Page 20 of The Devil You Know
“I hope you don’t mind if I join you,” Ryan says.
Lisa settles back into her seat, mouthing something possibly obscene in my direction. “Of course not.”
Lisa is staring at Ryan so blatantly that it’s embarrassing. He’s everything she likes in the opposite sex. She might even like him better than Hugh Jackman. It takes her approximately thirty seconds to ask the dreaded question: “So how do you two know each other?”
I don’t even have a chance to give my innocent answer before Ryan says, “We used to hook up.”
Lisa’s mouth falls open.
“A long time ago,” I quickly add.
“Before she was with Pip,” Ryan says.
I glare at him. “Ben.”
“Oh yeah.” He grins at me. “Of course, there may have been some intersection between us.”
“There wasnointersection,” I say.
There was alittleintersection. Ben doesn’t know about that. Ryan probably knew but didn’t care. The thing was, I wasalwayswith Ryan when I was a resident. We both saw other people, him definitely way,waymore than me, but we kept ending up together. I have no idea why. I think part of it was the fact that I knew something about him that nobody else knew. I’m sure none of the other girls he hooked up with knew his secret.
“Jane broke my heart.” Ryan clutches his chest dramatically. “I was never the same after she dumped me.”
I roll my eyes. “That would have been a good thing.”
“That’s for sure,” he agrees.
Ryan reaches into the pocket of his green scrubs and pulls out his buzzing phone. He takes the call, which is clearly work-related. I try not to ogle the hard muscles in his arm that I can see peeking out below the sleeve of his shirt. When does he find time to work out?
Oh yeah, he doesn’t have a preschooler at home.
“Well,” he says as he rises to his feet, “it’s been a pleasure, ladies, but duty calls.”
Lisa’s face falls. “You’re leaving?Already?”
In the entire time I knew Ryan, I never saw him get through an entire meal without getting paged away. Some things never change. Also, he’s still crazy hot. That didn’t change either.
“I’m sure I’ll see you both around in the near future,” he assures Lisa. “Nice meeting you, Lisa. See you later,Jane.”
I don’t like the way he said my name. Actually, I do like the way he said my name. Too much. That’s the problem.
Lisa keeps staring at Ryan as he leaves our table. Her eyes never leave him until he’s exited the cafeteria’s big red swinging doors. She’s nearly salivating. It’s disgusting.
“Holy crap,” she breathes. “He’s so hot.”
“He sure thinks he is,” I mutter.
“Well, he’s right then.” Lisa shakes her head. “I think he’s going on my list. Right between Hugh Jackman and Chris Evans.”
I roll my eyes. “He’s not a celebrity though. I thought the whole point of having a list of people that you could cheat with is that they’re essentially unattainable.”
She shrugs. “Well, he’s basically unattainable. I mean,lookat him.”
“Yeah, notsounattainable.”
Lisa regards me curiously. “You reallydatedDr. Hottie McHotterson, Jane?”
I frown at her. “Is that really so hard to believe?”
