Plus One - quasiouster (QuasiOuster) (2024)

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

Claire grabs a beer from the ice bucket and walks back into the main room. The sun has just set and other guests are also wandering downstairs to kick off the festivities.

Looking around, she smiles at the warm greetings a few of the guests are giving each other, clearly old friends or family members who haven’t seen each other in a while. Her friend Gwendolyn flits around taking pictures of the newcomers.

Everyone has taken seriously the instructions to dress up for a party. There are a lot of bright colors and sleek dresses along with designer jeans and expensively casual menswear. Gwen, camera in hand, wears a wispy, floral party dress that floats around her when she twirls. Claire has opted for fitted jeans and a shiny, black strapless top. She’s pulled her hair back into a neat bun to keep herself cool in the balmy night and opted to keep her makeup to a minimum so she won’t have to touch it up. Plus, although there are only a few people about at the early hour, she knows it’ll get more crowded and heated as the night goes on.

She admires the decorations around her, minimal but still festive. She doesn’t know anyone here but Gwen and her sister, so it’s nice to have the quiet of a mostly empty room to start the night. She’ll probably spend the majority of it making small talk.

Technically, she’s Gwen’s unintended “plus one” to her older sister’s wedding out here in a private and very posh estate in Santa Barbara. Claire’s main role was helping Gwen make the drive from the Bay Area to Santa Barbara. She’d hurt her foot a few months ago, and her doctor recommended against doing the entire drive herself. She’d had a ton of stuff to bring to help decorate and serve as the official photographer. The family wanted to splurge on a venue that would be a relaxing mini-vacation for the guests. Most of the details they could handle themselves to keep it low-key.

The original plan had Claire dropping Gwen off and then borrowing her car to stay in town at an Airbnb. But there’d been a last-minute cancellation, and since everything was already paid for, Gwen and her sister, Emma, insisted she attend and stay at the estate with the rest of them. She wouldn’t know anyone, but Emma and Gwen assured her that everyone was nice, even her future husband’s goofball friends. Claire thought it would nice, too, and she offered to lend a hand with the decorating and setting up.

That’s how she’d spent most of the afternoon – and it had been a lot of fun. The handful of early arrivals – Gwen and Emma’s parents, Emma’s fiancé and his mom, and a few friends – had all been sweet and welcoming. They’d set up the evening party room in no time, which left plenty of time for Claire to explore the beautiful grounds and then return to shower and change for the festivities.

Many of the guests – mostly the younger crowd – would be arriving tonight and joining them throughout the evening for a buffet-style meal, drinking, music, and general partying. More of the family would be arriving early the next day, and they’d have the chance to relax and enjoy the grounds and peacefulness of the estate before the formal dinner. The actual wedding ceremony would be early Sunday morning, the couple wanting to get married at sunrise.

Claire welcomes the time spent away from San Jose and with people she mostly doesn’t know. There are a lot of things that weigh on her back home these days, mostly having to do with her future. She’ll be finishing up her last year of residency soon, and she has some big decisions to make.

Last week, she’d been offered a permanent position at St. Bonaventure, not surprising given her status as Chief Resident. But this week, she’d received additional offers at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco. She’d applied months ago mostly to get Morgan off her case – her former co-resident claimed to be living vicariously through Claire.

Yet here she is now with major options. And her options seem desirable for very unexpected reasons than when she’d started her residency. Maybe it’s time to move on.

From St. Bonaventure.

From San Jose.

From Dr. Neil Melendez.

She hates to be such a cliché, running from a doomed relationship – or non-relationship in her case. But she can’t lie to herself about how much things have changed since that night he walked away from her at the end of her third year.

Claire takes a sip of her beer and decides she doesn’t need to go down that dark path in her thoughts. This weekend is supposed to be one of relaxation and escape, and she’s determined to enjoy herself. That’s the best way to get into the mindset of making a good decision when she returns to San Jose.

“Hey, I hear the groomsmen arrived a little while ago,” Gwen says, looping her arm with Claire’s as she leads them to the bar area.

“Is that a good or a bad thing?” Claire asks.

“Eh, that’s a good question. If you’re talking about my cousin Joey, then definitely bad. He’ll be fun but annoying. His girlfriend is nice, though. Don’t know how he managed that catch.”

“Oh right! You mentioned that your sister met Tony at one of his parties. Makes sense that he’s a groomsman.”

“Unfortunately. Tony’s brother is the best man and Brandon is fine. Boring but good-looking. Maybe that’s your type,” she jokes, nudging Claire as she makes herself a shot of tequila. “The other groomsmen are two more college friends. They had to even it out with me and my other sisters in the wedding party.”

Claire chuckles, watching as one of said sisters, Genie, descends the stairs and waves before heading the opposite direction. She hasn’t seen Margo or Lily yet. All three she’d only met a few hours ago. “There are a lot of you,” she says.

“Indeed. I’ve never met the other guys. They’re Joey’s age so older than us and off the market, I think. One of them is married and bringing his wife, and the other is apparently really grumpy.” Gwen downs her shot and rejoices at the flavor of it. “I swear, it never gets old that Emma’s marrying into money. This is some top shelf liquor.”

“I know!” Claire gushes. “Everything is so nice. I went walking, earlier and the grounds are beautiful.”

“The thing is you’d never know it talking to Tony. He hadn’t planned on developing an app that’s made him a bajillion dollars, but there you go.”

“Why all the DIY then?”

Gwen rolls her eyes, and gestures for Claire to follow her as she heads toward the voices in the front of the beautiful house. A few people are finally drifting into the room to check out the bar and wait for dinner to start. Both women wave as they pass by.

“That’s Emma’s doing. Tony wanted it all catered, but she and my mom and sisters like the DIY stuff. It makes her feel as if she’s contributing. And I don’t know, I kind of like that it’s a little bit homespun and humble.”

Claire nods. “I agree. It’s been fun.”

They approach a crowd of people in the sitting room, some of them familiar to Claire such as the groom, Tony, and some of his family. Most are new to her, though. They must have had time to settle in and change since everyone is in their party clothes. Most of the guys are wearing jeans or khakis with dress shirts or light pullovers to accommodate the warm weather. Maybe Gwen is right and there’ll be someone here worth a casual flirtation. She’s not remotely interested in casual sex or god-forbid a relationship. But flirting sounds like fun.

Gwen squeezes herself into the crowd, camera at the ready and immediately she’s greeted by a boisterous man who gives her a big hug. The annoyance tinged with humor tells Claire that this is her cousin Joey. Claire stands at the entrance with her beer content to watch from the periphery.

Joey cracks a few jokes at Gwen’s expense and then introduces her around. Gwen, in turn, introduces Claire who meets Joey and his girlfriend Katie, another groomsman Miguel and his wife Tasha, and a few more family members on the groom’s side. The best man, Brandon, joins the group, and Claire laughs to herself at his good looks and shy demeanor. As she’s exchanging pleasantries with the groom’s mother, another person enters the room.

“Finally,” Joey says. “God-forbid you make an entrance that’s anything less than impeccable. Man, you are so predictable.”

“Don’t hate the player, hate the game,” a new but familiar voice calls out. He moves to embrace the groom and they gave each other a big man-hug.

Tony laughs. “You even smell good! Stop showing the rest of us up.”

Claire turns towards the entrance with dread to confirm the incredible travesty unfolding for her weekend.

Standing in the middle of the room, looking devastatingly gorgeous in jeans and a fitted long-sleeved crewneck shirt, is the last person she wants to see.

Neil Melendez.

TBC...

Chapter 2

Chapter Text

Neil checks his reflection once more before leaving the cottage where all the groomsmen are staying. He admires the beautiful surroundings along the trail to the main estate. It feels good to be here. After the long drive, a shower and a change of clothes have him more rested and relaxed already.

He’s been looking forward to this weekend for months. He doesn’t get out of town that often, and on the way down he wonders if he should use it as the first of many excursions away from San Jose. Even these short trips can do a lot of good.

During the solo drive, he’d done a lot of thinking about the direction of his life. There are so many ways things have not turned out as he thought they would. He’s in his 40s, successful and well-respected professionally but also single with no kids. He’s come so close in the past, but his personal life continues to be a disaster.

He’d been especially disappointed recently after going on a series of dates with a woman he’d met through a dating app. The woman, Abby, had been sweet. She worked for local government in the budget office. She’d spent all of her life in San Jose and was looking to finally ease back on work and focus on family. On paper, they were compatible, seeking the same lifestyle with similar values.

But after a month of dating, they both had to agree that there was absolutely no spark. They’d broken up two weeks ago, and Neil took it hard. The worst part is that he knows exactly why they didn’t work, and it had nothing to do with Abby.

He can’t get over her. Claire.

Neil feels pathetic dwelling on it, a situation that seems like both a bullet dodged and a missed opportunity. It’s been almost two years since that time in his life. But in those short months, he’d felt happier, more comfortable with himself and someone else than in any other time in his life. More than Jessica who he’d proposed to, thought he’d marry and with whom he saw himself raising a family. More than Audrey, a rival turned colleague turned lover that he’d known for years.

No, his heart can’t get over the connection he’d made to his resident, someone off limits. He’d thought he could help her in a time of terrible grief and pain. Thought he could be a good mentor and colleague. But the more time they spent together, the more excuses he made to be around her, the more he realized that what he’d been looking for had been right under his nose.

And then he’d walked away.

It happened so fast. One second he’s offering a wounded colleague a shoulder to cry on and a shared run to vent her frustrations. The next, he’s meeting up with her nearly every day, craving the time alone, enjoying the moments when they work side by side and relying on her opinions and counsel. He watched her heal, return to a little bit of the warm, generous person she’d been before tragedy had shaken her.

Before he even realized himself, Audrey had walked into his office and shattered his delusional perceptions of how he saw his relationship with Claire. Oh, he’d denied anything inappropriate. Yet later, alone in his house with his racing thoughts, he couldn’t hide the yearning for Claire that he’d allowed to grow but hadn’t noticed until someone came along and threatened to take her away. That's what Lim had done in telling him to shape up or he’d take Claire off his service, embarrassing both him and his resident.

So, he’d cut Claire off. Told her no more runs, no more time outside of work together. He’d overcompensated. It didn’t take her long to call him out on it. She’d shown up at the pub she knew he ran to on stressful days and made her case, pleaded with him not to abandon their friendship. He’d left, thinking it was the right thing to do. He sat in his car questioning the decision, unable to leave. Three or four times, he almost went back to that bar, expectations be damned.

But he hadn’t. And things had never been the same between them.

He’d tried to keep up a friendly rapport no matter how awkward and stilted it felt. He’d been honest about wanting to support her at work. She’d been polite but not receptive. A distance grew, though their professional relationship remained good. They’d occasionally joke and still worked together brilliantly, but she closed herself off.

Making matters worse, starting in her fourth year, she gravitated toward Lim, and the chief became her primary mentor. He’d been furious with Audrey about it, even confronted her one night about the double standard when they’d gone out for drinks. He’d demanded to know why she could hang out outside of work with Claire and he couldn’t.

Audrey had point blank said that she could do it because she didn’t want to jump Claire’s bones like he did. As far as she was concerned, she’d saved two careers by intervening. Neil quietly resented her for it.

Now Claire’s residency is almost done, and he has no idea what'll happen. She hasn’t said anything about the offer St. Bonaventure made. She has to be entertaining other options too. He tries not to dwell on it – and mostly fails.

And he also tries not to tell himself that things can be different when he’s not her boss.

It feels good to get away from San Jose and the hospital and all the reminders of that. He’s complained to Joe about it who teases him for being perpetually grumpy. It’s Joe who suggested that a wedding in Santa Barbara might be the best possible solution. Their friend Tony is marrying one of Joe's cousins who has four sisters – if he isn’t going to have a fling, at least he can flirt a little and remind himself that there are plenty of fish in the sea.

Neil smooths out his shirt and slips his phone into his pocket. The vibe tonight is supposed to be a party one, just shy of being at the club. He’s met one of Emma’s sisters on his way in and thought her cute. So maybe Joe had a point.

Entering through the front door, he can already hear voices in the front room. Looking to the right, he sees people gathering by a bar and someone bringing out trays of food. But the voices to the left sound like his fellow groomsmen and the groom are hanging out in the sitting room. He turns in that direction to see if it’s where the party is starting.

“Finally,” Joe says. “God-forbid you make an entrance that’s anything less than impeccable. Man, you are so predictable.”

Neil laughs at Joe’s ribbing. “Don’t hate the player, hate the game,” he tells his friend. He sees Tony and greets him with a hug. It’s good to see him.

Tony laughs. “You even smell good! Stop showing the rest of us up.”

“I can’t help it. I don’t even have to try,” Neil says. “Seriously though, I’m excited to be here. It’s gonna be a great weekend,” he tells Tony.

“Yeah, it is.” His friend looks a little emotional thinking about it. “Let’s get these introductions out of the way and then hit the bar.”

Tony introduces him to around to his family members. He knows many of them from over the years, and the refresher is helpful. Then Tony introduces him to some of Emma’s family. He notices movement at the corner of the room and turns to catch the distraction.

His first response is surprise at seeing Claire Browne in the most unexpected of places.

Then he feels the pain of her discomfort at seeing him.

Finally, he can’t fend off a rising desire as his eyes sweep over her and take in how amazing she looks.

From the pulled back hair that emphasizes the natural beauty of her face to her exposed shoulders in a shiny strapless top, she is ticking all the right boxes for his attraction. The fitted jeans and heels are the most perfect completion to the look. Fairly modest yet utterly sexy and captivating.

“Claire?” he says, halting her in her tracks. To him, it seems like time and sound have stopped. But no one else seems to notice them or their familiarity.

“Uh, Dr. Melendez,” she replies. “I uh didn’t know you’d be here.” She rolls her eyes. “I guess I’m the one who’s not supposed to be here actually.” She notices his confused expression and pushes through the shock of seeing him to explain.

Before he can question her, he hears the click of a camera, and a woman in a festive floral dress strolls over. “Hey, you’ve met? I haven’t even gotten a chance to introduce myself to this handsome devil,” she jokes. “Hi, I’m Gwendolyn – Gwen – Emma’s sister. And the photographer,” she says waving the camera. “You must be Tony’s friend Neil.”

Neil tears his eyes reluctantly from Claire. “Uh, yeah. Dr. Neil Melendez,” he says, smiling and shaking her hand.

Her eyes light up. “Doctor! Oh great! Claire, you’ll have someone to talk shop with and will stop hiding out in corners,” she chastises. Claire is clearly still shaken and not responding how her friend expects. She turns back to him. “Claire’s a doctor too. A surgeon actually,” she adds proudly.

Neil smiles at that. “I know. I am too.”

Gwen chuckles. “Of course. You surgeons can spot each other.”

Claire seems to have gathered her wits and shakes her head at the two of them. “No, he’s not that clever.” Both of them turn their eyes back to her. “But he is my boss, so there’s that,” she explains, now smirking. Neil raises his brow at her brazenness.

He finds it incredibly alluring, after all.

Gwen laughs awkwardly. “Your boss, whoa, that’s kind of a buzzkill on our wild weekend.” Claire flashes her a look. “Not that wild," she says to Neil. "You know Claire.”

Neil crosses his arms, now amused. “I do.” Claire looks uncomfortable. And annoyed.

“If my boss showed up at this wedding? Well, let me just say, ‘no thank you’. Of course, he’s not nearly as … photogenic as you are Dr. Neil. Professionally, speaking of course,” she adds, waving the camera as she checks him out.

“Just Neil is fine,” he tells her, smiling at her brashness. He can see how the two of them are friends. Thinking again of Claire, he turns back to her. “Dr. Browne, it seems you have the lay of the land already. You wanna show me where I can get a beer,” he asks pointing at the half-filled bottle she holds.

If he’s reading her expression correctly, her immediate answer to his question is ‘hell no.’ But she smiles tightly and nods. He figures she’s already irritated with him so he doesn’t mind going for broke. In the spirit of romantic chivalry – which he knows she hates – he offers his arm.

On cue, she scowls and slaps his arm away. “Don’t push it, Melendez.”

Neil laughs and follows her rapidly retreating form – well as rapidly as she can go in the heels she’s wearing. And he enjoys the view very much.

“Have a shot for me,” Gwen calls out. He can hear her teasing laughter as he and Claire retreat alone together out of the room.

TBC...

Chapter 3

Chapter Text

Claire can’t believe this is her life. Almost 300 miles from San Jose, and the guy she’s been trying to get over – personally and professionally – is right where she least wants him to be.

She stares at Neil as he examines the contents of the bar. He scans the whiskey options looking impressed, but grabs a beer from the ice bucket instead. They’re both silent as he removes the cap and takes a long pull.

Glancing around, she sees people finally drifting into the large main room. There’s food set up on a far wall. A few people have already filled their plates.

“So,” Neil starts. “Fancy seeing you here in Santa Barbara.”

Claire rolls her eyes. “I rode down with Gwen. She hurt her foot a few months ago and her doctor recommended she get a second driver to for the trip down. I was supposed to stay at an Airbnb, but there was a cancellation so her mom and sister invited me to stay here.”

“Good,” Neil says. He looks around the room, too, probably feeling as awkward as her. “It’s a good crowd. It’ll be fun.”

She scoffs at that. “I don’t really know anyone.” Ten minutes ago that hadn’t bothered her at all. But with Neil here and knowing he’s connected with so many people at the event, it’s sounding less and less appealing.

Neil slips one hand into his pocket, giving off that casually charismatic vibe of his. It seems unfair that she’s this uncomfortable, and he gets to stand there looking so damn good. If only people realized how annoying he is beyond the perfect hair and charming smile; not to mention the perfect ass filling out those designer jeans and that stupid tight shirt covering his sculpted torso.

She takes a few swallows of her beer to cool down. She hates that she still finds him so attractive.

“I’m sure you’ll make fast friends,” he assures her. “Plus, you know Gwen and now you know me. I’m the life of the party.” The look he gives her is pure mischief.

Claire isn’t buying it. “I thought Gwen’s cousin Joe was the life of the party. That’s what everyone says.”

Neil thinks about it for a moment. “Okay, Joe, then me.”

Laughing, Claire relaxes a little, though she tries not to let down her guard too much just yet. She can tell he’s trying to be helpful.

Maybe she can go easy on him. It’s not his fault that she crashed the party. He’s probably bummed too that he can’t cut lose with his friends without worrying about what she might tell their colleagues.

“Don’t worry, Dr. Melendez, I won’t cramp your style.” Her tone offers a truce of sorts.

Neil winces. “Well, if that’s true, for starters, maybe we can act like we’re not at work.” He pauses, glances at her but then quickly turns away again. “You used to call me Neil. Maybe it won’t be that hard for a weekend.”

Claire doesn’t know what to think of his request. Or the memories that it digs up for her.

“And trust me,” he continues. “Your presence can only improve my reputation. These are my college friends after all. I admit that maybe I wasn’t so evolved back then.”

That makes her laugh again. He has that effect on her, amusing her with his dry sense of humor. But she can totally imagine him being a troublemaker as a young adult. Audrey had told her some stories, too, from their days as residents.

Maybe this will be okay. It doesn’t have to be awkward if they don’t want it to be. And Neil is clearly making an effort.

“In that case, I’ll rely on you to help me keep names straight and figure out which aunt will try to over-feed me or which cousin is the sloppy drunk.”

Neil seems pleased with her response. And relieved. “Thankfully, this bunch isn’t too wild. They’re mostly really nice folks.”

“That’s what Gwen says. Her family has been really kind to me. Tony’s too.”

“Yeah, Tony’s people are great. But, don’t let his Aunt Julia know that you understand Spanish or she’ll talk your ear off.” He points to a woman Claire hasn’t met yet having an animated conversation with a sleepy looking older man.

“I’ll consider myself warned,” Claire says.

Neil points out a few more people to her, some she’s met through Gwen and some new faces. As they talk, she starts to relax more. She tries to tell herself that it doesn’t have to be such a terrible weekend. He’ll probably be busy with his groomsman duties. She’ll mostly be helping out with the decorating and room setup. They won’t even see each other except at the formal events, and even then, she’ll have plenty of other people to talk to. And if not, she can always slip outside and wander the grounds or follow Gwen around.

Soon the room fills up and the conversations bring the room more alive. Claire is about to tell Neil that he’s free to mingle and doesn’t need to babysit her, when he gets this weird, strained look on his face. “sh*t!” he says under his breath.

“What’s going on,” she asks trying to figure out what he’s responding too. Then she notices a tall, willowy blonde standing at the entrance surveying the room. Neil isn’t facing the woman, but she can tell that his attention is fixed on her – and not in a good way.

He says quietly to her, “please, whatever you do, do not leave me right now.”

Claire spares a quick look at the woman who is now walking toward them. This is certainly an interesting development. She angles her head at Neil, a smirk rising to her lips.

“And what do I get out of this deal?”

He looks shocked. And then his expression gets intense. “What is it you want?” He probably doesn’t mean for it to come out as alluring as it does, but Claire’s body reacts to his words anyway. Still, she isn’t going to miss the opportunity for some leverage.

“You cover ten of my ER consults next week. I have a feeling all this wedding activity is going to wear me out,” she explains with a hint of drama.

He scowls at her, incredulous. “Ten? Seriously?” he whispers harshly.

“Neil!” the woman shouts in his direction, obviously eager to get his attention.

He’s struggling not to wince again, and Claire tries her best to keep from laughing at his expense.

“Fine, ten,” he says. She doesn’t know what’s going on, but she almost feels bad for him.

Neil then turns to the woman, fake smile pasted across his face. She’s seen him use that one at board meetings and press conference. “Oh, hey, Nancy. I didn’t know you were here already.”

Nancy and her very long, very blonde waves of hair sidle up to Neil. “Well, I didn’t think I’d make it until tomorrow night. But surprise!” Neil looks anything but amused. “Maybe I couldn’t wait to see you again,” she purrs. Claire raises an eyebrow over the woman’s shoulder. It kind of amuses her that the woman – Nancy – hasn’t bothered to acknowledge her existence at all.

Neil tries to move a little closer to Claire without Nancy noticing. “You probably haven’t met my friend Claire. Nancy, this is Dr. Claire Browne. Claire this is Tony’s older sister, Nancy.”

Nancy turns to her as if she’s magically appeared by Neil’s side and hadn’t been standing there the whole time. “Oh, nice to meet you,” she says with a little too much forced cheer. “Aren’t you an adorable little thing.”

Claire should be offended, but instead she finds the whole situation hilarious. “Nice to meet you, too.” She doesn’t bother to offer her hand.

And just like that, Nancy’s attention snaps back to Neil. “It’s been too long, Neil. We really need to catch up.” Her idea of what “catching up” means is pretty clear from her tone. Neil looks a bit terrified, and Claire hides her amusem*nt behind a sip of her beer.

“Yeah, it’s been a while,” Neil responds with strained enthusiasm. He looks at Claire, his wheels turning on how to get himself out of the situation. “Uh, Claire here is actually a friend of the bride’s family and doesn’t really know anyone here. We were just going to grab food and then I’m going to introduce her around. I’ll come find you when we’re done?”

‘Nice’ Claire mouths silently behind Nancy, flashing him an impressed look at his quick thinking. “Neil, I’m so grateful,” she piles on. “You’re a real lifesaver.” Turning to Nancy she says, “I’ll try to return him in one piece.” She moves next to Neil and takes his arm.

The look of surprise on his face at her possessive gesture makes the whole scene worth it. “Lead the way,” he says, partly in shock, partly in sultry wonder. She makes sure to stick close to his side as they make their escape.

When they’ve gotten out of earshot, she turns to him and says, “I have got to hear the story about that.”

Neil leads her to the food tables and she lets go of his arm to grab a plate. “Where do I start with Nancy? Much like her, there’s not a lot of subtext to the situation. She’s been trying to get her claws in me since her third divorce ten years ago. One night of flirting with her and now it’s a lifetime of that. At least she won’t follow us over here. I don’t think she’s eaten a carb since the late 90s.”

Claire chuckles as she fills her plate with plenty of carbs. “Have pity on the woman. That Neil Melendez charm is too strong for her.” He nudges her in the arm as she hands him the serving spoon she’d just finished with.

True to his word, they work the room as they eat, Neil keeping an eye out for Nancy. Thankfully, she seems occupied catching up with her extended family. When the coast is clear, Claire leaves Neil with his friends to go find another drink.

Gwen has been periodically checking in on her and once again catches up with her at the bar.

“So, you’ve been busy,” she says, winking at her. “You and that hot boss of yours are practically joined at the hip.”

Claire rolls her eyes. “It’s a business arrangement. He’s hiding from Tony’s sister. I got a sweet deal out of it,” she assures her.

“Good for you. I was worried since he’s the grumpy one I told you about earlier.”

Laughing, Claire reaches for another beer and then changes her mind and scans the counter for co*cktail ingredients. Her college bartending years always help in situations like these. She grabs a few items and starts mixing a drink for her and for Gwen.

“I can attest to his grumpiness. But I have to admit, it’s fun to see this relaxed side of him. Who'd have thought he could actually have some fun?” Of course, Claire had known a personal side to him once and liked it very much. Too much.

She shakes her head, not wanting those regrets get in the way of appreciating this experience with him.

“Well, Joey thinks you’ll be a good distraction for him. Apparently, he’s been pining away about someone for a while now – someone he works with who he had to stop seeing because of hospital policy. And he just broke things off with someone else he’d been seeing for two seconds. Joey thinks he’s not over this other woman he’s been so hung up on.”

“Oh really?” Claire says, almost spilling the fruit juice she’s adding to her co*cktail.

Gwen frowns at her. “I mean, you must know who he’s talking about.”

Claire doesn’t know how to feel about this bit of news. But if he’s not over Lim then it’s not her business. Lim is definitely over him, though.

“He used to date our chief of surgery, but that was like two years ago. She’s practically living with this guy she’s been dating for a while.”

Gwen shrugs. “Maybe that’s why he’s all hung up. Joey said they weren’t even together that long but he’d been really happy while they were seeing each other.”

This makes Claire wonder if Neil’s pain over his breakup with Lim had anything to do with why he’d pulled away from her. Maybe one day she’ll ask him.

“Apparently,” Gwen continues, taking the finished co*cktail from Claire, “his idea of dating was to go running at all hours of the day with this woman. Every time Joey would call Neil to go out, he’d beg off because he was running with her after work or had an early run with her in the morning. Sounds like the opposite of romantic to me – like something you’d be into,” she jokes, taking a sip of her drink. “Mmm, delicious as always, Dr. Browne.”

Claire is frozen, her hand shaking in the middle of mixing her own drink. Could this gossip be referring to her? It can’t be right. She’d wanted to be friends and he’d said it wasn’t appropriate. He’d been the one to walk away. So why would he leave so easily if he cared about her like that? And without saying anything about his feelings to her. No, this has to be some kind of mistake. Maybe Gwen heard wrong or Joe misunderstood what was going on with Neil.

She doesn’t know what to think – she’s barely had a drink and her head is spinning.

“Hey Gwenny,” a new voice calls over to them. “What y’all doing in here? He notices the mixed drink in Gwen's hand and the measuring Claire is doing at the bar. “Oh wait, do we have a mixologist in the house? Well, I need to be friends with you.” He holds his hand out and Claire shakes it. “I don’t think we’ve met officially – my buddy Neil’s been hogging you all night and I’ve been running errands for Tony and my annoying cousins when I need to be in here partying. Hi, I’m Gwenny’s brilliant cousin Joe.”

“Don’t go harassing my friend, Joe. She works with Dr. Neil so he’s been keeping her company.”

“More like she’s been saving him from that vulture Nancy. That lady has been trying to get into his pants for like a decade. She’s persistent, I’ll give her that.”

Claire turns to him, instantly put at ease by his good humor. “Don’t worry, he owes me big time for that. I’m Claire Browne. Nice to meet you.”

Joe looks at her quizzically. “You sure we haven’t met? That name sounds familiar.” Despite being impressed by her bartender skills, he grabs a beer from the ice bucket.

“I don’t think so,” Claire replies. “I’ve never met any of Melendez’s friends until today. Maybe he’s said my name in passing when talking about how much I and his other residents get on his nerves.” Joe chuckles and then shrugs off the issue.

“You should be nice to Claire. I was just telling her about how her boss has been pining away for someone and maybe she’s got some scoop on it. What did you say, Claire? Maybe it’s your chief surgeon or whatever?”

“You really shouldn’t gossip about my boy, Gwenny,” he teases. “Besides, it’s not Audrey. I’ve known her since before they were dating. Almost asked her out once ages ago. Hoo boy, that is too much woman for me.” Claire grins at that. “And he’s never gonna admit that he’s pining. Poor thing keeps saying he’s over it. Dude, if you’re still talking about it two years later, you’re not over it!” He looks over Gwen’s shoulder, scanning the viewscreen on her camera before she pushes him away.

“But Audrey and his former fiancée kind of dogged him, so I don’t blame him for being gun-shy,” he continues. “This other girl he’d been seeing sounded different, though. And then something went down and he’s been Mopey Melendez ever since. What I wouldn’t give to hear one of his lame, starry-eyed excuses about needing to go for a run with his ‘friend’” he says with air-quotes. “Sorry Joe, I can’t go to the club ‘cause I gotta get up early and meet … oh, my god.”

He pauses and looks at Claire again as everything clicks into place. She knows he can read all over her face what the end of that sentence is.

“Whooooaaaa,” he says. “Uh, I’m gonna go and, um, find Nancy and make sure she’s cool because I’m gonna be in a lot of trouble at some point this weekend and need to log some karma points. Bye.” He makes a quick exit, leaving Claire stunned.

Gwen’s only been half listening to her cousin’s rant though, still fiddling with her camera. “He’s such a busybody,” she says. “Ugh, back to work. People are getting tipsy and that’s when I get the best stuff.” She grins widely and bounces away, raising her nearly finished co*cktail in retreat.

Claire returns the gesture and takes a long drag of her drink. It’s a good thing she has a moment to herself because she’s stunned. She’s confused. And she feels a torrent of emotions she thought she’d buried two years ago when Neil didn’t want to be her friend anymore. On her best days, she’d been angry and resigned. On her worst days, she’d assumed she wasn’t good enough for him.

Maybe that hadn’t been the case at all.

She turns around towards the people milling about the room. She finds Neil still talking and laughing with his friends. An ache in her chest swells as she thinks of the gulf between them.

The unspoken desires.

The regrets.

The what-if.

She stares so long that he senses her watching him and meets her gaze, an expression of questioning amusem*nt on his face. Seeing her alone at the bar, he gestures for her to join him.

Claire smiles and shakes her head, pointing to Gwen taking pictures out on the patio. Not waiting for his reaction, she rushes from the room to get as much distance from his as possible.

TBC...

Chapter 4

Chapter Text

Despite a bumpy start to the night, Neil is having a really great time at the pre-wedding party. The shock of seeing Claire has worn off, and they’ve both come to an unspoken agreement to relax for the weekend; not let the awkwardness of the situation prevent them from enjoying their time in this beautiful estate surrounded by (mostly) lovely people.

He’d had a good time introducing her around, showing her off really. Claire is amazing, and he’ll never get tired of singing her praises. That had been early in the evening, though. She disappeared with her friend some time ago.

The guests have spread out among the downstairs space. Some people have wandered back over to the front sitting room where things are quieter, mostly the older people who’ll probably be heading to bed soon. The main room still boasts a good crowd and the bar remains busy. He’s seen glimpses of Claire with different groups of people as she happily plays bartender. Every time he thinks about going over and joining, the group disperses and he loses her again. A couple of times he'd caught her chatting with Joe and is glad his old friend has taken a liking to her.

He’d also been trying to dodge Nancy all night. After sucking it up and chatting with her for ten minutes, Joe of all people rescued him and diverted her attention long enough for him to make a graceful exit. He’ll have to thank Joe later. And fortunately, Nancy has set her sights on the bride’s uncle who’d recently divorced his second wife. They’re commiserating together apparently.

