Page 12 of The Grumpy Doc's Surprise Delivery

“Don’t you know best? With your perfectwork ethic?” he smirks.

“Will you stop?” I say. “I’m doing my best to work as a team here, and all you keep doing is dismissing my ideas and shutting me down. I know you hate it —pleasedon’t say it again. I hate it too, okay? But can we just talk about the directions? Please?”

Liam’s nostrils flare as he tries to keep his temper. I’ve ruffled him. Good.

Through gritted teeth, he says, “Okay, let’s discuss. Which way do you think?”

“The path,” I say, gesturing, “is marked on the map. It looks safer. The waypoint is nearby. That way is best.”

He takes a moment to assess the map, then frowns. “No, it’s faster to go the other way. We can still hit all the waypoints and get to the end first.”

“It’s not about getting there first.”

“Yes, it is.”

“Okay, whatever. Let’s say it is. I don’t feel like trampling through all that undergrowth, and what if we get lost? There’s no way to tell if that path keeps going. Wouldn’t it be safer to stick to the planned route?”

Liam looks me up and down, a glint of amusement in his eyes despite the unhappy pout on his face. “That’s your issue, isn’t it? You like to play it safe. You don’t like that I present a challenge to your status quo.”

“You are so full of yourself,” I scoff, ignoring the wry grin creeping onto his face and how charming it makes him look. “You think you know so much?”

“I kind of do, yeah.”

“Then you lead. Go on. Get us lost. I won’t even say I told you so when we can’t ever escape from the jungle.”

He raises a sly eyebrow. “Trust me, Emma. I won’t get us lost. I know exactly what I’m doing.”

I’m too tired of this argument to say anything else, so I let him lead us down the smaller path and hope to God he knows what he’s doing. There is one small mercy, at least. The feeling when I get to sayI told you sois going to be like nothing else.

CHAPTER 7

LIAM

We head down the path into the forest. It’s been a long time since I did any map reading, but this doesn’t look too complicated. Plus, it looks like there are a million paths around here, so even if we do get a little bit lost, we’ll bump into another path soon enough.

And if things get really dire, then I’ll just use the GPS on my phone.

Emma probably won’t like that because she’ll want to follow the rules, but I don’t want us to be lost in this forest forever. At least she admitted that I was right this time. That’s almost a win. Almost.

Despite my own uncertainty, I hold the map firmly in front of my face and set a confident expression, one I’m so good at performing that it’s become second nature. I march on ahead, trusting Emma to follow me. If she doesn’t, that’s kind of on her.

Is this against the spirit of teamwork? Probably, but I’ve stopped caring. There is almost no purpose to being out here, and Istill haven’t managed to get a refund from that hotel for them screwing my room up.

Back home, there are so many patients I could be helping, so much work I could be doing. But instead, I’m trapped in a stupid forest with the most stubborn, arrogant, annoying, focused, driven, beautiful…

I’m so lost in my thoughts that it takes hearing a thump behind me to bring me back to reality.

Emma cries out as she hits the ground, twigs crunching with a sickening noise, one that very easily could have been bone. I wheel around on my heel and pray that it isn’t. “Emma?”

She winces. “I’m fine.” I take a step towards her, and she holds up a hand to stop me in my tracks. “Really, I’m fine.”

She winces again, groaning as she pushes herself up so she’s sitting on the ground. I try my luck and step forward again.

“Let me look,” I say, forgetting for a second that I’m furious and I don’t like her. I drop into a crouch and reach out to try and examine her.

“I’m fine, really! Don’t fuss over me,” she says, trying to push me away, but I shake my head.

“Just one time, don’t be stubborn. Okay?”

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