ever experienced with any man, Vic. Every time he looks at me, I get hot and bothered. I hear his voice and it’s the same thing. I don’t know what to do about it. Like I said, it’s crazy.”
“Not as crazy as you think. You and Parker are interested in each other, but obviously neither of you are ready to admit it.”
Sebrina rolled her eyes. “I just think it’s been too long since I’ve had sex. That should change this weekend when I go out with Bob.”
“Bob Rollins? Boring Bob?”
Sebrina fought back a grin. “He isn’t boring. Not really.”
“Yes, he is. You even said so. Do you think he will shut up long enough to get you into bed? And why on earth are you going back out with him anyway?”
“Parker and I talked about our predicament and came up with a solution to phase out this chemistry between us—we’re going to start dating other people.”
“What in the world are you talking about, Bree?”
It took Bree ten minutes to explain the plan to Victoria. It would have taken less time had Victoria not asked so many questions. “So, Parker has a date tomorrow night and I have one, as well.”
“Good luck with that.”
“What are you talking about?”
“And here I thought, Dr. Bennett, that you knew so much. The heart wants what the heart wants. Sexual chemistry has a language all its own and it’s talking to the two of you, whether you and Parker Stanhope listen or not. So why fight it? You two are in the house all alone. Why can’t you just get it on?”
“Being married has gone to your head, Victoria. I’ve never just got it on with any guy.”
“Maybe it’s time for it to happen, Bree.”
“It won’t. Parker and I are working together as a team to help it fade away.”
“I hear you, but sexual chemistry between two people isn’t anything to play with. You see how things were with me and Cortez. We tried ignoring it, but it didn’t do any good. So we had no choice but to act on it. I think the two of you should do the same.”
Sebrina recalled that had been one of the options Parker had suggested in the beginning. “I don’t know. Remember what happened when you and Cortez acted on it? You fell in love with him. I can’t let that happen.”
“You can’t or you won’t? That brings me to Wade. And you might have noticed, it always comes back to Wade, Bree. You can’t go through life thinking every man will break your heart just because Wade did. If Kennedy could give love another try then you definitely can.”
“I’m not Kennedy. But even she admitted later that she’d never truly loved Charles, that she just fancied herself in love with him.”
“Yes, but the pain, hurt and humiliation she felt finding her fiancé in bed with another woman just months before her wedding was still painful for her, Bree.”
“I know.”
“You can’t fear what could happen if you were to ever fall in love again.”
“And I will fall in love again. But why waste the emotion on someone who can’t make me a part of his future?”
“And you know this how? Because he’s going to move to Tampa in a year? That doesn’t mean a thing. What makes you think he can’t include you in those plans?”
Sebrina didn’t say anything. She couldn’t. Because she didn’t have an answer to Victoria’s question. And she refused to let her cousin put ideas in her head. “I’m pulling into the hospital parking lot now, Vic. We will have to finish this conversation at another time.”
Actually, she hoped Victoria forgot all about it, but that was probably too much to hope for.
“Okay. And Bree?”
“Yes?”
“I honestly think you like Parker more than you want to admit.”
Unfortunately, Sebrina was thinking that very same thing.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
PARKER GLANCED ACROSS THE dinner table at his date Gabby, short for Gabriella. The name Gabby suited her better though, because his first impression of her was right on—the woman liked to talk. And she spent most of the evening telling him what she liked—whether it was food, movies, books or even make-up. Like he gave a royal flip about the different types of make-up and which ones better suited her skin. In the beginning, he had given her his undivided attention, listening as she talked. But he couldn’t do it anymore.
He felt nothing. Not even the slightest tinge of desire and that bothered him. He should have felt something.