Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 92899 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92899 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
“I told you it’s not like that,” he snapped.
Once we were loaded up in my sheriff’s vehicle and Chick was sniffing happily through the partial opening in the nearest window, I noticed Tommy clenching his hands together in his lap so hard his knuckles were white.
No ring, I noticed for the first time, but plenty of people who worked with their hands didn’t wear them.
“Then what is it like?”
“It’s an inside joke,” he muttered. “You know what? Never mind. We don’t need to talk. Let’s just go back to SERA and let this day fucking end, okay?”
I glanced over at him as I shifted into gear. Once again, Tommy looked tired and stressed. I wanted to know why. Wanted to know what had happened in Hawaii after I left. But none of it was my business.
I cleared my throat. “So are you, like, taking a summer sabbatical or something?” I asked, trying to be normal. To ask him the kind of question a professional peer might ask. “I’m surprised the hospital let you go.”
Tommy kept his gaze focused away from me and out the passenger window as we moved slowly through the pedestrian traffic in town.
“They didn’t have to. I quit.”
The surprising words sat between us like a fishing hook with an irresistible lure dangling from it.
So I bit.
“You quit? St. Ignatius is the top trauma hospital in the Northeast. A dream job for a high achiever like you. Why the fuck would you leave?”
He turned to me, eyebrows dipping in confusion. “How did you know I was at St. Ignatius?”
Embarrassment prickled my skin. “You must have told me that night. Does it matter?”
“Well, no. I just—”
“Wait, you’re at SERA permanently?” I blurted, suddenly wondering if he’d done it. If he’d made the big change from big-city trauma ER to practicing the medicine he seemed drawn to. My heart leapt at the idea he’d be so close, only a few hours’ drive instead of a day’s worth of airline travel—
“No. God, no. It’s only temporary. I’m interviewing for positions back home.” He cleared his throat. “In California.”
I raked my bottom teeth over my upper lip and nodded. “Right. Sure. Of course.”
Tommy looked like he wanted to say something more, explain or maybe even judge me for being less than enthusiastic. But he didn’t. He faced out the window on the opposite side of the truck.
The tension was killing me. This man who’d lived inside my head as a living, breathing obsession was sitting eighteen inches away from me in my own damned truck.
And he seemed a million miles away.
I swallowed and focused on the road out of town. SERA was several miles away on a large plot of land at the base of Slingshot Mountain. The sun was already behind the peak, and shadows filled the valley around us.
“Thank you,” he said softly without turning to look at me. “For caring. About what Hazel said. I promise she didn’t mean anything by it, but I do appreciate you standing up for me. Especially after…” He shrugged.
“Why does she think we’re fucking?” I blurted. Her comment had been itching under my skin since she’d said it. “Did you say something to her?”
He finally turned to face me. “No! I only told one person in my family that we… that we kissed, and she wouldn’t have told anyone else.”
“Kissed,” I said with an unamused huff of laughter.
Jesus, what an anemic word for what had actually happened.
“Yes. Kissed.” Pink heat bloomed on his cheeks as he lifted his chin. “Twice.”
I glanced at him again, if only to drink in his adorable flush. “You counted.”
“Kind of hard not to notice when a guy’s kissing you,” he muttered, looking away again.
I watched him closely. “You’d never kissed a guy before, I take it?”
“I told you I was straight,” he reminded me. This time, he glanced at me, and I caught his eyes.
“Tommy, why did your sister think we were sleeping together if you’re so straight?”
His cheeks were painfully crimson now. I wanted to reach over and feel the heat on my fingertips and lips.
“I don’t know.” Tommy turned back to the window again. “My family doesn’t know anything happened between us. They know you were there, and they know I acted…” He gave a little snort. “Let’s just say I acted very much not myself. They’ve come up with their own explanations for that, and us hooking up was an easy one since our situation was similar to how my uncles met, like I told you.”
“And I was wearing your shirt,” I suggested.
He nodded and looked away again. “And you were wearing my shirt.”
I glanced at him, taking in the flush still painting his cheeks, the way his lips were slightly parted. The urge to pull over and kiss him senseless hit me like a freight train.