“Hey, you’re looking a little too sober,” Tony says, coming up next to him with a healthy pour of whiskey. Neil realizes it probably seems weird for him to be standing by himself lost in thought.

Neil laughs and accepts the drink. “You’re right. That beer isn't going to cut it.” It’s not like he has to drive anywhere and he is celebrating his buddy getting married. Why not less loose and indulge bit a more? It is a party, after all. “The night’s young as they say."

“Indeed, my friend.”

Now that people are tipsy and the “grown-ups” are going to bed, things are starting to really liven up. The subdued background music has been replaced by Miguel and his wife playing DJ on his laptop. People are dancing and drinking and having a good time. The whiskey Tony gave him is smooth and warm. Only a couple of sips in and he slips into a gentle buzz.

He glances around the room for any sign of Claire again. He sees a few people milling in the distance and wonders if that’s where she’s disappeared to.

“I think she’s hanging out with Gwen and her sister’s crew out on the patio,” Tony confirms. Neil nods and takes another sip of his drink, not bothering to feign ignorance about the "she" to whom Tony is referring. “So that’s her, huh?”

Sighing, Neil nods again. “It’s … a little strange, but we’re fine. It’s nice to see her like this.”

“She seems really great. I like her.”

“She’s … amazing,” he admits to his friend.

“Might be a good opportunity to clear the air,” Tony offers. Neil frowns just thinking about it. Sure, they’re getting along now, but she spooks easily. The last thing he wants is to break this fragile truce by digging up the past. Not that the past has really been left behind in his case.

“And if not, there's always my sister," Tony teases. Neil doesn't find that remotely funny, though. "Anyway, I’m glad you’re here,” Tony adds, content to hang out with his old friend for a few moments away from the throng of people around them. “You’d never say anything, but I know the situation is at least a little tough. Me and Miguel married, Joe practically married even though Katie’s never going to let him talk her into making it official.” They both laugh at their friend’s delusion that he’ll wear Katie down eventually. “And with Claire being here, I just don’t want you to be bummed out.”

Neil turns to Tony and smiles, strained but genuine. His words hold a lot of truth, but not enough to dampen his happiness for his friend.

“Don’t worry about me, Tony, I’m good. I wouldn’t be anywhere else this weekend. It’s not about me at all. I appreciate your concern, though.”

Tony grins and nods. “I just want you to be happy too. Your time will come.”

He points out to the patio where the crowd has parted and they can clearly see Claire laughing at someone Neil doesn’t recognize. The stranger is handsome enough, young. And he’s certainly enjoying whatever delight he’s stoked in Claire. Neil frowns at that.

Chuckling beside him, Tony pats him on the shoulder. “Neil, you better go get that woman. Rise up, my friend. Don’t wait for it.” He winks at Neil and retreats to go check on Emma. “Do not throw away your shot!” he calls back, downing the rest of his drink and setting the empty glass on a side table.

Neil shakes his head at his friend, amused but also a bit emotional about their conversation.

He does make his way out to the patio, taking his time to think about how to approach his soon to be ex-resident. Standing at the doorway, he checks out a group of people swaying to the music as it drifts out into the night. They're enjoying their drinks or their cigarettes or just simply sitting out in the warm evening air. Claire appears to be doing the latter as she chats with her new acquaintance. He scowls again when Claire lays her hand gently on the man's arm, apparently very entertained by something he’s said.

Neil drains his glass and goes for another.

But as soon as he refills his drink, he realizes that he doesn’t want to stay away from Claire. Maybe Tony’s right and them being here together is some kind of sign. Her residency is almost over and it's possible they could have a new beginning. Wipe the slate clean.

He returns to the patio doorway and lets himself enjoy the vision of Claire – carefree, probably a little buzzed herself. Her bun has come loose so she’s retied it into a low ponytail, letting it hang over her shoulder. The breeze occasionally blows her curls across her smooth skin, the humidity giving her a glow. And there is so much skin on display. He’s had to stop himself from reaching for her the entire evening. He wants to run his fingers along the back of her neck, across her shoulders, down her back.

Or maybe that’s the booze talking.

Nevertheless, he slowly makes his way toward her group, getting the hornie*st of his thoughts under control.

“There you are,” he says, sitting next to her as a few people dance in the patio area. He notices that she stiffens at the sound of his voice, then relaxes. “Sorry to sneak up on you.”

“No, it’s fine,” she says. “I wasn’t paying attention.” She turns to the two people she’s been talking to out here. “Do you know each other?” she asks.

The guy who seems to amuse Claire so much reaches out his hand in greeting. “I don’t think so. You’re one of Tony’s friends right?” Neil nods and accepts his handshake. “I’m Emma’s college roommate, Michael.” He has a strong grip and easy smile.

“Michael was just telling me about his new foster dog. He sounds like a handful,” she explains, eyes bright with lingering humor.

“He is. But he’s had a hard life. The least I can do is put up with his snoring in my ear at 3 AM.” Claire and Michael start laughing again.

Great, Neil thinks to himself. He has to compete with this good-looking lover of cute foster dogs? He instantly scolds himself for the thought – he’s not even really in the game. He’d screwed that up two years ago.

He catches Claire stealing a glance at him, her expression unreadable.

Michel looks between the two of them, face neutral but with an annoying humor to his eyes. “I think I’ll take my leave on a high note and get another drink. Can I get you anything?” he asks Claire.

She waves her glass, still about a third full, though probably not for long. “I’m okay for now, thanks.” She looks at Neil a little nervously, and he wonders if maybe being alone out here bothers her. However, she smiles before looking away, leaning back and taking in the partygoers having a good time around them. He can tell that, like him, she’s feeling the effects of the alcohol she’s been drinking the last couple of hours.

“I am very distracted by the what’s happening here,” she says abruptly, pointing at Miguel and Tasha grinding against each other under the clear night’s sky.

“You get used to it with those two,” Neil says, chuckling. “But it is hard to turn away.”

Claire laughs along with him. “It’s sweet really. They seem really good together.”

“Yeah,” he says. They both sit silently, sipping their drinks.

He wonders if her thoughts are similar to his in speculating when it’ll be their turn. They’d never actually talked about that kind of thing when they were close; whether she was looking to get married or have kids. She’d mostly been trying to piece herself back together and avoid romantic entanglements until her old friend Dash came along, though they hadn’t dated too long as far as he could tell. He and Claire hadn’t exactly been on good terms at the time.

There’s something melancholy about the distance in her eyes as she takes in the scene. A slight tension to her that worries him. “You doing okay? Having fun?”

She doesn’t immediately respond. He waits for a reply and she looks like she wants to say something to him, maybe ask him something. She turns away, instead, but only for a moment. When her attention returns to him again, she smiles softly, a sweet, slightly tipsy examination as she scrutinizes him. It’s a dangerous look, her warmth calming him yet igniting his desire all at once.

“I am having fun. I got to play bartender, follow Gwen around for a while, and now I get to enjoy some good music and this beautiful night.” She looks up at the bright moon and millions of stars dotting the sky.

It really is lovely, more so with her in his view.

An image of her twirling under the stars fills his thoughts, and he considers asking her to dance. But then one of Emma’s sisters – Genie he thinks – stands at the doorway and yells out, “Karaoke is set up! Let’s do it!”

Several cheers erupt, and Claire giggles. He stands and offers her a hand. She’s a little shaky but anchors herself with his grip before moving away. As the crowd streams inside, they go at a more leisurely pace. She sways a little in her heels and takes his arm to steady herself.

“Okay, this is not me accepting your chivalry,” she explains, her feet stepping awkwardly across the patio. “This floor is just very uneven and I don’t want to fall."

“Of course,” he says, humoring her boozy insistence.Though he tries to play it off, there’s a looseness to his footsteps too thanks to the potent liquor he’s been enjoying.

“I’m serious, Neil. You’re just …” she struggles to think of the words to explain it. “ … protecting me from the floor."

Neil gives her a very serious nod of agreement. “Speaking of which, I might need you to protect me from Nancy again in there." He wasn't above exploiting his awkward situation with Tony's sister. In fact, he’s hoping Claire will share one of the loveseats with him for the festivities. All his friends will be coupled up, and he thinks they’ll have a good time singing along and laughing at the performances.

“It might cost you,” she jokes, bumping unsteadily into him.

Neil shrugs. “It’ll probably be worth it.” Claire again stares at him, this intense expression as if she’s trying to dissect his thoughts. It’s an interesting contrast to the rosy tint to her cheeks from the warm air and alcohol.

Before Claire can respond, Gwen appears at the patio doorway and drags Claire inside.

“Wait, I thought we had a deal!”

He catches her smirk as she glances back at him over her shoulder. When he follows behind, he notices they’re back at the bar for Claire to mix them more drinks – her new friend Michael waiting for them. At the same time, Neil hears Nancy laughing a little too loudly across the room at something the man next to her has said.

Trying to stay out of her view, he searches for a spot on one of the empty couches and hopes he can convince Claire to join him.

It takes a little while for people to find the seat they want around the makeshift karaoke stage, get their drinks, and settle down to pick a song to sing. Claire has quite the crowd and looks cheerful as she makes a large pitcher of some bright pink drink. There’s a moment of dread when he sees out of the corner of his eye that Nancy is coming his way. Strangely, Joe appears out of nowhere and intercepts her, guiding her towards the front to hang out with a group of family members passing around a bottle of wine.

Finally, he sees the group disperse from the bar. The stragglers wander to seats around the room. Claire trails behind with Gwen and Michael as they scan through some pictures on her camera. Gwen veers off to get some shots of the crowd, and for a moment, Neil thinks Claire’s going to follow her friend and leave him high and dry.

Instead, she lingers in the back until her eyes land on him. He gestures for her to join him and to his relief she complies.

But the relief is short-lived because she’s joined by Michael as they keep up a stream of conversation. He tries not to scowl again at the idea of sharing Claire with this newbie. Sure, enough when she arrives, she doesn’t sit next to him on the couch but leans against the back of it.

Then Michael gives Claire a dramatic kiss on the cheek and continues ahead to weave through the chairs and couches. He joins a tall, well-dressed man who he greets with a kiss and a glass of whatever Claire’s mixed up.

Neil looks back at Claire and a very smug smirk. She probably has a pretty good idea of what had been going through his mind a moment ago. Rather than tease or scold him, she starts giggling with a delightfully tipsy abandon.

If she isn't going to say anything then neither will he. Instead, he pokes her in the knee.

“I don’t bite,” he says, commenting on her distance.

She takes a sip of her drink. “Maybe I don’t trust you not to throw me to the karaoke wolves. Don’t think I’ve forgotten about you at the last Christmas party.”

Neil laughs. He had played a silly trick on her and the other residents, volunteering them to be the first to compete in the dumb 90-second scavenger hunt game the nurses had organized.

“I promise, I’ll be on my best behavior,” he says, giving her his most innocent look. She doesn’t appear to be buying it.

Eyeing him skeptically, she leans a little farther over the couch, probably a bit unsteady on her feet in those insane heels she’s wearing. Or maybe from the co*cktails she’s been making all night.

“You say that now, Melendez," she says pointing at him. "But I’ve known you for almost five years, and you are full of tricks.”

He loves that she’s finally more relaxed around him – at least relaxed enough to joke around. “After getting stuck with 10 ER consults net week, I might be fresh out of tricks tonight,” he responds dryly. “Now tomorrow …”

That has her legitimately cackling, the sound so clear and joyful. He can’t get enough of it. Seeing her like this, it makes him want to drop everything and spend all his energy making her happy. And she appears to have no idea how extreme an effect she has on him.

Okay, he’s definitely a little drunk. Doesn’t make the thought untrue, though.

The first singers have started up and are doing a pretty decent version of a Katy Perry song. Many people in the room are cheering them on.

Claire remains on the back of the couch, but she reaches over to hand him her drink.

“Hold my beer,” she orders as she wobbles against the edge of the couch.

Laughing at her unsteadiness, he takes the tall co*cktail from her and sets it on the table next to his own. “This doesn’t look much like a beer. Looks like a girly co*cktail.”

“It’s delicious,” she replies. “Try it. I have amazing bartending skills.” Neil picks the glass back up and takes a sip. It’s not as sweet as he thought and it definitely has a kick. She grins at the pleasantly surprised look on his face. “Told you so.”

Just as she’s about to loop around the back of the couch to sit next to him, Gwen comes over to show her something on the camera. They both break into peals of laughter and continue to look through the images.

Neil is getting a little frustrated now. The moment Claire headed his way, he’d wanted her company by his side. At this point it feels like the universe is playing with his emotions, bringing Claire within reach and then pulling her way.

After a few minutes of giggling over the pictures, Gwen gets back to work. Two of Tony's cousins start singing Lil Nas X, and the whole room is cracking up.

Claire is chuckling too as she again sits on the back of the sofa, drink forgotten and swaying to the music. Neil clears his throat next to her, and Claire drags her eyes to his, suddenly amused at his impatience.

“Can I help you?” she asks, innocently.

“You gonna join me?” he replies back.

Teasing him, she tilts her head as if considering the proposition. Except Neil is done waiting. He loops his arm around her waist and gently nudges her backwards, causing her to fall into the soft cushions next to him.

Of course, not understanding the gravity constraints of a strapless top, he also triggers an unfortunate series of events. Neil sees it all play out in what feels like slow motion.

Claire hits the back of the couch and bounces just enough to drag down her top as she slides to a stop. Thankfully, she’s wearing a pretty robust bra underneath, but even that is having trouble containing her ample cleavage against the inertia of the fall.

Realizing what’s happening, Claire immediately reaches up to block anything from spilling out and causing a scene.

Neil also realizes what he’s done and dives over her to block her from anyone who may happen to be looking.

For several moments, they hover across the couch – Claire on her back trying to contain her breasts and shove them back into her top and Neil practically on top of her serving as her human shield – all to the off-key tune of two women drunkenly singing Old Town Road. When Claire finally gets her bosom under control they sit still for a moment and take it all in.

And then they both burst out laughing - definitely a few sips short of being on the sloppy side of drunk.

He drops his forehead to her shoulder, breathing out a stream of boisterous chuckles. “I’m so sorry,” he says. “I didn’t know that was gonna happen.”

Claire tries to glare at him but can’t quite manage it around her laughter. “I do not believe you for one second, Neil Melendez. So many tricks.”

He eases up a little trying not to stare at her chest but also wanting to check if she’s decent. “Are you okay,” he asks, holding back his chuckling. There are now tears in both their eyes from laughing so hard.

She adjusts her top a little more and nods. They both break out in giggles again as Neil sits all the way up to give her some space. Claire is half sitting up with her legs still dangling along the back of the couch.

“Wardrobe malfunction resolved," she announces in as official a tone as she can muster. "The boobs are secure.” To prove the point, she gives both of them a pat and a test bounce. “See? All good.”

Neil had grabbed his drink again and nearly chokes in the middle of taking a big swallow. And just like that he's staring at her breasts again.

Thankfully, Claire doesn’t seem to notice. In fact, they look around and no one is paying attention to them at all. The two women singing their hearts out in the front of the room are causing quite the scene.

Neil helps Claire reposition herself on the couch, her shoe getting caught on a pillow.

“How are you still wearing those?” Neil asks.

“Honestly, I don’t know,” Claire says, giggling. He returns her drink to her as she slips her shoes off and drops them in front of the couch. Her toes are painted a cute shade of purple with a flower design on the big toe. They turn their attention back to the “stage” and laugh and dance along with the rest of the room at the new singers.

Soon enough, Neil is heckled into joining Tony and his other groomsmen to perform a Cypress Hill song that they all still know every word to. Before he gets dragged to the stage, he makes Claire promise not to record it and use it for blackmail at work.

“But if Shaun finds out you did karaoke and I didn’t tell him, it could ruin our friendship,” she whines.

“If Shaun finds out I did karaoke because you told him, it will ruin the rest of your residency because of all the scut work I'm going to give you," he threatens as he walks away.

“Minus ten consults,” she shouts after him. “You still owe me, Melendez!” He laughs and lets himself get dragged to the front. As he and his four friends dance around and act like fools, he hones in on Claire cheering and laughing as she dances along.

He can’t get enough of the joy in her face; feels lucky that he has some role in making her feel that way.

Before he returns to the couch, he brings her a full water bottle so as not to overdo things. They still have two more days of festivities after all.

“That was really good,” she says, taking the water from him. “I imagine you and your friends practiced that a lot back in the day. Something tells me there was a lot of weed and partying in your college years.” Neil didn’t say anything, only smiled and sipped from his water bottle.

There’s something comfortable and intimate about being with her like this, her bare feet inches from him as she curls up in the corner of the couch. She’ll occasionally lean over to tell him some funny observation or sit up to dance to a song she likes, her legs tucked underneath her. He can’t get enough of it.

And then Gwen, whose official duties appear to be on hold, comes over to pull Claire onto the karaoke stage.

“Oh no!” she protests.

“Oh yes!” Gwen says. “The girls and I need an actual singer for this.”

She looks to Neil to save her, but he only toasts her. “Hey, I had to do my time. It’s your turn, so have fun.” Resigned to her fate, she follows Gwen to the stage still barefoot.

When the music starts playing No Scrubs by TLC, the crowd immediately goes wild. Neil perks up in anticipation – this is going to be fantastic. Claire has a beautiful singing voice, but a total aversion to performing. It’s the perfect song for her to sing where she won't take herself too seriously and can have fun with it.

As the opening notes play, Joe hands out shots to the women, which they throw back immediately.

Once they start getting into it, Claire surrenders to the occasion, singing sweetly and strongly into the microphone. The room erupts in cheers and catcalls, loving that they’re finally getting someone up there with some skill. The women dance and belt out the lyrics around their laughter. They give the lyrics an exaggerated sexiness to be silly and get the crowd to join in.

Of course, watching Claire like this is turning him on beyond reason. When she catches his eye a few times, he has to keep himself from imagining that she’s performing only for him. He’ll take her teasing playfulness all day. And night.

He lets out a huge breath. Before she finishes, he needs to get a hold of himself. He looks around for his water bottle to flush out some of the alcohol.

When they’re done, the crowd applauds loudly, shouting their appreciation. Claire plops down beside him again, out of breath and cheeks glowing in exertion and excitement. He hands her the water bottle.

“Nice job! Were you even alive when that song came out?” he jokes

She rolls her eyes. “I was alive, just … young. You forget that my mom was a singer. I grew up around music.”

“I don’t think any of us are gonna forget that performance.” She hits him with a pillow but grins.

They hang out for a while longer, listening as the performances get more and more silly and drunkenly. A little after midnight, people start calling it a quits, and Neil helps Katie get Joe back to their room at the cottage. He barely has time for a hasty explanation to Claire. When he returns, she's already gone and the party has broken up. Only a few sober family members are around, straightening things to make it easier when the cleaners come in the morning.

Neil makes his way back to his room, now mostly sober and hydrated, though he takes a couple of pain reliever pills just in case. Changing out of his clothes and getting into bed, he reflects on how much fun he’s had today, mostly because of Claire’s unexpected presence. Given their distance, he'd let himself forget how much he enjoys her company.

When he closes his eyes, he remembers the sway to her hips as she danced beside him on the couch, the weight of her hand on his arm to get his attention or emphasize a point. It’s not often he sees her so willing to let go, her tipsiness breaking down a barrier to the tightly controlled professional demeanor that defines most of their interactions these days. His mind holds the memory of her underneath him, his cheek brushing against her shoulder as he blocks her wardrobe malfunction from view.

He wants to bask in these sensations. His body’s response to Claire is certainly demanding it. But he knows it’s not a good idea. None of their original problems have gone away just because they’re in a different city and had a decent night out together.

But for just one night or even a few days, he’ll give himself some room to dream about it.

TBC...

Chapter 5

Chapter Text

Claire wakes up the next morning feeling surprisingly good despite the amount of alcohol she'd had the night before. It helps that she’d spent the last leg of the festivities hydrating. She’ll have to thank Neil for the water bottle.

She lay in bed watching the sky brighten. It’s still early – earlier than she’d normally be up on a day off. A night of heavier than normal drinking tends to do that to her sleep cycles. She’s in a corner room in the main estate, small but comfortable. And the view of the mountains and the estate grounds from her window is breathtaking.

As she contemplates getting out of bed, she can’t stop herself from thinking about what Neil might be doing right now. Years of working with him taught her that he's a notorious early riser.

While she’ll be spending the day mostly helping with the setup for tonight's dinner, he’ll be busy with his groomsmen activities. They whole wedding party has a pretty full day – so Gwen and everyone else she knows will be gone. First, they'll go on a tour of the area followed by some kind of visit to a spa. While they'd been hanging out for karaoke, Neil admitted to enjoying that kind of pampering. He's not the kind of guy to scoff and call it to a “girl thing” – she has no problem believing that given how high-maintenance he can be about his appearance. He said he couldn’t wait to get a massage and a professional shave. Pedicures weren’t off the table either. She’d teased him about making his feet as presentable as possible and, in turn, he’d grabbed her foot to get a closer look at her pedicure for inspiration.

Her mind is spinning to see him in a new kind of light now. When Joe accidentally revealed that Neil still thought about her and their friendship, it sent her reeling.

All this time she thought he’d casually walked away; that he didn’t feel as if their friendship was worth fighting for. That she wasn’t worth fighting for. It had hurt so much, and it took her a while to move past it enough to let anyone else in.

She’d immediately withdrawn from him at the hospital for a while wanting only to interact about work stuff, though she’d eased up on that eventually. And although she and Dash both know that things wouldn’t have worked out romantically with them, her reluctance to get closer to him had a lot to do with her fears over what happened with Neil.

His friendship had meant the world to her at the time. She’d truly cared about him and mourned what she saw as the loss of that relationship. And then to find out that things had been so different from his view? That he’d possibly had feelings for her? It’s a lot to take in. Not that knowing this changed anything now.

She’d caught up with Joe later in the evening and asked him not to mention what happened to Neil. No need for both of them to feel awkward and uncomfortable. She didn’t want to make things weird when they were supposed to be celebrating Tony and Emma. At first Joe was reluctant, not liking the idea of keeping things from his friend or make him look like a fool. But Claire promised to talk to him about it herself. He’d directly asked her what she planned to say, and Claire answered that she honestly didn’t know. She just figured it was an opportunity to resolve some things between them.

No matter what she decided about her future, she didn’t want to continue being in such an unsatisfying place with Neil.

So she’d made the choice to simply not deal with things until she could process it a little. In the meantime, she let herself enjoy the party and relax with the friendly new people she'd met. She hadn’t expected things to fall back into that comfortable place with Neil so quickly. Perhaps being out of town in a distant setting released some of the underlying friction between them.

Of course, it then opened the door to another kind of tension.

She now sees the underlying attraction in behavior she would have ignored from him a few days ago. His possessiveness, his playfulness, that hint of underlying desire, even his jealousy. Especially after a few drinks, something in her was immediately drawn to it. And seeing this other goofy side to him, too, as he hangs around his hilarious friends really is a joy. He’s mostly so serious and strict at work. She’s missed having this kind of fun with him that not many other people get to experience. She rather likes the idea of his karaoke adventures being a secret they keep between the two of them.

The night ended with him getting a boisterous Joe back to their cottage with Katie’s help. He hadn’t mentioned coming back, but she stuck around anyway until people started to head to bed. She left for about five minutes to give Gwen and Genie a hand with some items to store in their rooms, and when she checked back downstairs, only a few people cleaning up were left from the previous crowd. Not wanting to look like a weirdo waiting for someone who wasn’t going to show up, she just headed back up to her room for bed.

Yet she’d gone to sleep thinking of his rich, brown eyes laughing with her and teasing her. After knocking her down on the couch, she recalls the weight of his body over hers as he’d looked down to check if she was okay. She smiles now thinking of his immediate instinct to protect her.

She'd tried to ignore the thrill of his fingers gently caressing her toe as he loosely held her ankle to him or the warmth he emanated when she’d lean into his side. And he’d taken care of her, introducing her around, offering a hand or arm to anchor her when her heels – and the co*cktails – made her unsteady; even fetching her water towards the end of the night so she wouldn’t get too hungover.

This is why she’d kept her distance. He does one innocent thing, and she starts thinking back to that time when they’d been so comfortable together.

She wonders if she should just get up and start her day rather than lying in bed pining for her boss.

The main house seems quiet and many people are likely still asleep. The cleaning crew is probably working downstairs to straighten up from the night before. She doesn’t need to be downstairs until noon, which leaves her a lot of time to herself.

They’d chosen this estate because it could easily accommodate all of their guests, and everyone could hang out or explore the area in between the events. Neil and the other groomsmen are all in one of the cottages near the main estate house. The bridal party is mostly here with other members of the family who are older and don’t want to walk across the grounds for the main events. The other two cottages are filled with friends and extended family.

Claire opts to get up and considers showering and maybe going into town for the morning. But instead, she opens her window to the gentle breeze and decides to go for a run around the beautiful grounds. With the mountains as a backdrop, there’s a lot of land and gardens to explore around the property that she hadn’t seen the day before. She digs in her suitcase for her running pants and her sports bra, throwing on a tank top and tying up her sneakers.

As she makes her way downstairs, she can hear the cleaners moving around and a few voices coming from the sitting room. She pops in to say good morning to a couple enjoying their morning coffee. They exchange pleasantries, and Claire heads toward the back of the house to begin her run.

She’d taken a short walk the day before but hadn’t really considered the lay of the land. She figures she can just leisurely weave through the area. It doesn’t seem likely that she’ll get completely lost, and if she does, she’ll figure out her path back.

Twenty minutes in, and Claire feels divine. It’s a perfect, cool morning for running. The sky is clear and the air so clean up here. The gardens are beautiful and she doesn’t miss having her headphones to listen to music. In fact, she didn’t bring her phone at all so eager to immerse herself in the environment. She reaches the edge of one garden when she spots a lookout point and decides to stop for a moment to take in the view.

From that spot, she can see miles into the distance. A few peaks at the faraway mountains are obscured by stray morning fog. The land in between is lush and hilly. Birds sweep through occasionally. She can hear them all around her in the scattered trees on the estate property.

“Beautiful isn’t it,” she hears from behind her.

Turning, she sees Neil approaching her similarly in his running clothes. She hadn’t even heard him sneaking up on her. He’s in shorts and a t-shirt, one of the few times she’s ever see his bare legs, as sculpted as the rest of his body. Beads of sweat have gathered at his hairline and there’s a ring of dampness around the neck of his t-shirt, making her wonder if he’s been out running longer than her. He’s still unshaven which is a more familiar look from their long shifts at the hospital. But out here alone after the night they’d had, it feels different. More intimate.

His presence isn’t unwelcome. It feels nice to share this view with someone.

“It is beautiful. It makes me think I don’t get out of San Jose enough.”

“I know what you mean.” He closes the distance between them to stand next to her. “You’re up early,” he observes, grinning. She’d once mentioned to him her love of sleeping in or spending a lazy morning in bed with a book on her days off.

“I’ll have you know that I often get up early. I’m never late for my morning shifts, and as you know I go running in the morning all the time.”

She catches Neil’s slight frown at her mentioning that. But he doesn’t linger long on whatever emotions he’s working through. Instead, he diverts the conversation.

“It's the perfect morning for a run. Anybody awake over in your part of the house?”

Claire shakes her head. “Not really. Just a few early birds. I’ll probably join them for coffee when I get back in. How about you?”

Neil winces. “No, they’re all down for the count. They’ve still got a few more hours before we leave for our tour, but I’m not sure how many of them are going to be in the shape for a big breakfast.”

“Your friends do know how to have a good time, I’ll give them that,” she says, chuckling. “Tony and Miguel are really nice. And Joe is a lot of fun.”

Well, he's fun when he isn’t blowing up her life by accidentally revealing compromising things about her boss and former friend, she thinks to herself.

“Joe is definitely something else,” Neil says. They turn back toward the gardens and silently agree to run together around the grounds.

“I liked seeing your rap skills too. Who knew you’d missed such a special calling?” she says, risking the joke.

Neil shakes his head. “Hey, we can’t all have your dance skills.” They smile at each other, acknowledging between them that it had been a fun night.

Claire glances at him before focusing straight ahead again. “Thankfully, you didn't have to explain to your friends why I'm flashing people at the wedding I crashed. I guess I should be thankful that everyone missed that.” She’s not sure what kind of response she’s going to get to that bit of teasing.

“Hey I apologized for that,” he says, feigning offense. He gives her a once-over, eyes dropping to chest-level a few times. “Besides, your cleavage seems to have recovered from the trauma.”

Claire laughs and shoves him off the path playfully. How is it that she’s talking about her breasts this early in the morning with her boss - slash former friend - slash whatever they’re flirting at right now?

“So, what are you going to do today while the wedding party is trapped together with each other,” he asks, changing the subject.

“Oh please, don’t complain to me about your day of pampering!” Neil smiles and tugs at her arm to steer her to the right. “I haven’t decided yet,” she continues as they run along a gorgeous tree-lined gravel path. “I thought about going into the town and seeing if there’s anything interesting there. Or maybe going to the beach. But I promised to help set up, and I don’t think I’ll have time. Besides, I like the idea of hanging out here and relaxing while all the riff-raff are out.”

Neil chuckles. “It’s not a bad idea,” he agrees. “I know tonight is the formal dinner, but it’ll have plenty of excitement, too, I imagine.”

They run for a while longer around the grounds, talking about the setup for dinner she’ll be helping with and where everyone will be sitting. She promises to keep him as far away from Nancy as possible if she’s able. And he jokes that they’re lucky to get the precision of a surgeon helping out with the table toppers and flower arrangements. A few times they stop to take in another angle to the view they’d enjoyed before.

Although they spot some activity in the front of the house as they pass, the main estate still looks pretty quiet. Once inside, they notice more people up and about. The smell of coffee hits them as they watch the last of the cleaning staff pack up for the time being.

The sound of hushed but tense voices greets them as they walk into the mostly empty dining area where hot drinks and juice are set up. They find Joe – who she can’t believe is up this early after the previous night’s drinking – along with the bride and groom. Gwen, her mom, and Gwen's sister Genie are there as well.

Claire and Neil grab some coffee and make their way over.

“Problems?” Neil asks.

Joe looks between Claire and Neil and is obviously trying not to react to the sight of them walking in together. When Neil moves past him to check out the power bar selection on the counter, Joe sends her a questioning look, wondering if she’s talked to Neil yet. Claire shakes her head no.

“Yeah, you could say there's a problem,” Joe replies, his gaze slipping from Claire to Neil. “We’ve got an unexpected guest and nowhere to put him.”

Gwen pipes up, “More like no one who wants to bunk with him.”

“Gwendolyn,” her mom scolds.

Emma rolls her eyes, “We’re all thinking it, Mom. You said Uncle Nino wasn’t coming.”

“That’s what he told me,” her mom insists. “But he said he got a sign that he was meant to witness the nuptials of his favorite niece and drove all night to get here.”

“And without even calling ahead. That’s so Uncle Nino,” Genie says, annoyed. “But he’s here and we need to figure out where to put him. There are absolutely no extra rooms or even rooms with extra beds.”

“And a lot of people came with their partners. We can’t just stick a stranger in with them on a cot or whatever,” Joe adds.

“Not that we’d wish that on anyone,” Gwen says, grinning around her coffee. Claire thinks her mother is going to scold her again, but instead they all laugh.

Claire decides to offer an idea that’ll solve their problem, though not the most convenient solution for her.

“Hey, I’m technically the interloper here. And I have a single. It’s small but it’ll do. Why don’t you put him in my room, and I’ll grab a couch down here or something?

“No way,” Gwen says. “Especially with you doing a ton of manual labor for us, there’s no way I’m kicking you out of a room after inviting you in the first place.”

“It’s not kicking me out if I offer.”

