I couldn’t help but burst out with laughter. More with relief than anything else. “My God, that man hates him some fucking pickles.”
“Does that mean you will still have dinner with me, Miss Elizabeth?”
He reached out and tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear as I laid there on his exam table.
The words came as effortlessly as the happiness that I felt around him.
“I’d love to, Doc. I look forward to it.”
19
DOC
Feeling her arm threaded with mine as we walked through my childhood home was something else. I watched my father treating my mother to such evenings growing up. Dinner by the pool while my sister and I watched from our bedrooms, peeking in to see what they did whenever we weren’t around.
We only did that once, that much was for certain.
I smirked at the memories of my childhood as I pulled the chair out for her. I offered her my hand, feeling the warmth of hers as she slid it across my palm. Tonight, I’d ask her the question bouncing around in my mind. The one I couldn’t seem to find guidance on, no matter how much time I spent around her or inside of my head. The question I wanted to blurt out impulsively every time she turned that beautiful smile toward me. The question my body already knew the answer to.
I was going to ask Miss Elizabeth to be mine.
“Wow, Brutus really outdid himself,” she said with a giggle.
I scooted her close to the table. “Actually, this is all my doing.”
I sat down in front of her, scooting my chair toward the table, before I looked up and saw her balking at me.
I looked around. “What?”
She tilted her head and snickered. “You made this meal?”
My eyes dropped to the food on the table before rising back to her gaze. “Yes. Is that a problem, Miss Elizabeth?”
She picked up her fork, dipping it into the lasagna, and took the smallest bite of the meat sauce.
Her eyes lit up. “Doc, this is fantastic!”
Fucking hell, her praise made my cock jump. “Yeah? I figured lasagna, a nice salad, and some garlic bread was an easy route to go. Nice and comfortable. Warm. Familiar.”
Her shock turned into the softest smile I’d ever seen painted on her face. “Thank you for tonight, Daniel.”
My gaze met hers. “No thanks needed, Elizabeth. Trust me, I will enjoy tonight as much as you will.”
I couldn’t help myself. I watched her take the first bites of her food. I wasn’t even hungry. Not after slaving away in a hot kitchen. I had to cool down, at best, and as a cool breeze kicked up, it moved the clouds overhead, revealing the moon that drenched everything in that cool blue hue that came with it.
She looked breathtaking beneath it.
“Doc?”
I cleared my throat as her voice snapped me out of my trance. Fuck, how long was I staring? “Yes, Miss Elizabeth?”
When I focused back on her, though, I watched as she stood. The smile on her face sank into something akin to a grin, and she lifted herself from her chair. She moved with a grace I hadn’t seen in her movements yet, and I couldn’t help but to clock all of the points of her body that were injured. I watched as she moved without her cane. I looked down to take stock of how much her ankle limped. I ran my gaze up to her waist and chest, seeing if she favored any one side due to her ribs. The gash she had on her forehead, the ligature marks on her wrists. My gaze darted around her body as she sashayed over to me, the wind kicking up that delightful sundress of hers.
My brain short-circuited when I saw a piece of that fabric blow up over her thigh.
“I’m fine, Doc,” she said as I moved without reason, easing myself away from the table and turning the chair toward her.
“You look it,” I said as my eyes raked back up to hers.
