Page 65 of Claimed by my Bestie's Dad

The patient nods, and I leave the room humming to myself as I head to the control center. I get one of the nurses at the desk to GrubHub a cinnamon roll here and send it to room 3180.

If only it was that easy to bribe everyone.

Suddenly, Janine—I can’t call her a friend—is behind me. “Dr. Taylor, I’d like to talk to you about somethingpersonal.”

“I’m sorry, but I prefer to keep my personal matters out of my work time if you don’t mind.” But that’s all it takes for my mind to drift to Madison. I wonder what she’s doing right now. She has to be feeling better from the virus that was bothering her, right?

Maybe I should take her something, just in case—medicine or a hot meal.

But then, the demands of my patients distract me, and I really don’t have time to think about much else for a while.

Once I get home,my phone starts buzzing. It’s Sarah, an attractive woman I haven’t talked to in over a month, ever since Madison and I started our thing. I could call Sarah. She’s always up for something casual. We’ve had a long-standing agreement—no strings attached, no feelings involved. Just a good time when we need it.

I pick up my phone, my thumb hovering over her name in my contacts. I should call her. It’d be easy. Just a quick fix. I could drown out all this bullshit I’m feeling for a little while. Maybe that’s all I need. A distraction.

But before I press call, something stops me. I realize Idon’t want to. I don’t want to call Sarah. I don’t want just anyone.

I want Madison.

With a heavy sigh, I drop the phone back onto the table and lean back against the couch, rubbing a hand over my face. What the hell is wrong with me? I’ve never been the kind of guy who gets hung up on a woman, especially not one who walked out on me. But here I am, doing exactly that.

When I’m at work, it’s not so bad. I’m busy enough delivering cinnamon rolls and taking blood pressures that I really don’t have much time to dwell on personal things. But now that I’m home…

It’s not just about the sex, either. Sure, that was great, but it’s something deeper. With Madison, it felt like she accepted me for who I was. Like she really accepted me. That’s rare to find.

And I let her go. I let her walk out because I was too scared to call her back.

I can’t stop thinking about the last thing she said before we ended it—that it was too complicated with Aurora knowing, that we couldn’t keep going like this. She’s right. It is complicated. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. It can’t be.

I pull my phone back into my hand, this time scrolling past Sarah’s name until I land on another contact. My cousin, Jesse. He’s always been someone I can talk to about stuff like this, even though we don’t see each other all that often. He’s married now, settled down with a wife who’s eight years younger than him. It’s not the same as the age gap between Madison and me, but it’s something. I feel like he might understand more than someone else.

Before I can second-guess myself, I tap his name and press call.

Jesse picks up on the second ring. “Ethan? Hey, it’s been a while since I’ve heard from you. Thought you forgot about me.”

“Hey, Jesse. You got a minute?”

“Sure. What’s going on? You sound serious.”

I hesitate for a second, unsure how to even start this conversation. I’m not usually the type to ask for advice, especially not about something like this. But if there’s anyone who might understand, it’s him.

“I, uh… I’m kind of in a situation with a woman.”

Jesse laughs lightly on the other end of the line. “A situation? You tend to do that a lot, if I remember correctly.”

I get to the point as quickly as I can. “She’s younger than me. A lot younger.”

There’s a pause before Jesse speaks again. “How much younger are we talking?”

“I’m talking my daughter’s age. A good two decades.”

Jesse lets out a low whistle. “Okay, yeah, that’s… That’s a bit of a gap. But it’s not unheard of. Is that the problem? Or is there something else? You know if it’s just age… Well, age is just a number.”

I take a deep breath, trying to gather my thoughts. “It’s complicated. She’s friends with my daughter—Aurora. And now Aurora knows about us. Madison and I decided it’s too messy, so we ended things.”

“Wait, Aurora knows? Shit, that does complicate things. How’s she handling it? How areyouhandling it?”

“Not well. She’s pissed, won’t even talk to me. I told her we ended things, texted her and left a voicemail, and she hasn’t responded. Madison thinks it’s best if we just stop seeing each other, so I’m not going to stand here and fight it.But the problem is that I can’t stop thinking about if there’s still a way we could make it work.”

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