Chapter Seven

~ Zaq ~

"We're here, Zaq."

I opened my eyes to find us surrounded by tall glass and cement monstrosities. I blinked for a moment as I sat up and looked around. There were a few trees planted along the sidewalks and some flowers and shrubs, but that was about it.

"Not much of a view."

Patrick chuckled. "The view is behind us."

I automatically glanced in the rearview mirror. "Oh, I found the trees."

"That's Central park," Patrick said. "After we get settled in, we can go for a walk if you want. Joe assures me that this end is pretty nice."

I turned to look at Patrick. "Joe?"

"Joe Navarro," Patrick replied. "He's that frat brother I told you about, the lawyer that flew out to Texas and helped me deal with my resignation paperwork."

"Oh, right. I remember." Sort of. Patrick had a lot of frat brothers. It was hard to keep track of them all. "And he lives in the building?"

"Him and his husband Jayce. They both work for Jake D'Amato, another frat brother who also lives in the building. Joe works in Jake's legal department. Jayce is a lab rat."

I raised one eyebrow. "Lab rat?"

"Jake hired Jayce to work in his lab. He's come up with so many groundbreaking projects that Jake just lets him run free and basically funds his dreams."

Must be nice.

"I think you and Jayce would get along pretty well, but be forewarned, he'll probably try to pick your brain once he knows you're a nurse."

I frowned, not connecting the dots. "Why?"

"Jayce recently developed an artificial skin to cover prosthetics. Not only can it be color matched to match a patient's skin color, but it makes the prosthetics stronger and more fire resistant."

My eyes rounded. "I've heard about this. It's in trials at several Veterans' Hospitals."

Patrick nodded. "If the trials pass the FDA, I imagine this artificial skin will go worldwide. With Jayce holding the patent rights and Jake backing him, they'll make a bundle."

Damn.

"What does that have to do with him picking my brain?" I asked, still not connecting the dots.

"Jayce likes to ask what if and why questions. He's big on hypotheses. He likes to brainstorm, but to do that, he needs people in different fields that he can talk to and ask questions so he knows which direction to take his dreams."

Okay, I could see that.

"Well, I'm not sure how I can help him, but he's free to ask any questions he wants."

Patrick shot me a grin. "I'll let him know."

Once the moving van was parked at the loading dock, we climbed out, made sure it was locked up, and then Patrick led me inside the building. He seemed to know where he was going so I just followed along.

When we reached the lobby, Patrick walked up to the security desk. "I'm Patrick Scotton. I just purchased condo number ten-o-two." He turned and gestured to me. "This is my husband, Zaq Scotton."

"Can I see some ID, sir?" the guard asked.

I quickly pulled out my wallet and grabbed my ID while Patrick did the same. The guard had no expression on his face whatsoever as he took them and started typing in his computer. I wasn't sure if that was his normal face or just for work, but it was a bit off-setting.

Between the guard verifying who we were, that Patrick owned the condo, and checking us in as new residents, we were there for about twenty minutes.

Just as we were finishing up, the elevator doors slid open and a dark haired man walked out. He was as tall as Patrick, his shoulders just as wide, but he had an air about him that immediately made me wary.

This was not a man to piss off.

"Patty?"

Patrick turned and as soon as he spotted the man, a wide grin spread across his face. "Jake."

"We weren't expecting you for a couple of more days," Jake stated. "Joe mentioned something about you running behind because you were attending your brother's wedding or something like that, but I didn't think that was right. You always said your brother was a bonehead. Why would you attend his wedding?"

My face heated up as I turned my head away.

"Best thing that ever happened to me," Patrick said as he wrapped his arm around my shoulders. "This is Zaq, my new husband."

"Zaq?" Jake's eyes snapped to me. "You mean—"

"Yes," Patrick said quickly. "We knew each other in high school."

"Oh." Jake started to smile as he held out his hand. "It's nice to meet you, Zaq."

I shook his hand and repeated his greeting.

"How was the trip?"

"It was good," Patrick replied. "We weren't in a big hurry so we were able to stop and sight-see along the way."

"Getting out of Texas was nice," I added. "I kept expecting Peter to pop up at any moment."

Jake's dark eyebrow arched over his eyes. "Is that a concern?"

I shrugged, not real sure how to answer that.

"Neither Peter or my parents know we moved to New York," Patrick stated. "We'd like to keep it that way."

"Well, I'm not going to tell them and I doubt any of the others will, especially if you ask them not to."

"And I appreciate that," Patrick said. "I know I'll probably eventually tell my parents where I am, but not right now. Not until they take off their blinders were Peter is concerned."

"You know, if you're worried about them showing up you can give security a picture and restrict their access, right?" Jake asked. "The security here is top notch. I have a friend in the security business and he trained all of our guards."

"Oh, let's do that," I said. "Peter would lose his mind if he showed up and they didn't allow them in. If security is as good as you say it is, I'd bet they could get it on camera."

Jake snorted and waved at hand at me. "I like this guy."

Patrick smiled down at me. "I like him, too."

I glanced down, my face so hot I was sure it was blazing red. Patrick had been so sincere with his words, so honest. I couldn't help but hope he was telling the truth.

We'd spent a lot of time talking and getting to know each other on the road, and more than one night in bed together. It wasn't a great romance—yet—but it was a start.

"We were just going to go up and check out the condo," Patrick said as he looked up, "I wanted to get a feel for the place before we start bringing in boxes."

"I can help with that." Jake grinned as he pulled out his cell phone with one hand and held the other one out to Patrick. "Give me your truck keys and I'll arrange for some people to start hauling your stuff up to your condo. You just have to tell them where to put it."

