“Sort of. We had the same hair, though she always wore hers down, and the same teeth.” She smiled.
“Teeth?” Nathan grinned.
“Teeth. We both needed braces when we were younger.” Zoe flashed her now-perfect, white-toothed smile. “But she wore glasses, which I don’t, and she was a little shorter than I am. I think. It’s hard to know — I was still growing when she…” Her smile faded and she bit her lip.
“I know.” Nathan stood, pulling her up with him. After a split second’s hesitation, he folded her into a hug. She felt soft and warm in his arms, and she smelled a little like roses, a soft, feminine scent he wouldn’t have expected from the tough woman he’d gotten to know over the last few days. Her head fitted perfectly into the hollow of his shoulder, and her hands were soft and hesitant against his back, brushing hisshoulder blades as lightly as butterflies. Nathan’s heart gave an unexpected lurch, and he released her, meeting her eyes.
“The thing is, as much as we might feel trapped in the past sometimes, we’re not there anymore. Come on. We’re going somewhere.”
“Another home visit?”
“No.” Nathan smiled. “Somewhere I think you’ll like. We both need a little break from work.”
An hour ago, he’d been ready to tell Zoe to leave Islingburn, and him, alone. Maybe tomorrow that would still be the right thing to do — after all, they’d had more than a few professional clashes. But the woman in front of him now, the insightful, vulnerable woman he felt he’d only just met, was someone he didn’t want to say goodbye to yet. He wanted to comfort her in any way he could. He wanted to remind her that life went on.
Nathan understood Zoe better now. The drive she felt came from losing her mother at such a young age, which he could understand. Nathan, too, was driven to do the best he could, always, after losing his father. There was more to Zoe than a dedicated PR professional. Maybe he could show her that there was more to him than a stick-in-the-mud, old-fashioned, small-town doctor, too.
CHAPTER 12
ZOE
Zoe had trouble looking at Nathan. He was driving, hands tapping against the steering wheel in time with the country song that had just started playing on the radio, his attention focused on the road ahead. He looked confident and relaxed, as though they’d just had a perfectly normal conversation.
It hadn’t been a normal conversation for Zoe. Not at all. She hardly ever talked about her mother, even with her father. Katherine was her best friend, and evenshedidn’t know the details of how Zoe’s mother had died. Yet Nathan had found Zoe in a moment of fear and vulnerability, and instead of judging her, he’d drawn out her story and given her space to talk about her mother a little.
Then he’d hugged her. Zoe still remembered the feeling of his firm chest against her cheek and the way his arms had wrapped around her. She’d felt safe. Seen.
It was all very unusual, and that made Zoe uncomfortable. How would she go back to being professional with Nathan after he’d seen her cry and comforted her?
Taking a deep breath, Zoe focused on the road ahead, too. Just because she’d shared a tender moment with him didn’t mean she could lose her drive. Tomorrow, she’d be back in his office, making sure she got the shots she needed for a successful pitch. She couldn’t let this shake her.
The truck wound up a hill before Nathan pulled over by the side of the road.
“We have to walk from here,” he explained, getting out of the car. Zoe followed his lead. Her practical flats weren’t exactly made for hiking, but she could walk a little. And she definitely wasn’t going to show any more weakness to Nathan after the moment they’d shared.
Nathan led the way down a narrow dirt trail. The sky was starting to dim into the bright pinks and soft oranges of sunset, but there was still enough light to pick her way over the roots and stones in the path. They climbed past broad-leafed trees and ferns so large Zoe thought they’d have looked more at place in a movie about dinosaurs than here.
Eventually, the trees opened into a clearing. Nathan climbed the last few feet until the ground leveled out into a grassy opening with a bench in the center. Zoe followed and gasped as she took in the view.
The clearing was at the very top of a hill. In front of them, the leafy rolling hills of rural Vermont spread out below them. A river reflected the sunset somewhere far below. In the distance, Zoe could make out the shape of mountains — she hadn’t known that Vermont evenhadmountains. The sky above was streaked with the bright pastels of sunset, and far below, the town of Islingburn was nestled into a valley.
“Wow.” Zoe whistled. Nathan turned to her, grinning.
“I know, right? Come on, let’s sit.”
They crossed to the bench and sat, close enough that Zoe could feel Nathan’s warmth, but not so close that they were actually touching. Zoe folded her hands in her lap, unable to look away from the view in front of her but very aware of Nathan beside her.
“I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Nathan leaned back, crossing one leg over the opposite knee. “This is where I always come when I get overwhelmed by life down there.” He gestured at Islingburn and its surroundings. “I used to come here with my father. We’d hike all the way up from town and bring snacks, usually cookies and lemonade that my mom made. It was about eight miles, depending on the route we took, four of those mostly uphill.”
“You were outdoorsy,” Zoe suggested.
“You could say that.” Nathan smiled. “Although it gets a little nerdier, because when I was older, we’d bring flashcards and study for my AP exams, then the SATs, then the MCATs, then my intern exam…”
“That’s sweet.” Zoe smiled, her gaze drifting across the horizon. “Was your father a good tutor?”
“Definitely. He was the best. We saw things in the same way, so he always knew how to explain everything in the best way possible.”
