Chapter 8

Josie

Standing on Reed’s doorstep, I smooth my sundress down and take three deep breaths. It does nothing to loosen the anxious knot in the center of my chest, and for the tenth time since I walked out of my house, I consider going back to my bathroom and removing the makeup I’d put on.

It’s going to be so obvious that I’m different when he opens the door. I normally will just hang with him in my scrubs and hair in a ponytail, not worrying about what Reed thinks of me.

But tonight is different because he made it different.

Cooking dinner.

For me.

Bah.

Why in the world would he do such a thing, when I know he hates to cook? He and I are pizza-and-beer kind of people. Low mess and no fuss.

Reed definitely made tonight different, which was why I was compelled, for the first time since I started working at Raleigh Memorial, to recruit another doctor to cover my last cases so I could leave right when my shift was over.

I came home, and for the next forty minutes I’d showered, shaved, put on makeup, dried my hair, and put loose barrel curls in it. I put on a freaking dress of all things. It’s not dressy, but totally casual and summery, and it’s definitely obvious that I’m different tonight.

I’m different because Reed’s offer was different, and there’s a very good possibility he’s going to open the door, take one look at me, and determine that I’m nuttier than a fruitcake. Worse yet, he could take one look at me and see the naked, pathetic desire I might have for the possibility of something more than friendship. He’ll see that my dress scoops low and I’m showing cleavage. If he were to get under my dress, he’d find not my normal cotton high-waist panties, but my silk and lace ones.

Damn, but my face heats up and I actually turn away from his door, intent on going home and texting him that I’ve come down with a very contagious virus. I even take one step across the porch, when I’m halted by the sound of Reed’s door opening.

“Josie?” he says hesitantly, and I cringe. A full-body cringe that I’m sure he can see from behind.

I spin back around and level him with a seriously bright but completely fake smile. “Oh, hey. I was getting ready to knock on your door, but then I remembered I left my…um…my…”

My words trail of and Reed cocks his head in question. “Iron on?”

I shake my head. “My purse on the counter.”

“You don’t need it,” he says as he opens the door and motions me in. “We’re not going anywhere.”

I swallow hard as I turn to face him fully. He gives a short, sterile sweep of his eyes down my body and I don’t miss the slight flare of shock in them. It’s the first time he’s seen me in a dress.

Reed doesn’t say anything but just waits expectantly for me to enter. I swallow hard and feel like I’m marching off to the guillotine or something. When I step past Reed, I stumble slightly as I realize he’s wearing cologne. I’ve never smelled it on him before, but oh my God, is it good. Like so good I want to lean toward him and sniff harder.

But I don’t. I march into his living room, surreptitiously wipe my hands on the bottom of my dress, and then come to a dead stop when I see his dining room table. Because his condo, like mine, is an open layout, his dining room table separates the living room and kitchen. It’s laid out with formal candlesticks with long tapered candles in them, and they are glowing. He’s got plates set out formally, and by formal I mean he put little folded paper towels beside them with a fork, knife, and spoon on top. There’s a bottle of wine in the center of the table and two wineglasses half filled with ruby red liquid. Perhaps it’s from seeing the table set so nicely, but I involuntarily inhale to check out the scent in the air I’d vaguely noticed when I came in.

Tomato sauce and cheese.

I turn to look at Reed, who is watching me closely.

“What is this?” I ask softly as I gesture to the table.

He shrugs. “Just thought I’d cook you dinner.”

I noticed he said you and not us.

“You don’t cook,” I reply stupidly.

One corner of Reed’s mouth lifts, then twitches. “How do you know I don’t cook? You’ve only seen me order pizza or meals from a restaurant, but that doesn’t mean I can’t cook.”

“You said you hate to cook,” I remind him.

“Well maybe I make exceptions sometime,” he counters.

I sniff again and realize there is a subtle hint of something that I had missed before. “It smells like something’s burning.”

For a brief moment I can tell that statement doesn’t penetrate Reed’s mind, but then his body jolts as he lunges past me into the kitchen. He utters a string of curses when he opens the oven door and black smoke slithers out. Reed slaps at the temperature controls to turn the oven off and let’s five F-bombs slide out of his mouth as he pulls what looks like a burned lasagna from the oven. My hand slaps to my mouth to cover the snicker that wants to pop out when I notice that the lasagna is actually the frozen kind in a foil pan.

“Goddammit,” Reed sighs as he stares at the charred cheese on top.

“Maybe we can pick the burned stuff off,” I suggest with a little chuckle. “Or we can drink the wine first, get really drunk, and then we wouldn’t notice how it tastes.”

Reed slowly tilts his face to look at me, and I can see he’s not taking my suggestions kindly. He gives me a frustrated look and asks, “How do you feel about frozen pizza?”

I grin back at him. “As long as you let me cook it.”

“I can cook a damn frozen pizza, Josie,” he grumbles.

“I’m really, really hungry, Reed. So let’s not risk it and let me cook the pizza.”

This is all hysterically funny to me, and I’m assuming at some point Reed’s going to start laughing it off. However, he looks more disgruntled than when he realized his lasagna was burning.

I take a step closer to him and ask, “What’s going on here?”

If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe it, but Reed’s face actually flushes and red tinges his cheeks. He shrugs and mumbles, “I just thought I’d make you a nice meal.”

I reach a hand out and lay it on his arm giving him a slow squeeze. “That’s very sweet. But you know I’m a no-fuss kind of girl. Pizza would have been fine.”

