Page 41 of Doctorshipped
“It’s okay.” I tell her, wishing my smiles of comfort came as freely and easily as hers seem to.
“No. It’s not. Loneliness isn’t a joke.” All the laughter has left her. In its place is a look of concern and compassion. “Are you? Lonely, I mean?”
I’m considering my answer to her intrusive question. I want to tell her. For some unknown reason, she makes me want to confess so many things I never share.
Fiona walks in and spares me the mistake.
“What’s so funny in here?”
“I told Jayme our last name.”
Fiona giggles. “Funny, right?”
Jayme smiles, but her eyes still catch mine with a look of apology and curiosity.
“It is. I teased your dad a bit too much just now about it.”
“There’s no such thing as teasing my dad too much,” Fiona says, unhelpfully. “He needs it. Plus it’s like he’s a walking target.”
“Am not,” I grouse.
The two of them exchange a knowing look.
Before Jayme stands to follow Fiona out the door, she turns to me and mouths, “Sorry.”
In a low voice I assure her, “No apology necessary.”
* * *
Fiona bounces restlesslybeside me in the passenger seat as I navigate the old paved roads leading out of town toward the farms and ranch land on the outskirts of Bordeaux.
“How did I let you and Hazel talk me into this?”
“And Miss Jayme. She helped.”
She did help. But I’m not admitting that. All her pleas about Fiona needing to meet kids before school starts in three days got to me. Plus, she used some sort of pixie, puppy dog, baby bunny voodoo on me. I shouldn’t look into her eyes. That’s a new rule I’ll live by. As soon as she looks at me with that softness, something in me unnaturally shifts and I’m not the man I need to be. It’s inconvenient and disarming—just like Jayme.
“I’m so excited, Daddy! I’ve never been to a real bonfire.”
“You need to be safe. Don’t run near the fire. Be aware of the fire at all times.”
She rolls her eyes at me. Of course she does.
“I’m not two. I know how to be safe around fire. I bet Brooks will be there anyway. He’d save me if I needed it. He’s a real fireman, you know. And he’s so handsome. I think Brooks and Miss Jayme would make a really cute couple. Don’t you think so?”
“I don’t think so. I don’t speculate about other people’s relationships. But, no. They definitely would not.”
I turn down a road that supposedly leads to Aiden’s farm. A goat farm of all things. I hope it doesn’t smell. Why would a grown man voluntarily raise goats?
“Daddy. Think about it. Miss Jayme and Brooks are about the same age. They are both single. They’re both really sweet. I think they could be a great couple.”
“Well, they wouldn’t.”
Fiona looks at me with a mixture of exasperation and questioning. “Why not?”
“For one thing, people who are too alike shouldn’t be together. Haven’t you ever heard the saying opposites attract?”
“Yes. We studied it in science. Like magnets. You can’t put a north with a north. They push away. You have to put a north with a south.”
