Page 49 of Dr. Sexypants

“Okay, well then we could take her for a hike.”

“You can—”

I caught myself before I blurted out what I was thinking—You can hike in your prosthetics? I remembered that he’d specifically pointed at a pair in his closet and said they were for hiking or sports.

Quickly pivoting, I reframed my question. “I mean, you’ll have enough time? When are you scheduled to go in?”

“Not until six. So, if we have lunch at noon and then hike for an hour or two, that’ll still give me enough time to come home and take a nap before I have to get ready.”

It would also give me time to make any trades before four o’clock when the exchange closed and I went to help Lainey at the bakery.

“What should I bring?”

“Just your sexy self and anything Dora might need. I’ll take care of the rest.”

“We’ll be over at noon.”

****

Justin

Mrs. Chen was tending to her flowers in her front yard across the street from Kristy’s when I backed out of the garage. I wondered how long she’d been working there, hoping to catch some gossip.

I waved to her with a big smile as I put the car in drive, then looked in my rear-view mirror to see if she’d run into her house or pulled out her phone.

My money was on the grapevine burning up within ten minutes, and that was being conservative. They were going to have a field day when Kristy showed up at my house for lunch with Dora.

I knew from experience to just let the thing run its course, then it would be quickly forgotten once the next juicy tidbit surfaced.

My goal had always been to never be the next bit of gossip, but for Kristy, I was willing to give the old biddies something to talk about.

Right now, I needed to go to J and J, the local grocery store, so I’d have something suitable to feed my lunch date.

Chapter Fourteen

Justin

Fortunately, J and J’s deli had a premade grazing board for two, along with finger sandwiches, so I didn’t have to do much to prepare for my lunch guests.

I even bought Dora a bone that advertised “hours of enjoyment”.

My patio had a nice, big umbrella, so I decided to set the outside table instead of the one in the kitchen. Although I knew Mrs. Murdoch next-door would probably be in her corner upstairs bedroom with binoculars or telephoto lens, ready to give everyone the play-by-play.

Fucking small towns.

Yet, despite how much I bitched about everyone knowing everyone else’s business, I knew how quickly this town would come together to take care of one of its own.

Lainey and Conor were the perfect example.

Although it’d been scandalous to start, when it became common knowledge that she was pregnant with Shawn O’Brien’s baby, they’d circled the wagons and made damn sure her bakery succeeded.

Although, to her credit, that was what had got them in the door. Her food kept them coming back.

My doorbell rang at two minutes before twelve, and since I was wearing my athletic prosthetics for our hike, I seriously considered skipping to answer it.

I decided to take a more manly approach and walked to the door. I even made myself slow the fuck down on the way.

“Hey! Come in!” I said when I opened the door and stepped aside.