Page 34 of Sweet Escape at Bayside
“I don’t know,” she said honestly. “I finally have a family, friends, a real home.” She sat up and snagged a cracker, needing a distraction. “Tell me about Operation SHINE. I know what your company does, but how do you have so much time off? Don’t you need to be in a corporate office, stressing over who to hire or arranging deliveries of supplies to the clinics or something?”
“A wise woman once spent three months telling me that I could help thousands of people outside the system instead ofwasting my lifein my plush offices helping only those who had been born in therightareas.”
She buried her face in his neck and said, “It’s embarrassing that I could have been so obnoxiously preachy. Why did you even like me?”
He laughed and rolled them onto their sides so they were face to face. Then he grabbed her butt and said, “You had a cute butt. Nothing else really mattered.”
“Whatever…”
“Babe, you were right. Giving up basic necessities might not be the right thing for everyone, but when I went back to Boston, I saw theprivilegedthrough new eyes. Young kids packed in my waiting room with phones and video games while their parents checked emails and posted on Facebook. Every day I recognized more of the things you called out, things that were such a big part of my daily life, I never really noticed them before. The parents who complained because I was twenty or thirty minutes late for their appointments, without giving a thought to the reasons why I was late—which was always because I was dealing with another family that needed extra time because their kid received a scary diagnosis or they had questions and concerns that needed addressing. Meanwhile, across the world there were families who traveled for a full day to reach a clinic, and sometimes that day meant the difference between life and death. Yourpreachingsaved who knows how many people.”
He brushed his thumb over her cheek and said, “You told me that I could do more good in the field than in an office, and you were right about that, too. Operation SHINE is run by smart, capable, experienced professionals who take care of the business end, freeing me to do what I should be doing—practicing medicine where it is needed most.”
“So, you bought the company, and you leave it up to others to manage it. That doesn’t drive you crazy with worry?”
“No, babe. I trust my directors explicitly, and trust is very freeing.” He pressed his lips to hers, and then he said, “As for my time off, it will vary between projects. I might have two months, or six months, or somewhere in between, depending on the timing of the next clinic opening. And I’m never just hanging around doing nothing. Take this week, for example. I have calls to make and reports to read, and I’m meeting with a colleague on Thursday. Next week I start working at the Outer Cape Health Clinic part time. I’ll be working Monday, Wednesday, and Friday until I leave for my next project. We’re opening a clinic in Cambodia. I’m leaving October fifteenth.”
Just that morning three and a half weeks felt like a long stretch of time. Now it felt like it could pass in the blink of an eye.
“What about you?” he asked. “Desiree said you closed the gallery and the inn, and that you were going to work on a few things.”
“I, um…”Can’t really think beyond the fact that our time together has a deadline.“I’m working on a sculpture for the family of a little girl who passed away, and I have things to take care of Thursday, which works well since you’re busy. I need to track down Rowan, too. And if Joni needs me, then I want to make time for her.”
“Track him down?”
“Rowan runs a food truck, and he hates cell phones even more than I do. He has one, but he doesn’t leave it on or check messages very often. I was hoping to catch up with him at Herring Cove on Saturday. There’s an appreciation day to celebrate the Provincetown Soup Kitchen volunteers, and I’m pretty sure he’ll be there. I’d love it if you’d come with me.”
“Hang out with my girl on a beach and meet the guy who introduced you to Common Grounds? I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
She lay on her back, staring up at the ceiling. “Weonlyhave three and a half weeks?”
He moved over her and laced their hands together. His weight had already become familiar and comforting again. He brushed his lips over hers and said, “No. Wehavethree and a half weeks together. See how different that sounds without a question mark?”
She caught his lower lip between her teeth, and his eyes flared.
He stretched her arms as far above her head as they would go and said, “Repeat after me. We have three weeks.”
“We have three weeks.”
“To fall madly in love with each other.”
She couldn’t stop grinning. “To fall madly in love with each other.”
“And then…”
Violet’s heart took over, and she said, “We won’t run or hide.”Holy crap, that felt good.She craned up to kiss him, but he drew back with a coy look in his eyes.
“Daisy?Is that you?”
She narrowed her eyes, playing right along with her smart-aleck, patient man, whom she was falling even deeper and truer in love with than before, and said, “Daisy’s busy fretting over a time limit. It’sViolet, and she can be a real pushy witch. I suggest you make good use of having full control over my hands before she realizes how terrified she is of losing you again and says or does something stupid.”
“Don’t worry, babe. I’ve got us covered.” He pressed a kiss to the edge of her mouth, and as he loved his way down her body he said, “I’m getting you chipped with a GPS tracker.”
Chapter Ten
“I SWEAR, ONE of us needs to learn to cook,” Serena said as she pushed her spoon around in a bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats. “I have to meet Gav in forty-five minutes at a potential new client’s office. I was hoping topower upfor the pitch.”
It was Thursday morning, and the girls had come over for breakfast, but Andre had gone running with the guys and they weren’t back yet. Violet watched the path in the dunes, waiting for him to return, thinking about yesterday. They’d slept in, taken a walk on the beach, and spent hours working in the studio with the windows open, music playing, and Cosmos meandering about. Violet had worked at her potter’s wheel while Andre sketched an idea for a sculpture he hoped to start this weekend. Then they’d gone to the coffeehouse and stayed until closing. She loved falling asleep in his arms and waking to his kisses, but the best thing about spending time with Andre wasn’twhatthey did; it was simply being together. He calmed her in ways she’d never known she needed, and she had a feeling she settled him in ways he hadn’t imagined either.
