Praise for Janice Lynn:

‘Fun, witty and sexy …A heartfelt, sensual and compelling read.’

—Goodreads Review on NYC ANGELS: HEIRESS’S BABY SCANDAL

‘A sweet and beautiful romance that will steal your heart.’

—HarlequinJunkie.com on NYC ANGELS: HEIRESS’S BABY SCANDAL

JANICE LYNN has a Masters in Nursing from Vanderbilt University, and works as a nurse practitioner in a family practice. She lives in the southern United States with her husband, their four children, their Jack Russell—appropriately named Trouble—and a lot of unnamed dust bunnies that have moved in since she started her writing career.

To find out more about Janice and her writing visit www.janicelynn.com

Flirting with the Doc of Her Dreams
Janice Lynn

www.millsandboon.co.uk

MILLS & BOON

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Dear Reader

Some time back I reconnected with a friend who met a man online, fell in love with him before she’d ever met him in person, and is now happily married to him with two kids. Since then I’ve been thinking about how technology has changed the way people find each other in this crazy, busy world we live in, and how individual love stories begin in so many ways. My friend met her man online, felt a spark, and quickly began texting that led to sexting, and their in-person relationship developed from there. The sexting someone you’d never met intrigued me, because of the trust that would have to be involved before I’d ever risk doing that.

Much like myself, Nurse Beth Taylor can’t imagine ever sexting or sending risqué photographs of herself. Actually, she can’t even imagine anyone in her life who would send her a sext. So when she gets a late-night photo of some washboard abs she’s convinced it’s her best friend pulling a prank on her. How is she to know when she texts back that she’s actually texting her fantasy guy?

If Dr Eli Randolph’s ex-girlfriend was as perfect for him as everyone kept telling him, why wasn’t he able to take that last step with her? He had to be the problem. Only when he sends an accidental text never meant to be sent—and to the wrong woman at that—he finds himself quickly caught up in an excitement he hasn’t felt in for ever. Texting isn’t enough. Eli wants the real thing. Only how does he recover a relationship that started with a text meant for another woman?

I hope you enjoy Eli and Beth’s story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Drop me an email at Janice@janicelynn.net to share your thoughts about their romance, about how our cyber world has changed romance, or just to say hello.

Happy reading!

Janice

Dedication

To Michael. Thanks for making me believe in happily ever after when I’d forgotten how. I love you.

Table of Contents

Cover

Praise for Janice Lynn:

About the Author

Title Page

Dear Reader

Dedication

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

ROLLING OVER IN bed and grabbing her cellular phone off the nightstand, sleepy-eyed nurse Beth Taylor squinted at the lit screen.

Who’d be texting her at …? She registered the time at just before midnight and winced. She’d just pulled two twelve-hour ICU shifts that had each been more along the line of sixteen hours. Exhausted, she’d hit the sack minutes after getting home.

The last thing she’d been expecting had been to be awakened by a text message. The phone number wasn’t one she recognized. If this was some sales advertisement she was going to scream.

Fighting a yawn, and her vision blurred with sleep, she touched the screen, opening the message.

Hello. If that was for sale, sign her up.

All traces of sleep vanishing, she stared at the text. More aptly at the photo burning her screen.

Burning her eyes into flaming orbs.

Wow.

She glanced at the number again and racked her brain, trying to figure out who the number belonged to.

Not one she knew.

Neither were those abs any she’d ever had the pleasure of setting eyes on in person. Ha, not even close. She only wished some hot guy would send her a picture like that. Sadly, hot or not, this was the closest she’d gotten to a bare male body outside the hospital—and that so didn’t count—since her break-up with Barry almost a year ago.

Okay, so the truth was she didn’t want some random hot guy to sext her, neither did she want her ex to sext her, text her, or anything else. It was one scorching hot man in particular she wanted paying her attention. Unfortunately, he already had an equally hot girlfriend and didn’t know Beth existed. Still, Dr. Eli Randolph was her fantasy guy, had been from the first time she’d seen him smile the day she’d started at Cravenwood Hospital a few months ago.

She wasn’t quite sure what it was about him that had hooked her so intently. Yes, he was total eye candy, but it was something beyond his looks, something deeper, something about the glimmer in his eyes, the sincerity in his laugh, the kindness with which he dealt with his patients and coworkers, and, yes, the warmth of his smile. She really liked the man’s smile. Then there was the outer packaging to all that inner wonderfulness that just made her knees weak. Eli was the whole package.

He was also someone else’s.

She would never step across that boundary. She’d been on the opposite side of that coin and it wasn’t a fun place to be. Never would she do that to someone.

Still, a girl was allowed a secret fantasy or two, right? Especially when that girl was as beat as she currently was. Perhaps she was so tired she was hallucinating the entire sext thing.

Maybe one of her friends was playing a joke on her.

A light bulb went off in her head. Sighing, she looked at the photo again. Yeah, that was a very realistic scenario now that she thought of it.

She’d pulled a prank on Emily earlier that week and her best friend had promised retribution. Hadn’t Emily mentioned a new phone application a while back where one could have their number appear as someone else’s?

Better to just ignore Emily than to encourage her. No telling what her roommate from college would do if given a little slack. Beth had learned that long before she’d moved to be near her friend when she’d wanted to make a fresh start far away from Barry and his new fiancée.

Stop sexting me, you perv.

Beth set her phone back on her night stand, punched her pillow, and prayed those sexted abs made an appearance in her dreams. At least in her dreams she should have a fabulous sex life, right?

