Page 29 of Rogue

“Thanks, I’d really appreciate that,” I say and smile wider. “I don’t know my way around this city at all yet.”

“I figured,” she says.

She’s helped me a ton by recommending a hotel and I can already almost smell the clean, starched sheets that I’m sure will be waiting for me there.

“Hey, you’re Dr. Lockhart, right?” a woman I haven’t yet met calls out from behind the reception desk.

She’s about my age, with auburn hair and dressed in a tiger-print top, bellbottom jeans with frayed edges and a black blazer. If she didn’t have the hospital ID tacked to her lapel, I’d be sure she was a patient.

“Yes,” I say.

“I’m Andy, one of the admins,” she says. “We haven’t been introduced yet.”

I offer her my hand and smile. “Time to fix that.”

She shakes my hand, but then hands me a pink message slip right after.

“A guy named Rogue called, said he’s sorry he couldn’t make it tonight,” she says, eying me sideways.

Hope is flooding back into my chest and I feel like a total fool for getting so worked up before, while I was waiting for him.

“You sure you should be seeing a guy named Rogue?” Andy asks.

“No, I’m not sure at all,” I say and smile, feeling my cheeks heat up. Now that I know he called, I am a lot more sure than I was five minutes ago, though.

“He’s the guy from last night?” Shelly asks and I nod.

“Hey, if you don’t want him, I’ll take him,” Shelly says and laughs. “He’s hot. And very good with the ladies from what I heard.”

I don’t find what she said the least bit funny and I very nearly tell her that in no uncertain terms. As in,Back off, he’s mine.And I really hopetheonlyladiesshe’s talking about are Mrs. Diaz from this morning and the club girl from last night.

I cover up that over-the-top possessive reaction by chuckling too. “I think I’ll keep him for the time being. Did he leave a number?”

A phone at the admit desk is ringing, but Andy is in no hurry to go and pick up. “He said you should come by the clubhouse later and that you know where to find it.”

The phone keeps ringing and she finally starts moving towards it. “But yeah, he also left a number. I wrote it on the slip. I gotta go.”

Shelly is watching me very closely as I finally look up from reading the message slip, which says what Andy already told me it says.

“Sounds like a keeper,” she says.

I shrug. “Yeah, maybe he’s starting to.”

“But you’re not sure?” her eyes are serious, meaning she’s really asking, but I won’t be sharing all my secrets with her just yet. Even though I kind of feel like I could.

“Who’s ever sure, right?” I say. “I should get going.”

“To the clubhouse?” she asks, grinning again.

“Maybe,” I say. “Or not.”

“I can come too, if you want some company,” she says. “Or need like a wing woman or something.”

“Thanks, but I’ll probably just call and reschedule,” I say. “I’m dead on my feet and my head’s been spinning from lack of sleep all afternoon.”

And honestly, I still don’t want to rush into anything with Rogue.

“Gotcha,” she says. “Well, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

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