Garrett held the hospital room door, allowing Jennifer to leave the room before him. Would she slap him if he pulled her into a supply closet and kissed her until they were both breathless?
She wasn't right for him. But there was something vulnerable in her expression, something that appealed in a way he couldn't resist.
"Have dinner with me," he said the moment her mother's room door closed. He hadn't known he was going to ask, but couldn't take the words back, couldn't even draw in his next breath as he waited for her answer.
Never had he felt such a consuming desire.
Surprise and something more, fear perhaps, shone in her big, brown eyes. She hesitated, then nodded. "I'd like that."
He'd like to find the supply closet.
"Should I pick you up here?" An image of picking her up, literally, flashed through his mind.
More hesitation lit her face. She shook her head.
"Under the circumstance it would be better if you pick me up at my mother's." She prattled off an address.
"What circumstances?"
"You're my mother's doctor. I'm leaving as soon as she's recovered. She'd view our going to dinner as complicated."
Those circumstances.
Asking Jennifer to dinner was a lot more complicated than his being her mother's doctor. There was also the fact that he needed a mother for his boys and she was the least likely candidate for the role. Her mother had talked about Jennifer's long work hours—that she worked seven days a week, weeks on end. He'd been surprised to hear Bridget's daughter had taken off the next month. Surprised as hell.
So why had he just asked Miss Workaholic to dinner when he should be home with his boys? Or trying to find them a mother who could bake cookies and shower them with love?
Logically, he knew he should cancel. Unfortunately, logic had nothing to do with his asking Jennifer to dinner.
"You're right. I'll pick you up at her place."
***
Despite Jennifer's reservations about saying yes, dinner went well. Garrett was a great conversationalist and, in addition to medicine, they shared many likes and dislikes. He even let her eat more than half of his chocolate obsession cake when she refrained from ordering dessert.
"That's good, isn't it?" he asked, smiling at her sigh of pleasure.
"Very." She glanced at his empty plate and winced. "I shouldn't have eaten so much, though. You barely got a bite. Sorry."
His eyes darkened with temptation much sweeter than the chocolate. "I enjoyed watching you enjoy it."
Heat burned her cheeks.
Tension had buzzed between them all evening. Tension that plucked at every cell in her body, strumming the electrons into a frenzied jitter.
Feeling self-conscious, Jennifer picked up her napkin and brushed the starched material across her mouth. "I should get back so I can check on Mother."
"If there had been any changes, the nurse would have contacted me."
Jennifer nodded. He was right. But she needed the excuse to end their date. Needed time to analyze why her body had suddenly recalled that she was a woman since meeting Garrett.
And why that recollection scared her so much.
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