Page 5 of Blind Date with a #Doctor
She snorts. “Same. I was ready to have Kendra text me a fake emergency.”
Her gaze flickers away for a second and I don’t know what it is about that tiny moment, but it settles something inside me. This isn’t just a one-off. Maybe Nan, for all her meddling, actually got something right.
We finish dinner without rushing, neither of us checks our phones. There are more jokes. More stories.
I don’t want the night to end. I want to keep listening to her. I want to keep making her smile like that. And maybe I want to see what would happen if I lean in just a little closer.
“So,” I say as the waitress drops off the check. “Was this the date of your life?”
“Shockingly, no.”
“Same.”
She stands, gathering her purse. I don’t want to just let her walk away with a “thanks, goodnight, see you never.”
“Want to walk out together?” I ask, which feels lame the second it leaves my mouth, but Aspen just smiles.
“Yeah,” she says. “I’d like that.”
We walk out, side by side. Two people who just might have been tricked into something neither of us knew we wanted.
Chapter Three
Aspen
We stop at my car, but I don’t want the date to end.
“Do you want to take a quick walk?” I ask him, hoping that he also doesn’t want the night to end.
“Sure,” he answers, and we fall into step beside each other again.
Our conversation stalls for the first block of our walk, but then we begin to share our horror stories about bad dates we’ve survived in this town.
“Wait, wait, wait,” I say, nearly choking. “You’re telling me you once got set up with a woman who brought her cat?”
“In a baby carrier,” Carter confirms, dead serious.
“Oh my God.”
“Muffin goes everywhere with her. He was very well-behaved, though. I’ll give him that.”
I laugh so hard I have to wipe a tear from the corner of my eye and Carter just keeps walking, watching me, with a smile on his face. He’s charming, but not in that over-the-top way that makes you suspicious.
It’s like he doesn’t feel the need to impress me, but somehow, he’s doing it anyway. Then there’s the way he listens, like he actually hears me, like what I’m saying matters. I’m not used to that. My ex spent most of our relationship not waiting for his turn to talk.
“Okay, your turn,” Carter says, tipping his glass toward me. “Worst date story. Go.”
I think for a second. “Oh, that’s easy. I once went out with a guy who spent the entire dinner explaining why tipping is a scam and how he only leaves exact change.”
“Please tell me you left him with the bill.”
“Yes, and I tipped the waitress myself as we walked out.”
He grins. Who told him he was allowed to have a smile like that? It makes me weak in the knees.
This is dangerous. Carter Reed is exactly the kind of man I promised myself I was done falling for. And yet…I already feel like I’m on the edge. It’s in the way he leans in when I talk, the way his eyes crinkle at the corners when he laughs.
“Are you having fun?” he asks softly.
