lock myself into anything. I’ve moved once, I can again if things don’t work out.”
He didn’t like the way she said that.
He didn’t know if it was about things not working out between them or liking it on the island.
Hell, if she had that attitude, she could feel like she could leave Boston too if she wanted.
“What do you think won’t work out?”
“Nothing,” she said. “I don’t think that. But when I told myself that I could give it more time, I just breathed a sigh of relief. Between that and Karly getting the footage yesterday, I want to feel as if some positives could happen.”
He’d known they’d gotten the footage. The DA had a copy now along with Justine’s attorney and the police, but he was betting anything Bond Law found something first.
“I’m glad,” he said. “I really am.”
She moved closer and hugged him. Things had been fine between them since they’d had their fight almost a month ago.
They were spending more nights together and got along well.
“Your light is a bit dim right now,” she said. “Why is that?”
“What?” he asked, laughing. He walked past her to get on the deck and check on the steaks that he was grilling. There were some potatoes cut up in foil already there and probably done, mixed in with some vegetables. Nice and easy.
She moved onto the deck too, looked to the side at Vanessa’s house and smirked, then back to him. “I said you don’t seem as happy or relaxed as you normally are. Did you have a bad day at work? You can talk to me about it without going into specifics.”
He loved her all the more that she’d said that.
“Thank you,” he said. “Nothing horrible. Or more than normal. Not with my current patients. But I did get some news yesterday about my past one.”
“Oh no,” she said. “I’m sorry if you lost someone.”
“I’m being sued,” he said quickly and turned back to the grill. He didn’t need to do anything with them, but he didn’t want to see her face either.
“Come here,” she said. “My father often said that people liked to sue because it made them feel better and they looked at it as an easy cash win. The patients rarely think that doctors are human too.”
“No,” he said. “They don’t. It’s the parents of the young man who died. It’s a civil suit now. I called Roark yesterday. The hospital attorneys won’t take this on and I wouldn’t expect them to. It’s me and the other two doctors named. It’s crazy.”
Money out of his pocket to defend his name. He wasn’t going to settle and he knew damn well that was what they wanted.
Zach’s parents lost out on their settlement with the hospital because they were greedy so they wanted to try another route.
“Have you talked to them about it?”
“I have,” he said. “Last night when you were working. I was going to tell you today and I hate that I’m doing it when you told me something good.”
“Then it balanced the other out. I’m glad you told me.”
“Me too,” he said. “I don’t normally talk to anyone other than my family about these things.”
“I’m happy that I’m here for you to do it. I really am,” she said. “Do you want to talk more about it? Just to get things off your chest some?”
“Not much to say. I was firm with the other two doctors I’m not settling. I don’t care if they drag it out. I’m not doing it. My insurance rates will go up there. It will be a mark against me and for public knowledge if it happens. It’s not worth it.”
Not to mention he did have the cushion of money to fight it longer than most. But if his colleagues were on board with him, they had a better chance of winning.
They weren’t in the wrong. This was just going to be a waiting game.
He knew if one doctor folded he’d get pressured to do the same.
But they also knew where he stood and he would not let his name be dragged through anything and he wouldn’t fall prey to threats of it being a long court battle that would happen too.
He had one of the best attorneys in the Northeast and he encouraged his colleagues to retain Roark too, but that wasn’t his decision.
“No,” she said. “Stand your ground. You did nothing wrong. The fact the first case was dismissed has to work in your favor.”
“That’s the hope,” he said. “So yeah, guess we both have legal issues going on in our lives. Not the same thing, but more drama.”
“Drama seems to follow me everywhere,” she said. “But I’m not running and don’t want you to think that.”
“I know you aren’t,” he said. “You didn’t need to say it, but I’m happy to hear it.”
“I wasn’t planning on staying the night, but I can,” she said softly. “If you want.”
“I want you to stay anytime that you want to do it,” he said.
He wouldn’t say that it’d be great if she moved in. That would be crazy and put way too much pressure on them. Especially since she was taking steps forward for their relationship on her own.
“I don’t have to work tomorrow, but I’ll leave when you do.”
“Or you can stay and sleep in. I don’t care.”
