Page 20 of Hot Response
Cait laughed. “If I got that color you’re wearing, I’d look like I had weird fingers with no nails, but I’m not really a red nails or lips kind of person.”
“Only because you haven’t tried it. I think dark purple, though. We should try to schedule it.”
“You already know what I’m going to say.”
Monica sighed. “Yeah, but I’m going to keep trying.”
“Enough manicure talk.” It wasn’t going to happen. Cait kept her nails short and neat and clean, and that was enough for her. And it wasn’t really the job. There were other EMTs with nails maybe not as long as Monica’s but as beautifully manicured. She just didn’t have the patience for the manicure process, or the process of chipping and peeling she inevitably had to deal with.
Monica picked up her phone and, with a few taps, pulled up the list of things she’d been making to talk about when they had the chance. Cait always laughed at her extreme organization skills, but Monica often had the last laugh when she’d get anoh, shit, I forgot to tell you thistext message from Cait after they’d parted ways.
They gave work about thirty seconds. They were both still working and could afford dinner and wine, and that was that. Monica’s husband was still being a great husband and dad while earning obscene amounts of money in real estate. They cooed over pics of Monica’s one-year-old daughter, and then spent time talking about books and movies that it seemed like neither of them had time for. Most of that was covered on a regular basis during their many phone calls while one or both of them was sitting in traffic.
“Okay,” Monica said, looking at her phone. “Next on the list is your sex life.”
Cait rolled her eyes. “You can delete that one.”
“Come on. Are you even trying?”
“Not really. Though there might be a glimmer of hope on that particular horizon.”
That got Monica’s attention. She leaned forward, setting her phone on the table. “Holy shit, girl. You’ve got a date?”
“I don’t think so. No.” She frowned. “Maybe?”
“Maybe?”
“Gavin said he’d meet me at the bar they go toif he’s free. Not that he wants to take me there and buy me a drink or something.”
The disappointment on Monica’s face confirmed her take on it. “You are way too awesome to put up with that shit. If he wants you, he can come to you. But you do need to get out, Cait. You’ve put your life on hold for your family, which I admire, but it was supposed to be temporary.”
“It won’t be much longer.” She hoped.
“You said that two months ago. You need to start taking care of you. Your mom will see that and figure out that, for you to live your life, she needs to take care of hers. And Carter.”
“She wants to. She’s trying.”
“Was she like this when your dad died?”
Cait took a sip of her wine and shrugged. “I was only three, so I don’t really remember. I know her sister was around alot, but she’s in Florida now and they’re not as close as they used to be. Maybe having a teenager makes it harder than having little girls who don’t really know what’s going on, but at least have each other. And cancer killed my dad, so his death wasn’t a total shock, like Duke’s was.”
“That’s probably a lot of it. But, look, life goes on. She needs to accept that so you can get on with yours.”
“I know,” Cait said, because she did. But it wasn’t that easy.
“I think you should go to that bar when you know Gavin’s going to be there, and ignore him. Or be nice, but find some other guy to get busy with. That’ll show him what he missed out on.”
Cait grinned. “Maybe I should.”
She wouldn’t. Kincaid’s Pub was, at its heart and soul, a firefighters’ bar. While it got street traffic, Cait was sure that at any given time, most of the customers would have some connection to Gavin. If she “got busy” with a firefighter he knew, it would kill any chance she had of getting busy withhim.And she wasn’t sure yet if that was something she wanted to do.
But she was definitely leaning toward yes.
Chapter Six
A few days later, it was Karen, one of the ER nurses, who destroyed Cait’s resolve to stay away from Kincaid’s Pub. She wasn’t about to hang around the place, hoping a man had nothing better to do than meet her there, nor did she think Monica’s plan to make him jealous by way of another pub customer was a good idea. So she’d skip it.
“How’s your mom?” Karen had asked when they crossed paths in the ER. They’d struck up a casual friendship during the short windows of standing around and grabbed coffee together a few times.
