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As if he read my mind, I felt his hand slip into mine, under the table, and his thumb started massaging tiny circles in my palm.
The waitress showed up with our wings and I was glad for the distraction, but not nearly as glad as my stomach was. I was starving.
We all dug in and munched on the best wings in the universe when Terri, or maybe it was Pearce, almost, but not quite, made me require the administration of the Heimlich maneuver. Luckily, I was okay without it.
“Pearce, I have to ask. What are your intentions as far as Lexi is concerned.”
“Well, I’m glad you asked. You see, I’m madly, passionately and wildly in love with your best friend here and I would love nothing better than for her to be my wife. Except she thinks things are moving too fast, so I want her to live with me until she is used to the idea of becoming Alexia Hammond Middleton.”
I choked as Terri yelled, “Holy fuck!”
Pearce immediately wanted to know if I could breathe. Terri kept yelling, “Holy fuck!”
Now, other people in the restaurant were looking at us and Pearce kept asking me loudly if I could breathe. I finally eked out a squeaky, “Yes,” as I continued to cough.
“Jesus, Alexia, you just gave me another MI.”
“Oh”—cough, cough—“and what do you think you did to me?”
Terri kept staring at Pearce and mumbling.
“Terri, will you shut up already? I love him too, okay?”
She gave her head a hard shake and then asked, “Why don’t you want to get married, Lex?”
“Ha, good question, Terri!” exclaimed Pearce.
“I do. Just not yet. We’ve only been together a few weeks.”
Pearce grabbed my head and kissed me soundly on the mouth. “A month as of today.”
Terri just looked at us in awe and mumbled something like, “If only in my dreams.” Finally, something must’ve clicked in her brain. She sat up, ramrod straight, then said, “Okay, look, Lex is like my sister. I love her more than my sister. Well, I don’t have a sister, only a brother, but you get my meaning here. She’s right. Y’all have only been together right at a month. Anything this magical is worth treasuring and waiting for, right?”
“Yeah, it is. And I told her I’d be waiting for her until the end. I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be here for her whenever she’s ready.”
Terri examined him to make sure he was being honest. I already knew he was, but I wanted her to see it for herself. When she did, she said, “You’re a good man, Pearce Middleton. But if you ever harm even an eyelash of hers, I’ll twist your balls till you’re blue in the face. You feel me?”
Pearce looked at her and said, “You know I do, and you can count on me, Terri. The last thing I’d ever do is hurt our girl here. Plus, I really value my balls.”
* * *
Three nights later, on Wednesday, the four of us met at McCarthy’s for a casual dinner. Pearce had been taken with her, he agreed that maybe she and Justin might end up having a good time at the Heart Ball together.
I warned Terri about how much the two brothers looked alike because I didn’t want her to act like a buffoon again. She promised that since the shell shock of being surrounded by a Greek god had worn off, she’d be on her best behavior. I hoped it was true because her behavior had been embarrassing.
Terri and Justin seemed to have a great time. Pearce and I both had the same opinion, but I knew I’d get the truth from her afterward. I was headed to Greenville in the morning for my big presentation. Maybe I would have some time to call her later that day.
The presentation ended up being excellent and we would find out the following week if we were awarded the contract. My manager did most of the presenting, except for the pitch to get all the hospitals on board to align with the electronic medical records. My part was to show them how they could integrate what they had now and streamline everything into one secure system. It could be linked to their offices and all satellite hospitals, making it a simple task for their physicians to access any patient’s records. If the patient was in the system somewhere, they would be linked. If they weren’t, it was a simple process of adding them. This would prevent the duplication of data entries everywhere. The other great thing about it was patients could access their medical information as well.
Then I went in for the kill. I explained how this could decrease their costs, allowing for fewer employees, lessen the chance of medication errors, which in turn, could protect them from avoidable lawsuits. Patient information at the physician’s fingertips, anywhere, anytime without a time lag is the dream in streamlined medical care. Our system was ten steps up over the one they currently were using. When I finished, they were practically drooling.
We wrapped everything up and hit the road. We had a three-hour drive, and by the time we got back to Mount Pleasant, it was after seven.
Since Pearce was on call, I was in no hurry. I took my time getting home. I pulled into the driveway and collected my mail. After disengaging the alarm system, I went inside, making sure to reset it immediately. Then I grabbed a water from the fridge and headed to the bedroom. I kicked off my shoes, changed my clothes, and prepared to crawl into bed.
* * *
The ringing of my phone woke me up at six the next morning.