“No,” she said. “I wouldn’t do that. I’ve got errands to run and it’s not like you get up that early. I’ll get the plates for dinner.”
“Thanks,” he said, pulling their dinner off the grill.
He turned to go in and saw Vanessa on her deck looking at him. She hadn’t said one word to him since she found out about Justine. She wouldn’t even wave, but he always waved to her. Just like he did now, but she turned and went into the house.
Oh well. He wasn’t the one changing his life over something that petty.
“Vanessa still ignoring you?” Justine asked.
“Yep.” She obviously saw him wave.
“Her loss. Or that is why she’s pissed because she did lose you. I won.”
“Did you win?” he asked.
“You know what I mean,” she said.
“Nope, I don’t. You can explain it to me.”
“How about after dinner I show it to you?”
“Well, that is even better. Am I getting ‘make me feel better after a shitty day’ sex? I’ve never had that before.”
She burst out laughing. “Neither have I. Could be a first for us both. Let’s get our protein stored up.”
The two of them devoured their dinner, then left their dishes and food on the table after he pulled her up and put her on his shoulder.
She laughed the entire way to his room and then he dropped her on the bed.
“Get undressed,” he said. “I’m in a hurry.”
“Wow,” she said. “I don’t even get any foreplay? Bummer.”
It was the humor in her eyes. Normally she didn’t talk about sex like this. They just came in and did what they wanted and he tried to push her embarrassment away.
But lately, he’d noticed that she wasn’t like that anymore.
So he was going with it.
He pulled his shirt up and over his head, dropped his shorts and underwear next.
“You’re slow tonight,” he said, reaching for her ankles and pulling her toward the end of the bed.
He had the waist of her shorts in his hands and yanked them down fast while she lifted her shirt.
Her bra dropped while he got a condom and put it on.
He slid his hand between her legs, and found her drenched already. “Guess I don’t need the foreplay, huh?” she asked.
“I’ll take that as a compliment that I’m enough for you.”
“More than enough,” she said, opening her legs. “Show it to me.”
He was standing next to the bed; she was on the edge.
Rather than climb on, when he had one ankle in his hand already, he grabbed the other with it and spread her wide.
He probed around some, found her opening, and slid in fast, nice and deep.
He watched her face as he did it, her eyes shut, her blonde hair falling in front of her face as if he’d been tossing her around.
Which he had been and loved it.
“You look like a tumbled mess,” he said as he slid in and out.
She popped her eyes open. “You did it to me,” she said.
“I did,” he said. “And I’m going to do it to you again and again. I like this side of you. Not always so perfectly put together.”
She laughed.
When was the last time he laughed during sex?
He wasn’t sure he ever did, but they both were.
“Neither of us is perfect, but what we have together is,” she said.
It was as if the words unleashed a chain of events in his body causing him to rush into sixth gear.
He was jerking into her faster, pulling out and slamming in. If he wasn’t holding onto her legs he’d be sending her up higher on the bed.
“I’m so close,” he said. “Get yourself there. Touch yourself.”
“What?” she asked.
“You heard me,” he said. “Do it.”
He might have been firmer with his voice than normal, but he didn’t have a lot of control of how he was feeling either.
Her hand dropped between her legs, found her swollen bud of pleasure, and rubbed it.
Her head went back, and her eyes closed again as if she was concentrating on getting herself there.
The sight of her pleasuring herself while he rammed into her was more erotic than he could have imagined.
Her hips lifted some, her hand moving faster, then she was coming, arching her back and calling out his name.
His hands went under her thighs lifting her hips higher and almost suspending her in the air as he came.
She had no choice but to take what he was giving her, but since her finger was still swirling around her bud and lower lips as she continued to groan, he didn’t think she minded all that much.
He dropped onto her after he released her legs, but was bracing himself on his hands.
“And that is how you compromise with news. Good and bad, you just make the best out of it.”
He hugged her to him and rolled. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” she said quietly, then laughed and he joined in.
“What’s so funny?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I just like hearing your laugh, and when I do it, you do it and I start to giggle and here we are.”
“Yeah,” he said. “Here we are.”