Page 4 of Hogging the Hunk

“No kidding? I thought you liked to wear a white lab coat to be stylish.”

Tipping her head back, Beckett’s laugh was effervescent, bubbling like she’d cracked a can of soda and poured it too quickly into a glass. “Sometimes I even like to accessorize with a stethoscope.”

“Same.” I pulled my stethoscope out of the pocket of my coveralls and modeled it around my neck.

Widening her smile, Beckett waved. “It was nice to bump into you, Dr. Fox.”

“Milo.”

“Good luck to your niece or cousin or whoever you’re helping.” Beckett twiddled her fingers in a friendly goodbye. “See you around.”

Fear threatened to paralyze me. Daughter. I’d put myself through the discomfort for Ellie, and would have done it a hundred times over for her. It was the very least I could do. If anyone should be pitied, it would be her. Embarking into womanhood had to be enough of a challenge. Add moving to a new town to live with your biological dad, who had no clue what he was doing was a spectacular leap of faith. Not for the first time I silently prayed I wouldn’t let her down.

Beckett rounded the corner, whistling as she disappeared. Maybe I’d take her up on talking to Ellie to make sure everything was alright. A report from Beckett might help me figure out where I could improve for Ellie’s sake.

As I swung my cart around, ready to brave the scrutiny of the cashier, Beckett zoomed back into the aisle with her eyes as wide as dinner plates. Looking right and left, I understood that expression of terror—she was searching for a hiding place. Like me, she found nothing, so instead, she grabbed the nearest box from the shelf and pretended to be absorbed in reading the instructions.

“Beckett?” I asked.

She severely shushed me.

Guiding over my cart, I parked it beside her, and spoke in the same quiet voice I tended to use when animals were scared of my mere presence. They always seemed to know when the vet was around. “Is everything okay?”

“I’m… It’s…” The apples of her cheeks were flushed and her lips were parted as she sucked in raspy breaths.

Before any of my questions were answered, a man came jogging past, skidding to a stop at our aisle. With his eyes focused on Beckett, I was less than a fly on the wall to him. Whoever he was, I had a sudden and rather unreasonable protective urge send a pulse of adrenaline through my veins. My fists tightened, my senses heightened. I would step in and fight for Beckett if it came to it.

“I thought it was you,” the man said, slightly out of breath from his pursuit, too. “I never thought I’d have to chase down my girlfriend just to say hello.”

Chapter Two

Beckett

“Greg! Wow! Hi!”

My enthusiasm sounded caffeinated and was as see-through as lace.

No. Wrong analogy. Do not think about lace because then you’ll start thinking about Milo talking about lacy nightgowns, and… just, no.

Greg’s smirk was telling. We had known each other for six years and off-and-on dated for two years before things became serious. All that time I’d given him was easy access to knowing my quirks. How the length and pitch of my giggle indicated my nervousness. When I knotted my fingers together, I was uncomfortable. Greg wasn’t fooled by my chipper greeting. Inhaling to try to appease my madly beating heart, I accidentally caught an invisible tendril of Greg’s cologne. Dang, I’d missed his smell. Gone was the comfort and predictability of our relationship, and how I knew right where I fit.

What I sort of didn’t love about the side effect of dating him so long was that it meant Greg could read me like an open book. He could flip to any page, whether or not I wanted him to.

I folded my arms, trying to keep my inner thoughts to myself. Greg wretched me open with the flash of his charming smile.

“Were you trying to hide from me?” Greg’s smile elevated to megawatt. The grocery store could have been powered by it. More than one person had suggested if he hadn’t become a doctor and put that smile to good use, helping his patients relax with his amiable bedside manner, he could have schmoozed constituents as a politician.

“No,” I said, or rather, yelped. Yes. It was definitely a yelp. “I was needing…”

My mind raced, and I tried to think of a plausible explanation for my sudden disappearance. One minute, I was rounding up my errand by picking up a bag of brown sugar so I could bake cookies before bedtime, the next, my eyes were locked with Greg’s over the tiny shoe selection at the center of the store. I fidgeted with the box in my hands when an idea popped into my head.

A prop! It’ll give me a probable excuse.

I peered down at the box.

It was a two-pack pregnancy test.

This day was going downhill faster than a penguin riding an avalanche on his slick stomach.

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