“We’re only friends.” Brooke made a note on the patient file then tossed it into the bin to be entered into the computer. “We like to spend time together.” She shrugged and shot her awhat can you doexpression.
“I see.” Aubrey snatched the file from the bin then slugged herself into the chair behind the computer. She wiggled her mouse around. “Friends?—”
“Yes,” Brooke hissed as she made a note on the next patient file.
Then out of nowhere, Logan landed beside her. “I thought that was you.” With a smirk, he casually leaned his hip against the nurses’ station desk. His body was intimately close to hers. Close enough, she smelled the scent of soap. “It’s nice to see you again so soon.”
“Oh, hi.” Brooke nearly dropped her pen but straightened it in the nick of time. “Are you following me?” she teased.
“I mean I can if you want me to.” His curious gaze made his eyes flicker. When she didn’t respond, he glanced at Aubrey behind the desk and dipped his chin at her. “Hey, Aubrey. It’s good to see you. How are the wedding plans going?”
Aubrey smiled, leaning forward. “Brooke went with me to my final wedding dress fitting. According to the wedding planner, everything is set to go.”
“They say as long as you have a dress, a groom, and a date, that’s all you need.”
“I think I have heard that before.” Aubrey continued to type on her keyboard. “You’re still good to come with Brooke, right?” She finished typing and placed the closed file into the outgoing bin.
“I wouldn’t miss it,” Logan shifted to face Brooke and winked, “for the world.”
Heat splashed Brooke’s cheeks. If she didn’t know better, she’d think Logan was flirting with her instead of being friendly. A part of her might even believe he wanted to spend the evening as her actual date. But she knew better. Their arrangement kept the lines of fake and real plain as day.
Suddenly a buzzer went off, Aubrey tapped the flashing button and stood. “That’s me. I’ll see you both later.” She wagged her fingers at them.
Brooke watched Aubrey disappear down the hallway before she twisted to face Logan. “I’m off in fifteen minutes, you?” She clicked her pen closed and pushed it into the front of her lab coat pocket.
“I’m done. I came from my last surgery.” He hesitated for a second, looked down at his feet then back up at her. “Want to grab dinner at the sandwich shop around the corner?”
Dinner. This eerily sounded like dating, but then she reminded herself last night she had told him to date Shelby first and then they could talk. One dinner with a friend couldn’t hurt, right?
But she knew she was in deep. She could admit to herself that her feelings for Logan were one hundred percent real. Her heart picked up speed anytime he came near. Friends, yeah, she didn’t want to be friends. She wanted to kiss him in the rain or in the moonlight, or anywhere for that matter. Brooke wanted to go with him to Sunday dinners at his parents, babysit the twins to give Danielle and Michael a night off. Geez, the list went on and on. But it didn’t matter what she wanted, she had to live in the reality of what was.
“Sure.” Brooke plunged one hand into her lab coat. Luckily, she had on a nice dress and cardigan underneath her lab coat. Itdidn’t fall into date attire, but it also didn’t lean into disheveled either. “I’d love that.”
Logan grinned. Then he slapped the top of the nurses’ desk. “I’ll go change out of these scrubs and meet you in the hospital lobby. See you soon.” Then he pivoted and left.
Her simmering blood pressure slowly subsided as he slipped into the elevator at the end of the hallway. Then she placed the completed files into the bin that needed to be entered into the computer. A few minutes later, she ended her shift. After a trip to the locker room, she removed her lab coat, touched up her makeup, and gathered up her coat and purse.
Twenty minutes later, she arrived in the lobby. She spotted Logan waiting in one of the chairs with a phone glued to his ear. As she approached, he said into his phone, “She’s right here, let me ask her.” He covered the phone’s mouthpiece with one hand and lowered it from his ear. “It’s my mom. Does Sunday night work for dinner?”
“Dinner?” Brooke didn’t have it in her to truck it outside of the city to sit in that lovely home and lie to those people yet again. “Again?”
Logan leaned in closer and whispered, “My parents wanted to come here with Michael and Danielle to have dinner in the city with us, remember?”
“Oh,” Brooke adjusted the jacket slung over her arm. “Right. Let me check my schedule. I think I work the morning shift, but I should be off by six or seven.” She plunged her hand into her purse to fetch her phone. Logan chatted with his mom as she pulled up her calendar. “I’m off at six,” she announced.
Logan gave her a thumbs up as he listened a bit more. Finally, he said, “Mom, Brooke said she’s off at six.” His gaze caught hers as he listened to his mom’s reply.
Brooke patiently waited as he wrapped up his conversation, putting on her jacket.
He hung up and slipped his phone into his pocket. “We’re set. Danielle is insistent on some restaurant she heard had good reviews.”
“I don’t care where we go.” Brooke adjusted her purse strap. “I’m more worried about faking it again as your girlfriend for the evening. I hate leading your family on.”
“If it was up to me, I’d be dating you for real.”
The words landed in the tight space between them. He shot her a challenging stare, likeyour turn.
She pinched the sleeve of his jacket. “Come on.” Brooke led him toward the sliding glass doors. “You promised me food, and I get a bit testy when I haven’t been fed.”
