“It has nothing to do with that. It has everything to do with respect for each other and not blurring the lines of our relationship and work. Is that why you didn’t date coworkers?”
“Yes and no. It’s part of it. The other is when things don’t work out, then I don’t have to see them. I told you that. But the thought of losing you and then seeing you, yeah...I don’t want to think of it. It’s making me want to race to your place.”
She laughed. “Good. Glad to know I don’t feel that way alone.”
“So what are you saying? That you have more feelings for me than being friends?”
“You know I do. And we aren’t saying anymore because the first time I hear really important words I don’t want them said over the phone.”
“Okay. We’ll change the subject. By the way, the lawsuit was dropped. Lucas told me today.”
“That’s great.”
“Aren’t you going to ask me why?”
She wanted to know but knew that would defeat everything they were talking about. “It’s not my business. We just said we’d separate things. Just know that I’m here to support you any way I can.”
“Then that’s enough,” he said.
25
Words of Love
The next night, Sierra would be coming to his house and they’d be going to dinner. He couldn’t wait to see her. To hold her. To kiss her. To tell her he loved her.
He was glad they could resolve their issues last night and he planned on telling her some more tonight.
The minute she pulled into his driveway, he opened the garage door from the house to wait for her. She got out with her bag, the smile on her face not quite as big as he would have liked, but it wasn’t a frown so he’d take it.
“Hey,” she said.
He pulled her into his arms and held her. Hugged her a little tighter and then kissed her neck. “I really am sorry and so glad you’re here. I’ve missed you.”
“It’s been a week,” she said, laughing, but hugged him back.
“I know. A long week that felt more like a month. Maybe a year with the way my brain has been in overdrive.”
“That makes two of us.”
“Come here,” he said, pulling her to the couch. “Are we good now?”
“Define good?” she asked, poking him in the stomach.
“I don’t expect what happened to be forgotten. I just guess I wonder if we can move on.”
“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think we could.”
“Good. Because I want to tell you what I was dying to on the phone last night and you halted me.”
“There is a reason I did. It’s like I said. Important things should be face to face.”
“Like apologies?” he asked.
Her smile wobbled a little. “That is one thing. But I am glad you said that on the phone first.”
“The other should be words of love the first time. I know you’ve got a thing about not dating doctors, but I’m pretty sure we are past that now.”
“I’d say we are,” she said, laughing.
“Well, I’m going to take a risk here and tell you that I love you. I started to feel something for you the weekend before we went to Buffalo.”
“And that’s why you made me wait?”
“That is part of it. And I started to think you were feeling the same way. Or maybe I was wearing you down. That has been my plan all along. To get you to see me as more than a friend.”
She laid her hand on his thigh, rubbed it a bit, then put her head on his shoulder. “I knew what you were doing. Part of me was happy because I needed the time to accept you and realize what a fool I was to put all doctors in the same category.”
“You had reason to be that way,” he said. “I know that.”
“It doesn’t make it right.”
“You’re killing me here. Do you feel the same way?”
“Oh, do you mean do I love you?”
“Yes,” he said.
“Of course I do. I think I started to feel it a few weeks ago. Not quite as fast as you, but I was sliding there, just at a slower rate.”
“It doesn’t matter the rate, it just matters that we’re both here.” He kissed her on the forehead and hugged her again.
“I agree. Can we get some dinner now that the words are all said?” she asked. “I haven’t been eating much lately. Thankfully, I work in the gastroenterology unit and knew my issue was stress. Or depression maybe. Some of it was anger. I just couldn’t eat, but now that we’ve made up, I’ve found I’m starving.”
“Then let’s go feed you.”
They left the house and went to the first restaurant they saw that wasn’t packed on Wolf Road. It didn’t matter where they ate; it only mattered that they were together.
When they were leaving an hour later, he held the door open for the man coming in followed by two kids—and a woman that he was hoping he’d never see again in this lifetime. “Grey,” Molly said. “How have you been?”
“Molly,” he said back. “Good. You?”
“Congrats,” he said, hoping she kept moving, but she didn’t. She turned her head. “Who are you with?”
“Sierra Stone, meet Molly...”
“Morgan,” she said. “Molly Morgan.”
He nodded his head and just got the hell out of there with the way she kept giving him a triumphant look. Like she won. She got what she wanted.
Well, maybe she did, but he found it didn’t bother him much at all. Not like he thought it would if he ever saw her again.
When they got to his car he just burst out laughing and couldn’t stop.
“What’s going on?” Sierra asked.
“Oh my God. That was my ex. The college girlfriend ex.”
“Really? I wouldn’t have pictured you with her. She didn’t seem like your type.”
“Everyone always told me that. Why do you think that?”
“Because she looked a little snooty. It’s like she was rubbing your face in something, but I had no idea what it was.”
