Only Tyler Read Online Free

practice together.
    Tyler knew that starting her own practice had always been Katie’s dream. She’d worked tirelessly to get a good education, taken on part-time jobs to pay for medical school and worked herself to a standstill to maintain her grades. The medical practice was the undisputed fruit of her labor and she took great pride in it. Finding Steve, a man with a similar vision who could help build her dream, was, as Katie had put it, a match made in heaven.
    Career-wise, Tyler thought grimly. Nothing more.
    “She’s seeing your patients and hers today?” Tyler asked. That was a substantial caseload. More than one doctor should handle, but Katie had taken it on. She was hiding from him. Good.
    Steve held up his hands in defense. “Kate thought it important for you and me to spend some quality male bonding time together.” He chuckled. “Her words, not mine.”
    Tyler laughed, easily able to imagine Katie saying something like that. He idly wondered if she’d offer him the same opportunity with her? A chance to renew their old friendship? Then he lost his humor.
    Bonding time for Steve and him? Ironic figure of speech when he’d come home to see if there was any possibility Katie might still love him.
    Damn, when did Steve decide to propose, anyway? How had it all come about? He needed answers. “So,” he said conversationally, “you did it.”
    Steve didn’t blink or ask for clarification. He answered Tyler as though they’d been discussing the subject for the last ten minutes.
    “Yep. I did.” He set the paper down and raised an eyebrow. “What do you think?”
    Tyler hesitated. “Honestly?”
    “Is there any other way?”
    He frowned to himself. There were degrees of honesty. He could rein in his jealousy and answer like an adult like a friend. Or he could lay into his buddy and smash his nose into the back of his head.
    He chose the adult option. Perhaps if he handled this entire complicated scenario like an adult, his and Steve’s friendship would escape unscathed.
    Perhaps neither he nor Steve would get hurt in the process.
    Or perhaps not.
    “I was surprised.” Gutted would be more accurate, but Steve had no way of knowing that.
    “That I proposed? Or that she said yes?”
    He smiled. “Both, I guess.” He hadn’t seen it coming. Hadn’t thought for one second Steve would make a move on Katie. They were friends and business partners. Not lovers and certainly not husband-and-wife material.
    “Me too,” Steve admitted. “But you know what? It felt right at the time, so I went with it. It must have felt right to Kate also, because she went for it too.”
    “Do you love her?” The words, though spoken calmly, tore through his throat, leaving it raw and stinging. He didn’t want to know the answer. Didn’t want to hear that Steve loved her.
    Steve smiled and answered without answering. “What’s not to love?”
    “Not a thing.” Not one damn thing. He kept his tone neutral, inquisitive. “Why Katie? Of all the women you could have picked?”
    One thing about Steve, there’d never been a shortage of women. In the past, there was only one he’d ever cared about, but there were hundreds out there waiting to pick up any scraps he was willing to throw out. For a while, after Penelope, he’d thrown scraps all over the place, slept with anyone he found vaguely attractive but none of them had meant anything to him. Until now.
    Still, why Katie?
    “Because we’re friends. Because she gets me. Because she’s beautiful. Because I know the two of us can be happy together, and so does she.”
    Fuck, he did not want to hear it. The only man he wanted Katie to be happy with was himself. “She gets you?” He laughed.
    “She always has. She gets my humor, she gets my thought processes. Kate understands me.”
    “Yep.” There’d always been a connection between them. They had similar dreams, similar goals. They’d opened a practice together, for God’s sake. They had endless