Page 71 of The Bitterroot Inn (Jamison Valley 5)
Beau slumped down into his seat so Hunter could shuffle between me and Felicity. “Hi.” He wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “Everything okay?”
I shook my head and looked to my feet. If I looked in his eyes—those beautiful eyes that I saw each night before drifting off to sleep—I’d flip out.
Why wouldn’t he just open up to me? Why did he have to keep secrets? After everything I’d confessed to him, why wasn’t he willing to trust me with his past?
I hated how this was bringing back feelings from when I’d dated Everett.
Oblivious to my frustration, Hunter touched the back of his hand to my cheek. A doctor inspecting his patient. “What’s wrong? Are you sick? You look pale.”
I shook my head.
“Too much sugar at the bake sale.” Gigi rescued me again. “So, Hunter, I know it’s been a few years, but do you remember Jess, my husband?”
Hunter turned sideways and shook hands with Jess. “Hi. Good to see you again.”
Before Jess could respond, Gigi kept at the introductions. “And do you remember my sister-in-law, Felicity Grant, and her husband, Silas?”
“Hi.” Hunter waved at Felicity and Silas sitting on his other side. “Good to see you both again. The last time I was here you weren’t married yet. Congratulations. And I see you’re expanding the Grant crew.”
“Yes, this is Victoria.” Felicity bounced her daughter on her knees.
They all chitchatted for a few minutes, but all I could think about was that Hunter knew my friends. My stomach bunched tighter and I closed my eyes.
Hunter knew my friends.
And they knew him, probably better than I did. Hunter had said once that he’d been to Prescott before. That had been an understatement. He’d actually lived here. All this time, I’d been thinking he was new to town, that he’d only ever been here to visit once before, but all of my assumptions had been wrong. He was a part of the community. My best friend was his coworker. Jess and Felicity’s mom had been his patient.
He was the “new doctor” I’d heard mentioned a year ago. He was the “new doctor” that had decided to move back to Prescott. And I hadn’t been avoiding “new doctor” like I’d thought.
I’d been sleeping with him.
No wonder his name had sounded familiar the first day we’d met. I’d heard it in passing around town.
Damn it. Of all the professions in the world, why did he have to be a doctor? And why hadn’t he told me? That was a detail I’d needed to know.
“Hunter!” Coby launched himself into our backs, jolting us forward. “Is it time for hot dogs yet?”
“Not quite, bud. Let’s wait until the rodeo starts and then we’ll go get dinner. Is that okay with you?” Hunter asked me.
“Fine,” I mumbled.
Fine. Things were far from fine.
Hunter was the doctor that had been hired into Everett’s vacant position. He was the doctor my friends called Dr. Calvin Klein.
And I had been clueless.
I’d been dutifully respecting his privacy.
He’d been dutifully keeping me in the dark.
Snippets of conversations ran through my mind. I replayed discussions at the dinner table. All perfect times for him to tell me about his job or that he’d lived in Prescott before. Hell, I’d asked him point-blank at The Black Bull.
“Have you been here before or did you move here blind?”
His answer? “I was here once.”
An understatement from a man committed to keeping me at arm’s length.