Gwen’s mom rubs her arm affectionately. “That’s really sweet, Claire, but we can’t possibly have you sleeping down here. It’s not right. There will be people wandering through and cleaners coming in early. We invited you here for vacation and to relax with us.”

“I grew up in a noisy trailer park with a noisy mom. I lived all through college with noisy roommates, and now I work in a noisy hospital. Trust me, I can sleep through anything.”

Emma shakes her head, and hugs Claire. “Not gonna happen,” she says.

“Giving him the single solves the problem. The couches down here are fine. It’ll be too disruptive to put me in your rooms and really unfair to Margo,” she argues to Gwen and Genie.

Claire knows that Gwen’s sister experiences severe anxiety in settings like these with a lot of people around. The sudden change would be very hard on her. Although she’d just met Margo and suspected the young woman wouldn’t complain, adding Claire to the sisters’ connected suite would be no fun for her on what should be a relaxing weekend.

“We’ll figure something out,” Emma says, sighing. “Maybe we can ask one of my friends to double-up? Michael and Damien maybe?”

“They’re in the farthest cottage,” Genie says. “We probably don’t want Uncle Nino walking that far.”

Claire can tell they’re getting more and more frustrated as they kick around a few other suggestions, none of them ideal it sounds like.

Neil clears his throat. “So, I have an option.” The group immediately quiets and turns their attention to him. Neil looks over at Claire. “You put Uncle Nino in Claire’s room and Claire can bunk with me. I have a couch in my room that’ll be comfortable enough. It’s not like we haven’t done it before.” Joe raises an eyebrow at that. “At the hospital,” he emphasizes, annoyed at his friend. “We’ve shared an on-call room plenty of times.” He glances at Claire again. “I mean, if that’s fine with you.”

Claire’s a little caught off guard, but nods. “No, I’m totally fine with that.” To lighten the mood, she adds, “It might even be the best idea for making sure we both get up in time for this wedding tomorrow. Let’s just say that neither of us are light sleepers,” she jokes.

They exchange a look of shared amusem*nt, remembering the many times they both had to be prodded after missing a page.

What they didn’t see in that moment is Joe’s subtle fist pump, Gwen nearly shaking with excitement, and Tony grinning proudly at such a perfect scenario. When Claire and Neil turn back to the group, they all put on their best innocent expressions and feign nonchalance.

“Sold!” Joe proclaims and claps his hands. “Claire, we’re not kicking you out now or anything, but we can come help move your stuff over whenever you like.” He checks his watch. “Okay, actually we can help you move your stuff in the next two hours since we’ll be leaving for our tour.”

Claire laughs. “It’s fine. I’m traveling light. I just need to shower and I can drop my stuff off afterward.” She turns to Neil. “Does that work for you?”

Neil seems a little subdued, but nods. Claire can see the visible sighs of relief from the group. Emma and her mom head to the sitting room, probably to tell Uncle Nino the news. The others, including Neil, mill around refilling their coffee and picking at the breakfast snacks. Neil glances at her briefly, before turning back around to listen to something Joe’s saying to him.

Gwen looks at her skeptically. “Are you sure about this? Last night seemed fine, but I don’t want it to be weird for you at work or anything.”

Claire sighs. “You have no idea. It’ll be fine, though,” she assures her, waving off her friend’s concern. "Neil’s right. Us sharing a room is the least weird thing about this weekend. But I should probably tell you about the other part of the equation. Come on,” she says, looping her arm with Gwen’s and heading for the stairs. “You can help me pack, and I’ll fill you in.”

TBC...

Chapter 6

Chapter Text

Neil is standing outside on the patio marveling at the fantastic weather they’ve been having all weekend. It’s still light outside, though it’ll be dark as they settle into dinner. The stars are brilliant and the moon bright despite a few stray clouds. The patio is lit up and beautiful, full of flowers and hanging lanterns and streaming lights.

He’s in one of his nicer dark suits and thankful Tony had nixed the idea of wearing tuxes. That would be unbearable in this heat. He feels fine in his blazer and dark dress shirt, open at the neck of course. A few of the other men have opted for waistcoats to stay cool. Neil predicts he'll lose the blazer and roll up his shirtsleeves at some point tonight.

It’s still early with guests slowing arriving to enjoy the early evening air before dinner. A few family friends are milling around the patio or by the outdoor bar. The wedding party had returned from their field trip only a couple hours ago. Most of them had decided to take a short nap or relax before dinner. After some down time himself, he’d left the best man and other groomsmen lingering back in the cottage. Miguel and Tasha had taken the nap option earlier and were running behind while Joe and Katie are dallying around judging from the giggling he heard as he’d left. Tony’s brother Brandon probably just wanted some peace and quiet.

The estate's patio doors have been left open to allow people to come and go freely before sitting down to a formal dinner by the pool. Neil wanders over to that area to get a good look. Claire and the rest of the decorating crew have done a lovely job. The neat white tablecloths are adorned with LED tea lights and a simple floral centerpiece. Looking closer, he can see that each one is unique, the decoration on front displaying a different animal – he wonders if that’s how they’ll designate the seating arrangements. They haven’t put the list out yet.

The pool is also lit up and a few floating floral arrangements dance in the water. Lights around the grounds allow for stunning views of the quiet, grand estate.

Looking out across the gardens brings a smile to his face thinking about the pleasant start to his day with Claire.

He hadn’t planned on going for a run. But he’d gotten up early and couldn’t think of anything better to do. All that hydrating last night had really payed off, and he felt great. As soon as he stepped out into the gardens, he knew it’d been the right choice. He hadn’t had much time to explore the estate grounds, and he quickly found a rhythm weaving through the tree-lined paths, landscaped gardens, and lookout points into the forested distance.

Turning a corner, he saw an unmistakable figure several feet away - taking in the early morning beauty as well it seemed.

The nostalgia hit him hard, reminding him of when they’d meet on the track or in the park in the early hours of the morning. Often, they’d be energize each other through silly taunts as they’d race or play tricks on each other. Mostly, though, they jogged side-by-side chatting about their day or random stuff on their mind. It’s how he learned that she hated romance and how she learned to call him Neil. It's how they became friends, and eventually more on his part.

His run with Claire earlier had felt a lot like that again. He didn’t think he’d ever have a chance for that. Or that either would fall into it so easily.

Maybe that’s why he decide to torture himself by offering his couch for the rest of the weekend.

It’s not like he needed to panic about it. They wouldn’t be spending much time in the room with the festivities tonight and their early morning. It’s possible that she’s leaving the next day, although if she rode up with Gwen then probably not. And they both agreed that it didn’t need to be any different than sharing an on-call room, which they really had done plenty of times. That space is actually smaller than his attic room with en suite bathroom back at the cottage.

He’d had the whole day to overthink it, though.

Not that his adventure with the rest of the wedding party hadn’t been a fun. They’d ridden around in rented SUVs to explore the area. He decided that he wouldn’t mind retiring to a place like this someday. They’d gone by the beach and to a vineyard. They’d even had time to do a little shopping before heading to the spa. That had been bliss – full massage, pedicure, and facial, a shave and a break in the steam room. He feels great and knows he looks great too.

And for most of the day, he also tried not to dwell on how much more fun it’d be if Claire had joined him.

Everywhere they went, he saw something he thought she’d enjoy or laugh at with him. She would have loved the beach and the vineyards. Somehow, he couldn’t imagine her at a decadent spa, but all the more reason to get her to one.

The guys definitely noticed and poked fun at hm when it was just the five of them. He’d endured the same ribbing about the stars in his eyes back when he and Claire were on good terms. After scrutinizing him at one point, Joe asked him seriously if he thought Claire was playing him. Neil had laughed at that, relaying stories about what a soft touch she is.

That phrasing got its share of jeers from them too - and questions about when he'll get to experience that soft touch for himself.

So many times, he’d thought about texting her. But he didn’t want to rub his fancy day in her face while she stayed behind and helped set up for the dinner party.

Instead, he decided to come down early to see if she’s around to trade stories. So far, no luck.

His mind wanders again to what it’s going to be like having her in his room tonight. She hasn’t actually moved her stuff yet. She and Gwen decided they’d do it after dinner so Claire could get ready in the main estate while everyone was out. Originally, he’d wanted to spend the weekend not thinking about his complications back in San Jose.

The way he and Claire are spending time together - the comfort of it, the rightness of it – it’s doing the exact opposite of that.

Neil moves back up to the patio to see if the seating arrangements have been set out yet. Sure enough, Emma’s mom has placed a fancy slip of stationary on the table with the guest gifts – cute pouches filled with candles and matches adorned with Tony and Emma's wedding information. Neil heard from one of Emma’s sisters that there would be customized tea bags for guests in the morning during the ceremony.

Neil peeks at the list and sees he’s been placed at the stallion table with the other groomsmen and their partners as well as the best man. That makes him laugh. He’d bet that Gwen was behind that name choice. He scans the list to see that Nancy is placed at the opposite end of the setup at the elephant table with other family members. The bridesmaids and maid of honor are at the butterfly table and the parents at the owl table. The bride and groom are at the dove table, of course. As a latecomer, Claire is in the back corner at the grasshopper table with Michael and his partner, though still not too far away from him in the layout.

“Don’t worry, I kept my promise,” Claire says at his shoulder.

Neil startles at the surprise sound of her voice. But he recovers quickly as he turns to greet her.

And as always, he marvels at the simple beauty of her, whether it’s in dull blue scrubs or in her formal party dress. Though he has to admit that he likes the brilliant blue party dress version quite a bit.

Her outfit isn’t showy. It’s a simple sleeveless dress with a modest neckline, almost the same deep blue as his suit but with a hint of sparkle to it. The skirt of it is full and adorned with an intricate stitching of flowers and birds. She has her hair down but pulled back in the front with a headband the same shade as her dress. She seems to have only slightly more color to her makeup than the night before, long lashes framing dark-shaded eyes with a deep plum to her lips. The whole look is quite lovely and perfectly Claire.

“You’re looking well-rested,” she remarks taking him in too. “That massage clearly did the trick.”

“I’m not gonna lie, it was nice.” They both laugh. “You’re not looking so bad yourself for someone that spent the day putting all this together.” He gestures at the decorations around them. “It looks amazing. You all did a great job.”

“Maybe I missed my calling, huh? Though I’d only work with couples as chill as Tony and Emma.”

“That might not make you a lot of money,” he warns, grinning. “So wedding planner, bartender, hospital detective? Any other alternative occupation I’ve forgotten?”

Claire groans. “Don’t remind me of that nightmare. I don’t think your ex ever forgave me for that one.”

“She got over it,” he assures her. “Eventually.” Claire shoves him gently in the arm at his teasing. “My apologies for bringing it up,” he says, chuckling. “How about I accompany you to get an appetizer to make up for it.”

“I will not turn down that offer.”

They wander to a table filled with pre-dinner snacks to nibble on. Claire picks up some kind of cheese bite while he opts for a carpaccio crostini. They chat about their days as more people filter in. Before long, they get the signal for the start of dinner and go their separate ways.

It’s a fun affair, if a little less spirited than the night before. Even Tony’s brother Brandon comes out of his shell a little. Neil doesn’t know him that well since he lives on the East Coast, but he likes the guy. They talk over dinner about his job as a financial planner and trade stories about their travels in Southeast Asia. Gwen flits around taking pictures and teasing everyone she passes. There are toasts and mingling and successfully dodging Nancy who remains distracted by other interests. After the meal, the crowds start to drift across the patio where several couples are dancing and others settling around the seating areas by the pool.

Neil finally catches up with Claire at the bar. He’s had only a little wine at dinner, so he feels okay switching back to whiskey for the more casual portion of the night.

“How were things over at Team Grasshopper?” he asks.

Claire chuckles, pouring a glass of wine. “They were fun. I learned a lot about scuba diving. Two of my tablemates are marine biologists.”

“That sounds cool. Anything worth sharing?”

They drift off to the side of the patio to watch various people dance. They smile at the handful of children who are enjoying the music – part of Emma’s extended family who arrived this afternoon.

“Apparently, I simply have to get myself to Belize.”

“I hear it’s nice,” he confirms. “Audrey’s been there. You should ask her about it.”

Claire shrugs. “Maybe I will.” She doesn’t comment further, maybe sensing his annoyance about Audrey and Claire’s friendship when he and Claire weren’t allowed the luxury. Instead, Claire says, “I haven’t been on a real vacation in, I don’t even know how long. I keep saying I’ll wait until after my residency’s done. Park thinks it’s silly. But you know how he is about traveling.”

Neil nods. “What was it last year? New Zealand? And Japan before that. Costa Rica the year before.”

“He definitely gets around. Though I hear he’s pulling back with Kellen in college. That tuition’s not going to pay itself.” They both laugh and turn back toward the crowd.

Neil glances at her, a little nervous as he places his glass on the table beside them. “We are at a wedding. Do you wanna dance?” He offers her his hand, not with as much flourish as the last time he'd offered some years ago but still a funny formal gesture.

This time Claire doesn’t exactly groan, but she does roll her eyes. “How can I deny such a handsome Prom King.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Neil says. She sets her glass on the table next to his, and he guides her to the patio. He takes her loosely in his arms, a little closer than last time, but not as close as he’d like her to be.

“I can’t believe we pulled off that prom,” Claire said, smiling sadly as she reminisced about their lost patient.

“We?” he questioned. “I remember you ordering Park and I around. The nurses too. They loved it, though." The nurses tended to bear the brunt of patients' emotional turmoil at being in a hospital, and they'd enjoyed doing something joyful for a change. They liked working with Claire because she understood that. "I still think Park made up that excuse about Kellen so he didn’t have to put on a suit as the chaperone.”

Claire threw her head back in laughter, Neil’s eyes following the beautiful line of her neck. “You’re probably right. But I did score the boss. And in a tie no less. The nurses and I were so shocked.”

Before she can stop him, he spins her out in an elaborate twirl as revenge for making fun of him. Though she gives him the skunk-eye at such a surprise, she continues to sway in step with him when he pulls her back in.

That patient, that surgery, that loss – it had brought them closer together and changed their relationship forever.

Neil tries not to spend the entire time staring down into her lovely face. He doesn’t want to creep her out. Instead, he continues to make small talk. She relaxes after a while, even letting him spin her around again. She giggles as her dress flares dramatically before settling below her knees. When he returns her to his arms, it’s a little closer and with a little less tension.

During the next song, they run out of conversation and simply dance comfortably together, enjoying the music and surroundings. Neil chances a glance at her and notices her looking up at him too. He smiles softly, satisfied when she returns it.

It would be so easy to guide her hands to his neck so he can fully pull her against him. He’s imagined holding her like this so many times. Dreamed of leaning in to brush his lips with hers, and feeling her respond instantly.

It’s killing him not to do that now. He searches her eyes for any indication of what she might want in this moment and hoping maybe it’s the same thing he does.

They’re both jostled out of their trance as another couple brushes against them.

They look around to see so many more couples surrounding them – family members and friends dancing together and changing up partners. Before long, Joe and Katie are next to them, and Joe is whisking Claire from his arms, leaving Katie in her stead. As they dance away, he frowns seeing them chatting and wondering what it’s about.

Turning to Katie swaying in his embrace, he asks what’s going on with Joe.

She laughs. “Who knows with that guy. Instead, you should enjoy having me on your arm.” For not the first time, he thinks Katie and Joe are perfect for each other having a similar mischievous sense of humor.

“Of course, Katie, who am I to squander such an opportunity.” He spins her around and she chuckles at the move.

“So,” she says as they rock gently to the music. “You seem to be having a good time. You and Claire both,” she teases.

“Oh, don’t you start too,” he chides. “I get enough ribbing from the guys.”

“Good,” she says sternly. “Joe says the two of you might be working on a second chance at a little romance.”

Neil rolls his eyes. “Little is right,” he grumbles, "no thanks to you two just now."

Katie laughs. “Well, you’re off to a good start.” She holds his gaze. “It also sounds like if you’re honest with her this time, you may have better results.”

He looks away, his emotions a little too raw and transparent to share at hearing that. After a few moments, he turns back to her. “So Joe told you the whole situation? You know, that guy is the biggest gossip I know.” They crack up at that, knowing it’s true.

When Joe comes back to reclaim his date, Neil notices that Claire has disappeared again as the music returns to its former upbeat dance rhythms. He grabs his drink again and follows Joe to go have a celebratory shot with Tony, the best man, and the other groomsmen. From what he can tell, Claire doesn’t return to the patio. After their intense moment, he decides to give her some space.

The wedding guests are comfortably enjoying the party in full swing when The Thing happens.

Neil is sitting next to the pool chatting with Tony’s dad at the time. They turn their heads as they hear something odd from across the way.

A laughing commotion.

A splash.

The bride and groom popping up after jumping into the pool fully dressed in their gorgeous formal attire.

Gwen stands off to the side with her camera having captured the moment as she cracks up. And then it escalates from there.

The mother and father of the bride join them in the pool followed by the maid of honor and two of the bridesmaids. Gwen continues to take pictures.

He spots Claire at the edge of the patio, face alight with humor and joy at the scene. He’s so busy staring at her that he doesn’t see Joe, Miguel, and Brandon sneak up next to him and pull him to his feet.

“What! Oh no!”

“Oh yes, Melendez. You’re going to get your pretty, GQ ass in the pool,” Miguel says. Katie and Tasha are already next to them taking off their shoes to join them.

“Though if you get my hair wet, Joe, we’re going to fight,” Katie says, securing her hair to sit all atop her head.

“I wouldn’t dream of it, babe,” he replies, looking seriously scared at the prospect.

Neil glances back up at Claire as he takes off his blazer, slipping his phone into one of the pockets. Their eyes meet, and she flashes him a challenging look.

Oh, she’s gonna get it soon enough. He’ll make sure of it.

Taking off his shoes and socks, he joins the other groomsmen and best man in leaping into the pool, Miguel doing an impressive flip. Tasha jumps in a beat later and Katie slides in afterwards.

More splashing continues as other guests join in. Some of the older folks sit on the perimeter with their feet dipped in. The kids are loving the fun of frolicking in the water fully clothed. Even Uncle Nino makes a dancing head start to cannonball into the deep end – and to his surprise Nancy gets in too, in her slinky now waterlogged designer dress. As people dance in the warm water, they check for stragglers and chant their name until they join them on the side or dive in with the rest of the party-goers.

Neil paddles over to the edge of the pool where Gwen is still snapping pictures, but she’s taken off her shoes to join in the fun.

“Hey Gwen!” he shouts. “You know who I don’t see in this pool? What are we gonna do about it?”

Gwen, smiles wickedly, and they both turn to look at Claire behind them, taking it all in. Her smile instantly fades.

“Claire, don't make me look bad. Get over here!” Gwen taunts. Others in the pool now focus their attention on her and start chanting her name and Gwen’s.

Claire looks momentarily horrified, but then she smiles sweetly at the group. She seems a little overwhelmed that they’ve included her, even though she’s not even an official guest. Gwen sets her camera on one of the tables and grabs Claire’s hand as she slips off her shoes, too. They grin at each other and then, hand-in-hand, run and jump into the pool together.

Everyone cheers and laughs now that they’ve managed to get the entire guest list to engage in something as silly as jumping into a pool in their formal clothes in the name of making it a fun memory.

He swims over to Claire who’s holding something in her hand and laughing with Michael and Damien as she treads water. As he gets closer, he notices it’s her headband that has come off in all the commotion. Her hair, now soaked, is spilling around her shoulder, though it doesn’t seem to be bothering her.

“Took you long enough, Browne,” Neil says as he swims next to her.

She rolls her eyes. “It all happened so fast. I didn’t think everybody was going to get in!”

“I know,” he agrees. “But I’m glad we did. It’s a memory alright.”

Claire reaches over and pats his flattened hair. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this disheveled. I hope Gwen got a picture.”

Maybe it’s the feeling of abandon in their situation, but he immediately imagines one scenario where she’d see a much more disheveled version of him. There will be no pools or cameras or other guests. It’ll be just the two of them, his bed, and no one else.

“Why do I feel like you might use your friendship with the photographer to get some blackmail material on me?”

Claire gasps in mock-offense. “I’d never be so unprofessional, Dr. Melendez. Besides, if I were going to trick you, it’d be more like this.”

She uses the momentum of the turbulent the pool to push against his head and dunk him underwater. As Neil resurfaces, sputtering and wiping at his eyes, he sees her hastily retreating to the edge of the pool, planning a quick escape.

Little does she know that he’d been on the swim team for two years in high school.

He dives under the water and zeroes in on her delicate feet kicking away from him. Even with his heavy, wet clothes, he quickly catches up with her. He gets momentarily distracted at the sight of her legs slicing through the water, her heavy skirt floating around her. As she propels herself forward, her skirt drifts against her legs and then floats up around her waist, revealing her toned calf, then shapely thigh, and the briefest most enticing glimpse of the cheek of her backside stretching against a dainty pair of dark panties. He’s had plenty of views of her ass over the years, though not usually on this much display. Yet this view will haunt his dreams for sure.

Neil reaches out and catches her foot, using the momentum to climb up the rest of her body underneath the water. One hand slides over her leg, past her knee to settle on her thigh while the other fights with the skirt of her dress to capture her waist. Before emerging, he watches her hair slithers around him in the swirl of the water, brushing his cheek as they surface together.

They’ve made it to the edge of the pool, but not with enough room or time for Claire to climb out and run from him. As her skirt settles, he removes his hand from her thigh and wraps it around her waist from the other side.

“Looks like I got you,” he murmurs against her ear as they catch their breath. Claire is gripping the pool's edge. Instead of climbing out, he can feel the pressure of her body pushing back into him. He removes one of his arms to brace them against the edge of the pool. They’ve wandered over to the deep end where Neil can barely touch the bottom so he knows they both need something to anchor themselves.

He feels giddy, different than the night before when they’d both been loose and silly after a few rounds of alcohol. No, now he’s experiencing a simple euphoria that’s all about the incredible woman in his arms looking so relaxed and joyful.

Claire turns around in his embrace, still holding on to the concrete edge with one hand as she wades. Her hair is plastered to her head, messy but very alluring. She pushes it out of her eyes and he gives her a hand, tucking a few tendrils over her shoulder or behind her ear. Moisture clings to her lashes and he tracks the droplets that slide down her cheek and onto her neck. His eyes drop down to her lips, wet from their dip underwater and the brief swipe of her tongue as she looks up at him. She’s let go of the pool’s edge completely.

Instead, she reaches for him.

Circling her arms around his neck, she lets him keep hold onto the edge of the pool as she drifts against his body. “Well, now that you have me, what are you going to do with me?”

His body's reaction to her words go straight to his groin, and he considers backing away so as not to embarrass himself. But he can’t let her go. She feels too good against him. He pushes her more firmly into the side of the pool and leans in to show her what he has in mind.

A wave of water engulfs them as someone jumps off the diving board, dousing them in their wake. Glancing around, they see someone trying to gather everyone for a picture. Gwen is still in the pool so it must be one of the guests who’d only dipped their feet in.

Claire loosens her arms from around his neck. “I guess we should go,” she says, her words breathy and labored.

He dips a hand in the water to squeeze her waist and push them away from the edge – both the edge of the pool and the precipice of whatever had been about to happen between them. He doesn’t trust himself to answer her. Or to talk at all.

They wander to the group trying to arrange themselves in some kind of coherent order – not easy when half the occupants are pretty tipsy or just overly exuberant as they enjoy themselves. A few of the men have their partners on their shoulders with other guests giggling and splashing around.

“Alright,” Gwen says directing everyone from the pool. “That looks good but we need to get together. We have a lot of shorties that we need to see in front.” She points to Joe and Miguel. “Good call lifting up the ladies.” She turns to Neil and Claire, grinning. “Okay Neil, you’ve got Claire. Up you go, girl.”

At this point, Claire is holding him loosely around the shoulders from behind, kicking lazily to stay afloat. “I don’t know about that,” she says in his ear.

He turns behind him to look at her. “What? You don’t think I can lift your tiny body in a pool of water? You’ve seen how much I can lift at the gym.”

Claire shakes her head. “It’s not that at all. You’re the one that brought up blackmail. Are you sure you want a picture floating around with your head between your resident’s legs?” she smirks.

Neil’s fingers tighten where he holds her arm at the water’s surface. Is she trying to make him spontaneously combust in the middle of this pool?

Neil leans back so he can speak directly to her. “You know, I could get used to this side of Claire Browne who’s so quick with the sexual innuendo.” Seeing the blush across her cheek feels like a victory. She bites her lip and glances away, a smile lingering on her lips. He continues to hold onto her arms at his neck to make sure she doesn’t retreat away from him.

“Chop, chop, you two,” Gwen says, waving them on.

“Mount up, Claire,” Neil murmurs in her ear.

He kneels slightly in the water and helps to maneuver her onto his shoulders, being mindful not to take too many liberties with the floating skirt and exposed skin at his fingertips. Claire situates her now dripping skirt against his neck and down her legs. He then steadies them by hanging onto her thighs.

“Okay, everybody,” the new photographer shouts. “Say cheese!”

A cacophony of words erupt from the guests in and surrounding the pool.

With the picture done, Neil looks up at Claire on his shoulders, trying to gauge how she wants to get down. She smiles innocently at him, letting one of her bare legs slide up along his arm. But instead of climbing down, he watches in delight as she dips backwards, her hair laying wildly around her as she splashes into the water behind them.

TBC...

Chapter 7

Chapter Text

Claire is still laughing when she emerges from the water after plunging backward from Neil’s shoulders.

As she moves to the side of the pool. Gwen and her sisters are beside her also erupting in fits of giggles every few seconds. They pull themselves out of the water to sit on the edge of the pool and watch the throngs of guests still splashing happily around.

Emma and Tony are laughing with their parents by the stairs to the pool. Joe is giving Katie a boost out so she can sit on the side also. Miguel, Tasha, and Neil are lingering nearby. Judging by the conversation they’re having with Brandon, who’s standing above them by the seating area, it looks as if Neil and Miguel are about to hop out of the pool to follow him.

The dip in the pool had been unexpected, but also spontaneous and fun. And for a few moments there, incredibly heated between her and Neil.

She can’t even blame the alcohol this time.

Neil had watched her as she left him to drift away with the other women, a sexy frustration reflected in his smile. She didn’t intend to play things so coy, but he's fun to tease. She's certainly gotten under his skin. And vice versa.

She glances back over to him to see if he opted to stay wading in the pool. But sure enough, Neil lifts himself out of the water and ...

Dear god.

No one can deny that Neil Melendez is an excellent example of the amazing things regular exercise and weight training can do to a body. But seeing all of that encased in wet, body-hugging clothes that cling to all the best parts of him? Claire cannot tear her eyes away.

Neil pulls himself up easily with those powerful arms of his to reveal a perfect body - shoulders, back, hips, thighs - his toned ass landing soundly against the concrete ground. He says something to Katie next to him before shaking his wet head toward her, causing her to squeal and push him away. Then he hops smoothly into standing position, unaware of how the entire sequence has slowed down time for her. He runs his hands down his arms and legs, trying to squeeze as much water out of his clothes as possible before straightening back up. Finally, he raises an arm to run his fingers through his soggy hair. With a final flick of his arms, he follows Miguel and Brandon toward the main house still fussing with his damp, disheveled hair.

“You done drooling,” Gwen asks from beside her.

“I don’t know. Is he done strolling out of pools looking like that?”

Gwen cackles, apparently pleased with Claire’s very honest answer. “You’ve got a point. That man is fine. And nice. And smart. With a great career and lots of money. Tell me again why you haven’t snatched him up and started having all of his babies yet?”

Claire laughs, though it ends in a groan. “I told you, things are complicated with us right now. I admit that spending time with him has been different than what I thought it'd be. And that’s exciting to think about." She shrugs. "Figuring this out is awkward because he chose it to be in the first place. I still can’t say I understand fully why.”

“Now is the perfect time to work it out without all the usual distractions. Anyone with eyes can tell that you’re both open to it,” she explains.

“I know you’re right. Maybe. We’ll see. I guess I just want to enjoy the weekend without too much baggage.”

All of her and Neil's interactions today, from the running together this morning to their dance and their close call in the pool, was about not overthinking the situation. She let herself simply enjoy his company and play off his signals, whether that be friendly banter or the steadily rising sexual tension. His openness with her encouraged her own; took the what-if into the why-not. And despite any past hurts, it wasn’t out of some ulterior motive that he’s been looking out for her. His interest in her seems clear yet also genuine.

Gwen pulls her into a hug, now understanding the emotional risk Claire is opening herself up to after hearing her story earlier. “It’s possible that talking it out won’t be enough, that’s true. But if it is …” she suggests.

Claire nods.

All around them, people are lounging on the pool chairs or continuing to dance to the music in their damp clothes. The mother of one of the kids is trying to convince her little girl that bedtime is the natural follow-up to pool time. Joe and Tony are lighting the firepits around the area to help people to dry off.

Neil, Miguel, and Brandon return with armloads of robes and towels and begin passing them out, first to the older guests and then to the wedding party. Claire doesn’t bother asking for one. She isn’t cold, and she can always run upstairs and get her own towel if she needs it.

That done, Neil comes over to sit on the other side of her as she continues to wade her feet in the pool. They watch as plenty of people remain frolicking in the water. A handful have even gone back to their rooms for swimsuits.

“You need a towel? I can go grab one for you.” He’s rolled up his shirtsleeves and his pant legs to slide his feet into the pool too.

She smiles at him. “No, I’m good. I don’t mind being a little wet.”

A look of heated mischief tells her that he wants to respond to her unintended innuendo, but thinks better of it. She grins, letting him know that she’s picked up on his risqué thought.

“You want to at least move over to the fire pit? There’s still an open one on the other side of the pool." He points to an empty space next to the abandoned dinner tables.

“Sure,” she says. He stands and offers her a hand up from the pool. They take their time getting to the empty seating area, waving at Gwen and Brandon to follow them too.

He guides her to one of the couches and sits next to her. They relax around the fire pit, chatting and laughing about the day. Miguel and Tasha join them having run back to the cottage to change into dry clothes.

Catching her shiver, Neil leans over and says, “Hey, they didn’t have any more towels in the pool house, but they did have some t-shirts.” Of course, he has no way of knowing that her chill is more about his close proximity and the brush of his arm against hers than the temperature. “You want one of those? It might be more comfortable and easier than running upstairs.”

Claire thinks about it as she shifts around in her heavy, damp dress. He has a point.

“Yeah, let’s check it out. Anyone want anything while we’re up?” There are a few requests for waters and beers that they note before wandering off. Claire ignores the nudge Gwen gives her as she passes by.

She follows him back towards the patio and to the tucked away pool shed. Stepping in, she sees all the towels and robes are gone, as he’d said. But there remains a stack of shirts on one of the shelves. Neil pulls down an oversized one and hands it to her, picking up one for himself.

Claire thinks back to the charged energy between them while they were in the pool. It had felt exhilarating to be caught up in the moment and the attraction that had always simmered between them, even after they’d become distant. It hits her that they’re in this tucked away, private room only a few feet from the other guests but totally alone too. They could get in a lot of trouble together if they weren’t careful.

Apparently, Neil has no such problem with the scenario. He’s already stripped out of his pants and dress shirt and is standing bare chested next to her. His deer's head tattoo is on full display as well as the pattern on his forearm. Truthfully, it’s not like she hasn’t seen this view of him before. All the surgeons have been in this position, working in the hospital and needing to change quickly during emergencies. But right now, Claire almost can’t move staring at the rugged beauty of his nearly naked body.

“Enjoying the view,” he asks, dryly, sliding the t-shirt over his head. Yet she notices the humor in his eyes, confirmed when he looks over to grin at her. “Or is it that you need me to come over there and unzip you?”

