Page 34 of Doc Hollywood

“Which movie was the last one you had chips before?” she prompted. Unable to control her smile, when she saw Sadie sway toward Taylor a little and immediately stop herself, pulling her phone out of her handbag and bringing up a photo of her husband, who Clara thought was very handsome in his own right. With his dark brown hair and warm chocolate eyes that always held a twinkle of mischief. They had two beautiful kids who looked like the perfect mix of their parents.

Taylor finished his chip and opened his eyes. “Superman. As you can imagine, the suit left nothing to the imagination.”

“And they kept making you take your shirt off,” Clara blurted before she could stop herself.

Her hands flew to her mouth in embarrassment, and Sadie made a strangled sound as she tried to suppress her giggle.

But Taylor only guffawed with laughter again, agreeing, “Yup, they did. And the suit clung in all the right and wrong places. I was put on a very, very strict diet, which, in the last few days, I have obliterated thanks to you.”

Clara held her hands up, exclaiming, “What did I do?”

“Yeah, what did she do?” Sadie echoed, her eyes sparkling with happiness as she watched her best friend and the actor flirt.

“Since I met you. I’ve consumed several bacon sandwiches, a lot of toast, noodles, Thai food and ice cream. Basically, carbohydrates and sugar. My trainer and nutritionist would have total fits,” he chuckled, then reached out and grabbed another chip, popping it into his mouth and chewing happily.

“Okay. Fair point. Maybe you should stop eating my chips.” Clara glared as Taylor grabbed another one and ate it.

“I will. Actually, I’m going to go and order my own. And a pint of beer. Because stuff them,” he declared triumphantly.

This time, it was Clara’s turn to snort with laughter. “And they won’t make you take your clothes off in a movie where you play an anaesthetist.” She chuckled until she saw his eyebrows raise. “How are they going to manage to make you undress?” Clara’s mouth again worked quicker than her brain. And she cursed at herself for letting that slip out, especially when Sadie’s eyebrows wiggled.

“There’s a sex scene. So they’ll be making me strip.” Taylor clammed up, and Clara realised that the word sex had made a couple of the other doctors lean closer and try to tune into their conversation.

“Right, so you want a burger and chips. And what do you want to drink?” Clara got to her feet, addressing the rest of the table. “I’m going to the bar. Does anyone need a top-up?”

A couple of the men waved their pint glasses at her, but most declined. They weren’t big drinkers, as most of them had to be at work the next day.

“I’ll go,” Taylor said, catching her arm as she went to leave.

“No. It’s all good; they bought me a drink earlier, so I owe them,” Clara said breathily.

She knew she should pull her arm away from him, that her standing there with his hand on her was giving Sadie even more ammunition for teasing, however she couldn’t bring herself to step out of his warm grip.

“I’ll come and order my food then,” Taylor said.

Much to her disappointment, Taylor let go of her arm and stood up, towering over her as he gestured for her to lead the way.

“You don’t need to. I can get you a burger,” she insisted as they weaved between the tables.

It didn’t escape her notice that a lot of eyes followed Taylor, female and male.

“I promised to buy you dinner to thank you for allowing me to follow you all week. I’m not making you get food for me,” he insisted, shaking his head and taking up position next to her at the bar.

“I told you it’s fine, and you brought food over last night. That counts as dinner,” Clara replied as she leaned over the bar, trying to make eye contact with the pretty young blonde bartender who seemed more interested in flirting with the men at the other end of the bar than coming to serve them.

“What’s the pub quiz on?” Taylor pulled her attention back to him.

“Absolutely no idea. It changes every week. Last week, it was Disney. And I have to say, we were woeful! We came last by a longggggg way.”

“You’re a bunch of smart people. How could you have done that badly?” Taylor didn’t sound convinced.

“Oh, trust me. It was awful. It turns out a bunch of doctors don’t have that much free time to watch the back catalogue of Disney movies. Anyway, the quiz master, Ron, announces the topic just before they start. I think it’s so you’ve already paid to do the quiz and can’t bail when you realise that you’re going tolose!” Clara tried again to make eye contact with the bartender, who still ignored her.

She elbowed Taylor and gestured along the bar.

He frowned at her, “What?”

“Can you get her attention?” Clara requested, pointing down the bar. “The quiz starts in five minutes, and it would be nice not to still be standing here when that happens.”

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