Page 4 of Blind Date with a #Doctor (Love Canyon: Blind Date #3)

Aspen

We stop at my car, but I don’t want the date to end.

“Do you want to take a quick walk?” I ask him, hoping that he also doesn’t want the night to end.

“Sure,” he answers, and we fall into step beside each other again.

Our conversation stalls for the first block of our walk, but then we begin to share our horror stories about bad dates we’ve survived in this town.

“Wait, wait, wait,” I say, nearly choking. “You’re telling me you once got set up with a woman who brought her cat?”

“In a baby carrier,” Carter confirms, dead serious.

“Oh my God.”

“Muffin goes everywhere with her. He was very well-behaved, though. I’ll give him that.”

I laugh so hard I have to wipe a tear from the corner of my eye and Carter just keeps walking, watching me, with a smile on his face. He’s charming, but not in that over-the-top way that makes you suspicious.

It’s like he doesn’t feel the need to impress me, but somehow, he’s doing it anyway. Then there’s the way he listens, like he actually hears me, like what I’m saying matters. I’m not used to that. My ex spent most of our relationship not waiting for his turn to talk.

“Okay, your turn,” Carter says, tipping his glass toward me. “Worst date story. Go.”

I think for a second. “Oh, that’s easy. I once went out with a guy who spent the entire dinner explaining why tipping is a scam and how he only leaves exact change.”

“Please tell me you left him with the bill.”

“Yes, and I tipped the waitress myself as we walked out.”

He grins. Who told him he was allowed to have a smile like that? It makes me weak in the knees.

This is dangerous. Carter Reed is exactly the kind of man I promised myself I was done falling for. And yet…I already feel like I’m on the edge. It’s in the way he leans in when I talk, the way his eyes crinkle at the corners when he laughs.

“Are you having fun?” he asks softly.

I don’t even hesitate. “Yes, Carter, I am.” And I mean it.

For the first time in a long time, I’m not thinking about work or deadlines or the ex who nearly ruined dating for me entirely. I’m just here in the moment with him.

Eventually, reality creeps back in. We both have work tomorrow. I want to leave while the night is still warm and full of promise. I want to give him a reason to want more.

We’ve made it back to my car. He stands behind me as I try to find my keys in my purse.

He clears his throat. “Do you mind if I get your number?”

I hand him my phone, so he can put his number in. He types it in, saves it under BBDE , and hands it back.

“BBDE? What does that mean?”

“Best blind date ever,” he laughs.

“You’re ridiculous,” I say while fighting a smile.

“Thank you for showing up,” he says.

Again, that little pull in my chest, the one I wasn’t expecting, the one I’m trying really hard not to name happens.

“Thanks for not being a serial killer,” I joke, and he laughs.

“Anytime.”

We say goodnight. And I get in my car and sit there for a second before starting the engine.

The key hovers in the ignition, but I just sit here, hands in my lap, staring out at the soft glow of the restaurant windows.

Carter’s walking to his car. I know I should drive away, I should pull out of this parking spot, go home, wash my face, and chalk this up as a weird but enjoyable footnote in the ongoing chaos of my life.

But I don’t. I want to stay in this moment just a little longer.

In this soft, glowing bubble where Carter smiles at me like I was the only person in the room and laughs at my terrible date stories.

He didn’t seem the least bit bored or distracted or like he was already calculating how to make a clean exit.

If I had even half the sense I pretend to have, I’d be talking myself down from this ledge.

But instead, I’m sitting here, replaying every accidental brush of his hand against mine.

The way our knees kept knocking under the table, and the way his gaze lingered a second too long on my lips when I laughed, and the way I did not hate any of it.

glance down at my phone, already lit up with a text from Kendra.

Kendra: ARE YOU DEAD???

I smirk.

Me: Nope.

Me: Still alive.

Another buzz.

Kendra: And???

What even is there to say? That I just accidentally had the best date I’ve been on in years?

That the man I’ve barely spoken to before today managed to make me forget every single reason I built a wall around myself?

That there’s a part of me already counting down the minutes until I hear from him again?

Me: It was… unexpected.

Which feels like the understatement of the century.

I type and delete half a dozen versions of I think I might like him , but none of them seem quite right.

It feels too soon to admit that, even to myself.

So instead, I drop my phone back into my purse, grip the steering wheel, and tell myself to get it together.

It was one date. One very good, very surprising, very unexpectedly spark-filled date.