Instant Gratification

“No.” She grabbed more batteries. “It’s nothing personal.”

His eyes revealed the skepticism of that statement.

“It’s just that I’m not going to be here long, and-” More batteries, because they were helping so much.

He eyed her cart with wry amusement. “You either have a lot of very little flashlights, or a busy vibrator.”

She looked down at the six packs of batteries and grimaced.

“You know, I have a better way to relax,” Stone murmured in her ear, his voice low and husky, and dammit, hypnotizing.

“The batteries are for my…” What? They were for what? She was drawing a big, fat blank.

He just raised a curious brow.

And she deflated. “Oh, be quiet.” In turn to his soft chuckle, she put the batteries back. It was time-past time- for her to blow that popsicle stand, cute mountain bums and all.

After a night of heavy rain, Stone and TJ took a group kayaking down the Cascade River. It was Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, mostly because their guests had lied about their kayaking skills, and also because the rains had the river rushing and swollen.

Taking a break from keeping their clients alive, Stone and TJ pulled everyone off the river for a late afternoon lunch. Their guests stretched out, enjoying some sun and Annie’s sandwiches.

TJ and Stone sat a short distance away, trying to recover when Cam called Stone’s cell. He listened to their complaints and laughed from 7500 miles away. “What do you mean you’re exhausted? You going to let a couple of clients kick your collective asses?”

“You have no idea,” Stone muttered.

“Actually, you would have an idea,” TJ said. “If you’d get your ass back here.”

“Couple more weeks,” Cam said. “We’re going to Costa Rica first-unless you need us sooner?”

Stone looked at TJ, who sighed. Neither of them wanted to rush Cam, not when he was happy for the first time in recent memory. “We’re fine,” Stone told him. “You just lounge around with your fiance and we’ll earn your keep.”

Cam laughed. “Sounds good to me. So what’s going on?”

“You mean besides the fact that the river’s crazy today and that our clients lied on their applications?”

“Sort of like the pregnant woman?” Cam asked. “You guys are losing your touch.”

“Okay, you know what?” Stone said. “People getting lots of sex don’t get an opinion.” He shut the cell phone.

“Now see,” TJ said. “This is why I like the long treks. No baby deliveries. No beginner kayakers. Only the hardcore people who know what they’re doing. I have three separate requests for that six week Alaska trip alone.” Lying back, he shoved his hands behind his head and smiled up at the sky. “I could get into taking three long trips in a row.”

Stone tried not to panic. “Which would leave me alone here.” Again.

“You love being in charge.”

Stone cranked his neck to look at his brother. “No, I don’t.”

“Yes, you do.”

“No. I really don’t.”

“Then why do you always handle all of the behind the scenes stuff?”

“Uh, because you don’t?”

TJ grinned. “Oh. Right. Thanks for that, by the way. You should give yourself a raise.”

“I’ll do that.”

Sensing the tone, and perhaps the fact that Stone wasn’t kidding, TJ looked at him. “Are you pissed at something?”

“No.”

“You get shot down by the pretty Doc?”

“No.” Dammit. “Yes, but that’s not it.”

“You hungry? You get cranky when you’re hungry. I’ve got another sandwich-”

“Shut up, TJ.” Stone sat up.

TJ did too, and looked at him for a long moment. “Annie smacked me around some this morning. She told me you’ve been putting in long hours at night in the office. You’re overworked.”

“Ya think?”

“I should have offered to help.”

“You could offer now.”

“Okay. You want some time off? You need to get the hell out for a while or something? You could take the first Alaskan trip, no problem.”

Stone sighed. “It’s not like I’m chomping at the bit to get out of here.”

“But…”

“But…” He decided what the hell. “I want to do another renovation project.”

TJ blinked. “So…you want to stop having fun all day in order to work your ass off?”

“I don’t want to stop doing this. Jesus. You don’t listen.”

“I listen plenty, and what I’m hearing is that you need to get laid.”

Stone let out a laugh. “Is that your answer to everything?”

“Yes,” TJ said fervently.

Okay, true. Sex was an extremely nice fix to just about everything, but he knew he needed more than that this time. “Remember when I bought that house on the corner of Main and Sierra and fixed it up, then sold it to Old Man Pete?”

“Your first project. I remember. He turned it into the convenience store next to his gas station.”

“Yeah.”

“You nearly lost your ass on that project.”

“That’s because I was twenty-two and got screwed on the loan, but it worked out. It’s not about the money, TJ. It’s about doing something I love. This…” he gestured around him. “It’s good. It gives Cam a purpose, and it’s what you love, but I need more. I need something for me.”

TJ just stared at him. “You’re serious.”

“Yes.”

“Well, Christ, Stone. What’ll we do without you?”

Now he stared up at the sky, feeling it weighing down on him. “I’m not leaving. I’m not asking to leave. I just want some time for me.”

“Maybe you just need a distraction. Ask her out, man. It’ll help.”

Stone didn’t have to ask which “her”, he knew exactly. “No.”

“Is it because she saw you buck ass naked on your first date? That could be construed as a romantic memory, you know.”

Romantic? True, her hands had been all over him, but she’d been pulling gravel and chunks of rock out of his flesh, her fingers steady as a rock as he’d sworn the room blue.

Yeah, romantic as hell. “It wasn’t a date, you ass. It was…an encounter. Then I brought her up a mountain to deliver a baby because you didn’t notice that one of your clients was twenty-two months pregnant.”

“Hey, that could have been romantic, too.”

“How? How could that have been romantic?”

TJ thought about it for a minute and then shrugged. “Okay, maybe not.”

Stone just shook his head.

“So what do you think you’ll do for your next…encounter? Maybe tell her that the minor heart attack she thinks her father had was in fact a major one, and that if you hadn’t been there he’d have died?”

“I thought I’d save that for some other time.” Like, oh…never. Never worked for him. Emma wouldn’t thank him for not telling her the truth, he knew that much. Nor would it matter to her that it hadn’t been his truth to tell.

“Maybe you could try a new tactic.”