Nerds on Fire (14 page)

By the time he kissed all three of his
visiting family members, Chrissy was nudged down the steps until
finally with a venomous look at Trixi, she offered a stiff goodbye
and flounced to her car. Rylan and the ladies didn’t wave her off,
but instead bustled into the house where Leecher clapped the door
shut. He greeted each woman with obvious pleasure. His mother
affectionately patted the man’s arm and he beamed. Rylan hoped Nina
would invoke the same amount of loyalty as his mother
had.

Since Leecher was getting on in years,
Rylan was certain Chrissy would have made some excuse to replace
him, as well as many of the people who worked here. They wouldn’t
be her idea of household servants, although no one in his family
considered these people servants. They were old family
friends.

“
You know,” his mother said
as she looked around, “this place was my home for over fifty years,
but it doesn’t feel like home any longer.”

“
It doesn’t?” His eyebrows
rose.

“
No, my home is with Trixi.
Her house feels like home to me.”

“
Because it is your home.”
Trixi sounded very sure and he loved her a little more.

“
I do love living there
with you.” His mother patted Trixi’s smooth cheek. “The fact Katy
has moved back in is only a bonus.”

Rylan curled an arm around his other
daughter, one he hadn’t been given until she was an adult. “You’re
living there now as well?”

“
Yes.” Katy twinkled at him
and he reflected again on what a lucky man he was.

He narrowed his eyes.
“Why?”

“
Can’t we all enjoy being
together?” his mother asked. “Now, where are Johnny and
Miriam?”

“
They had some hospital
function they had to attend.”

“
Ugh. Since I’m in
neonatal, I was able to avoid attending that one.” Trixi sighed in
what resembled relief.

“
Did Mark have to go?” Katy
asked. “He was busy trying to get out of it when I
left.”

Mark, who was Leo’s brother
and Leo was Katy’s...
friend
. This could turn out to be
entertaining. Rylan ushered them into the family room, a room
Chrissy hadn’t seen on her one visit.

“
Based on what he said as
we were leaving, I don’t think his efforts worked.” Trixi plucked a
long hair off her sleeve.

He heard a note in Trixi’s voice he
hadn’t heard before. He sent a questioning look to Katy. She
nodded, subtly.

Making a mental note to ask her all
about it later, he nodded back and then offered them each their
drink of choice. It sounded like Trixi was interested in this man.
A neurosurgeon would be more than capable of looking after Trixi
and her house. If he didn’t mind the fact the house belonged to his
wife, and would eventually pass on to his daughter.

Katy was well aware of all this, of
course.

Before they left the family room, he
managed to snag her as Trixi escorted her grandmother to the dining
table. “So Trixi is interested in this neurosurgeon?”

She smiled.
“
He’s
interested
in her. I’m not certain she’s aware of her interest in him
yet.”

“
You know he’s interested
in her how?”

“
I can tell just by the way
he looks at her. The body language is there. He might not be aware
yet, but he’s interested.”

“
Why isn’t Trixi aware of
this?”

“
Because she doesn’t
believe, in usual Trixi fashion, that she’s good enough for
him.”

He and Katy exchanged knowing scowls.
They’d been working long and hard to break through this hideous
notion in Trixi’s mind. They had succeeded in some ways, but in
others, the wall was still as impenetrable as ever.

After they were seated and started
eating, Rylan finally broached the subject of Nina to these three
women whose opinion mattered to him.

“
So, I know we’ve sort of
discussed this, but would any of you have objections to me asking
Nina, I don’t even know her last name, out?” Why hadn’t he paid
attention to her last name when he delivered Trixi’s
lunch?

“
Her name is Nina
McCormick.” Trixi swallowed some tea.

“
And we wholeheartedly
support your decision to ask her out,” Katy added.

His daughters exchanged conspirator’s
satisfaction. “She’s perfect for you, Dad. Sweet and funny and
smart.”

“
She’d look good in this
house, too.” Katy’s saucy grin further reassured him.

“
Unlike that creature we
encountered on your front doorstep. What was she doing here?” His
mother sprinkled salt on her vegetables.

“
Chrissy discovered I’m
living here now.” He forked up more of the succulent filet mignon
on his plate.

All three of his dinner companions
showed obvious signs of disbelief and interest in his
statement.

“
I’ll bet she’s grinding
her teeth in frustration right about now.” His mother sampled her
vegetables.

“
I don’t particularly care
either way. I’m relieved she’s out of my life.” He tried the
colorful medley on his plate. It was nice to be here, eating with
these women.

“
We are too, Daddy.” Trixi
patted his hand and then ate some carrots. “Do you like living
here?”

“
Other than missing you,
yes. I was restless and edgy because I knew it was time for me to
leave your house.”

Katy sat up with a gasp. “This is why
you ended up getting taken in by that woman.”

“
Yes. But now I’m having a
hard time concentrating on my work because Nina keeps slipping into
my mind.”

Trixi clapped her hands in glee. “You
need to ask her out.”

He nodded. “What are my
chances?”

This time when Katy and Trixi
exchanged glances, he didn’t even try to read their thoughts.
Sometimes it paid to be patient.

“
Well, she’s shot down all
of the doctors and administrators who’ve asked her out recently.”
Trixi curled her bottom lip between her teeth.

That didn’t sound good.

“
Why?” his mother
asked.

“
She says she doesn’t like
to date people she works with.” Trixi shrugged.

“
She was married but is now
single?” He needed to make absolutely certain of this before he
proceeded to the next step.

