The Doctor's Fake Nanny(19)

"Excellent. I'm glad to hear it. Now, up you go. That's it."



He offered me a hand and helped me up, catching me in his arms once I  was standing. He kissed the top of my head, my eyelids, the tip of my  nose. He kissed me so lightly it felt like I might have dreamed it and  there was a good chance I would have forgotten the bath completely if we  hadn't both heard Sophie snickering behind us.



"You guys like each other now."

"Yes," he said as he glanced at me to make sure it was okay, "I suppose we do. Is that okay with you?"



"Yes! I like her too!"



"Good, Sophie, I'm really glad. Now go see to that bath, Kayla. Dinner will be waiting for you."



I nodded and headed slowly for the stairs. Pulling myself up each one  felt like a chore. I felt like I had aged one hundred years in just a  day. I was split down the middle, completely torn about what to do. I  felt like I knew David, like I knew his heart, but Dr. Johnson made a  compelling argument against him that made everything confused and blurry  for me. I needed to know. I needed to know that it wasn't just my  desire for David that had me convinced that he was a good guy who  couldn't have done the things Dr. Johnson insisted he had.



I cautiously opened the door to David's master bedroom, feeling very  much like I was breaking in. It was ludicrous. He had given me  permission to be in here, but it was so much nicer than the bathrooms I  was used to. Nevermind that, this place was better than my last  apartment! He was right, a bath in that massive jetted tub was going to  feel pretty good.



But there was something else, something I couldn't get out of my head  once the idea wormed its way in. This was his bathroom, where nobody but  him ever went. He didn't need to hide things in here because he didn't  think there would be anyone to find them. This felt like my best chance  to find the evidence I needed. If there was actually anything to find.



I crept towards his vast medicine cabinet, hardly breathing as I moved. I  didn't know what I would find in there but I knew now that I was hoping  not to find anything that took David away from me. I didn't want to let  him go.



I opened the door and there it was, a bottle of Oxycontin screaming out  at me with David's name plastered across the front. I picked it up and  sank to the floor, feeling like someone had just knocked the wind out of  me. It was exactly the kind of thing Dr. Johnson had said I would find.  I pulled my phone out of my pocket with shaking hands and started to  type a text. It was time to let him know that he was right, David was  taking pills. I would tell him and then everything would be over.



"No," I said to myself with a conviction I hadn't even known I felt. I  didn't want it to be over. I couldn't imagine this being the last night I  was here with Sophie and David, the three of us happily existing in  this little bubble of safety we had created just for us. I knew now that  David had been injured and that it had been bad. Maybe that's what  these pills were from. Maybe it wasn't, but there was that possibility  and that was enough for me. It was enough to make me erase the text one  letter at a time and slip the phone back into my pocket.                       
       
           



       



I couldn't do it. I liked him too much, wanted him too much. I had to  make a real decision right then and there and I decided to believe in  David, even if not all of the evidence was good. I couldn't straddle the  fence anymore and so I chose his side and all of the possibilities that  might include.



I slipped out of my clothes and into the large jetted tub David had  loaned to me. The feeling of the hot water running over my skin melted  the stress out of my body. It felt like it was cleansing me of my  confusion and my sins against David. I wasn't going to think about it  now. All I would think about now was the food that would be waiting for  me when I got back downstairs and the feeling of David's lips brushing  against my own.





Chapter Twelve


Kayla



"Thank you so much for the dinner. That was amazing. I'm truly  impressed, Dr. Wyatt. I didn't think you could make something like this.  In fact, I seem to clearly remember you assuring me that you would be  getting takeout."



"Ah, so you doubted me?"



"Well," I laughed breathlessly, "I wouldn't say I doubted you per se,  but after watching you make breakfast I thought something like this  might be just a little bit out of your reach."



He grinned his beautiful grin at me and I felt my stomach do a little  flip flop. Even though I had been here for weeks now, the experience of  having David look at me was still an exhilarating one. When he wanted to  he could be a formidable, intimidating man, but there was so much more  to him than that. He could also be warm and exciting and incredibly  sexy. There seemed to be no end to the different layers he had.



Take this meal, for example. I had watched him try and make something as  simple as eggs and fail miserably, and now it turned out he was capable  of making a these amazing steaks and decadent sides. He certainly  seemed to have a whole lot of tricks up his sleeves and I was enjoying  being a part of them.



Or I was mostly enjoying it. There was still that nagging little voice  in the back of my head telling me not to trust this man, reminding me of  that little bottle of pills, but I wasn't going to listen to that. I  had made my decision up in the bathroom only a few hours before. I had  made the choice to trust in David, to be a part of his and Sophie's  lives, and I wasn't going to go back on it now. I couldn't. I was too  invested. The absence of my sister in my life still left an invisible  gaping wound inside of me, but I just couldn't believe that David was at  fault. Not anymore. Not after having gotten to really get to know him.



"Confession time?"



His voice roused me out of my own thoughts, his choice of words rattling  me a little bit. Confession. Did he have a confession? Was there  something he was hiding? God, I hoped not. I was afraid that losing  these two would be the thing to really break me.



"Okay, sure. What do you need to confess?"



He leaned towards me in a conspiratorial manner, his eyes twinkling with  mischief. I could smell the earthy scent of his cologne and it made me  feel almost dizzy. We had already put Sophie to bed and now it was just  me and him. Nobody to walk in and interrupt us. Nobody to use as a  buffer. Just the two of us in this vast room with a bottle of wine that  had to be the best I had ever had. It felt dangerous and completely  delicious at the same time.



"I looked it up."



"You what?" I couldn't help laughing, although I had the decency to try  and cover it up with one hand. It was just the last thing I had expected  him to say.



"Don't laugh, the internet is our friend! That's right, I looked it up.  We had a bunch of food in here so I looked up what I could make. Then I  looked up how to make it."



"But why? I would have been totally fine with delivery. Just a pizza or something would have been great."



"I don't know. I wanted you to have something better."



"You did?"



"Yes. But it's more than that. I wanted to impress you, Kayla. I wanted you to be impressed."



He had such an earnest look on his face, shy and slightly embarrassed,  and I reached out and put one hand lightly on his shoulder. It floored  me to think that a man like David would be thinking about how he could  impress me. He was a doctor, for god's sake. Wasn't that impressive  enough?



It was so sweet, though, the image of him on the internet trying to  figure out how to cook me a fancy meal. He was a super fast learner,  too, because the food was truly delicious. I probably would have told  him it was good no matter what, but this really was. This guy must  really be able to do just about anything he wanted to. It must be nice. I  couldn't help but be a little bit in awe of him, not for the first  time.                       
       
           



       



"That sounds sort of pathetic, doesn't it? Kind of makes me sound like a sixteen-year-old boy."



"No! No, don't say that. It's sweet. It might be the sweetest thing a  man has ever said to me. I like it. I like how thoughtful you are."



"Do you?"



He was looking at me with deeply intense eyes and I could feel my face  growing hot. All of the sudden it was kind of hard to breath and I  couldn't figure out the best place to look. I felt very, very exposed,  like I was vulnerable to him in a whole new way.



"Yes," I said, hardly able to speak above a whisper, "I really do."