Page 5 of Rescuing Dr. Marian
Tommy reached across the table and took my hand. “Do you trust me?” he asked, his voice low and intense.
I looked into his eyes, feeling inexplicably drawn to this man I’d just met. If anything felt like kismet tonight, it was the feeling of his hand in mine.
“Yes,” I said instantly.
“You good with a little PDA?” he asked, eyes crinkling with laughter and scheming.
I gave him a once-over.Ialready knew I was attracted to the man, but I wanted to make sureheknew. “With you? Absolutely. With Matthew? I’d rather be coated in syrup and lobbed into the Everglades.”
The warmth of Tommy’s chuckle relaxed me. He moved his chair closer to mine and put his arm around my shoulders just as Matthew finished his song and hopped off the stage, making a beeline for our table.
“Foster? Is that really you? What are the chances?” Matthew’s eyes were wide with excitement but quickly narrowed when he noticed Tommy’s arm around me.
“Slim, but not as slim as I’d hoped,” I muttered.
Tommy chuckled under his breath.
I shifted closer to him, grateful for his solid presence beside me. In a normal tone, I said, “Matthew. This is a surprise. Thought you claimed there was nothing better than New York at New Year’s.”
He shrugged. “Got into a bit of a disagreement with my brother, so I decided to come to Hawaii this year. And now that I’ve seenyouhere, I’m thinking I made the right?—”
“Babe?” Tommy’s fingers began playing with the hair at the nape of my neck, sending shivers down my spine. “Aren’t you going to introduce me?”
Babe?I knew he was pretending, but my heart thumped wildly anyway.
“Uh. Yeah,” I said quickly. “Tommy, this is Matthew. He and I dated for a little while a few years back. Matthew, this is Tommy. He’s…”
“Foster’s boyfriend.” Tommy extended a hand to Matthew.
“Boyfriend?” Matthew’s smile faltered.
Tommy’s eyes melted into mine. “It’s only a matter of time until we make it official.”
Matthew gave Tommy an assessing up-down. “Really. Because you don’t seem like Foster’s type. He’s all Carhartt and woodsy, and you look…” He tilted his head. “Actually, you look really familiar.”
“Like Wade Brown, from the commercial with the dog?” Tommy asked innocently. “’Cause I get that a lot.”
I rolled my lips to hide my smile.
“No,” Matthew said seriously, reminding me that he’d never had much of a sense of humor. “Like a guy at my gym on West Fifty-Fourth.”
“Oh.” Tommy hesitated. “That… might actually be me.”
“Tommy’s a doctor in New York,” I explained. “He came out to Majestic for a vacation last summer, and we hit it off on the trail.”
“Foster used a cheesy pickup line on me,” Tommy said, squeezing my hand. “Said he was going to have to arrest me for public indecency if I insisted on flexing my biceps.”
I stifled a snort as Tommy held out his free arm and flexed, causing his muscles to tighten his shirt around his upper arm and show off impressive forearms.
“That sounds like me,” I agreed, biting back a grin. “Always joking about false arrest.”
“Hold up. So you live in New York?” Matthew folded his arms over his chest. “And you’re okay with that, Foster? Because when I left Majestic, you said you had no interest in moving away from that backwoods town and no interest in a long-distance relationship.”
“I don’t,” I blurted without considering that I might be torpedoing our story. My cheeks heated.
“Foster means we didn’t set out for this to happen.” Tommy shrugged easily. “But of course, he’s not giving up his career. His work is vital. Do you know how many lives he’s saved? The sheriff’s department in Majestic handles some of the most challenging wilderness rescues in the region.”
Matthew looked taken aback, probably as surprised as I was by Tommy’s passionate defense.