“
Yes, her husband was
military and killed in action. Now her son is also in the
military.”

“
I didn’t know about her
husband. No wonder she’s so worried about Jon.” Katy set down her
water goblet with a thump.

“
Nina doesn’t talk about
her late husband much.”

“
Her son is fighting in a
war zone now?” Rylan cringed for Nina.

“
Yes, just like her
husband, who was killed at least fifteen years ago. Jon was still
in school.”

“
So she was a single parent
for a time,” his mother said.

Trixi nodded. “I think it was
difficult for her.”

“
You know a lot about her.”
Katy speared a roasted potato.

“
Yeah, Nina and I became
friends a long while ago. I eat lunch with her whenever our
schedules allow it. And we talk.” She turned to him. “From the
beginning I’ve thought she’d make a great stepmother.”

“
From the beginning?” he
questioned wryly.

“
Oh yes. But the timing
wasn’t right.”

“
Why not?” Katy popped the
potato into her mouth.

“
Because Dad wasn’t showing
much interest in dating back then.”

“
Oh.” He winced at how she
figured out he was interested in dating now.

Would he ever live down
the error of Chrissy?

“
Yeah, but at least your
engagement proved to all of us you’re serious about dating now.”
Trixi offered up her most mischievous grin. “You also don’t work at
the hospital.”

“
No, I don’t.”

“
Did Nina actually give you
your lunch bag?” he asked.

Trixi had just taken a bite, but she
nodded vigorously and chewed just as fast. “She
blushed.”

It was his turn for red cheeks, as
under the knowing looks of three of his favorite women, he couldn’t
halt the color.

Taking command of the conversation
again, he said decisively, like the CEO he was, “I’ll ask her out
tomorrow. I’ve got a meeting close to the hospital.”

It wasn’t until three sunny smiles
greeted him that he realized he had just been manipulated by three
pros.

Chapter 15

Waking the next
morning, Rylan assessed his situation and came up with,
mostly content
. He
awakened in a bedroom he had loved since childhood. He had
earmarked it as his own back then. Odd he hadn’t realized then, in
his childish dreams, that these suites wouldn’t be his without a
few sacrifices.

For instance, he wouldn’t inherit the
house until his father died. He’d rather be living in Trixi’s
guesthouse than without his dad, but that good man had been gone
nearly as long as Rylan’s wife. The heart attack that killed his
father caused Rylan to make some changes in his own life. He had
started a tough exercise regimen that molded his body into
something he was pleased with.

He might not have the hard muscle of a
man half his age, but then again, he might. Since he didn’t spend
any time viewing other men’s bodies, he didn’t know, but at least
he didn’t cringe these days when he looked in the mirror. His body
was honed and hard from the exercise he did each day to keep a
heart attack at bay.

At the same time he had also altered
his eating habits. Gone were the foods he and his dad had enjoyed
to excess and in were foods he had grown to love, fruits and
vegetables and the like. He still indulged occasionally, because it
was impossible to abstain while living with Trixi.

Since he was so subtly manipulated
last night into asking Nina out, he planned to do so today. His
heart beat a little faster. Here he was, in his early-to-mid
fifties, and anticipating asking out a woman who made him feel like
a teenager again. Rylan was most gratefully happy he wasn’t a teen
any longer, but it was nice to feel some of those giddy moments
again.

So long as she didn’t shoot him
down.

Okay, time to stop these
thoughts
.

It was time for action now. After he
called his brother-in-law, who had moved into his own house three
days ago.

“
Nina McCormick you say?”
Johnny asked. Rylan couldn’t hear road noise, but knew his
brother-in-law was also on his way to work, because Johnny
mentioned it when he answered.

“
Yes. The girls think I
should ask her out.”

Laughter answered him. “I told Miriam
the other night that I thought she was perfect for you.”

“
Are you kidding?”
Disbelief laced his voice.

“
No. The minute I met Nina
I told Mirry this. Your sister came in the next day to meet Nina
and she agrees.”

If he’d had any reservations about
this woman, his family was quickly stomping them to
dust.

Even though he had an appointment near
here this afternoon, he decided to go to the hospital this morning
to see Nina.

“
I’m heading in your
direction.”

Johnny laughed again. “You’ve got it
bad, Duvall.”

“
Yeah.”

“
My advice is to go for
it.”

“
Thanks for your help,”
Rylan said dryly.

“
You’re welcome. If you
need real advice, call Mirry. You know she’ll have a thousand
different ideas on what you can do for dates.”

“
I have five nosy women in
my life. Trust me, I’ve got ideas.”

Johnny laughed again. “You have got
women. I didn’t even think about Shawna.”

“
She and Reed are away on a
business trip. That’s the only reason she wasn’t offering her
advice last evening.”

“
Got lucky there, at
least.”

“
Right. She’ll chime in
when they return.”

They said goodbye as Rylan pulled into
the parking lot. He crawled out of the vehicle and soon entered the
hospital. The first two people he saw were his daughters. Or they
saw him. “Dad,” Trixi cried.

“
Dad.” Katy wasn’t far
behind and the two of them parted from the people they had been
conversing with to launch into his arms.

“
We’d ask what you’re doing
here, but we can guess.” Trixi beamed at him with the same
mischievous smile she’d perfected in her youth.

Katy’s exuberance might exceed
Trixi’s. “Yeah, we want all the details when you’re done here.” She
shared a bratty smile with Trixi. “Go get her, Tiger.” They pushed
him in the same direction.

It was then he noticed the small
grouping of people included Nina.