Nora and Reid hadn’t been kidding when they said they’d bought furniture for every room in the house. The final delivery for the evening was a new washer and dryer for the laundry room. I showed the deliveryman where to unload it and by the time he’d finished hooking it up and Brett and I had finally had dinner, it was close to eleven.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come back to my place?” Brett asked as we were locking up Reid’s parents’ house for the night. We’d have to come back later that week and finish, but the good news was my sister and Reid would be home that weekend for a visit and to show Reid’s mom and dad their new home.

“There is no place I’d rather go,” I said, rising up on to my toes to kiss Brett. “But, I’ve got to be at the hospital at six.” My busy schedule was really starting to get in the way. I was starting to think that I needed to make a little more time for myself. And for Brett.

“Okay,” he said taking my hand in his and walking me over to my car. The dark sky was lit by a bright moon as he kissed me good night. “Clinicals Wednesday and Thursday, right?”

“Yep.” I nodded, impressed that he’d actually memorized my schedule. “But Friday my schedule is wide open.”

“I like the sound of that,” he said before returning his lips to mine. “I’ll make damn sure we don’t get interrupted.” He leaned back to look at me. “Damn. Sure.” His promises were as scintillating as his touch. I was looking forward to our uninterrupted day together.

* * *

The next two days seemed to creep by, so by the time Friday finally arrived I couldn’t wait to see him. Even if it meant seeing him while we finished up moving furniture and decorating the Travers’ house.

“What the hell is this?” Brett asked when we finally went to finish unpacking all of the items for the Travers’ house. “The edges are all dinged up,” he said, running his fingers over the edge of a picture frame he’d just unpacked.

“It’s supposed to look that way,” I said. “It’s shabby chic.”

“New shit that looks like old shit.” He laughed. “It’s a good thing I’m not an interior decorator.”

“Yeah stick to what you’re good at,” I said, taking the frame from his hand and placing it on the bookcase that was built into the wall of the living room. “Dirt bikes and video games.”

“Oh, babe...” he said, wrapping his arms around my waist from behind. “I’m good at so much more than that,” he teased spinning me around the room playfully.

I wiggled in his arms when he began to tickle me and it wasn’t long before we were on the floor.

“See how good I am at wrestling,” he said pinning my arms over my head.

“Come on let me up,” I said, trying to roll over and escape his hold. His knees were on the ground on each side of my body, and I could tell he was leaning more to the right to favor his left. Boxes were strewn all around us. The room was nowhere near put together. “You’re going to hurt yourself,” I warned.

“No chance.” He shook his head, wrapping one hand around my wrists while the other one picked up his tickle assault. I kicked my legs and tried to get him to move as I tried to breathe between laughs.

“Stop,” I giggled. He was grinning like a fool as he watched me writhe beneath him. “Please.”

“Okay, okay,” he said as he stopped tickling me. He leaned in, his nose practically touching mine. “How bad do you want me to let you up?”

“Bad. We have a lot of stuff to get done.”

“Fine,” he said, faking a pout before he dropped his lips to mine. He kissed me quickly before climbing off of me and sitting with his hands out behind him. “No fun for Georgia. She has work,” he teased. We did have work to do, but I’d been having a great time all day with him. He made the task of emptying boxes much more enjoyable.

“We’d never get this finished if you had your way,” I said as I climbed to my feet and shook my head. I walked around behind him and dropped down to my knees to place my hands on his shoulders. “Don’t you know that the sooner we get this finished,” I added, massaging his shoulders before running my hands down his back. He leaned into my touch. “The sooner we can get out of here.”

“Keep doing that,” he urged, letting his head drop to one side. I placed a kiss on his neck and continued to move my hands over his back. As he relaxed, I slipped my arms up under his and had him in a headlock before he even knew what happened. “Hey!” he said, trying to move. I tightened my hold on him and laughed.

“See? I can have fun,” I said, placing my lips close to his ear. I let my weight fall on his back to keep him in place.

“You’re going to regret this,” he said as he tried to pull from my grasp.

“I don’t think so,” I said confidently. I knew that self-defense class I took my freshman year of college would come in handy one day. “In fact I’m really enjoying it at the moment. Zero regret.” As he continued to try and move away from me all I could do was laugh.

“I kind of figured this was how their relationship would play out.”

Brett and I both froze in place when we heard Reid’s voice call out. We looked to our left to see him and Nora standing there hand in hand.

“I told you my sister was tough,” Nora said with a smile.

“I’m totally letting her win,” Brett insisted before I let him go from my hold. He jumped to his feet quickly before helping me up.

“No you weren’t,” I insisted as I straightened out my shirt. “I had you.”

“Maybe,” he said, bumping his shoulder against mine as we walked over to greet Reid and Nora. “You guys are early,” Brett pointed out as we all exchanged hugs and handshakes.

“We caught an early flight,” Nora explained. “I figured you two might need some help with the finishing touches.”

“Clearly it’s a good thing we showed up when we did,” Reid said. “Got here right before you passed out, Sally,” he teased Brett.

“Hardly.” Brett shook his head as I nodded in agreement with Reid’s rousing.

“Things look great so far,” Nora said as she walked around the room, checking the boxes that were still left to be opened.

“We’ve finished all but this room and the kitchen,” I told her.

“And the garage,” Brett added. “There are some shelves that need to be put together out there.”

“We can do that,” Reid said, slapping Brett on the shoulder. “Let’s go do some manly stuff with power tools while the girls finish up with the decorating,” he said, deepening his voice and puffing out his chest.

“Yeah,” Brett agreed, matching the goofy way his buddy was walking out of the room. “Manly stuff.” He fired a wink in my direction as he was leaving the room and I couldn’t help but grin.

“So?” Nora asked as soon as the guys were out of the room.

“So what?”

“So... tell me what is going on with you two,” she insisted before walking over to start unpacking a box.

“Things are good,” I told her. “Really good.”

“That’s so great. I can’t remember the last time I saw you look so happy,” she continued. “Like genuinely smiling, having a good time happy.”

“It feels pretty good.” I smiled. “How are things with Reid? You’re always so busy interrogating me when we talk that I never get to ask you.” Our roles had reversed over the past month. Before, I was the one who listened to her. I’d put on my therapist hat on more than one occasion when Reid had first come back to Halstead. I never would have imagined that Nora would be talking me through my own relationship so soon. My feelings for Brett had definitely snuck up on me.

“I can’t even tell you how happy I am,” she beamed. “It’s even better than I’d imagined it would be.” As we finished up the unloading and decorating of the room she filled me in on her whirlwind, second chance love affair. “Watching him ride and seeing what his life is like now was a little overwhelming at first, but he’s so good about including me any way he can. And, Throttled Energy asked if I wanted to be the official tour photographer. Can you believe that?”