The Wedding Date, page 13
“Shouldn’t I just wait here? Confidentiality and all? I don’t mind waiting. I have books on my phone.”
She was only here for the weekend, and he’d already missed time with her the night before.
“No, come inside. I can show you all the toys. Just step outside the room if I give you the nod.”
He didn’t reach for her hand on the way into the hospital; there were too many eyes around a hospital. He already knew he’d be getting questions on Monday morning about who the girl he brought in on Saturday was. He didn’t need to make the questions even more pointed.
They went straight up to Jack’s room on the pediatric floor. Both of Jack’s parents were there, looking exhausted. Jack’s cheeks were too pale, and he was unusually silent, but he was sitting up in bed.
“Hey, Jack!” Drew said as he walked in. “How are you feeling today?”
Jack swiveled to the door when he heard Drew’s voice and giggled.
“Dr. Nick! You aren’t wearing your doctor costume.”
Drew laughed, moving close enough to the bed for Jack to give him a high five with his good arm.
“I know! I’m off duty for doctoring today. I just wanted to come by and check in on you since I was in the neighborhood.” He smiled at Jack’s parents. “Abby, Fred, how are you guys?”
“Hanging in there,” Abby said to him. He saw her eyes dart to the door, and he realized Alexa was still standing in the doorway. He lowered his voice.
“I was nearby with a friend. Is it okay if she comes in to say hi to Jack? If not, it’s no problem; she can wait in my office.”
Abby smiled.
“It’s fine. Jack’s been getting bored with just us for entertainment.”
He waved Alexa to his side.
“Hey, Jack, I brought a friend of mine to meet you. Jack, this is my friend Alexa. Can you say hi?”
“Hi!” Jack giggled again. “You’re not wearing a doctor costume, either.”
Alexa laughed as she offered her fist to Jack.
“No, but that’s because I’m not a doctor. Sorry, Jack.”
Drew picked up Jack’s chart from the end of the bed and checked it, satisfied with Jack’s status.
“How’s the pain?” he said in a low voice to Fred, as Jack chattered away with Alexa.
“He woke up a few times in the night. Abby was with him, but they seem to be managing it well.”
“Dr. Nick, Dr. Nick, Mommy said I couldn’t get out of bed yet, but I told her you would say I could, won’t you?”
He gave Jack his full attention and let himself get sucked into a conversation about Jack’s favorite video game before he realized they’d been there for longer than he’d intended. He looked up, expecting to find Alexa watching him and Jack, but she was over in the corner deep in conversation with Abby.
Huh. It wasn’t like he’d brought her here so she could see what a good doctor he was, but she could at least notice.
“Jack, I’m going to have to say good-bye now, but I’ll see you in a few days, okay?”
Abby looked in their direction.
“Say thank you to Dr. Nichols for coming by to see you, Jack.”
Alexa pulled something out of her purse and handed it to Abby, who hugged her. Alexa waved to Jack as they walked out of his room.
He took her hand as soon as they entered the parking lot.
“How did you get a hug out of Abby? She still calls me Dr. Nichols in that very formal voice,” he said.
“Oh, I was just giving her some advice about the kinds of services they could get. She told me about the accident and that it was a drunk driver.”
He dug in his pocket for his car key. What did she mean, services?
“They have good health insurance, I think. Fred works for one of the studios.”
She checked her phone and frowned at it before looking back up at him.
“I know, she told me, but good insurance only goes so far. I meant all of the crime victims’ services that they can get from the state. Counseling, compensation, help at home, stuff like that. She said she vaguely remembered being told about it right after the accident but had no idea how to access that stuff.”
No wonder Abby had hugged her.
“So you gave her your card? What’s the Berkeley mayor’s office going to do about a kid in L.A.?”
She looked back up from her phone and shrugged as they got in the car.
“I have a list at work of all of the right people for her to contact. I told her to email me, and I can send it all her way and introduce her to some victims’ rights advocates I know who can help her navigate it all. I can send them quick emails and cc her, just to speed things up a little.”
He pulled onto the road for the short drive back to his apartment.
“How did you get all of that out of her in ten minutes? Teach me your secrets, Monroe.”
Alexa grinned and put her phone back in her purse, thank God.
“I have a way with people, don’t you know? I work in politics.”
He put his hand on her thigh. She shifted her body toward him and smiled.
“Mmm, you sure do have a way with people. The way you dealt with the inquisition we got at the wedding was pretty impressive, I have to say.”
“Friendly deflection is one of my special talents.” She put her hand on top of his. “And Abby looked so worried. It’s good to be able to help, if you can.”
• • •
Oh Lord, he probably thought she was some bleeding-heart interferer now, butting into one of his cases when no one asked her to. But the look on that mom’s face had broken her heart. Was she not supposed to try to help?
Fine, she was a bleeding-heart interferer. It was probably in her job description.
When they got to his apartment, he stopped her just inside the door.
“Anyway, thanks for coming along to see Jack. And for being so nice to Abby. They’ve had a rough time.”
