Page 15 of Stuck with Doctor Grump

She reached for my hand again, no hesitation.

And for once, I didn’t pull away.

…

Back in the present, I set the cold coffee mug on the counter and rubbed a hand over my face.

That memory played on repeat. Her voice. Her dream. The feeling of her fingers slipping between mine like it was the most natural thing in the world.

I couldn’t shake it.

She hadn’t just peeled back a layer—I had. I’d let her see something no one else had in a very long time. And the moment I had, I panicked.

I told myself leaving early was the right thing. That it gave her space, gavemespace.

But now, sitting here with nothing but silence and regret as company, I realized something far worse.

Maybe I’d walked away from the only person who ever made me feel like a man—not a machine.

And maybe, just maybe, I didn’t know how to go back without breaking the very thing I didn’t know how to build.

Three days passed.

Three days without a message. A call. A flaming bouquet of apology peonies left on my doorstep—which, frankly, felt like her style.

But nothing came.

And I didn’t reach out either.

Not because I didn’t want to.

Because I didn’t know how to do it without breaking something. Her trust. My boundaries. Whatever fragile thread had formed between us in that firelit room.

I told myself space was good. Logical. Necessary. It gave us time to sort out what had happened—if it evenmeantanything beyond a stormy night, a shared bottle of wine, and a temporary ceasefire between opposing worldviews.

But the truth?

The silence was worse than anything she could’ve said.

It wasn’t angry. It wasn’t sarcastic. It was just… empty.

And that emptiness rattled around inside me louder than her laughter ever had.

“So,” Brandon’s voice crackled through the speakerphone with far too much glee for someone three states away, “you survived the great Cedar Springs sleepover.”

I rolled my eyes and leaned back in the leather chair in my office. “Is this a social call or are you just bored in surgery?”

He chuckled. “Don’t dodge me, Cole. I want details. Did you kill each other? Kiss? Or both?”

I stared at the ceiling. “We didn’t kill each other.”

“That’s not a ‘no’ to the other thing.”

I said nothing.

Brandon let out a low whistle. “Well, I’ll be… The Ice Man melts.”

“Not everything is a punchline, Brandon.”

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