Page 13 of Last Chance Love

It was the first time he’d smiled at me in six years, and I hated that he was still as handsome as ever. “That sounds reasonable.”

“Good,” I said, leaning back in my seat and opening my arms. “Then why don’t you tell me why you’re here?”

“I thought we weren’t supposed to ask that,” he said with a smirk.

“That is not…” I began in faint annoyance before stopping, realizing I was being played, and snorted. “Alright, smart ass, why are you here in the clinic?”

“Well, I have a terminal case of shitty person and abandoning friend syndrome.”

“Mmm, afraid we don’t have a treatment for that.”

“Well, I’m told you do have a treatment for a migraine that’s fast approaching.”

“You know, we might at that.”

* * *

Two years later,not a whole lot had changed between us. He came in here often enough, usually for no reason but sometimes for reasons I could help with. Sometimes, we saw each other at meals or the group activities the ranch put on, but we rarely worked together outside the clinic.

It was a strange combination of having him back and yet not being in my life. Like he was avoiding me but couldn’t entirely abandon me either. Maybe he wanted to avoid me, stay away like he’d done years before, but knew he couldn’t do it since we were both stuck on the ranch. Or maybe he was still feeling bad about ditching me and disappearing into the wind but didn’t know how to say it.

With Leon, who knew?

The door buzzed again, and I let out a laugh. “Well, were your ears ringing?”

Leon came to a stop, looking around the empty lobby. “Aren’t you supposed to say that when you’re talking about me?”

“Mmm, you haven’t looked under the desk,” I said with a salacious wink that made him sigh.

“Professional,” he noted. “There’s no one under your desk. You’re not that?—”

“What?” I asked curiously, thinking of the time he and I had snuck into his manager's office and used a desk for something similar to what I was alluding to. Not that I would say that out loud, of course. I always needed to keep a certain distance from our past. Always generalities and never specifics. “Too pure?”

“You’re bold and adventurous, but I don’t think you’d do something like that with anyone here.”

“Why? No one I’m interested in? You have seen some of these guys, right?”

“Anyone coming in here would be your patient. And you’re not the type.”

“To what?”

“Sleep with your patients.”

“Allof them?

His mouth opened and then closed, face falling into a scowl. “Reed.”

“You’re no fun,” I told him, still unsure after two years if I was being serious. On the one hand, there was no denying he was a good-looking man. The past couple of years had added muscle to his already noticeable frame, and the tan he’d accrued certainly didn’t hurt. His face might be a little narrow to some, but it wasn’t sharp or angular, and his eyes were a deep yellow at times, golden when the sun hit them just right.

Then again, maybe it wasn’t him being attractive, and more about whether or not it was me being into him.

“You wouldn’t hurt a patient like that,” he continued, ignoring my attempt to tease him. Much like my own feelings, I was never sure how he felt when it came to me.

He wouldn’t know it, but that was the perfect way to end my teasing. That simple statement dragged up a wellspring of guilt and shame that soured any teasing or arousal, joking or not.

“Alright, fine, fine. I can see you’re in a serious mood today,” I said with a sigh. “Would that have anything to do with the patient we had in today?”

“Had?”

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