Book 1: Chapter 16
I woke shortly after ten in the morning and unlike every morning for months now, my fest thoughts were not of Kyle, they were of Carter I wondered how he was doing and if he was still in great pain I needed to make time to run by the hospital and check in on hamı
First though I needed to get dressed, find Angelique and fill her in on everything that happened at le’s jumped out of bed, them on some clothes and headed down the steps Angelique was sitting on a bar stool at the tall kitchen counter with her laptop before her
“You are not going in to work today?” Lasked
No, I’m trying to do a little work from home. I wanted to be here if you needed me for anything. I thought you might need me to drive you to the hospital or something”
“I will be fine, but if you just want to keep me company that would be great. Speaking of work, I have a job”
“Really? That is great news Where at?”
Kyle offered me a job?
ure he did she said in a tone that implied my new job would be of a sexual nature,
Ha Ha No, he needs a bookkeeper for the rink
Oh that is perfect for you”
“Yeah, i thought so too I start Monday”
I then told her about the dinner Kyle had waiting for me at his house and all of the events of that night. After teasing me relentlessly, she told me that was truly happy for me. She finished up some work on her computer, made a call to her assistant to ensure that everything was going okay at the
office and then we left for the hospital
Angelique did not want to go up to the burn unit, so she waited for me in the lobby. When I got to the fourth floor, I grabbed a gown and mask from the nurses” station and made my way to Carter’s room I knocked gently and cracked the door to peak in Rosa was nowhere in sight, it was just Carter wacked in quietly as to not wake him if he were sleeping.
bed, he turned and saw that it was me. “Hey” he said in a voice that was filled with pain.
“Hurting, huh?” I bent over and kissed him on the head.
Fresh
Tm sorry Where is Rosa?”
don’t know. Last night she said that she did not know if she could handle this, she left and I have not heard from her since
“Ch Carter, I am so sorry”
“t’s okay I guess I deserve that after what I did to you
Tio, you don’t Nobody deserves that What you did to me w
was wrong, but I do not harbor any ill feelings. It is what it is and it is in the past, so now
we move forward. I will be here to help you for as long as you need it.”
“Thank you, Aubrey”
“You got it. So, what have the doctors told you?”
I am going into surgery tomorrow to get skin grafts. That should be fun, huh?”
“Hu, you wish. Do you want me to be here?”
“Ho, Mom and bad will be
väl be here
eather too, but left to go get lunch They should be back soon”
Okay that’s good i will call and check on your anyway, maybe stop by later in the evening ”
would like th
i sleep now your body needs it. Have some things to do, but I will see you tomorrow”
Parks again” i gave him a kiss on the forehead and left him to get surt
The next day I retuned as promised Ken and Diane were there as wall. It was a little uncomfortable considering that
st it was the first time I had neen theto since the separation, but it was not unbeatable. I could tell by their dermator that their opinions of me had changed, which made me quation just how much of the truth did they get from Carter
Book 1
i did not stay long at the hospital that night Carter was in a lot of pain and it hurt me to see him that way, I asked if th
if there was anything that he needed me to do, but Ken and Diane seemed to have it covered for the time being. I told him that I would be back tomorrow, I said my polite goodbyes and I made my ext
I continued to visit Carter in the hospital every day until Monday came, the day I was to start my new job, I was excited to start work; it was a step towards my independence. The bonus was that I got to see Kyle more than I already was which had increased significantly and I still could not get
enough of that man
I followed what became my normal routine, but when i to the closet to pick out some clothes, I hesitated Generally, an accountant of bookkeeper would dress professionally but this was a hockey rink I would be working at. I was almost positive that the dress would be much more. casual but I did not want to dress down too much
I decided to go middle of the road and settled on a black pair of pants and a purple button down shirt. I was pretty sure that Kyle would not care if I showed up in a t–shirt with holes all over it, but I wanted to make a nice first impression on all of the other staff. I definitely did not want to be known as the girlfriend who could do anything and get away with it.
I finished getting ready, threw a smoothie down my throat and made my way to the rink. The nerves started kicking in as I pulled into the parking lot. I knew I could handle the job, but working for your boyfriend could be intimidating. I wanted to do a great job for him and prove that he made the right decision in hiring me.