The request manages to be both genuinely solicitous and suggestive at the same time. He takes a step toward her, dressed in the t-shirt and his modest boxer briefs looking like the combination of a male model and her hottest fantasy come to life. And he's all too aware of how good he looks.

Claire shakes her head and turns her back to him. So that’s how he wants to play it?

“I don’t have a zipper," she says, dismissing him. "I’m practical like that.”

Instead, she slips the dress slowly down one shoulder and then the other. Because of the dampness, the dress doesn’t simply fall in a heap to the floor – she basically has to shimmy out of it. She guides it down her back, around her backside and hips, along her thighs, and finally lets it land on the floor with a splat. The whole thing couldn’t have taken more than ten seconds, but the journey – all flexing muscles and slightly bent posture – has been enough to leave Neil speechless. She stands in the small room in a matching lace-trimmed bra and panties, the same dark blue as her dress and his suit. Then she slips on the long t-shirt, hiding it all from view.

Turning around, she can see that Neil is shook. Who’s laughing now, she thinks to herself.

It wouldn’t take much to step into his personal space and take advantage of their private nook and now raging desire for each other. On the other hand, it also isn’t the best idea when there are dozens of people only a few feet away.

“Need another dip in the pool, Neil,” she asks as she approaches him carrying her wet dress. She slides her hand down his arm as she walks past to rejoin the party.

He chuckles around the long breath he lets out. “Probably,” he replies, following her out after gathering his clothes as well.

They grab drinks for the group and return to their spots next to each other at the fire pit. Neil rests his arm behind her along the back of their couch. Their friends are arguing about best honeymoon spots. Emma and Tony opted for an adventure vacation and would be leaving for Australia the next day. After a while, Neil reaches into one of the storage ottomans and pulls out a blanket that he spreads across his and Claire’s laps to cover their bare legs. Claire wonders if it’s for the warmth or to keep him from staring at her bare thighs, as if she hasn’t noticed.

Even though it’s technically not that late, people start drifting back to their rooms. They have an early wake up call for the ceremony and the waning adrenaline of their pool party has worn them down a bit.

“Oh crap,” Claire says, I still have to move my luggage from your room, Gwen. Let me do that now.” She shifts the blanket off of her and stands.

“I can give you a hand,” Neil says, stretching.

“No need,” she replies. “I’m traveling light, so it’s just the one bag. But I’ll meet you back down here. I’m not sure which cottage you’re in.”

Neil nods. “Right. And it can get kind of dark on the trail.” Claire follows Gwen back into the house.

“So, this ought to be an interesting evening for the two of you,” she teases as they step into her room. “Here’s your chance to make some real progress.”

“I didn’t mean for it to be. I blame Uncle Nino, of course,” she jokes. “Seriously, though, it’ll be fine. I’m not going to deny that Neil and I have been …” she searches for the right word to describe what she’s been feeling for the last few hours.

“Flirting? Horny? Five seconds from making out in a pool shed?” Gwen offers.

Claire pinches Gwen in the shoulder as she passes to put her toiletry bag in her suitcase. “I was going to say ‘friendlier than usual.'” She can tell that Gwen is not impressed with that description. “But we’re practical. And I’m actually exhausted. We’re probably just going to go to sleep. And then we’ve got to get up at an ungodly hour for the ceremony.”

Gwen chuckles. “You say, that but anything can happen between now and the nuptials. There’s clearly some unfinished business with the two of you. What better time to figure it out than now?”

“I don’t know,” Claire says. “I'm still trying to be really careful about the casual sex thing. And is it even going to matter if I move to Baltimore?”

“Ugh, don’t remind me. You know I’m in denial about that. What am I going to do if you’re all the way across the country?” she puts her arm around her friend’s shoulder and hugs her.

“Just think of it this way: you’ll have a place to stay when you come visit on your way to Europe.”

Gwen scoffs. “Hardly seems worth it. But anyway, if that’s what you're leaning towards then all the more reason to have a fling now with your fine-ass boss who’s clearly into you. Given your history, hooking up would hardly be casual. And it'd probably be super hot relieving all that sexual tension.”

Claire pushes Gwen away, laughing. She grabs her suitcase and waits for Gwen to change into a tank top and shorts.

“Gonna burn the midnight oil before the wedding?” Claire asks, wondering why her friend isn't just going to bed.

Now it’s Gwen’s turn to look uncomfortable. “No, I’m not sleepy yet, and it’s a nice night. I figure I’ll keep Brandon company since all the other groomsmen are coupled up.”

Claire grins. “Oh really? Not so boring after all, huh?” Gwen ignores her, embarrassed but also not denying it.

When they get back downstairs, Neil is waiting by the bar talking to Joe who’s refreshing his drink and getting some water for Katie. They look like they’re having an intense conversation and Claire wonders if it’s along the same lines as hers and Gwen’s. As they approach, Neil turns to them and shakes it off.

“All set?”

He reaches for Claire’s bag. She holds onto it for a moment, letting him know she doesn’t need him to swoop in like a chivalrous cowboy. He lets go and puts his hands up defensively, as if he’d momentarily forgotten who he’s dealing with. Taking pity on him, she hands the bag over and he smiles, satisfied.

They turn to bid Gwen and Joe good night. Both of their friends are looking at them with knowing expressions at their last exchange. But they wave Claire and Neil off as they turn back to the firepit. Claire watches the two giggling together, probably at their expense.

“Have fun,” Gwen shouts back at them.

“Not too much fun, though,” Joe adds. “My room’s right beneath yours.”

Claire and Neil both shake their heads as their friends' retreat.

Neil leads her down a windy path lined with trees to a cottage tucked away along the gardens. With the rest of the groomsmen and their partners still by the pool along with Brandon, the emptiness and quiet are a welcome transition.

He’s in the top suite, kind of like an attic space but with its own bathroom. It’s small, like Claire's old room, but big enough for the couch he mentioned and also a little balcony facing the gardens.

Neil puts her bag down by the window. Claire immediately starts rifling around.

“I forgot to grab extra blankets and pillows.” He lingers by the door not seeming particularly motivated to do anything about that. Then he shuffles around as she continues to flip through her clothes. “I’ll just go hunt those down and refill the water bottles.”

Claire smiles her thanks, barely noticing his hesitation. “I appreciate it, Neil, really. I’m going to take a quick shower. I won’t be long.” Then her face morphs into a frown.

“What’s wrong?” he asks picking up on her change in mood.

She wonders if she should even say something or just make up some silly comment. She sighs. “I just realized that I don’t exactly have the right wardrobe for sharing quarters.”

“What do you mean,” he says, looking genuinely confused.

Claire digs into her bag some more. “I’d been expecting to have my own room. I didn’t exactly bring casual loungewear. Her hands wrap around her burgundy nightgown that isn’t exactly Fredericks of Hollywood, but definitely counts as lingerie.

Neil, getting the picture, slowly grins and moves to her side. “So what have you got? Maybe I can be the judge of whether my virtue will be tarnished by seeing you in something so skimpy.” She pushes him away, and he sidles back up to her again. He reaches in to grab the nightgown and easily pulls it from her.

Or maybe she lets it go unconsciously, curious to see his reaction.

It’s a short, lacy negligée with delicate thin straps. It falls just below her knees, so it isn’t completely obscene. She's not much more covered up now in her long t-shirt.

Neil holds it up to examine it. “I think I can control myself,” he says, smirking. He hands it back to her ,catching the heat in her cheeks. “But if I run into an extra robe, I’ll grab it, he says softly to her. She can tell that he doesn’t mind at all seeing her in that bit of silk, but doesn’t want her to be uncomfortable.

“Thanks,” she says again, grabbing a few items – and the nightgown – and heading to the bathroom.

True to her word, she takes a quick shower to rinse off the chlorine from the pool and the grime that had stuck to her afterwards. She’ll have to wait until she’s back home to wash her hair, though. In the meantime, it’ll hopefully dry all the way before she goes to bed. She’d planned on wearing it up for the wedding anyway.

When she reemerges, clean and dressed, Neil hasn’t returned yet. She hopes he didn’t have to go back to the main house to get extra supplies. She can make do with whatever they have in the room.

She looks around, noting the similar décor as her old room. Neil’s suitcase is neatly stowed away in the corner, and the room looks as undisturbed as if he’d just arrived, save for a book and empty glass on the nightstand. She spots the small balcony on the far side of the room. Opening the door, she pokes her head out and smiles as the warm air hits her face. She steps fully onto the balcony to enjoy the feel of it, and then perches herself on the cushioned bench. Maybe she can sit here until Neil gets back to let the drifting breeze fully dry her hair.

About ten minutes later, she hears voices coming closer and recognizes Miguel and Tasha along with Neil. He must have gotten hung up saying goodnight to other people. A few minutes later, his steps echo up the stairs, and she hears the door open and close. Not seeing her, he calls out her name.

“Out on the balcony,” she responds.

Neil pops his head out, trying not to check her out in the nightgown. He’s holding something in his hand. “I couldn’t find a robe, but brought an extra blanket.” He hands her the fleece covering, which she immediately unfolds and puts over her lap. “I’m gonna hop in the shower too.” He disappears again a second later.

Claire chuckles wondering if it’ll be a cold shower for him. It’s rather flattering, actually. She’s certainly not unaffected by him no matter how cool she’s trying to play it.

Ten minutes later, she’s still out on the balcony. She’s tired but comfortable and wants to continue to enjoy the mild night. Neil, fresh from his shower, wanders out. He’s wearing soft cotton pants and a t-shirt to sleep in, his newly pedicured feet bare.

“You gonna sleep out here?” he asks, sliding in beside her. She makes room for him on the benfch and lifts the blanket to share, which he accepts.

“I wish. I don’t think this bench will be comfortable enough for that, though.” They laugh softly. “It’s such a nice night. I just wanted to enjoy it a little more. Besides, my hair’s still damp and it’ll be gross in the morning if I don’t air it out.”

Neil reaches up to test for himself. He moves his fingers along her scalp, massaging her head gently under the guise of checking for the slightly damp spots. It feels great and a moan escapes her lips.

“Is that helpful,” he says, grinning at her.

She nods. “Like my own personal volumizer.” He continues to massage her head, occasionally rubbing her neck as well.

“I want you to know that I put a shirt on for your benefit,” he says. “I don’t usually sleep in one. But I know the sight of me would keep you up, and you need your rest.”

Claire smacks his chest lightly at the jest, surely meant to divert her attention from how much he’d been checking her out tonight. “Maybe I should insist on you losing it to even the playing field then.”

“Don’t worry, you are very appropriately attired. No prurient thoughts have entered my mind whatsoever.” Except as he says those words, his fingers trail against the base of her neck like an unfulfilled kiss.

They sit in silence enjoying the distant sounds of people returning to the cottages and the rustle of the trees in the garden. Neil continues to caress her head, occasionally twining his fingers in her hair.

“This is nice,” she says finally. “All of this. I’m glad I’m here with you.”

Neil nods. “I’ve missed this. Being close to you.”

Something in Claire tightens. Regret. Sadness. She can't stop herself from thinking that it didn’t have to be this way. She wonders again why it had happened as it did. Maybe Gwen is right and she should just talk to him.

“Neil, can I ask you something?” He turns to her and nods. “Why did you pull away?” she says to him. She can tell by his expression that she doesn’t need to clarify. He understands exactly what she means.

Neil’s hand stills against her head before starting up again with its gentle rhythm.

“I didn’t want to. I had Audrey confronting me. I didn’t know what to do. I thought I’d buy some time, and the next thing I know, there was this distance between us.”

Sighing, Claire glances at him then returns her gaze outward. “You said you weren’t abandoning me. But you did. You said you’d support me at work, then you didn’t. I told you that you were overcompensating, and you brushed it off. It hurt, Neil." She's not accusatory. She just needs him to know how she feels.

“I know. I didn’t mean to,” he says softly next to her.

“I’d told you about what my mom said about me. About how I'd put my faith in the wrong people, get taken advantage of. That’s always in the back of my mind when I start to get close to anyone. Being with you, hearing you so sure that I'm a good person, it made me consider that she was wrong. And then you proved it by being my friend. But then you just cut me off like it was so easy, like it was nothing to you. Like I needed to just accept it and go back to the way things were.

"I’ve hardly ever been able to really count on anyone. Kayla and then Dash were two of the few people in my entire life I thought gave a damn about me. And Kayla's dead. Dash and I aren't the same. Even Jared said he loved me and then left - I get why, but it was still hard to get over. Like a fool, I let myself believe that maybe you were different, and then you walked away.”

“I’m sorry,” Neil pleads. “I thought it was the best thing for both of us. I know I didn’t handle it well.”

“I know you didn’t mean to hurt me on purpose. Or at least I know it now. But at the time, it felt like another loss. And so I pulled away too.”

She felt Neil’s fingers slightly tighten their grip her hair. But he doesn’t move away, just keeps up his steady stroking.

“I’m sorry,” he says again. “Those few months of our friendship. I …” He pauses to gather his thoughts. “I was happy. Really happy. I thought maybe it was some kind of a rebound thing, but it was real.

Claire smiles sadly. “I was happy too.”

“I could tell,” Neil says. “And it scared me. Because it felt different. Before I could stop myself, I knew I’d gone over the line. I’d never experienced what happened to us before. Being friends and that turning into something else. With Jessica, I met her at one of the hospital galas when she still worked at a firm. I asked her out and we dated and ticked all the usual boxes before we called it off. And Audrey and I weren’t really close until after that. When Jess and I broke up, we started being more friendly at work, hanging out occasionally. Then Andrews threw that bait and switch on us for chief of surgery, and we got drunk and slept together. Sure, it came after months of being friendly rivals and colleagues, but I wouldn’t have called us friends.”

Claire recalls that oddly Audrey doesn’t talk much about her relationship with Neil even though she and Claire are legitimately friends – she and Neil too, still. And even though she’s moved on with her new boyfriend. There are a lot of reasons Claire can point to as why, but mostly something about how the relationship ended makes her sad.

“Then,” Neil continues, “you and I become friends, real friends. And that’s honestly all I intended when I asked you on that run. But as we spent more time together, for the first time, I started falling for my friend. When Lim questioned it, I didn’t know what to do with that. I left the bar after you confronted me and sat in my car for like twenty minutes. I’d convince myself to go back in and then stop myself again. I wanted to go back to you so much.”

“Then why didn’t you, Neil? Why didn’t you just be honest with me?” she asks, begging him to look at her and explain.

“Because I was terrified,” he admits, meeting her gaze. “I didn’t want to lose your friendship by being inappropriate or disappointing you. It scared me to leave that night because I knew that even if I walked away for noble reasons, I’d lose our friendship anyway. And I was scared to go back inside, because I knew I’d fall even harder for you,” he explains plainly. “And what good could have come of that? Your reputation questioned? You leaving the program, leaving the city?”

“At least it would have been a decision I made. Not one made for me,” Claire replies. She's more weary than bitter, though. Frustrated at the situation they’d created by keeping things to themselves. “I thought I wasn’t good enough for you. That I wasn’t worth enough to you. That your reputation meant more to you than being my friend.”

“No, that wasn’t it at all. I cared too much. And I thought I was protecting your reputation by keeping my distance. You weren’t the problem, Claire I was. They didn’t accuse you of anything. It was a favoritism complaint against me. I know it wasn’t completely in earnest on Morgan’s part, and I don’t think I consciously favored you, but ...” He shakes his head, looking out into the distance before facing her again. “I did want to be around you. I did listen to you, trust you more than anyone. And I was attracted to you.” He pauses. “I am attracted to you. I had been for a long time before that, and it didn't go away. Falling in love with you complicated things. I couldn’t be with you, but I wanted you anyway. Sooner or later, I would have crossed the line.”

Something unclenches in Claire. Although much of what they’ve revealed just now carries their tension and grief and frustration, it’s also been cathartic. She’d so badly wanted answers, and now she has them. Maybe they can really move on now.

"I never wanted to hurt you," Neil whispers. "I'll never forgive myself for doing it anyway."

Shifting closer to Neil, she takes his hand. “I know that now. But thank you for telling me.” He squeezes her hand back, unwilling to let her go.

“Not that I'm complaining, but you don't seem shocked by any of this. "Did you know?” Neil asks, seeming nervous.

Claire chuckles. “Technically? Not until last night when Joe rambled on about you after having one too many drinks.” Neil looks down at her, surprised. “He hadn’t put two and two together yet.” They both break out in laughter.

“I should have known,” Neil says, now letting his fingers linger along her neck as Claire leans into him, her hair now mostly dry. Despite the weight of their conversation, she enjoys being close to him like this.

They remain sitting quietly together, wrung out emotionally but in a good way. The breeze lifts wisps of Claire’s hair and occasionally Neil will reach to smooth it down. Then they both yawn at the same time.

“We should get some sleep,” he says. He stands, still holding her hand and leads her inside.

As he secures the balcony door, she sees the pillow and a quilt waiting on the couch with a sheet sitting next to it. He lets go of her hand as they pass in front of the bed. She glances at it briefly. It’s certainly big enough for two; she doesn’t think Neil would mind sharing it.

But they’ve revealed some heavy things and weathered some intense emotions tonight, both good and bad. She feels closer to him right now than at any point in the last two years. It doesn't seem like a good idea to tempt fate. Their connection is so fragile.

So instead, Neil helps her prepare the couch, spreading the sheet out and then unfolding the quilt. He even tucks her in after guiding her under the covers.

“I’d offer to switch spots with you like a gentlemen, but we both know I can’t fit on that tiny couch.”

Claire laughs. “And we both know that I hate performative chivalry so we’re good.”

Neil crawls into bed himself. They stare at each other from across the room as their eyes adjust to the darkness.

Looking back on the day, so many moments compete for dominance in her rapidly waning thoughts. She watches Neil watching her.

"Neil?"

"Hmmm?"

“I just want to say,” Claire starts, waiting a beat before continuing. “You don't need to wear that shirt to bed on my account.” She enjoys the sound of his sleepy laughter.

In response, she hears movement and then feels a balled-up shirt hit her head after he throws it at her. Claire can smell his clean scent on it, so familiar from hundreds of surgeries standing next to him. She has to keep herself from laying it next to her on the pillow instead of letting it fall to the floor.

“Go to sleep, Claire,” he calls out softly.

“See you bright and early,” she replies. “Well, not so bright, but definitely early. Too early." She closes her eyes and drifts off to the reassuring sound of his steady breathing near her in the quiet room.

TBC...

Chapter 8

Chapter Text

Neil groans as his alarm goes off.

It’s still dark outside, of course. He reaches over to the bedside table to turn off the piercing sound then lays in bed listening to the quiet of the cottage. He closes his eyes again, fighting the pull of sleep that threatens to drag him back down. It feels like he just went to bed five minutes ago instead of hours ago. He forces his eyes open once more and turns on his side to stare across the room.

Maybe his exhaustion is because he kept waking up to look over at the woman still sleeping on the couch a few feet from him. Like he's doing again now.

Or maybe it’s because it’s been one hell of a wild weekend. An amazing, potentially life-changing weekend.

He smiles at the image of Claire sleeping, the moonlight filtering a soft glow into the dark room. It’s all the more appealing that this view of her isn't particularly elegant. One arm is dangling over the side of the couch. She’s pushed part of the quilt off with her foot that’s now wedged in a corner. She’d forgotten to pull her hair back before bed, so it spills across her shoulders and into her face. He doesn’t know how she can sleep like that – even sitting next to her last night in the breeze, it tickled to feel her curls brushing against his bare skin. One of the straps of her nightgown has slid down, revealing slightly more of her breast than when she’d gone to bed. He hadn’t been joking about her negligee not being particularly racy. But damn could she fill it out like a dream.

As he’d massaged her head and neck last night, he’d had to stop himself from taking further liberties.

He hadn’t known what to expect when they left the party to retire to his room. When he realized he hadn’t gotten extra linens for her, he let himself hope that maybe they wouldn’t be needed. He’d hesitated, tried to get a sense of what she wanted as she made herself comfortable in his room. Right then, he’d almost offered his bed to her, and not in exchange for the couch. They’d certainly made their deep attraction clear throughout the night. Instead, he announced his field trip to get extra pillows and blankets and left her to get settled.

It’d given him time to reevaluate his expectations.

He’d had to go to the main house for the extra blanket and ran into Miguel and Tasha on their way back to the cottage too. When they saw him carrying extra bedding – suggesting that he and Claire wouldn’t be sharing a bed - they’d said it was probably for the best. Although they agreed with Joe and Gwen that he had a renewed opportunity with Claire, they also suggested he pace himself.

And after he and Claire had talked, they both knew they weren’t ready for anything more intimate than that. Not yet, he hoped. Despite all the flirting and playfulness, they’d also shared some difficult truths out on that balcony that they both needed to process.

Yet again, she’d been so brave, just as she had that night at the bar – braver than him. She pushed him to face the things that were unsaid. To face not just the easy stuff like the pleasant surprise of their reconnection, but the hard stuff like why they’d grown apart in the first place. She understood that they needed to reconcile their past to have any hope of going forward.

Once they started talking, he realized that he needed to say those things to her, to explain what he’d been struggling with and why he’d made the flawed choices he did.

He needed to hear her talk about that time too. Hashing things out only in his head let him rationalize and speculate in a way that complicated things even further. To hear that she’d internalized his distance, took it as a sign that she wasn’t good enough, it broke his heart. He’d forced himself to let every painful word sink in as she explained how he'd made her doubt herself again.

Thinking back on it, though, he should have known. He’d been too caught up in his feelings for her and his anger at having to choose between being her boss or her friend or something more. It should have been obvious after everything she’d revealed as they’d gotten to know each other better. He’s messed things up so badly.

As he’d fallen asleep thinking of her, he noticed how much lighter he felt having heard her out. How relieved that she’d taken the time to listen to his side of things. She seemed earnest in accepting his apologies for the missteps, even though it’d been difficult for her.

The hopefulness of their conversation isn’t lost on him either. If she didn’t care about some kind of future between them, she would have just slept with him last night, a casual affair she could write off when they got back home. That scenario certainly could have played out given their sexual tension throughout the evening. Instead, they’d pushed pause, and stayed close – though not close enough for his liking. Then again, he could never get enough of her.

There’s still a lot they need to decide. But now he thinks they’ll be able to do that together.

If they had shared a bed platonically, he wonders if he could have truly kept his hands to himself. He thinks so, but it seemed dangerous to tempt fate. So he woke up throughout the night as images of her haunted his dreams. His eyes would blink open drowsily and he’d watch her for a few moments or listen to her soft breathing before drifting back into slumber.

Checking the time, Neil grumbles at having to get up. He could finally hear sounds from the floor below, guessing that either Miguel or Tasha has gotten up before him. They’re both early risers and annoyingly chipper morning people. Neil will be grumpy but fine since he's used to early wake-up calls. And Joe? Well someone will likely have to drag him out of bed. Neil already told Katie that he’s leaving that job to her.

Neil slips quietly out of bed and decides to take another shower to wake himself up. He skips a shave, still looking okay after his professional one the day before at the spa. He moves on to fix his hair and ponder his groomsman duties for the morning. Tony will be over in about half an hour to get ready. Claire mentioned something about lending a hand again with decorations after checking in on the bridal party.

She’ll probably need the same cow prod as Joe to get her out of bed. Everyone at the hospital knows what a deep sleeper she is.

When he steps back into the room in just his boxers, Claire is still out cold. The alarm on her phone is going off on the table behind her. Neil laughs and puts the pants he'd slept in back on before flicking on the bedside lamp. He thinks she'll stir eventually, but she doesn't move an inch in the time it takes him to walk around the bed to where she's sleeping. Kneeling in front of the couch, he sees the shirt he’d thrown at her last night neatly folded and draped over the couch arm closest to her head.

Her head is turned sharply to the side, so he gently strokes her cheek right below her ear. “Hey sleepyhead? You wanna get up and turn off your alarm?” He gets no response. “Claire,” he calls out a little louder. She twitches and turns her head the other way, causing waves of her hair to fall into her face. He moves it out of the way and caresses the crown of her head. “Claire!” he shouts in her ear, laughing at how she startles awake.

When she notices him next to her, she slaps his hand away and reaches blindly for her phone, alarm still blaring.

“Make it stop,” she whines, her hands not quite finding the source of the noise.

Neil is thoroughly amused. “Make it stop yourself, sunshine. It’s your phone.”

Claire’s eyes open, squinting in the lamplight. She frowns at seeing him awake and groomed for the day. She turns back over and curls into the corner of the couch, apparently ignoring her blaring alarm.

“Oh no you don’t.” Neil picks up her phone and puts it closer to her ear. Claire tries again to swat him away but can’t quite muster the coordination to find where the sound is coming from. “Come on, grumpy. You gotta get over to the ladies, and I gotta wrangle some groomsmen.”

Claire pulls the quilt back up over her shoulders and tries to wrap it over her head. But Neil is quicker and grabs the other end to yank it away from her. They play tug-o-war with the blanket, each pull escalating in force until Claire comes dangerously close to falling off the couch. Although her eyes are still closed, he hears the occasional stray giggle from where she’s burrowed into the corner of the couch.

“Neil, five more minutes,” she pleads.

“I don’t think so, Dr. Browne,” he says, using his stern Attending voice with her.

She gives the blanket a harder tug than he expects from someone who claims to be so sleepy. He gathers a good chunk of the quilt in his hands to pull it all the way off, even if it means she lands on the floor. The cold rug is probably just what she needs to wake up anyway.

Whether she’d anticipated the move or just decided to give up, his pull is met with no resistance and he goes sprawling onto the ground. He lands with a noisy thud and rolls into the bed from the momentum, pushing it out of place.

From where he lays prone on the floor, he looks up to see Claire turn over on the couch, now awake enough prop herself up on an elbow. She’s unfolded herself to extend her legs languidly across the couch, perfectly posed for one of those paintings that captures a lounging woman of leisure. Her nightgown still mostly covers her, though it’s dangerously bunched up along her thighs, leaving the long stretch of her legs in full view. Her hair is a wild riot of curls and her eyes are bright with humor at seeing him laid out on the floor with the quilt still hanging from his hand.

“Fine, I’ll get up,” she says sweetly as she slips her feet to the floor. She reaches for her phone and turns off the alarm.

Neil drops the blanket and makes himself comfortable on the floor, propping himself up on his elbows to enjoy the view.

“Good morning to you too,” he says, grinning.

Claire places her phone back on the table. She looks as if she doesn’t know what to make of him lying on the floor so clearly in a good mood despite the early hour. She grabs his shirt from the arm of the couch and throws it at him. But when she stands, she also gives him an assist back to his feet.

“I think you need to dial down all that good cheer until I’ve had some coffee,” she says.

He holds on to her hand, only dropping it when she walks out of his reach to get to her suitcase. He doesn’t miss the way she looks him up and down as he stands bare-chested holding the shirt she’d thrown at him.

“Then I’ll have to go grab you a cup before you head out.” He puts his shirt on and heads toward the door. “Miguel and Tasha are already awake so the coffeemaker should be up and running.

Claire nods and zombie-walks to the bathroom with her toiletry bag.

When he opens the bedroom door, Joe's voice calls from out in the hallway. “What are you two doing up there! People are trying to sleep!”

“You get your ass up, too, Joe,” Neil says from the top of the stairs, laughing.

Sure enough, Miguel and Tasha are sitting on the living room couch with coffee in hand. Tasha looks like she's reading the morning news headlines on her tablet while Miguel is tapping out an email on his phone. They exchange distracted greetings as he heads into the kitchen to check on the coffee. Brandon is in the kitchen putting together ingredients for a smoothie. He offers to make enough for Neil, which he accepts. It’ll help to have something healthy in his stomach to get through the next couple of hours. As Neil prepares his two mugs of coffee, Brandon lets him know that he’ll put his share of the smoothie in the fridge for whenever he’s ready for it. Moments later, he's relieved to hear the shower running in Joe and Katie’s room as he makes his way back upstairs.

When he returns, he sees that Claire has changed into jeans and a blouse. She’s stuffing some items in a tote back, probably her outfit for the wedding, and slipping on her sneakers. He hands her the coffee, and she practically snatches it out of his hand, delighted to see it’s cooled down enough for her to enjoy a huge swallow immediately.

He sets his coffee on a side table and opens the small closet to grab his garment bag and hang it on the open door. Claire sits on the couch letting the coffee kick in. To his surprise, she’s folded up the bed linens, including the quilt they’d fought over, and stacked them neatly on top of her pillow.

“Only sad*sts would make us get up this early for a wedding,” she whines. “This is why romantics suck.” She checks the time. They probably have about an hour before sunrise when Emma and Tony’s vows are scheduled to take place.

Neil chuckles. “You are no fun. And you’ll be fine once you wake up. Just think of it as being on call – but with more champagne and fewer blood transfusions.” That makes her laugh.

She warms her hands around the mug and watches as he flits around the room getting various items ready for the day. He pulls out his shoes and sets it by the garment bag. He brings in his suit from the night before, now dry from where he’d hung over the balcony rail next to her dress. He folds each item and then rolls them into a tight tube that he places in a separate bag in his suitcase.

Claire seems content to watch him go about his morning. He can see she’s amused, though she doesn’t comment on his fastidiousness.

He notices her texting with someone on her phone, probably Gwen. “Okay, I’m off. Gwen says they’re right on schedule. Tony should be over in a few minutes. I’m going to go get dressed with them and then help rearrange the seating and put out the tea.”

“See you’re already more alert,” he jokes. She shakes her head at him.

She grabs her tote back and heads to the door. Passing the closet where he’s hung his garment bag, she points to it and laughs. “Of course you did,” she comments.

Neil shrugs. “I can’t wait to see what you’re wearing.”

“It’ll be worth the wait, trust me,” she responds, that now familiar hint of flirtatiousness in her tone.

Neither of them has said a word about their conversation the night before, but something has changed. And they need to let breathe.

Claire opens the door, downing the rest of her coffee. He assumes she’ll return the mug to the kitchen before she leaves. “See you at the altar,” she says over her shoulder as she descends the stairs.

He knows she doesn’t mean it that way, but it still sounds good to him.

‘Don't get ahead of yourself, Melendez,’ he thinks to himself. At the very least, he needs to survive the weekend.

Neil makes his bed and then goes downstairs to meet up with Tony and his dad. They’re chatting with Miguel and Brandon about how they’d run into Claire outside. Joe is nursing a cup of coffee and trying to wake himself up. Miguel is way too alert, as usual, and ready to tackle the day. Tasha’s gone into Katie’s room so they can keep each other company while the guys do their thing. They’ll head to the main estate soon to join Claire in helping with the decorations and setup.

Grabbing his smoothie from the fridge, he thanks Brandon and takes a seat in the living room with the rest of the guys.

“Neil, you and your girl were making a whole lot of noise this morning. Do you have something you want to share with the group?” Joe teases. Everyone in the room turns their attention to him, waiting for an explanation.

“Joe, you are always starting trouble. The only thing you heard this morning was me having to drag Claire out of bed. Literally. She’s worse than you are in the morning.”

“So, she was in the bed though,” Joe says, grinning. “I know you didn’t sleep on that tiny couch, so are we seeing some progress with you two?”

“She slept on the couch.”

Everyone groans and heckles him hearing that, even Brandon and Tony’s dad.

“What you’re dragging is your feet, Melendez. The perfect set-up landed right in your lap. Man, you have got to get you game back in shape,” Joe says.

“I’ve got plenty of game,” Neil argues, a little mad at himself for taking Joe’s childish bait. “I’m being respectful." He sighs. “Besides, we talked last night. Cleared the air. It was good. We didn't need to go there.” He can’t stop himself from smiling thinking about how much better he feels about things between him and Claire after last night.

“Awwww, look at my boy,” Tony coos at him. “Look at that smile?”

“It’s about time,” Joe says. “Mopey Melendez was getting old.”

