Page 63 of Against The Tide

“Our real date?”

“Listen, Iris and I had a conversation, and if I don’t romance you and make you smile and treat you better than a princess, I’m going to have to answer to her. So, yeah, I’m taking you on a date. You, me, and some more cheese thrown in. The edible kind that Iris says you love.”

“You’re so good with her.”

“Like I said, she’s a good kid, but I want her mom all to myself and at my mercy for one night.” With a wicked hitch of a brow, he licks across his lips before he adds, “Or maybe I’ll be at her mommy’s mercy. I heard she likes control.”

Oh. My. God. The sound of his voice, deep and growly, sends frissons of heat through me, making my toes curl in my shoes and my throat swell with the need to taste his lips. To feel his tongue lick into my mouth and his hands squeeze around my waist.

If Iris wasn’t right there, I would kiss him. I would devour every little ounce of his taste until it was ingrained in me.

CHAPTER 18

RHETT

The monotone beep of the monitor is a motherfucking omen for the rest of the day. All I can fucking think about is the patient I lost and the way his wife looked at me when I informed her of it.

“You need to stop beating yourself up about it, dude. He knew the risk, and he chose to have the procedure anyway,” Luke says from my doorway. “Triple bypass is no joke, and the fact that he was diabetic…come on, you knew this wasn’t going to be your usual fairy-tale surgery.”

“Don’t we have this conversation every time?”

“You do it for me, and I do it for you. It’s what we do.” He comes inside and lies on the leather chesterfield in the seating area in front of my desk. “Fuck, I don’t think I’m going to be able to get up again. Beth isn’t sleeping, and the soundtrack of her swearing is keeping me up too.”

“Isn’t that practice for what’s to come?”

“Fuck, mate, I can’t even fucking think to filter. I had to tell one of my patients that he’s got stage four heart failure, and I fucking blurted it out like a cunt. My wife has finally offed my tact.” He gestures slitting his throat as he emphasizes, “Dead. Gone.”

“Like my patient.”

“Fucking hell, Reynolds, don’t you have your date tonight?”

“Yeah.” It’s been the one thing keeping me going today.

Iris is having a sleepover at Callie’s to celebrate her first week at her new school. I’ve planned every part of this date meticulously. I can’t wait to leave the clinic and get lost in my own precious sunshine.

“Right, so shouldn’t you be trimming your sac or something?” Luke yawns up at the ceiling.

“What the what? Is that a British thing? Trimming your sac—that sounds wrong on so many levels.”

“See? I’m even sounding like her. I have Beth brain, and it’s a fucking disaster. She’s forgetting toast in the toaster, practically set the house on fire after she left her cheese on toast under the grill, and to make matters worse, she broke the kettle. I can’t even make myself a decent cup of tea to chi myself.”

“I think you meant Zen.”

“Case in point. I’m worried one of these days I’m going to walk in here and you’re going to mistake me for one of your bimbos.”

“Fuck you, dude, and fuck off.” Standing from my desk chair, I grab my jacket and shrug it on before I head out of my office. “Don’t sleep in my office. I don’t want the stench of miserable ass in the leather.”

“You’re a dick.”

“You wish you had my dick.”

“Mate, it’s probably fucking riddled.,” He follows me to the small parking lot behind the clinic where we’re parked side by side. “Go on your date and get your end away so you’re back to cocky arsehole next week.”

“It’s not like that.”

“You better be talking about the girl and not the mood.” He gets in his sleek Tesla with the bright red car seat in the back. When he notices me staring at it, he sighs. “Don’t. She’s gone bloody nuts—I have one in mine, she has one in her car, and there’s a spare at home. The longer this pregnancy drags out, the crazier she gets.”

Hearing him talk like that makes me think of the conversation Avery and I had at our picnic. She’s a wonderful mom, and maybe it isn’t a part of her future plans, but she’s still young. There’s time for her to change her mind, and it bothers me to think that it’s the one thing I might not be able to give her.