The following morning at Oceanside began like most mornings at the practice usually did; All of the doctors were sitting around the conference table making small talk, drinking their coffee –tea in Pete's case- and discussing what patients they planed on treating for the day. The only difference on this particular day, however, was the fact that Addison and Pete couldn't help but smile every time they made eye contact or heard one another speak. At one point, Pete began telling the other doctors about a patient who's baby he and Addison would be delivering that afternoon at three o'clock and she had to turn completely away from him in fear the entire room would see her blushing at him.
When the meeting had ended and the doctors had scattered to their respective offices, Addison found herself cornered by Naomi just outside her office door.
"We need to talk." Naomi demanded, pushed passed Addison, and opened the door letting herself in.
"By all means, come right in," Addison said dryly as she waved her hands as if she'd been showing Naomi inside, and then followed into the office after her.
"You think you guys are so clever, so secretive. You think no one around here will find out? I'm supposed to be your best friend and I have to hear about it from Sam?" Naomi breathed, speaking very quickly but sounding somewhat upset.
"I don't know what you're talking about Nae. I'm not trying to keep anything from you…" But as soon as she'd said those words she knew that wasn't true. But it wasn't like she was trying to keep her and Pete from Naomi on purpose. She just hadn't gotten around to telling her yet. She thought it best not to tell Naomi those exact words and settled on playing stupid for a while longer, "What did you hear from Sam?"
"He said he saw Pete leaving your house yesterday afternoon."
"And…" Addison questioned, still avoiding the truth.
"And he was wearing the same clothes he was the night before! I know you two left the party together. Addie, I can't believe you slept with him! I thought we decided you were going to give it another shot with Kevin. I though we decided you and Pete were only hot for each other when… You sleeping with Pete is a very bad idea. You're going to get all invested and he'll break your heart—"
"Okay, wait, Nae. Stop, just stop. First of all, I did not have sex with Pete— yet. Second, we never decided anything Nae. I know you're trying to be my friend here and that you want what's best for me, but I get to decide who I want—"
"So what, it's over with you and Kevin?" Naomi interrupted.
"Yes."
"And Pete's been spending the night, but not trying to have sex with you?" she said sounding awfully confused.
"Yes." Addison replied again with a grin on her face.
"And you didn't tell me any of this until now because…"
"Because I knew this was exactly how you'd react when I told you about it." Addison said firmly.
"Hey, that's not fair. You said before that Pete was your choice and I didn't say anything. And then he stood you up and you were angry. Don't you think I'm just worried about you getting hurt again if you keep letting Pete do this to you? Pete's not the kind of guy who—
But it was Addison's turn to interrupt this time. "Don't. Don't say what kind of guy Pete is or isn't because you don't know him like I know him. We have been spending a lot of time together lately and we've really gotten to know each other. It's different, He's different. And we want to make us work, but it's going to be a hell of a lot more difficult for us to do that if we have to keep worrying about the fact that our friends don't think that we're the kind of people who can make it work. Nae, I want this and I can't listen to you tell me that I'm wrong about him, please."
"Okay." Naomi agreed half-heartedly but then spoke again when she saw how serious Addison was looking at her, "You're really serious about this aren't you? You really care about him."
"I really do."
"Okay, then, I want to know everything, when you're ready, tell me everything. I'm here for you." Naomi said hugging her friend and walking towards the door.
"Thanks Nae," Addison replied stopping her at the door, "We have a date tonight—I'll call you after?"
Naomi nodded and turned to leave again but turned once again to add quickly, "Addie, he better not screw this up."
"He won't." Addison said confidently and smiled.
--
Pete had finished with his first few patients around noon and made his way down the hall to the break room to grab a quick lunch. He was mostly hoping for an excuse to run into Addison, but instead he entered the room to find Cooper and Sam, who almost immediately stopped talking as soon as they spotted Pete.
"What?" Pete asked staring at them. "I know you're talking about me, so just say it to my face."
It was silent for a moment as the two men opposite Pete looked back and forth from one another as if trying to decide what to say, and who would say it first.
"So. You and Addison, huh?" Cooper asked inquisitively but with a playful tone mixed in there too. Sam glared at him for being so blunt, and wished he wouldn't have let Cooper speak first. "Sam says he saw you leaving her house yesterday morning in the same clothes you wore to the party," He laughed a little and continued, "Sam saw you doing the walk of sha-ame," Cooper sang.
"Hey." Pete interjected, "There was no walk of shame—I, there was no walk of shame." He repeated and the other two men looked as if they didn't believe a word he was saying. "I didn't sleep with her. Okay, I slept with her, but, there was no sex," Pete assured them.
"No sex?" Cooper sounded disappointed, "Why no sex?"
"Because I'm trying not to be that guy, I want to be different with her. I—
"Ohhh, you got it bad, don't you?" Sam said playfully as he was beginning to see the look on Pete's face.
"I just want to try to make this work with Addison, okay? And it would really help if you guys would just cut the crap and have my back on this alright?"
