there today,” I said. “If I don’t see him for a few days, maybe that’ll make things less awkward.”
“I doubt it.” She smirked and pointed at the door. “Well, let’s go, stalker chick.”
Narrowing my eyes in my best screw-you glare, I held her gaze to make sure she got the message and then went to gather my things. My heart raced when I left the apartment, a hollow feeling settling in the pit of my stomach.
Once I was back at my desk and had updated all my colleagues who asked about Adi’s condition, I took a few breaths and tried to concentrate on work. All morning, I pretended that I wasn’t looking for Chris, but whenever I looked up, I found my eyes roaming the lobby for him.
Why I was looking for him, I didn’t know. I really wanted it to be so I could duck in time to avoid him, but there was a gnawing truth at the back of my mind. I wanted to see him simply because I wanted to see him.
Those light green eyes had been popping into my thoughts too often to deny it. I’d also wondered on more than one occasion what it would be like to drag my fingers through his silky hair or to run my hands down the muscular planes of his back.
When he still hadn’t shown up by lunchtime, I realized he was probably either busy upstairs or not on shift. It shouldn’t have mattered where he was anyway. Unless I wanted to seem even more obsessed with him, I needed to get a damn grip.
Determined not to be the stalker chick my own sister now thought I was, I marched down to the cafeteria and resolved to do better after my break. I will not look for Doctor Sexy—
My thoughts were interrupted by a familiar deep voice coming from behind me. “Mind if I join you?”
I whirled around on my seat, briefly wondering if I’d somehow summoned him with my borderline obsessive thinking about him. “Yeah. No. Sure.”
Oh, God. Since when do I stammer around guys? Kicking out a chair across from me, I focused on giving him a smile instead of trying to figure out the confusion swimming around my head.
Chris looked as good as ever, his blonde hair just messed up enough to know he’d been working and hadn’t bothered to check it. His green eyes seemed to sparkle in the midday sun shining into the courtyard where I’d taken a seat, and his lips formed an easygoing smile.
“How’s Adi doing?” he asked, sitting down opposite me.
I shrugged, acting like I wasn’t suddenly a bundle of nerves for some odd reason. “She’s good. She’s been practicing those stretches, and the ball is basically glued to her hand.”
He chuckled, and the rich sound of it made my stomach feel all warm. Maybe I was coming down with something.
“That’s good news. Dedicated patients always recover faster than those who only work while they’re with us.”
“You’ve definitely got a dedicated patient in her.”
I cocked my head after giving myself a quick pep talk. I’d been acting so unlike myself recently that I was even annoying my own daughter. I needed to calm down and get back to being me. All this freaking out, hovering, obsessing, and snapping wasn’t me.
Which wasn’t to say I wasn’t a bitch at times. I just wasn’t usually one without reason. Chris hadn’t given me any reason. If anything, he was possibly the nicest person I’d ever met.
“I’m sorry if I’ve come across as a crazy person,” I said. “This has just been a really difficult time.”
“No need to apologize.” His smile grew wider. “I’ve already told you I understand. How are you holding up with everything?”
“Worse than I thought I would,” I said, surprising even myself with my honesty. “One minute, you think you can handle anything life throws at you and rock at it, and the next, you get knocked so far off your game that you don’t even recognize yourself.”
Understanding softened the corners of his eyes. “The universe sure has a way of putting us back in our place if our heads get too big. It’s happened to us all, I think.”
Something told me he really did understand, but prying into his innermost thoughts and experiences didn’t feel right. I sat back instead, spearing a tomato with my fork and deciding it was better to just keep things light.
“You and Hunter seem to work well together. How long has he been your assistant?”