“It’s the fact that she got the perfect little family that she always wanted. They even all have matching first and last name initials. I bet they all have the same middle initial too.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“I thought so too. She always had it all planned out for us. I thought I was in love with her and I realize now I was just in love with the idea of being with someone. Someone that I could come home to that would support me. But the thing is, she never did. All she cared about was marrying a doctor and being a mother. A stay at home mother.”
“So her husband—who looked a lot older than her—is a doctor?”
“No. I heard he was some executive.” They pulled back into the garage and got out.
“So, what really happened with you two? Make me understand why you’ve been single all this time so I don’t think what we’ve got is going to fizzle too.”
“It won’t,” he said, getting out of the car and holding the door for her. “You’re real. You care about me and not just what I do.”
“I do, but that doesn’t tell me everything that happened with you two.”
He wasn’t sure he wanted her to know but then realized he needed to get it out. “First off, I guess seeing her was a good thing. I always thought when I saw her again it would just hurt. That I lost her. She’d broken my heart and she knew it. She rubbed my face in things a lot when I saw her out early on.”
“Why did she leave?”
“Because what she had right there with her husband is what she wanted from me but she wanted it right away. She moved here with me so I could go to medical school close to home. I was going to be in so much debt and it’s a great col
lege, so I thought, why not? I could live at home and save costs.”
“Makes a lot of sense. She moved in with you at your parents?”
“No,” he said. “She resented that too. But I wasn’t going to ask her to. She was always demanding of my time and never understood my need to study. I’ll admit I put school first and then my career. More so that everything else got pushed aside. I didn’t ask her to follow me here. I was willing to do the long distance dating thing.”
“Then you must not have loved her as much as you thought you did.”
“I guess looking back that’s probably true. If it had been you, I would have begged you to come with me or I’d stay where we were if you didn’t.”
“That might be the sweetest thing ever. I guess it makes me realize I never loved Patrick that much either because I wouldn’t go with him and he didn’t want to stay for me. It just wasn’t meant to be. Did she talk to you about moving here?”
“She just said she’d gotten a job and an apartment by me. She thought we’d live together and I told her no. I didn’t have a job to help with the expenses and there was no way I was getting one either.”
“I bet she didn’t appreciate that.”
“No. But we stayed together for close to a year. She kept pressuring me to get married and I said to just wait. I couldn’t afford a ring; I couldn’t give her everything she wanted. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to, it’s just it wasn’t the time.”
“And kids? Did you want three kids?”
“I want children. I don’t know how many I want, but not five. She had a number in her head and all these names picked out. The funny part is, those three names of her kids are the same names she talked about using with our kids. It makes me realize it wasn’t me but the idea of everything she wanted that she was in love with.”
“And now that you saw her, how do you feel?” she asked.
“How I feel is that things happen in life that hurt or aren’t planned, but they end up being the right thing in the end. Just like what happened to you. You probably felt it was the end of the world when it was going on.”
“It was the end of my world as I knew it. Coming here had been so hard, but I knew I needed to.”
“And we found each other,” he said.
“We did. Thanks to Cori,” she said.
“Shh, we won’t tell her that.”
“No, we won’t!”
Epilogue
“Nice party,” Jack said to him a month later. “I almost wish we weren’t invited here.”
“Why is that?” Grey asked. They were standing on his deck, people milling around. Not a huge party, just his family and close friends.
“Because Cori has been bugging me to move here for years. I like my house, but she wants to change school districts before Summer starts. Right now, Summer will go to Albany public schools and though I don’t think it’s that big of a deal, I’m not from this area and understand her concerns.”
“It’s close to the hospital here and it’d be South Colonie schools,” he said. “I went to Shaker, but both are good districts.”
“It’s definitely something we need to think about and after this party I’m sure she’ll be yammering in my ear.”
Grey looked over when he heard the laughter and saw Summer running around his yard with Cori and Sierra chasing her with bubbles.
Yeah, that was what he’d imagined when he bought this house. Having a wife and kids in the backyard. He was ready to make it come true.
“Is there anything I can help you with?” Sierra asked him, coming over and slipping her arm around his waist. The two of them had been cooking and cleaning for two days for this party. Just like a team.
“No, you can relax. I’m going to light the grill in a few minutes. There is just one thing I need to do first.”
“What’s that?” she asked.
“Nothing big. I’ll be right back. Go enjoy yourself.”
He snuck in the house and grabbed a bottle of wine. Sierra’s favorite wine. The one he found out she was drinking the first night she was talking to him on the phone when she’d gotten out of the tub. She’d been teasing him ever since.
“Can I have everyone’s attention please?” he said when he came back on the deck.
His family turned, Sierra looking at him oddly. “What’s going on?” she asked. He only had eyes for her.
“Come here.”