Reed’s face is like a blank mask as he stares at me. Most times, I can imagine the wheels turning inside of his head before he even says something. It’s like he’s at a complete loss as to what to say to me now. I don’t understand why he would be struggling with this, because it’s just me. I’m just Josie, his friend.

I can’t tear my eyes from his as I wait for him to start processing something. I’m surely confused, but he doesn’t seem to be…anything. Just staring at me blankly as if he’s waiting for an answer to come to him.

Long moments pass and we enter into the realm of awkwardness. I decide to make light of the matter and possibly drop a really funny joke just to get Reed to snap out of it. I open my mouth, the words perched on the end of my tongue to set things straight, but I’m utterly shocked down to my toes when Reed’s hands fly out to grab me by my shoulders. He pulls me toward him so quickly I let out a squeak of fright, then I actually gasp when his mouth crushes down on mine.

My first thought is that Reed has lost his ever-loving mind.

That slithers away and is immediately replaced with, Oh my God…Reed is kissing me.

Oh good God.

Reed. Is. Kissing. Me.

And it may be the best thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. My hands go to his chest, fingers flexing down into his muscles as Reed’s hands move from my shoulders to my face. He groans when the tip of his tongue touches mine, moving his body closer to mine.

My head spins, the world dips, and I start to drift away to a place where nothing exists except for Reed’s kiss.

My friend’s kiss.

Friend.

Reed is my friend.

I tear my mouth free of his and take a step back, my chest heaving with a distinct lack of oxygen, which he seems to have sucked from my lungs. Reed’s eyes are fevered looking, his expression determined. He’s clearly not feeling anything but in the moment, whereas I have gone all worried, neurotic woman on him.

“What are we doing?” I say in between panting breaths. My fingers curl and flex into my palms, itching to pull him back to me.

“I was kissing the fuck out of you,” he mutters, and takes a step toward me. “Going to do it again once you get this out of your system.”

“Get what out of my system?” I ask, completely miffed at him for downplaying my right to be concerned about this.

“Whatever worries you’ve got going through that pretty head of yours,” he replies smoothly.

“We’re friends,” I blurt out.

“Yup,” he says matter-of-factly, palms still cupping my face as he peers down at me. “And I’m no expert, but I feel like that made the kiss better, right?”

“Um…right.”

Reed grins at me, his eyes shining with amusement and something else I can’t quite put my finger on. But then I don’t see him anymore because my eyes close involuntarily when he kisses me again.

And I start to slip away again. Overwhelmed with such intense feeling that he’s provoking, I’d happily stay lost. There have been countless times I’d imagined this. At first, I felt bad about lusting after a friend, but then I realized it was inevitable. Reed can’t continue to be such a good guy, coupled with his gorgeous face and body, for it not to happen.

I just never thought it could ever be real, because I am not his type.

Or am I?

The kiss sure seems to be an indication that we’re suited in one way.

The pressure of Reed’s mouth lessens and he pulls back enough to mumble against me, “Okay…let’s slow this down and figure out what we’re going to do for dinner.”

This pulls me right back to reality, and without thinking, I grab Reed’s belt and try to jerk him closer to me as I press my mouth back to his. He jerks in surprise, because who would have thought little Josie Ives would be so bold, but then he’s kissing me hard again.

For a long, glorious moment he kisses the daylights out of me, and only one stupid thought goes through my head.

Thank God I put on sexy underwear.

“Okay,” Reed blurts out as he gently pushes me back in a sudden move that has me blinking. “We definitely need to slow this down or I can’t be responsible for what happens to you.”

I continue to blink at him, my lips tingling and my legs shaking. He stares back at me thoughtfully, his hands still on my face, thumbs skimming my cheekbones.

Finally I manage to take a shaky breath, and when I let it out I say, “I don’t understand. Why do you want to slow it down?”

Reed’s eyes soften and his smile is so sweet it almost makes my heart break. “Because I like you, Josie, and you’re not a notch in my bedpost.”

I give a hard shake of my head. “But I wouldn’t be.”

“I respect you too much to try to push this fast,” he counters firmly. Like he’s given this a lot of thought.

“I don’t even know what this is,” I tell him softly. “But if I may be so bold as to say, I don’t want to slow it down.”

Now Reed is the one blinking in surprise. I can tell by the look on his face he never once thought that I might be as attracted to him in this way as he clearly is to me. I see the realization in his face that a slow seduction might not be needed, because I might actually want something more than a buddy-type friendship with him.

“Are you sure about this, Doc?” he asks, reverting back to his friendly nickname for me, perhaps as a reminder to me that we were friends first, and that is exactly what’s at stake here.

I lift an eyebrow and give a teasing little tug on his belt. “You started this, Reed. You can’t take that kiss back, and I don’t want to wait anymore to see what comes after it. I’m a big girl.”

“I know that,” he says dryly, but his smile is endearing to me. “I just want you to know that you’re not like my Barbie squad. I’ll take it slow if you want.”

There’s only a moment for me to study him…memorize that look on his face, which is a cross between unfettered hope that we’ll be naked very soon, and a sincere promise that this is indeed different for him.

My lips curl up at the corners and I whisper to him, “I don’t believe I’ve ever seen your master bedroom before. Heard the headboard banging, but never seen it. Why don’t you show me?”

Reed’s smile back to me is blinding and I know I made the right choice.