The Wedding Date: A Christmas Novella Read Online Free Page A

couldn’t tell him to his face. Oh, no. He’d smile all over her and she’d knuckle under again.
    She’d call him, that’s what she’d do. Then there’d be no crinkly eyes, no dimple. No stupid sexy stubble. On the phone she could behave like the mature professional she was.
    With a last fleeting glance, she turned her back on the door—and ran.
    S TEPPING OUTSIDE, C ODY glimpsed Julie’s red coat disappearing around the corner. What the hell? He couldn’t have been more than two minutes, and she’d ditched him.
    Before he could ask himself why he didn’t just let her go, he took off after her.
    She moved fast, but Cody was faster. He might walk like a snail, but he ran like a jaguar, even in cowboy boots. He spotted her going down into the T and he poured on the gas, caught up to her before she shot through the turnstile.
    When he touched her arm, she jumped a foot. “What the hell?”
    “That’s what I’d like to know,” he said. “I turned around and you were gone.”
    Her cheeks were flushed. “I-I thought the hospital needed you. That you’d have to go.”
    “It’s my first day off in a week,” he said. “It’d take a plane crash to get me back there today.”
    “Don’t you have patients? Don’t you think they might need you?”
    She sounded pissed, though he couldn’t see why. “I’m an ER doc. I treat traumas. Accidents, gunshots, food poisoning.”
    That seemed to befuddle her. “So you don’t have your own patients?”
    “No, I treat ’em and pass ’em on.”
    She stiffened again. “So you just shunt them through the system? You don’t take responsibility for them, or follow up to see whether they live or die?”
    “I keep ’em alive, Julie. That’s my job. Then I move them along to docs who can treat them long term.” He plowed a hand through his dripping hair, spattering raindrops. “Can we get out of this weather? Find someplace warm and talk about what’s bothering you?”
    “Nothing’s bothering me.”
    Yeah, right.
    “Then let’s find someplace warm and get lunch.” He tried the smile, though he was starting to doubt its mojo. She seemed semi-immune to him. One minute she looked like she wanted to eat him up, the next she was trying to dish him off on some other Realtor, or running away from him altogether.
    He had to admit she’d caught his interest, but was she really worth all this trouble?
    Then she opened her coat, flapped it a few times, and he got an eyeful. Her white silk blouse was wet, glued to her bra and transparent as glass.
    He jerked his eyes up to her face before she noticed him staring, but the lacy pattern was burned into his retinas.
    He redoubled his efforts.
    “Julie, honey,” he drawled, “I been up all night. I’ve got to eat or hit the sheets, one or the other.” A raindrop rolled down her cheek. He thumbed it off, couldn’t resist adding, “You’re welcome to join me for either.”
    She rolled her eyes. “Does that line really work?”
    “You tell me.”
    She flapped her coat again.
    He kept his eyes on hers. Rubbed his jaw so the stubble rasped.
    She looked away. Fought the demon again. Finally threw up her hands. “There’s a pub around the corner. But no dawdling. I’m giving up my afternoon off for this.”
    “Now I feel guilty,” he said as they trotted up the steps to the sidewalk. He pulled off his jacket, held it over their heads. Rain streamed off the edges, washed down their backs. At least Julie had her coat. He was immediately soaked to the skin. “Let’s call it off. Head up to my room for a hot shower.”
    She snorted. “I thought you were sick of the hotel and desperate to find a condo? Poor Betsy in the kennel and all that.”
    “Betsy’s living large at my brother’s ranch,” he said, tucking her against his side. “And I’m thinking I can put up with the hotel a little longer.”
    Hell, if it got Julie out of her wet clothes, he’d put up with it a lot longer. He’d plant a fucking flag and call