safe, and I’d really rather you not put yourself into any more danger than you already have today.”
Ignoring the fact that this man shouldn’t care about her well-being so much, June ran through all of her options in her head—all zero of them. She sighed. He was right. She was stuck there for the foreseeable future. She’d never in her life experienced such a dangerous storm and she definitely didn’t know how to safely travel in one. Besides, she had the puppies to think of now. The minute she’d picked them up, they’d become her responsibility, and she couldn’t just abandon them with a doctor who had other patients to care for, especially one who was only temporarily managing his father’s clinic.
She looked up at Dr. Singh, who appeared almost as uneasy as she.
“I hate to break it to you, June, but under the circumstances, the smartest thing for you to do is to spend the night here with me.”
It took June longer than it should have to register what Dr. Singh—Ethan—had said. Mostly because, somehow, she’d gotten momentarily lost in those cinnamon eyes of his. The man was handsome in a way that could almost be described as beautiful, but his looks were also sort of unnerving at the same time, as though they had the potential power to unravel her completely.
It occurred to her that looks like his didn’t really fit in with the men she was used to seeing in Peach Leaf, almost as though she’d woken up still inside a dream involving a movie set. Men who looked like Ethan Singh were generally employed as actors or male models...not small-town veterinarians. And they usually associated with other exceptionally attractive or powerful people, or in his case, highly educated people...people nothing like her.
Staring at him made her think of all the ways she couldn’t quite measure up. Though she wasn’t sure where that notion had even originated from. After all, why would she need to measure up at all?
It wasn’t like he was interested in her, at least aside from his medical duty to assist her in getting the puppies healthy. He certainly wasn’t interested in her as a woman, as well he shouldn’t be, because she was not interested in him as a man.
Really, she was not.
She shouldn’t be, at any rate, not after what she’d been through the past several months. No woman in her right mind would seek to get back out there after the burn she’d suffered. And even though she might not be thinking clearly, what with her only real possession stuck out in the snow enduring God only knew what horrors, which might prevent it from ever working again—and with this man staring at her with unmistakable amusement as she waited for appropriate words to arrive—she could at least be certain that she was, in fact, in her right mind.
With that, she cleared the cobwebs from her throat and finally spoke, hoping her voice wouldn’t come out too rusty from lack of use.
“Um, okay. I guess that makes sense.” She swiped a hand across her forehead, suddenly warm despite the weather outside and the room’s cool temperature.
“Of course it does,” Ethan answered, his tone final as if the issue had been decided and there was nothing more to be discussed. But June thought there was plenty in need of discussion. Like, for example, the fact that she was suddenly starving.
And not, it would seem as she found herself in danger of falling deep into those eyes again, just for food.
The thought rushed in unbidden and was stuck there in her mind before she could stop it, meaning that the mature thing now would be to address where it had come from and what it meant. At some point. For now, feeling more ragged than she did after a double shift at work and hungrier than she could ever recall having been before, maturity was the last thing on her mind.
“Is something wrong?” the devastatingly handsome doctor asked, his voice even sexier thanks to its thick note of concern.
June shook her head. “No, it’s fine. Or in any case, I suppose it has to be.” She looked away from him and, not surprisingly, her mind was instantly clearer.
She would have to be careful around those eyes from now on, especially if she was meant to endure an entire night—possibly more, if the weather didn’t clear up—with a man who looked like he’d just walked out of the latest glossy issue of GQ.
He made her want things she shouldn’t want, things she couldn’t have.
“What is it, then?”
When she didn’t answer, he tilted his head like a curious puppy—like a ridiculously adorable, curious puppy.
“Come on now, I can tell you were thinking about something.”
Like a tickle of wind against her cheek, she sensed him staring at her, willing her to speak.
“It’s just that, well—” a hand flew to her stomach involuntarily “—I’m starving.”
Ethan threw his head back and laughed, the sound low and sultry and full of mischief, leaving June almost frustrated with his level of physical perfection. Couldn’t he at least have an absurd-sounding, high-pitched laugh or something? Was there nothing about this guy that wouldn’t make her want to kiss him?
It was just her luck—she should be used to this by now—to be stuck overnight with the most distractingly attractive guy she’d ever met, right after the absolute worst breakup she’d ever endured.
Come on, Junie, she chastised herself. That’s about enough negativity for two lifetimes, don’t you think?
Best to push on. Besides, with the cards she’d been dealt, what choice did she have?
“All right. What’s so darn funny?” she asked.
“Nothing, really. It’s just that here you are looking so incredibly serious and come to find out you’re just hungry.”
“Hilarious,” she responded, this time allowing a hint of playfulness to escape. “But seriously, I haven’t had anything to eat since lunch, which now seems like years ago. I know it might be useless to ask, but is there anything to eat around here? That is, anything we can get to without risking our lives.”
Ethan grinned, his full lips setting in motion a series of thoughts that she wasn’t entirely certain were legal.
“Actually, this might be one problem we can solve.”
“Don’t tease me now. I’m this close to sneaking some of that puppy kibble from the storage room.”
He laughed. “I wouldn’t dare. There’s a bakery a few doors down. It might be a rough trip, but I think if we stay right next to the building and, well, right next to each other, we can probably make it with only minimal danger.”
“Stay—” June swallowed “—next to each other?”
“Of course. For warmth.”
June felt her cheeks heat, hoping they weren’t turning as ghastly pink as they were in the habit of doing—the eternal curse of redheads like herself. “Yes, right. Warmth. Of course.”
It made perfect sense under the circumstances; it really did. But the mere thought
