Cocktails & Dreams (32 page)

Jena smiled and clutched his shirtfront, snuggling close. She sighed and rested her head on his shoulder. “I so like that, Nicholas.” He chuckled, stroking her hair. “You should be scared, though,” she said. “I have a terrible temper when I really get mad, and I hold a grudge. And I’m a slob when life gets hectic.”

“I think I can handle that,” he said, raising her face and looking into her laughing eyes. He placed her hand in the middle of his chest and covered it with one of his. “Having this right here every night when I go to sleep will make up for a lot of slobbishness.”

Jena laughed, running the fingers of her other hand through his hair. “Remember that when you trip over piles of laundry and have Top Ramen for dinner every night during finals week, if you’re relying on me to cook.” She smiled mischievously, “Of course, this also means you can take advantage of my exercise endorphins more often. I’m gonna wear you out, mister.”

Nick groaned. “Do I hafta?” He laughed when she shook him playfully. He leaned back against the cushion and settled Jena against him firmly. “This is real,” he said again, and it was no longer a question. “I’ll be coming home to you every day.”

Jena looked up, and the sight of his huge grin made her smile back. “It
is
real,” she answered.

Toeing off his loafers, Nick slowly eased his feet onto the coffee table. He picked up the remote to Jena’s iPod dock and started it playing before leaning his cheek on her head.

“Then there’s no hurry,” he said in satisfaction.

Jena leaned against him more heavily, turning slightly so she could curl her legs on the cushion beside her. Draping an arm around Nick, she took a deep breath and listened for warning bells. All she heard was blessed silence and the steady beating of her own heart.

“No, there’s not,” she said. “Welcome home, nomad.”

Slipping into life together was as easy as breathing. By the next morning, Leisa was shopping for new towels for Travis, swearing that there was no way his linens were going to reside in her pristine linen closet. Conor found a place in a house with several of his fellow firefighters and had moved in with them by the next week. One long weekend of shifting furniture, two fights over broken knickknacks, and one epic battle over Travis’s recliner later, and the move was accomplished.

Jena was surprised at how seamlessly her life and Nick’s melded together, though their schedules could be identical one day and wildly different the next. On those days that she might not see Nick when he was awake, Jena usually left a joke or a comic strip for him to find when he finally got up, or got home, hoping to make him laugh. Occasionally she left a note, or a few lines from some poem that made her smile, but the best part of every day was always waking in the middle of the night snuggled into Nick’s body, their feet tangled together and his arm wrapped around her body. Whatever crap had happened during that day fell away as their breathing synced and she drifted back to sleep.

As soon the weather became chill, Jena resigned herself to receiving an inquiring call from her mother asking how many to expect for Thanksgiving. Sharon’s crow of triumph when Jena confirmed that there would be two people coming from Davis could have been heard from Ashland to Jena’s apartment.

Hanging up the phone, Jena shook her head with a smile. She’d half-heartedly offered to stay in Davis for the holiday if Nick hadn’t been comfortable going to her parents’ house, but he had been adamant about wanting to meet them, and she was quietly happy about that. Now that Nick had settled into the routine of school and work, and now that he had the stability of coming home to her each day and decompressing, he was relaxed and happy nearly all of the time, and Jena was ready for her parents to meet this man that had captured her heart so completely.

Still…there was a thread of uneasiness that wove through her contentment. After accepting a few calls from his mother, Nick had started to avoid the phone once again. Jena had a sense that Mrs. Cooper’s calls had begun to center on him talking to his dad; one particular conversation that Jena had inadvertently walked in on had seemed intense, and she’d heard Nick growl out something rude about his dad before he abruptly snapped the phone closed and turned to her with a strained smile. He’d immediately tossed the phone into a basket and started asking about Jena’s parents and their upcoming trip, finally relaxing as she followed his lead and pretended she’d not heard anything. Later that night, though, Jena lay awake, wondering if that had been the best thing to do. Should she have pressed him about his relationship with them? Despite their obvious dislike for her, Jena didn’t want to be responsible for him cutting ties with his parents—she felt sad just thinking about the fleeting pain she saw Nick’s eyes when he hung up the phone that day, and when she imagined how it must have felt from Mrs. Cooper’s end. Sharon could be crazy, but Jena couldn’t imagine hurting her mother that way.

She was thinking about that while driving to school when the bright shrill of her phone cut through her fugue. Glancing at the caller ID, she smiled, glad to leave her dark thoughts.

Leisa didn’t even let Jena get out a hello before she launched her ear assault.

“Well, Daddy called last night at a
most
inopportune time, and Travis answered the phone. All hell broke loose and now I’ve been disowned.”

Jena grinned. “You haven’t told them that Travis moved in
yet
?” she asked in a scolding tone.

“Hell, no. I think my sister must have dropped a hint, the little witch. I should never have told her. Besides, have you told your mom and dad?”

“It’s been over a month, Leisa,” Jena answered.

“I notice you didn’t answer the question,” Leisa retorted sharply.

Jena sighed. “No.”

Leisa laughed. “Thought so. Travis was going home with me, and I was going to tell them then. Anyway, this will all blow over soon, but I’m gonna teach Daddy a lesson and not go to Little Rock for Thanksgiving. I told Travis you wouldn’t mind if we tagged along with you.” She waited expectantly.

