Page 12 of Sundowners
“Well, maybe we can talk to management about security. I know we have Old Moe and a few cameras. We can have him look at the footage. I’d hate to see anyone get hurt.” And I was very curious to see who was poking around.
Lexi made a face. “I really hope they catch who’s doing it.” She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. I pulled her into a hug.
“Don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to you. I’ll walk you to your car after your shift, okay?”
Lexi nodded and covered her mouth as she yawned.
“Looks like someone needs some more coffee.” I tugged on the end of her long braid.
“You’re probably right. I’m going to grab some.” Her gaze was inviting. “You want anything?”
I smiled at her.Nothing from you, dear.“I’m fine. I think I’m going to go meet Frances.”
Lexi gave me a finger wave. “Say hello to Officer Cabral for me,” she said with a wink before turning and walking down the hall.
Lexi and I had become close, and she frequently hinted she was interested in more than friendship, but she wasn’t quite the flavor I preferred. It wasn’t just a sexual thing. I preferred the taste of men. In and out of bed. Their blood had a different kick to it. Hard to describe. Not that I was partaking of anyone lately, nor did I need that in my life after all these years…
Which sounded pathetic, even to me.
I used my key card to log out of the patient information system and went down the hall toward my new patient’s room. I heard laughter as I approached the open door.
“Roman, you need your rest, you’re getting grumpy.Go get some sleep. You have to teach tomorrow.”
“Not until the afternoon. Now, do you have everything? Can I bring you anything when I come back?”
I turned the corner—and stopped in my tracks.
A flustered young man stood with his back to the door, reeking of stress and…pain.
“I hear we have a new neighbor?” I said as I leaned in the doorway with a smile. “May I come in, Mrs. San Angelo?”
The man turned, and I noticed the UC Santa Cruz logo on the front of his shirt. Stretched across a well-sculpted chest, no less. Roman, I presumed. He was a tad shorter than me, and while I may have outweighed him by twenty or so pounds, he definitely had an athletic physique. With toned arms like his, and smooth, tanned forearms lined with thick veins, I imagined he was into weightlifting. How nice.
I gave him a polite nod and somehow managed to pry my gaze away and turn my full attention to the lovely lady before me.
“Yes, come in, please,” she gestured with her hands. “I remember you from bingo nights with my sisters. How do you do?”
“Very well, thank you. Welcome to Puesta Del Sol. I apologize for not being here to greet you when you moved in, but they make me take nights off sometimes, can you believe it?”
Frances gave a girlish chuckle. “You kids all work so hard. In fact, can you tell my grandson I amfine? That he should go home?”
Frances was sitting in the wingback chair at the foot of her bed. The room, which was minimally furnished, looked lived-in already. There were framed pictures on the walls, a handmade quilt on the bed that was littered with pillows—which weren’t regulation but I’d let them slide.
“Your grandson probably wouldn’t take orders from a lowly night nurse like myself. You, on the other hand…are you going to give me trouble?”
Frances batted her eyes as I approached and took her hand. I bent and kissed the back of it like the southern gentleman I was. Or had been.
Her grandson scoffed. “Probably shewillbe trouble. Especially when she gets together with her pack.”
I winked at Frances and then turned to shake hands with—
“Roman.”
I would remember the moment our skin brushed for the rest of my existence.
Soft skin with the hint of calluses, strong, thick fingers. The scent of the ocean breeze clinging to him. And the pain that emanated from his soul flooded me.
“Creed Lowell.” My voice cracked when I spoke. “Pleasure.”
