Page 45 of The Doctor's Simple Life

That word sounds so juvenile. It doesn’t come close to describing how I feel about her. Not even a little.

Too soon, we finish our meal, and I raise my glass to her again. “To us,” I toast.

She smiles and clinks her glass against mine. “To us.”

As we head out of the restaurant, I offer her my hand, and she takes it. A rush of relief floods through me that she’s not mad at me, and as we get into the car, she says, “That was really great. Thank you for bringing me out here.”

“My pleasure. You look lovely tonight, and I always enjoy sharing dinner with a pretty lady.”

“I bet,” she says softly, then turns her head to look out of the window.

I expected that comment to be met with more banter, but it just falls flat. How do I keep saying all the wrong things?

I close my eyes for a second and try to imagine myself here for longer. Could I become a country boy again? Could I live like my parents, far from a big city, out here in Silverbell? For Sienna, maybe.

But something about a small town is so claustrophobic to me that it makes me shudder.

I take a sharp breath and start the engine.

“You okay?” Sienna asks, turning back to me.

“Yeah,” I say, though I might be lying. I don’t even know anymore. “Let’s get home. Are you staying at mine?”

“Do you want me to?”

“Of course,” I say, maybe too fast. I pull out of the parking lot and hit the road.

The sun gets lower as we start to approach Silverbell, and we don’t say much until Sienna finally breaks the silence.

“So, you and me,” she says, and I brace myself for what’s coming next. “I’m going to come back to yours, and we’ll have fun. And I like that, enjoy it even, but… that’s all I am to you? Fun?”

I sigh, staring straight at the road. I don’t know how to answer that question in a way that’s going to satisfy her. “I like the way things are,” I say carefully. “I like spending time with you and seeing you every day. I like the way we fit together.”

“And what about if things change?”

“What’s going to change?”

“You’re going to leave.” Her voice wavers and cracks as she lays this bare, and I grip the steering wheel a little tighter.

What do I say to that when it’s true?

“But not yet,” I say, hoping I sound soothing. “Let’s keep having fun for now.”

She grunts, and that’s the only response I get for the rest of the journey.

I pull up outside my house and say to her, “I can take you home, if you prefer.”

“Don’t you want me to come in?” she asks again, staring at me with an intensity I’m not used to seeing from her.

“I do. Why wouldn’t I?” She just shrugs, and I get out of the car to go and open the door for her. I gesture for her to get out, and as she does, I say, “You’re always on my mind, Sienna. Let me show you what I’m thinking about.”

She raises a single eyebrow at me, and as soon as the front door shuts behind us, our lips collide as we try to hold on to this moment, the one we know can’t last forever. Our hands make quick work of our clothes. Her body presses against mine and I try to trace every inch of her soft skin, try to map every curve and contour of her.

I need to remember what she feels like. I need something to hold onto when I’m not here anymore.

So I pay close attention to the sound of her breath, the heat of her lips, the wetness running down her legs, the ache building in my belly. I draw the smell of her into my lungs and let it overwhelm me as I grip her hips, digging my fingers into her flesh until there are faint red marks there, proof that I existed at all.

We don’t even make it upstairs before passion overwhelms us, and together, we make music.

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