Jena hit the gas as she jumped in surprise. She struggled to pull her thoughts together and avoid the car in front of her that had abruptly grown closer before she answered. “I’m sure Mom and Dad would be fine with you guys coming. They were pretty disappointed to have their favorite adopted son miss dinner, anyway, and they ask about you all the time.”

She tried to decide if the extra guests would be a good idea or not—they would certainly take some of the pressure off of Nicholas. Her brothers were so much older, and had each been married so long that any boyfriend of Jena’s had been traditionally subject to intense scrutiny.

“I knew you’d say that,” Leisa said smugly. “So, what does one wear to Thanksgiving dinner in Ashland, Oregon? What’s the weather like there in November? I’ve only been there in the spring. I can’t imagine your parents standing on ceremony, but you never know. I have an aunt who
still
insists my cousin wear a tartan skirt for Christmas, and she’s thirty, for God’s sake! And Travis needs to know what the sleeping arrangements will be, since he usually gets the guest room, and of course, I’ll be taking that now. Can we sleep together, or do we have to play virginal? You know, that’s such a change that it might just be fun. And should we bring a gift? Mama says we should, but I don’t even know what’s appropriate here. Wine? Beer? A casserole?” Jena heard her take a long swallow of something before she spoke again. “So…what?” Leisa waited expectantly.

Jena pulled into the parking lot of the school and rested her forehead against the steering wheel. Thinking hard, she tried to answer as many questions as she could remember. “Whatever you want. Cold and wet, the same as here. I don’t know. Mama knows? Not necessary, but beer is fine. Did I get ’em all?”

Leisa sighed with exasperation. “Jena, you’re making no sense at all. Go drink a tub of coffee and call me back when you’re more coherent.” The phone went dead in Jena’s hand.

“Holy Mother of God, Thanksgiving might have been a rash offer,” she muttered to herself, grabbing her backpack and heading to her first class. Leisa called twice more with another slew of questions before Jena finally turned her phone off.

Travis took one look at her shell-shocked face when she walked into the therapy room after class, and burst into laughter. “Leisa?” he asked, and chuckled again as Jena nodded mutely. “She started calling me when you stopped answering your phone, and I think I’ve got her situated.” He spun around in his chair. “Did Sharon have a coronary when you told her we’d be coming? She just
loves
guests.”

He snickered, and Jena knew he was remembering his first Thanksgiving at Casa Del Baker, when Jena’s mom had refused to believe that he and Jena were just friends. Jena didn’t think Trav would ever want to return to the house of hell, but he thought Sharon’s matchmaking was so funny that he had to see if she could top it at a later date, and fell into spending most short school breaks with Jena in Ashland.

“Yes, she does…and I’ll call her at lunch.” Jena cringed and hid her face as Trav tossed her a stern look. “I’m sorry! They’re just going to be insane over this. You
and
Nicholas
and
Leisa?
She
used to be my homeless puppy, when we were undergrads, and she and my dad really hit it off. She can make him laugh like no one else.”

“I’m a homeless puppy, huh?” Travis grinned. “Just for that, I might have to contemplate slipping Sharon a few details I know about you and Nicholas. And
noise
. She’ll have you two locked in the basement at night, with her ear over the vent, of course.”

Jena’s head jerked up. “You know about the vents?”

Travis shrugged. “Sure. Your brother, Dan, told me years ago. Who doesn’t know?”

Muttering to herself, Jena grabbed her first patient chart and stalked out to the therapy room.

By lunchtime, she had worked up courage enough to call her mother. As expected, Sharon’s joy at having Travis and Leisa was extreme. Jena heard what sounded like dancing before her mom launched into a barrage of questions that was almost as loud, fast, and incomprehensible as Leisa’s fusillade from the morning. Jena’s ears were ringing when she snapped her phone shut. She laid her head on the cool desk and puffed out a quick breath.

“Jen?” Travis ventured cautiously as he poked his head around the door. “Everything okay?” He slipped in and shut the door.

She closed her eyes. “Mom is looking up recipes for sweet potatoes and barbeque along with the turkey to honor ‘our southern guest.’ Oh, and boiled peanuts. She’s going for an all-region theme, I guess. And there was some mention of trying to find Rocky Mountain oysters in your honor. I might never forgive you for that one.” Jena glared at Travis, and he quickly wiped the smile off his face. “Dad gave you and Peter his standard ‘no unmarried sex in my house’ lecture, right?” Travis nodded, the grin creeping out again. “Well, Mom offered you the laundry room for assignations where Dad isn’t likely to find you, and she promises not to listen at the vent, but I think she was lying. I’ve been offered the basement—damn, you’re good—with no vent promise, I might add. She wants Nick’s mother’s number to find out what his favorite dishes are and if he prefers feather pillows or hypoallergenic foam. She prefers the names ‘Caroline’ and ‘Michael’ for our kids, and warned me to never name a boy ‘Francis,’ because it’s too confusing. Shall I continue?”

Travis burst out in loud laughter. “There’s more?”

Jena nodded mutely, banging her head slowly on the desk.

“Oh, this is going to be
fuuuuuuunnnnnn
…” Travis was whistling merrily as he grabbed the chart for his next patient and headed back out the door.

Jena decided to get a jump on her Thanksgiving packing when she got home and was in the bedroom when she heard the door open and shut quietly. When she didn’t hear anything else after a minute, she called out. “Nicholas?”

“Here.” His voice sounded tightly controlled, and Jena frowned, her chest tightening at the unexpected tone.