He sighs and runs his hands up his face and through his hair before he nods as if coming to some sort of conclusion. “We’ve somehow gotten on the wrong foot since Saturday night. Perhaps since the kiss. I’m known for being cocky, and I guess I am in a lot of ways, but mostly around my job. I used to be cocky and confident with women, but I haven’t been in a very long time, and something about you brings it back out of me. It’s kind of addictive.”
He holds up his hand to stop me, as he can see I’m about to argue.
“Since my divorce, I’m an idiot a lot. I say stupid things. I’m also really bad at saying the right thing at the right time with women, and a lot of my confidence has vanished. You say you’re awkward. Well, I am too now. Then you didn’t come home last night, and I feel like shit about it. I don’t want to kick you out of the home you’ve been living in, but I also don’t want to live with you. I was hoping to clear the air between us. You’re Micha’s little sister, and I’ve known you your whole life. Yet despite my best intentions, I keep setting off stink bomb after stink bomb with you.”
My nose scrunches. “That’s kind of gross.”
He tosses his hands up. “See what I mean? Regardless, it’s no less accurate. It’s been a rough couple of years for me, and there’s something about you that gets me going and makes it so I don’t know how to stop. But you’re not someone I want to be enemies with, and you’re definitely not someone I can flirt with. I’ll behave. No more teasing or stepping in with your new boyfriend.”
I don’t correct him about Josh. Just as I didn’t tell him who the chocolates were from. I don’t even know why. Maybe old protective instincts die hard. Or maybe it’s because I stupidly and immaturely like that he called me beautiful and acted,well, jealous. Even if he was just trying to be brotherly or noble on Micha’s behalf or whatever that was. It has been a rough couple of years for him. He got divorced and then lost his ex-wife and had to deal with whatever Zoey’s stepdad put him through and is now a single dad.
We all deserve a pass and a second chance.
“Fine. Let me finish showing you around.”
He smiles, and I wish he wouldn’t. It’s a damn good look on him.
“Thank you.”
I nod and take him on a tour of the floor, showing him where the storage and supply rooms, the crash carts, and the Pyxis MedStations are. I don’t bother with the break room or locker room because he’s a surgeon, and they have their own on a different floor. As we walk, I explain that the floor is mostly divided between surgical and medical patients and how we keep them separate to prevent unnecessary exposure and infections.
“Big floor,” he notes, looking around now that we’re back where we started. “My last hospital had a separate SICU.”
“We have forty beds and are one of the highest-volume pediatric ICUs in the country.”
He grins. “Now you know why it wasn’t such a hard sell for me to move back here.”
“Should we come up with rules?”
He peers down at me, stepping in a bit closer than he should. Closer than I’d like. Especially when he smells like expensive manly bodywash and not the hospital. “Rules?”
“Rules for living together. I haven’t had a roommate since college, and the only man I’ve ever lived with was my boyfriend. I don’t know how this works, and you’re a grown man with a child.”
He chuckles lightly. “I think the rules are still the same as they were in college. Stay out of my shit, and I’ll stay out ofyours. As for cleaning up after myself, as you said, I’m a grown man and a father, and I do that already. I won’t eat your food, but since I have a tendency to overbuy groceries for Zoey, you can help yourself to whatever I get. I’m good at making breakfast, but I’m not the best at dinner, so if you want takeout, just let me know and I can order you stuff. No men. No parties.”
I smile up at him. “No men?”
He smiles back. “Those were Micha’s orders, but I’m not sour on them.”
I roll my eyes. “I’m not bringing men home, but that has nothing to do with you or Micha. And the only people I ever have over are my people, who you already know.”
“Then we’re good. Other than no more hitting me in the nuts or kissing me in dark rooms, I’m not sure what other rules we need. Since you’re moving out soon anyway.”
I flip him off, and he chuckles.
“Thanks for showing me around. I have to get going. Will I see you tonight?”
I peek up at him. It’s annoying how good he looks in blue scrubs. They match his eyes almost perfectly, and his blond hair is a little too long on top, like he’s gone a while between haircuts, but it totally works on him. Sucks he’s so pretty. And he knows it.
“You’re done for the day?”
“Half day. Zoey has a preschool meet and greet.”
I smile thinking about that for her. “That’s exciting.”
“She’s nervous. She loved her last preschool. This one feeds right into the kindergarten, so I’m hoping she makes friends.”
“She will. She’s a great kid.”