Neil laughs at his friends’ enthusiasm. And their support. He’s lucky to have them in his life. “Don’t get too excited. It’s not like we’re dating or anything. We didn’t even talk about that. But we were finally honest with each other about what had gone wrong between us. And I know it’s mostly my fault. It gave me a chance to apologize and accept how much I’d hurt her. No matter what happens with us, I’m glad for that.”

“Well, she’s good people. I think you’ll work it out,” Joe says.

“Yeah, and I'll have you and your big mouth,” Neil says, throwing a pillow at him. He turns to Miguel and Tony. “This fool went and told Gwen all my business who then told Claire.”

“So she told you about that? Hey, I didn’t know she was the one you’d been sweatin’. And to be completely accurate, I made an ass of myself and spilled the beans all on my own, thank you very much.” The other guys cracked up. “Might want to show me some gratitude. And I made up for it by keeping Nancy off your trail. No offense Tony, Brandon, Mr. V.”

“Uh, I’m completely fine with you keeping Neil away from my sister, thank you,” Tony says. Brandon nods, and Tony’s dad just laughs at their conversation.

Once they’d all woken themselves up and had a bite to eat, they started getting dressed. Neil takes out his groomsman’s attire from the garment bag and slips it on, being careful not to wrinkle anything. He inspects his whole look in the mirror and nods in approval. When he reemerges downstairs, they all check each other over to make sure they’re looking uniform. Tasha and Katie fuss over them too for a few minutes before heading out.

As they’re waiting for the signal to get things started, Tony’s dad comes out of the kitchen with a couple of bottles and shot glasses. He pours a shot of whisky in a few of the glasses for himself, Tony, Joe, and Neil – an amazing twenty-five-year bourbon from his special stash. He pours cold brew shots for Brandon and Miguel who didn’t drink.

“You guys are the best,” Tony toasts them, getting a little emotional. “Thank you for sharing this whole weekend with me. You had my back when I had nothing and stayed real when all that changed. I know so many people who got money, and it turned them into something ugly. But you keep me grounded. Give me a hard time when I act a fool. Always there when I need you. You don’t let me get away with not being that dude you raised or grew up with or hung out with back in the day. To Dad, my actual brother,” he gestures to Brandon, “or the brothers who found me,” he says to the rest of group. “Know that Emma and I are always here for family. For all of you.”

“Here, here,” Brandon says, clearly so happy for his older brother.” Neil toasts his friend and throws back his shot. The rest of the group finishes their shots too.

“And after today, our combined powers are gonna get these two to the altar,” Tony says, pointing to Brandon and Neil. He reaches for Neil to ruffle his perfect hair, which he dodges, checking to make sure it didn’t get messed up. Tony then turns to Joe. “Because we know Katie is never gonna let you put a ring on it.”

Joe rolls his eyes. “You’re right about that, but it’s our running joke now.” He doesn’t seem bothered. The two of them are solid, proving that you don’t need to be married to be completely committed.

“Marriage doesn’t define you, gentlemen,” Tony’s dad adds. “Be married, don’t be married. Whatever works for you.” Although Tony’s parents still get along surprisingly well after their divorce, his dad had never remarried, preferring the bachelor life.

“That’s true, too, Dad, of course.” They rest of them nod. “But I’m gonna get married, okay,” he shouts. “Today!” The group of them cheer again.

Brandon gets a text just then. “Looks like you’re about to get your chance. The ladies are almost ready to go.” They gather up everything they need and head over to the main estate to get the party started.

Even in the dark, it’s hard not to appreciate the beauty of the setting around them. The lights from the night before remain strung up and the patio open to the main room inside. But they’ve set up an altar at the edge of the patio with the couches and chairs lined up on either side of a carpeted aisle. It looks both neat and orderly, and also comfortable for viewing the sunrise and the nuptials.

At the table to the side, customized tea bags are laid out with a water and beverage station next to it. Another table holds tiny pastries to snack on before the ceremony. There are also candles set up around the area, softly illuminating the room rather than relying on the harsh overhead lights.

Neil really wants to see what Claire's wearing so he looks around for her before following the others to the sitting room at the front of the house. That’s where they’ll wait for their cue to start. He’ll be walking Emma’s sister Margo down the aisle based on the quick rehearsal they’d done the day before. It doesn’t look like Claire’s around, though he catches a glimpse of Tasha running into the kitchen for something.

He’s about to give up and then he spots her coming through the front door carrying a large flower arrangement.

Seeing her outfit, he chuckles in delight.

Because they planned a party theme for club-night and a formal theme for dinner night, Tony and Emmy wanted people to be as comfortable as possible getting up early to witness their vows. So the theme is for everyone to wear their favorite pajamas and slippers.

He, the other groomsmen, and best man have on traditional two-piece pajama sets, all in a deep green. The bridal party he’s heard are wearing different variations of a cotton nightgown.

The guests are wearing all kinds of pajama options judging by the people who are milling around and taking their seats. Katie is wearing a similar long-sleeved shirt and pants pajama set in pink silk. Tasha’s in a flannel nightgown and colorful patterned socks. Nancy’s in a sexy negligee that looks way racier than what Claire slept in last night. Uncle Nino is in a Rip van Winkle style nightshirt. Others are wearing casual shorts or pants with t-shirts, silk robes, long underwear, and even footie PJs.

But Claire has taken the cake for him.

She’s opted for a full-body, one-piece jumpsuit with a cozy looking Nordic print and big pockets on the sides. It’s even got a hood, though he’s a little disappointed that it doesn’t have the footies. Instead, she’s wearing bunny slippers which are just as good.

It’s somewhat form-fitting with a zipper up the front, though it’s so big on her that it has a slouchy, warm look – not at all meant to titillate. But the sight of her in it is a definite turn-on for some strange reason. It looks comfortably soft and good for cuddling.

The ease with which he could drag down that zipper to open the whole thing up isn’t lost on him either.

Claire finally notices him as he backs away still staring. He gives her a thumbs up as his gaze sweeps up her body to take in her outfit. She grins and does the same to him.

“Lookin’ good, Melendez,” she says of his pajamas and dark brown slippers. “Using that garment bag was a smart call.”

“Of course,” he replies and winks at her, turning around to join the rest of the party.

After the ceremony, he’ll have to track her down and find a fun way test out for himself how soft her pajamas are.

TBC...

Chapter 9

Chapter Text

Claire crosses her pajama-clad legs in front of her as she sits on one of the plush couches on the patio. She’s watching the sky lighten into a beautiful mixture of orange and purple, an occasional stray cloud dotting the horizon.

A few stragglers, including the last immediate family members not in the wedding party, are making their way to the front seats. Claire tries not to chuckle at Nancy slinking down the aisle in her racy, bright red negligee. This must mean the ceremony is about to start.

Even though she doesn’t know Gwen’s sister well, she’s overcome by the joyousness of the occasion – how welcoming people have been to her, how lovely a couple Emma and Tony are, and the relaxing and fun way they’ve chosen to celebrate with friends and family. It’s truly a beautiful occasion.

She’ll admit to not being wild about getting up at this hour on a Sunday morning. To her, it may as well be the middle of the night. But the effect is worth it. It’s a stunning setting with the sun almost ready to peek out from behind the mountains.

Plus, it’s the most comfortable outfit she’s ever worn to a wedding.

On her way to lay out a few last-minute decorations, she caught Neil heading to the sitting room with the rest of the groomsmen. He looked very amused and pleased with her warm jumpsuit. She’d checked him out too, of course. Even though all the men are in identical outfits, someone needs to reverse engineer how a man could look so damn sexy in plain cotton pajamas - though she wouldn’t be surprised to hear that he’d had them tailored to fit so well.

They’d only had a few moments to react to each other before he disappeared again, but they’d made the most of it. She’s missed his teasing, made even more pleasant given their newly charged flirtations. She smiles thinking of how he'd woken her up this morning. It'd felt so comfortable, not awkward at all. He'd been all playfulness and gallantry; she'd enjoyed starting her day with the rhythm of him going about his morning.

The previous night they’d finally had the conversation they should have had nearly two years ago. It’d been difficult, emotional, frustrating, and sad. That’s why it’s so satisfying to come out on the other side of it still whole and still trying. Still wanting something more if they can figure out what that looks like.

Yet, there’s also an unspoken agreement to just enjoy themselves in this moment, too.

They could have let their guards down and shared a bed last night. Perhaps it would have been platonic. Perhaps they would have given into the desire they’d felt for each other all day. But it hadn’t felt like the right time.

Claire laughs to herself at that thought. She can’t believe she’s only just met Neil’s friend, Joe, and the guy is already in her head.

When Joe and Katie had joined her and Neil on the dancefloor last night, he’d swooped her away from Neil, Katie filling the void in Neil’s arms. He’d asked how things were going with Neil, if she’d told him about his faux-paux the night before. When she again said that she hadn’t brought it up yet, he’d chided her, not in an unkind way, but protective of his friend.

“He cares about you. I know you know that. If you’re playing games, then walk away now. He’s been through too much already.”

Claire stares up at him, eyes round and vulnerable like a frightened animal. Is that what her motivations look like to him?

He spins her out, giving her time to compose herself. When they come back together, she searches for the right words to convince him - and herself - that her and Neil's intentions will work themselves out.

“I wouldn’t do that to him,” she says as they continue to sway to the music. “No matter what’s happened between us, I know he’s a good guy. It’s complicated is all.” She thinks of the job offers waiting for her back home. “We can’t seem to get our timing right.”

He smiles sweetly at her. “I get it. I know him being your boss isn’t ideal. Though I hear he won’t be for much longer. I just needed to say that because he’s crazy about you. Claire, if he’s the right guy, stop holding out for the right time.” Joe’s smile widens right before he dips her dramatically. When he pulls her back up, her face is flushed and they’re laughing together, catching Neil’s questioning gaze as Katie steers them away again.

She’s sure Joe is keeping a close eye on them. And ear. Another reason for her and Neil not to be having enthusiastic sex from the room above him.

With everyone she knows in the wedding party, Tasha and Katie insisted she sit with them. They’ve been very excited to see what kind of strut their partners would be doing on their walk to the front of the crowd. Katie, who has no interest in marriage, jokes that Joe should savor the occasion.

As the sun threatens to peak over the mountains, the music starts and the backup photographer they’d hired to shoot the ceremony gets into place. The officiant, one of Emma’s godparents, starts off the processional followed by Tony’s parents. Then Tony appears, escorting Emma’s mother to her seat and taking his place at the altar next to the officiant.

First up is Lily and Miguel. She’s wearing a tasteful cotton babydoll-style nightgown covered in roses with a matching robe over it and pink slippers. Miguel mostly plays it straight, bowing slightly to Lily as they separate.

Then comes Neil and Margo, also fairly traditional. Margo is in a two-piece shorts and top set covered in daisies, also with a matching robe and simple yellow slippers. Neil looks relaxed and happy, clearly enjoying himself. When they take their place at the altar, Neil scans the crowd for her. His smile widens when he finds her next to Tasha and Katie.

Of course, Katie elbows her to point out how devastatingly handsome Neil looks.

“Damn, that man is good-looking,” she whispers. “You know, maybe I should have held out for Neil instead of the clown I’m going to be babysitting until we’re old and gray.”

Claire chuckles softly. “Please. You think Joe is annoying about getting hitched? Neil would be your worst nightmare.”

“Good point,” Katie agrees. “I guess I’ll have to put up with my own hottie for a little while longer.” Claire enjoys seeing the warmth and affection in her eyes as Katie talks about Joe.

Right on cue, Gwen and Joe appear at the aisle, both of them full of fun and strutting like peaco*cks. Gwen is wearing a sleeveless romper set covered in poppies with yet another matching robe and the same slippers as her sisters but in orange. They prance and preen to the altar area, which the crowd loves.

Behind them, the maid of honor, Genie, is escorted by the best man Brandon. Genie’s wearing a longer cotton nightgown covered in hearts, belted fashionably at the waist with the tie of her matching robe and red slippers. An adorable flower girl and ringbearer dressed in matching footed pajamas make their way down the aisle after them.

Finally, the bride appears with her father. He's beaming as he takes her arm in warm-looking flannel pajamas and brown moccasins. Emma’s wearing a long sleeveless and beautifully stitched white nightgown with ribbons and lace along the straps and flowing beautifully behind her. Like all the bridesmaids, she’s carrying a bouquet of flowers picked from the garden this morning gliding down the aisle in her white slippers. Tony, the groomsmen, and best man have sprigs pinned to their lapels as well. The crowd is dazzled by her, as they should be, and she can see Emma’s mom already crying up at the front. Tony joins them at the end of the aisle. Emma escorts her dad to her mom’s side and then rejoins Tony as they take the last steps to the altar together.

It’s an impressive wedding party – the groomsmen and bridesmaids lined up at an angle, the best man and maid of honor in front, and the gorgeous bride and groom looking radiant and full of love for each other as the sun’s rays begin to shine across the deck.

The ceremony is beautiful, perfectly timed with the sunrise as they’d planned. Beams of bright light bathe the crowd inch by inch. Tony and Emma share their own vows and the officiant recites a beautiful poem to bless their marriage. By the time the happy couple presents themselves to their guests, there’s a cacophony of sniffles and moist eyes all around.

It’s enough to make Claire believe that a little romance maybe isn’t the worst thing in the world.

After the ceremony, Neil disappears again to take pictures with the wedding party. In the kitchen, several of Tony’s aunts and uncles are preparing breakfast for the guests – eggs, pancakes, French toast, quiche, breakfast tacos, and on and on. There are tables and couches spread out in the main room and on the patio for people to hang out without the formality of a seating arrangement.

The plan is for guests to spend the rest of the day being lazy, eating, socializing, maybe napping on the couches. And later people can move to the pool or the gardens or even spend the afternoon on a day trip in the area. Tony and Emma will leave in the late afternoon to catch their flight to Hawaii on the way to Australia; some of the guests will leave right after while others will stay an extra night and drive home on Monday.

Claire is on one of the couches enjoying her breakfast and another cup of coffee when Neil plops down beside her with a full plate. From over her shoulder, she sees the rest of the wedding party milling about, some heading for the coffee, others heading for the food. Gwen is checking the pictures with their backup photographer, her own camera back in her hands to return to the job. The couple Claire has been chatting with excuse themselves to get seconds of the pancakes someone has just put out.

Neil grins at her as he stabs at his eggs. “Were my eyes deceiving me or did I see the world’s least romantic person shed a tear during the wedding?” he teases.

Claire giggles. “I will admit no such thing. It was a beautiful ceremony, though.”

“And fun,” he says tugging at the arm of her fuzzy outfit.”

“Not all of us can treat a wedding aisle like a runway, Neil. Tell me, did you have those pajamas tailored?” She really is curious.

“I will admit no such thing,” he threw back at her, laughing.

They eat and mingle, though this time they keep close to each other. Neil’s friends join them and they tease Katie and Joe about what their hypothetical wedding would even look like. Katie makes a game of it, adding more and more horrifying details so Joe won’t get any ideas. Gwen appears every now and again to sit on the arm of the couch and join in before running off to capture some special moment with the other guests.

They keep things light, she and Neil don't worry themselves with talk of deep feelings or romantic futures. There's only comfortable conversation laced with mutual moments of a pleasant, humming attraction.

Physically, they’ve been a little bolder too. Neil brushing his fingers across her shoulder from where his hand rests behind her on the couch. Claire gently touching his thigh to get his attention or his thoughts on something. He refills her coffee without her having to ask; she splits her biscuit with him, brushing a few crumbs from his shirt and teasing him about how many hours at the gym he’ll need to burn it off.

The bride and groom make their rounds, weaving through the couches to stop and chat with a group for a few minutes before moving on. When they get to Claire and Neil, Emma congratulates him on winning the groomsmen’s version of ‘who wore it best.’ Miguel and Joe take offense at that, of course. They call Brandon over so they can all gang up on Neil properly.

Later, Claire and Neil are refilling their coffee mugs when Joe comes running over. “Hey, I need a favor. Operation Wedding Cake is a go.” The couple had opted to skip the wedding cake – they’d had an unofficial one as dessert the night before but not in the traditional way. “We stashed some extra champagne in the pantry and back at the cottage for a toast, but we need to keep it from Tony’s grandma and aunts or they’ll spoil the surprise for sure.”

Having spent a lot of time with Tony’s lovely but very nosy family over the last two days, Claire has no trouble believing that.

“Can you and Claire get the stash from the pantry?” Joe asks Neil. Miguel and I will get the one from the cottage.”

Claire puts her empty mug on a nearby tray. “I can do that. Why do you need both of us?”

“You don’t know how wily these ladies are. You need a lookout. Have a good story ready if you get caught. Take the long way around if you need to, and drop them off in the pool shed.” Joe then disappears to coordinate some other part of the plan.

Neil shrugs, and they head toward the kitchen.

Luckily, the kitchen’s empty for the moment. They quickly find the pantry and spot the extra champagne bottles hidden in the very back in a tucked away cubbyhole.

“See, easy,” Claire says, leading Neil into the darkened corner. “It’s a good hiding spot though. You can’t even see it from the door.

“These old houses have all kinds of nooks and crannies,” Neil agrees, reaching down to retrieve several of the bottles. Just as they get all the bottles in hand, they hear shuffling back in the kitchen area.

“Mara! I need you back here. The pancakes are running low again.”

Tony’s Aunt Julia.

“Jules, forget the pancakes. People are fine.” The voices get closer, and Claire and Neil retreat farther into the pantry.

“Go! Go! In the corner,” Neil says. They put the bottles back down gently and huddle in the darkened corner, Neil squeezes in behind Claire pulling her out of sight so they’re not spotted. The voices sound as if they’ve stopped right outside the pantry entrance.

“You always say that people are fine and then get mad when they complain there’s not enough food,” Aunt Julia says. “Come on, it won’t take that long.”

Neil and Claire try not to groan. They do not want to be stuck in here like this while Tony’s aunts make a whole new breakfast buffet.

Although there is something appealing about their dusty accommodations.

The small space is not very generous. Neil is sandwiched between the wall and her back, the hard contours of his chest flush against her. He has one arm loosely around her waist and another one on her arm, holding her still against him.

“How long do you think it takes to make pancakes,” he whispers in her ear. His breath teasing her skin like that is subtle torture.

“I don’t know,” she says. “You know I’m not the best cook. Can you text Joe to come in with a distraction?”

“If you hadn’t noticed, I can’t quite maneuver much in this spot. My phone’s in my back pocket.”

Claire rolls her eyes. “Why in the world do pajamas have a back pocket?”

“Clearly to hold cell phones,” he murmurs with that dry wit of his.

“Very funny,” Claire says, trying not to giggle.

“Why don’t you text Gwen?”

“She doesn’t answer her texts right away, especially when she’s distracted.” Claire doesn’t think Gwen even has her phone on her unless her robe has a pocket.

“Then text Joe.”

“Do you know his number? He’s your friend, not mine.”

Neil practically growls in her ear in frustration. She can feel the low rumble from his chest against her. It has the opposite effect of agitating her as she feels her body responding with arousal.

“Never mind. Now be quiet,” he says, shushing her. One of the women wanders past the pantry, popping in to grab some flour. After she walks away, they can hear the two women chatting distantly.

“Do you think we can just sneak past them?” Claire whispers.

“There’s no way they don’t see us. And we won’t have the champagne either. Plus, we’ll have to explain what the hell we’re doing in here, and that’ll ruin everything.”

Claire reluctantly agrees. They’re just going to have to wait it out. She tries not to squirm in the tight area, but when she feels Neil’s hands on her hips, stilling her, she knows she’s been unsuccessful.

“You have to know that’s torturing me, right?” he says, chuckling.

“Sorry.” She sighs, leaning her head back on his shoulder. On top of his discomfort, she’s getting too warm confined in this tight space in her fuzzy pajamas. She can feel beads of sweat forming at her brow.

Neil’s chin brushes against her forehead, picking up some of the dampness. “You hot?” he murmurs in her ear. She wonders if he’s intentionally being provocative as they’re pressed so tightly against each other.

She simply nods, swallowing hard. He moves one of his hands from her waist to skim up her side and reach for the zipper of her jumpsuit dangling near her throat. He grasps it gently and lowers it just a few inches, flapping one side to wave some air into her cleavage.

She grips his arm and imagines his satisfied grin at that. “Better,” he asks.

“Mmmhmm.” She doesn’t quite trust herself to form words right now.

“Have I told you how comfortable you feel in this outfit? So soft.” As if to punctuate the point, Neil wraps his arms more tightly around her, running his hands along her arms and across her waist. He moves his head until he’s practically nuzzling her, using their need to keep their voices low as an excuse to remain close.

“I think I got the message with you cuddling next to me on the couch,” she says. He hadn’t quite gone that far, but he’d enjoyed sitting close enough for her body to brush against his as she shifted around.

His lips brush her ear. “If we get caught in here, we’re going to have to tell everyone we were making out. You know, to save face.”

Claire laughs softly. “As opposed to telling them the truth?”

He caresses her arm as he’s holding her, fingering the trim of her pocket with the other hand. “Where’s the fun in that?” He trails his lips along her neck and Claire’s breath catches in her throat.

Claire looks over her shoulder at him, and even in the dim pantry, she can see his eyes smoldering with desire. She reaches up to run her fingers through his hair, and he drifts his lips to hers.

That first taste of each other is searing. There were times when she imagined this happening – images of sweet, gentle kisses to test the waters leading to a growing intensity as they surrender to the quiet passion between them. Instead, they’ve gone straight to devouring each other. That first eager press of his lips to hers quickly gives way to an insistent exploration, the culmination of days, months, years of tension bubbling to the surface.

In the silence of their hiding spot, they explore each other thoroughly. She teases him by sucking gently at his bottom lip; he answers with a nip of his teeth requesting more. Before long, Claire’s maneuvered herself around to face him, pressing herself flush against him as her arms circle his neck. Neil runs his hands along her back holding her right where he wants her.

Claire can’t process anything but the feel of him against her, his hands on her, the taste of him on her lips, and the moistness of his tongue dipping into her mouth. She murmurs her satisfaction of it all, and he gently smacks her on the ass, a rebuke for making so much noise when they’re supposed be undercover and quiet. She can feel him matching her smile at the gesture. She runs her fingers along the nape of his neck and hears him gasp in pleasure into her mouth. Getting that response from him is more satisfying than she ever imagined.

So lost in each other, they don’t pay attention to the bottles of champagne at their feet. Neil stumbles over one, making a louder noise than they’d like as the bottles clink against each other.

They both freeze as footsteps approach the pantry. Neil presses them even farther into the corner out of eyesight, now certain that someone is coming to investigate the sound. Though they’re safely hidden in the cubbyhole, Neil carefully pulls Claire’s hood over her head as if it would camouflage them if discovered. Claire buries her face in his chest to muffle her giggles at that, and she can feel him shaking in laughter as well.

“What are you doing over there Jules? You’re gonna burn the last batch.”

“I thought I heard something. Ugh, probably just these old houses.” She steps away, and both Neil and Claire let out a deep breath. “Oh, did you finish? Let’s take these out then.”

They hear more footsteps, this time retreating. They remain waiting for any more disruptions to the silence around them.

Claire looks up at Neil, suspecting he wouldn’t mind sticking around and continuing what they’ve started. But they are on a schedule. He sighs and lets her go, leaning down to hand her a few bottles to carry. He kisses her quickly on the lips one last time before they sneak out the back door and around the property to the unguarded pool house.

When they disappear inside, they notice the other case of champagne isn’t there.

“What the hell!” Neil says pulling out his phone.

He texts Joe who doesn’t respond. Claire pokes her head outside and calls Neil over. They spot Joe in a deep conversation with Tony’s grandmother, looking rather put out. Joe finally checks his phone and starts typing a response.

Neil’s phone buzzes, but it doesn’t seem to be good news judging by his frown. “I’m gonna kill this guy. He wants us to sneak into the cottage and get the other case. He’s been talking to Tony’s grandmother the entire time we’ve been stuck in the pantry.”

Claire chuckles. “This is getting way too complicated for a surprise. Let’s go. The sooner we get it, the sooner we’re off the hook.”

They step out of the pool house without getting any notice and walk slowly but with purpose back to the cottage. They find the case of champagne where they expect, and Neil texts Joe that they’re on their way back.

Neil’s phone buzzes again. “Okay, this really is too complicated now. He says the cake is still on its way. He wants us to hold until they’re ready. He’s afraid we can’t get the whole case to the pool shed without someone noticing.”

“Joe is the worst heist leader ever.”

“Amen.” Neil kicks at the box at his feet. Then he turns to her, a look on his face that she absolutely does not trust. “If we’re gonna be stuck here, what should we do to pass the time, I wonder?”

Claire laughs and shakes her head. But Neil doesn’t give her the chance to respond as he immediately reaches for her, latching his lips onto hers.

She pushes Neil a few steps behind him until the back of his legs reach the couch. He drops to a sitting position bringing her with him, immediately positioning her across his lap. Claire clenches her hand against his shoulder as she runs her fingers through his hair.

Now that they’re alone and not in some hiding spot a few feet from being discovered, they tap into a whole other level of intensity. Without the need to be completely silent, he lets her know that her gasps of pleasure and arousal are more than welcome. She even pulls a groan from him when she slips her hand under his shirt and along his bare back. In retaliation, he presses the palm of his hand across her backside and squeezes.

Except that doesn’t seem to be enough for either of them.

Just a couple of hours ago, she’d been patting herself on the back for being mature and avoiding the very strong urge to sleep with Neil. Now, after accepting the comfort of his attraction again, she feels as if she’ll burn up if his hands and mouth and body aren’t consuming her. She leans back to catch her breath and run her fingers along the buttons of his shirt, slipping the first one out of its hole.

Neil takes the opportunity to grip her zipper once again and slowly lower it from cleavage to navel, revealing an intricately patterned purple bra, one of her sexier ones. She watches him bite his lip in concentration as if he’s making the most delicate of incisions.

“Jesus,” Neil exclaims, his eyes practically clouding over. “Who knew fuzzy pajamas could be this damn sexy.”

Claire giggles and similarly works on undoing the buttons on his pajama shirt. She licks her lips, enjoying how his bronzed, beautiful chest is revealed inch by inch. As she runs her fingers across his abs, he’s reaching into her jumpsuit to also get his hands on as much bare skin as possible. Neil's lips land at the base of her throat, his hot breath intermingled with open mouth kisses and probing fingers testing the swell of her breasts.

Just as Neil’s teeth are scraping her shoulder to pull down the strap of her bra, his phone buzzes continuously, indicating several text messages are coming in.

“Nooo,” Neil whines. He continues to kiss her shoulder, though his hands have already begun to retreat from where they’ve been wandering along her lower back. They slow their kisses, but don’t pull away yet. The sensation is a languid pressing of lips and leisurely tastes meant to ease them from their passions.

Neil’s phone buzzes again and this time he reaches around to his pocket to look at his phone. “Cake’s outside. They’re ready.”

She kisses him one last time on the lips and tries to crawl off his lap. Neil won’t let her go just yet, pulling her back down and kissing her deeply. As they continue, they conduct a kind of reverse making out. He re-zips the front of her outfit while she re-buttons his shirt.

Finally pulling back completely and climbing off of him, she tries to smooth her hair where he’s dislodged it with his roaming fingers. “Do you need a minute,” she jokes.

He’s texting Joe back letting him know they’re on their way. “I need a lot of minutes and some privacy and you.” He stands, kissing her against the neck and picking up the case of champagne. “I guess this’ll have to do for cover for the time being.”

Claire laughs, but allows him to lead her to the door. As she opens it for him, he leans down to kiss her briefly one more time before walking out. Claire lets the sensation linger before pulling away to follow him down the trail.

TBC...

Chapter 10

Chapter Text

“So where did you disappear to?” Gwen asks, camera in hand as she scans through pictures of the surprise wedding cake.

“Executing the most inept wedding cake caper known to humankind,” Neil says, amused. “Did you know about that?”

“I didn’t,” she says, also chuckling. “That was all Brandon’s idea and Joe wanted to help. It’s very sweet.”

Neil eyes her suspiciously. She’s been spending a lot of time with Tony’s brother. Not that he thinks it’s a bad thing. He can see how Gwen relaxes him and brings out his fun side. Yet Neil can’t help but tease her for the hard time she’s been giving him and Claire.

“Brandon’s a pretty nice guy, isn’t he? You two seem to be getting along well.”

Gwen flashes him a wary look, but smiles.

“Don't you start too. I'm getting enough crap from Claire and Emmy. Besides, people who live in glass houses where they don’t know how to rebutton their shirts, shouldn’t throw stones.”

Neil looks down in a panic but sees the buttons on his shirt all in order. Claire had taken care of buttoning him back up, he recalls pleasantly, but he hadn't checked himself before leaving the cottage.

Gwen laughs. “I thought so. But not to worry, I’m a very supportive friend. I’ve been telling Claire to make out with you all weekend.” She looks around the room. “Speaking of which, where is my naughty friend …”

Gwen spots Claire emptying another bottle of champagne into guests’ glasses. “Claire over here,” she calls out. Claire finishes pouring out the bottle and joins the two of them.

“Hey, if you want some champagne, I need to go get another bottle.”

Gwen waves her off. “No, that’s not it. I mean, yes, I do want more champagne, but I can get it myself. I have a favor to ask.”

Neil and Claire exchange looks. “I don’t know. The last person who asked us for a favor got us involved in a mad caper that involved us hiding in a kitchen pantry for fifteen minutes,” Claire explained.

“And it looks like it did you some good judging by the hickey on your neck.” Neil tries to warn her not to fall for Gwen’s tricks, but Claire reaches a hand up to examine her neck anyway. “You two are so easy,” she says, laughing. “Seriously, though, do your hardworking, old friend a solid.”

Both Claire and Neil remain dubious.

“As Claire knows,” she directs at Neil, “My doctor didn’t want me to do the entire drive from San Jose, thus Claire joining me for the festivities. It turns out that Brandon drove down with his dad, but his dad wants to stay through to Wednesday and Brandon would prefer to spend some more time in San Jose before flying back home.”

"I wonder why?" Neil teases. Her challenging expression is meant to scold him but it only makes him grin. Though, he should really be thanking her because he sees where this is going.

“So, I was thinking, Neil, since you drove down and you’re also going back to San Jose, maybe we can do a little switcharoo with the rides – Claire can carpool with you and Brandon and I will make the trip back up tomorrow night.”

Neil is thrilled at the idea, but he’s worried about Claire’s response. It’s one thing to revel in the escapism of fooling around in another city. It’s another to be stuck in a car on the way back to reality.

However, Claire looks more amused than nervous. “I see. Well, I suppose I can make the sacrifice for a friend. And for young love, of course.” She turns to Neil. “If that’s okay with you.”

He smiles at her, pleased. “No, I’d love the company.”

Gwen rolls her eyes. “What he means is that he’d love your company. 'Sacrifice for a friend,' my ass.” She shakes her head. “Anyway, good talking to you! Thanks! See you later!” She flits away making her way back inside.

Claire turns back to him. “Does this mean I get to drive your car?”

He laughs. And laughs and laughs. Claire’s frown makes him laugh even harder.

“Oh, were you serious? Because that sounded like a joke to me.”

She smirks at him. “You know I’m very persuasive.”

“Not that persuasive,” he counters, shaking his head but grinning.

She shrugs. “We’ll see.”

While putting a few empty bottles of champagne out by the recycling area, they notice a library at the back of the estate house and wander through to admire the collection. Claire grabs a book of essays by James Baldwin while Neil chooses a history of the California farmworkers’ movement. They settle on opposite ends of a couch with their books and lounge under one of the ceiling fans, their legs entwined.

Eventually, Neil dozes off, his book laying open across his chest. The next thing he registers is the sound of Emma and Tony making the rounds as they prepare to leave. After saying a warm goodbye to Claire, Neil, and the rest of their guests, their limo picks them up for the airport.

