Not Quite Enough(36)

He informed Reynard that he’d be back later that night after dropping Monica off at the clinic and then the two of them drove away.
“You surprise me, Barefoot,” Monica said as they turned out of the driveway.
“Oh, why’s that?”
“One minute I think maybe your personal walls are high since you live here alone, and then you invite an entire family to move in with you.”
“I have other options. Reynard and his family don’t.”
Her window was rolled down and the warm air rushing past them blew her hair in different directions. Most of the time he’d spent with her, those blonde locks were bound into a ponytail or some kind of clip. He liked what he saw. It gave Monica a wild look that made him think of warm nights and hot passion.
“You’re really going to leave the island?” she asked.
“For a while anyway.”
“Will you go back home? The East Coast?”
He shrugged. “I haven’t seen my brothers in a while. I’ll probably start there.”
Monica gripped the edges of her hair and stared out the window. “I can’t imagine not having any ties and the whole world open to explore.”
“What ties do you have?”
“My job, for one. Although that might not be the case when I get home.”
He pulled off the main road and onto a dirt one. The locals knew of the secluded beach and even more private cave within, but the road wasn’t often traveled. The overgrowth told Trent there hadn’t been a car there in a while. Not since the last rain anyway. “Jack said something about your job being in trouble. What’s up with that?”
“My boss is a bitch. I’m not being catty about that either. She’d always looked for a reason to write me up or in some way move me on. I don’t get it either. It’s not like I’ve ever done a thing to her. A friend from work called me the other day to tell me she took me off the schedule. Said I didn’t fill the holes my coming here left. Claimed I abandoned my patients.” Monica air quoted the last words and her smile fell into a thin frown line.
“How can you abandon anyone you’ve not taken care of?”
“I have no idea. Walt will raise holy hell when we get back. But the truth is, the doctors on staff don’t work for the hospital. They work either for themselves, or in the case of the emergency room, they work with a doctors’ group. The rules for Walt don’t apply to me. I work for the hospital and they don’t have to grant time off. I had vacation time coming and arranged for someone to take my shifts.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“My replacement called in sick and staffing didn’t fix it.”
It sounded to Trent like Walt was the name he needed to pass on to Jack.
“Nurses are needed everywhere,” he said, hoping to put her at ease. Her hand on the edge of the door had gripped the side as she spoke. “What else is waiting for you in California?”
“My apartment.” She laughed as the word came out of her mouth. “I guess that doesn’t count. My friend Katie and her husband, Dean, are there… although they talked about moving back to Texas.”
“Your sister’s in Texas, right?”
Monica grew silent. “Yeah. I guess that would just leave me and my mom.” She shivered.
The conversation faded. He’d obviously made her think a little harder about where she was living and why she stayed.
The road came to an end with barely enough room to turn the car around. Trent rolled to a stop and pulled the parking brake under the shade of trees.
Monica sent him a confused look.
“We’re here?”
He lifted his sunglasses enough for her to see the gleam in his eye. “We walk from here.”
She jumped out of the car and grabbed her backpack. “You’re going to make me work for a day at the beach?” she teased.
“It’s worth it,” he told her.
Monica patted her back pocket and removed her phone. “Mind if I charge this while we’re gone? It’s running out of juice.”
He leaned over the seat, pulled the charger from the center console, and plugged it in. Then he led her down the overgrown path, his feet sinking into the damp soil left behind from the rain. He’d flown over this spot after the tsunami and was happy to see that it hadn’t been destroyed by the wave. The cove was on the opposite side of the island from where the wave hit, and had some protection from the walls of rock on both sides.
“We’re in the middle of nowhere,” Monica said as they picked their way through the path. “How did you find it?”
“One of the locals pointed out the trail. I saw it from the air but couldn’t find the road.” Large ferns brushed against his legs. He pulled a few aside to give Monica room to pass. He glanced at a banana tree and saw a bundle of green fruit hanging from the stock. “Hold up.” He stepped into the brush and removed a pocketknife from his pack.
“Bananas?”
“Yeah. Look on the ground for any that are yellow. I’ll pull these down and take them back with us when we leave.”
Monica scouted the forest floor and managed a few pieces of fruit that were ripe enough to eat. He left the green ones on the trail to gather on the way back.
Trent took Monica’s hand in his as he started down the steep trail. Halfway to the sand the view opened up and Monica hesitated. “Wow.”
Yeah, he got that. Small white-capped foam sat atop bright blue water that turned turquoise green and then dark blue. The sand in the cove was pristine white with some debris left over from the small wave that hit this shore. But it wasn’t enough to take away from the beauty.