After the Christmas Party(20)

“A problem I intend to remedy.”

But not tonight.

Forehead against the door, Trinity held her breath. Surely, any second now he’d knock. He had to knock, right?

He was there.

Just on the other side of her door, teasing her. No, not teasing really. More of a temptation to reach out and take what she reluctantly admitted she wanted.

He did tempt her. Like fresh-baked cookies tempted a starving dieter.

She wanted a bite.

A big bite.

Before she could have biter’s remorse, she undid the chain, undid the deadbolt and flung the door open.

“Riley?”

“Hmm?” His response buzzed in her ear.

“Where are you?” Stunned, she glanced down the hallway.

The empty hallway.

“My car.”

His car?

He’d left?

Her heart sank.

“You were never really on the other side of my door?”

She might kill him. He’d gotten her all worked up for nothing, had…

“I was there.”

Frowning, fighting disappointment she didn’t quite understand and definitely didn’t want, she went back into her apartment. She should hang up now, before she incriminated herself.

Why was she surprised? Disappointed? She should be glad he’d left, that he’d had reason when she’d temporarily lost her mind. Her stomach knotted and her eyes watered. Great.

Why was she not telling him where to go and turning off her phone?

“Trinity?”

“Yes?” She slumped back against the door, fighting a sniffle. Was he seriously whistling? She might just throw her phone at him for real.

“I like you.”

Were they in grammar school or what?

Eyes squeezed closed, she sighed. “So you keep saying, but at the moment, Riley Williams, I don’t like you one bit.”

He surprised her by bursting into laughter. “There’s my funny girl.”

“Are you dating Dr. Williams?”

Putting her stethoscope into her scrub pocket, Trinity spun around to look at her coworker. Karen Mathis, Trinity’s favorite coworker by far—usually—grinned at her and waited with an expectant look that said she wasn’t going to be easily distracted.

“Why would you ask me that?”

“I saw you at the Christmas party,” Karen pointed out. “I’d been looking for you because I knew you didn’t know many people yet and I was going to have you join the group I was with. I didn’t spot you until you were all cozied up with the only cardiologist on staff who makes women’s hearts beat faster with just a flash of his smile.”

Trinity’s heart was beating pretty fast without the benefit of one of his smiles. “We just danced. It wasn’t a big deal.”

“And sang together,” Karen reminded her. “Plus, I hear you arrived at work with him yesterday morning when you both got called in. You rode home with him yesterday at the end of your shift. Despite many females’ valiant efforts, I don’t know of him ever dating anyone who works here. This all sounds like a big deal to me. So, are you two an item or what?”

Inwardly, Trinity cringed. The hospital gossip mill had sure been busy. How did She answer a question she didn’t know the answer to? Because saying he liked her just sounded a bit second grade to her. She didn’t really know what they were other than that she liked him too.

“Did you also hear that she’s going to eat with me after work tonight?”

Both women turned at the newcomer to their conversation.

“Dr. Williams.” Karen’s cheeks flushed almost as bright as Trinity imagined hers were.

“Riley,” she gasped, her eyes devouring the man before her, searching his eyes for some trace of the man who’d spent hours on the phone with her the night before. Hours and hours. He’d blown her away. They’d talked long into the night without awkwardness or long bouts of weird silence. The man was way too easy to talk to. “Anyone ever tell you it isn’t polite to eavesdrop?”

She almost called him “snowflake” but caught herself just in time. Yeah, that would have had some tongues wagging all over the cardiac unit.

“Never. Most people like having conversations with me.” He waggled his brows, his eyes not leaving Trinity’s. The twinkle there said everything. That he knew what she was thinking, was thinking the same thing himself. “Good morning, ladies.”

Trinity mumbled a good morning, glancing away because all she could think was that this was the man with whom she’d fallen asleep while on the phone with him the night before.

He’d stayed on the phone with her because he’d said he really did want to get to know her without the physical getting in the way. Honestly, she just didn’t know what to think about him. He was unlike any many she’d ever met.