At any rate, Emily couldn’t accuse her of showing how desperate she actually was. Her life, particularly her love life, was boring, boring, boring. Her best friend knew that and kept encouraging her to quit letting a man who didn’t know she existed hold up her love life. Problem was, no real-life man measured up to her fantasy guy.

Emily also frequently voiced that Beth might have subconsciously become fascinated by someone out of her reach so she didn’t have to move on beyond what had happened with Barry so she wouldn’t get hurt again. Wrong. She was so over that jerk who’d screwed her over. She knew not all men went back to their old girlfriends. Anyone who met Dr. Eli Randolph would know exactly why she’d become fascinated by him. It didn’t have a thing to do with her old hang-ups. The man was mega-hot and brilliant to boot.

Still, she really should take Emily’s advice and get a life outside work. Maybe she would go out with that guy from Administration who’d asked her to dinner a few times. She closed her eyes, saw a flash of blue eyes, curly brown hair, and a smile that took her breath away—all of which did not belong to the admin guy, but instead to a certain fantasy doctor.

Now wide awake, she rolled over in bed, picked up her phone and decided she might as well tell her friend she was onto her.

Leaning back against the leather sofa he’d sunk onto, Dr. Eli Randolph wondered just how low he’d gone.

Grimacing, he stared at the reply to his idiotic accidental text message.

Obviously not as low as he was going to go.

He raked his fingers over his tired eyes and shook his head in frustration.

He should have known better than to have taken that picture, much less considered sending it to his ex-girlfriend … or whomever he’d sent the bare-bellied photo to.

He’d been erasing Cassidy’s phone number one digit at a time, retyping it, time and again, wondering what was wrong with him that he couldn’t be happy with such an ideal-for-him woman, that her unexpected sext message and photo hadn’t provoked any of the right feelings inside him when logically it should have. She was a beautiful woman. What was wrong with him? Berating himself for not being able to love her the way he should, he’d hit a random number, realized what he’d done and gone to erase it, but had accidentally hit send instead.

He’d sent an inappropriate photo to a complete stranger whose phone number was one number off his perfect ex-girlfriend’s.

Perfect.

There went that word again. Tonight the word nauseated him.

Everyone was always telling him how lucky he was, how he had the perfect girlfriend, how he and Cassidy were the perfect couple, how he had the perfect life. Perfect. Perfect Cassidy. He’d dumped her a couple of weeks ago because of … he didn’t know why, just that he had told her they should start seeing other people.

Truth was Cassidy was the perfect woman. He’d spent three years of his life with her and had imagined he’d grow old with the pretty blonde hospitalist. Yet recently, when she’d started hinting about a ring, questioning why they hadn’t taken that next step, something had held him back. For lack of a better explanation, he’d told her they lacked physical passion. Tonight, she’d sexted him in ways that should put physical passion into any relationship. He’d wanted to feel something, but hadn’t. Knowing the problem lay within him and not within perfect Cassidy, he’d toyed with the idea of sexting back, to try to make himself feel something, anything. What was the worst thing that could happen?

He frowned at his cellular phone. What indeed?

Never in his life had he snapped pictures of his own body. But, nevertheless, he’d raised his shirt, flexed his abdominal muscles, snapped a picture, and let the thing sit unsent on his phone for over an hour. The sickening feeling in his belly had held him back, just as the feeling had held him back from giving in to Cassidy’s desire that he propose. No amount of sexting or wishing was going to make him want to marry Cassidy.

There was something wrong with him that he wanted more than a perfect woman, that he couldn’t be content with the idea of Cassidy as his wife and the mother of his children, that he couldn’t see himself waking up next to her for the next fifty-plus years. He hadn’t lied when he’d told her they lacked physical passion. He just didn’t feel a spark. Hadn’t in so long he couldn’t recall if there ever had been a spark or if she’d so ideally matched his criteria of what he wanted in a woman that he’d just imagined electricity between them.

Thank God he’d had enough sense to only snap his midsection. No face and nothing below the waist. The worst thing that could happen was he could be reported for harassment and his picture could be a social media blunder sensation, right?

His phone buzzed again. Wincing, he opened the text that no doubt would blast him for his depravity. Deservedly so. Maybe he should just apologize and admit to having sent the message by accident.

By the way, I know this is you, Emily. What did you do? Download that application to make your number appear as someone else’s? I’m so onto you. No worries. You didn’t interrupt anything in this girl’s bedroom except sleep.

Whoever had gotten his text thought he was someone else. That was fortunate. He should let it go at that, not say or do anything more. So why was he texting back? Boredom? Curiosity? Insanity?

What would you like me to have interrupted?

Feeling an even bigger fool than when he’d realized he’d sent the message and to the wrong number, he wondered at the force within him that had directed his fingers to reply. He really was messed up in the head, perhaps just from fatigue, but he definitely wasn’t thinking straight. He closed his eyes and waited for about thirty seconds before his phone buzzed.

Ha. As if you don’t already know the answer to that.

Remind me.

Dr. Eli Randolph tied to my bed and at the mercy of my tongue.

Eli’s jaw dropped. His brows rose. He stared at the number. He wasn’t tired any more. He was curious. Who had he sexted? Why was he typing out another message, because this had to be some kind of joke.

What would you do to Dr. Randolph with your tongue?

He’d started typing “me” and had to change it to “Dr. Randolph.”

