Page 16 of Deck the Fire Halls

“No,” I replied. Then I remembered him saying he was hungry. “Should we dish it up?”

He gave a nod. “We should.”

My stomach felt all jittery, which was ridiculous. But damn, he was so freaking sexy and there was definite interest on his behalf.

The way his eyes caught mine, or the way his tongue would leave a wet stripe across his pink bottom lip.

He was flirting with me, and I liked it. It felt good.

It was the first time I’d felt anything in so long.

We took our plates and glasses of wine to the table and sat down. “You got yourself a nice place,” he said, though I got the feeling he was just being polite.

I looked around my small living room, at the furniture from my expensive high-rise apartment that now looked out of place in a quaint small-town bungalow. “I, uh, I never spent much time at home, to be honest.”

“Working?”

“All the time.”

Soren took a mouthful of food and chewed thoughtfully. “Get the feeling there’s a story there.”

I laughed, though it wasn’t really funny. “There is. Short version is that I burned myself out. Was about to quit medicine and a friend convinced me to come here instead. Take a step back and regroup, get back to basics with a general practice. Then if I still didn’t love it, I’d have my answer.”

Soren’s eyes met mine and he gave a nod. “Sounds like a very smart friend.”

“She is.”

He nodded slowly and pushed a piece of beef on his plate around with his fork a bit, frowning at it. “So, isshea close friend?”

Jeez.

He was just asking outright.

“Kind of. A colleague first and foremost, but I’d consider her a friend.”

Then his eyes met mine. “Oh, so notthatkind of friend? Because I thought I was picking up on some single vibes, but if I was wrong?—”

“You’re not wrong,” I replied a little too fast. “I mean, single yes. If you’re asking me if I’m into men, then the answer is also yes. If those were the vibes you were picking up on.” I couldn’t help but smile.

“They were, yes.” His eyes lit up and he fought a smirk. “Well, that and those flamingo pajamas were a bit of a hint.”

“Oh my god, that’s it. I’m putting them in the trash.”

He laughed. “No, please don’t. They’re amazing.”

I couldn’t believe we were even having this conversation.

I stabbed some meat with my fork. “So what vibes exactly was I putting out there for you to think ‘hmm, this guy’s into men’?”

He laughed and sipped his wine. “Well, not counting the first day we met, when you came stomping over to give me a piece of your mind, wearing your cute little pride pajamas?—”

Oh, dear god.

His grin widened. “When I took my helmet off and you almost swallowed your tongue.”

“I absolutely did not,” I replied, indignantly.

“Ah, yeah you did. And then when I was washing the fire engine, you were staring pretty hard.”

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