Her stomach flipped as she picked up the tray.  She made a round of her and Amy’s tables.  Amy returned ten minutes past her allotted fifteen minutes with the smell of smoke announcing her presence.  She didn’t apologize for her tardiness, and Devon suspected it was because she had been late earlier.

“Your turn,” Amy said with a shrug.

“Thanks,” Devon said.

Devon walked past Brennan into the back and took a seat on the bench.  She sighed and stretched out her aching legs, lying back on the bench.  She yawned and let her mind wander back to this morning when she had awoken in just a tangle of limbs.  Being with Brennan was the only thing that had allowed her to forget her old life.  She had tried to push back the memories, but they haunted her no matter how hard she had tried.  When Brennan had walked into her life, all of that changed.

When she heard the door creak open, she shifted up to her elbows to see Brennan walking in.

“Hey,” he said with a charming smile.

“Hey.”

“Came in here to check on you.  It was a bit of a madhouse out there for a while.”

He walked over and sat on the end of the bench.  She scooted down and rested her head on his thigh.

“It was.  I’m ready to go home,” she said with a yawn.  “Someone kept me up late last night.”

“Not late enough,” he said, running his hands through her hair.

Devon chuckled and closed her eyes as he worked his magic at untangling the knots.  He calmed her down, and she could have lain there all night.  Everything was so natural and easy with Brennan.

She exhaled softly.  “Can I ask you something?”

“What is it?”  His hand pulled back through her loose strands.

“I’ve been wondering about this since you told me, but I don’t want it to sound weird,” she said, her hands fiddling with the buttons on her white shirt.

“Nothing is weird between us,” he said.

“I just…well…your dad left you with money, right?”  She felt weird for asking.

Brennan tensed and stilled his hand.  “Uh, yeah.”

“Then, um…why do you live in a small one bedroom, take the L, and work as a bartender?” she asked, her words coming out in a rush.

She didn’t want to sound snooty because that wasn’t her intention.  But if his dad had worked at Northwestern Memorial for thirty years as a doctor, then he was likely well-off.  Why wouldn’t Brennan use any of that money?

“Oh,” was all he said.

“I don’t mean to sound like I like you any less because of it.  I don’t!  I don’t care about those things.  I like those things,” she added hastily.  “I was mostly curious.”

“Well, truth is…I don’t like money,” he said with a stilted laugh.

“You don’t like…money,” she repeated.

“I don’t know.  I do.  I just…it was his money.  Everything I buy with it reminds me that he’s gone.”

Devon sat up, so she could look at him.  The pain was clear on his face, and she was sorry that she had brought it up.  She took his hand and held it in her own.

“I don’t mind the things he owned, like the boat.  Those are happy memories, but the house…”  He shuddered.  “I couldn’t live in that house.”

“He left you a house?”  She wasn’t sure why she even asked, but she didn’t know what else to say.

The more he talked, the more she wondered why she had asked at all.  He sounded so sad.

“Yeah.  I didn’t know what to do with it, so I just left it as is.  It’s probably dusty.  Sometimes, I go over there to mow the lawn the way he liked it, but that’s as far as I can get,” he said.  “I bought the apartment after that.  I try to keep it all low-key and live the way I used to live before it happened.”

“That has to be hard,” she said, her thumb drawing circles on his hand.

“I’ve survived.”

“Glad I can be here…so you’re not just surviving anymore.”  She pulled him in for a hug.

“With you, I’m living,” he whispered, kissing her head.

She leaned her head back and kissed him on the lips.  “Me, too.”

“And just so you know, I try so hard on those medical exams,” he said with a sigh.  “He always wanted me to be a doctor, just like him.  Follow in his footsteps.”

“But is that what you want?” she asked, knowing that it wasn’t.

After listening to his music just one time, she knew that being a doctor wasn’t what he wanted.  How could it be when art called to his soul?

“I’m perfectly content working as a bartender and playing music for the rest of my life…but you can’t retire on that.”

“No.”

“I just don’t have the heart for it.  I got my scores back,” he said.

“How did you do?” Devon asked, her heart jumping out of her chest.  Was it that time already?  Were the scores already reported?

He shrugged.  “Good enough to go wherever I want.”

“Oh wow,” she said with a smile.  “Where have you applied?”

“That’s the problem…nowhere.  I haven’t applied anywhere.  I don’t know if I can be him…and I hate that about myself,” he told her.

They sat there in silence for a bit.  Devon knew something of parental approval.  She and her mother had never seen eye to eye on what Devon should do with her life.

Devon reached out and took his hand in her own.  “You know, my mama always wanted me to be a country music singer.”

“Yeah?  Is that because your parents work in the industry?”

She was surprised he remembered that about her.

“Yeah. They’re lyricists.”

“Like you,” he said with a smile.

“Ugh…no way.  Not like me.  My stuff sucks, and I’m never letting people hear it.”

“I doubt that, Dev.”

“Anyway,” she said, not wanting to touch on that conversation right now, “I never wanted that for myself.  I never saw myself as the country music artist my mother wanted me to be, no matter how hard she tried, and she tried hard.  But my mother also wants me to be happy, and she only pushed me as far as she could without upsetting me.  She wants a country music star, but she’s okay with me being the person I am.  And…I think your dad would want that, too.”

Brennan leaned forward and kissed her.  “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” she said shyly.  She felt weird being the one giving out advice for once.

“Come on.  Amy will probably be looking for us any minute,” Brennan said, standing.

“You’re probably right.”

They walked out of the break room and into the kitchen just as Amy walked through the swinging door.

“Where have you guys been?  I need your help!”  She glared at Devon like she might stab her.

Devon wouldn’t put it past her.

“Sorry.” Brennan swept past Amy and headed to the bar.

Devon sighed heavily.  She hated when the moments with Brennan were broken.  It was like she was in a dream, but unlike her nightmares, it was the best place she had ever been.  It was nothing like her past life.

She walked out onto the floor and took orders at the two tables she had acquired.  She rushed them back to the kitchen and refilled drinks for another table.  Brennan handed her a full tray, and she quickly deposited the contents around the room.

“Here you go,” she said with a big smile, giving out the last drink to her customer.

Devon turned around toward the entrance to greet an incoming customer, and her tray slipped out of her hand, clattering to the ground.

“Reid?”

REID BENT DOWN and collected the tray from the floor.  He looked up, his eyes met Devon’s, and he smiled bright and beautiful.  He had an award-winning smile.  Her hands were shaking as he handed the tray back to her, and she automatically tucked it under her arm.