Strawberry blonde, young and ruggedly handsome, Hunter nods to us with the sexy smile they must’ve inherited.
Caden continues the introduction, “Dr. Myers is my attending physician. So be nice to her if you want me to stick around.”
“Who says I want you to stick around?”
Caden hits him in the chest. Hunter grins and rubs the spot.
“How many siblings do you have?” I ask.
“We have an older brother, Max, then it’s me, then my sisters Lexi and Samantha, and then this asshole.” He roughly tickles Hunter, who laughs and backs out of range. “And because Max is knee-deep in a serious relationship, I have to drag Red around with me.”
“Like I didn’t have other things to do,” Hunter mutters.
Caden goes to hit him, but his baby brother knew it was coming and weaves out of the way. Am I to understand that Caden asked Hunter to come here on purpose? That’s the logical assumption. Probably to pick up women. Best to not arrive alone—the single man prowling. But surely he knows that the patrons are mostly residents from our hospital. There has to be another reason why.
“I was about to order for you, Caden, but I don’t know what you want.”
“Nothing for me.”
The mystery deepens.
“You’re so lame.” Hunter heads back to the bar.
There’s love in his eyes as Caden lowers his volume to explain to Gwen and I, “That kid…we never know where he is. I found him tonight at our parents’s house and made him come with. I haven’t seen him in like a month. Max and I are always wondering what he does with his time.”
Ah, so that’s the reason. Just to spend time together. That’s nice.
Taking a sip, I ask, “You don’t know what he does with his time?”
“Nope. None of us do.”
“Does he have a job?”
“He must. He pays his own bills. Doesn’t live at home. Skipped college. He’s an entrepreneur or something, but we can’t be sure. We know that if we ask, nobody will see him again for at least another month, so we just leave him be. He can take care of himself.”
Exchanging a look with Gwen I catch an amused gleam in her eye before she asks, “Isn’t that a haphazard way to treat—”
“Whatever Hunter is up to, it’s not shady or against his best interest in the long run.”
I’m in a challenging mood, so I counter, “The short run can lead to a longer one.”
Caden chuckles like I don’t understand his family. He runs confident fingers through his hair, bicep threatening to burst the sport coat’s seams. “If he has lessons to learn, then he’ll have to learn them.”
Hunter approaches with a bottle of “Brothers That Brew,” his index finger around the rim. He tips it back for a generous gulp. “Ah!”
“How’d you get that so fast?”
“Money talks, Caden.”
Gwendolyn leans an elbow on our table and smirks, “So, these parents of yours. Good looking people I assume?”
The Cocker Brothers eye her with the same entertained, cocky look in their eyes, but neither says a word.
I dryly warn her, “Careful, my second-year has a big enough head as it is.”
He touches it in confusion, looks over at a mirror hanging by a leather strap on the wall. With a comedic expression, Caden bends and twists to fully inspect himself. Returning to me, he announces, “I think it’s the appropriate size for my build.”
Stifling a smile I survey the crowd from behind my delicious martini.
Hunter asks, “Dr. Myers, what’s your real name?”
“Dr. Myers.”
He rubs his chin and tries to guess. “Maleficent.”
A grin breaks free despite my best efforts. “You’re good.”
Caden joins in on the joke. “How’d you figure that out so fast?”
“Something in the eyes,” his brother smirks.
Setting down my glass I dig the lemon twist out and suck on it. “Hmm…pity. This isn’t as sour as my soul.”
Caden guffaws and Gwen gifts us her sideways grin.
Hunter’s wit is as dry as mine, so he doesn’t crack. “If someone had picked it earlier it wouldn’t have had a chance to be as sweet.”
With a half-hooded stare I consider this. Did he mean it as a dig or a compliment? I’m unpicked? Or I’ve been picked already? It’s too confusing, so I abandon trying to figure it out, instead turning to Gwen. “How long are you in town for, now that your reason to be here is no longer relevant?”
She sighs, “Tomorrow morning. Which sucks.”
Getting the hint that I won’t take the bait again, Hunter smacks his brother’s arm. “Hey, I’ll be back. I see my buddy Jonas over there.”
“Do it.”
Overlapping them, Gwen continues, “I hate short trips. Fly, land, work, sleep very little, get to the damn airport again, do it all over. I think four days is the perfect least-amount-of-time for a business trip. Gives you a chance to breathe. Anything less is too difficult. But maybe I’m a creature of habit.”
Caden asks what brought her to Atlanta, and they discuss it in detail while I sip my drink, enjoying the music, and the view.
Normally I prefer scholastic types. Those who live in libraries, have beards and glasses, listen to Pavarotti. Were I to see Caden walking up to me in a park, I would write him off on sight thinking he probably only cares about how many protein shakes he downed that morning, and which superhero flick was most true to the comic strip it sprang from.
And that’s what I did think when we first were introduced.
All of those things are fine if you want to wake up next to a walking, dick-bobbing yawn after a night of hot look-at-that-body sex.
I desire more from a bedmate.
Always have.
Stimulate my mind and watch these legs loosen their grip. Which is why Caden being so damned smart and thoughtful is a huge problem.
Huge.
Mmmm.
He glances over and I blink away, take a sip, but find no drops left. Choking on my oh-so-elegant glass I adjust my weight and hastily empty my hand. The glass topples onto the table. As it rolls,