She moved up on the deck next to him. There were a few snickers. “She looks like you are going to operate on her and she wants to run in the other direction,” Jake said.
“I know I’d be in good hands with him,” Sierra said.
“Good answer,” he said. “I’ve got a special bottle of wine for you.”
“Oh,” she said, her eyes lighting up. “You know I like my wine.”
“I do.”
She turned quickly. “I’m not an alcoholic everyone. I just like a glass a few nights a week.”
“Or a bottle when she wants to wring my neck,” he said.
“Sweetie,” his mother said. “That’s a woman’s right. It’s so we don’t wring your neck.”
Sierra turned the bottle and read the label. “Oh my. Does that say what I think it does?”
“Did you finally break the bank and buy an expensive bottle?” Colt asked.
“The most expensive one yet,” he said, taking the bottle out of her hand and reading it. “Sierra Stone, will you marry me? That’s the brand I got.”
Sierra’s hand went to her mouth. He set the bottle down and pulled the ring out of his pocket, then got down on one knee. “I should have done this before I read it, but you get the idea.”
“Yes,” she said. “Yes, I do. I get the idea and yes, I’ll marry you.”
He picked her up and swung her around, kissed her hard, and they heard the clapping.
“I told you, Jack,” Cori said. “You got mad at me for setting them up on that blind lunch date, but what they discovered was they loved each other. When will you listen to me?”
“Yes, Cori,” Grey said. “You were right. I shouldn’t have said only losers get set up. But now I’m a winner all the way.”
“We both won,” Sierra said. “I guess I ended up being the champion in the end. Not of the underdog. But winning the man that understands me the best and is willing to accept me the way I am.”
“I love the way you are. Never change and never let anyone stand in your way.”
“I’ll knock anyone down who stands in my way to becoming your wife!”
The End!
Did you like Cori and Jack Reynolds? You can read their story on Amazon, Road to Redemption, the second in the Roads Series.
Check out the rest of the Hot Hunks Steamy Romance Collection on our webpage and the rest of the Blind Date Series.
More by Natalie Ann
The Road Series-See where it all started!!
Lucas and Brooke’s Story- Road to Recovery
Jack and Cori’s Story – Road to Redemption
Mac and Beth’s Story- Road to Reality
Ryan and Kaitlin’s Story- Road to Reason
The All Series
William and Isabel’s Story — All for Love
Ben and Presley’s Story – All or Nothing
Phil and Sophia’s Story – All of Me
Alec and Brynn’s Story – All the Way
Sean and Carly’s Story — All I Want
Drew and Jordyn’s Story— All My Love
Finn and Olivia’s Story—All About You
Landon Barber and Kristen Reid- All Of Us
The Lake Placid Series
Nick Buchanan and Mallory Denning – Second Chance
Max Hamilton and Quinn Baker – Give Me A Chance
Caleb Ryder and Celeste McGuire – Our Chance
Cole McGuire and Rene Buchanan – Take A Chance
Zach Monroe and Amber Deacon- Deserve A Chance
Trevor Miles and Riley Hamilton – Last Chance
Matt
Winters and Dena Hall- Another Chance
Logan Taylor and Kennedy Miles- It’s My Chance
The Fierce Five Series
Gavin Fierce and Jolene O’Malley- How Gavin Stole Christmas
Brody Fierce and Aimee Reed - Brody
Aiden Fierce and Nic Moretti- Aiden
Mason Fierce and Jessica Corning- Mason
Cade Fierce and Alex Marshall - Cade
Ella Fierce and Travis McKinley- Ella
Fierce Family
Sam Fierce and Dani Rhodes- Sam
Bryce Fierce and Payton Davies - Bryce
Drake Fierce and Kara Winslow – Drake
Noah Fierce and Paige Parker - Noah
Wyatt Fierce and Adriana Lopez - Wyatt
Love Collection
Vin Steele and Piper Fielding – Secret Love
Jared Hawk and Shelby McDonald – True Love
Erik McMann and Sheldon Case – Finding Love
Connor Landers and Melissa Mahoney- Beach Love
Ian Price and Cam Mason- Intense Love
Liam Sullivan and Ali Rogers - Autumn Love
Owen Taylor and Jill Duncan - Holiday Love
Chase Martin and Noelle Bennett - Christmas Love
Zeke Collins and Kendall Hendricks - Winter Love
Troy Walker and Meena Dawson – Chasing Love
Jace Stratton and Lauren Towne - First Love
Gabe Richards and Leah Morrison - Forever Love
Blake Wilson and Gemma Anderson – Simply Love
Brendan St. Nicholas and Holly Lane – Gifts of Love
Paradise Place
Josh Turner and Ruby Gentile – Cupid’s Quest
Harris Walker and Kaelyn Butler- Change Up
Philip Aire and Blair McKay – Starting Over
Where to find Natalie Ann
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