The same thing every other living breathing woman wants to do to that man with her tongue.

Eli doubted that most women would even give him the time of day much less have tongue fantasies about him, especially if they knew there was something wrong with him emotionally. Okay, so he was a decent guy—minus the wayward random sext message and lack of ability to take that final step in a relationship—he enjoyed exercise and sports to where he stayed in decent shape, worked hard to where he had financial security, and he lived a good life. All of which had inspired Cassidy to want to shop for rings, but no tongue fantasies for either of them. Lord, how long had it been since he’d even let his mind fantasize about a woman? Any woman? To just close his eyes and think about sex?

With Cassidy, he’d thought about how compatible they were, how well they got along, how they could have the perfect life together, how she’d pass along her good genes to his children, but he hadn’t been able to take the steps that would bring all those things to fruition. Just as he hadn’t thought about sex.

He was a man. He should have been thinking about sex at least occasionally. What was wrong with him?

Tell me.

Because, crazy as it was, he wanted to know. He wanted to think about sex, to feel normal, rather than somehow lacking for not being able to commit to an amazing woman like Cassidy.

Lick every pore on his scrumptious body until he screams my name in ecstasy.

Eli swallowed. This was crazy. He was crazy. He was thinking about sex now.

What name would that be?

You’re a little slow here, Em. He’d be screaming my name.

Which didn’t tell him anything. He stared at his phone screen and tried to figure out how to reply. Before he could decide his phone buzzed again.

The woman he needs to dump his perfect girlfriend for and whisk me away for a wild weekend of really hot S-E-X. Our bodies slick with sweat and gliding against each other. His mouth on me. My mouth on him. That’s what you should have interrupted. Not that I’d have answered your text had I been doing any of those things.

Eli gulped. He was not a guy who got off on this kind of thing. He was sure of it.

Dr. Randolph doesn’t have a girlfriend, he typed. They were no longer a couple even if she had sent him the unexpected sext message. He’d thought she was okay with their break-up, but maybe he’d been wrong. Regardless, he wouldn’t be changing his mind. That he couldn’t respond to her sext message, that he had sent his fumbled attempt to a stranger, that he was more stimulated by a text conversation with that stranger than his ex-girlfriend spoke volumes.

Which was crazy. For all he knew, he could be texting with an eighty-year-old granny. Or a man.

Now, there was a buzz killer of a thought.

No, the texter had implied she was female when she’d said it was the same thing every woman wanted and when she’d said “this girl’s bedroom.” He was texting with a female. A female around his age. He was sure of it.

Dr. Randolph and Dr. Qualls broke up? When? Why haven’t you told me this? What kind of best friend are you?

He should put his phone down and not text any more. He wasn’t a man who texted with women he didn’t know. Totally not cool and not his style. He’d broken things off with his perfect girlfriend and needed to figure out what was wrong with him, not become some weirdo who texted with strangers.

Or not with a stranger. This was someone who knew him and Cassidy. Who?

A couple of weeks ago, he responded. So maybe he was a weirdo who texted with strange women.

Em, if this is your idea of a joke, I’m going to kill you.

Why would this Em person joke about him and Cassidy having broken up?

Are you sure? I hadn’t heard that and you know how everyone at the hospital gossips.

He doubted many people knew about them having broken up. Not that he cared who knew, but he hadn’t advertised the fact around the hospital. His private life wasn’t his coworkers’ business. He doubted Cassidy had told many people either.

Positive.

They’d stay broken up. He’d truly believed Cassidy to be the woman he’d spend his life with. Maybe he just hadn’t been ready for marriage; maybe when the time was right, his expectations wouldn’t be so impossible. Maybe.

They’re still friends.

Picture me rolling my eyes, Em. She was clearly in love with him. If they’re still friendly it’s because she hopes they’ll get back together.

Was that why she’d sexted him tonight? Because she’d hoped to spark physical passion and for them to get back together? Deep down, Eli knew the reasons he hadn’t proposed to Cassidy went much deeper than their lack of physical passion. Something more than sex had been missing. Which was why he knew there was a problem with him. Cassidy was his best friend, a beautiful woman, brilliant, good-hearted, and he’d broken up with her because when it came to the rest of his life, he wanted more. He was insane.

Was it also insane that he wished he could picture the texter rolling her eyes? That he’d like some visual image to go with their conversation? He had friends who’d dated via meeting someone on social media. He’d thought them nuts, but maybe there was something to the anonymity of it all that let a person step outside their normal shells. Certainly, he’d never imagined himself being intrigued by a stranger saying she wanted to tie him to a bed and lick him. But he was.

If she’s smart she’ll win him back.

Eli shook his head at his phone. Not going to happen. Ever. Until tonight he honestly hadn’t thought Cassidy wanted to win him back. She’d accepted his ending things as if she’d already come to the same conclusion.

How would you win him back?

Hell-o! I’d never have lost him to begin with, came the immediate response.

Eli laughed, liking the texter’s spunk. Yeah, he wished he had a visual to go with the messages.

I’d have him tied to my bed and at my mercy, remember?

How could I forget?

Eli closed his eyes and tried to imagine being tied to a bed. He’d never done that. Never given up control during sex, or to a woman, not that there had been that many. There hadn’t.

I guess you have heard me mention my obsession with Dr. Randolph a time or two, huh, Em? Sorry.

Obsession? With him? Who was he texting with? Was it someone who had recognized his number and was having fun at his expense?

