It’s like someone made a playlist for my life, she thought dejectedly.
Laying her head on Doc’s shoulder, she sighed. “I don’t supposeyou’dbe willing to help me out, would you?”
Doc got very still.
She shoved away from him and found his eyes laser-focused on hers, his expression… What was that look exactly? Stricken?
“Help you with what?” he asked slowly.
“Never mind.” She waved a hand. “It was a joke anyway, so you can stop looking at me like I asked you to go out and kick a dog.”
“Alex.” He deep voice was achingly tender, and it made her own throat feel full. “If I thought you really meant it, I’d take you upstairs this minute, peel off that robe, and show you everything you’ve been missing.”
Now her throat wasn’t just full, it was dry too. Her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth when she said, “Don’t bullshit a bullshitter, Doc.”
“Alexandra Merriweather, you are many things, but a bullshitter isn’t one of them. In fact, you’re so earnest it’s almost painful.” She felt her chin wobble and he was quick to add, “It’s one of your best qualities. Never lose it.”
Snagging one of her curls, he pulled it straight. Then he let it go and watched it spring back into a spiral. His green eyes darkened, and it seemed as if he chose his next words carefully.
“You’re a lovely woman.” When she opened her mouth to object, he lifted a finger and placed it over her lips. “Hush. Let me finish.”
She swallowed thickly and nodded for him to go on.
“I know you don’t see it because you feel like you were an ugly duckling growing up. And maybe you were. Who am I to say? But just like the story, you’ve turned into a swan. And if you keep going around offering yourself up to men, one of them is going to take you up on it.”
“That’s the whole point.” She crossed her arms irritably. “There are forty million unmarried men over the age of eighteen in the United States. I’m hoping at least one of them will agree todome.”
“I know you think it doesn’t matter.” He shook his head. “That it’s not a big deal as long as it’s a done deal, but it can be beautiful if you wait and do it with the right person. Itshouldbe beautiful and done with the right person.”
“Ugh!” She blew out an exasperated breath. “I live on an island with a bunch of men who act as if life is one giant bachelor party. But when it comes to me and my virginity, they get all flowery and virtuous.”
Doc didn’t respond to that. Instead he said, “Can I ask you a question?” His visage seemed…something. Not troubled exactly. Maybepuzzledwas the word she was looking for.
“Go for it.” She made a rolling motion with her hand. “I’ll answer, because you know me. Miss Earnest.”
“Why Mason?”
“Ha!” That made her laugh. “That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it? I’ve asked myself that so many times I’ve lost count.”
“What answer did you come up with?”
“I don’t know exactly.” She shrugged. “I like him. Orlikedhim.” She glowered at the bar, running her fingernail over a scratch on the wooden surface. “And it felt right to ask him to be the one.”
Her food arrived. But for the first time in her life, she’d lost her appetite.
“Can I close out my tab and get this to go?” she asked the bartender. Wincing, she added, “Sorry to be a bother.”
“No trouble at all,” the bartender assured her because being courteous to pain-in-the-ass customers was part of his job description.
After he whisked her food away to box it up, Doc asked her quietly, “Do you want my opinion?”
“Of course, Papa Bear. That’s why I come talk to you. You have the rare ability to cultivate clarity.”
He smiled slightly, and Alex saw the blond at the other end of the bar stare lustfully. There was something about Doc—aside from his big, lean body and ruggedly handsome face. It was a…sadness, Alex decided.
There was a tragedy in Doc’s past. Grief was written all over him, and it was a vulnerability women couldn’t resist.
“Things that feel right don’t happen very often.” His tone was soft, his voice not much more than a whisper. “In fact, they’re damned rare. Don’t give up on Mason. Not yet.”
