Sleeping ’til Sunrise Read Free Page A

stupid?”
    “I was a resident at one time, you know, so I’ve done without sleep for days on end. It’s how doctors are trained.”
    “You’re telling me you never made a mistake?”
    “Never,” he promised.
    I tried another tactic. “You could reschedule and—”
    “I have patients booked solid the whole day,” he explained calmly. “And if I don’t go in today, then all that does is make tomorrow absolutely insane.”
    “Yes, but—”
    “People need me.”
    He got off on that, I could tell. People thought he was so magnanimous, but the truth was, he liked the attention. His ego was huge, and there was no way it wouldn’t be, with everyone telling him he was the Second Coming. I knew that because I used to be the same exact way. The birth of my daughter changed that for me. Before she’d been born, I’d been the kind of guy who took foolish chances just to be told he was amazing. In his way, it was the same for Roark. He gave his time selflessly just to be praised. I often wondered what was missing in his life that made him seek validation from others, but we weren’t good enough friends for me to ask. Maybe, though, with him stilling for a moment, actually waiting on me, perhaps I had an opportunity that had never presented itself before.
    I cleared my throat. “So,” I said softly, stepping in close, into his space. “Puppies?”
    “There’s no vet in town, and Domino, the Garcias’ pit bull, was suffering.”
    “And so you did what? Performed an emergency C-section?”
    “Yeah.”
    I nodded. “And how’s the dog now?”
    “Resting comfortably.”
    “And the puppies?”
    “All five are good,” he answered with a smile followed by a quick yawn.
    “Good job, Doc,” I assured him, brushing his thick hair out of his face so I could keep looking into his gorgeous eyes, red-rimmed with dark circles under them.
    “Thanks,” he grunted, taking a breath, ready, I could tell, to leave.
    “Hey, I have a proposition for you,” I offered, dropping my hand.
    He coughed. “Oh? What’s that?”
    “How ’bout you let me come over after work and bring dinner.”
    “I don’t know if that’s—”
    “Come on,” I insisted, “just let me.”
    “But I’ll be exhausted.”
    “That’s the point. You’ll be too tired to cook. Who takes care of you?”
    He looked startled. “No one.”
    “Well, then,” I said gruffly. “Allow me.”
    “Why would you—I mean, I’ll be fine.”
    “That’s not the point, is it. Not that you’ll be fine, but that you could use the caretaking and that’s who I am.”
    His jaw clenched. “I’ve heard that about you.”
    “Oh?”
    “Yes,” he assured me, firmly but gently. “And I can promise you that I don’t need to be looked after.”
    With that he whirled around, grabbed his coffee off the counter since they’d called his name, and left the shop out the side door so he didn’t even have to look at me again.
    “Why doesn’t he like you?”
    When I turned my head, I found my neighbor, Hutch Crowley.
    “He likes everyone,” he said.
    I just stared at him.
    “Hello?”
    “What?” I said irritably.
    “Why doesn’t the most eligible bachelor in town like you?”
    “I have no idea,” I admitted.
    “You should maybe figure that out.”
    “Go away,” I groused. “And stay out of my love life.”
    He scoffed. “Oh buddy, that ain’t love.”
    No, it wasn’t. Not yet, anyway.

Chapter Two
     
     
    I COULDN’T shake the feeling that I was missing something with Roark, and even after a day of lecturing fourth, fifth, and sixth graders about the dangers of matches, and extinguishing a science experiment at the high school, a grease fire at a shrimp shack on the beach, and a barbecue that almost got out of control because of the wind and the seven years’ worth of petrified Christmas trees in the backyard, Roark Hammond was still on my mind.
    Ivy called and said soccer practice was running late and that afterward her coach, Kahala Hill,