"Look Pete, I know you probably think you can do it, but, I told you man, Addison is a good person…" Sam began but was quickly interrupted.
"I know." He said suddenly becoming very serious and looking Sam right in the eye. Both men could tell he meant it, "It's different this time, okay? We want to make this work."
"So what are you gonna do?"
"I'm taking her out to dinner tonight. I'm picking her up at eight." Pete told them.
"You're gonna show up this time, right?" Coop asked.
"Guys." Pete demanded, he swore sometimes there was no getting through to them. But they stopped kidding around again and nodded at Pete until he looked satisfied. He grabbed an apple off the counter and turned for the door.
"Hey Pete," Cooper called and he turned around to face them again.
"Don't screw this up, man." Sam stated.
"I won't." He said with a smile and made his way back to his office.
--
It was almost three and dell had appeared at Addison's door to inform her that the expectant mother whose baby she and Pete where set to deliver had arrived and was in the waiting room. She'd been waiting all day for an excuse to see Pete and wanted a chance to talk to him about what Naomi knew. She wasn't exactly sure if they were supposed to be keeping their—whatever it was that they were doing—a secret.
"Hey." She said as she came out from the birthing suite. She'd gotten their patient all settled and was smiling again at the sight of him.
"Hey." He smiled back. "I've been wanting to talk to you."
"Yeah, me too."
"The guys—they know." He stated, but he looked hesitant to speak again, almost unsure of how she'd react.
"So does Naomi," she said feeling relieved.
"I wasn't sure if it was something we should be discussing with everyone, but Sam knew and I wasn't going to lie. We probably would have been kidding ourselves to try and hide it. I mean, there are never any secrets here."
"There isn't anything to hide." Addison replied with a smile, "As long as everyone agrees that it's our business, and that they only get to comment when asked, then everything should be fine."
Pete chuckled a little, "I made the guys agree to something along those lines."
For a moment she just looked at him trying to think of what to say. "So… tonight?" she said sounding tense.
"Addison. I'm going to be there." Pete assured her with a smile. "Let's deliver this baby."
--
The rest of the afternoon went by excruciatingly slow for both of them. After successfully delivering a very healthy baby boy, Pete had to return quickly to his other scheduled patients. Addison finished up with her last two routine check ups and decided instead of staying at Oceanside for the rest of the day and having to endure being given any more dating advice from Cooper; she'd just go home and get an early start on preparing for her evening.
As she'd entered her bedroom she began to think about way too many things. What was she going to wear? Hair up or down? What were they going to talk about? She became more and more anxious than she thought normal for a woman her age to feel about a first date. It wasn't like she'd never done this before. She'd already been married for hell sake. But she could help but feel nervous and excited and began think about the possibilities, about her life now, with this man. Before she knew it her head was too full and she was thinking too far ahead. She needed to focus on getting through tonight. She hopped in the shower and tried to clear her mind of all thoughts, accept for one, and he'd be there with in the hour.
She heard a knock on the door promptly at eight and her heart almost missed a beat. She looked at herself in the mirror one final time to make sure everything looked perfect. She'd chosen a blue dress that hugged her body perfectly. It wasn't too low cut, or extremely fancy, but it was comfortable. She decided to wear her hair down and straight and she added a simple gold necklace and the earrings Pete had given her for her birthday. She opened the door slowly and she glanced up at Pete who looked almost as anxious as she felt.
"You look beautiful." He said leaning in and kissing her cheek.
She stared at him for a minute, taking him all in. He was dressed the same as always, in jeans, but had a nice blue button down shirt tucked in. But there was something about the way he was smiling at her, like he didn't care about anything else in the world accept looking at her. He seemed confident and happy and it was extremely sexy, she decided.
"You don't look too bad yourself." She smiled back. "Let me just grab my purse and my jacket and we can go."
He waited by the door until she returned, waited for her to step out and then closed the door behind her. She followed him down the stairs to his car and was almost surprised when he followed her to her side and opened the door for her.
"I told you I'd be a gentleman tonight," he reminded her.
She wasn't about to complain, so she just smiled at him and waited for him to walk around and get in his side of the car. "So where are you taking me?" she asked flirtatiously.
"You'll know when we get there." He replied with a cocky grin and she shook her head at him.
When they arrived at the restaurant Addison didn't recognize it at first, probably because it was dark, and the first time they had been there it was lunch time. When they walked inside, though, she'd finally realized exactly where they were.
"Hey, this is where you brought me when we had our very first lunch together," she said turning to him. She knew Pete was thoughtful, with her birthday and all, but it just seemed perfect that he bring her here.
"I know it's not fancy, but it seemed appropriate." He sounded nervous, like he was thinking maybe she was expecting somewhere different.
"It's very thoughtful. I love it, it's perfect."
"Good." He smiled.
