One Moment Please (Wait With Me #3)(21)

Speak of the devil, Kate’s boyfriend, Miles, comes waltzing in. He’s crazy tall with black hair and the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen on a person that tan. He’s a freaking dreamboat. And he is completely smitten with his redheaded tire shop waiting room smut writer.

Miles tips his head politely to me before leaning down and caging Kate in as he presses his lips to hers. The kiss lingers for a moment, and I can’t look away. He pulls back and stares at her from an inch away, and the two of them seem so in love, it gives me butterflies just watching them.

He finally breaks his trance on her and looks at me. “What’s up, Lynsey?”

“Not much, Miles. How about you?”

“Working away.” He props up his elbows on the table and smiles his white-toothed smile at me. “Trying to get this one to take a break from writing occasionally.”

“Good luck. When she’s in the groove, she’s in the groove.”

“You got that right.” Miles gives her a proud smile. “But she’s almost done, and I’ve been telling her we should host a celebratory party at the house. I can line the whole thing up. I’m a great party planner.”

“Someone say party?” Another male voice cuts into our conversation. Sam scratches his ginger beard as he strides toward us.

“Yes!” I bounce up and down. “Miles is going to host Kate’s next The End party so we can get drunk like the good old days. I know you’re the boss around here, but since you’re also Miles’s best friend, you can give him some time off to throw a party, right?”

“Obviously.” Sam sidles up next to Miles. “But I seem to remember Miles and Kate disappearing at her last The End party, so who are they really throwing the party for?”

“Good point.” I giggle with that recollection. “Party sex is so tacky.”

“Shut up!” Kate barks, whacking my shoulder playfully while blinking sexy doe eyes at Miles.

I interrupt their little eye-fucking session. “Kate, you just focus on finishing and give us a date when you’re ready.”

“Sounds good,” Kate replies with a smile.

I smile too because for the first time in the past few weeks, my mood has been lifted. I might not have a career or a home, but I have a Tinder date and an epic party in my near future. Things could be a lot worse.





“Incoming, Dr. Richardson!” a nurse yells as she rushes by.

“One moment please,” I snap at Sheila who’s been riding my ass all fucking night. I close my eyes and purse my lips before turning to face her. “Sorry, Sheila. That frustration wasn’t meant for you.”

“No worries, Doc,” she says with a smile. “The ER’s been a shitshow tonight, so I get it.”

Not the most professional way to put it, but the truth nonetheless.

I finish inputting discharge information for my recent patient—a college football player who came in and needed two stitches to the head. He cried incessantly the entire time, and we had to drug him just so he’d calm the fuck down. I’ve had children with broken limbs come into the ER with a higher pain tolerance than this guy. But it’s time to move onto the next patient.

I close out the chart and stand, straightening the stethoscope around my neck and inspecting my scrubs for any signs of blood. On a typical night in the ER, I’ll have to change at least three times. But to think about needing to change for a guy who only needed two stitches would annoy the fuck out of me. The last time I had to change for a stupid reason didn’t involve any blood whatsoever.

It was pie.

I shake my head as memories of Lynsey flood back. God, that chick was crazy. Lurking in a hospital cafeteria. Saying ridiculous things that made no sense. Begging me to spank her. Definitely not a typical day.

However, I will say, the past few months have been kind of dull without her lurking in the cafeteria like a weirdo. I hadn’t realized how much of her daily presence occupied my thoughts until she was gone. And gone she definitely was.

The morning after we slept together, I had a six a.m. shift at the ER. I planned on giving her a ride home before I left, maybe even getting her number because—crazy or not—the sex was the best I’d ever had. I wanted to see if she’d be interested in something casual, but she ran out before I even had the chance to talk to her about it.

My mother had plenty of things to say, though, when she called me that morning demanding to know about the strange woman who answered my phone. I didn’t have a good answer for her because, frankly, it’s unlike me to sleep with strange women, especially since moving back to Boulder.

But something about watching Lynsey all those weeks in the cafeteria drew me to her. It was as if I knew her without ever speaking to her. And now that I know her intimately, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about her since.

However, the left side of my brain knows not to pursue her. Lynsey and I are opposites. She wants a career of working with children while I do what I can to stay far away from them.

An ache thumps in my chest because if I’d have met Lynsey four years ago, things between us could be so different. I was a better man back then. Lighter. Less troubled. And once upon a time, I did like kids. In fact, I loved them. I had to because I’d dedicated my career to them.

But things change.

Life happens.