Need You Now (Love in Unknown) - By Taylor M. Lunsford Page 0,66

should be annoyed by this fact, but she was too tired to care. Caine was busy with stuff with his uncle’s firm and with town business, so she hadn’t seen him in the last few days. That didn’t stop Merna’s Matches from posting about their comings and goings and the fact that she received a small flower or chocolate delivery at the office every day, much to Sandra’s chagrin.

It also didn’t stop him from calling her when he got home each night. Usually, she was already curled up in bed with a book when her phone would sing “As Time Goes By.” She’d answer and they’d talk. Most nights he was too tired to do more than talk about his day, but last night, he’d been feeling a little playful. Phone sex, while not nearly as enjoyable as real sex, could still wear a girl out. Combined with back to back patients, she didn’t have the energy to be irritated by the fact that her social life was what was helping her professional life.

She could only be grateful for it. Caine opened the door, but she would be the one to keep it open. Loyal patients like Mrs. McGarry would be the ones to keep it open. For the first time since she left town as a scared seventeen-year-old, she felt like she had found her place in a group. She was the town doctor who happened to be dating the town mayor and the town was okay with that. Life might not be so bad.

#

For the third time that day, Caine wished he’d convinced Emma Carr to schedule the cookout for sometime other than right after one of his baseball games. He didn’t even have time to run home and shower or change out of his grubby jeans and jersey. Sure, he’d known Mel’s family all of his life, but he hadn’t been over to their house for dinner in years, and never as Mel’s boyfriend.

Boyfriend. He still couldn’t get used to how good that sounded.

Luckily, Gage was just as grubby as he was. “Did you really have to drive us over here in this ridiculous thing?”

Caine pulled the Mayor Mobile up the Carrs’ driveway. “Well, we would have looked stupid showing up on your bike, and my truck was at Town Hall.”

“This is seriously the least dignified method of transportation known to man,” Gage grumbled, levering himself out of the cart.

Caine began to walk up the driveway. “Nah. Unicycles are way worse.”

He knocked on the door. Growing up, he and Gage used to come and go as they pleased, but it felt weird to do that now. He’d visited the house a few times since Micah had come back to town, but this visit was different than all of the others.

“Caine! So good to see you, honey.” Emma Carr greeted him with the same warm hospitality she had since he’d shown up with Micah when he was a scrawny six-year-old. She even leaned up and kissed his cheek, after she hugged Gage. “Micah and Melody are already in the back. Now that you’re here, we can toss the chicken on the grill.”

“Thanks for inviting me, Emma.” Emma led them through the house. Not much had changed. The furniture was updated, but the atmosphere was the same as he remembered. Warm. Open. You knew the minute you walked in that a family who loved each other lived here.

“Please. You’re family. We’re always happy to have you here.” The backyard looked like something lout of a movie. Neatly cut grass. Flower beds brimming with colorful blooms. Tree house still up in the tree even after all these years. In one corner of the flagstone patio stood an umbrella-shaded picnic table. Mel, looking fresh and lovely in khaki capris and a floaty blue top, threw a baseball to her nephew. Jax wore the same look of intense concentration Mel did when she wanted to do something exactly right the first time. He’d first seen it when helping her ride her bike for the first time.

“Caine!” A big smile broke across her face. While they’d talked on the phone every night before bed, he’d been too busy with several deals at Town Hall to see her. He hadn’t realized exactly how much he’d missed her until now.

He took long strides toward her until he could wrap his arms around her and kiss her. “Hello, sunshine. Been too long since I got to do that.”

Leaning in again, he would have stolen another kiss