Drew pulled her into his arms, enveloping her into a hug that somehow felt more intimate than anything they’d done before. She leaned her head into his chest and relaxed against him. She felt him exhale a deep breath and tightened her grip on his back, the worn cotton of his T-shirt smooth against her fingers. He bent down and kissed her hair, her ear, and when she tilted her head to look at him, her mouth.
“I really appreciated you being there,” he said when he pulled away.
She moved her hands up and under his shirt, loving the way he tensed at her touch.
“Show me,” she said.
He slung her over his shoulder in one quick motion, making her gasp.
“Drew, no, I’m too heavy!” Ignoring her, he strode with her into the bedroom and tossed her down on his bed. She laughed when she bounced as she hit the mattress, but her laughter faded when he threw his clothes off and stood there naked in front of her.
“Oh my.” When he made a move to jump on the bed along with her, she held up a hand to stop him. “Don’t move. Just . . . just stand there for a minute.”
Despite all of the times they’d had sex so far, she had yet to really see him naked. It had either been too frantic, or too dark, or too early in the morning for her to really pay attention. But now he stood there, the bright afternoon light from his bedroom windows streaming in on his hard body, and she spent a moment in pure awe. She knew just from touching him the contours of his chest, and that light sprinkling of hair, but it was quite another to see it in front of her, golden from the sun, hers to look at as long as she wanted.
She lifted her finger in the air and spun it around to make him twirl like he was a beauty pageant contestant. Glory of glories, he obeyed her. The rush she got out of the pure power of that was only overwhelmed by her sight of his perfect, round, cuppable ass.
“Come here.” He didn’t have to be told twice. He took a flying leap onto the bed and immediately rolled her underneath him, affording her the perfect opportunity to grab onto that ass and pull him against her.
She ran her hands all over his body, loving the sounds he made as she touched him, loving that he seemed to be enjoying this as much as she was.
“You wore panties today, didn’t you?” he said in her ear. Not waiting for an answer, he reached down and grabbed the thong she’d worn, pulled it off her, and threw it across the room. “Your turn,” he said, looking down at her.
She didn’t pretend to misunderstand him, even though she wanted to. What was that she’d been thinking earlier about how relaxed and confident she was around him? Because that feeling had faded after seeing his perfect body and knowing all of her own imperfections by heart . . . and how bright and sun filled his bedroom was. She suddenly really regretted those waffles at brunch.
He didn’t let her hesitate, though. He pulled her dress over her head, reached around her back and unhooked her bra, and then leaned back on his heels to look at her.
She tried to force herself to look at his face, but her cheeks got hot and she had to look away. Her eyes drifted down his body, and that’s when she saw clear evidence that he enjoyed looking at her body. She smiled.
“Oh, you like that, don’t you?” he said. “But wait. I was supposed to be showing you how much I appreciate you, wasn’t I?”
He slid down her body, pressing her legs open with his shoulders. She held her hands against his hair to keep him right where she wanted him. He increased the pace, and she moaned, her head shaking from side to side on the pillow. It felt so good she wanted it to stop and go on forever, all at the same time. Finally, she hit her peak and cried out as the vibrations rumbled through her body.
He crawled up the bed so his head was level with hers and lay on his side next to her, his hand stroking her stomach as her breathing slowed.
“Do you feel appreciated now?” he asked. He kissed her neck and moved down to her breasts, his hand moving up to join his mouth.
“Mmmm,” she answered. She leaned forward to kiss his shoulder, then pushed him until he fell on his back. She grinned and climbed on top of him. “I think you’ve done enough work for this afternoon, don’t you?”
She kissed him up and down his body, her fingers stroking his skin. She looked up at him: his arms were crossed behind his head, his whole body looked relaxed, and he was looking straight at her with that look that made her feel like a goddess. She ripped open the condom packet he’d left on the pillow and rolled the condom on.
Usually it made her anxious to be on top. There was so much scrutiny in that position, so many parts of her body that jiggled, so much to make her feel shy. But she couldn’t feel anything but pleasure when Drew’s eyes worshipped her body like that.
When Alexa came to, she was still on top of him, her head pillowed by his chest. He reached down to pull off the condom, and she tried to roll off him, but he held her in place. She didn’t fight it. He massaged her back as she lay there, and she felt like she could easily stay just like that for a few days. Maybe a few weeks.
He leaned forward and kissed her ear.
“Feeling appreciated yet?”
She shrugged as much as she could in her prone position.
“I mean, if that’s all you can do, I guess so.”
He growled in her ear and rolled her over underneath him as she laughed.
12
Alexa woke up the next morning alone in bed. She assumed that Drew was in the bathroom, but when he didn’t get back in bed after a few minutes, she sat up and saw his bathroom door open and the light off. She pulled on his robe and wandered into the kitchen in the hopes that he was making coffee, but he wasn’t there, either.
She decided that he’d probably gone for a run on the beach like he said he did some mornings. She sort of wished he’d left her a note but forced herself to shrug it off. She got back in bed with her neglected phone to check her work email. But first things first: she typed out a quick reply to a text from Maddie that just said ????????
