Page 51 of Baby For The Billionaire Silver Fox

“I get it. Well, have a nice day at work,” he said as I climbed out of the car. Without another word, he drove away.

I felt a shaft of disappointment pierce through me. He took that awfully well. Too well. I guess he didn’t have feelings for me like I thought he might. I should be glad he’s gone, even if he went so easily. It was better this way.

I saw Buddy in the window, wagging his tail so hard his whole rear end wiggled. He was clearly on the couch, which would not make Nana happy, but I smiled anyway. I would give him a quick walk to relieve himself before I headed to work. I’d already contacted my boss, and she was aware of my situation. Thankfully we hadn’t been slammed with injuries from the storm, and in fact, the patient load was pretty light so far today.

- 18 -

Dan

Islammedmyhandon the steering wheel in frustration after I’d rounded the corner. We were back to square one. Or maybe worse, because I wasn’t seeing us going back to being just friends again. I should have just let it alone, let it proceed slowly to wherever it was going. But I’d gotten impatient. Shit, I had wanted her so bad I couldn’t see straight. And how could I resist the perfect opportunity? I mean, come on—onebed.

I still wanted her. Maybe we could be friends with benefits until she had to go. What was that expression my dad used on occasion?No harm, no foul. That was it.

I turned another corner and frowned at myself in the rearview mirror. I should quit acting like a horny irresponsible teenager. She deserved better than that.

I wasn’t sure where to go from here. Should I go after her? I thought about how badly I screwed up my marriage. I sucked at relationships, and I didn’t want to hurt yet another woman. I rubbed the back of my neck, trying to knead out the knots. Better to let her go so I don’t end up hurting her—or myself, for that matter.

I was about to pull into my parking lot but decided to pay Bennett a visit. Even though he was grumpy with just about everyone but his daughter, I knew the real Bennett. We had each other’s backs.

I looked around his small office at the disarray. Bennett was sitting at his desk in the middle of stacks of papers. Blueprints were tacked haphazardly to the wall.

“Dude,” I said, laughing. “Did you know I was coming and decided to tidy up?”

“Shut up. This shit is in stacks now, which is an improvement from the last time you showed up unannounced and uninvited.”

I spied the coffee pot in the corner and nodded toward it. “Is this fresh or yesterday’s?”

“Just brewed. I gotta keep it going today. Chloe had nightmares last night, and we spent a lot of time wide awake, discussing how bears can’t really open your front door and get in. Especially our front door because I don’t think a bear knows how to work an elevator or has a keycard.”

I whistled. “Well, here, let me fill up your mug for you,” and topped off his coffee. I cleared a pile off the chair and pulled it closer to his desk.

“So. What brings you here?” he asked.

“Nothing. Just thought I’d see how you were doing.” I shrugged and took a hit of the coffee.

“Bullshit. Just spit it out. I don’t got time for games.”

“Okay, okay. I’m not seeing clearly right now and was hoping you’d weigh in.”

Bennett set his pen down and gave me his full attention.

“The short of it is, last night Nicole and I were having a nice dinner at the winery, and the big windstorm dropped a couple trees over the road. We had to spend the night, and they only had one room.” I paused, remembering it, and the corners of my mouth twitched up.

“We, ah, slept together in the Biblical sense,” I continued. “And now it’s weird.”

“Weird, like awkward?”

“Yes. I can’t fucking figure her out. She’s got these walls up and keeps friend-zoning me, but I think she’s into me despite herself.”

“Obviously, if you two shacked up.”

“So why are her walls back up this morning? She says she’ll be leaving because that’s what travel nurses do, so we should just let last night go and not have any more good times. So I let her go to work and didn’t say anything. What do I do now? This is driving me nuts.”

“I don’t know, man. I don’t know Nicole at all. But let’s not talk about what she wants for a sec. What doyouwant to happen here? That’s what you need to figure out first.”

I got up and paced the room, rubbing my neck again. I tried to sort it all out. “I have feelings for her,” I admitted. “But I don’t want to screw things up like I did with Mandy.”

“May I remind you, that wasn’t all you? Even your therapist told you that.”

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