Page 21 of The Doctor's No-Strings Deal

“Yeah, attractive.” Megan blushed again. “Turns out he feels the same way about me. He hates me, but he’s attracted to me.”

“He thinks you’re his sexy librarian.”

Megan nodded.

Sadie beamed. “I told you so! Now do you believe me?”

“Mom…” Megan did her best to calm her mom’s enthusiasm, but it was also a good sign. Anything that gave her energy, happiness, a little pep in her step was worth whatever embarrassment Megan wound up feeling as a result. “Okay, well, we… blew off a little steam last night, if you know what I mean. But it doesn’t mean anything. We both still hate each other, so things aren’t going to change much.”

“You keep telling yourself that, sweetheart, and maybe one day it will be true.” Sadie’s smile was way too knowing. “You’ve always been secretly complicated. I know you. You wear a squishy exterior shell, so people won’t think badly of you, but you’ve got this concrete wall under that, and you won’t let anyone past it.” She took a bite of her cereal and waited for Megan to respond.

When Megan didn’t, Sadie went on. “Your father was the same. Didn’t let anyone in for fear of getting hurt. Maybe this man you were with last night is the same, too. Maybe you both put up a wall and won’t let anyone in for fear that you might get hurt. Maybe his wall is just out in the open, while you keep yours covered in cotton candy.”

Megan’s cereal was getting soggy as she stared across the table at her mother, who may have just uttered the most profound thing she’d heard in years, even if it was a cotton-candy metaphor.

CHAPTER 10

CHARLIE

For the entire day following their night together, Charlie did his best to avoid Megan. It was impossible, of course, because he kept getting paired with her. The problem wasn’t that he disliked being around her. The problem was that he liked being around her way too much. He had hoped that finally going to bed with her would have relieved his tension, sated his curiosity, and let him focus on his residency for a change, but it had done just the opposite. Suddenly, she was all he could think about. He found himself smiling when he had no good reason to smile. It was infuriating. How was he going to be taken seriously when he couldn’t stop grinning like a delusional man who thought he had won a nonexistent lottery.

Megan took every opportunity to insult him, just as she should, so he couldn’t blame her for his problem. Clearly, she was doing everything in her power to be as unattractive as possible. Her hair was a mess. She wore no makeup. She looked far from rested. But to him, she was more beautiful than she’d ever been. He would find himself standing behind her, smelling his own shampoo in her hair, recalling the night they’d spent together, and trying not to long for her too obviously.

But he did long for her, no matter how hard he fought it. And no matter how hard he fought to hide it, everyone seemed to notice.

“You look pleased with yourself,” Keith said to him after a particularly boring diagnosis. “Can’t be because of that head cold we just saw. Must be something else.” Charlie opted not to answer him, so Keith changed the subject. If Keith was anything, it was conflict adverse. “Well, I hadn’t gotten to thank you for last night.”

Charlie shot him a questioning look. This had to be a joke about him sneaking away with Megan, but Charlie couldn’t seem to interpret it. “Don’t be weird,” he said.

Keith looked almost as confused as Charlie did now. “What are you talking about? You paid for our tab. We had no idea until we went to pay it ourselves. You probably should have given us a heads-up, though. We wound up spending more than we would have, had we known.”

Ah, that made more sense. Charlie scowled to hide his embarrassment. “That would be the reason I didn’t give you a heads-up. You’re all way too poor to be spending the way you do. I had to save you from yourselves.”

“Riiiiight,” Keith said. “Well, thanks anyway. It was a nice surprise.”

Then Amy’s voice accosted him from behind. “Where’d you head off to last night anyway, huh? Wherever it was, Megan was there with you, wasn’t she? I have no doubt about that.” She prodded him in the shoulder. “Come on. Out with it.”

Charlie slapped her hand away. “I have no idea where Bright took off to last night, but it wasn’t with me.” He scoffed. “Like I’d spend one unnecessary second in her company. That intolerableoptimism. I hate it. She’ll singlehandedly rot every one of my teeth with her attitude.”

“Granted, she’s sweet,” Amy said with a shrug. “But sweet things don’t usually rot your teeth unless you eat them.”

Before Charlie could demand to know what she meant by that, Amy had already jogged off to the next patient, who was different from the one Charlie was going to see. They were all treating individual patients for this particular round to get used to one-on-one. Keith was still walking beside Charlie, but the way he smiled and arched his eyebrow, Charlie wished he would just go away.

“Don’t know what the hell she meant by that,” Charlie said bitterly.

Keith just smiled. “Oh, I made a bet that you do.”

“You’ll lose that bet.”

“Doubt it.”

Charlie groaned. He was hardly in the mood, but he couldn’t help himself. “Who’d you bet against?” he asked.

“No one.”

Keith’s answer baffled Charlie, who struggled to make heads or tails of it for a moment. “How did you make a bet with no one?”

“I didn’t,” Keith answered. “You asked if I betagainstanyone. I just betwiththem. Amy and I agree.”

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