Neil stands beside Claire waving them off. “Hey, Joe and Katie won’t be back with dinner for a while.” The two of them had opted to go back to one of the vineyards and then shopping during their downtime. They'd agreed to pick up food on their way back so they can all have one final meal together. “You want to go for a walk? I think there’s a section of the garden we didn’t get to during our run.”

“That sounds nice. I’d love to take in the view one more time before leaving. And I’m not getting up early again tomorrow for it,” she declares. “I can’t believe I had a weekend of leisure, and I’m up before seven o’clock on both days.”

Laughing, Neil leads them back to the cottage to change out of their pajamas. The day’s gotten pretty warm and without the ceiling fans, they’ll boil out in the gardens. Claire gets stopped by Gwen to help her carry some of the spare party favors back to her room, so he proceeds on his own.

Claire joins him just as he’s slipping his sneakers on, and he leaves her to dress in privacy. She teases him about being the ultimate gentleman. They both know that if they tempt fate by stripping in front of each other, they’ll never make it out of that room. As much as he might not mind that, he’s not keen on getting interrupted again by Miguel or Brandon roaming around downstairs.

When they step out of the cottage in cooler clothes, Neil notices the quiet. The sun is shining brightly in the late afternoon. He turns to the left going almost behind the cottage and takes a different path from the one he’d started down the day before.

Not knowing quite what to expect, he takes Claire’s as they move deeper into the manicured foliage. Surprisingly, she doesn’t resist.

“Don’t look so shocked,” she jokes. “I have to make sure you don’t run off and leave me stranded in the middle of nowhere.”

Neil laughs, caressing her hand as they walk. “A wise precaution, Dr. Browne.”

They walk slowly through the neat trails, tidy but still lush and natural. Every so often one of them will point to some bird or laugh at the squirrels scurrying up the trees. They even come across the estate’s resident cat that they’ve been told wanders the gardens all day before returning at night to their warm pallet next to the pantry.

Neil lets one hand rest in his pocket as the other swings gently in Claire’s. “I’m gonna miss this place. Lots of good memories this weekend.” He squeezes her hand and shares a smile with her.

“Yeah. And to think I was supposed to spend the weekend by myself reading a book at my little bed and breakfast.”

“Is that what you had planned?”

She shrugs. “Pretty much. While Gwen was at the wedding, I thought maybe I’d go to the beach, walk around the downtown area a bit. But mostly I wanted to sit on the balcony in peace. Get out of my head for a while.” She sighs.

Neil looks down at her. She seems preoccupied. “Anything you want to talk about?”

Claire doesn’t answer right away. After a while, she glances at him briefly before returning her attention forward. He keeps his hand solid in hers, waiting patiently for her to share her thoughts.

“I got some offers this week. At other hospitals.”

He’s been wondering about that. St. Bonaventure’s offer had been a no-brainer. But he’d been worried that it won’t be enough. He’s still worried.

“Of course, you have. You’re brilliant,” he teases. It makes Claire smile and he’s glad for that. “Where?” he finally asks.

She pauses. “UCSF.”

UCSF doesn’t surprise him. It’s her alma mater and the medical center is excellent. They know how to snatch up the best talent.

He can hear her take a deep breath before continuing. “And Johns Hopkins.”

Neil slows his pace for the briefest of moments in surprise before continuing down the path beside her.

That is a shock. Baltimore? Claire all the way across the country? Is she that eager for a fresh start away from San Jose? Away from him?

He wonders if this is Audrey’s doing and can’t help the familiar resentment about how much closer Claire is to Lim as a mentor. Once upon a time, he’d imagined steering her through these decisions himself.

But he doesn’t want to make her feel bad for wanting choices. For having choices. And good ones.

“Those are great options.”

“Yeah,” she replies. “A lot to think about.”

He can feel his heart racing at this news. She’s opened the door to the topic. Does this mean she’s open to talking it through with him?

“Is there a particular direction you’re leaning toward? Anything you want to talk through? As your … colleague, of course.” Right now, it didn’t do any good to draw attention to the fact that he’s still her boss.

Claire groans. “I don’t know. I’m just as confused now as I was two days ago.” She glances at him again, her lips turned up in a smile. “For different reasons.” He returns her grin. It gives him a little hope.

“Johns Hopkins is more money, more high profile. And it might be good for my career to broaden my connections.”

“True.”

“I’ve spent my whole life here. It hasn’t been the greatest life, but it’s what I know. It’ll be hard to jump into something that different.” She shakes her head. “Maybe that’s a good thing, I don’t know.”

Neil nods, understanding her indecision. “I get that.”

“UCSF would be amazing. But it’s the research track. It sounds exciting. I’d get in on some innovative surgeries and be at the forefront of pushing the field. At the same time, I know that the level of writing and teaching they’re expecting isn’t always that interesting to me – not like it is for Morgan. I like all the options I have now. Between the clinic and treatment centers, I spend most of my time with patients, which is why I chose St. Bonaventure."

“I like that about it too,” he says smiling. "You're great at both, though. It's a rare quality."

They pass a lookout point and stop to rest on a bench that’s set up to enjoy the view. Neil settles next to her, resting his arm loosely around her shoulders.

“I also wonder if staying at St. Bonaventure is taking the safe route. Sticking with what I know instead of pushing myself.” She turns to him. “Did you ever feel that way?” she asks, shyly but with genuine curiosity.

Neil thinks back to that time in his life. It seems like yesterday, but he can’t deny how much time has passed.

“I got an offer at the Mayo Clinic. One of the other Attendings I'd worked with and gotten along with transferred and lobbied for me to join him after I finished my residency. I struggled with some of the same questions you are right now.”

Claire looks surprised. Strange that he’d never shared that with her. “What made you decide to stay in San Jose?”

He’d forgotten how crazy that time was for him. How disruptive and confusing the choice. It had been an easy one for him, though.

“I didn’t want to move so far away from my family and Gabi. And I didn’t want to upend Gabi by taking her with me. I’d worked hard for my place and St. Bonaventure. There were times I swore Glassman was going to kick me out.” They both chuckle. “I wanted to see where the experience took me.”

Claire nods, retreating back into her silent thoughts.

“Plus, the thought of moving somewhere that cold sounded awful.” He enjoys hearing Claire’s laugh ring out into the open space in front of them. “Not to mention I couldn’t just let Lim take over. We’d worked up too good a rivalry.”

“Now that I can believe.” Claire’s giggles die down as she stares out at the beautiful view. “I’m afraid of making the wrong choice and being miserable.”

Neil turns from his examination of the landscape back to her beautiful face. He recognizes the uncertainty and indecision. He wishes he had the perfect thing to say to her.

“Claire, maybe it doesn’t have to be that complicated. You should do what you think will make you happy. You deserve to be happy.”

Her attention returns to him. She slowly gives him a sweet smile that he loves. Maybe he’s said the right thing after all.

"I sometimes have trouble accepting that. Thank you for reminding me." She scoots closer into his embrace and wraps her arm around him. “I’m glad we’ll get to drive back together. I know we have a lot to talk about. We'll have the uninterrupted time to do that.”

He nods, recognizing her words for the understatement they are. There’s still a lot of feelings to wade through, a lot of hurt to confront and fears to address. He’s still her boss, at least for another stretch of weeks. Nothing about them being together will be easy, no matter her decision.

Well, nothing except the clarity of his feelings for her. And hers for him it seems.

He takes her hand, caressing her talented fingers with his. He’d thought he’d never get to do this. Now he wants nothing else but to hold onto it.

They sit in this spot for a while, her head on his shoulder, his arm around her, his fingers skimming the bare skin of her arm. As the shadows grow longer, they take one last look at the gorgeous view they've been allowed to enjoy in solitude, making it feel as if all this tranquility is meant for them. They return to the trail and slowly make their way back to the main estate.

Soon after they settle in on the patio with some tea, Tasha and Joe return with dinner and they spend the evening with the remaining guests, joking and relaxing. Miguel and Tasha load up their car to do the four hour drive back to San Jose tonight rather than deal with the traffic in the morning. They all give each other warm hugs before they take off, promising to get together soon when they’re all recovered.

They end up having post-dinner drinks and coffee with Joe, Katie, Brandon, Gwen, and her sisters. Neil regrets that he didn’t get to spend more time with Genie, Margo, and Lily over the weekend. They seem like nice ladies – though so different from each other for being in the same family. They play cards for a while with Lily and Brandon cleaning up. But soon enough, the sisters and other guests begin to retire for the night. When Claire yawns into her hand and stretches, he nudges her and suggests they start making their way out too. They leave Brandon and Katie refereeing Gwen and Joe as they fight about some childhood controversy.

Neil’s not sure what’ll happen when they return to his room. Will she want to stick to his couch or share his bed? If they share the bed will they continue their explorations from this morning?

They haven’t at all talked about their earlier make-out session or the possibility of continuing what they’d started. He’d been playful with her but not pushy. His only expectation is that they don’t find themselves going backwards now that they’ve accepted this precious thing between them.

“What a weekend,” Claire says, leaning into Neil as they arrive back to the cottage.

Before they go inside, she kisses him softly, squeezing the hand holding hers. He smiles, having a little bit of hope that they’ll work it out no matter how far they take things.

She’s worth the effort of finding a way to be together. Worth the long distance if it comes to that. Maybe even worth the relocation if it’s something they both want.

When they reach his room, they chat a little about logistics for the drive home. They agree to squeeze in a side-trip in the morning to stay out of the early traffic – that way they won’t have to get up at the crack of dawn. Neil wants to show her the beach he’d visited the day before with the rest of the wedding party. Claire teases him about how annoyed he’ll be if they get sand in his pristine car.

As they pack their things and then get ready for bed, Neil notices how comfortable it all seems. They go about their nightly activities as if they’ve been doing it for years. There’s none of the urgency from this morning’s desire, though that desire is still very much there. He’s madly attracted to her still. It’s mostly that her earlier reveal has made things a little heavy.

She grabs her burgundy nightgown and toiletry bag and heads to the bathroom to go through her bedtime ritual.

“You need any help in there,” he asks, testing the waters. Although he senses they’re both cooled off from earlier, he’s not opposed to starting things up again if she’s game.

Claire’s stops to kiss him briefly on her way. “If my nightgown gets tangled or anything, you’ll be the first I call for help.”

She closes the bathroom door and he hears the water running and various items rustling around. He changes out of his clothes and into his sleeping pants. He’s rearranging items in his suitcase when she reemerges, her hair down again and spilling around her shoulders and against the thin nightgown.

God, he hopes she chooses to share the bed with him tonight. There so much of her he wants to get his hands on right now, even if they’re not having sex.

“You are ridiculous,” she says, noticing him again repacking things in his suitcase. “The world isn’t going to end if everything isn’t perfectly folded.”

“Says the woman who pretty much balled everything up and threw it in her suitcase.” In response, she balls up her discarded shirt from earlier and throws it at him. “See, it’s the only technique you know,” he jokes, throwing the shirt back at her.

She laughs and places it in her suitcase – unfolded – and closes it up. The clothes she’s pulled out to wear the next day are set on top. Satisfied with her preparations she walks silently toward him. He automatically opens his arms to her.

“So, I’m thinking that it’s a little chillier than last night. Maybe you’d be willing to share this big bed of yours with me? I know you’ve had to put up with so much of me this weekend – sharing your room, your car. Maybe this is a step too far.” She’s let her arms skim his bare chest to rest around his shoulders, tickling the nape of his neck.

He tightens his arms around her. “I might be persuaded. What was it you were saying earlier about your skills in that area?”

She giggles. “My powers might be too much for you. Even sharing a bed could lead to some trouble.”

“I’m not afraid of a little trouble,” he says, capturing her lips in a slow, exploring kiss.

Claire’s soft moans do all kinds of wonderful things to his body. She pulls back and runs her a hand up and down his chest. “I guess we should be careful then. Something tells me that things could get a little … enthusiastic in bed when you’re involved. I don’t think Joe and Katie would appreciate that.”

For Neil, the farthest thing from his mind right now are any thoughts of Joe or Katie or supposed inconveniences over him ravishing this lovely woman in his arms.

But he can’t help but tease her back as he places a string of kisses along her neck. “You might be right. Plus, I think you'll get a little loud yourself if I have my way. And I can’t have you waking up the whole household while you enjoy that.”

He sees her hold in a gasp of pleasure as her eyes smolder into his. She leans in to kiss him once more and he lets his hands wander more liberally, not that any of this is helping their situation.

Breaking off after a few delicious moments, he guides Claire to the bed and watches her climb in. She scoots over and waits for him to join her. Instead of continuing their make-out session, he opens his arm to her. She doesn't hesitate to fall into him as they hold each other, Claire's leg entwined with his. While he certainly enjoys the physical desire they’re building, this simple intimacy feels powerful. It’s more than enough.

Though, he can’t wait to reap the benefits of getting her alone and in his bed back at home, away from prying ears and nosy cottage-mates.

“How about a wager?” she says as the hand resting at his chest brushes against his tattoo. “If I get up before you, I get to drive part of the way home.”

Neil laughs, idly caressing her back. “That’s what they call a sucker’s bet. Unless this morning was all part of your master plan and you’re trying to play me.”

Claire burrows her face into him, still a little embarrassed by her behavior. Her hair spills across them, pleasantly tickling his bare skin. He wonders if she left it down again because she likes the way he buries his fingers in her curls to massage her scalp. Her softness against him feels perfect, his hand fitting comfortably in the deep curve of her waist.

When she reemerges, she moves her hair out of the way so it's not bothering him. “Maybe race for it at the beach?” she offers.

“Dream on,” Neil says with a grin.

They listen to the sounds of the trees rustling outside. He’d have liked to leave the balcony doors open for the breeze, but it felt a little too chilly when they came in.

“Why’d you get this tattoo anyway?” she asks, her hand resting against the image. “You mentioned the other one on your arm was a college thing. But you’ve never said anything about this one.”

“Maybe I haven’t told you because you called it creepy.”

Claire laughs. She’d said that to him when they’d been treating the Kunkler twins – Jenny had made fun of it while Katie played the diplomat. It’s something joyful to remember in an otherwise sad memory of losing such a bright, lovely young woman. Yet it’s also the first time he remembers talking with Claire as a friend, even if he’d been pretty inappropriate about it.

“Neil, there’s so much antler. It’s completely unnecessary.”

“It’s to scale. And you’re wrong, it looks rugged and cool. All the ladies say so. Except you.”

Claire rests her chin against his chest to look him in the eye. “Well, I think that if you want to keep snuggling with this lady, you might want to be nicer to me. Or I can go find Nancy if you’d like a warmer reception for your deer-friend.” Neil pinches her hip; Claire remains undeterred. “I bet she’d be all ‘Neil, your tattoo is so hot!’ while it judges her with its beady eyes.”

“Oh, so now you’ve given my tattoo a whole personality? Are you going to name him now?"

“He doesn’t have a name?” Claire asks, her eyes aglow in humor.

“No, you weirdo. But I do think you and my deer-friend could get quite close if you keep an open mind.” He moves her hand to cover the imprint and then feels her fingers trace along the antlers.

“That means you have to make the proper introductions,” she replies. More seriously, she adds, “I am curious about it. If you don’t mind sharing.”

Neil leans down to kiss her softly. As he raises up, he moves a few strands of hair that have fallen across her eye.

“You make a good point.” He lays his hand on top of hers against the tattoo. “This was drawn by a good friend, Robbie. I grew up with him and he passed away right before college. He’d been headed to art school. It was his way of getting out of our terrible neighborhood and away from the violence his brother had gotten caught up in and killed for. Robbie and I had a pact that we wouldn’t let the same fate get us. But two months before he was supposed to leave for New York, he died from a sudden aortic aneurysm.”

“Neil, I had no idea. I’m so sorry.” She reaches up to run her fingers through his hair, a soothing gesture.

He squeezes her to him. “It’s okay. It was a long time ago. And I like that I have this to remember him by. I have some of his other art displayed at my house. He had such a raw talent. Looking at it helps me get through the tough times, knowing that I’m succeeding for the both of us.

She’s returned to resting her head against his chest, and he can feel her smile against him. “Succeeding by becoming one of the best cardiothoracic surgeons in the country. That’s amazing, Neil. And it definitely helps with the creepiness of that deer.” Her honesty makes him laugh. He loves being with her like this.

“You could get a tattoo too, he says, now tracing patterns into her shoulder.”

She laughs. “Like matching ones? You are such a sap!”

“No, not matching ones. Any one. You could get a flower,” he says tracing that pattern along her back. “Or a symbol, or a lyric.” He drags his finger along her shoulder as if writing. “Whatever’s meaningful to you.”

She scrunches up her face. “Sounds painful. I’ll leave that to you.”

“Well, it is painful. But it’d look really sexy on you.” She pokes him gently in his chest. “I’ll hold your hand if you like.”

She shakes her head. “I’ll keep that in mind. Now I did have a nose piercing in college. It looked very cool.”

Neil tries to imagine that and can agree that it probably did look cool. “You’ll have to show me some pictures when we’re back home.”

Although he loves the feel of her smooth bare back against his fingers, he moves his hand to once again tangle in her hair. He’s thinking about lying here with her, how nice it feels, how inevitable. Like something that can last if they let it. He knows that he’s hurt her, made her doubt herself and his affection for her. His love – though he’s sure she’s not ready to hear that. But he can’t let this slip through his fingers.

“Hey, Claire?” She looks up at him, a question in her expression. “I know we have a lot to talk about, and I want to listen and hear what you want for yourself. Especially for your career. I know I have a lot to make up for.”

He caresses the side of her face with his thumb. “I just want you to know that I want you to stay. If not in San Jose, at least in the Bay Area. We’ll work it out whatever you decide. I mean that. But I don’t want you to doubt what I feel. After everything, I need to be clear and honest with you. I’m not saying it to pressure you. I’m saying it to let you know where I stand.”

Claire rests her head against his chest again. “Thank you for saying that,” she whispers against him skin. Her warm breath drifting over him is a comfort. After a few minutes, she presses her lips to his chest next to the tattoo.

"Maybe we should name him Edgar." She looks up at him to gauge his reaction. He's amused to see the mirth she's trying to hold in. Soon they're both giggling into each other.

"We can test it out," Neil replies. "See if he likes it. I think he could get used to it." They break into another round of laughter.

When they both settle down and catch their breath, he palms her face to guide her in for another kiss. She returns it easily as they let the waves of simmering desire roll over them. At one point she practically crawls on top of him to deepen their kiss, her tongue sweeping against his and the quiet sounds of their passion echoing softly in the room. He moans into her mouth as his hands explore down her back, along her hips where her nightgown is steadily riding up, and against her perfectly shaped backside. She pulls away before things get out of hand, but stays close. It's late, and they both could use a full night's rest.

Now back to lying next to him, she loops her arm around him fully. Her hands rest against his side, occasionally brushing against the ridges of the muscles along his stomach.

"G'night," she says into his shoulder.

Neil kisses the top of her head. "See you in the morning when I win that bet by getting up before you." She laughs drowsily and settles again.

Minutes later, holding each other like this is how they fall asleep.

TBC...

Chapter 11

Chapter Text

Claire cracks her eyes open. Judging by the dim light seeping through a split in the curtains, she’s guessing it’s still pretty early.

As much as she’d love to win her bet with Neil, there’s no way she’s getting up before the sun again. Her foggy brain senses Neil next to her as she tries to lull herself back to sleep. He’s breathing softly, still sleeping deeply. Curled up on her side facing him, she smiles at the reality of laying here next to him like this. She’d spent part of the night using him as a body pillow before they’d shifted apart, though she felt him embrace her again after her short trip to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

Yesterday things between them had started playfully, fighting over her blanket and teasing each other about their pajama wedding attire. But as the morning went on and they’d found themselves alone and isolated in that pantry and then in the cottage away from the rest of the guests, the situation had escalated quickly. Their attraction bubbled over after so many years of yearning – and being that turned on, well, it was hard to turn it off. It wasn’t just one flirty comment or lingering touch. It was the acceptance of what they both at different times in their relationship had wanted on some level. Letting themselves fall into that felt inevitable.

There’s no doubt that given a few more minutes alone downstairs yesterday, the guests would have had to do without the champagne for a while.

She would have very much enjoyed hooking up with him yesterday, but she didn't regret their cooling off period. Spending the afternoon napping with him, walking through the gardens, enjoying a peaceful stretch of moments in a beautiful oasis just the two of them, that had its own magic. And finally sharing with Neil the status of her job offers made what they’re feeling seem all the more meaningful. It was her saying that she’s willing to forgive and to move on, maybe with him. She hadn’t prepared for how good it would feel afterwards. How liberating.

They’d retired together back to his room, easily maneuvering around each other to settle into bed. She loved that Neil couldn’t resist kissing her when teased, testing that attraction that pulsed like a steady heartbeat whenever they got near each other. She’d seriously considered letting that heat swell into something more as they traded innuendo of how good they’d be together in the privacy of their own space. Neil had pulled away like a gentlemen. They'd genuinely been tired from the early start to the day. He guided her into bed and remained content to simply hold her.

She wonders what it would be like to feel that every night. And how hard that'd be to make happen from Baltimore. He’d stripped his emotions bare when he'd asked her to stay, free of expectation.

Yet one blissful weekend with Neil isn’t enough for her to abandon her options, they both know that. She appreciates him even more for understanding it. And he’d opened up more to her too about his childhood and his awful tattoo that she could learn to appreciate after hearing the story behind it. She smiles thinking of how she'd randomly named it - and his pipe dream of thinking she'd ever get one herself.

She'll have to buy Gwen a drink for orchestrating the long car ride back where she and Neil can talk about where they stand.

As Claire burrows under the covers, she recalls her amused response to Gwen’s request. If she didn’t know better, she’d suspect a setup. But she hasn’t been so wrapped up in Neil not to notice the situation brewing between Brandon and Gwen. Who knows what could come from it – Brandon lives in New York after all. At the very least, a little fling will probably do both of them some good. Gwen’s such a wonderful free spirit who deserves a nice man who'll treat her right. And a serious guy like Brandon might welcome the joie de vivre that Gwen specializes in.

So, thanks to her friend, she gets to spend another day with Neil. They'll take the long way home as they soak up the last of their long weekend. She’s very much looking forward to it.

She drifts off into a doze. Some time later, movement beside her nudges her back into consciousness. She’d flipped over onto her other side, and now Neil has once again draped an arm around her. He has his face buried into her hair, idly nuzzling into the nape of her neck.

Claire grins, her eyes still closed. “I see you’re resorting to dirty tricks to keep me from winning that bet.” She feels his laughter vibrate along her back where he's pressed against her.

“I’m not worried about that.” He brushes a few strands of hair off her forehead. “Technically, you already lost because I just got up to go to the bathroom. You were knocked out, you didn’t move a muscle the entire time.”

“That doesn’t count because you got back in bed. The bet is still on.”

Neil’s hand is wandering from where it had lain at her waist. He’s drawing his fingers along the barely covered swell of her hip and across her stomach. Encouraged by the way she melts back into his arms, he moves his hand underneath the hem of her nightgown.

“I guess I’ll just have to distract you,” he says, kissing the smile at her cheek.

“You really are awake,” Claire jokes, turning her head to offer him her lips. Neil dives in, slipping his tongue against hers immediately. She hums in satisfaction to feel the heat of him surrounding her and the bold arousal she can feel growing more insistent against her. “You must have had a good sleep,” she says continuing to pepper his lips with lingering tastes of him.

“I did,” he agrees. “Good wake-up call, too.”

He guides her onto her back and lets his hand travel higher underneath her gown. He caresses her body as he hovers at her side, enjoying their sleepy, lingering kisses and rapidly building excitement. Her body trembles as his fingers pass along her ribs, up her torso and finally palming one of her breasts. Claire's breath quickens as he brushes a thumb across her stiffened nipple before squeezing her gently in his hand.

As much as she hates falling for such a morning person, she can’t bring herself to mind it now.

Neil touches her intently as he kisses along her neck and across her cheek. Easing off of her a bit, he chuckles into her ear as his hand retreats back to her waist.

“I didn’t mean to jump you like this first thing.”

Claire laughs too. “You couldn’t help yourself?”

“Oh, I can control myself. I just didn’t want to.” He nuzzles into her again. “But I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

Smiling, Claire reaches up to kiss him again. “I’m good. Speaking of wake-up calls, though, it looks like you’re okay with giving Joe and Katie one seeing as how you're starting trouble?”

“I know how to be quiet. Do you?” His hand lingers along the trim of her panties.

“Unlike you probably, I’ve had more practice. I did work the overnight shift at the campus library in college. I’ve mastered the art of the discrete rendezvous. That’s why you didn’t know Jared and I were hooking up for weeks.”

Neil winces. “Uh, I did know, I just didn’t say anything. Jared was a terrible liar. And you know what what’s not hot? Talking about your ex-boyfriends during early morning make-out sessions.” He dips a few fingers beneath the waistband of her panties, pausing to circle her belly button. “What’s a guy gotta do to get some attention in this bed?”

Claire grins, reaching up to tousle his unruly morning hair. “You’re right of course, my apologies. Though, I rather like this eager version of you.” She’d been more than happy to postpone sex with him last night in favor of the comfortable intimacy they’d fallen into. But the way he’s touching her, and the desire he’s making no effort to hide, are quite compelling. “You’re being so attentive that I might have to return the favor.”

She turns to face him, letting her hand trail down his torso to dip into the loose pants he’d worn to bed. Even though he has to know her intentions, he gasps in pleasure anyway as she strokes him with steady, sure fingers. Her lips meet his again, capturing the sound in the quiet of the room.

“And I’m supposed to be the loud one?” she says, pulling back.

This time it’s Claire kissing him along the enticing line of his throat as he plunges his hand in her hair to keep her close. She loves how easily she's turned the tables on him, how willingly he's gone along with it. It arouses her beyond belief. And now she really does want to make him burn for her as much she does for him in this moment.

“Tell me, Neil, have you imagined us like this before?”

Neil guides her back to his lips. The hand gripping him slows to a maddening tease judging by the intensity of his mouth against hers.

“So many times,” he whispers against her lips. Claire trembles at the admission, now stroking him with more tension. He moans in approval.

Claire again plants soft kisses along his cheek to his ear, watching the thrill of his pleasure warring with his fight to maintain control. It makes her surrender to the moment even more.

“I like that you think of me.” She’s now pressed against him, her breasts sensitive to the feel of his hard chest. Only the thin silk of her nightgown separates their heated skin. One of her bare leg wraps around his thigh as his hips press harder against her hand touching him.

Her heart knows that those longings aren't one-sided. Even before they became friends, she’d reluctantly and then not so reluctantly invited images of him into her fantasies. The thought of being with him like this started as a forbidden vision and progressed to the kind of wishful thinking for which she chastised herself. Yet she did it again and again. She’d never gotten him out of her system.

She kisses his cheek sweetly, now unashamed of these desires. “I think of you too. When I touch myself.”

Something about that confession undoes him. He quickly reaches for her hand and removes it from where she's stroked him to hardness. He holds her hand to his chest, breathing as if he’s just come out of a sprint.

He chuckles as he tries to get himself under control. “And I'm the one causing trouble?”

Their eyes meet and instead of turning away again, Neil dives in for more. He doesn’t give her a chance to further entice him. Instead, he dips his hand back underneath her nightgown and pulls it up and over her head. He tosses it and wastes no time pressing her back into the bed so he can trail his lips down to her now bare breasts.

It’s Claire's turn to gasp as Neil lavishes her with insistent pleasures. His hands test her with a pinch or a squeeze to her breasts after his tongue has coaxed her nipples to a peak. He watches her every reaction as he bites and licks he way down her body. He carefully peels off her panties, letting his fingers and mouth tease her for an achingly brief time before moving on. After what seems like ages later, he’s once again in range to devour her mouth as the press of his bare chest to hers shoots daggers of sensation into every limb.

“You’re overdressed,” she mumbles into his mouth. She slips her hands back beneath the waistband of his pants and boxers to grip his backside.

“Mmm, I can fix that.” But he doesn’t move from above her just yet. He brushes her hair off her face and kisses her softly. “Are we doing this?” His smile is eager but hesitant, prepared to ease off but gazing at her as if it’s the absolute last thing he wants to do.

She pauses to take in his sweetness, his consideration. His open desire for her tempered by an even greater need for this to be what they both want. She realizes that no matter what happens between them, she wants to surrender to this moment and these memories. In the midst of her other uncertainties, this feels absolutely right.

Claire reaches up to cup his cheek, and grins wickedly. “Well, I am already naked. It’d be a shame to waste your hard work getting me this way."

Chuckling, Neil buries his face in her neck, kissing her there before sitting up. He crawls out of the bed and disappears into the bathroom to presumably access his travel stash of condoms. Claire turns on her side, propping her head up with her arm.

When he returns, he smoothly steps out of his pants and boxers as she watches. She lets her eyes linger over every delicious part of him. Biting her lip, she savors the way he confidently showcases himself, hard for her and unembarrassed about it. His eyes also take her in as she reclines on full display for him.

“I’m starting to think you’re a bit of a voyeur,” Neil jokes, climbing back into the bed and taking her in his arms.

Claire gladly welcomes him back into her embrace. “I think you like the way I’m looking at you,” she says. “The way I’m touching you.” She runs her hands across his shoulder and down his back, against his ass and along his hips pressing boldly into her.

“I do. I really do,” Neil confirms. “I guess we’ll have to save the more ‘enthusiastic’ parts of this for when we’re back home.” He moves once again to her breasts, kissing and nipping at one while he fondles the other in his eager hand.

Clutching his shoulder, she runs her fingers through his hair and bites at her lips to hold in a moan threatening to spill out. Instead, she hums quietly, enjoying the sensation of his mouth on her, tongue and teeth and fingers bringing her such amazing sensations.

“And what will you do with me once you have me all alone in that big house of yours.”

She shivers at the feel of Neil’s breathy laughter against her sensitive nipples. “I’m sure I’ll think of something.”

Claire urges him to crawl back up her body, guiding him onto his back so she can straddle him. Her hair spills around them and even in the dim room, she can see how aroused he is looking up at her above him. As he grips her hips, she leans down and captures his mouth, kissing him while she grabs the condom from the nightstand.

“So definitely doing it in the bed. Maybe the bathtub? You probably have a great one.” Neil nods, grinning at the idea. “And the couch is a no-brainer.”

After putting the condom on him, she guides him inside of her, her head resting at his shoulder as they both regain their senses from how good it feels to be joined. Neil clutches the back of her neck as she exhales hot breaths against his chest. As soon as she begins rocking against him, the first strangled moan escapes his lips, quiet but intense. She guides one of his hands to her breasts again, but he needs no encouragement to continue pleasuring her.

She grins down at him, driving him wild with the slow winding of her hips against him. “Maybe not the kitchen. You seem too neat for sex in the kitchen. Dining room table too,” she chuckles. “Such a shame.”

His hand at her hip tightens as she holds his gaze. There’s nothing he’s hiding from her right now. He’s breathless and openly aroused by her. Captivated. And she can’t tear her eyes from him either as she moves against him, feeling the weight of his hands all over her. When he leans up to kiss and then lick one of her nipples, she clenches around him and is rewarded with a groan he muffles into her chest. He loosens his hand at her hip and she slows her rocking to help him get a hold of himself. He reaches over to stroke her at her core, and she closes her eyes tightly at the sensation.

Because she’s so lost in her own pleasure, she doesn’t notice him sit up to press his hands across her back and against her ass. He flips them over, her head now at the foot of the bed. After adjusting her legs around him, he slowly thrusts back into her, absorbing her gasp with an open-mouthed kiss.

His movements aren’t powerful thrusts, but a satisfying deep and slow grind, mindful of the quiet cottage and their neighbors downstairs. Claire releases his mouth to catch her breath. She tosses her head to the side in abandon and Neil immediately buries his face in her throat.

