Page 48 of After You

He didn’t know why he was feeling surly, but he was. Maybe it was his best friend being annoyingly in love. Maybe it was his little sister being back in town and not acting even slightly remorseful about the things that had gone down in California. And not wanting Kyle’s advice or help. But he knew it wasn’t either of those things, really. Not that they were helping his mood, but his surliness definitely came from Hannah. Or more specifically, not seeing Hannah for the past four days. Which was idiotic. He hadn’t seen Hannah for the past three years, and he’d managed to be happy and go through his life like a normal, patient, friendly guy. Just a few days ago he’d been determined to simply avoid her as much as possible while she was in town. Now he was crabby because he hadn’t seenher?

“I just wanted to be sure that my friend who’s a bartender is actually making cappuccinos and then sprinkling shit on top,” Scott said, picking the cup up and taking a sip. “Not bad,” he said after he’d swallowed.

Kyle picked up his cup of black coffee. “Spoken by the guy who uses flavored creamer,” he muttered. Scott’s penchant for vanilla creamer was funny. Usually. Tonight, even that annoyedhim.

Scott laughed and looked at Derek. “Maybe Doc here needs something stronger than coffee.”

“Bar’s closed,” Derek said. “Coffee, tea, cappuccino, soda, water.”

“Yeah, what exactly is going on here?” Scott asked, swiveling to take in the room again. “Frank and Conrad are out kind of late, aren’tthey?”

“They’re here getting advice from Hannah,” Derek said with that stupid grin that made Kyle want to deckhim.

Kyle focused on his coffee. The two older guys had come in because of Hannah? Well, so what? And so what if, apparently, after Kyle had left the diner the other day, feeling cocky and sure that he was going to get his way on everything, she’d told the guys more about her massage therapy and acupuncture practice and had given them her cell number? And so what if Frank and Conrad had decided that they wanted to have a pretty girl stick needles inthem?

Oh yeah, he’d heard all about it. From the other guys who had been there, from Dottie, from Vi, from some of the people that all of those people had told. The person he hadn’t heard it from was Hannah. Which was the most annoying ofall.

“What’s up with that?” Scott asked Derek.

“They came in because they heard Hannah’s been in here the past couple of nights. They wanted to ask her some questions but didn’t want Dr. Ames to findout.”

Hannah had been in here the past couple of nights? Kyle gritted his teeth. It was amazing the things that Derek did and didn’t listen to. But Kyle wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of reacting to the news that Derek had kept that information fromhim.

Scott looked at Kyle again. “And yet, Dr. Ames is righthere.”

“Yep,” Derek said. “Here he is. Weird, when he has rounds at the hospital bright and early in,” Derek glanced at the clock on the wall, “a little over six hours fromnow.”

Scott turned toward Kyle and rested his elbow on the bar. “Yeah, that is weird.”

Kyle drank more coffee. He was going to need it tomorrow. And it kept him from giving anything away in his expression.

“But I guess if someone’s in town trying to take some of your business away, you’d probably want to keep tabs,” Dereksaid.

“Hannah’s trying to take some of Kyle’s business?” Scott asked.

She wasn’t trying to take his business. She’d have to freaking stay here to actually do anything for anyone long-term anyway. And he wasn’t annoyed by her giving the guys advice or by the guys letting their curiosity convince them to give something new a try. He was annoyed because she wasn’t giving them physical therapy advice.

He couldn’t dictate what kind of advice she gave people, of course. He did believe there was a place for massage therapy in pain management, but he wasn’t as gung ho about someone sticking needles into his patients. Still, that was their choice. And he trusted that Hannah was as good at that as she always had been at everything else. Which was interesting—he trustedher.

Still, the whole not-physical-therapy thing did annoy him. A lot. Yes, massage and acupuncture were probably good adjunct treatments to physical therapy. Yes, the guys had both tried physical therapy and could do that anytime. Acupuncture was a little less common around here and was something new to try. It wasn’t going to hurt them and it wasn’t going to hurt Kyle’s business.

It still buggedhim.

Because Hannah was supposed to be a physical therapist. Next door to him during the day. And next to him in bed at night.

But she’d chosen another city, another lifestyle and, apparently, another profession. Pretty much rejecting everything she’d always planned withhim.

Yeah, it bugged him. To put it mildly.

“Well, it didn’t really start out that way,” Derek said, leaning on the bar with both forearms. “It’s actually kind of a funny story.”

“It’s really not that funny,” Kylesaid.

“Well, it’s probably in how the story is told,” Dereksaid.

“He has a point,” Scott agreed.

“It was Kyle’s idea that they talk to her,” Dereksaid.

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