Em. Emily. He racked his brain. The only Emilys he knew were Emily Jacobs, a bright dyed red-haired registered nurse who worked in the hospital emergency department most of the time, but occasionally filled in at ICU, and the Emily from high school who had sat behind him in chemistry, but he hadn’t seen her in years. Then again, Cravenwood was a decent-sized college town. There were probably hundreds of Emilys in the middle Tennessee area. But this one was privy to hospital gossip. Were there other Emilys at Cravenwood Hospital?

Game’s up, Em. You’ve had your fun. We both know the perfect couple are still in hotness bliss.

Eli winced at the texter’s use of the word perfect.

Maybe you’re right and I just need to forget him, the texter continued, and Eli felt her frustration in each word.

I can’t believe you chose tonight to do this. You know I just pulled two sixteen-hour shifts thanks to Leah being out sick.

Leah being out sick. Whoever this was definitely worked at the hospital with him. Bells rang in Eli’s head.

Leah Windham?

She’s the only Leah in ICU. You’ve had your fun. We’ve both got to be at the hospital early in the morning. Go kiss your hunky boyfriend and let me sleep. Goodnight, Emily.

Goodnight.

Whoever she was.

“This isn’t funny,” Beth insisted, grabbing an apple from the lunch line and wishing she could squeeze it like a stress ball. “‘Fess up. You were just telling me about that phone app that makes your number appear as someone else’s last week. I know it was you last night.”

Following closely behind her in the hospital cafeteria lunch line, her best friend snickered. “I wish it had been, but I’m telling you, it wasn’t me.”

Emily had insisted the same thing earlier in the day when she had called the ICU regarding a patient and Beth had asked about the messages. She still wasn’t convinced her friend hadn’t sent the texts. The body build was wrong for the photo to have been a posed shot of Eddie, but Emily could have easily found the picture online. It was just the kind of thing jokester Emily would do. No doubt her friend would play the prank out a bit longer.

“You should show me the text messages,” Emily said as they sat down at a table in the hospital cafeteria. Not that either of them would be able to stay there long. Beth was surprised her friend had been able to sneak away from the emergency department at all. As a nurse, one never knew if you’d actually get a lunch break or not.

“You should confess that you sent the messages.”

Emily shook her head. “Wasn’t me, I promise.” Her friend waggled her perfectly waxed brows and crossed her heart. “Hope you didn’t say anything incriminating.”

“You know exactly what I said and about whom.”

Her friend’s eyes widened. “You revealed your crush on Dr. Randolph—” her friend mouthed the name rather than speaking it out loud in case someone t overheard “—to the mystery texter? As in, you gave a name?”

The absolute shock on Emily’s heart-shaped face had Beth’s stomach spasming. Despite the local theater her friend often volunteered at she wasn’t that good an actress, was she?

Trying to pretend she wasn’t freaking out inside, Beth took a bite of her apple, chewed slowly, let loose an inner scream of denial, then shrugged. “I don’t want to discuss this any more.”

“I do.” Emily’s eyes glowed with excitement. “I want to know who you were texting with, because Eddie seriously had me otherwise occupied last night.”

Trying to squash her doubts and thoughts of what her best friend claimed to have been doing instead, Beth shrugged. “Then I guess we’ll never know, will we?”

Lord, she hoped her friend was teasing, that Emily had been the texter, as she’d been so positive about the night before when she’d been too tired to think clearly. Good ole Emily. Always pulling her leg and trying to push her out of her comfortable protective shell.

“Sure we will.”

Beth cut her gaze to her best friend. “How?”

“Hello.” Emily snapped her fingers in front of Beth’s face. “You’re smarter than that.”

Realization dawned and Beth’s jaw dropped. “Uh-uh. No way am I calling that number.”

Emily held out her hand. “Fine. I will. Give me your phone.”

“No way.” Beth’s gut clenched into tight knots. “If I wasn’t texting with you, then I prefer not knowing who now knows my biggest secret. How humiliating?!”

Emily didn’t look impressed by Beth’s inner misery. “So what if someone knows you think Dr. Randolph is the cat’s meow? The man is hot. It’s a fact.”

Beth couldn’t stop her blush.

“Plus, if what you said is true and he and Dr. Qualls have broken up, then he’s fair game now.” Emily waggled her perfectly plucked brows. “If you ask me, you should tell him you think he’s one fine specimen of a man.”

Beth went into sensory overload and mental shutdown any time the man was near. The last thing she should do was tell him how fine she thought he was. She shook her head. “I don’t know that they’ve broken up. Plus, even if they have broken up, they’ll probably just get back together.”

“Ask him, and you can’t judge every man by what Barry did.”

Beth shook her head harder, faster, as if that made her response more negative and would jar Barry Neal from her mind forever.

“You have a serious problem, you know.”

Beth knew.

“You let a stupid ex influence how you view all men, influence how you dress and act, and then, when you finally start getting over him, you fall crazy in lust with a man you avoid at all costs. I’ve never seen feet move as fast as yours any time he comes near.” Emily gave a disappointed sigh. “I really think this whole Eli thing is just another way for you to avoid getting back into the dating saddle.”

“Maybe.” But she really didn’t think so because she’d like to be back in the dating saddle. As far as the way she dressed and acted went, Emily was referring to her college days. One couldn’t wear streaks of blue in one’s hair, a nose ring, and colorful Hello Kitty T-shirts and retro make-up forever. The changes in her had nothing to do with Barry having crushed her heart and spirit. She’d grown up, had a more mature look, that was all.