One hand back at her breast and another holding tightly to her hip as he ravishes her, Neil kisses his way up to her ear. “When we do this back home, I’m going to take you wherever we like. Kitchen. Dining room table. In the middle of the day on the patio so I can make love to you in full sunlight.”

Claire can’t fully register how both romantic and erotic that idea sounds to her. She’d seen his patio and knows it’s got floor to ceiling windows. Something about being that exposed as he makes love to her is exciting.

“Maybe in the foyer against the front doors,” she offers, breathless.

Neil smiles, his eyes closed above her as if picturing it. “Stairs, too,” he adds.

When he opens his eyes again, his smoldering stare burns directly into her. She can tell he’s getting close. His strokes are more insistent and erratic. She sweeps her hands across his chest, teasing one of his nipples, and he looks almost pained by the pleasure he’s feeling.

And she can barely think as her excitement builds the deeper he pushes into her, now holding her leg along his back as he experiments with a different angle. Claire pulls him down to her, eager to feel as much of his warm, solid body against hers as possible. Soft yet insistent sighs of pleasure escape her lips as she nears her climax. Neil is whispering sweet encouragement in her ear. He tells her how good she feels, challenges her to let go and then pleads for her to come for him.

She’s the first to go over, wave after wave of sensation throbbing through her. His hand is in her hair, his mouth hovering above hers to muffle her moans by kissing her senseless through her org*sm. Neil fights his release as her body clenches around him until he can no longer hold back. As he spasms against her, she utters four words into his ear that has him gripping her, unable to let her go.

“You're all I need,” she says.

Her fingers plunge into his hair and she guides him into the crook of her neck as he gasps his release hotly against her sweat-damp skin. And then she holds him in her embrace long past their climax.

Claire can’t tell how long it is before they release each other. She only remembers lying against the cushion of the bed's comforter enjoying the weight of Neil atop her. Eventually, he moves off her, leaving the bed to probably discard the condom. But he returns quickly to maneuver her back under the covers and into his arms.

“Don’t let it go to your head, but I feel so good,” she says. Her body continues to pulse with a steady hum of pleasure. Her eyes are closed, and she can’t believe how warm and comfortable Neil feels right now against her.

Once again, she thinks how hard it would be to enjoy this from Baltimore.

“I’d never betray my humble nature by taking a great deal of satisfaction in that,” he mumbles from where he’s nuzzling into her hair. Claire drowsily chuckles knowing that ‘humble’ and ‘Neil Melendez’ are rarely ever considered together in one sentence. “You make me feel good too,” he admits, now running his fingers up her arm and across her bare shoulder.

They continue to cuddle together in bed. At some point she dozes off again and is jostled awake by the feel of Neil reaching for his phone to check the time.

Claire turns over to do the same thing on the other side of the bed, but before she can get too far, Neil has her in his arms again.

“Oh no you don’t. I know you’re still trying to win your silly bet.”

She giggles and pretends to struggle in his arms. “And you’re cheating by trying to keep me in bed so you don’t have to share.”

Neil kisses her shoulder. “I’m trying to keep you in bed because you’re naked and beautiful and I like having you all to myself right now.” He captures her lips in a searing kiss. When he pulls back, he traces her smile with one finger. “Winning the bet is just icing.”

Claire shoves him away and tries to get out of the bed again, but Neil’s too quick. He pulls her back and then pins her down, one wrist in each of his hands as he straddles her hips.

Raising an eyebrow at his position, Claire grins up at him wickedly. “Oh, so we’re going there. She moves her hips against him, teasing him and noticing the clouded lust now filling his eyes.

He leans down and kisses her again. “So much trouble in such a tiny package. What are we going to do about that?” He’s still holding her wrists and grinds into her in retaliation causing her to murmur her approval into his mouth.

The sound of a door slamming downstairs shocks them both into alertness. A loud laugh that sounds suspiciously like Gwen breaks their sexy spell.

Neil lets go of Claire and climbs off of her, offering her one last peck on the lips. She groans at the unwelcome coolness of his absence and frowns as he crawls out of bed to grab his boxers. Finally, able to check the time, she groans again knowing that they need to get up and get ready if they want to have enough time to linger at the beach.

They behave themselves for the most part as they do their final packing and get ready to leave. Neil offers to share a shower with her, but she smacks him in the arm for his horny request. They both know exactly what they’ll get into under such a circ*mstance. Instead, Neil jumps in first while Claire runs downstairs to get coffee.

In the kitchen, Joe and Gwen are chatting as he makes his own cup of coffee.

“Good morning,” Claire says, grabbing two cups from the cabinet and waits for Joe to surrender the full pot.

“Is it?” Joe asks. “Because how good can it be when it was so quiet upstairs last night,” Joe teases. “Not a peep out of you and Neil. And things looked so promising after my genius plan got you some alone time.” He shakes his head as if he’s disappointed for her. Gwen chuckles next to him.

“As you know, Neil is a perfect gentleman. We had just as much fun talking and falling asleep.”

Joe and Gwen exchange a look. “These are the lamest lovebirds I’ve ever seen, Joey,” Gwen says. “Now Claire, I can understand because she’s the least romantic person I’ve ever met. But I thought Dr. Neil would have more game.”

“I know!” Joe says. “It’s such a pity. I'm embarrassed for him, really.”

Claire rolls her eyes and pours coffee for her and Neil, adding sugar and milk to his. “And what are you doing here this morning, Gwen? Or do I want to know.” She looks around for Brandon but figures he’s still in his room judging by the closed door.

“I’m on official business from my mom to recruit Joey to help pack the cars up. He and Brandon are going to give her a hand. I know you and Neil are leaving soon so didn’t want to bother you.”

Claire shrugs. “Neil’s in the shower now and pretty much ready to go. I can send him too while I get ready. That way we can all see each other before we head out.”

“Sounds good,” Gwen says.

“He’ll meet you out front in fifteen minutes?” Claire grabs her coffee mugs to leave. “And by the way, you shouldn’t tease Neil for being such a gentleman last night. He more than made up for it this morning.” She winks at Joe and Gwen and backs out of the room to head back upstairs.

“Oh no she didn’t!” she hears Joe exclaim after her. “I like her!” Claire chuckles as she returns to the room.

The shower is turned off when she closes the bedroom door behind her and sets her coffee on the nightstand. Tapping on the bathroom door, she hands Neil his mug, explaining about her volunteering him to help pack up the bridesmaids’ cars. She lets her gaze linger at the sight of him in only a towel. He kisses her in thanks and laughs at her ogling.

Neil and his things are already gone when she gets out of the shower. She quickly dresses and gathers her suitcase to follow, double checking that she hasn’t forgotten anything.

Before she heads out the door, her eyes sweep across the room. The balcony curtains are open and she can glimpse the view beyond the french doors. The extra pillow and blankets are still stacked neatly on the couch from the comfortable night’s sleep she had there. She then lets her eyes rest on the messy bed, the sheets still askew and pillows awry. It makes her smile.

She doubts either she or Neil will soon forget all that had happened between them in this room.

There are a few people milling about when she enters the main house with her suitcase. Everyone looks relaxed and happy. Some are lounging about with coffee or tea or a simple breakfast. Others are saying their last goodbyes before heading out.

Claire has almost reached the front door when she senses someone at her side.

“Well, hello there,” Nancy says. Her smile is wide and cryptic. She’s looking perfectly made up and chipper. Claire looks around to see if the woman could possibly be talking to someone else in the room.

“Uh hi,” Claire says. They’re standing in the foyer, Claire eyeing the door to see how quick a getaway she can make.

“We didn’t really get to talk over the weekend. My Neil speaks so highly of you, though. It would have been nice.”

Claire doubts that as she tries not to wince at this woman referring to Neil as hers. Claire's got the love bites still fresh across her body to dispute that fantasy of hers.

“Yeah, it was such a crazy weekend. I didn’t really know anyone and he was nice enough to introduce me around.”

“Hmm,” she responds. “I think he got plenty of nice with you judging by what I saw all weekend.” It’s not exactly catty, but it doesn’t seem entirely kind either.

Claire looks around again for an escape route, not sure how to take that. “Sure. Well, I should get going. I told Gwen I’d help her mom and sisters pack up.”

“Oh sure!” Nancy says, a little too forcefully. “You take care of that delicious man for me will you.” For a moment, she sees a flash of amusem*nt from the older woman. But Nancy’s on the move before Claire can properly register her true tone.

Shaking her head, Claire grabs her suitcase and goes in search of Neil. “So weird," she says under her breath.

She finds him walking back from the parking area chatting with Lily. When they catch up to each other, Lily waves and continues on into the house. Neil retraces his steps to guide her back to the parking area so she can stow her suitcase in his car. When he unlocks the trunk with his keys, she moves to try and swipe them.

“I don’t think so, young lady,” he says, laughing and pulling the keys out of her reach.

Smirking, Claire watches as he puts the keys in his pocket. She lets him take her bag for her and tuck it away in the trunk next to his. “Just you wait, Melendez. I’ll wear you down.”

Instead of exasperation, his eyes light up with arousal. “You can try. I look forward to it.” He plants a quick but sensual kiss to her lips and closes the trunk.

They head back to the house and say their goodbyes to everyone. Gwen pulls her aside and makes her promise to get lunch the next week so they can swap the details of their respective weekend connections. Katie invites Claire to a party she and Joe are throwing over the long weekend next month. Joe enthusiastically seconds the invitation by giving her a big hug.

As promised, their first stop is to the beach. They’ll spend a couple of hours enjoying the sun here and then drive home on the 101 until they’re ready for a late lunch. As they step out into the clean, salty air, Claire stands at the front of the car enjoying the moment. They’re both wearing casual shorts and light shirts, so they slip into flip flops and head toward the water, Neil carrying a blanket he grabbed from the trunk.

At first, they spread out the blanket and enjoy the breakfast sandwiches they'd picked up on the way. Next they take in the warmth and beauty of the ocean, chasing each other around as they threaten to splash each other. For a while, they walk hand-in-hand chatting about the weekend and the drive back.

“Can I ask you something,” Claire says to Neil. They’re still wandering right above the water line, the waves tickling their feet every now and again.

“Of course.” He rubs his thumb against her hand to let her know he’s listening when she’s ready.

Claire looks out into the endless depths of the water expanding into the horizon. “If I were to move to Baltimore, what happens to us. Be honest.”

She feels him tense next to her for a moment before he catches himself. That’s as much an answer as anything. He thinks about it for a few moments, and she appreciates that he’s not rushing or forcing a response.

“I think it’d be hard.” He says finally. Claire nods. “But I’d want to try.” He turns to her. “Call me a hopeless romantic, but we didn’t get to this moment to then throw up our hands and move on.” He sighs. “I made a choice two years ago that I never got over. I know we talked about what was going on with both of us then. But I didn’t tell you everything.”

This surprises her, but she listens intently.

“Yes, I was scared about the consequences of falling you, for our friendship and professionally. But I also backed away because I was scared of getting my heart broken again. And it influenced me more than I wanted to admit.”

That makes sense to her. She can’t blame him for it, and she has her own fears of commitment that have kept her running as her late friend Kayla had warned.

“Claire, I want you to consider Baltimore. Johns Hopkins is a great opportunity. And if that’s what you think is right for you then I’m not afraid of racking up a bunch of miles trying to make this work. People handle that kind of separation all the time. Marcus and his wife did.” Neil stopped to admire the view along the coast as another wave licked at their toes. He turns to face her and grasps both her hands as he meets her gaze. “Because if this is as real as I think it is, it’s not going to matter. I’ll just want to be with you, and I’m not going to care where that is.”

Claire looks down to hide the pleasure of hearing someone – to hear him – saying something like that to her. And saying it with conviction. She doesn’t doubt a word of what he’s revealed.

When she looks up, Neil’s gaze is still on her, a sincere smile tugging at his lips to match the earnestness of his words.

Claire drops one of his hands and gets them moving again. “San Francisco wouldn’t be a walk in the park either.”

Neil nods. “You’d have to move there. And you may as well be on the East Coast for how long that commute is," he laughs. "Honestly, I’d probably see you just as much under that scenario. Weekends only, if that."

It’s a slight exaggeration, but not by much. “You’re not wrong about that.”

“It’s a lot to think about, I know. But if we’re honest about what we want, we can do anything.”

Claire smiles at him. “I think so too.” She swings their hands a little between them. “I want you to be a part of my decision, whatever that ends up being.”

She can tell, he’s trying to reign in his overwhelming emotions hearing that. He drops her hand and pulls her to his side instead. She also wraps her arms around him as they continue to stroll along the beach.

Soon after, they clean themselves up as best as they can and return to the car. Claire teases him again about soiling his pristine Tesla, to which he responds that he’d be getting it cleaned as soon as they get back.

It’s a long but comfortable drive along the highway. The ride is filled with silly singing and conversation. They stop for lunch at a vineyard in Paso Robles and buy some wine to enjoy when they’re back in San Jose.

And in the most shocking turn of events for their weekend so far, he surprises her by holding his car keys out as they’re leaving the vineyard.

“It’s a pretty boring stretch. I guess you can’t do too much damage.”

Claire carefully reaches for the keys, not quite believing it. Sure enough, he snatches them away before she can grasp them.

“Just don’t go too fast. Or too slow.” He winces. "Maybe just stay in the right-hand lane.”

“Neil,” she says as if she’s talking to a child. “I’ve been driving a car successfully without an accident for a very long time.”

“Sure, you've driven some practical, ordinary car. But have you driven a car like this,” he asks, gesturing to his prize possession.

Claire shrugs. “A car’s a car.” She laughs at his genuinely incredulous reaction that statement.

“Okay, maybe this isn’t such a good idea.”

Unfortunately, he’s grousing so much that he’s not paying attention to her. She snatches the keys from him and practically skips to the driver’s side door. He reluctantly crawls into the passenger side. She can tell that watching her adjust all of his perfectly configured seat settings and mirrors makes him cringe.

Of course, once they hit the road, she also gets the sense that seeing her drive his car is also turning him on a little. Whenever she catches him checking her out, he chides her to keep her eyes on the road, grinning beside her and struggling to keep his hands to himself.

They talk a little more about their relationship and what they want. He listens as she explains about the fine pint to all her job options. After they dissect UCSF and Johns Hopkins, they recogniz that St. Bonaventure has its baggage and its benefits, too. If they’re together, it’ll be gossip-fodder for sure. They’ll have to deal with HR and juggling their schedules.v That brings them back to the next steps for their relationship.

Thinking on how honest and open he’s been with her all weekend, she lets him know clearly and unequivocally that she wants to try to make it work too. He makes her pull over when she says that so he can kiss her senseless as they sit parked on the side of the road.

And then he insists they switch drivers again. Claire rolls her eyes, but relents.

They spend the rest of the trip grinning like idiots and holding hands when they can.

Even though they both have to work the next day, he invites her to his place where he makes her dinner and they watch the sun set from his indoor patio. After a dessert of ice cream he’s been hoarding in the back of his freezer, he carries her to his bedroom and they make love again in his bed. Neil calls it ‘spot number one’ and promises her that he’s going to keep count.

As she falls into a blissful slumber, naked and satisfied in his arms again, she feels lighter than she has in years.

TBC...

Chapter 12

Chapter Text

Epilogue - Part I

From his side of the bed, Neil hears the soft, steady sound of the shower running. It makes him smile, the weirdness of Claire being up before him. But it’s an unavoidable consequence of their situation so she can get herself where she needs to be on time.

It’s been a crazy weekend. He hadn't hung out like that with Joe and the rest of the gang in a while. But finding a new way to have fun with Claire had been the best part. It’s one of those times where you don’t fully realize what you’re missing until it hits you over the head. And Claire’s presence had been one hell of an anvil.

They'd used their time together throughout the weekend to talk honestly with each other. Neither expects the progression of their relationship to be easy.

He looks at the clock at his bedside and sees that they have plenty of time before she needs to head out. There’s a sliver of light peeking out from a crack in the doorway of the bathroom. He wonders if she’s singing softly in the shower - he'd heard her the previous morning as he'd gotten ready and enjoyed listening to her lovely voice.

Neil pulls the covers back to get out of bed and investigate. Hopefully, Claire won’t mind the interruption. Or the company.

Walking across his normally pristine room, he sees signs of their previous evening. His pants quickly discarded at the foot of the bed. Her shirt crumpled in the corner from where one of them had carelessly thrown it. He picks up both and hangs the pants over his shoulder; her clothes he folds and sets neatly into her messy open suitcase.

Sighing, he goes to his closet and pulls out some clean clothes to set aside for the day, dropping the pants in the laundry bin. Once Claire gets going, he’ll have to quickly get ready himself and head to work. He’d scheduled an early consult and also had a mid-morning surgery to prepare for. He looks again at Claire’s open suitcase. Having her here like this still feels a little scary yet his excitement of finally being with her supersedes all of that.

She’d make so much fun of him for being such a lovesick fool if she heard those words from him out loud. And she’d be right. He’s fine owning that. After all, this feels inevitable, maybe from that first moment he’d laid eyes on her.

That moment had been right before her interview for the residency position. He’d passed by the waiting area to the conference room on his way to Glassman’s office to get a signature for something. He figured they’d walk over to the conference room together for the scheduled round of interviews. They’d held the virtual ones by video conference the previous week, and the live interviews were today - three this morning and the two this afternoon.

He enjoyed having residents, enjoyed the teaching part of the job. At the time, he’d only had one resident left – soon to be fifth year, Dr. Elle McLean – and she’d be transferring in a few months to a hospital in New York to begin a teaching fellowship. That meant he’d get at least two and maybe three new residents this class, and he’d have to duke it out with Coyle on who that’d be.

Stepping out of the elevator, he looked over and saw this striking woman in the waiting area, sitting straight and neat in the chair by the door. She was in a dark pantsuit and bright, flowery blouse buttoned up to the base of her throat. Her long curly hair was partially pulled back away from her face but left to spill across her shoulders and down her back.

The woman appears deep in thought as her eyes drift unfocused in front of her. Her expression is soft, neutral, but you can practically see the wheels turning in her head. When Neil glances down at her hands, he sees the slightest tension as her fingers lace together, the only hint of her nerves.

She looks so young in his memory. And lovely.

He wouldn’t have called it attraction at the time. More like curiosity. But he initially liked what he saw. Maybe he can finally be honest with himself about it.

Then his pager had gone off and he became engrossed in some distraction or other. He saw her again soon after in the interview, of course, and was impressed with her intellect and pleasant disposition. They got into an interesting debate, but she didn’t back down even if she acted more deferential than she needed to be to him. He’d have to work with her on her confidence. That wasn’t unusual, though, for someone at that stage of their career. And there was something in her manner that reflected a world weariness and wisdom that he connected with. A lot of residents he’d dismiss as still kids, but not Claire. She’d seen a lot of life in her time.

He figured Claire would make a good compliment to Jared Kalu who he’d also had his eye on. Though knowing Coyle, he might make a play for her, too. He’d bet money on Coyle scooping up Reznick and Park, but he liked surrounding himself with good-looking people. The least Neil could do was save Claire from that clown; a talented guy, but his enormous ego and cavalier attitude got on Neil’s nerves.

When he’d chosen Claire for his team, he thought it’d all worked out. And then Coyle still found a way to hurt Claire. He’d always feel guilty for not protecting her from that.

As much as he would have denied it even a few months ago, there’d been something about her, something special that he’d picked up from the beginning. He’d been committed to Jessica at the time, he doesn’t doubt that. Yet he’d also enjoyed those moments where he and Claire related as equals, whether she was challenging him or being vulnerable. She’d mentioned before that Shaun had called her out once for unconsciously flirting with him. He hadn’t noticed, but there were times when he probably walked that line too. A wink and a grin here, a playful comment there. He’d preen a little bit, enjoying the idea of a woman like her thinking of him as attractive.

And now they’re in another place entirely in their relationship, free of denials and deflections. He can’t wait to get this next phase of their relationship going.

Now set up for the morning, he turns to the bathroom. The shower had stopped about a minute before, which is a little disappointing. They could have gotten into some fun before she was done.

He taps on the door and hears her quiet answer for him to enter.

She’s standing at the sink reaching for her toothbrush, towel wrapped around her and hair piled on the top of her head. He sees an array of products for her post-shower routine. There are a few droplets that she’s missed wiping away sprinkled around the back of her neck. He kisses her there as he walks by with his towel.

“You better not have used up all my hot water,” he says, teasing her.

She shrugs. “You snooze, you lose.” Neil laughs as he sheds his clothes and takes her place in the shower.

Through the foggy shower door, he catches glimpses of her using different skincare products on her face and body. She fiddles with her hair, braiding it back from her face in the style he’s used to seeing from her. By the time he’s done, never needing too long to wash his hair and body, she’s back in the bedroom rifling through her suitcase dressed only in bra and panties. He lets himself enjoy the view before turning his attention to brushing his own teeth and styling his hair.

Claire has only managed to get her pants on when he comes back into the bedroom. Neil doesn’t mind at all. He circles behind her and pulls her back against him, kissing her shoulders. He can’t seem to keep his hands off her this morning.

“Don’t you start. You know I’m on a very strict schedule.” Her words are saying one thing, but the way she’s pressing back against him is saying something else.

Neil glances at the time. “We’re good. Though it defies reality to see you up this early in the morning without having to be dragged.”

She giggles. “You and me both. I gotta say, I don’t love it.” She leans back so he can plant a brief but satisfying kiss to her lips and then slips from his arms. Neil lets her go so he can finish getting dressed too. He’s going to miss this when they retreat from their little bubble to get back to the real world and their regular routines.

Soon enough, he’ll get her all to himself every single day.

After all, it’s been a year and a half since that wedding that changed everything for them. A year and a half of spending nights apart, syncing up their schedules, and people at work and in their lives adjusting to their new relationship.And a year and a half of loving each other more every day for it.

“I checked the traffic. It’s going to be hell by the airport,” he says.

Claire groans, slipping on her shirt. “No surprise there. Maybe I should leave early.”

Neil frowns, not liking that at all. “I think you’ll be fine.” He’s in just his pants, zipped but unbuttoned and wondering if he should wear his blue shirt with this suit instead of the white. He grabs the other option from his closet. “Blue or white,” he asks her.

She looks up from stuffing her toiletry bag into the corner of her suitcase. “Blue.” He looks at the shirt again, surprised she’s chosen it. “I prefer the white, of course, but if you’re going to be looking that sexy, I want to be around for it.”

He laughs and kisses her cheek as he slips the blue shirt off the hanger.

They putter around the bedroom to finish getting ready. Claire zips up her suitcase, finally satisfied that it’s set to go. He’s dressed for the day minus his suit blazer and shoes. Claire yawns into her hand and grabs her bag to head downstairs.

“Coffee should be ready. How about I make you a smoothie for the road?”

She nods, still yawning. “That’d be great. It’s definitely going to be a rough day.” She rubs his back as she passes him out the door and he follows. “Maybe we should have taken it a little easier this weekend,” she says chuckling. “We’d gotten into a groove and going out Saturday night really kicked our asses.”

“It did,” he agrees. “But it was a great time.” Claire splits off from him to set her suitcase by the door and then trails behind him to the kitchen. “I don’t know,” he continues when she rejoins him. “As far as weekends go, we didn’t do too badly.”

Once again, he pulls her into his arms before she has a chance to reach for the coffee. He leans down to kiss her deeply, enjoying her immediate response to him.

“Yeah, it did turn into a good story to tell,” she says after pulling away. She quickly goes back for more of him, and Neil lets himself get lost in her for a while.

Two days before (Saturday night)

Claire raises her drink to toast along with the group at her table. Looking around at all the friendly, happy faces, she feels really lucky to be enjoying such a wonderful evening,

Of course, she feels luckiest having Neil close at her side with his arm slung casually along the back of her chair.

They’re surrounded by his friends - well, mostly his friends – Joe and Katie, Tony and Emma, Miguel and Tasha, and Gwen and Brandon. A year and a half ago a “couples night” would have made her roll her eyes. But since getting together with Neil, she can appreciate how special it is to be surrounded by good friends. And with her leaving early Monday morning for another extended separation, she plans to enjoy herself and relax.

Though she’s glad to be here, she and Neil had almost begged off. It'd been a hectic week, and they hadn't had a lot of quality time together. But with Brandon being in town and this being the only day they could all coordinate, neither wanted to miss it.

And it’s nice to see everyone doing well. Gwen and Brandon are still claiming their relationship to be totally casual friends with benefits, although no one believes them anymore. Miguel and Tasha were able to get a sitter to watch their nine-month-old and are overjoyed for the chance to hang out with other adults. Joe and Katie are excited about their month-long trip to Western Africa and the group has hundreds of questions about it. Everyone also wants to hear about Tony and Emma’s new house in Cupertino that they’re planning to fully renovate.

Claire and Neil have squeezed in a few of their own life updates. Naturally, each person wants to take credit for their relationship.

“Look at all this love that we helped nurture, Em,” Tony says. “Babies and globetrotters,” he says looking first at Miguel and Tasha and then at Katie and Joe. “Star-crossed lovers,” he adds, gesturing to her and Neil. “Uh, booty calls?” he offers to his brother and Gwen. They shrug and nod, happy to be an undefinable relationship.

“Hey, I think I get credit for those two knuckleheads,” Joe says, pointing between her and Neil.

“You have a point, I guess. You did screw up enough things to set certain events into motion,” Neil generously grants him.

"Was it screwing up? Or was in unintentional genius.” Joe taps his head. “It’s like chess, I’m ten steps ahead of you.”

“Joe, I’ll at least give you credit for getting us trapped in that pantry,” Claire offers

Joe extends his arm for a fistbump. “I’ll take it.”

“Excuse me,” Gwen says, clearing her throat. “Our dear friend Claire wouldn’t even have been there if it wasn’t for me and my foot.”

Claire raises a glass to her friend in agreement. “Although your original plan was to set me up with Brandon.” Everyone laughs at that, including Brandon.”

“And that brings it full circle back to us,” Emma says. “No wedding, no lovey-dovey adventures in pantries and pools.”

“I don’t know,” Katie says, “I’d like to think these two would have found a way to work it out.”

“Are you kidding?” Joe says to her. “My boy’s game was off. Like majorly off. He didn’t know how to handle a woman like Claire since he knew ‘Neil the romantic’ was not gonna fly. She’s worse than you,” he directs to Katie, but with mock disdain.

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Katie says, and she and Claire share a grin.

Neil frowns. “I’ll have you know I romance her all the time and she doesn’t even notice. That way we both get what we want.”

“Uh, I notice. I just let you get away with it because I love you.” She leans over and kisses his cheek as he grins at her.

The table erupts in a chorus of “awwws” and “isn’t that sweet.”

“I can believe that,” Tony says. “Claire’s a sharp one.”

Claire nods in complete agreement. “Face it, Neil. You can’t really get anything past me.”

Scoffing, Neil shakes his head. "We’ll see. And that hasn’t always been the case.”

Claire turns to him, surprised. “Oh yeah? When?”

“Yes, please enlighten us,” Joe heckles. “You’re saying you’ve extended a romantic gesture that Claire didn’t pick up on and make fun of you?”

“Well, to be fair, it was way before we were together. And I wouldn’t call it romantic. Maybe a little sappy.” Claire is quite curious about this now. “It was during your second year. Remember when I asked for two volunteers for that 36-hour ER shift?”

“You mean the time when we got in about five fights during a surgery because you gave me bad advice and then yelled at me because you thought I had PMS.” The whole table groans.

Neil winces. “Uh, I don't remember it that way. I said some very nice things about you ... in the end."

Claire rubs his arm in sympathy. "Yes, you did. And it was a difficult situation even without Nurse Flores busting your balls. She really did not like you."

"Right. I still don't know why. And I did not give you bad advice, by the way. Nor did I ever say you had PMS. It was a misunderstanding. But you have to admit you were cranky.”

“Because I was sleep deprived!”

“Anyway,” Neil says, ignoring her and turning back to the group. “Nobody volunteers, so I pick a number that I hold behind my back with my hand. Then I ask the four residents to pick a number between one and five. Closest to gets the shift.”

“I do remember that. I picked five.”

“Yeah. So did I,” Neil says. “But I kind of wanted to work with you that day so I changed it to one.”

Claire gasps in shock. “You did not!” The others look on amused.

“I did,” he confirms to the group. “I had moments of regretting it when you mouthed off. But we made up.”

Miguel chuckles. “So you’re telling us you’ve been crushing on this girl almost the entire time you've known her.”

Neil shrugs. “I don’t know if I’d say that. But I’ll admit that I did … enjoy her company.”

Claire pokes him in the side. “Could have fooled me.” She turns to the rest of the group. “He kicked me off his service like three weeks later. That’s a whole other story,” she adds rolling her eyes.

Of course, all that is water under the bridge. Claire is intrigued, though, by the idea of Neil having a thing for her back then. And she kind of understands what he means. She’d felt something akin to a pull toward him too.

“I was in a good mood that day. And I saw that you weren’t, so I guess I wanted to cheer you up with a good surgery,” Neil explains. “That qualifies as sappy. We’ve come a long way, haven’t we?” They gaze at each other and smile.

It’s hard to think of the alternative. What if they’d never reconnected at the wedding and Claire had gone off to Baltimore without having reconciled with him? Maybe they wouldn’t have seen each other again. But that didn’t happen and she doesn’t like to dwell on it.

Neil squeezes her hand, understanding exactly what she’s thinking. He turns back to Tony. “If we’re going all the way back in time, you should thank Miguel for introducing me and you in the first place so I could save your ass for that chemistry final.”

The other guys heckle Tony for that, laughing at the shared memory. They continue to reminisce about their college days and then move on to fill in Claire and Gwen on how Miguel and Tasha met when they were on separate and terrible first dates.

“What we need is another wedding as an excuse to get a group vacation going again,” Miguel suggests. “I know y’all aren’t any help,” he says to Katie and Joe. “But you two might need to hurry things along. For the sake of our friendships.”

Claire and Neil look at each other, unable to hide their grins. “It’s funny you should say that…” Neil says to their friends.

The group freezes – and then erupts in a noisy explosion of questions and good cheer. Claire shows off her engagement ring, hanging hidden on a chain around her neck. She needs to get it resized and doesn’t want to lose it. Plus, it’ll probably spend a lot of time there during her work hours.

After they’ve told everyone the whole story as they finish their meals, a live band starts playing on the stage across the room. They spend the rest of their night together dancing and having a good time.

She and Neil have never been dancing like this before, so she loves surprising him with her skills. One of her coworkers, Luis, had been a competitive ballroom dancer. He liked to spend their downtime at the hospital teaching her a few moves in the breakroom. The nurses hadn’t been too pleased at first until he’d invited them in, too, for dance classes. When she told Neil about it, he’d been a little put out at first that he wasn’t the one teaching her such smooth skills. But he quickly got over it when she let him know that he gets to reap all the benefits of Luis’s hard work.

Claire lets him lead her around the dance floor in her flowy dress, alternating between holding her against his body as they move in sync to twirling her around in a fancy spin. For someone normally so reserved, he certainly doesn’t mind putting his hands all over her in public on the dance floor.

At around ten o’clock, the group decides to call it a night. Miguel and Tasha need to relieve their sitter and Brandon has an early flight out in the morning. They stand outside the restaurant sharing hugs, saying their goodbyes and promising to get together again soon.

When they return to Neil’s house, Claire immediately sheds her shoes and wanders upstairs to take off her tights. The weather is still a little chilly so she’d liked having the extra layer under her dress. But it isn’t the most comfortable attire. Neil heads to the kitchen to make them both some herbal tea. Surprisingly neither is tired, and she is looking forward to spending a little time relaxing with him and winding down from their fun evening.

Except when she returns downstairs, he’s put on some music and is dancing idly as he fiddles with their mugs and his stash of loose leaf tea. Claire has to admit that he looks mighty good moving his hips; she sneaks up behind him and moves with him, wrapping her arms around his chest.

