Page 8 of Falkner
“She wants me out.Now, as a matter of fact.I know that it’s her place and all, but I’d only just lost my own things and place to live two weeks ago, and now I have to start fresh.”He told her that he’d help her with anything that she wanted.“I don’t know what I want other than to feel like my life is getting back together.Like I’m no longer living off the kindness of others.”
Now here she was moving into his place, and he couldn’t have been happier.They just had to keep it quiet at work that they were seeing one another, or one of them was going to have to give up their job.He’d worked so hard to be a doctor, but he knew that if it came to it, he would go to another hospital in a heartbeat because she’d be the bad guy in all this.He’d heard from doctors around the hospital that nurses weren’t appreciated as much as the doctors were.
“I don’t have a great deal.”He said that they’d take care of that.“I don’t want you spending all your money on me, Falkner.I have some money and I’ll be looking for someplace to live.I don’t want to be a burden to you.”
“You’re not.”He had heard from Dallas and Amy how things had gone at her mother’s home.It was no small wonder that she’d come to him and asked about living in his house.Not living with him, but staying in his house.“I promise you that I want you here as much as I’d want one of my brothers staying here if they’d had the same issues as you have.And if you want, I can take your mother to her doctor’s appointment in the morning.”
“I’ll take her.”She looked around the room and then at him.“I could take her to lunch, but she’s been so hateful toward me that I find I don’t want to do anything nice for her.I know that she was just putting up with me living there.But it’s not like I had a choice in the matter.I didn’t have a thing to do with the fire.But to hear her talking, I caused it just so I could mess up her life.”
When she looked away, he could see the tears in her eyes.It hurt him to his soul when she cried, and he couldn’t do anything about it.And he found that he really wanted to do something for her so that she’d be happy with living with him.
After she put her things away and asked if she could use the washer, he showed her that there was one on each floor so that they didn’t have to walk as much.When she said that she wanted to take a nap before work, he left her in the room and went to his office.He had plenty to do now that he didn’t have to worry about her anymore, so he started right on the paperwork that he’d been putting off for the last two weeks.
At just after two, he heard Doone moving around.The walls weren’t that thin, but his hearing was better than a human’s.As soon as she came down the stairs, he could see that she looked less stressed, and he was happy for that.Then he asked her if he could take her to work.
“No, that wouldn’t go over well if someone were to see us.”They both made their way to the kitchen, and their cook had made her dinner early and had even packed her a lunch to take with her.He was going to have to start packing his lunch to take to work, something that he could pick at during the day when it was busy in the department.When she was finished eating, he wanted to talk to her, but he didn’t want her to be stressed out before heading to work.So, going to the door with her, he bid her have a good night and to be careful and let her drive off.He’d never wanted to go with someone to work as much as he did with her.
Falkner had heard the rumors about the nurses being treated badly.He’d even witnessed it himself a few times.He avoided Doone, so he didn’t know if she was getting the same treatment, but to hear Mulkeen talk about it, Doone was one write-up from being fired.However, he couldn’t find a single doctor or nurse who didn’t have great things to say about his mate.
He knew that she was working until seven in the morning, so he made sure that there would be food for her when she got home.He didn’t know if she would eat something heavy, but thenremembered that she was taking her mother to the doctor and might not have time to eat.He was going to have to take care that her mother’s appointments didn’t interfere with her sleeping and eating schedule.Falkner didn’t know why, but he found himself not caring for Meggie McFarlen.
He thought that it was from the things that Dallas had told him.How selfish she sounded about her daughter living there with her.Also, the little things that Doone herself said about her mother, too, made him think that she wasn’t going to be nice when she heard that he and Doone were mates.That made no sense to him, but that was how he felt.He hoped that he’d be wrong about her and hoped that she was just as stressed as Doone was about everything that had gone on with her daughter.
It was his day off today, and he was going to be working in the morning.The way her schedule was, she’d be coming and going all hours of the day and night until she felt like she could live there with him and not have to worry about money.He’d not had an opportunity to talk to her about the money situation, but he would soon.Perhaps tomorrow, when she got back from her mother’s appointment.
Falkner had paid his way through college with the help of his parents.He didn’t owe a great deal on anything, as the house was paid for and his car was as nearly as old as he was.But it worked and it was reliable, so he didn’t figure that he’d needed anything right now.But with a mate around, he might have to think about getting her a car.The one that she had was older than he was, and sometimes, he noticed that it didn’t want to start right up.That was another thing that he needed to put on his list of things to talk to her about.He looked at his phone when he got a buzz that he had a message.It was from Doone.
“I’m getting off at half shift tonight.I was asked to cut back my hours with all the overtime that I’m working.”He messaged back that he’d be up when she got home at eleven.“You don’t have to do that.I can get in by myself.”
