“What?” he asked, taking a step back. “Damn, you’re tiny but you’re scaring me. You don’t have a scalpel in your pocket, do you?”
Of course he would try to make a joke out of this. Hadn’t she heard that before about him? That he was always joking. Always friendly, flirting and talking? “I wish I did so I could snatch your tongue out of your mouth. You embarrassed me by asking me out in public.”
“That wasn’t public. There wasn’t anyone around,” he argued. “We were in a corner by ourselves.”
“Yet people saw us. I was just approached by another nurse who wanted to know if it was true. If I actually turned you down. Like no one in their right mind would do that. Did you ask me where people could see us to put me on the spot so I’d say yes?”
She knew plenty of doctors that did that. Figured they’d never be turned down in public. It was a pressure or power move.
Spencer hadn’t done that though. No. He didn’t want anyone to know about their relationship and she’d been totally fine with it.
Spencer had been new to the hospital, having transferred in months prior. Not many knew much about him and he said he didn’t want to be judged other than by his work performance.
Since she felt the same way, she was all for the privacy.
She was wrong there too.
Seemed like she was wrong about a lot in her life lately.
“I can get any woman I want,” he said, standing up straighter. “I don’t need to lower myself to tactics like that.”
“Really? Well, you didn’t get me. Was that a blow to your ego?”
“You think pretty highly of yourself, don’t you?”
That made her step back for a second. She’d never been that way before. “I just want to do my job. I don’t want any attention on me. Dating someone like you is like putting a flashing neon light on the front of my scrubs while I walk around the hospital ringing bells.”
“So that is why you said no?” he asked.
“I said no for the reason I told you. I don’t need you to show me around the hospital or the town.”
He hesitated for a minute. “Your stepmother asked my mother to talk to me about that. That if I came across you, to make the offer. That’s what I did.”
Oh shit. Had she really put her foot in her mouth over this? Had she misinterpreted what he’d been asking all along?
No. She couldn’t have been. She wasn’t an idiot. At least she didn’t think she was. She’d seen the look in his eyes. It was about more than showing her around.
“She didn’t need to do that.”
“No, she didn’t. But my mother asked me to do something and I followed through. You don’t know her. She’s a tiny thing like you but I’m terrified of her,” he said with a big grin on his face.
She laughed. She really had no choice at this point.
This day had gone from bad to worse.
She’d totally read the whole situation wrong. She was embarrassing herself in front of him right now.
He was only being nice and friendly. What many said about him.
Just because he was cocky and arrogant and she’d had her fill of doctors like that, she shouldn’t hold it against him.
Her father raised her better than that.
“I’m sorry. I guess I read it all wrong. I thought you were asking me on a date because you were attracted to me.”
“Oh, I’m attracted to you too,” he said.
Her jaw dropped and she closed it when no words were coming out.
* * *
Wyatt actually thought he might be understanding more of what was going on. Or so he hoped.
“So it was a date you asked me for?”
“It was an offer to show you around because, like I said, my mother asked me to do that. Then you said you thought I was attracted to you and I admitted I was. Why can’t it be both things?”
He was confusing her, he saw.
“I’m sorry. I’m being rude when I shouldn’t be. You were trying to be nice and I get it. I’m not normally this defensive.”
“Oh, I think you are. I think you do what you want and say what you think. I like that. I tend to do the same. Many say I never shut up. That I put people to sleep for a living because I can’t stop talking and they get bored with me.”
She started to crack the barest of grins. “I find it hard to believe anyone gets bored with you.”
“Did you just compliment me?” He put his hand to his chest adorably. “I might need to mark this day down on the calendar.”
“Very funny,” she said.
“I’ve been told I’m always funny. That I’m the joker of the family. No reason to stop now when it comes so naturally.”
“You think you are going to win me over, don’t you?”
Holy shit, could that be possible? “Is it working?”
“No,” she said firmly. “Let’s get this straight. I’m new here, but not new to town. I’ve visited plenty over the past few years. I left my last job and city to start over. I’m very thankful that my father talked me into getting my license here and it gave me the out I needed.”
He wasn’t sure he liked where this was going. “Can I ask why you felt you needed an out? Are you running from the law or something? A lawsuit?”
She laughed. “Please. I wouldn’t have been hired if I was running from the law and most likely not even a lawsuit and you know it.”
“Then what? Shed some light on this for me.”
“Why? Because you were turned down and never have been before?”
“I wouldn’t say I’ve never been turned down before,” he said. “Though it doesn’t happen often.”
“Which is probably why those that witnessed our conversation, even if