I walked in through the glass doors and he was behind the counter looking at his computer screen presumably at the schedule for the day. “Good
morning, Bree. Are you ready for your first day?”
“Of course” I tried to hide any signs of nervousness.
“Come on, I will show you to your office” Wow, I get an office. I was not expecting that. I followed him down a long hallway to an office that was tucked away in a little corner. I had been to this rink several times now with Kyle and had never noticed this room.
It was a farly big space with a desk, computer and a couple chairs off to the side for visitors to sit in. It also had a television mounted on the back wall that was already on and turned to a hockey channel, of course.
How is Carter dong he asked before getting down to the business of showing me my responsibilities.
“He is slowly getting better. The grafts seemed to have taken which is good, it is still going to be a long road ahead for him.”
1 bet. I hope he gets to go home soon.”
“Me too. He will have to do physical therapy and keep moving his arms to keep the tissue from shrinking during the healing stages which could cause him to lose mobility. I think he will be fine eventually, but it is not going to be easy.
1 cannot believe that Rosa left him.”
1 know. Carter was important enough for her to break up a marriage, yet she cannot stay around when he needs her most. What a piece of work.”
“Well, at least he has you to help him“I knew that my helping Carter could not be easy on Kyle, but he was handling it so well. He truly is an amazing
person
He showed me what my daily duties would be, gave me a key to the building and showed me every square inch of the place. The previous bookkeeper was kind enough to leave me a checklist of things to do each day as well, When I felt assured that I could handle things on my own, he let me be so that I could get accustomed to my new office.
I sat back in the plush leather chair and took everything in. I think I could really like this job. It was the career change that I so desperately needed. I turned on the desktop computer and began familiarizing myself with where all the files were that I would be using on a daily basis.
The morning flew by and soon Kyle was knocking on my door asking me if I would like to go to lunch. Of course, I could not deny him and we drove to a fast food restaurant that was close by He said that he liked his half hour or so a day that he can get away from the rink, so we went in and sat down to eat as opposed to going through drive thru
The rest of the day flew by as well. Periodically, he would bring an employee by my office and introduce me. All of them seemed very nice and accepting of me. That will make the job even easier
At the end of the day, Kyle left at the same time as I did. This was a new thing for him. He always spent ten to twelve hours a day at the rink building his business. He had finally reached a point where he could trust the evening tasks to his nighttime crew and enjoy his evenings at home, I was grateful for thes because he was usually spending them with me
We spent a lot of time cooking dinners together. Neither of us were great cooks, but we were learning together and that made it very enjoyable We ended up throwing out some dinners that did not turn out as desired, and ordered in on those nights. We viewed that as part of the learning process
We continued learning new things about each other every day I wanted to know everything about him and he wanted to know everything about me. It seemed as if we were never at a loss for words.
“Do you know why none of my previous relationships worked out?” he asked me as we were chopping up vegetables for a chicken stir–fry.
Chanter 15
Because you worked too much?” I asked knowing that this was highly probable.
“Well, yes and the fact that I compared every woman I have ever met to you. Nobody could measure up, Bree. I had already was not going to settle for less.”
lready seen what I wanted a
and I
“That is probably the sweetest thing anybody has ever said to me.”
1 mean it. You were this dark–haired goddess that I was in awe of You were always kind to me and always smiled at me with that ge
yours. Your smile could light up a room. All those years we were apart, I could still see that smile in my head.”
genuine smile of
“Then why did you not ask me out? That is all you had to do”
“Bree, you were out of my league.”
“No, I was not. I was just a girl. I enjoyed being around you and I am sure I would have said yes. We could have saved ourselves a lot of tim heartache.”
of time and
“We will never know. At least we are together now and that is all that matters.”
“I guess you are right. I knew he was right, but it didn’t stop me from wondering how things could have been different.
In addition to cooking, we spent a lot of time watching television. If hockey wasn’t on, we watched movies, a lot of movies. Comedy, romance, action,
we loved them all I would watch silly slap–stick comedies with him and he was not ashamed to watch a girly romance with me. It was a give and take and as long as we were together, it did not matter what we were doing.
