Page 67 of Hello Doctor

I ate my food, which was so delicious I half wondered if I should start making Fletcher cook breakfast every day. When I finished and went out to the living room, they had the space looking so cozy with blankets andThe Parent Trapready to play on the television. Maya curled up on the floor in her little burrito blanket with Graham sitting next to her, and Fletcher gestured at the couch, long enough for me to lie down on while he sat on the other side.

“You get situated, and I’ll grab an extension cord for your heating pad.”

Tears pricked at my eyes, but I blinked them back, not wanting them to think of me as an emotional mess. So I just lay down, and he was so sweet, getting the cord from the garage and laying the heating pad under me.

Then he pressed play on the movie and went to the end of the couch where my feet were resting. “Lift your feet up?”

I did, moving my feet back so he could have room to sit, but then he reached for them, setting them on his lap.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Giving you a foot rub,” he said, like I was the crazy one.

“Did they teach you that in med school?” I teased.

He shook his head, taking a foot in his hands. “This one comes naturally.”

I leaned my head back, the massage feeling so freaking good. “I think you wasted money on student loans,” I told him over the opening credits.

“Is that so?”

I nodded, with my eyes closed. “You missed your calling as a masseuse.”

“Shhh,” Maya said. “Graham hasn’t seen this yet.”

Fletcher and I shared a smile. And as the movie played, I was finally able to sleep.

33

Fletcher

The last few days with Liv had been... different. After her symptoms improved, we were friendlier with each other. More comfortable. There was an ease that hadn’t been there before, and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me feel invincible. Like I could do anything with this woman at my side.

When I got out of work Wednesday evening, Liv and Maya were already parked in the small lot out front, waiting to take me to the Griffens’ Wednesday night dinner. Liv had insisted I come along, despite the awkwardness between Rhett and me that I couldn’t explain to her. It was one thing, seeing him at the grocery store and another still for him to see Liv and me together. But we’d have to deal with it one way or another.

As I walked down the front steps, I could hear the music spilling from the open truck windows. Through the windshield, I watched the girls holding their fists to each other’s mouths, shouting at the top of their lungs to Shania Twain.

Deb’s words echoed in my mind.Find what fills your soul.

This was it.

Liv caught sight of me first and turned her microphone to me like she wanted me to sing.

And it was Shania Twain, after all. How could I not?

I belted out the lines as I walked to the car, and Maya covered her face.

“What?” I asked as I got in the front seat while Maya crawled to the back with Graham and Liv turned down the music. “It’s cool when Liv does it and embarrassing when I do?”

“Livvy’s cool,” Maya said with a roll of her eyes. Eight going on eighteen.

“And me?” I retorted, buckling in. “Iinventedthe word cool.”

“You’re a doctor, not an inventor,” Liv teased.

“Hey, who’s side are you on?”

“The one who calls me cool.Obviously.” She grinned at me before glancing over her shoulder to back out.

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