Authors: D.R. Grady

Tags: #romance, #mystery, #family, #doctor, #surgeon, #medicine, #pennsylvania, #nerds, #hershey, #nurse practitioner

Nerds on Fire (47 page)

“
What is the possibility
Mark will ask you to marry him?”

Her dad’s quiet question caused her
stomach to flip and her heart to stutter. Heady happiness
threatened. “I don’t know.” She hadn’t thought about
this.

“
Would you
accept?”

“
It’s too soon in our
relationship.” Marriage was a
huge
commitment.

He nodded. “You’re still young, so
it’s probably best for you to wait.”

“
But you know Nina is the
right one for you?”

“
Yes. We’re a little older
and we’ve both been married before.”

She chewed on the inside of the other
cheek. His reasoning made sense. “You know exactly what you want
now.”

“
Yes. And so do
you.”

Deciding not to touch that seemed like
a great idea. “I think Nina will be thrilled to marry
you.”

His lips drew down. “Baby, she’s
intimidated by Wintermyer, and she’s not certain she wants to take
on a man with my money.” He didn’t sound happy.

She couldn’t hide her
amusement
—and
he
noticed.

“
What are you
smiling
about?”

“
I don’t think Nina has
been entirely honest with you,” she prevaricated.

His eyebrows slammed together. “What
do you mean?”

“
It means you need to ask
her a few pertinent questions about
her
finances.”

Storm clouds brewed across his face.
“She hasn’t been honest with me?”

“
She hasn’t told you things
you haven’t thought to ask or to check out,” Trixi gently
corrected.

The storm clouds blew out, and left
gloomy, flat ones in their wake. Nina would need to do some
fast-talking this evening. Or in the next thirty
minutes.

“
I need to go locate a
certain woman and pin her down for some questions.”

“
Make certain you ask the
right ones.” Trixi kept her own expression solemn.

He bent forward to kiss her forehead
and then departed. In the quiet, she surveyed the wooden frames
holding up the new wing.

Her phone burbled and she absently
answered it.

Katy continued the burbling. “Trixi?
You’ll never guess who I ran into.”

“
Okay, I give up, tell me,”
she directed.

“
Dad’s ex-fiancée,
Chrissy?”

“
Yes, I know her.” She
didn’t plan to continue their association, especially if the woman
had been responsible for some of their troubles. It had at least
stopped now.

“
Dad confronted her about
the problems you were experiencing and she decided maybe she better
seek legal counsel, just in case.”

A strategic idea. Of course, Chrissy
was smart. The women knew how to see to her own best interests.
“Right.”

“
So, she gets this lawyer,
and it turns out he’s a partner in the firm, about Dad’s age,
single, and looking for his next wife.”

A picture formed in her mind. “Let me
guess, he and Chrissy took one look at each other and fell in
love.”

“
That’s
exactly
what happened. She’s so gaga
over this man, it’s almost sickening. I saw them together, there
was a group of gorgeous, wealthy men nearby, and while Chrissy
noticed them, she was enthralled with her new man. The same was
true with him.”

“
She’s in love, or
pretending
to
be?”

“
I think she’s actually in
love. She glows, like she’s super happy.”

Hmm, interesting. “I’m happy for her.”
Surprisingly, Trixi was.

“
I know, it’s amazing,
isn’t it?” Katy didn’t give her time to respond. “I mean she was
with Dad, didn’t love him, but now she meets this guy, basically
because of Dad, and falls for him in an instant.”

“
Maybe she’ll leave Dad
alone now.” Trixi went on to spill the details of her conversation
with him about Nina.

“
He doesn’t know she’s got
money of her own?”

“
Nope. Nina never mentioned
that little tidbit to him.”

Katy’s laughter burst over the line
and Trixi joined her. “I can’t believe he didn’t run any reports on
her.”

“
He never bothered to look
into her finances because he was so head over heels for her, he
forgot.”

“
Do you know how much she
has?” Katy’s tone went all inquisitive.

“
No, I’ve never asked. And
you’d never know it because her house is normal.”

“
So is her car. Her clothes
are nice, but she doesn’t splash her wealth around, does
she?”

“
Not at all.” Trixi was
happy Nina wasn’t the type to do so. She was comfortably off
though, due to several inheritances.

“
Of course, she’s an
heiress and she claims inheriting money isn’t as interesting as if
she made the money herself,” Katy mused.

“
She told me the same
thing, when it came up in conversation.”

“
How did her inheritances
come up in conversation?”

“
I was worried about the
house, worried about money and Nina pulled me aside and informed me
I could have an interest free loan or she could gift the money to
me, whatever I needed.”

There was silence on the other end of
the phone. “Our new Mom is awesome.”

Trixi laughed. “Exactly.”

“
So, speaking of
romance...” Katy now pulled out her fishing pole.

“
Are we speaking of
romance?”

Katy brushed right by her evade
tactic. “How is yours going?”

She didn’t want to evade this
conversation, at least not entirely. She just wasn’t certain what
to tell Katy. “It’s going really well.”