“You’re crazy,” Emily accused.

If she’d revealed her silly schoolgirl crush on Dr. Randolph to some stranger then she couldn’t argue with her friend’s assessment of her mental state. She was crazy.

Crazy about a man who didn’t know she existed.

Whether to distract himself of his failure with Cassidy or for some other insane reason, Eli had thought of little other than the previous night’s text messages. He’d even gone so far as to try to track down who the number belonged to via the internet but had been unsuccessful as the number wasn’t a public one.

He couldn’t seem to put the messages from his head.

Especially at moments like the present one.

Moments he was at the hospital and searching every face as if somehow he’d figure out who the texter was by the look on her face. What did he expect? That the truth would be stamped across her forehead like a scarlet letter?

Most likely, whoever the texter was, she worked in ICU since she’d had to work late to cover for Leah Windham. She was also probably a nurse. Which made sense since she was friends with Emily Jacobs.

With a little patience and a leading conversation to find out who’d worked late the night before, he’d have this figured out before the day ended.

Usually he rivaled Job on the patience score, but today he just felt antsy. He wanted to know whom he’d been texting. Why it was so imperative, he wasn’t sure—he just needed to know.

He’d actually considered asking Emily which one of her friends was obsessed with him, but figured the woman would tell him where he could go rather than give him a name.

“Dr. Randolph?” A pleasant female in her mid-fifties caught him just as he’d been heading for the elevator. “A patient is being admitted to 303 with a pulmonary embolism and you’ve been consulted on her,” the charge nurse told him. “She’s not on the floor yet, but should be within a half hour.”

“Thanks, Ruth.” Glancing at his watch, he figured he should grab something to eat while still at the hospital. Then hopefully the new admission would be on the floor and he’d do the consult prior to heading back to his office to start his afternoon appointments.

Maybe, just maybe, while in the ICU, he’d get a glimpse of whoever he’d been texting with the night before, because, whoever she was, his interest was piqued.

CHAPTER TWO

“DON’T LOOK NOW, but guess who just walked into the cafeteria.”

Before her friend had said a word, Beth knew exactly who had walked into the cafeteria where she and Emily were eating their lunch. Her Dr. Eli Randolph radar had started bleeping. Big time. Bleep. Bleep. Bleep. Which sounded ridiculous but all her senses seemed to be tuned into the man. Whenever he came around, she was just … bleeping aware.

Which made her palms sweat, her tongue thick, and her feet antsy.

Which had led to her asking her superior to please avoid assigning her to Dr. Randolph’s patients. Nurse Rogers might have thought her request odd, but without too many questions and an empathetic look she’d said she would do her best. She couldn’t avoid doing so altogether, of course, but for the most part she had attempted to accommodate Beth’s request and the few times she’d had to, Beth had avoided him during rounds.

“What if he is single now?” Emily asked, not willing to let go of their subject. “What are you going to do about him?”

Beth grimaced. “I never should have told you that I find him attractive.”

“You more than find him attractive. I’ve known you since college, have seen you through your two major relationships, and knew you way before Barry messed up your head and your sense of style. I would have known.”

Ugh at the reminder of her ex. She couldn’t care less about Barry, but her stupidity still stung. She could point out that it wasn’t her head Barry had messed up. It had been her heart, but what was one organ compared to another? Either way, she’d gotten over the cheater the hard way.

“I see how you look at that man so it’s not as if you could hide how you feel from me,” Emily pointed out, her gaze raking over Eli as if sizing him up. “I could point out that you never lit up like this around the doofus who left you for his ex and that Barry wasn’t even fit to tie Eli’s dirty ole tennis shoes.”

No, she hadn’t lit up around Barry. Just as well as he’d done the un-decent thing of sleeping with his ex while still living with Beth. Men.

“My question is, are you going to act on that attraction? Tell him you think he’s hot?”

Emily’s question snapped Beth back to the present and she frowned at her friend.

“Don’t be ridiculous and quit staring at him,” she ordered, but was unable to stop herself from doing the same. What was it about Eli that got to her so? Besides the fact that he was brilliant, breathtaking, and had the most amazing smile of any man ever, that was. “I’ve worked with him for months, and I seriously doubt he even knows my name. Why would I make a fool of myself that way?”

Why indeed?

“Because if you don’t, some other smarter, braver woman will and then you’ll still be pining after him from afar while he becomes someone else’s boyfriend because you were too chicken to go after the man of your dreams.”

Ouch. Emily didn’t mince her words.

“From afar is good.” At least from afar she could still breathe. But Eli with another woman … okay, so that thought made every organ in her body twist up like a wrung dishrag. Still, it wasn’t as if she wasn’t used to him having a girlfriend. He had from the moment she’d met him and felt whatever that instant crazy fluttering in her chest had been. Not that he’d felt it. He hadn’t. Not that he’d noticed. He hadn’t. So why should the fact that he might no longer have a girlfriend matter? She obviously hadn’t made an impression.

Plus she’d had a relationship with a man who’d had a perfect ex and ultimately he’d gone back to the woman he’d invested so much time in. No thanks on a heartbreak repeat.

“From afar sucks,” Emily needlessly pointed out. “Admit it.”

Okay, she admitted it. To herself at any rate. Emily was right. From afar did suck. Not making an impression on a man you couldn’t quit thinking about sucked. Being told that dating you had made your ex realize his ex hadn’t really been that bad after all? That sucked a big one too.

