Page 26 of Love Me Sweet

“The first time was during a residency rotation.” His gaze lifted to the sky as if tempted to swing for the sky. Instead, he refocused on her. He said, looking oddly at ease in the swing. “Once I finished my residency and fellowship, I had to cut down to once a month because I was busy launching my concierge practice.”

“Where you only see rich people.”

He winced. “A practice where I’ve agreed to be available to patients who want their doctor available 24/7.”

“What are those people doing while you’re here?”

“I’m still available by phone or email. I have an associate who fills in for me.” He paused, his attention momentarily diverted to a tree where a squirrel sat scolding a blue jay.

After a second, his gaze returned to her. “Concierge medicine isn’t for everyone, but I like getting to know my patients. It’s a very personal relationship. It also allows me to help out with the family business.”

The family business, Sylvie knew, was O’Shea Sports, a huge—very profitable--conglomerate. She hadn’t been surprised when she’d heard Franklin—Andrew’s father—accuse her of being after his money.

Franklin’s arguments had made a lot of sense.

For the moment Andrew’s father remained at the helm of the business, but from that overheard conversation Sylvie also knew Franklin planned to eventually step aside and hand over much of his duties to his son. Despite the fact that Andrew had his own career and his sister, Corinne, had been playing an active role in the business for the past five years. The patriarchal system was alive and well in the O’Shea family.

“I’ll answer calls while I’m here,” he said. “It would be presumptuous to think we’d be together 24/7.”

“Thank God,” Sylvie muttered under her breath, although she’d never found spending time with Andrew to be a hardship. He was an intelligent man with a keen sense of humor surprisingly in synch with her own.

He grinned. “I heard that.”

She merely smiled and took a sip of her drink.

“I heard what you said to Amber.”

Glancing at him, she cocked her head.

“About baking being your passion, about having the urge to create, to run your own business.”

“All true.”

“I can’t believe none of that came up when we were together.” He frowned, staring down at his cup.

She downed the rest of the contents in her cup and tossed it in the trash, then returned to the swing. “We weren’t together all that long. I bet you also didn’t know I love to swing high.”

As if to illustrate, she began to pump her legs until the swing soared so high. Sylvie swore she could touch the tree tops.

When she’d been a child, she’d often walk to a local park. It was nowhere near as nice as this one. There was no shiny black gate with gilded leaves, no carefully manicured bushes. But there had been swings and when she soared into the air, she left her troubles on the ground. At least for those few minutes.

She saw Andrew toss his cup in the trash. Then he began to swing until he too was high in the air.

After a moment, her breath came in short puffs and she laughed with the sheer joy of the moment. When they finally slowed and stopped, it felt as if all was right with the world.

She was laughing when she rose from the swing. When she stumbled slightly, Andrew was there to steady her. She let herself fall against him, her face tilted up.

Her breath caught in her throat at the look in his eyes.

With a gentle hand he brushed a strand of hair back from her face.

Sylvie knew, as sure as she knew her own name that Andrew was going to kiss her.

And she wasn’t going to stop him.

* * *

Closing his mouth over Sylvie’s sweet lips was sheer madness. That, Andrew knew with every fiber of his being. Yet he could no more stop the action from occurring than he could stop himself from breathing. He folded her into his arms and kissed those glorious lips, losing himself in the taste of her.

---