“Why, are you going to offer me a job?” she teases.
He grins. “Is that an option?”
She shakes her head. “No.” Then she catches sight of me, and her eyes go wide. “Garrett, hi.”
The doc holds out his hand and gives me an easy smile. “Aiden Schmidt.”
Don’t crush his hand in your fist, I think as I shake his hand. I manage to stay civilized. “Garrett Kincaid.”
“Ah, yes. A Kincaid, of course. Nice to meet you.” Then he taps the counter right next to Rory’s elbow. “See you tomorrow. I’m assuming you’ll barge in on rounds, too?”
“For sure. I want to hear how that breech delivery goes.” Her eyes are fucking twinkling as she waves goodbye, then turns to me. “Dani’s asleep, if you were hoping to see her.”
I shake my head.I only wanted to see you, I could say. Itwould be the fucking truth. But I don’t make her eyes light up the way work does, so I keep that to myself. “It’s fine. Your mom’s got Christmas dinner in a holding pattern back at the farm.”
Her face pinches tight, all the joy disappearing in an instant.
“I, um, talked to them. About this morning. We cleared the air on it being awkward, so nobody’s going to bother you about it when we get there.”
She snorts. “Sure.”
“No, for real.” I hunch my shoulders up and shove my hands in my pockets to keep from grabbing her. “I know you don’t want to come home tonight. Or at least, I know it’s complicated. Everyone is hard on you, and nobody listens. Including me.”
“Not including you.” She lifts her hand, then tentatively reaches for me, sliding her fingers into the open gap of my unzipped coat. “You see me, and hear me, even when I don’t hear myself.”
The relief I feel when she closes her hand around the front of my shirt is enough to bring me to my knees.
“I don’t know about that,” I manage to say. “I saw how happy you were when I stepped off that elevator.”
A flare of surprise flashes across her face, followed immediately by her brows pulling in. “What did you see?”
I glance around. We’re all alone. But this is hardly private.
“It’s okay,” she whispers. “I want to know how you see me.”
“You were relaxed, and joking.” I swallow hard. “And I had a beat of irrational jealousy. I love hearing you laugh, do you know that?”
She tips her head to the side, her gaze fixed on my face. “You make me laugh.”
“I haven’t for a long time. I mostly just make you mad.”
She huffs a little chuckle under her breath. Not the kind of laugh I meant, but I’ll take it. “Yeah, well, that might be true sometimes, but it’s not true all the time. And there’s zero need for you to be jealous.”
Pushing up on her toes, her hand tightens in my shirt, and she tugs me down towards her.
“I’m sorry about fighting this morning,” she whispers before she brushes her lips against mine.
Her kiss is soft and sweet and chaste, but it’s enough to make my head spin. I groan her name against her lips, then finally give in to my desperate desire to put my arms around her.
“I hate fighting,” I whisper against her hair. “And I’m sorry for the boneheaded present.”
She takes a deep breath, then lets it out. “I told Dani about it. She called me a prude.”
“You’re not a prude.” I laugh softly. “You’re a little she-devil when you want to be. And I—”I love you for it.
But I cut myself off.
“Come on, let me take you home. I have something really wild to tell you.”