They ordered quickly and made casual conversation about the rest of their work days and discussed what they thought their friends at Oceanside would be saying if they could see them now. It wasn't anything terribly important or impressive, but they were both feeling unbelievably happy at how easy and comfortable it was. They were just enjoying each others company and the lights and the atmosphere and there was a moment when they both had thought that it couldn't possibly get any better than this.
After dinner they returned to the car and drove in the direction of her house for a while before Pete stopped, pulled off along the coast and got out of the car.
"You do realize I live quite a bit farther away, don't you?" She asked following him out of the car.
"Let's walk the rest of the way."
"You're just going to leave your car here?" Addison questioned.
"I'll come back for it later. Come on," he said as he walked around to meet her at the front of the car. "It's supposed to be romantic." He teased with a smile.
"Of course," she agreed quickly with a smile of her own, "Sorry, let's go."
As they walked next to each other in the sand Pete remembered back to the first walk on the beach they'd shared. The one where he'd almost held her hand and when he'd asked her not to fall in love with Kevin. It was hard to believe that it had only been almost a month since then and so much had changed. He'd realized at that moment what he should have been doing and reached over and took Addison's hand in his. She smiled at him and held on as they continued to walk silently for a few more minutes, just enjoying the sound of the ocean and the warmth of each other next to them.
"What's your favorite baseball team?" She asked finally breaking the silence, but her hand stayed in his.
"I can't tell you that yet." He replied and she stared at him curiously.
"Well I should know who we're supposed to like since it's apparently no longer the Yankees." She explained.
"We'll watch some games and I'll teach you the rules and the positions and everything. And then if you're lucky maybe I'll even take you to see the real thing. But you shouldn't decide to like a team because it's my favorite. Baseball is about more than just picking the team with the cutest t-shirts, Addie." He joked. "Plus it wouldn't be any fun if we liked the same team. If we did then I wouldn't get to see the look on your face when my team beats yours."
"Oh, it's on. I'm going to pick the very best team then, you just wait." She laughed. "Can we watch a game soon? I want to pick my team now."
"It's the middle of the winter." He stated, but she obviously had no idea what that meant. "It's the off season. They won't play again until the spring."
"Fine, spring it is then. But until then, I'm picking the team with the cutest colors to call my favorite in the meantime."
"Deal." Pete said smiling.
--
When they finally arrived back to Addison's house they were still holding hands and when they reached the door neither one of them wanted to let go.
"I had a really nice time." Addison spoke first.
"So did I." He agreed. It was silent for a moment before he spoke again, "In the spirit of me being a gentleman this evening, I should say goodnight."
Almost immediately as he'd spoken, Addison had pulled her hand from his and grabbed his face with both her hands and pulled him into a kiss. It was passionate and quick and at first he almost forgot to respond. He slowly put a hand on her lower back and then had to place is palm quickly on the brick wall behind them to stop from falling over when she slid her tongue into his mouth. After a moment he was able to take control again and wrapped both his arms tightly around her waist. He continued to let their tongues gently flit against each other and neither of them wanted to break apart from one another for a second, not even to breathe.
When it finally ended they pulled apart just enough to leave a little space between their lips but she was still holding his face and he was still holding her around her waist.
"We should do this more often," she breathed, smiling into his lips and the kissed him again quickly. She slowly moved her hands from his face and turned to open the door behind her. When it was open and she was about to step inside she turned to him again, "Goodnight, Pete."
"Goodnight, Addison." Pete replied and turned around down the stairs and headed off back down the beach.
--
When she was inside she grabbed her cell phone immediately from her purse and dialed Naomi.
"So how was it," Naomi asked as Addison slinked down onto the couch and relaxed telling Naomi every detail of the date from start to finish…
"…and then he said goodnight, but before he could go, I kissed him and Nae, I've kissed him before, a few times, but, never like this. It was like everything was falling into place. We'd just had the most perfect evening, and I couldn't breathe. Nae, I'm falling in lo—hold on a second, there's another call." She pulled the phone from her ear to see that it was Pete calling, "Nae, thanks for listening, love you but its Pete, I have to go."
"This better not be what it's going to be like from now on, you ditching out on me 'cause you've got a man." Naomi snapped, but it was too late for Addison to respond, she'd already swapped the call over to Pete.
"Miss me?" she said, beginning the conversation.
"Of course, but hey, I just wanted to make sure that you knew what a really great time I had, and how badly I'm wishing at this moment that I hadn't promised to be such a gentleman."
"I kind of wished you hadn't either. But it was very chivalrous of you." She laughed.
"Extremely White Knight of me." He agreed. "So, wanna be my date for New Years?"
"Will you promise not to say goodnight and then leave me wanting more of you?" she teased.
"You'll always want more of me, Montgomery." He shot back.
"Looks like you've got yourself a date."
Thanks once again for all of the kind reviews. This chapter is no doubt fluffy of course. But it just had to be. There are a few surprises and a little angst to come but no doubt more fluff. Thanks for sticking around and liking the story so much! I love to know what you guys think so make sure to let me know how to improve!
