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“Because you only have an hour or so and need to eat.” He stepped back, shrugged off his jacket, and began to unpack the bags. “Is there any chance I can convince you to play hooky this afternoon?”
She looked into his hopeful gaze, and for the first time in her adult life, the thought of doing something other than work was actually tempting. “I wish I could, but I have a meeting with the parents of one of my younger patients.” Disappointment filled her and she wished her afternoon consisted of something she could cancel.
“But you considered it.” He stared at her for a beat, his expression . . . pleased. Then he turned and began to unpack food, pulling out saran-wrapped sandwiches on plastic plates, complete with chips. Real silverware came next, followed by two large thermoses.
“What’s in those?” she asked.
“Hot chocolate.”
“Oh yum, my favorite!”
“I know.”
She wrinkled her nose. “How?”
“I made friends with Gina Donovan, pumped her for your favorite orders, and asked her to pack everything up for me.” He shrugged and began to peel the wrap off the food.
She ought to help but remained frozen in place, stunned by the lengths to which he’d gone to make this picnic, as he’d called it, special. For her.
No one had ever considered her favorite foods or gone out of their way to make her feel important. She hadn’t had her mom to do it. She barely remembered her mother, and her father’s mother, who’d moved in to help him out, had about as much of a soft streak as he did. Forget the men in her life. Even the ones she’d dated on occasion knew she didn’t have time or wasn’t giving them 100 percent, so they didn’t bother with an attempt to win her heart anyway.
In an insanely short time, Luke Thompson had made her feel cared for and treasured. And she didn’t know what to do with that.
“Luke?” she softly called his name.
He turned from his task. “What’s up?”
She swallowed over the lump in her throat, the words escaping before she could think them through or stop them. “I can’t play hooky this afternoon, but can I have a rain check for tomorrow?”
* * *
When Alexa asked him for a rain check, elation had soared through Luke as strong as after any touchdown he’d scored. He knew how difficult it must have been for her to concede to herself that she’d take time off from work. That she’d do it to be with him, well, it blew his mind.
“You’ve got yourself a date,” he’d promised her.
Afterward, they’d enjoyed their lunch at the cabin, cleaned up, and made out a little bit. He grinned at the memory of them sitting on the old, beat-up couch, kissing and groping each other like teenagers. He’d ended up aroused to the point of pain, and she’d ended up grumpy and annoyed, but he’d left her hanging, reminding her that good things come to those who wait.
Then he’d driven her back to the hospital, walked her to the big sliding doors at the entrance, kissed her in front of he didn’t care who, and sent her back inside with a goofy grin on her face. Not that he’d told her that. He figured Dr. Alexa Collins wouldn’t appreciate knowing she’d returned to work well kissed.
Laughing, he’d driven back to Cole’s and helped his buddy, who’d rented a dumpster to get rid of the garbage his father had accumulated. That night, he and Cole had shared a couple of beers, watched a movie, and now, the following morning, Luke was implementing the next phase of teaching Alexa how to have fun.
“Where are we going?” she asked as he helped her into his truck.
He glanced at her, discovering yet another facet of her personality. She looked like a happy, young woman, not a sexy siren, an uptight doctor, or even the tense daughter he’d seen yesterday. Today, she had on a pair of jeans and boots pulled over them, a sweater and a puffy down jacket, her long hair pulled into a ponytail that hung down her back. She was, in a word, breathtaking.
“Back to the lake,” he said, controlling his emotions.
She clapped her gloved hands together in excitement, and again, he experienced a wave of passion so strong it nearly drowned him. He’d given her that rosy flush in her cheeks from just these plans alone.
“Another picnic?” she asked.
“Among other things,” he said, being deliberately vague and teasing. It wouldn’t do to reveal his intentions. A part of having fun involved spontaneity, something else he sensed she hadn’t had much of in her well-organized, routinized life.
“How about a hint?” She curled her legs under her and turned toward him as he pulled out of her driveway.
He laughed. “How about not?”
Her phone rang, and she pulled it out of her pocket, glanced down, and hit send. The next ten minutes, or basically the entire ride to the cabin, consisted of her talking to someone at the hospital about medications and various patients.
