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“The man’s got charm. You can admit that, right?”
“He has it in spades,” I agreed with a disgruntled frown.
Peyton smiled. “He flirts with women. He teased and joked with all the nurses on the floor. Hell, he even got Babs to smile and dare I say it, looksoft. For just a moment, mind you, but he achieved the unachievable.”
“So?”
“So, there’s something about you that made him take a closer look.”
“He doesn’t want for female companionship,” I muttered.
“Companionship and a true partnership are not the same thing. If he was out just to have sex with you, do you think he’d be going through all this effort?”
I moved the vase of lilies to the end of the counter and out of the way so it wouldn’t get knocked over.
“Does the biker thing bother you?” she asked suddenly. “And by biker, I mean criminal thing?”
“How do you know he’s a criminal?” I hedged.
“Please,” she said with a laugh. “There are some men who pretend to be dangerous, and then there are men who are actually dangerous.”
“Does the criminal thing bother me,” I repeated. “It didn’t. Because I wasn’t thinking of a future with him.”
“But if you were?” she prodded.
“But I’m not.” My tone was emphatic.
“Sounds like unfinished business to me,” she said.
“It’s finished. Done.”
“Why? Because of your baggage? Because one night you booted him out? We all have baggage.”
“Yes, but showing him my baggage might scare him away.”
“So, you’re rejecting him before he has a chance to reject you.”
“I’m…crap,” I muttered. “That’s exactly what I did.”
“You don’t think he has the chops to stick around after you get deep with him? Don’t judge Boxer by the same standards you’ve judged the other men in your life. Boxer might surprise you.”
“What makes you say that?” I was fascinated by Peyton’s read on the situation. I was too close in on it and Quinn, as much as I loved her, was engaged to a criminal. Her judgement was clouded.
“The way he watched you. Like he couldn’t take his eyes off you. Like he was hungry, starving.”
I rolled my eyes. “Lust, you mean.”
She shook her head. “No. Hungry for something he couldn’t name.”
My traitor of a heart fluttered with longing in my chest. “We barely know each other.”
“Fine. Don’t listen to me. You’re going to choose what you want to do regardless of what I say.” She looked up from chopping vegetables to stare at me. “But let me say one thing: There are times in life when nothing makes sense. When you can’t make sense of the reality you’re living in and you’re angry all the time.” She smiled sadly. “I know what it’s like. Don’t let the anger rule you. It doesn’t just incinerate everything around you—it takes you with it. Ask me how I know.”
I flinched. “Peyton.”
She shook her head, sending her bright red hair spilling across her shoulders. “When Tom died, I lost myself for a long time. You’re a young, brilliant surgeon at the top of your field, and you were working at one of the most renowned hospitals in the country. You were on the path to being chief of surgery—that’s what they were grooming you for, wasn’t it?”
I nodded.
