His brow lifts in appreciation. “I might like something like that.”
“Then again, you are a hugger and a hand holder,” I continue, and his smile grows. “So you probably need some other lame, non-sexual physical reinforcement.”
“Yeah, same goes for you,” he says.
I scoff. “I don’t think you can handle my brand of physical affection.”
His gaze runs over me. “Then I guess we’d find ourselves in the kind of trouble Tenley mentioned, wouldn’t we?”
Our instructor leans over and clears her throat, saving me again. “Maybe you two missed it, but class was dismissed a few minutes ago. And while I appreciate that you were both good sports, I’m kicking you out now.”
Rowan cringes, and I worry for a second that he’ll panic and leave me hanging again. But he stands and shoots me an apologetic smile, waiting for me to go first like the well-bred gentleman he is.
“Strangers my ass,” Tenley mumbles as she grabs the rest of her things, and Rowan shares another secret look with me before he insists on carrying Tenley’s bag out to her car.
“I recognize that look in your eyes,” Tenley whispers when she catches me watching him too carefully. “You can probably go ahead and mark this down as peak day.”
I glare at her, but she only laughs and thanks Rowan for his helpin loading up her bags. We trade goodbyes with her, and Rowan comes around to open my door for me.
“Well, this was fun,” he muses.
“I’m still not showing you my charts,” I reply after I shut the door and roll down the window.
He reaches up to brace himself on the frame, leaning into the open window. “That’s too bad, since I’ve already replaced Landry’s name with yours on all those medical releases.”
“Get out of here, you dork,” I tell him.
He grins at me one more time. “Good night, Claire Bear. I’d ask you to text me and let me know when you make it home safely, but I know better.”
“Good night, Benadryl Boy.”
“Don’t you want to know if I make it home all right?”
I roll my eyes. “That’s not exactly my love language.”
“What if I said you had a nice butt first? In a respectable way, of course.”
“I’ll see you around, Doc,” I say, shaking my head as I roll up the window.
tuesday
6:02 PM
Rowan
Hey, how’s the charting going?
Claire
I wish I had time to care.
Rowan
Everything okay?
Claire
Voice Note Transcript: Well, since Frankie ate something he wasn’t supposed to this morning which made me late for work where I found out that the grant I was going to use to buy more supplies for my shop fell through right before I got an email from a parent accusing me of lying about her kid not turning in any of his work for the past few weeks which was just what I needed before my surprise observation which happened on the same day that I got home to a kennel full of dog puke,courtesy of Frankie.
