ELIZABETH

Snorting, Gwendolyn covers her mouth.

A grin flashes across Caden. “My mistake. Because I doubt that you are.”

My jaw drops.

He tries to backtrack, not realizing that I’m just surprised he was that quick. “Sorry, Dr. Myers. I forgot who I was talking to.”

“So you’re saying you normally talk to women like that. God help them all.” I take a sip and turn away from him.

Gwendolyn smirks, “So tell me, what is your specialty? And try your best not to make it a sexual innuendo this time.”

Chuckling, Caden leans on our table like he’s happy he didn’t get dismissed. “My specialty I’m still deciding on. I was just discussing this with Dr. Myers yesterday. I’m leaning toward heart surgery. Brain is too much for me. Too many things I could screw up.”

I lock eyes with him, tilt my head, and realize he’s kidding. I would’ve been surprised if Caden thought himself not up to any task.

“Why do you feel the heart is your best avenue?” Gwendolyn persists, adding an amused, “I have a feeling you’re not the romantic type.”

“You underestimate me,” he smirks. “But I don’t consider surgery romantic. It’s a game. You enter like an athlete, having trained for that moment, but there is always a risk that it won’t go as planned. That’s what’s so appealing about it.”

She lifts the sugar-coated rim close to her lips. “Sounds like dating.”

He chuckles, joking, “Oh totally, they’re exactly the same,” while glancing over his shoulder as the ginger approaches us. “This is my brother, Hunter.”

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, Caden grabs it before it dives over the side.

Meeting my eyes, his are dancing. “I think you’ve had enough, Dr. Myers.”

Gwendolyn gasps, “Liz, are you blushing?!”

“No!” Lifting my arms I explain, “It’s hot in here.”

Caden glances down and I lower them, realizing I did not shave my armpits.

My blush turns purple, cracking Gwendolyn up as she covers her mouth and cries out, “Liz, oh no!”

Caden clucks his tongue and sighs, “Well well well. A crack in perfection’s veneer.”

“I’ve been very busy!”

Dipping down to my crossed legs, Caden swipes his finger slowly up my right calf. “Smooth here.”

Goosebumps sing along the path.

He rises, eyes widening, and it’s his turn to burn red in the face. “Shit, I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to do that. I was, uh…”

Nervous laughter breaks free as I reassure him, “It’s fine. I was just acting shocked to regain my dignity and throw the focus back on you.”

His embarrassment shifts to stillness. Caden and I stare at each other for a couple of hot seconds. We simultaneously look to the ground, shift our weight.

“I’ll get you another round.”

Gwen and I watch him walk away before we turn to lean over the table because this needs to be discussed immediately!

“That wasn’t just me?”

“Oh no, not just you. He stared at you like…”

“Yes!”

“I was expecting him to grab you, Liz, and shove his tongue down your throat!”

I laugh from behind my hand, glancing to the bar a second before telling her, “Don’t sugar coat it.”

“There was nothing sweet about that look—it was lust!” Leaning back, she purses her lips. “I remember when David looked at me like that.”

“Oh? When was that?”

“Tuesday.”

We crack up, my excited curiosity drifting toward the bar once more to linger on Caden talking with Eddie. He pulls out his phone suddenly, frowns at it. Hunter approaches him and they huddle up. With quick strides out the exit Caden takes my smile with him.

Gwen grumbles, “Now, what was that about?”

Our server, Doug, approaches with our new drinks. We are all ears as he disappoints us with zero information about why these frosty cocktails are delivered from his hands. “Here you go, ladies. And here’s your credit card. Your tab was paid for.” He pauses. “Unless you want another round later?”

“Yes.” As he disappears with it, Gwen sighs, “Damn,” and lifts her drink. “I really hoped that was going to end differently.”

Something in her tone tilts my head. “What do you mean?”

Licking the excess sugar from her lips she feigns innocence, but not very well. “Nothing.”

“Gwendolyn!” I slap my drink down, splashing my hand. “Damn!”

While I clean myself like a cat, she confesses on a shrug, “I told him you and I would be coming here in a way that might have implied he should be getting his ass in gear, too.”

“I can’t believe you did that!”

“Nobody has to know. You could take that flirtation all sorts of fabulous places. That’s why I did it! I had a feeling you liked him. And I saw him spying on us in the observation room.”

Wryly I remind her since she knows what life in a hospital is like, “As if we could hide something like that from everyone.”

“Don’t underestimate yourself, Liz. You’re very good at disguising your feelings. Except when you’re a klutz and try to act graceful.”

“Except when he’s around, you mean!”

“So get better at it! Force your best poker face!” She holds her drink up. “To more blushing cheeks from Elizabeth Myers.”

“I’m not toasting that!”

“To seeing what he looks like without clothes.”

I pause, considering it, then shake it off. “Totally inappropriate.”

“To blowing him!”

Laughing, I clink my glass to hers. “To shutting you up, and only to shutting you up.”

“Suit yourself.” Her eyes twinkle as she scrutinizes me while sipping her drink. “See, you can hide how you really feel, quite well.”

My face is devoid of expression as I hold Gwen’s gaze, lower my glass, and insist without hurry, “There’s nothing to hide.”

“That’s it.” She wags her index finger at me. “Keep doing that, and nobody will know.”

Rolling my eyes on a smile I glance toward the crowd, trying my damndest not to think she might be onto something.