AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Instead, he gives my shoulder a friendly squeeze before carrying on, none the wiser. “Hey, I’m having a cookout this weekend. You should come, meet some more people from around town.”
“Thanks, man. I would, but I’m going back home to Honey Hill on Friday night.”And I can’t fucking wait.
Maybe I’ll finally be able to catch my breath for a bit. I’m absolutely suffocating inside that house with that beautiful, infuriating woman I’m not allowed to touch.
“You trying to get away from Karli already, huh?” Felix asks with a snort as he takes a seat on the edge of the reception desk.
I chuckle. “Nah, I’m just homesick. My family’s real close. I need to check on my sisters, who’ve taken over my house, and my grammy, who’s losing her eyesight, and…” I glance at my roomie. She’s glaring at me. What’s new?
Felix bobs his head. “I got you, I understand. I love my family, too. Even my bratty, baby sister.” He leans over and tugs on Karli’s ear.
She uses both hands, slapping him off and growling at him.
I shake my head, pretending that growl isn’t catnip for me.
With a laugh, Felix saunters off to his next appointment, leaving Karli and me to stew in our unbearable sexual tension.
The stuff about missing my family is true. But without the excuse of going back home, I don’t know what the hell I’d do all weekend. Because I don’t think I’d survive more than one day if I stayed home with Karli. I’d no doubt lose my shit again and get myself into trouble with her.
It seems I can’t trust myself alone with the woman.
The intern pokes his head out of the exam room down the hall and gives me a funny look. “Everything okay, Dr. Westbrook?”
Shit. The x-rays. The poor six-year-old who’s about to spend her whole summer in a cast. Right.
I give him a nod. “I’ll be there in a second, Todd.” I flip through the cabinet and grab the lab results I need. Then I stroll right past the reception desk, pretending not to give Karli a second glance.
That’s a lie.
I’m thinking about her. I’m always freaking thinking about her.
This won’t end well for me.
21
KARLI
Daphne frowns down at the photo on her phone screen. “…And usually I’m not into mustaches, but I guess it kind of works on this guy. You know? And not in a 1970s porn star kind of way. More like a…hot fireman way. Just with…fewer fires and…less muscles…”
My nose crinkles up at the picture of the dude that my friend is showing me. “That’s a porn-stache, Daphne. There’s no way around it.”
For the past hour, she has been rambling on and on about this country club guy her rich, controlling parents are trying to set her up with. She doesn’t seem to like him all that much. But she’s doing a mighty job of trying to convince herself that she does. She’s working so hard at it that a sweat has now broken out on her upper lip.
“Oh, come on,” she prods me. “It’s not that he’sunattractive.”
I give the photo another long glance. The blond haired man stands on a dock in front of a decked out speedboat, chest puffed out and hands fisted proudly on his narrow hips. He looks like he’s doing an advertising campaign for the Hamptons.
Daphne’s family used to be regular like everybody else around town but they hit the jackpot when her dad had a few stock market investments go bananas a few years back. Money changed up the Beaumonts real fast. Out of nowhere, Daphne’s parents became super snobby and now they just sit in their glass house on the hill, refusing to mingle with the rest of the folks around town. I really feel bad for Daphne and her two siblings.
“He is an attractive man,” I assure her, my eyes still on the photo. “In that frat boy, khaki-wearing, snorts-coke-out-of-hundred-dollar-bills-on-his-yacht-all-weekend sort of way.”
She throws her head back and laughs. “The more this conversation goes on, the more I hate you.”
I groan. “Sorry, girl. I’m so cranky today, I don’t even know what to do with myself.”
We’re at Felix’s cookout, sitting on the back patio, sipping on drinks and hanging out. The weather is great. It’s been warm and sunny all day. The yard is full of people from around town. Music blasts across the lawn. I should be having a good time, especially after the week I’ve had.But I’m not. And I can’t figure out why.
At some point, Daphne’s monologue falters. She frowns. “Spill it, Karls. What’s wrong?”