Neil glances back at her as he fills the French press, smiling at how she’s humming her contentment with having him in her arms.

“You got some more moves you wanna show me,” he asks.

“Mmm, you have no idea,” she replies.

Neil turns around and takes her fully in his embrace. “Oh, I think I can conjure up an idea or two.” He sways with her to the music. The steady movement is soothing and relaxing. After a few minutes of circling the space in front of the counter, Neil lets her go to pour their tea, adding a bit of honey to each. They transition to the living room area with their mugs, presumably to relax on the couch.

Except after Claire carefully sets her drink down, she turns to see Neil pushing aside the large coffee table and chairs. He’s picked up the remote to change the music to something slightly more upbeat. And then he offers his hand for them to continue dancing on the makeshift dance floor he’s created.

She laughs as he once again sways his hips with hers, twirls her around, sending her hair flying and her skirts soaring around her thighs. Neil seems to enjoy the hints of skin he glimpses if his wandering hands are any indication.

When another slow song comes up, he pulls her close and wraps his arms around her as she rests her head at his shoulder.

“This is perfect,” he says. “It’s been a great night.”

“Yeah, it has. Lots of good memories.” She feels his head nodding in agreement. “It’s so funny actually telling other people that we’re engaged. I feel like I’m still getting used to the idea. It’s been a lot to take in, in addition to everything else we’re dealing with.” She holds him a little tighter as she reveals that.

“In a good way, I hope,” he says, doing his best to sound neutral and not worried.

She tries to be careful with his feelings on that. He’s shared with her his fears that no matter how good things feel right now, it doesn’t mean theirs won’t be another relationship that goes up in flames. She does her best to reassure him. And herself. She thinks it mostly works.

“It’s a lot in the best ways. As in I need to pinch myself that good things like what we have won’t disappear on me. That I won’t screw things up.”

He squeezes her in his arms. “You won’t. We’re good. So good.” She hums her agreement. “Scary good.” That makes her laugh and she feels his smile too against the crown of her head.

For the first time in a long time, Claire has no lingering doubts about how right he is for her. No matter how chaotic their lives feel right now, they are good.

And things will only get better for them.

She looks up at him, her eyes soft with affection as he returns her intense gaze. “You want to go upstairs with me? I might have something special for you.”

Neil’s expression is positively feral hearing that. He doesn’t bother speaking, just nods his head, slightly biting his bottom lip in anticipation.

He moves out of their embrace to turn off the music and put the coffee table and chairs back in it’s rightful place. Claire cleans up the few items left on the kitchen counter and begins turning off the lights.

When they’re both satisfied, they grab their half-empty mugs of tea and hand-in-hand make their way up the stairs to his bedroom.

TBC...

Chapter 13

Chapter Text

Epilogue - Part II

Present Time

Neil turns on the blender to grind up the ingredients for their smoothie - fruits and leafy greens, with a little bit of oatmeal and protein. It's a new recipe that he’d looked up last night when trying to fall asleep. Claire is sipping her coffee and scanning through messages on her phone. She’s been going back and forth about a research project with some residents and eager to finish their edits for publication.

As the blender whirs loudly, he leans back against the counter watching Claire. She’s frowning in concentration as her brow furrows over something she either doesn’t like or needs to correct. Her eyes dart across the screen, a finger scrolling up and down every so often. A flash of gold draws his attention to the chain around her neck where a small pendant and a ring dangle against the smooth skin of her chest. He often likes to brush his lips across that spot to wake her up in the mornings.

Claire looks up, sensing his eyes on her. He can tell she knows what’s caught his attention and smiles at him, rolling her eyes.

“Don’t sass me,” he chastises her, raising his voice over the whir of the blender. “You’re just as excited as I am.”

She continues to grin at him, not denying it but going back to her reading.

It hadn’t been the most romantic proposal in the world. It hadn’t really been a proposal at all. But it fit them and that’s what counts.

They’d accepted the difficulties of having a long-distance relationship when she’d accepted the position at Johns Hopkins. It had been a difficult choice for Claire. She felt pulled in opposite directions by her real love for St. Bonaventure and desire to be with Neil and commit to their relationship. On the other hand, the opportunity at Johns Hopkins excited her. They’d examined the programs and clinics she’d have access to and the roster of other doctors. Hell, even Neil was tempted to throw his hat in given all that it had to offer.

She’d get opportunities she wouldn’t at St. Bonaventure – partnerships with NIH, government programs, a broader network. She’d get to learn about community-centered healthcare in another type of urban environment and different populations than San Jose. And it wasn’t forever. She could come back if it wasn’t a good fit. Or he could consider going out there if it made sense for him and Gabi. He didn’t want her to give anything up for him if it’s what she wanted. They’d talked it through for what seemed like many hours of many days before she came to a decision.

Mostly, their conversations had been good. It made him hopeful that while the decision centered around what she wanted for her professional future, they talked it through from a place of wanting a future together, too. Even as they circled around discussions of frequent flyer miles, commutes to San Francisco, or trips to HR, she encouraged him to share with her his boundaries and compromises.

She listened as he voiced his hopes for a family, his fears of starting something that would leave him again crushed about that dream. He listened as she warned about not having the best track record with long-term relationships – that her instinct is to protect herself from being hurt by running away.

Through it all, they never wavered in wanting to give themselves a chance at a real relationship. Yes, it was scary, but it also seemed very much worth the risk. And they trusted their feelings for each other.

Claire talked it over with her therapist, which Neil supported. Then she talked it over with Audrey, which was more difficult for him. That made Audrey the only person they’d tell about the change in their relationship since technically, he was still Claire’s boss for the few weeks that remained in her residency. And her conversation with Audrey was as her friend and mentor, not as both of their supervisors. It brought up that old bitterness about the ease of Lim sharing a professional relationship with Claire that he considered stolen from him.

He’d even shared that frustration with Claire. To him, it sounded kind of petty saying it out loud. Despite that, she’d been understanding. And she agreed that the situation had been messy and awkward all around, regretted that he'd been hurt by how things turned out.

His nerves consumed him the night she'd gone out for a drink with Audrey to lay all her cards on the table. He’d offered to come with her, but they both knew that would seem weird. The entire evening, he’d puttered around his house, nervous and waiting for her to call. If Audrey was pissed about them hooking up, maybe she’d convince Claire to move away out of spite or make trouble at work for them. She might even pull him in front of a disciplinary board for being inappropriate with one of his residents.

He knew he was being ridiculous – that wasn’t Audrey’s style at all. It was more about everything feeling so out of his control. He checked his phone what felt like a hundred times waiting for an update.

But it wasn’t Claire who reached out to him first. His phone buzzed with a text from Audrey: “I know you’re freaking out. Stop worrying. The two of you will be fine.” She followed that text with a fox emoji and a bunch of kissy faces and heart eyes.

He didn’t know whether to be overjoyed about the approval or annoyed at his ex poking fun at him. After digesting that newest development and calming his racing heart, he allowed himself to simply feel relieved.

Finally, his doorbell rang just as he’d been thinking of calling Claire himself to check in. It turned out that the delay had been her going home to pack an overnight bag to stay with him for the weekend. She’d known he would appreciate the closeness no matter how the conversation went.

Of course, she took one look at him and realized what a nervous wreck he was. She chuckled but took him in her arms, moving them to the couch to cuddle up for a few minutes before she relayed the events of her evening.

Other than experiencing her own round of teasing from Audrey, their boss had been very helpful in walking Claire through her options. They compared notes, and he had to grudgingly agree with Lim’s insight. It sounded like she’d been pretty impartial too, giving good arguments for each of Claire’s options.

The first choice to get vetoed was UCSF. The research track wouldn’t serve Claire in the long run for what she wanted to do. As for their relationship, she may as well be in Baltimore. The commute to San Francisco would be brutal. A heavy research schedule for her and a busy rotation with a full complement of residents for him would make it hard for them to sync up their schedules regularly. That left staying in San Jose or picking Baltimore.

The benefits of staying at St. Bonaventure were obvious.

And after they’d gone through every contingency, he’d supported her decision to go to Johns Hopkins one-hundred percent.

So, she’d graduated from her residency program and they’d discretely moved into dating mode with only Audrey knowing that Claire spent a lot of nights over his house. And his ex had a good time teasing them about it.

He’d taken off a week to travel with Claire to Baltimore to get her settled into her new place. That had been a lot of fun, their first vacation together, in a way. She’d never been to Washington D.C. so they’d spent a couple of days there. Mostly, though, they got to know her new home city, which they both enjoyed more than they thought they would.

And when he returned to California, they’d gotten creative about making their relationship work. Plus a few lucky circ*mstances along the way.

First, Claire made herself a dream colleague by stating her preference for the late shift, usually early afternoon to 11 pm. That meant that with the time difference, their schedules would coincide more often than not. They’d gotten into the rhythm of jogging together in the morning, both sporting their earbuds to chat. They’d often share meals together, too. Claire claimed not to be much of a cook, so they’d set up their tablets in the kitchen and make the same meal together. Sometimes it’d be something he was more familiar with so he could walk her through it. Or sometimes it was something new to both of them and they’d have a friendly competition about who could make it better. It felt kind of normal after a while.

Occasionally, if she was too tired to cook or had eaten already, she’d play her guitar and sing as she watched him prepare his meal. The first time she’d done it, he’d wanted to stop and listen, so lovely a combination, her voice and the quiet twang of her guitar. But he didn’t so she wouldn’t feel self-conscious.

For her birthday, he’d gifted her with a guitar that would stay at his place, and she’d been teaching him how to play over video too.

They did also wrack up a ton of frequent flyer miles. For a while, Claire would fly back to California a couple times a month. She had a more regular schedule than him since he had a new crop of residents to keep up with. When he noticed the trips had started to take a toll on her, they'd been forced to reevaluate. He wanted every chance possible to see her in person, but he didn't want it to jeopardize her job or her health. It helped them realize it was a lot easier for him to fly from the West Coast and back than for her to do the opposite with the time difference.

And it was fun to feel like they were living these alternate lives – one where she’s settled in with him in San Jose and another where they’ve picked a completely new trajectory for themselves on the other side of the country.

They had their fair share of fights too, though few and far between. Mostly they were the result of being tired. She’d had to adjust to his preference for advance planning and neat itineraries when scheduling their trips. He had to learn to be flexible and let her do things at her own time and pace if she felt pressured. And then he learned how to make sure she didn’t feel pressured at all. Even through the cold shoulders, annoyed phone calls, and snarky text exchanges, they tried not to let any frustrations fester.

Mostly, though, they enjoyed getting to know each other better and confirming that they’d made the right choice to be together, even under such challenging circ*mstances.

And then there were was that night, what seemed like any other night where they’d been cooking together, making homemade meatballs and pasta sauce. Claire had made quite the mess with the sauce, much of the tomato getting all over the front of her apron after a mishap. Her phone buzzed as she’d started to roll the meatballs and they’d laughed as she’d scrambled to clean her hands and answer the phone.

He tuned out her conversation figuring it was work related. He’d started rolling his own meatballs and concentrated on getting them all neat and proportional. He’s looking forward to Claire laughing at him for it and also teasing her about her haphazard, irregular meatballs he saw sitting on the baking sheet.

When she came back on camera, she had a weird expression on her face.

“What’s up?” he asks. “Something blow up at work?”

She doesn’t answer for a moment and he looks up from his task to pay closer attention to what’s going on with her. She doesn’t look upset. More like surprised.

“I didn’t want to say anything until I knew for sure and now I do.”

Neil turns toward his screen to give her his full attention.

“That was Audrey.”

“Ah, your BFF,” he says, only kind of taunting her with his snark about the two of them.

Claire shakes her head at him. “Do you want to hear this or not?” Neil holds up his meat-covered hands in surrender. “I’m sure you’ve heard from Alex about Kellen transferring to Princeton.”

Neil nods. Park had stayed on at St. Bonaventure and is doing well in the trauma unit. But with the news about Kellen, he’s been considering a move himself.

“Well, I asked around here and Audrey got to talking to an old colleague, too, and it looks like something may open up.”

Neil smiles. “That’s great. I’m sure it’ll be a nice reunion. And you two worked well together.”

Claire rolls her eyes. “Yeah, when he’s not trying to be my work dad.” But the comment is affectionate rather than genuinely annoyed. “And we wouldn’t get to work together,” she added.

“That’s too bad. Is he going to be at a satellite hospital or something?” He’s gone back to rolling his meatballs as he listens to the update on their friend.

“Not exactly. See, Audrey and her colleague thought an exchange might work out. More specifically me for Park.”

Neil drops the meatball he’d been working on in shock. He hadn't been expecting that at all, and his mind races with the potential reasons for this news coming completely out of left field for him.

"Are you having problems there?”

“No, nothing like that. It’s been great. Making new connections, learning new ways to practice. They're happy with my work. But …”

“But …?”

“But, when my boss mentioned it to me, I realized my heart never really left San Jose. I work on California time, I’m back in San Jose at least every six weeks. I know we’ve never actually talked about it, but when I think about us and our future, it’s there, not here.”

Neil’s caught off guard, not having expected this type of conversation. “I guess I was so focused on making things work I didn’t let myself really think about it. Wherever we end up, I’ll be happy just being together.”

Claire smiles sweetly, though it turns into a smirk a few seconds later. “But you’d prefer San Jose.”

“It is very convenient for me,” he jokes.

“It’s okay to admit it,” she says. “And upending Gabi doesn’t sound ideal either. I wasn’t looking to get back to San Jose. I’m happy to see how things play out here. But when it came up and then Audrey called me about it a week ago, it’s the first thing I thought about.”

With Neil’s shock wearing off, he smiles at her admission. “So, the first thing you thought about was me.”

Her grin matches his. “Maybe. You know how I worry about Edgar.”

It always makes him laugh when she makes fun of his tattoo.

“And all the sex we’re missing out on, of course,” she adds, eyes twinkling with mischief.

“You’re the one who won’t put out over video,” he teases.

It’s true. Claire will send the regular flirty text, maybe even bordering on sexting. He might sometimes get her a little hot and heavy on the phone. But she has her limits. It’s a dangerous holdout too. He’s jokingly warned her about it given the way they jump each other’s bones practically right off the plane. They sometimes had friendly wagers about how long they could hold out when one or the other visited - the usual answer: not long. She’d even threatened to start taking the train from the San Jose airport after they’d almost caused a scene together in the parking garage.

He catches her pained expression at his mentioning their lack of a virtual sex life. “It’s kind of depressing. It would just remind me that I can’t have the real thing right when I want it.”

“Fair enough.” His expression turns serious again. “So, you’re saying that you might be moving back here?”

“I mean, not right now. Probably in a couple months. We’d have to work out the details.”

His mind is racing with possibilities. “Do you think you’d want to, I don’t know, consider moving in with me?” he asks with a forced casualness, though he didn’t mean for it to come out so boldly like that. He eyes her from where he’s nervously rearranging his meatballs on the baking sheet.

Claire has taken his cue and returned to her meatballs too to diffuse the intensity of the situation.

“I might be interested in that,” she says, also casually. “You’d have to get over my superior meatball skills.”

“You’re kidding right?” He stares into the camera to get a closer look at her tray.

“My meatballs are way cuter.”

“Yeah, for a three-year-old.”

Claire gasps in shock. “You are so mean! Is that what you’re going to tell our kids when they show you their cute little nonsensical drawings?”

“Hold on, we haven’t even gotten hitched yet, and I’m already traumatizing our future kids?”

“We’ll just have to do something about that when I move back.”

Placing his last meatball on the tray, he washes his hands. Leaning against the counter, he watches her finish her batch. “Claire Browne, did you just propose to me?”

He expects her to stare back at him like a deer in headlights. Instead, she’s looking closely at the meatball she’s forming, probably trying to play it cool. One thing he notices is that she doesn’t seem worried or nervous. She’s had time to think about this. And she just seems content. He’s seen a lot of that in the last year. He watches as a smile spreads across her lips.

“That just came out.”

“But did you mean it?” he asks gently. “It’s okay if you need to, uh, roll that back.”

"I didn’t say that.” She finishes her meatballs and puts them in the oven. Neil does the same and sets the timer on the stove.

When he returns, she’s washed her hands and is similarly leaning against the counter watching him maneuver around his kitchen. Finally, he returns to lean against the counter where his tablet is set up, looking right into the camera.

“I’ll just say that if you did mean it. I’d be honored to marry you, Claire. I love you.”

She smiles and looks away briefly before meeting his gaze again. “I love you, too. You wanna get married?”

“Yeah, I do.” They both pause and then break out in laughter. And happiness.

Neil shakes off his memories of that day and turns off the blender. He pours the smoothie into two glasses and sets one in front of her.

Given that she'd shocked him with both the news of her return to San Jose and that accidental proposal, he'd had fun returning the favor. On her next trip back to California, she'd come out of the bathroom before bedtime to find a ring box sitting on her pillow - Neil reading a book on his side of the bed as if nothing unusual was taking place. When she'd picked it up to open it, he'd feigned surprise and a casual interest, though the glint in his eyes gave away how much he enjoyed seeing her reaction to his gift.

He still got emotional thinking about the expression of wonder and joy on her face when he'd slipped the ring on her finger.

“Maybe we should have gotten that thing resized yesterday when we were out,” Neil says, pointing to her ring.

Claire looks up from her phone and smiles. “We might have had time before going to see Gabi. Except someone was a little too wrapped up in sleeping in. Minus the sleep.”

Neil grins too at the reminder. “You’re right. We’ll have to wait until you get back, I guess.”

She shrugs. “If I find someplace and I have time, maybe I’ll take care of it this week.” She puts her phone away when he takes a seat next to her with their smoothies. “Besides, I rather enjoyed how we spent our Sunday. We deserved it.”

He leans over to kiss her gently on the lips. “We did deserve it, didn’t we?” He grins. “And you can't blame a guy for having a slow start on a Sunday morning. After you dragged me upstairs Saturday night, we had a few urgent matters to attend to. It's enough to wear a guy down.”

“I guess, but you didn't seem very tired when you got up yesterday. In fact, you seemed very interested in holding my attention. Especially, here,” she touches her finger to his lips. “And here,” she drags her finger down to the open collar of his shirt to the exposed skin of his chest. Her hand continues a trail down his torso. “And—”

“You better cut that out,” he says, catching her hand right as it reaches the waistband of his pants. “It was a night to remember,” he adds, twining their fingers together.

Two days before (Later on Saturday night)

After leading him upstairs, Claire puts her mug of tea down next to her side of the bed; Neil does the same. She watches him wander to the closet to shed his belt and socks, placing one back at its usual spot on a rack by his ties and the other in the laundry bin. He sheds his shirt and pants too and places them in another bin for his dry cleaning. She chuckles about how particular he is about his space.

That’s going to have to change really soon.

When he comes back out, Claire is still in her dress and looking down at her suitcase. He walks over and wraps his arms around her.

“If you’re trying to decide what to wear to bed, I suggest you don’t bother. He kisses her shoulder and reaches up to caress the skin above the neckline of her dress.

Claire turns in his arms and kisses him. For a few moments, they let the waves of their desire take over. Neil’s hand drifts underneath her skirt as he tries to draw her back to the bed. She laughs at how eager he is to get her between the sheets.

But she resists, though she keeps her arms around him. Looking around, she returns a pointed gaze at him. “I've been meaning to mention that you’re looking a little behind schedule making room for me.”

He leans down to kiss his way up her neck to her ear. “I’m more than prepared to demonstrate how much room I have for you,” he says, trying again to lead her to the bed.

She giggles but stops him again. “I’m serious, Neil. Are you relegating me to the spare bedroom?”

Neil winces. “I don’t think so.”

“Are you relegating my things to the spare bedroom then?”

“No,” he says a bit defensively. "I’ve just been busy.”

“Or you’ve been procrastinating because you’re not sure how to change up your precious system.”

Neil’s eyes glance away a little sheepish. “I’m just being very strategic.” He readjusts his arms to hold her more solidly against him. “I’ll get to it this week. I want you to feel at home, I swear. I know it’s harder for you to come into my space and feel comfortable.”

She can’t disagree on that. They’ve talked about it a little. When Neil would visit her, she made an effort to make room for him. She’d even deep clean her apartment and try to keep it tidy so it wouldn’t drive him crazy. The few times he’d surprised her by dropping into Baltimore unannounced, he definitely saw that it’s not her natural state.

“I know. Thank you for caring about that.” And he had made some changes. Like switching out his shower head since she couldn't reach the old one to adjust it.

She kisses him again, briefly and with feeling. When she pulls away, she thinks about how much she loves him; how much she’s looking forward to their lives moving forward together.

And she’s nervous about the giant monkey wrench she’s about to throw into their plans. Again.

Most everything about her transition back to San Jose has been good. It worked out that she could sublet her apartment to Alex so she wouldn’t have to worry about selling or moving her furniture. She’d boxed up the rest of her things and put it on a cross-country moving truck. It wouldn’t be here for another two weeks, thus Claire living out of a suitcase for now. A lot of it would go in Neil’s spare room to wait for them to decide what to do with it. So they really needed to figure it out.

They were always saying how nice it'll be to stop all the traveling and back and forth and finally be able to settle in together. Now that it's a reality, they needed to start acting like it.

She still has one foot at Johns Hopkins and one foot at St. Bonaventure. There are a few loose ends, publications and projects she’d been working on that needed wrapped up. And though she’s officially on the payroll at St. Bonaventure, she won’t start working regular shifts for another couple of weeks so she can start with two other doctors who are transferring in.

To keep her busy, Audrey is sending her to a conference in San Francisco on Monday. So, she and Neil would go another week apart. Maybe she can convince him to join her for the last day and then they could go up to Marin for the weekend for some hiking or a late-Spring afternoon at the beach.

“Hey, I had a good time tonight,” she tells him.

“Me too,” he replies, a grin spreading across his lips. “Night’s not over though.”

She sighs, nervous. “I loved feeling like a normal couple hanging out with our friends and coming back to a home we share and not just for the weekend. I’m so excited about really starting our life together. Finally.”

“So am I.” Now he looks worried. “Is something wrong? Did something happen with the position at the hospital?”

Claire shakes her head to dismiss his concerns. “I have something to show you. And I hope you don’t get annoyed with me.”

Neil looks down at her curiously. “Did you rearrange my shoe rack again?”

“No!” She smacks him lightly on the chest. “You’re ridiculous. Nothing like that.”

“Good, then you have nothing to worry about,” he assures her. She smiles and slips out of his arms to turn back around to her suitcase. She digs around for a bit before pulling out the items she’s found.

A pregnancy test. Two actually.

Neil goes pale. His mouth is searching for the right words to respond and failing miserably.

“I wasn’t feeling well right before I flew back the other day. And when I got here and had a few moments to breathe, I realized how late my cycle is. I hadn’t noticed with the move and wrapping things up at Johns Hopkins and the transition to St. Bonaventure. And there’s definitely something going on with my body right now.”

Dealing with fatigue is nothing new, so she’d ignored that flag. But she isn’t prone to headaches or low-level nausea, though that hadn’t been enough to alert her to a potential issue. When she’d flinched at the soreness in her breasts after pressing herself against Neil this morning, it’d all started falling into place.

Of course, she freaked out about it.

She’d retreated to the bathroom while he'd been downstairs making coffee, closing the door all the way to indicate that she wanted her privacy. That wasn’t uncommon so Neil hadn’t said anything when she reemerged to get ready for the day. She didn’t know how she was going to play it cool in front of him. He was too damn good at picking up on her moods.

Thankfully, Neil got called into the hospital about an emergency budget meeting, which left her to stew about the situation on her own. That’s when she drove to the store to get the pregnancy tests.

Setting them on the bathroom counter, she couldn’t bring herself to take them. Not without Neil there. He’d want to be there. In fact, he’d be a little disappointed about her not telling him right away of her suspicions, though he’d try not to let on.

And she’d fallen back on old habits to handle her stress by ignoring it and running away. She buried the tests in her suitcase and tried to put it out of her mind.

It was a long-shot anyway – they were reasonably careful when it came to birth control and planning out their lives right now. She’d just moved back, they were about to plan a wedding, she’d be starting a new job, technically, even if at her old hospital. There’s a lot going on. And now a baby? It’s too much.

Claire spent the rest of the afternoon packing for her trip and checking in on work projects. It proved good enough to take her mind off of things until Neil came home again and they got ready for their night out with friends. If he suspected that anything was bothering her, he didn’t say.

And their friends had been a wonderful distraction. For a while she’d let herself forget about the two boxes and what a positive test would mean for their lives.

Yet when they returned home and Neil had made her tea and danced with her, told her that he loved her and how happy he was to have her in his life, he’d inadvertently brought the situation back into the forefront of her mind.

Except not in a terrifying way. In an ‘it’ll all be alright’ way because this is what she wants. With him.

Her focus returns to Neil who still looks completely dazed by the news.

“How long …?”

Claire shakes her head. “I’ve only suspected since this morning. All the pieces kind of fit together and it’s like a light bulb went off,” she laughs awkwardly. “I thought you’d want to be here to find out. I mean, I wanted to do it together.”

Neil takes in a deep breath, closes his eyes to calm himself.

“I thought you seemed off this morning, but then I got distracted with work and you sounded fine when I got back. And then when you weren't drinking at dinner, I just thought you weren't in the mood.”

“Yeah, I freaked out. Not surprising.” She looks away, still holding the pregnancy tests. Her attention snaps back when she feels Neil’s fingers at her wrist to get her attention.

He’s smiling softly at her, still stressed but also allowing the excitement to creep in. “It’s a good thing I gave you all that tea. Are you ready?”

Claire takes a deep breath of her own. Then she nods.

They head to the bathroom to open the box together and read the instructions Even though they’re both doctors and are confident in their ability to handle the task, they want to be extra careful. He gives her some privacy to take the test and then welcomes her in his arms when she reemerges from the bathroom to join him as they wait.

They don’t talk much during the ten minutes. He simply guides her to the bed and holds her, stroking her arms and pressing soft kisses to the side of her head. When the alarm he sets goes off, they hesitate, both scared and excited about what awaits them. They return to the bathroom hand in hand with Claire picking up the pregnancy stick to see the results.

No words are needed as she takes in the smile that blooms across Neil’s face.

He wraps his arms around her and lifts her off her feet in one of the biggest hugs she’s ever received from him. But he pulls back abruptly asking if she’s okay and if he’s hurt her knowing that she may be a little tender and sensitive in places.

Claire simply pulls him back into her arms and kisses him deeply.

She loves seeing Neil this giddy. He continues to pepper her with kisses.

“We’re having a baby! And getting married.” He kisses her once more. “And working together.” He rests his forehead against hers. “This is all I’ve ever wanted. Everything feels worth it to be here like this with you right now.”

She doesn’t respond, just nods.

“Are you okay with all of this? I know it’s not what we planned.” He rubs her back trying to soothe her.

Claire leans back, thoughtful about how to answer that. “I’m … I’m happy. Terrified. Overwhelmed.” He cups her cheek, guiding her gaze back to him. She can see his worry peeking through the exuberance. “I’m mostly happy, though. And excited. It’s what I want too.”

Neil kisses her again and then pulls her into a hug, whispering in her ear that he loves her and that they’ll be okay. He says it to soothe her. And maybe affirm it to himself too.

But she knows all of this already. They didn’t exactly plan for things to happen this way, but they’re ready for this.

Present Day

They have bit of down time before Claire has to head out. She’s driving into San Francisco with another doctor who's also attending the conference. They're scheduled to pick her up in half an hour. He and Claire finish their smoothies and Neil cleans up the kitchen afterward. Claire’s moved to the couch to read through the conference agenda.

Neil joins her, peeking over her shoulder to offer his suggestions. She’d convinced him to join her on the last day so they can spend a long weekend up in Marin celebrating their news before returning back to reality. He’s looking forward to planning that last-minute excursion while she’s busy with the conference.

“There’s so much to do with all the workshops and panels and networking events. Are you sure you’re up for it?”

Claire rolls her eyes. “Already the overprotective Papa,” she says, though her words are affectionate. He moves his hand to rest against her still flat stomach.

“I’ll try not to piss Mama off too much, but yes.”

Claire giggles. “Yeah, that’s a good way to think about it – don’t piss off the human incubator.”

Neil again scrolls through the schedule. “Seriously, it’s a lot going on. I know you can take care of yourself, but I don’t want you to overdo it.”

“I won’t, I promise.” She kisses his cheek. “And I already sent a note to Dr. Madison about making an appointment next week to confirm everything and told him about the two pregnancy tests. He’ll be discrete so the whole hospital doesn't know our business before we can fully wrap our heads around it. But you don’t overdo it either. You can at least blame your good mood on my being back in town. I know you’re going to be spending the week making all sorts of plans. Buying baby books, drafting up blueprints for a nursery, picking out names.”

He laughs. “I’ll try to control myself. Maybe.” He can tell she’s amused at his honesty about it. The conversation does make him wonder something, though. “Where’d your mom get your name from?”

Claire shakes her head. “Depends on what day you asked her. If she was in a bad mood, she’d say the name reminded her of how piercing my first screams were when when the doctor wrenched me from her body after days of the worst labor imaginable. In her better moods, she'd say it came to her in a dream or was the name some medium told her would bring good fortune.” Neil caresses her shoulder, feeling her tense up a little at the memories. “But I’m pretty sure she named me after Claire Huxtable. I used to pretend my mom was her.”

He smiles sadly at her. “It’s not a bad namesake,” he offers.

“Not bad at all. And fitting in a way. I did end up being the much better half of the two of us and the voice of reason.” She looks up at him. “How about you? Where did Neil come from?”

“Neil Armstrong," he says, smiling at the old family story. "My dad was fascinated with the moon landing. My mom liked it too. And she figured it’d be easier for me to get through life with an Anglo name.”

"Sweet and sadly practical. And remember we have plenty of time for all that, so don’t go crazy while I’m gone.”

Taking her hand, he kisses it a few times before letting her go. “I’ll do my best. You’ll have to grant me a little craziness. I’ll try to get it out of my system before I drive up on Thursday night.”

“Fair enough.” She burrows into him, snuggling as close as she can get. He gladly accepts her into his arms and continues to trace circles across her abdomen. “You know we also need to figure out what we’re going to do about this wedding situation. Tony and Emma set the bar pretty high.”

“No kidding.” He sighs. “And we might have to reconsider the timing.”

“Yeah, for a lot of things. I did just start a new job,” she reminds him.

Neil nods, but then smirks. “Something tells me Audrey is going to be pretty understanding about all of this. Glassman too. We'll figure it all out.”

“Famous last words. But yes, we’ll make it work. And who knows, maybe we’ll have our own wedding crasher who ends up like us.”

“Like us, huh?” Neil says, grinning. “And how would be be?”

She smiles at him. “Disgustingly happy. Annoyingly content.” He drops a brief kiss to her lips.

“That might be the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard coming from that mouth,” he teases, making her laugh once more.

"See, look what you've done to me."

A few minutes before her ride is expected, she reluctantly pulls away and walks to the foyer to get her shoes. He watches as she does all her last-minute tasks to make sure she has what she needs. Sure enough, she gets a text that her ride is waiting outside. He stops her at the door to hold her for long moments, his arms fully extended around her.

“I love you,” he says, pulling back and pressing his lips to hers.

“I know you do. I love you too.”

She kisses him once more and opens the front door. He insists on carrying her suitcase to the trunk of the car, of course. Greeting their colleague warmly, he sends her off with another tight hug and chaste kiss.

“See you soon,” he whispers in her ear.

“Yes, we will,” she replies, her eyes twinkling at the broad grin he can’t seem to dial back. “You can fill me in on all your grand plans then.”

“Count on it.” He lets her go so she can climb into the car. As they pull out of the driveway, he waves to her and watches them disappear around the corner.

Neil retreats back into the house, ready for the best phase of his life to begin.

The End