“If you don’t at least let him know that you’re interested, I’ll know that you really are using him as a shield from jumping back into the dating world.”

“That’s not what I’m doing. The man is wonderful. You’ve admitted as much yourself.”

“True, so prove it.”

Prove it? What did her friend want her to do? March up and tell him she wanted to lick him from head to toe? That she thought about him way too much morning, noon, and night?

“Look.” Her stomach clenching into a tight knot, Beth gestured toward where Eli stood. He wasn’t alone. A gorgeous blonde bombshell with kind blue eyes and an almost always present smile had joined him. “Dr. Qualls is smiling at him like crazy.” And touching his arm quite possessively. Ugh. Not that Beth had any right to feel the green flowing through her veins.

She’d already resigned herself that Eli and Cassidy would marry and for the rest of her life she’d watch them from afar, wondering, What if? Emily was right. From afar did suck, but there were some things that were just wrong. Going after another woman’s man was one of them, especially when that woman was someone as nice as Dr. Qualls. At least she hadn’t liked Barry’s ex. Not that she’d known her well, but Cassidy Qualls seemed to be a class act inside and out. “I don’t think they’ve broken up.”

Eyeing the couple, Emily waved her fork. “Actually, I think your sexter was right. I think they have. Look.”

Beth forced her gaze back toward the couple. Dr. Qualls still stood there, but she was no longer smiling. A pensive, unsure expression on her lovely face, she was watching Eli walk away and sit down at a table. By himself.

Oh, wow. Could he possibly be single? She hadn’t dared dream it possible. Well, she had dared, but hadn’t believed that her weird texter could have been right.

“I think you should go and talk to him.”

What? The man’s girlfriend—ex-girlfriend?—was standing ten feet from him. His nice ex-girlfriend whom Beth admired and thought a great hospitalist and often thought that if she had to pick someone to be like, she’d pick Cassidy Qualls. The woman had it all. But had she perhaps lost the one thing Beth envied her?

“No way. What would I say?” She took a drink, her gaze darting back and forth between Eli and Cassidy, looking for a clue to the truth. They weren’t behaving normally, that was for sure. Probably a lovers’ spat that they’d soon recover from.

“Hello.” Emily mimicked Beth’s voice and mannerisms. “My name is Beth Taylor and I want to have your children.”

Water spewed from Beth’s mouth and she gasped at her best friend. “I do not!”

“Sure you do but, okay, let me try again,” Emily cleared her throat and started over, still doing a fairly decent impression of Beth’s voice. “My name is Beth Taylor. I’d like to rip your clothes off with my teeth and have you for breakfast, lunch, and dinner on a regular basis.” Emily fluttered her eyelashes. “Be forewarned, I’m a girl with a hearty appetite.”

True, but not words Beth could see spilling from her mouth during a conversation with him. Words in general had difficulty spilling from her mouth when she spoke to Eli, which was yet another reason why she avoided him.

She glanced toward where he sat alone at a rectangular table for six. He had on blue scrubs that were a little darker than the shade of his eyes. His slightly curly brown hair was rumpled, as if he’d run his fingers through it more often than usual today. Another doctor, a cardiologist, came over and must have asked if he could join him. Nodding, Eli smiled at the man and Beth’s heart thump-thump-thumped.

Crazy how something as simple as his smile caused her body to react so profoundly. She’d probably go into cardiac arrest and need the services of that cardiologist if Eli ever aimed one of those smiles directly at her. That would be her luck. He’d walk by, smile politely, and she’d fall over. Kaput. At least she’d die knowing that if he was that close he’d perform mouth to mouth and that would be the last thing she felt against her lips. Hmm, might be worth meeting her maker a little sooner.

“I see you aren’t denying that one,” Emily pointed out with an all-too-smug grin.

Her friend was right. She wanted to gobble Eli up and go back for seconds. And thirds. And … Beth sighed. “At least that diet sounds like one I could stick to,” she conceded with a slight shrug.

Emily laughed. “Regardless of your reasons for being interested in Dr. Randolph, if he’s single you really should let him know you’re interested. Not every man is Barry, whom I personally never thought good enough for you anyway, nor did he ever rev your juices the way Dr. Randolph does.”

No one had ever affected her the way Eli did. Just thinking about him made her heart pound and her body clench with excited flutters. If by some grace of God they did date, but then Eli told her that dating her made him realize how wonderful Cassidy was, at least she would understand that. The woman was the total package—looks, brains, heart.

“Dr. Randolph is a good man,” Emily continued between waves of her fork. “A hot man. You’ll regret it always if you don’t at least try. Go for it.”

“That doesn’t mean Dr. Randolph would be interested in me.” His tastes obviously ran to quite the opposite of her. Tall, blonde, perfect.

“Why wouldn’t he be? You’re smart, pretty, fun, kind, a little quirky at times, but, hey, no one is perfect … except me.” Emily grinned.

“That’s a given.” She half smiled at her friend’s exception and didn’t point out that she’d just labeled Cassidy as perfect as well.

“You know you want him.”

From the moment she’d first seen him. Never had she felt such a crazy intense attraction. Not for any of her few high-school and college boyfriends, or for Barry, whom she’d thought she’d marry. Emily was right. From the beginning there had been something different about Eli and quite frankly that terrified her.

“As I’ve pointed out, that doesn’t mean he’d want me in return. He’s never even noticed me.”

