Page 6 of Need Me
Chapter 2
Robert tappeda pen against his desk as he looked at the remnants of the numbers that Brooke had written on his hand. He couldn’t believe she wanted to go to dinner with him. Sure, they’d sort of hit it off last fall, but he’d just thought she was having a little fun. Everyone is friendly and happy atweddings.
They’d run into each other a few times and while she’d been flirty, he hadn’t realized asking her out was an option. He thought she’d been seeing someone else. Her dinner invitation had shocked the shit out of him. He’d probably looked like a big dopey goldfish with his mouth hanging open like that. Then she’d caught him staring at her ass. Not his finestmoment.
He couldn’t help it. She had the finest ass he’d ever seen and her scrubs hadn’t detracted from its fineness one bit. He smiled as he started working on some purchasing orders for pet food. They needed to restock some of their bestsellingbrands.
The moment Robert had laid eyes on Brooke, he’d wanted her, but she was so out of his league it wasn’t funny. Long and lithe with rich brown skin and dark eyes, Beyoncé had nothing on Brooke, Robert thought as he finished one order and began thenext.
He made a typo when he imagined kissing her full lips and how she’d feel in his arms. Groaning, he stopped working and picked up his cellphone. Should he call her now or later? Texther?
A knock on his open door made him jerk. Dr. Kate Stanford, owner of the Claws and Paws Animal Clinic came in and shut the door. Her dark eyes gleamed as she sat down in a chair. “So, did you call heryet?”
Earlier that morning, Robert had told her what had happened with Brooke. “No, Ididn’t.”
“Howcome?”
“Just nervous, I guess. I really like Brooke. I meanreallylike her, but I just don’t know if I’m the guy for her,” Robert replied. “I put people tosleep.”
Kate shook her head. “When are you going to believe me about what a great guy you are? When you and I first met, I thought you were super good-looking. You don’t put me tosleep.”
He shot her a sarcastic look. “Kate, I’ve had two women dump me in the past year because they found someone more exciting thanme.”
“They’re idiots if they can’t see what a fantastic guy you are,” Katesaid.
Robert hated his insecurity, but he couldn’t help it. With his previous relationship ‘baggage’, his attempts at commitment never ended well, so it was hard to believe that someone as fantastic as Brooke would want to be with someone like him. He reminded himself she didn’t know about his past. As usual pain ripped through him as the terrible memories came floodingback.
“Robbie, you’ll never know if you don’t try. Brooke has wanted to go out with you for a while,” Kate informedhim.
Robert pushed away the pain. “Shehas?”
“Yeah. Emily told me,” Katesaid.
“Wow. I had no idea.” Robert glanced at hisphone.
Kate stood up. “I think Brooke has excellent taste in men. Callher.”
He sighed as she left his office and picked up his phone. “Come on, Robert. Grow a pair. If she didn’t want you to call, she wouldn’t have given you her number.” He smiled, remembering the way she’d teased him, and hit the call button before he chickenedout.
* * *
Brooke strode angrilyinto her office and barely avoided slamming the door shut. Closing it, she flopped down in her chair and fumed at Dr. Danforth, the bane of her existence. She wanted to boot him in the ass and send him sailing out of herlife.
When her cellphone rang, she saw that it was an unfamiliar number and figured it was a telemarketer. Fed up, she answered it, intending to give them a piece of her mind. “Look, I don’t know what you’re selling, but I don’t want it. Take me off your list and do not call me again. Gotit?”
“Uh,Brooke?”
She bolted up in her chair as she recognized the voice. “Robert?”
“Yeah. You told me to call you, so Iam.”
Brooke felt like an ass as she put a hand to her forehead. “Oh, God. I’m so sorry. I thought you were anothertelemarketer.”
He chuckled. “It’s okay. I hate them, too. Don’t worry aboutit.”
“Thanks for not being mad,” she said. “I’ll put your number in my phone so I don’t make that mistakeagain.”
“No sweat. You okay? You sounded prettypissed.”