Weekend so far: having fun, eating good food, great sex, don’t wish you were here.
Just then, she heard Drew’s front door quietly open and close.
“Oh, you’re awake.” He’d tiptoed into the bedroom, holding two cups of coffee in a tray and a bakery bag. “I thought you’d still be asleep.”
She looked at the bag, and then back to him.
“I thought you went for a run, but this is much better. What’s in the bag?”
He laughed and handed her one of the coffee cups.
“Don’t you want to ask what’s in the cup?”
She rolled her eyes.
“I know what’s in the cup. I have eyes and a sense of smell. It’s coffee! What I want to know is what’s in that bag!” She paused. “What I meant to say right there was thank you for the coffee.”
He sat down on the bed next to her, still keeping the bag out of her reach.
“Weird, that’s not what it sounded like.”
She put the cup on the bedside table so she wouldn’t spill it and reached for the bag, but he easily dodged her and flipped her over onto her back, the bag still out of reach.
“Drew!”
He kissed her on the tip of her nose.
“Mmm, I like you in this position.”
She pulled his face down to kiss him.
“What’s in the bag, Drew?”
He laughed and tossed the bag into her lap.
“I thought I’d distracted you there for a minute.”
She opened the bag to find a half dozen doughnuts, and her stomach rumbled.
“Oh my goodness! What is all of this? This is amazing!”
He grinned.
“Now I know what you must have been like opening Christmas presents as a kid. A plain glazed, one raspberry jelly filled, one lemon jelly filled, one with rainbow sprinkles, and two with bacon and maple frosting.”
“Bacon and maple frosting? What is this place? Is it direct from my wildest dreams?”
Drew laughed as he grabbed one of the bacon doughnuts for himself.
“You have no idea how great this doughnut shop is. I almost woke you up to make you come with me, but you were so sound asleep I didn’t want to disturb you. Next time, though, you should come.”
Next time? What did “next time” mean in this context? It was Sunday, and she was leaving in less than twelve hours. Did he mean he wanted to go back there today? Or did he mean next time she was in L.A.? If so, what did he mean by that?
Don’t overthink it, Alexa.
She tried to listen to Maddie’s voice in her head and took a bite of the doughnut.
“Oh my God.” She swallowed and took a bigger bite. “These are amazing.”
He grinned at her and wiped frosting from her cheek with his thumb.
“Did you doubt me?”
After the doughnuts, and her post-doughnut thank-you that went on for quite a while, he jumped in the shower. As soon as he was out of the room, she reached for her phone again. Her boss usually didn’t email this early on a Sunday, and he’d had that wedding to go to, but maybe he’d had time to read her memo . . . Nope, he hadn’t. To relieve her feelings, she shot off a quick email to Theo in the hopes that he would have some insight on when she might get a reply.
He emailed back a minute later:
You’ve been working for him longer than I have and you know it. Don’t you have better things to do—this weekend especially—than sit around on a Sunday morning and freak out about this?
She replied:
Teddy, no matter what other better things I have to do, I will always freak out about work, you know that.
“Good news?” She looked up to see Drew standing in the doorway in a towel.
“What?” She was distracted by that rivulet of water running down from his shoulder, down that cleft in his chest, straight down to . . .
“You were smiling at your phone. I was just wondering why.” He sat on the bed next to her in his towel.
“Oh.” She sighed. For a few seconds there, she actually had stopped freaking out about work. “No, I was just laughing at something Theo said.”
He got off the bed and dropped the towel, but too quickly pulled underwear and jeans on. He was still shirtless, though.
“Who’s Theo?” he asked.
They’d spent so much time together that it felt jarring that he didn’t already know.
“Theo’s the mayor’s communications director, my work spouse, a good friend, all wrapped into one.” She got out of bed and reached for the robe that they’d pushed to the floor.
He pulled on a gray T-shirt, just like the one he’d been wearing when they met in the elevator. Maybe it was that same shirt. She remembered that flash of his chest in the elevator under his shirt, and how much she’d wanted to run her hands up and down his chest. She still couldn’t believe it had actually happened.
He looked out the window, not at her.
“Are you guys . . . together or something?”
She tied the robe tightly around her body. Boy, did she not like the implications of that question.
“Me and Theo? First of all, no. But second: do you really think I would be here with you this weekend if we were?”
Weird that he’d think that about her and Theo without knowing anything about him. Even weirder that he’d think she’d cheat on someone.
He looked at her and half smiled. She needed more than his cute little half smile after that. She walked toward the bathroom.
“No, wait, Alexa.” He sat down on the bed and patted the spot beside him. She turned but didn’t move toward him. “Please?”
Well, she was going to be here for the rest of the day anyway. What else was she going to do? She sat down.
“Sorry, I didn’t think . . . That’s not what I meant. I asked that wrong. I just wanted to know, for future reference, if there’d been anything between you guys. And plus, you were texting him on a Sunday morning”—his eyes dropped to her cleavage—“naked. I don’t usually text my work friends like that.”
