Page 97 of After You

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Kyle couldn’t believethat he hadn’t seen Hannah since he’d dropped her at Alice’s Saturday afternoon. They’d exchanged a few texts and he’d talked to her on the phone Saturday night, but after he’d convinced Butch to head to the river with him—predictably winning the older man over with a few innuendos about what had made Kyle lose track of time—he’d been called to the hospital in York because nine-year-old Jake Harper had been taken in for an emergency appendectomy, and Kyle needed to check onhim.

He’d wanted Hannah to come to his room at Ty’s when he got back, but she’d told him her neck was still bothering her and had turned into a bad headache, and that she and Alice were settled in with a movie. He would have felt comfortable going over and joining them, but he realized that Hannah needed time with her family too. He offered to write her a prescription for something, but she said she had what she needed. So he’d headed to Ty’s alone. Which was fine. Kind of. He was beat. The girl had kept him up most of the night.

He’d gone to bed with hot memories of the night with Hannah playing on a reel like an erotic movie.

He’d headed to her dad’s place on Sunday, unable to keep from washing the windows as promised, but he hadn’t run into her there, and he hadn’t even finished the job before he’d been called to put some stitches into Cody Bracken’s forehead. Once Cody was bandaged up, Del Cotton had called to ask if Kyle would stop by and check on his wife’s complaints of lung congestion.

And for the first time in all the time he’d been the physician in his beloved hometown, Kyle wanted everyone to just leave him alone.

He wanted to be with Hannah. And not do a damned thing except kiss her from head totoe.

So when Derek reminded him that Kyle had promised to help Derek remove a tree stump from Harold Kitchner’s front yard, Kyle almost lost hiscool.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Derek asked as he tossed pieces of wood into the back of his truck.

“Nothing. Let’s just get thisdone.”

“I thought after you got laid, you’d be all mellow and chill,” Dereksaid.

Kyle pushed the plastic goggles he was wearing to the top of his head. “How do you know I gotlaid?”

“Um, you and Hannah disappeared together overnight and I was only allowed to call her cell and no one else seemed to know where you were? If you didn’t get laid, you’re really doing something wrong.”

“Maybe we talked all night.”

Derek laughed. “Yep, doing something wrong.”

“Talking isgood.”

“Yep. So is kissing and fucking. As long as you’re doing some of all of those, you’reokay.”

Derek was his best friend, and knew everything there was to know about Kyle and Hannah. Well, almost everything. He didn’t know about Hannah’s neck. Or even her accident. Kyle had never shared that with his friend. Again, Hannah had told him she was fine and, in part because he wanted to believe her and in part because he needed to believe her, since he’d been up to his eyeballs in his residency and hadn’t had time for anything else, he’d taken her at herword.

Kyle suddenly stopped with a huge chunk of wood in one hand and a chainsaw in the other. He’d needed to believe she was okay because he’d been up to his eyeballs in other responsibilities. And he’d been so used to her being okay. Being strong. Being at hisside.

He hadn’t questioned if she was really okay because he didn’t have time for it if the answer wasno.

“You okay?” Derek asked, realizing suddenly that Kyle had stopped moving.

“I just…Hannah and I…” He looked up at his friend. “I’m in love withher.”

Derek tossed the piece of wood he was holding into the truck and clapped his gloved hands together. “Yeah, man, Iknow.”

“And I’ve let herdown.”

Derek frowned. “How?”

“I didn’t go afterher.”

“You couldn’thave.”

“I should have anyway.”

Derek turned toward him fully. He took a deep breath. “Yeah, you shouldhave.”

Kyle stared at him. “What?”

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