"I'll take that deal," Patrick replied. "We've been on the road for several days. We're both burnt."

I was with Patrick. Granted, traveling across the country had been a lot of fun, but I was ready to stay in one place for awhile.

"Go check out your new place," Jake said. "I need to make a few phone calls and get some people over here to move your crap."

"Excuse me very much." Patrick stuck his nose in the air. "These boxes are from Texas. It's not crap, its bullshit."

Yeah, I had nothing for that.

Jake's laugh jingled in my ears as Patrick led me toward the bay of elevators. We were headed up to the tenth floor. I hoped the view from our condo was better than it had been on the street. I'd like to see a little something besides concrete and glass.

I was impressed with how clean and efficient everything was. There was no garbage lying around, not bugs that shouldn't be there. I hadn't even spotted a homeless person on the street. Everything also seemed to be in good working order.

So far, I was a fan of the place.

"So, that was your friend that owns the lab?"

"That's him."

"Seems like a nice guy."

"Jake and my other frat brothers helped keep me in med school. They always made sure I had food to eat and a way to and from school. Jake even purchased some of my school books and labs when I couldn't afford it. I basically owe them for keeping me alive long enough to graduate."

I swallowed tightly as I glanced at Patrick. "Your parents didn't help?"

There was a lingering sadness in Patrick's eyes as he shook his head. "They were too busy with Peter. He was being trained to take over for my father, remember? He getting his business degree was more important than whatever I was doing, especially since I didn't want to go into the family business."

My brow wrinkled as I frowned in confusion. "Peter never finished his business degree. If I remember correctly, he flunked out of school like three times or something."

"Oh, I am aware."

I snorted rudely. "Your parents really need to get a clue."

"I've been saying that for years," Patrick stated. "It's gotten to the point that I just don't care anymore. Peter is going to keep fucking up and my parents are going to keep making excuses for him and bailing him out."

"Well, on the upside, basically everything you have in life now is due to your own hard work."

The sadness faded from Patrick's eyes as he glanced down at me, replaced by a hint of mischievousness. "Does that include you?"

"Yes and no."

Patrick cocked an eyebrow.

"If Peter hadn't fucked up yet again, we might not have been given the opportunity to get married. That being said, the idea of us two getting married was all yours, so you get credit for that."

Patrick leaned down toward me and whispered in a conspirator tone, "Should we send him flowers?"

"Only if its poison ivy."

Patrick's chuckle made me smile. I liked getting that response from him. He wasn't uptight and rigid like our parents or his brother. He was a little more laid back and tended to take things in stride.

He also knew how to laugh and to me that meant everything. I don't think I could go through life without at least one good moment of humor in a day. I'd be bored silly.

"This is it." Patrick stopped in front of one of the doors on the tenth floor and pulled out a key. He shot me a quick look. "Ready?"

I nodded.

Patrick unlocked the door and pushed it open. My jaw hit the floor before I even stepped over the threshold. There were a lot of clean lines in the place, but the architecture wasn't what I had been expecting for this modern building.

Crown molding went along every line of the ceiling, the doors, and archways. Just inside the doorway was a small entry that was all white marble, but beyond that was a whole lot of dark wood flooring.

I couldn't keep my eyes from widening as I walked through the place. The entry was grand enough, but the rest of the place was truly breathtaking. Whoever designed it knew what they were doing. They had brought old world charm to a modern space.

"Do you like it?" Patrick asked. "We can change anything you don't like."

"I love it."

Patrick released a breath. "Good."

"You said three bedrooms?"

"Yes, there is one here." He pointed to a door near the front entry. "And two more bedrooms towards the back." He walked over and opened the door he had indicated. "I was thinking this would make a good office and library for us."

I stepped inside and was once again amazed. A row of dark wood bookshelves went all along one wall. There were two sets of glass doors leading out to a balcony beyond, separated by a marble fireplace.

"Is that real or gas?"

"Its gas, but it gives off heat, which is good. New York winters can be brutal."

So I'd heard. Having lived all of my life in California, I actually couldn't wait for the first snowfall.

"The balcony goes all the way around to the bedrooms. I bought this place specifically because they face east so they get the morning sunlight."

I glanced at Patrick. "Not a sunset fan?"

"I like sunsets as much as the next guy, but after working in a hospital for so many years, I've kind of gotten used to being an early bird. I like to have my coffee out on the balcony so I can watch the day start."

"We'll need a good coffee machine."

"We have one," Patrick replied. "It's in one of the boxes in the van. That was one of the things I refused to part with."

Sounded like a good plan to me.

"We'll need to buy furniture for every room. We just have to decide what we want to do with the extra bedroom."

"I vote gym."

"The building comes with a gym, remember?"

"Oh." I frowned as I tried to think of another use for that space. "I'd say guest room, but I can't think of any guests we could have over."

"Why don't we just use it for storage right now until we can decide what we want to use it for?" Patrick asked. "I don't want to buy a bunch of furniture for a room and then have to change it later."

"Yeah, that makes sense."

Patrick gestured with his head. "Want to see the kitchen?"

"Sure." I started following Patrick once again as he led me through the condo. "I love to cook, especially savory recipes like bread. Can't say I'm terribly good at it, but I do love the smell of fresh baked bread."

"I do okay with cooking," Patrick admitted. "I'm not a gourmet chef by any means, but we won't have to do take-out every night. That gets old after awhile."

Patrick showed me the kitchen, the dining room, and then the rest of the condo. By the time we'd been through the entire house, we had ended up on the large balcony.

"Well, what do you think?" Patrick asked. "Do you think you could be happy here?"

I smiled as I walked into his arms. "I think we could be very happy here."

That was the plan anyway.