Molly - Sarah Monzon Page 0,25

definitely not mine in any other sense of the word.

I started collecting the larger pieces of glass that stuck out of the sea of daiquiri like jagged icebergs. “He’s not my anything. He heard the crash and was coming over anyway because Chloe left her unicorn in my car. Simple as that.”

Silence followed my little speech as I continued to clean up the mess on the floor. Once all the glass shards had been removed, Betsy mopped up the melting liquid.

Amanda pouted at me when I took the seat beside her.

“What?” I sighed.

“Would it have been so terrible to let me imagine a McDreamy was on his way to fix me?” She clutched at her leg with all the dramatics of a second-string understudy in a bad high school production. “It would have distracted me from the throbbing pain.”

Nicole met my gaze across the table and snickered. I rolled my eyes but couldn’t keep from laughing.

The doorbell rang and Jocelyn darted forward. “I’ll get it.”

I stood and started to follow but didn’t make it far. Ben’s frame filled the entrance to the galley-style kitchen.

What was different about him today? Before he left for the hospital for his shifts, he was always professionally put together. Starched and ironed slacks, button up shirt and tie, and a pristine white lab coat. Occasionally switch out the slacks and shirt for scrubs, but the effect was the same. Coming home, the clothes changed—he never returned wearing the same thing he’d left in—but even then, he looked different than he did now. What was the change? He had the same strength in his jaw that he always had. The same purpose in his stride.

I let my eyes roam over him like a detective searching for clues.

My perusal swept past his jeans and the black V-neck shirt that accentuated his biceps—thank you pull up bar hanging on the doorframe of the guest bedroom—and stopped at the crown of his head.

His hair.

Instead of the gel-tamed locks held down for business, his thick, dark-brown hair formed waves along his skull. Short on the sides and longer on top, the lack of product gave him a boyish, carefree allure that I’d never seen on him before.

I ignored the small flip in my stomach and quickly looked past him, afraid to get caught staring. Jocelyn had Chloe on her hip and my car keys in her hand. Princess Sparkle Cupcake would be rescued in no time.

“Did you know that over one hundred thousand people are injured in kitchen-related accidents every year? It’s why I tend to stay out of mine.” Ben strode into the room wearing a grin and holding a doctor’s bag at his side. He took the chair I had vacated and pointed to Amanda’s leg. “May I?”

Amanda stared at him with wide, doe-like eyes and nodded. As soon as Ben bent over to collect her leg and rest her ankle on his thigh, she pinned me with a look and mouthed Oh. My. Goodness!

I rolled my eyes and shook my head at her.

Nicole sidled over to me and leaned close. “Now I know why you haven’t mentioned him to any of us. That man is beyond good-looking.”

And she hadn’t even seen him with his daughter yet.

“I’ll try and run interference, but you know the other three aren’t going to let this go.”

I did know. But there wasn’t anything to say. Did I find him attractive? Yes. I could admit that because I never lied. But my friends would want to speculate and make conjectures, twisting the truth into a story to fit their fancy.

Ben pulled on some purple nitrile exam gloves, then lifted the paper towel from Amanda’s shin. “Knife?”

She shook her head. “Clumsiness. I dropped a glass blender.”

Betsy held Amanda’s hand while Ben gently did his examination.

“We’ve got plenty of needles and thread in the living room, doc,” Betsy offered with a grin.

He glanced up, eyebrow quirked. “Oh?”

“I’m not a length of linen.” Amanda folded her arms with an exaggerated pout.

“No, I think you’d be more of a jersey girl,” I tossed her way.

She laughed. “If it’s a sports jersey then you’ve got that right.”

Ben rotated in his seat to look back at me, a smile playing on his lips. “I think I’m missing something here.”

“You’ve stumbled upon a truly rare event, Dr. Reed.” My lips pressed into a smile, but I didn’t add anything, even after his curious tilt of the head.

“Definitely a never-seen-before moment,” Betsy added.

He grinned. “Why do I feel like I’ve just