Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 80651 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80651 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
I nearly laughed but I saw he wasn’t joking. “I’m good, thanks. We’re only going for one night. I’ve not brought anything too heavy.”
“It’s exciting, right?” he asked.
“Sort of,” I said. Honestly, if they hadn’t needed us in the hospital, I would have been happier to spend the day in bed. I wouldn’t even need Netflix. As a hairdresser, I’d been used to being on my feet all day, but studying had turned the soles of my feet into wimps. I just wanted an extended period of time lying down.
“It's good to get out of the hospital,” he said. “And the weather’s great. Did you fill out your survey about the thing we’d most like to change?”
“I did.”
“Are they going to pick the one most people talk about, do you think? And what are they going to do? Tell us they’re going to fix it to improve morale?”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” I said. The tail end of the coach came into view and I wondered if I was going to get stuck with Andy the whole ride to the hotel.
“I’ve put it into Google,” he said. “The drive is less that forty-five minutes. Even in a coach.”
“Good to know.” Fact was, I’d Googled it too. I needed to know what I was walking into. I still wasn’t sure. All I knew was that the hotel had a pool, so I packed my costume and tried not to think about Jacob being assigned a bedroom next door to mine.
As we climbed the hill, the rest of the coach came into view and I saw Jacob standing by the open door. Kill me now. He looked even more gorgeous than he usually did, wearing a bright white polo shirt and dark blue jeans, the casual attire topped with wayfarers. Why couldn’t I have had sex with a really ugly, short, greasy man? Why did the guy I was set up on a blind date with have to be . . . Jacob?
“Andrew,” he said, glancing from me to Andy and back again. “Sutton.”
“Excited to be here,” Andy said.
“We’re here,” a woman called from behind me. Gilly and Veronica came rushing toward the coach.
“What are you wearing tonight?” Gilly asked me the moment she was close enough to talk without yelling.
I looked down at what I was currently wearing and wondered whether or not I’d missed something in Jacob’s email about a fancy dinner or something.
“There will be no need to change,” Jacob said. “We’re just having a barbeque in the gardens.”
Thank goodness for that.
“But I have this beautiful one-shouldered top I bought especially,” Gilly said.
Jacob’s gaze flitted to mine. What was he thinking? Was he remembering that I’d worn a one-shouldered top on our date? Or how he’d almost ripped it off me before taking my breast in his mouth and—
I needed to stop thoughts like that immediately or I wasn’t going to be able to make it through two days of being so close to Jacob outside the hospital.
Gilly gazed up at Jacob, practically stroking him. “I wouldn’t want to waste it.”
“On the coach,” Jacob said. “There’s plenty of room to spread out. You don’t need to share seats.”
I smiled as I climbed the coach steps, fantasizing to myself that Jacob had made the point that we could spread out because he didn’t want me sitting next to Andy. But it wasn’t like he was jealous. He could have any woman he wanted.
Anyone who didn’t work at the Royal Free.
I bagged a seat on my own about halfway down the bus, behind Veronica and Gilly. Within a few minutes, the coach had pulled off on our way to the hotel.
Veronica and Gilly chattered away, eventually giving up on including me in their comparison of the last few weeks when I didn’t really offer much. They talked about what they did and didn’t like and what they were hoping to get as their next rotation. Neither of them wanted pediatrics long-term. Truth be told, I wasn’t sure whether or not I could see myself in pediatrics. I loved it, but it was rough seeing sick kids all day every day. But maybe it was always rough, no matter the age of the patient.
It was nice to sit down for a bit, catch up on emails and pay some bills. I’d taken an extra shift this week so I’d fallen behind with my life admin.
I glanced down the aisle of the coach and saw the top of Jacob’s blond head at the front. His long, denim-covered leg stretched out into the space between the seats.
Was he as aware of me as I was of him?
It was like I had Jacob Cove radar on high alert all the time. I recognized his footsteps on the linoleum of the hospital floor. I knew his handwriting and his preferred way of shortening “attention” to “atten,” and the way when he signed his name, the sweeping ‘J’ reminded me of the curve of his lips.