Page 17 of Beating Heart
“All right.” I set my bottle down as my gaze locked with hers. “You came from a big city. You probably went to some fancy Ivy League college and graduated top of your class. You’re a rule follower. You’ve probably never broken a rule in your life.”
“Wow. You make me sound so fun.” She rolled her eyes and took another pull from her beer. “For the record, I did my residency in San Francisco because it has a fantastic children’s hospital. But I actually grew up in a small town not too far from here called Rosewood River. So, you have me pegged as a city girl, but I’m actually a small-town girl at heart.”
That surprised me. “Ahhhh… I wouldn’t have guessed that.”
“I guess I’m not as easy to read as you think I am.”
“Okay. So, did you go to an Ivy League college? And are you going to claim you aren’t a rule follower?” I smirked.
“I went to Stanford for undergrad, so that’s not technically an Ivy League school.”
“You went to fucking Stanford.” I barked out a laugh. “Close enough. Let’s give me that one, huh?”
“Fine. But you should know that I actually went there on an athletic scholarship, not an academic scholarship, so I’m guessing you wouldn’t have thought that,” she said, and when she smiled at me, my fucking chest squeezed. The sun was setting behind her in the distance; the pink and orange sky looked more like a painted backdrop in the distance.
“What sport?”
“Volleyball. I played all four years.” She shrugged.
“And where did rule breaking fall on your list of being a Division 1 athlete and going to medical school?”
Her lips turned up in the corners again, and she took another pull from her beer. “I think you’d be surprised. I have four brothers, but it was more like six brothers because two of my cousins lived in the same cul-de-sac as we did, so the seven of us were basically raised together. I can assure you that there were plenty of rules broken in my early days.”
I chuckled. That was unexpected. She was a small-town girl with a slew of brothers and clearly a whole lot of secrets.
“You’re full of surprises, Chadwick.”
“So I’m not as easy to read as you originally suspected?” She laughed.
“I’ll admit it. You’re much cooler than I first thought.” I glanced over at the boys, who were now trying to get the giant dog to sit on a swing, and I’d be dammed if she wasn’t going right along with it.
“Well, you did fix my fence for me, so maybe you’re not all bad either, even if you were a total jerk the first time we met, Heart.”
I turned to look at her, my gaze holding hers for a few seconds before I spoke. “I was surprised Doc hadn’t told me that he was leaving. I was caught off guard that day.”
“I get why you’re attached to him. I haven’t known him all that long, but he seems like a really good man.”
“He’s the best. But I shouldn’t have been a dick to you. It had been a stressful weekend after seeing Cutler struggle to breathe after his game. I hadn’t slept much leading up to that day we met.” I held up my beer before tipping my head back again. “Not an excuse, just the situation you walked into.”
“How’s that peak flow meter going?” she asked, her eyes filled with empathy.
This woman really was full of surprises.
“Nah. We’re not doing the doctor thing right now. It’s going well, and you aren’t on the clock. We’ll see you in your office this week. Right now, we’re just two neighbors sharing a beer.”
“While your son pushes my oversized Bernedoodle on a swing.” She raised a brow and laughed.
“Something like that.”
“And you raise Cutler all on your own?” she asked, catching me by surprise with the question.
“Oh, you’re taking it there, huh? We’re doing the neighbor thing now?”
“You don’t have to answer. I just wondered if you had help.”
“All right. You get one, then I get one.”
“One what?” she asked.
