shaking her head. Despite the weirdness, I couldn’t help but grin.
“A coffee drink,” I said. I wasn’t worried about getting too tipsy and doing anything stupid. More I wanted to make sure my head was in the right space while he and I were talking.
“Tomorrow?”
“Thursday. At Apres Ski.”
A pause. “Thursday. Let’s say at six.”
“Done.”
“See you then. I’ll be looking forward to it.”
I couldn’t really say the same. “Yeah.” I hung up.
“It’s happening?” asked Gia.
“It’s happening.”
“Why Thursday? Don’t you want to get it over with as soon as possible?”
“More like I want to give myself a chance to cancel. I’m meeting with my ex, remember.”
Gia nodded, getting it. Then, as if reading my mind, she passed me the wine. I sipped it, gazing out the window at the snow-blanketed mountains in the distance.
What the hell was I doing?
Duncan
I felt torn in two. And as a man who took pride in always being certain, never doubting myself, it was a sentiment I most definitely wasn’t comfortable with.
I spent the day at home, taking calls from my office, doing my best to lose myself in my work, my preferred approach to deal with any problems in my personal life – not that I ever had too many of those. Work never failed to take my mind off whatever else was going on.
But then something happened during the middle of one of my conference calls.
One of my doctors had been discussing a few recent gains and setbacks since opening his clinic. As hard as I tried to pay attention, I simply couldn’t. My mind drifted, focusing on her.
I kept thinking about the other night, about introducing her to Andrew like that. I’d been so certain, so sure I’d made the right moves. I’d gone into it with the same certainty I had about all of my decisions, from my personal life to my career.
Only this time, I felt…regret.
It was a strange sensation, the idea of looking back on something I’d done and not feeling confident in my decisions. I didn’t like it one bit. But I couldn’t shake it. Had I screwed up? Had I hurt both my brother and Annie?
But what else could I have done?
“Dr. Pitt?” Dr. Oak asked, her sharp, professional tone snapping me back into the moment.
“Huh?” My eyes flicked up to the screen and the four-panel image of Dr. Oak and three other doctors, all of them staring at me expectantly.
Dr. Oak appeared confused. “I was…simply going over the next month’s appointments. What’s your take?”
I had no answer. I’d been so wrapped up in my thoughts that I had zoned out. I cleared my throat. “I think the workday’s caught up with me. Do you mind emailing them to me so I can give them a look?”
She nodded, a frown on her face. “Sure. I’ll have my assistant send them within the hour.”
“Perfect. And let’s wrap this up for today. I’m sure you all could do with an early night.” They all nodded with the same relieved expression on their faces. “Great work, everyone. I’ll be looking forward to speaking to you all again soon.”
We said our goodbyes, and the call ended. When the screen went black, I sighed and sat back, shaking my head at what I’d done. There wasn’t a chance in hell I was going to let my personal life effect my work. There was simply too much going on for that to happen.
But I couldn’t stop thinking about Annie. And not only about what had gone down. I couldn’t stop thinking about all the things I loved about her.
Loved.
At the appearance of the word in my mind, I stood up, stunned.
Too soon for that, I thought. Way too fucking soon.
The walls of the office began to close in on me. I drained the rest of the water from my nearby glass and hurried out, undoing my tie and tossing it onto the back of a chair in the hallway.
I needed to get out of the house. After snatching up my keys, I stuffed my phone and wallet in my pocket and hurried to my Land Rover. The roads had long been cleared, but the branches of the pines above were thick with snow. White was all around me, the endless stretches of winter putting my mind at ease.
I had no clear destination in mind, only that I needed to get out of the house. First stop was Apres Ski Coffee. More calm washed over me as soon as I stepped into the place. And –