Page 22 of Lovesick

“I’ll talk to you later,” Max said as he left.

When the door closed, she said to her baby brother, “This better be good.”

George laughed at her. She put her hands on her hips and postured her older-sister persona, amused but refusing to show it. Whatever tension had been stabbing at her thankfully was gone. At least for now.

“I guess that answers my question which was what’s up with you and the doc.”

“Nothing.”

George snorted. “I could sense the tension from my spot three chairs away.”

“None of your business.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. As you know. We’re family. And we’re business. You’re part of both and Doc is part of business. Or, maybe you forgot that?”

It was her turn to snort.

He put up a hand. “Okay, I know. I shouldn’t talk.”

“Exactly,” she said. And that was all she was saying. She turned to go. “Is that all?”

“Keep it discreet, Lou. We don’t want to give Sosi any ammunition against us. If she catches wind of anything amiss with the company doctor, our poster boy for good old-fashioned values, this whole thing could blow up.”

George’s words felt like bad medicine, made of lead, sinking her heart to her toes.

* * *

Back in her office,she forced herself to admit that the only reason she should be seeing Max now was if she were truly ill. She would need to back off her fling. She’d always been one-track minded—on the family business track. How the hell had she gotten herself so derailed? She needed to refocus.

So that’s what she did. Later when he called, as promised, she held her breath and let the call go to voicemail. Then she cried. Then she deleted his message without listening to it.

Maybe this was why she was still single. She’d chosen her career, her family business, over romance every single time. Only she’d never felt quite so . . . taken before. It had never caused her a hiccup, let alone a stabbing pain in her gut to turn off a relationship. It had always been like flicking a switch with about as much effort and thought.

Not this time around. This time it was dangerously difficult.

But she did refocus and avoided Max for the next two days and nights. She didn’t call him and he didn’t call her.

“What’s with you, Lou?” It was George. He’d slipped into her office without her even noticing. She shook her head. She didn’t say out loud the word she’d been tossing around playfully since she’d met Max—because she was too afraid lovesick might be too close to the truth. As impossible as that sounded. She’d barely known the man for a week. Had only one date. A few business meetings. Unforgettable kisses, world-stopping lovemaking and a constant longing in her soul to be with him.

God help her.

“Lou?” George sat on her desk and leaned over, putting a hand on her forehead like a mother hen or a big brother.

She brushed it away.

“I’m fine. Just preoccupied.” She didn’t need to tell him what she was preoccupied about. That would be unwise. Strictly speaking, it was against company policy for her to have a fling with the company doctor, technicalities aside. No need to get into messy parsing of rules.

“Preoccupied with Dr. Max?” George gave her a half smile, the one that said he understood everything without her saying a word.

She fell forward onto her desk and covered her face. She didn’t want him to see her blush. She felt like a twelve-year-old girl being teased by her younger brother about a boy. It was all too ridiculous. He patted her on the back and she flinched, then sat up and looked at him squarely.

“So I have a crush on him. Sue me.”

“A crush? Aren’t you a little old for that? I’d say it’s more like a tendresse.”

“I’m not that sophisticated. At least not anymore. I seem to have lost my edge.”

“I noticed. You’re like a regular woman, smitten. If it makes you feel any better, I’d say he’s just as smitten.”