“So, Mad…” Raven got comfortable on the couch, and I saw AJ get her phone out and look at the screen. It was cute how she and Rhett were together. “Has Dr. Richards asked you out yet?”
“Why do you think he has a thing for me?”
“Gee, I don’t know.” She laughed. “Maybe because every time he talks to you, he stares at your boobs instead of your face.”
“She has really great boobs,” AJ interjected with a shrug while still staring at her phone.
“Aw, thanks.” I hadn’t really spent much time with AJ until recently, and I was realizing just how much I liked her. Not just because she complimented my boobs, either. But, to be honest, that did help confirm she was just who I thought she was: a girl who said it like it was, because I did have amazing breasts.
***
“Great job in there.” I placed the chart onto the counter and turned around just as Dr. Richards stepped up behind me. “My surgeries always seem to go much smoother when you’re at my side, Maddison.”
“Thank you.” The moment I said it, I remembered what Raven had said, and it was then I noticed it: his eyes were most definitely taking in my chest. Okay, so not just taking it in, he was memorizing it.
The guy wasn’t bad looking. He was older than me, in his mid-thirties, but extremely attractive. He wasn’t exactly my go-to type—I generally went for the stronger, built type, maybe a little bad boy. Dr. Richards was tall, lean, with a strong jawline, and apparently a breast man.
“I was about to go downstairs and grab a bite before our next surgery. Would you care to join me?”
A big part of me wanted to say no, because mixing business with pleasure couldn’t be a good thing if things happened to go south. But then, Mike’s face flashed in my mind, and I wondered if the reason behind my fascination toward him wasn’t related to the fact that I’d not dated a man in so very long. I didn’t remember the last time I felt a man’s hands on me, or, in turn, placed my own on a man.
“I could eat,” I finally said, feeling a little more heated than before.
Dr. Richards smiled, holding his hand out for me to pass. Glancing back over my shoulder, I saw him take in my backside and thought to myself, maybe he’s not just a boob guy.
Chapter Six
Mike
I was just coming off from my first shift at the hospital, feeling the effects of being on my feet for close to ten hours. For the most part, everything went smoothly, but working trauma, I honestly never knew how my shift may go. It was fast paced, which was what I enjoyed, but much different from being in battle.
Rounding the corner toward the cafeteria, needing to grab a coffee before I headed back to Brooklet, I stopped dead in my tracks. At the end of the hall was a tall man, wearing dark blue scrubs indicating he was a surgeon. He was slightly hunched over, one hand resting on the wall, as he leaned in toward a nurse in yellow scrubs. I’d recognize the woman anywhere, the dark hair and that sweet smile.
Maddison looked up at the guy, her back pressed to the wall, holding what looked like a mug of coffee in her hands. They talked, and the intimacy shared between them was obvious by their stances.
He must have said something funny, because Maddison’s laughter echoed through the long, narrow hallway, and I instantly grew irritated. I didn’t know this man, and I wondered how well she knew him.
When the doctor leaned in and Maddison arched her chin upward, their lips met in a quick kiss, and I felt like I’d been kicked in the stomach. That was about all I could take.
Backing away, I decided the cup of coffee wasn’t worth it.
I drove home, feeling my mood sour even more with each mile. When I pulled up into the driveway of my childhood home, I was met with my father and Garrett playing basketball in the driveway.
For a few minutes, I simply sat there and watched them through the windshield, remembering the time when my parents first started visiting me in the children’s home. The times Gavin and I would shoot baskets for hours then switch it up and play catch with a baseball instead. What he didn’t know at the time was that my biological father used to do those same things with me. That’s what started the connection I felt to him.
A knocking on my window made me jump in surprise. Glancing to my left, I found Maria looking at me with a puzzled expression, and I forced a smile, not wanting her to worry. She was always worrying.
I opened the door slowly, and she stepped back, waiting for me to climb out of my truck.
“How was your first shift at the hospital?”
“Interesting and long.” I dipped my head and placed a kiss on her cheek. Talking about the hospital just made me think of Maddison and what I’d seen. Frankly, I wanted to pretend I didn’t see any of it. “I think I’m gonna head inside and get a few hours’ sleep. Then I thought I’d go over to Rhett’s place and work on some things.”
“A few hours?” my mother asked, but I knew it was her way of telling me she had her own opinions about my choice.
“I’m good,” I assured her. “I’ve spent the last eight years surviving on very little sleep, Ma.” Sometimes, I went days without any real sleep, but I’d tried never to give her too many
