Tuscany Trip

Khaat had finally cried herself into a light sleep, and Brian had been glad to see she was trying to let go of Rob. Having her hang onto a man who didn't care about her really wasn't good for her. He wanted her to find a man she could be happy with. Sure he'd miss the girls, but maybe Khaat would let him to go being Uncle Brian.

He stayed with her awhile, just holding her. Then he rose and got up, and went to his room. He found Khaat had put away the sightseeing brochures in his bag. Clearly she had given up on their going to Venice. He didn't know why, but she had put it out of her mind. Well, he hadn't given up quite so easily. If she wanted to go to Venice, they would go. If she wanted to buy Venice, somehow he would find a way. He got the brochures out again, and, leaving her door open so he could see in from his room across the hall, he sat on his bed, sprawling the brochures all over the bed and began to plan out a couple of days in Venice for them. He planned on surprising her with it. They didn't have much time left in Italy, and he wanted to be sure that she had good memories of it. He put into motion ideas for getting there, where to stay, what to see, where to go to eat, all of it. It promised to be a wonderful trip. At the slightest hint of being disturbed by anyone, he swept the brochures off the bed and hid them. He didn't want anyone to know what he had planned. No one.

Khaat woke, feeling less achy. She felt bettter. She was a little surprised to see Brian had let her sleep alone. She rose and found him in his room, hastily hiding something. She just laughed.

"Its a surprise," he told her.

"Okay. That's fine by me. "

"But you stay out of my room now," He eyed her. "Go get a book or something. I'm going to put dinner together. Go find something to do." She laughed as he shooed her out of his bedroom and shut the door. She found a mystery novel she had bought a couple of years ago and had not had time to read. He took her downstairs with him and found her a place on the terrace in the sun.

He made a fire in the firepit, and put a large flat grilling grate over the fire in order for it to get really hot. Then he went into the kitchen and prepared some top notch salmon fillets and mariated them in a lime marinade. He fixed a number of vegetables on some steel skewers and prepared them so that there was plenty. He took it all outside and put the vegetable skewers on the hot grill. He wasn't going to add the fish until the last minute.

"I don't know. I bought this book at least 2 years ago and I just haven't had time to read it. It looked good. Its about a chef who gets involved in a murder mystery. Do you like to read? My father reads incessantly. He had a four floor library in his farmhouse. It started out as a small study, and now its grown from there to the basement, to the second floor, and up into the attic. He has thousands and thousands of books--on every subject. Its a wonderful place to go curl up with a cup of coffee and a good book. Its one of my favorite rooms in their house, really.

"thanks, Steven," she said. The coffee smelled good. She watched Brian come in and he headed for the kitchen. He began to work on some sort of dessert. It made her smile. He was doing something with fresh berries. Khaat decided he was just going to leave him to it.

"I want to build up my tan while I"m here again. I think its suffering a bit. And I do need to start working about a bit more. I dont want to go soft from not doing anything. I'm trying to get Brian to spar with me a bit, maybe exercise some with me. He's a bit hesitant. But I think if I aggravate him enough, he'll start working out with me a bit."

"He's not your boss," Brian said. "I am. He's your boyfriend. He might have some ideas about what he does or does not want you to do. But he's not your employer or a healer either one. When it comes to work, you don't take your orders from him. You take them from me or Robert. Or from Khaat if you're at Sparks. And if he overprotects you too much you won't have the strength built up that you need at delivery. You need to stay in shape as much as possible. Working out would be good for all of us, most likely. How are you at running or jogging? That might be a good place to start. And Khaat and I love to run. She and I try to run at least 3 times a week, usually more. She's missed running for a week or two, and I don't want her to get rusty at it and lose muscle tone. Are either of you interested in running with us after dinner?"