After the Christmas Party(148)

And wondering why making sure he did just that was so important when he wasn’t a happily-ever-after kind of guy.

Christmas Eve. Only a few more days of this nonsense and then the world would be focused on out with the old and in with the new and how many resolutions could everyone make that they didn’t really intend to keep.

Trinity could barely wait.

Sure, so far she’d made it through the holiday season with a lot fewer tears than last year.

Actually, she hadn’t cried much at all, and she knew why.

Riley.

Since the Christmas party they’d been together pretty much non-stop and she hadn’t had time to dwell on Christmases past.

Just Christmas present.

No way would she even consider Christmas future. She had to make it through the rest of the current holiday season first.

As in, what the heck was she going to buy his family? She’d forced herself into a few shops and hadn’t found one thing that said, Buy me because Riley’s family will love me.

How the devil was she supposed to know what to purchase for people she’d never met? She’d considered buying everything from gourmet cheese and fruit to the latest bestseller. She’d even done several late night frantic internet searches on gifts for people one didn’t know.

Nothing had seemed just right.

She’d yet to see Riley today as the cardiology group he was a part of had closed up shop for the next two days, but she knew he’d be by at some point to check on his hospital patients. He was the kind of doctor who would do a round on his own patients rather than have the on-call doc do so.

“Hey, before you leave today, make sure you find me,” Karen said as she came around the nurses’ station. “I have a little something for you.”

“You do?” Trinity asked, thankful for the little something she’d picked up for her coworker while searching for Riley’s family something. The small gift was stuck inside a Christmas bag with Karen’s name on it inside her purse.

“Well, yeah.” Karen gave her a “duh” look. “We are friends, aren’t we?”

“Well, yeah.” She mimicked Karen’s tone, mostly to cover the odd emotion moving through her chest. Karen had gotten her a Christmas gift. And just called them friends. “But we never discussed gifts, so I didn’t expect you’d get me anything.”

“What? You didn’t get me anything? Guess that rules out that new Corvette I’ve been wanting.” Karen feigned a sigh. “There’s always next year.”

“I didn’t say I didn’t get you anything,” Trinity pointed out, “but you’re right, there’s not a Corvette sitting out in the employee parking lot with a big red bow and your name on it. At least, if there is, I’m not the one who got it for you.”

Karen grinned. “Maybe we should check the parking lot out to see.”

They both laughed.

“So what are your Christmas Day plans?” Karen asked, but sounded as if perhaps she already knew the answer.

“Well, unless I can convince you to let me work in your place, I’ll be going with Riley to his family Christmas lunch.”

“Wow. I figured you’d be spending the day with him but a family get-together? Are you two that serious?”

Heat infused Trinity’s face. That serious. How did she answer that when she didn’t know the answer herself? “It’s just a meal.”

“When a man takes a woman with him to a family holiday meal, it’s never just anything. It’s a big deal.”

“Maybe he just felt sorry for me because I’m new in town.” Yet another reason why she didn’t want to go. She didn’t want his pity.

“Are you kidding me? I have seen the way that man looks at you. He is smitten.”

Which sounded good but also a little too good to be true. She kept expecting him to snap out of whatever spell he’d fallen under. Then where would she be? Lost.

“What are you wearing?”

Trinity shrugged. She hadn’t even thought about what she’d wear. What was wrong with her? She should have thought about it. Only she was so used to just wearing hospital scrubs that she didn’t give much thought to anything else.

Laughing, Karen shook her head. “Okay, so you’ve no clue what you’re wearing. How about gifts for Riley’s family?”

If her face had been hot moments before it was deathly cold now.

“I wish I knew. I’ve been searching for something from the moment I realized I was going to have to go to this dinner, but what do you buy for people you’ve never met?”

Karen paused a moment then shrugged. “Nothing big or fancy, just some token of appreciation that says thank you for including me and, no, I’m not a total loser that your son’s dragged home to meet you.”