Page 52 of Love Me Sweet

CHAPTERFOURTEEN

As was quickly becoming their custom, if you could count a couple days in a row a custom, once Andrew and Sylvie returned home they gravitated to the great room. Andrew built a fire while Sylvie poured them each a glass of wine.

Though they needed to get up early, it was only eight o’clock and Sylvie was too wired by the cola she’d drank with her pizza to even think about sleep.

“Did you really used to put splints on birds when you were a boy?” she asked once they’d exhausted the clinic and pizza subjects.

His lips quirked up. “Splints on birds, dressings on cats and dogs. If I could have gotten my parents to agree, I’d have treated my family’s injuries.”

Sylvie chuckled and took a sip of wine. “It sounds as if your passion became apparent from an early age.”

“My favorite gift when I was five was a doctor set.”

Sylvie thought back to her fifth birthday. It was the year after her dad left and money had been tight. She hadn’t gotten any gifts that year.

Not wanting to spend even one more second thinking about those times in her life, Sylvie turned the subject back to Andrew. “I hope you plan on continuing your practice even after you take over that position at O’Shea Sports.”

The silence that cast a pall over the room gave her the answer even before he spoke.

“I’d like to continue to practice medicine,” he said slowly, “but being COO is a huge commitment of both time and energy. I don’t know that there’ll be any of me left over for medicine.”

Something told her he was expecting her to argue the point, to insist that if you want something enough you make time for it. Sylvie knew that wasn’t always true, just as he did.

“When I lived in Boston, I had to work to pay my bills. I’d received some grants to attend school, but I’d also had to take out some loans. I wanted to be free of them, so for two years before I met you, I made that my mission.” She brought the glass of wine to her lips but didn’t take a drink. “I worked both as a waitress and at the bakery. I had some opportunities at the bakery to be creative, but only within their specified—and rather rigid--parameters.”

“I suppose you’re going to tell me that you still found time for your own creations.”

“No.” Her gaze met his. “By the time I got home from my waitress job, I was exhausted. I’d fall into bed, then had to be at the bakery at four am for my shift. If any free time existed, I was too tired to search for it.”

Andrew’s brows drew together in puzzlement. “I don’t recall you working at a restaurant.”

“Two months before I met you, I paid off the last of my student loans. I gave my notice at L’Espalier the next day.” She didn’t even try to fight the pride that welled up inside her. Paying off those loans had been a huge accomplishment.

“I’m impressed.” The admiration in his eyes made her squirm.

“I didn’t tell you to toot my own horn, I just wanted to say that I believe you’re right. Once you take that position with O’Shea Sports, the practice of medicine may indeed be relegated to your past.” The thought of anyone having to give up their passion saddened her, but when that person was Andrew… She gazed into the fire. “It was difficult to give up creating my own cakes. Still, I knew within two years I’d be back doing it again. If I’d had to give it up entirely...I don’t know what would have happened to me, to theessenceof me.”

“I don’t believe I ever realized before now,” Andrew spoke slowly and deliberately, “just how much your creative design meant to you. I know I didn’t give it the consideration it deserved when we talked about how melding our lives together would look.”

Sylvie couldn’t dispute what he said. But neither would she let him take all the blame. “Growing up as I did, I got used to people telling me what to do. I wanted to make you happy. I thought by going along with whatever you wanted, I would be happy. I don’t think that would have been the case. I’ve come to believe that to make someone else happy, you have to be happy in your own skin.”

“You’re happy in your own skin now.”

“I am,” she agreed, “and so are you. For now.”

He gave her a curious look.

“You’re happy now, but once you take that COO position, you won’t be. You’re a doctor, Andrew. Healing people is what you were put on this earth to do.”

He downed the rest of his wine and surged to his feet. “It’s been a long day. You and I have to be up and rolling out of here in less than six hours.”

Which meant, she decided, that the conversation had come to an end. Sylvie took the hand he offered and rose to her feet.

Even after she stood, her hand remained clasped in his.

“You’ve given me a lot to think about,” he told her, then lowered his lips to hers.

The kiss might have been short and sweet but it sent a pleasurable tingle all the way to the tips of her toes.

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