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“Don’t put that visual in my head if you don’t plan on making the fantasy a reality, London.”
“That’s a fantasy of yours?”
He looked at her as if she’d lost every single bit of her mind. “The Dominatrix Doctor? Fuck yeah.”
Laughing again, she nudged his hand, which was still covered with her own. “Take me to that winery. There’s a glass of Cabernet with my name on it.”
There were well over three dozen wineries between Austin and the small town of Hye, Texas, where his mom had lived out the last ten years of her life, but Drew had chosen the one in Dripping Springs because of its spectacular views. They headed south on I-35 and then west on highway 290, toward the foothills of the Texas Hill Country.
“Do you know the last time I was outside of the greater Austin area?” London asked.
“When?” Drew asked.
“No, I’m asking you. It’s been so long since I’ve traveled outside the city that I can’t even remember.” She released a satisfied sigh as she nestled her head against the soft leather headrest. “Thanks for inviting me, Drew. I needed this.”
“Thanks for accepting the invitation,” he said. “And, yeah, you did need this. I could tell.”
“I should bring Dr. Renault a bottle of wine as a thank-you gift. If he hadn’t forced me to take the week off, I’d be prepping for a tonsillectomy right now.”
“No, you would have been taking your sister out for that all-important talk.”
She shook her head. “That was supposed to happen this afternoon. I still had the surgery scheduled for this morning.”
“Damn, London. Do you do anything besides work?”
“I do,” she said defensively. “I get together with two of my girlfriends every Friday night for drinks and girl talk. And I have my crocheting,” she added.
“I forgot about that,” Drew laughed. “Maybe because you haven’t offered to crochet anything for me yet. What’s a man gotta do to get a beanie?”
She gave his arm a playful tap. “You make fun of my crochet and then demand a beanie? I think not.”
There was amusement in her voice, but when Drew glanced over, he caught a hint of uneasiness tightening the edges of her mouth.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Huh?” She shook her head. “Nothing. It’s just…six months ago, I didn’t have either of those things,” she admitted. “My crocheting. My friends, Taylor and Samiah. It’s only been six months since I found them. Before that, I didn’t take any time off. Craig Johnson—the asshole I thought I’d bring to the reunion—was the first guy to pop up on the dating app I joined. I was too busy to take the time to swipe through to anyone else.”
London huffed out a small laugh. “The morning after I met Taylor and Samiah, we came up with this idea—our boyfriend project—where we were going to work on goals that each of us had pushed off to the side. Samiah used her time to develop a phone app. Taylor worked on building her fitness brand and is now on her way to getting a college degree. You want to know what my goal was? To find a hobby. That’s how the crocheting came about.”
“You had to actively search for a hobby? Like, just a regular hobby?” Drew asked as he swerved into the left lane to pass a semi.
“It sounds even more pathetic when you say it out loud, but yeah, I did.”
“So you had no interests outside of the hospital?”
Her shoulders hiked up to her ears. “I’m in the final year of my residency. Where am I supposed to find the time to have interests outside of the hospital?”
Drew could tell by how quickly she’d unleashed that excuse that she used it for everything. He had to admit it was a good line. There was only a select group of people on this earth who could end their workday saying they gave parents decades more time with their children.
Yet…
“You know, London. As a doctor, it’s easy to convince yourself that being a workaholic is noble—necessary even. But you can’t allow your job to cannibalize all of your time.”
She rested her head against the headrest again and tilted her chin up to the sky. Sucking in a deep breath, she said, “I’m learning. This weekend will be a major lesson in how to let go of my work duties and just relax.” She lolled her head toward him and scrunched up the side of her mouth. “Don’t let me work on the charts I brought along with me.”
“My God, woman.” Drew shook his head. “You need this wine tour and massage even more than I thought.”
“Are we really going for massages?” she asked. “I’m not sure how I feel about that.”