Emily failed to look impressed by Beth’s argument. “I’m not quite sure how he could have since you go into hibernation any time he comes onto the ICU floor, but hello!” Emily snapped her fingers in front of Beth’s face. “The man has had a girlfriend. One he has been in a relationship with for a long time. He’s a good guy, not one who has a wandering eye while in a relationship. It’s a good quality that he hasn’t noticed you up to this point. Now that he’s single, you need to shake your tail feathers and make sure he does notice.”

She wasn’t much for shaking tail feathers these days, wouldn’t even know where to start. “He may not even be single.”

“He is.”

“You don’t know that for sure. Just because he isn’t sitting with Dr. Qualls doesn’t mean they’ve broken up. Besides, even if they have broken up, who’s to say they won’t get back together?”

“Wherein lies the real problem,” Emily accused, then narrowed her gaze and pursed her lips. “Chicken.”

Beth winced. Was she letting the past keep her from even going after what she wanted in the present? Probably. She bit the inside of her lower lip. Fantasizing about a man she considered beyond her reach had been one thing. Actually acting on that fantasy if he’d become single, well, that was another thing altogether. She’d resigned herself that Eli would never be available, that he’d always just be the man who fascinated her from afar. She’d fully expected him to marry Dr. Qualls and have beautiful children with the gifted doctor. Odds were that even if they had broken up, that’s still what would happen. Beth knew the score.

But if he were single right now, at this moment …

If he was single, then what if he’d be interested in her? Even if for a short while, even if he later told her that she didn’t measure up when compared to Cassidy, she wanted that shot.

Question was, what was she willing to do, to risk, to make that shot happen?

Had he been too harsh with Cassidy? Eli hoped not. He didn’t want to be unkind to her. At the same time, they needed to start having more space between them. Perhaps that was wrong as last night she’d sent him sext messages and he’d briefly considered sending her one back. Much better to cut the ties for a while. She’d just claimed to have been drunk the night before, but Cassidy never drank more than a single glass of wine. Had she just been embarrassed that he’d not returned her message? If only she knew the truth.

Regardless, they were meant to be friends, not lovers. To pretend otherwise for a single second longer would be cruel to a woman he liked and respected. That was what made this all so difficult. He didn’t want to lose Cassidy’s friendship.

Ending their relationship had meant more than admitting there was something wrong with him that he couldn’t commit to spending the rest of his life with such an amazing woman, but it also meant damaging his relationship with his best friend.

“What’s up with you and Wonder Woman?” Dr. Andrew Morgan said as he joined Eli.

Eli took a deep breath, then exhaled. He preferred his personal business to be private, but he supposed it was unrealistic that his colleagues wouldn’t question what had happened. “You mean Cassidy.”

He supposed she was a wonder woman of sorts. There was little she couldn’t do and do well. She was a great catch. He was the fool who couldn’t take that next step with her because he wanted more. More of what he wasn’t sure, but if Cassidy had been his soul mate surely he wouldn’t have found himself backtracking when she’d hinted she wanted a ring.

“Yes, I mean Cassidy,” Andrew said, as if Eli wasn’t in his right mind or he’d have known exactly to whom he referred. “You two having an argument?”

He shook his head. “We decided to go our separate ways.”

“She dump you?”

Eli struggled with how to answer. He didn’t want to say anything that might hurt Cassidy.

“We’ve decided to just be friends.”

“How could you possibly just be friends with a woman like Cassidy?”

Eli looked a little closer at his colleague, noting the heightened color in the man’s cheeks, the rapid pulse at his throat, and the strong set to his jaw. Interesting.

“Because that’s how we feel about each other. Friendly. It’s all we should have ever been.” Even as he said the words out loud, the truth echoed through him.

“Sure took you long enough to figure that out.”

“Tell me about it,” Eli snorted, wondering why it had taken so long. “Then again, like you said, Cassidy is a wonderful woman.” His family had loved her. His mother had repeatedly told him how Cassidy was everything she’d ever hoped for in a daughter-in-law. To say she’d been disappointed at his news was the understatement of the year. “A man hesitates to let her go even when he knows it isn’t going to happen between them.”

Andrew nodded as if he understood, but Eli could tell he obviously didn’t. His mother hadn’t either. For that matter, he himself didn’t understand why he hadn’t been content with Cassidy.

“You should ask her out.” Andrew obviously felt a passion for her that Eli couldn’t, no matter how much he’d wanted to.

Andrew’s eyes widened, then he glanced away rapidly. “I couldn’t.”

“Why not? She’s single. You’re single. Go for it.”

The man regarded him suspiciously. “You really wouldn’t care?”

Eli shook his head. “I’d be happy for you if things worked out. She’s a great woman and deserves a man to treat her so. I plan to date and imagine she will too. Ask her.”

Andrew toyed with his fork. “Maybe I will.”

It struck Eli that he should feel remorse or jealousy or some sense of loss that a woman he’d invested years with might be moving on with another man, perhaps this man. He didn’t feel any of those things. Just relief that he was no longer tied to Cassidy, which again made him wonder if something was wrong with him, if he’d set his expectations so high that even a woman who was perfect for him on paper couldn’t meet them.

“You should,” he repeated. “A woman like her isn’t likely to stay single long.”

The flash of panic in Andrew’s eyes said it all. He had a thing for Cassidy, but had obviously held it at bay in respect for her relationship with Eli.

That was when Emily Jacobs caught Eli’s eye.

Emily Jacobs. As in the person his texter had thought he was the night before. Was the woman sitting across the cafeteria table from her his mysterious texter?

