Page 35 of The Grumpy Doc's Surprise Delivery

“So that’s why you’re a doctor?” I ask, deciding to cut straight to the chase. I want to learn more about this man, and tonight is the night I am going to get to know this guy who has become my friend, despite everything. “Thrill of the adrenaline?”

He frowns at me. “I don’t know. Isn’t childhood passion a good enough reason for wanting to do what I do?”

“There must be something more than that,” I say. “Nobody goes into our line of work without a compelling reason. What makes you stay?”

He hesitates, taking a sip of his drink as if he’s trying to take a shot of courage. Mostly, I’m expecting him to just try and change the subject again, but maybe, if I’m lucky, today is the day I finally break him down.

And I must be lucky because he delivers. “My parents,” he says slowly. “I guess it was seeing my parents.”

“Oh, were they doctors?”

He lets out a harsh laugh, and I wince. I guess I’ve gone and put my foot in that one.

“Totally the opposite,” he says. “They did their best with what they had, I guess, but they weren’t too loving. We never had enough when I was growing up, so whenever I was sick, I was just given a painkiller and told to deal with it. I didn’t want other people to have to go through that.”

“I’m sorry,” I say quietly. “That must have been difficult.”

He shrugs with an air of distance, like he has a wall he’s built around his pain. “It’s over now. But that’s why I work so hard, I guess.” He speaks slowly, like it’s a conclusion he’s only just coming to. “I’ve seen exactly what not having enough does to you. I’ve seen so many people unable to provide for their kids, for their parents, for their friends. That’s what kills people, the inability to do anything because you’re just struggling to survive every day. That’s what I don’t want for myself.”

“I get it,” I say.

He turns his eyes on me, blazing with emotion. “Do you?”

I take a deep breath and swallow. “Not exactly like you. I was very lucky with my parents, but I get the need to work hard. I get the need to feel like you have to keep pushing yourself to your limits every single day, because if you don’t, you’re going to lose everything you’ve got.”

He nods, his shoulders dropping slightly, as if for the first time I’ve said something that he can truly agree with. “That’s exactly it,” he says so softly that I can barely hear him over the noise ofthe rest of the room. “I stayed here for you, you know,” he says suddenly, and I have to strain my ears to pick up the words.

“You did?” I ask.

He looks me in the eye again and nods. “I was supposed to go home that night when I met you again, when you said you were staying. I was supposed to be on my way to the airport.”

“Why would you stay for me?”

His mouth drops open as he tries to formulate words, and without thinking, my own gaze drops down to his lips. His full, strong lips and the rough facial hair on his chin.

“I don’t know,” he says, and I can see that he’s being honest. “There was… something about the situation, about you, that made me want to stay.”

“I’m flattered,” I say quietly. Then before I can be a coward, I add, “For what it’s worth, I’m glad you did.”

Suddenly, something is shifting between us, tectonic plates crashing together. We’re on the same page, in the same book. There’s an understanding we’ve been missing, a wire that has been crossed about our aims, our reasons for being here.

I’m allowing myself to listen to the voice in my heart that’s been telling me that Liam is worth pursuing. From what he’s said, I’m thinking that maybe he feels the same.

CHAPTER 19

LIAM

“I’m tired,” says Emma when we’ve finished our meal. “Let’s go up to the balcony.”

“We don’t have an ocean view, though,” I say. “Why would we sit on the balcony?”

“It doesn’t matter,” she says, looking up at me with those beautiful brown eyes. “You can see the forest, and the stars. It’s beautiful up there.”

“All right, then,” I say. “Let’s go.”

We head up, and I offer her my hand as we step out of the elevator. She doesn’t take it.

In fairness, she has only had one cocktail. It’s hardly enough to put us out of our right minds. And yet it’s still making me think more than ever about how gorgeous she is, about her full lips and her curved body and her lovely eyes.

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