Page 20 of The Doctors Will See You Now

But, as one might imagine, avoiding someone you work with wasn’t without failings.

“Dr. Cummings?”

I lifted my head from the prescription on my desk and looked straight into the hazel-green eyes of the woman herself.

See? Hard to avoid.

Looking away quickly and back to my desk, I scribbled my signature and concentrated on simultaneously seeing what she wanted as best I could. “Yes?”

“Your next patient is in exam room two, and your two thirty is early. Do you want me to go ahead and bring her back or wait?”

“You can bring her back.” Without meaning to, I looked up, and everything about her sharp gaze hit me right in the gut. Soft auburn-brown hair back in a respectable ponytail and creamy peach skin peeking out from the professional V-neck of her scrub top were the perfect complements to the enthralling green-gold color of her eyes.

God, she’s pretty.

Shit. I was staring. I nearly knocked over the cup of pens on the corner of my desk in my haste to look away. Thankfully, she ignored the ensuing scramble to catch them.

Eyes back to my desk in protection, I spoke again. “It always seems like people are happier to wait in the actual room than out in the waiting room.”

A brief pause settled between us, but I fought against its urging to look up at her again. Was she staring at me now? What was she thinking?

“You got it.”

I lifted my gaze as soon as she turned and watched her take a few steps down the hall before forcing myself to look away again.

I didn’t want her to feel unwelcome, but I didn’t want to make it harder on her either.

Fuck, being awkward sucked. I didn’t know how my sister Georgia had done it her whole life.

Ripping the prescription from my pad, I held it up to give it a once-over before taking it to the front desk for the patient checking out.

And thank fuck I did.

Because there, scrawled in my handwriting for all to see, were the words: God, Melody Marco is pretty as fuck.

Good going, Will. There’s something that’ll help your reputation.

Melody met me outside the door to my next patient’s room and handed me her file. I opened it quickly to double-check the name. Linwood, Colleen.

“Knock, knock,” I called as I rapped my knuckles against the door.

“Come in,” Mrs. Linwood invited, and I turned the handle to oblige.

She was just about my mother’s age, but she still hadn’t hit menopause. Unfortunately, her periods were needlessly heavy and a huge burden we’d been fighting for the past couple of years. Cryoablation hadn’t helped adequately, so today we’d be seriously discussing the merits of doing a hysterectomy.

“Hi, Mrs. Linwood,” I greeted.

I smiled my normal smile, but I could tell as soon as she didn’t return it that this wasn’t going to be as pleasant as our previous appointments had been. I mean, the subject matter and her suffering were never exactly a good time, but she was always sweet to me and pleasant to chat with.

She’d lived a pretty interesting life and never balked at sharing stories as I did my exam.

“Dr. Cummings.”

I tried not to sigh heavily as Melody followed me into the room and made a bid to Mrs. Linwood. “I’m just going to sit in if you don’t mind, Mrs. Linwood. Help the doc out.”

“Well, that’d be fine,” Colleen acquiesced, obviously a bigger fan of sweet little Melody than she was of me right now.

Though, on that account, I really couldn’t blame her. I was a much bigger fan of Melody than myself these days too.