Dark hair, light colored eyes, although he couldn’t make out their exact blue-green color, creamy complexion with a spattering of freckles across her face. Naturally pretty. Somewhat familiar.

She worked in ICU. He recalled seeing her there, although usually only glimpses here and there. Odd really when he thought about it. He was in the ICU a lot. How come his path rarely crossed this woman’s—Beth something—in the ICU?

Unless she purposely avoided him.

Why would she do that?

Unless she was the texter and because of her attraction to him she’d purposely steered clear.

It was a possibility. One he wanted to put to the test.

“Excuse me,” he said to the man lost in his thoughts sitting across from him, and pulled out his cellular phone. He opened his text messages from the night before and glanced at the number. Was it hers? Beth’s from ICU? Logic said it was, but he wanted proof, to know for sure. He hit the telephone icon button that would dial her number and watched her closely.

When she set her fork down on her plate and reached into her scrub pocket to pull out her phone, answering without looking at the number, Eli smiled.

Bingo.

His smile widened. Although he didn’t quite understand, an excitement filled him that he hadn’t felt in years … maybe ever.

Maybe he wasn’t ready to settle down with Cassidy, maybe there was something wrong with him that was holding him back, but at the moment, he wasn’t going to worry about those things. For now he was going to quit stressing about the future and his expectations, his parents’ expectations, the fact he’d chosen to become single rather than marry the “perfect” woman. He was going to enjoy life, to have fun, and not take everything so seriously. Something he’d just realized that he’d forgotten to do over the past few years.

“Hello?” Beth answered, expecting to hear her nurse supervisor’s voice telling her that they needed her back on the floor. Rarely did she make it through a full lunch without an interruption from a patient or one of her coworkers, which was why she usually just ate in the ICU break room. Today she’d wanted to pick Emily’s brain.

Instead of Ruth telling her to come back to ICU, she heard a resounding click.

Pulling the phone away from her ear, she looked at the number.

Aiiiiggghhhhh!

“What?” Emily asked, making Beth wonder if she’d just screamed out loud or if it was the way all the blood in her body had drained that had clued her friend in that something was wrong.

“It’s …” Her voice choked up.

“Come on,” her friend encouraged. “Spit it out. You look like you just got news your best friend died and I know that didn’t happen because I’m sitting right here.”

Beth closed her eyes then held the phone out toward her friend so she could see the screen.

“What? It’s clicked off. Tell me.”

“It was the number.”

“The number?”

“The number.” She put great emphasis on her words.

“The number you thought was me?”

Wondering if one could hyperventilate to death in a hospital cafeteria, Beth nodded and struggled to get air into her vice-gripped lungs.

“What did they say?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?” Emily looked bamfoozled.

Beth shook her head, feeling a bit bamfoozled herself. Breathe, Beth, breathe.

“Then why did whoever it was call you?”

She shrugged, took a deep breath, then another. “Maybe they’re going to harass me.”

“About what? You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Nothing wrong per se, but … I might have mentioned wanting to tie up and lick a certain doctor all over.”

Emily’s eyes widened and then she burst out laughing. “You didn’t?”

Beth grimaced at her friend’s mirth and at her own foolishness. “I told you that I revealed my fascination with the man.”

“That isn’t the same thing as saying you want to tie up the man and for your tongue to get up close and personal with his personables.”

Her friend had a point. Unfortunately.

“What else did you say?”

Beth gave a pained look. “I don’t remember exactly. Something about wanting our bodies slick with sweat and gliding together.”

“Oh, baby.” Emily’s eyes danced with delight. “I wish I had been pulling your leg and sending those messages. Sounds like some hot reading and you know I love a steamy read.”

Feeling a fool, Beth nodded. “I was tired and you’d promised retribution. If I’d been thinking clearly I’d never have sent those messages.”

“Like I said before, so what that you did. So what that someone knows you think Dr. Randolph’s hot. What does it matter in the grand scheme of life?”

“I don’t want him to find out.”

“Hello.” Emily snapped her fingers in front of her face again. “We’ve already had this conversation. You do want him to find out that you’re interested in him. You need to let him know. Up close and personal.” Emily waggled her brows, then added mischievously, “With your tongue. And his personables.”

Fighting the panicky feeling still welling within her, Beth rolled her eyes. “You really aren’t my best friend, you know. You’re just some freak with great hair I tolerate because we work together.”

Patting her pulled up dyed bright red locks, which matched her personality much more than any natural shade could, Emily leaned back in her chair and grinned. “You love me and we both know it.”

“Sad, but true.”

“Just as we both know I’m not going to let you sit on your butt while your dream man is single and needs consoling.”

Beth’s eyes widened. “You wouldn’t.”

“I would.” Emily’s eyes sparkled with mischief. “You make a move or Dr. Randolph and I will be having a very interesting conversation.”

“You wouldn’t,” she repeated.

“Wanna bet on that?”

No, she didn’t, because if Emily believed she was doing what was best for Beth she wouldn’t hesitate to spill the beans to Eli.

Which meant that she would have to make a move herself. Otherwise there was no telling what her friend would say to him.

Taking a deep breath, she glanced toward his table. Her gaze collided with his. The air caught in her lungs and threatened to burst them.

He was looking straight at her!

He didn’t look away when their eyes met.

Instead, he grinned.

Grinned.

At her.

That’s when she noticed what he held in his hand.

His cellphone.

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