“
I sense a but in your
tone.”

Best friends always did. “I’m
afraid.”

“
Of what? Of Mark?” Alarm
threaded heavily through Katy’s question.

“
No!” Trixi quickly
exclaimed. “No, not of him.” She thought about it in the ensuing
silence. “I think it’s the same fear that’s always been
there.”

Katy cleared her throat, as though to
encourage her to talk.

“
I’m afraid of losing
him.”

A loud exhalation answered her. “Trix,
sometimes you’re the silliest, stupidest person I know.”

“
Excuse me?” Should she be
offended?

“
Everyone, no matter who
they are, are afraid of losing their loved ones. You probably more
than most, because you lost your mother so young. But Trixi, this
is a part of life. We don’t spend our time fearing when our loved
one’s time is up.”

“
What do we do?”

Trixi pictured Katy shaking her head.
“We love and enjoy them for as long as we have them.”

“
You’re awfully quiet,”
Mark commented after supper.

“
I’ve been
thinking.”

“
That’s dangerous,” he
teased while tugging her closer where they snuggled on the sofa in
the guest cottage.

“
It’s important,” she
refuted and squirmed into a better position. A deep sense of
contentment settled over her as she enjoyed his masculine scent and
warmth.

He kissed her temple. “You’re
important.” His lips trailed to the corner of her eye.

Trixi threaded their fingers together.
“So are you.”

She felt him smile. He squeezed her
fingers.

“
You’re feeling good about
our relationship?” He sounded concerned.

“
Yes, I am. I’ve never been
more sure of anything.”

He made an affirmative noise in the
back of his throat. “We’re both living in new, cramped spaces,
dealing with semi-new jobs, in addition to a new relationship.
You’ve also got all the repairs on your house to deal
with.”

“
Plus Dad is serious about
Nina.”

Another soft kiss to her temple.
“That’s a lot of stress.”

“
Nina isn’t a stress, not
at all.”

“
No, but she changes your
family dynamics. This adds another new factor to your life. You’re
juggling a lot of things.” His concern deepened.

They were silent for a long while as
they pondered, enjoying each other and the cozy living room. Mark
had been reluctant to light a fire in the fireplace, but she had
insisted. She couldn’t allow a fear of fire to creep into her life.
This one was contained, so she could deal with it.

Trixi couldn’t say she was exactly
enjoying it, as it did bring back recent bad memories, but she was
handling it. She suspected with time she would come to enjoy a
crackling fire again.

Despite her trepidation, it was right
to be here, in this man’s arms. They had only been dating a few
weeks but Trixi knew he was the right man. There was comfort in
that knowledge. As he pointed out, she was juggling a lot of new
things. Right now, she decided to stop worrying about things and
instead start enjoying her life.

A new job she loved, a house she
loved, a family she loved, and with a quick gasp, she abruptly sat
up and gaped at Mark. Wonder dawned and then spread through
her.

“
What’s wrong?” His voice
was sharp as he curled her close again.

They were still face-to-face, but now
she tugged a hand free and cupped his face. “I just had a
revelation.”

He must have read something reassuring
in her eyes, because he relaxed beneath her caress. “What?” his
voice was husky.

She leaned forward to press a soft
kiss on his lips. “I just figured out I love you.”

His eyes crinkled at the
corners, before he tugged her in for a longer kiss. One that felt
like a commitment. “You
just
realized this?”

Scowling, Trixi tried to maintain the
glower, but his happiness prevented it. “Yes, I just realized it.”
If he didn’t tell her he loved her, this relationship
was...

“
I love you. I have for
weeks now.” The husky note in his voice deepened as he lifted her
chin and brought her close for another sweet kiss. This one
announced he was committed. It was interwoven with sweet
promise.

“
Weeks?” she repeated,
dazed by the moment and his revelation.

“
Yes. It took a little
while to figure out why I wanted to beat my chest every time you
were near, and especially when other men got too close.”

Her eyebrows soared. “You wanted to
beat your chest?”

“
My dad said this is a sure
sign of love.”

“
I see. Leo isn’t suffering
from it, but he’s definitely in love.”

“
Dad said the impulse is
there, but it’s muted because they’re friends first. He told me to
wait, it’ll come.”

“
This should be
interesting.”

“
Oh yeah.”

He leaned forward to capture her lips
in a kiss that wasn’t sweet. It told her everything she needed to
know.

“
I love you,” they said
together.

Laughing they leaned into each other
for another fabulous kiss. It held promise, love, and
hope.

About the
Author

D.R. Grady lives with her husband near
Hershey, PA. She adores chocolate, laughing, collecting bags,
books, and shoes, and adores writing stories that resonate with
others.

Please visit her website for more
information.

http://www.drgradybooks.com

Other Works by
D.R. Grady

The Morrison Family
Series:

The Nerd and the Marine

The Corpsman and the Nerd

The Nerd and the SEAL

The Nerd’s Pocket Pets

Shadows and Spice

Macy’s Parade

Bad Nerd Rising

Bad Nerd Falling