“I need to talk to you about some things.Nothing earth-shattering, but just a few things that you need to know.”She sent him a thumbs-up, and he had to smile.“Did you know that you can talk to me through our minds now that we’re mates?”
“Hello?”She seemed hesitant, so he told her how to make it work so that she could talk to him as well.And no one would be the wiser.“Mulkeen is just looking for something to pin on you about us.”
“I’m not too busy right now if you want to tell me some of the things you’ve been thinking about.I’ll let you know if I get something going on here.”He thought that was fantastic and told her as much.“I hope you don’t think this is a mistake, my living with you right now.I could move back in with my mom, but I don’t think she’ll be pleased about it.I think she was happy that I was moving out and didn’t even ask who I was going to be staying with.”
“I don’t know her well enough to make a judgment call about her.”She said that they’d all been stressed since she’d had to move in with her.“I can well imagine.It would have been doubly so for you since you did lose everything that you had.I can’t imagine losing everything that I hold dear to myself.Like pictures and little things that I’ve picked up over the years.”
“I think of things that I lost, and it saddens me so much.Little things, like you said, that I might well have picked up here or there.Like my books.And my recipe box.I had things in there that my grandmother gave to me.”She laughed a little.“I guess this is a way for me to make new memories.Something else that I can hold onto until the next time I have something like that happen.”
“I’m sorry.”She said it was all right and asked him what he wanted to talk to her about.“Money first of all.I have more than enough for us both to not have to work.However, I need to work.It’s just in my blood, and I’m sure you need it as much as I do.To keep busy.I would imagine that’s why you like the emergency department, it’s fast-paced most of the time.”She told him that was it exactly.It also kept her from getting bored.“I think that is why I loved being a doctor.I knew that I’d love the pace of it too.”
“About money.I don’t expect you to supply me with funds for everything that I do.I mean, we don’t really know each other, and I feel like we’re being forced into this relationship.If you want to know the truth, if I hadn’t been so desperate about finding a place to live, I wouldn’t have bothered you about living with you.I’m sorry if that sounds harsh, but I don’t really know you at all, and now I’m living with you.”While it did hurt him a little, he knew that she was telling the truth about what was going on between them.“I wish therehad been a bit more time for us.I’m not saying that I’m in love with you or anything like that, I just wish we’d been able to get to know one another a little bit more before I had to move into your life and disrupt it.”
“You didn’t disrupt anything.I feel like I’ve been waiting for you my whole life.And I have been.You’re the best thing that has happened to me.”She told him that he didn’t have to say that.“But I do.I want you to know how I feel about you every day.I’m sorry too that it had to be this way, but I can’t think of a better way to get to know one another than what we’re doing right now.”
She told him that she had a patient and that she had to go.But he had a feeling that they were going to be talking a great deal tonight and the rest of their lives like this.He loved the fact that he could get to know her through their link and was happy that it was there for them to use without having sex or anything right away.
Several times throughout the night, they spoke.He told her about his college days and that he was glad they were behind him.She told him how she felt about her mother right now and how she was upset with her.He didn’t blame her at all when he heard of the little things that she’d been doing to Doone when she lived with her.
Like leaving the trash out for her to take out when she got home from work.Doing her dishes when all she wanted to do was go to bed.How the little digs about her not being able to take a nap in her bed.How she wouldn’t put her things in the dryer after putting her own clothes in the washer.Just what he called passive-aggressive ways of telling her daughter that she didn’t want her there, no matter what.He knew that he was only getting one side of the story and was kind of biased about Doone.But he’d heard the same thing from his brother and Amy about how she just seemed to be thrilled to not have her daughter there for any reason.Especially since she’d had nothing to do with her reasons for being there.
“I’m on my way home and I’m exhausted.It’s been a busy night, and all I want to do is go to bed.Can we talk tomorrow when I get home from my mom’s stuff?”He said that would be perfectly fine with him.“I’m sorry.Please don’t think that I don’t want to talk to you, but I’m beyond tired and I just want to sleep until I have to get up at seven for my mom.”
“You just get some rest.Your health depends on you getting enough rest, and it’s doubtful to me that you’ve gotten all that much since this fire thing started.”She said that she’d not and was grateful for his understanding.“You’re so very welcome.I’ll see you when you get here.”
When she got home, she did look exhausted.Hanging up her coat when she got in the door, he followed her up the stairs so that she’d make it safely and turned off the light in the hallway so as not to bother her.He was going to convince her that she needed to rest more so that she wouldn’t get sick.But he’d wait until the morning to do it.She needed her rest right now.
Chapter 4
