I stroke him until he pushes my hand away, and when he gets his breathing under control and starts to relax, I remove my finger and take off the gloves to throw them away.
But instead of jumping right up like he usually does, when I turn back around, he’s still on the table. He’s got his arm over his eyes, making no move to get up. “Well,” he says to the room, followed by a dramatic pause. “I think I might have a doctor kink.”
I take my spot against the counter, admiring the view of his body while I still have it. “I gathered.”
He lifts his arm enough to look at me, and the smirk from before is gone from his face, replaced by something I’ve never seen before. “You’re something else, you know that? Act all nerdy and innocent, and then you go and pull that shit?”
Finally sitting up, he hops off the table and starts toward me, leaving his clothes forgotten on the floor. “Not cool, man.”
“Seemed like you thought it was cool at the time,” I say with a shrug, dropping my hands to his hips when he’s standing in front of me.
“I wouldn’t be against doingthatagain,” he admits, licking his lips, pressing a single kiss to mine. “But now, it’s my turn.”
It doesn’t take much of anything before I’m coming in my pantsagain, but this time, he doesn’t laugh. He kisses me during and afterward, helping me clean up the mess before we leave the room.
So when I’m driving home, and Karen’s warning pops up in my head—
I don’t listen to it.
She doesn’t know him, that’s all.
Will follows me home after hanging around the practice until the end of my shift. I was hesitant about his new construction job, even though I know it’s what’s best for him. For my own selfish reasons, I want to keep him at the practice, where I can see him every day.
But he really has done all he can do there, and truth be told, it hasn’t been so bad.
He makes time for me, more than I expected.
I unlock the front door and push it open with Will trailing behind me as I call out, “I’m home!” Ollie’s staying at his grandparents for the night, but Addie should be home by now.
I almost miss her completely, sitting on the couch in the dim light from the lamp. She’s got her knees pulled up to her chest, her arms wrapped around them, staring at the wall, still as a statue.
Will heads straight for the couch, dropping down beside her with the ease he always has with the kids. “Hey, kiddo. How was the dress shopping?”
To my surprise, she doesn’t respond.
That’s not like her at all.
I move to sit on her other side. “Addie, what’s wrong?”
“Emmett and I had a fight,” she says finally, not looking at either of us, her voice flat like I’ve never heard from her.
“Okay,” I say carefully, looking at Will briefly before turning back to my daughter. “Do you want to talk about what happened?”
“No. You wouldn’t understand.”
“So help me understand.”
“He hates me.”
“Addie—”
“He said he doesn’t want to talk to me,” she tells us, without an ounce of emotion in her voice. “He was angry, and I tried to explain, but he didn’t want to hear it, and then he said—” She drags her hands through her pink hair. “He said he doesn’t want to be around me right now.”
“You two have been friends forever. One fight doesn’t mean—”
Finally, she turns to look at me, and that’s when I notice her red-rimmed eyes. “Can I go upstairs?”
I want to say no. I want to fix it right now. Call Emmett and tell him to get his ass over here and apologize for hurting my daughter. But I can’t do that. It’s not my place. “Yeah. Go ahead.”
