Page 53 of Hello Doctor

Hayes eyed me, seeing way too much. “You okay?”

“Fine,” I mumbled. “How’s the shop?”

He shrugged. “Got a new guy working on tires. He’s eighteen, but he’s strong.”

“That’s what you need for that job,” I said. I remembered working at the shop one summer in high school. It got hotter than hell in that metal building—I think I lost fifteen pounds that summer, and I didn’t have anything to lose. “Please tell me you put a better fan in there. I was too distracted to notice the last time I was there.”

“Got one of the big gym fans from the school.”

“How?” I asked.

He smirked. “I would tell you, but...”

“Then you’d have to kill me?” I teased.

“Then you’d have to hear about my tryst with the athletic director,” he retorted with a smirk.

My jaw dropped. “Sheridan?”

His cheeks and neck flamed red under the tattoos that crawled up from his collar. “Those fans cost like five hundred dollars.”

“Now I know how you price your dignity,” I teased.

He arched an eyebrow, his smirk making his lip ring glint. “She’s flexible.”

“I’m going to puke before I get my food,” I replied, laughing.

Agatha came over, smiling at both of us. “It’s good to see you boys together again. What can I get for you?”

We both ordered, and as soon as she walked away, Hayes said, “So when are we talking about Liv?”

Now it was my turn to flush. “How...” I frowned. “Knox.”

“Tells me everything,” Hayes said. “Including about Saturday. What the hell happened?”

Agatha brought our drinks, and I took the sweating cup of ice water in my hands. “I fucked up. I should have just let it go, but clearly he can read me like a book.”

“He’s a cop. It’s his job to read people.”

“I’m his brother. It’s my job to put his happiness over my own.”

Hayes frowned at me. “He’s your brother too. And it didn’t take a genius to see how you felt about Liv back in high school.”

“That was over ten years ago,” I replied. “A lot’s changed since then.”

“A lot hasn’t.”

I frowned, thinking about Liv. She was older now, but there were a lot of similarities from the past too. She was kind, fun to be around, made everyone feel included.

“Why didn’t you date her back then?” he asked.

I shook my head. “Couldn’t lose my best friend when I didn’t know if it would work out with his sister.”

“And now?”

I smirked sadly at my water, wishing it was something stronger. “Now I’d lose my best friend and my nanny. Maya can’t take losing another woman in her life.”

“So what’s the plan?” he asked. “You keep Liv on as a nanny until Maya’s eleven or twelve? Hope she doesn’t fall for someone else?”

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