Page 37 of Doctor Daddy

MARK

Brooke didn’t have her usual smile when I stopped at her desk. Between my patients and her not feeling well, it had been a week since I had a chance to be alone with her. Her sadness made my chest tighten with empathy.

I stopped at her desk and checked over my shoulder. We were alone for a moment.

“Can I see you tonight?”

She thought about it, her brows quirked together, and she twisted her mouth to the side. That expression was adorable on her. She shrugged and shook her head.

“I don’t know Mark. I still feel so tired.”

I didn’t like the sound of that. She had been tired and sick last week, and she was still run down. She didn’t have the flu, but something was getting to her. I tapped my hand on her desk, thinking. I had to know someone I could refer her to. I’d have to follow up on finding her a good doctor when I was in my office.

“I have five patients all due next week. And I’m on call for a colleague. I’m not going to have a chance to see you again before the weekend. And we’re going to have to pretend we don’t know each other the entire time we are up at your parents’ lake house.”

Peyton and Karen were having a few friends up for the weekend. Karen loved to entertain and show off her lake house. I liked the food and the company, even when I spent my time dodging all the potential dates Karen brought along for me. Brooke hadn’t been up to the lake house for one of these weekends for years, since she had been away at college.

“I might not go, I promised Angela, I would help her with her essays for grad school. She’s thinking about getting a master’s in business.”

“That’s somehow worse. Not seeing you at all. I’m a grown man, you don’t want me to have to beg, do you?” I had never missed her not being there before. But I also hadn’t been secretly involved with her before.

She smiled and I felt warmth spread through my chest. She was rapidly becoming important to my well-being. I needed her there, even if it meant we had to pretend we weren’t sleeping together.

“Look, we don’t have to do anything. I miss you. We can do what we planned last week.”

“We didn’t have anything planned,” she pointed out.

“Exactly. We can watch TV or a movie. And order pizza. And when you’re tired you can go home. No pressure.”

“You say that now, but what happens when you’re done doing nothing and want to do something else?”

“I do know how to control myself around you. I mean look at me right now, I’m not over there bending you over this desk like I have fantasized. I’m standing here acting like a reasonable man.”

She blushed and giggled.

“You’re horrible. I reasonable man wouldn’t have mentioned his depraved sexual fantasies. I could report you for sexual harassment.”

“But you won’t,” I said.

“Of course not, because I’d be…” she paused as a patient approached the desk.

“Can you help me? I forgot what floor my doctor is on.”

“Of course, who is it?”

“I’m here to see Dr. White.”

“Dr. White is on the third floor. The elevators are just over there past that big potted fern.”

The patient thanked her. I didn’t say anything until they were out of earshot.

“You were saying?”

She blushed and looked flustered. “I’d be a hypocrite because I think about shoving you under this desk and spreading my legs all the time.”

“Miss DeBoise, I am impressed. We can negotiate further activities tomorrow. I need to get to work, and I should let you do your job.”

“I’ll see you later.” She waved as I left.

---