Page 8 of Written in the Charts

Or the night we went bowling and she wore those jeans that made her ass look amazing. I had a hard time keeping my hands to myself back then, and that night was no different. Gypsy was incredible. Her sass and attitude kept me interested, and she never had a boring thing to say.

And she was gorgeous too. She had her auburn hair tied back in a bun, a few stray hairs framing her face. The way she had done her makeup was perfect, not too overdone, just enough to highlight her best features. I couldn’t believe my luck, that I’d come back to town and found her and that she was still single.

“What are you thinking?” she asked, sipping the glass of wine she’d ordered. Her lips left a ruby ring on the stemware and she set it back on the coaster.

The restaurant wasn’t super fancy, but it was nice enough. I chose it because of the free breadsticks offered throughout the meal. Every so often, the waiter would bring a basket around with fresh, hot breadsticks and place a few on our plates. And they were these amazing, garlic-drizzled, parmesan cheese-powdered delicacies that made my mouth water.

“Nothin, just how beautiful you are, and honestly, how lucky I am that you’re still single.” I picked up my current breadstick and took a bite, savoring the garlicky taste. Gypsy smiled and blushed.

“So, you were stationed back home?” Gypsy pushed a meatball around her plate with her fork, attempting to cut it in half. I chuckled at her and shrugged.

“Yeah, I was.” She didn’t need to know the reasonwhyI had been stationed here in Yellow Springs again. That part was still bothering me, but I pushed thoughts of Misty out of my head and focused on the silver lining. Misty had already ruined my time with Derek the other day by getting me in a foul mood. I didn’t need to obsess about her now and ruin my time with Gypsy too.

“And you’re finishing med school? That’s so amazing. I’m so proud of you. What made you decide to push on after being a nurse?”

“Certified nurse practitioner,” she corrected with a grin. She held the whole meatball on the end of her fork and pointed it at me. “I really enjoyed learning a lot and Derek just pushed me. He said I’d make a wonderful doctor and really gave me the encouragement and support I needed to take the next step. Doctor Marshal took me on for my residency, and he’s helped me with my studies too. I couldn’t have asked for a better support system.”

“So, you took online courses or what?” I took another bite of my breadstick and chewed. Gypsy had a mouthful of meatball, which she was enjoying, and she smiled, covering her mouth. I waited for her to answer. I felt like a kid again, on a date with a girl I really liked and feeling a bit nervous about what happened afterward.

“Yeah,” she choked out, taking a drink of water to wash down her meatball before continuing. “Actually, with Derek’s recommendation and my work as a CNP for my basis, all I had left was my thesis. I took mostly online classes to finish, then transferred to the local NYU branch, and I just have one semester left. Can you believe it?”

After seeing how crushed she was when she didn’t get accepted just out of high school, I knew that had to feel amazing for her. I smiled, proud of everything she’d accomplished. And after I’d left her like that, I knew it wasn’t easy. I didn’t have to be here to know that. I knew her. I was lucky she even gave me a second chance.

I scowled at myself and laid my breadstick down. Everything came back to the past, to how I left Gypsy, how Misty had hurt me, how my mother had kept my father’s illness from me and I found out only when he was literally on his deathbed. Those final days went so fast, and he was just gone.

Gone like my hope for a family when I walked in that house and saw that bastard seated at my table with my pregnant fiancée.

Gone like me out of Gypsy’s life when I shipped out and never told her.

“Hey, is everything okay?” She took my hand and pulled it toward her. I hadn’t realized I had it balled into a fist, and she coaxed my fingers open. The electric touch she seemed to have in that office when she looked at my knee was not there in this instant, but her warmth as she laced her fingers with mine calmed me.

“I’m okay.” I tried to temper my anger. It had been growing as my thoughts went out of control, and I didn’t want to snap at her like I always did. She didn’t deserve that.

“You don’t look okay.” She frowned at me and rubbed her thumb over the side of my hand. “Evan, you can talk to me. It’s okay.”

I wanted to blurt out everything that had happened, Misty and the affair, my mother... hell, even the repeated injuries overseas that sidelined me from field ops. Here was this perfect, amazing creature wanting to reach out and comfort me even after I had hurt her. I stared at her, feeling a bit gobsmacked.

“Listen, do you want to go someplace more private? I don’t think this is the sort of thing I want to talk about in public.” I squeezed her fingers between mine and smiled.

“Sure, we can go to my place.” Gypsy downed the rest of her wine and then wiped her mouth. “There’s a new movie that just came out for rental, and I want to see it.”

“Oh, you think we’ll have time for a movie?” I asked her, waggling my eyebrows.

That was the fastest I’d ever seen that woman leave a restaurant. It appeared all of her nerves over doctor-patient impropriety had flown out the window. That or she missed me as much as I missed her. Ithadbeen seven years or so.

CHAPTERSIX

Gypsy

The minute Evan asked me to go somewhere more private, I knew it had nothing to do with talking about his personal issues that discouraged him. From the time I saw him in the office, I knew. The sparks were still there, just as they had been when I ran into him at Maggie and Derek’s wedding last spring.

I just hadn’t expected him to act like a ravenous animal hell-bent on devouring me the minute we walked through the door to my apartment. I had no more than gotten through the door and shut it when his hands were on my hips. He nuzzled into my neck, scraping his stubble on my skin. I leaned away from him, giving him more room to work, and dropped my keys on the stand next to the door.

Kicking my shoes off, I giggled and tried to sneak away from him. It wasn’t that I didn’t want him too. I just felt horrible guilt over even having dinner with him. If Dr. Marshal found out I was dating a patient, I had no idea what he’d say. When I’d approached him about it, he pretty much wrote me off. I wasn’t sure whether that was a reaction to a bad day or he didn’t understand what I was telling him.

“Evan,” I squealed as he tickled my sides. I turned to face him, and he stalked forward, backing me against the wall behind me. “Evan, can we take this slower?”

“What? Why?” He grabbed my love handles, leaning in to kiss me. He was aggressive, more so than I remembered. I waffled, kissing him back, feeling the firm muscles beneath his sweater. I was with him before he went through military training and got so strong. This manly, muscular body was all new to me. It was exciting.

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