Page 30 of Just One Kiss

“Maybe. If you were reliable. But you aren’t, and we both know it. So just do me a favor and don’t make this whole situation worse, okay?”

He didn’t respond, but she could see she’d wounded him.

And as she walked away from him, she told herself not to feel badly about that at all.

9

It turned out having Josh in town wasn’t entirely disastrous. Over the next several days, she was able to keep working because he’d volunteered to hang out with Jaden.

Carly might be taking things a little too far, but she didn’t want her son to be alone—not until they had concrete answers as to what had caused the fainting in the first place.

“You’re treating me like I’m a baby,” he’d told her.

Carly shrugged her response and plastered a look on her face that clearly communicated two words:Too bad.

So far, Josh had shown up when he said he would.

Carly was cautiously hopeful he would at least get that right.

On Friday, she sat in the cafeteria with Justine and Sasha, eating a salad and drinking a Diet Coke, when their conversation was interrupted by Dr. David Willette, who appeared beside their table as if out of thin air. She’d seen him a few times around the hospital, but never in the cafeteria and never in such close proximity.

All three of the nurses looked up, but he was focused on Carly.

“Dr Willette,” she said.

He smiled. “I saw you sitting over here and thought I’d come say hello.”

“That was nice of you,” Carly said.

Justine nudged her with her knee, and Carly could practically hear the teasing she’d have to endure later. The faintest hint at romantic interest would have them giggling like schoolgirls the rest of the day.

Plus, she’d made the mistake of commenting (out loud) that she wasn’t looking forward to tackling the wedding activities on her own. Carly had grown comfortable in her independence, but if she was honest, she was lonely.

How did she reconcile the two?

“Could I talk to you for a moment?” Dr. Willette asked.

Carly glanced at Justine and Sasha, who wore matching raised eyebrows and sheepish little grins. She wanted to set them straight. Dr. Willette was her son’sdoctor.Not someone for them to ogle.

She stood. “Of course.”

He walked toward the windows that faced the hospital courtyard.

“Probably something about Jaden,” she said to her friends.

“Uh-huh,” Justine said knowingly.

Carly rolled her eyes and walked toward the doctor, who greeted her with the same kind smile he’d given her the other day.

Her heart sputtered. What if he had something to tell her about her son? What if it was bad news?

“Is this about Jaden’s tests?”

“Oh, no, nothing like that,” he said. “Sorry, I should’ve led with that.”

She agreed but didn’t say so.

He wore navy blue scrubs and a white coat, and Carly took a moment to look at him. He was handsome in a sort of understated way. Clean, well-groomed, well-spoken—these things went a long way.

---