Page 60 of Hot for the Hockey Player
“Is he what?”
“Just visiting your family and spending time with the kids?”
“Yes!”I exploded, throwing my hands in the air.“What else would he be doing?”
She shrugged, and that lip twitch was back.“I don’t know.But you just said that your ‘hot flashes’ happen when he’s around.”
“Pure correlation.Not causation.I thought you were a doctor?”
Justine snorted.“Any other symptoms when the handsome hockey player is around?”
“Like what?”
Plunking her hands on her hips, she gave me an almost impatient look, but swept it away a moment later with a small smile.“Have you never beenarousedbefore, Gabrielle?”
I scoffed.“Of course I have.”
“Okay … so you know what it feels like then?Do you feel those same things when you see Maverick?When you’re around him?When you touch him and smell him?”
“I don’t touch him!”
She sucked in a deep breath through her nose and released it.“Okay, you don’t touch him.But youseehim.Youspeakto him.And I’m sure at least once—when he first arrived, you maybe hugged him—so you’ve smelled him.Did a ‘hot flash’ occur then?”
“What are you getting at?”I was determined to play dumb and live in denial for as long as I could.
The brilliant beauty in front of me with the stethoscope around her neck wasn’t buying it.“You’re a smart woman, Gabrielle.And there is a waiting room full of people out there.While I’m happy to sit here and listen to you deny the fact that you have a sexual attraction to the handsomeadultman visiting your family, I think your time—and mine—is better served elsewhere.”
“So, no vagina cream?”
She snorted and shook her head.“No vagina cream.From what I can tell, you’re not in perimenopause yet.You’re simply experiencing your first serious crush.”
I pouted and hopped down off the table.“Forty-one-year-olds can’t get crushes.”
“Uh … I think they can.I don’t think there is an age limit on crushes.We just don’t scribble the guy’s name in our binders and play the MASH game anymore.”
I gave her a confused look.“What’s the MASH game?”
“Ask your kids.”
I grabbed my jacket and purse from the coat hook.“So what do I do about this …”
“Crush?Attraction?Arousal?”
I refused to meet her eyes.“Sure.That.”
“Two things … one, you get a really great vibrator and masturbate to relieve the frustration, or …”
I glanced at her as she paused.
“You act on it and see if he feels the same.”
“Well, option one didn’t work.Maybe I’ll see if I can get some vagina cream from a witch doctor.”I gripped the doorhandle, but her hand on my shoulder stopped me from opening the door.
“Gabrielle, you’re both adults.It’s totally natural, and …” she shrugged, “you’re hot.I say go for it.”Her smile was small, but encouraging as I opened the door.
“Thanks for nothing, doc,” I murmured before she chuckled.
In a fog of frustration, I drove home.I was just climbing out of my SUV in the carport when the throaty rumble of a truck engine, followed by the crunch of gravel in the driveway, pulled my attention.
