Page 16 of Just (Fake) Married (Calloways vs. McGraws #1)

Right. Because that was the next logical step. I looked over at him. “Is it true all the bathrooms have rainfall shower heads and jacuzzi bathtubs?”

“Well, not the powder rooms.”

“Then yes, I will move in.” I said, taking another sip of coffee. “My own room, obviously.”

“Obviously,” he said. Then the silence returned.

He glanced over a few times, like he was working up the courage to ask me something, but I didn’t press.

“It seems like I should get to know you a little bit,” he said. “Don’t you want to know me?”

“I’m pretty sure I know what I need to know about you,” I said, looking back out the window.

“Let’s hear it, then,” he challenged me.

“You’re driven,” I said. “And smart. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be a surgeon.”

“Okay,” he said.

“You’re arrogant.”

“You know that because I’m a surgeon?”

“And you’re a McGraw. You grew up knowing how important you were to this town.”

Again, he tipped his head. “Fair.”

“You love your brothers,” I said.

“True.”

“But from a distance,” I added.

“What does that mean?”

“It means it’s easy to love people from a distance. Once you’re close enough to see all their faults and annoying habits and self-sabotage, it’s a lot harder.”

“Speaking from experience?”

“We’re talking about you. Not me.” I took a sip of coffee, and when he opened his mouth like he was going to tell me all the things he knew about me, I lifted my finger to get him to wait.

Amazingly, he did. “But, the most important thing I know about you, is you don’t like Last Hope Gulch, despite all the privileges you had growing up here. ”

He turned towards me, a knot between his eyes. I wanted to reach over and rub the spot smooth with my thumb.

“And you love it,” he said, not even bothering to deny that he hated it.

I nodded. My stomach growled, and the sandwich, even with sauerkraut, seemed like a good idea.

“Shall I tell you what I know about you?” he asked.

“Go for it.”

“You love this town. So much, that you’re willing to marry your high school nemesis to save it.”

I nodded and unwrapped the sandwich again. But no. The sauerkraut juices were all over part of the bun. I tried to find an unsullied area to bite.

“You love your family,” he said.

“Right again.”

“Your heart is soft. Too soft, some might say.”

“No way,” I argued.

“You have a blind dog and a goose with only one functional wing.”

“She has two wings, she can only use one. And what about that makes me soft? Should I put them down because they have challenges?” I asked, my voice getting shrill.

“No,” he said. “But there’s a reality about those two as pets.”

“You probably hate pets,” I said, making another attempt to find an unsullied part of the sandwich.

“I don’t have time for pets.”

I hummed in my throat and managed to use the top bun to get rid of all the sauerkraut. Then folded the bottom bun with the cheese and the egg into a taco type thing and took a bite.

“I know you hate sauerkraut,” he laughed, looking at my face.

I very discreetly spat the bite into the bag and dumped everything in after it. “So gross. Who in the world wants pickled cabbage on an egg sandwich?”

“Cures what ails you,” he said, as he took the exit off the highway. “And, the number one thing I know about you?”

“This should be good.”

He stopped at a red light and stretched his arm across the back of my seat, bracing his hand on my headrest. He leaned towards me and I leaned back, stunned by this sudden…

closeness. He smelled good. Clean. And his eyes were pretty.

They matched the sky outside the window. A pale blue, winter color.

“This no kissing rule you have…I think it’s more like, you really want to kiss me. You really want to kiss me and you’re afraid of what might happen if you do.”

“Uh…” I was speechless. Struck dumb. He knew too much.

His phone rang, and it must have been attached to Bluetooth, because the radio stopped and on the screen popped Dr. Xio Sinai West.

Ethan, so sanguine a second ago, stiffened. Looked at me, and then back at the screen, and then at the road, and then back at me.

“You should answer it,” I said, because he was clearly dying to.

“It’s…”

Without thinking of the consequences of my actions, I hit the accept button on the screen and grinned at him.

He did not grin back.

“Dr. McGraw,” a voice called out.

“Dr. Xio,” Ethan said, his voice tight. He was sitting ram rod straight, like the guy on the phone could see him. “Now is not the best-”

“I wanted to inform you personally, before I sent the official email.”

“Dr. Xio…”

“You’ve been put on probation for three months. At the end of your probation, the committee will reexamine your case.”

I gaped at Ethan, who was clenching his jaw so hard, I could practically hear his teeth breaking. Probation?

Oh, I should not have pressed that button.

This was why he could marry me to save the ranch and the town. Because he was in trouble for something back in Seattle.

“We’ll appeal it,” the doctor said on the other end of the line. “Of course. But the committee was unimpressed with your attitude during the meetings. If you had shown more remorse-”

“I don’t have remorse,” Ethan said, biting off each word like it was food. Dry, brittle food. “I saved that woman’s life, and the fact that Dr. Matthews is butt hurt that I didn’t kiss his ass, is his problem.”

“This is what I’m talking about, Dr. McGraw,” Dr. Sio said, like he was so tired. “It’s not always about right and wrong. Sometimes it’s about playing the game.”

Oh boy. I didn’t know Ethan that well, but my sense was that Ethan wasn’t a game player. Not at his job. Not with people’s lives.

“I appreciate everything you’ve done for me Dr. Xio. Let’s not worry about appealing the decision,” Ethan said. “I’ll respect the period of suspension and consider my options moving forward. Thank you. I’ll be in touch.”

Ethan stabbed the red button on the screen.

I could only gape at him as he pulled into the empty parking lot in front of the Big Horn County Clerk’s office.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I shouldn’t have-”

“No. You shouldn’t have,” he snapped. Suddenly, that person I was getting to know was gone. This Ethan was cold and distant and no longer asking me about my kissing rules.

“What did you do?” I had to ask.

“Saved a woman’s life,” he sighed.

“Surgeons get in trouble for that?”

“They do when they don’t ask their boss’s permission first. Don’t tell anyone what you heard. I don’t want my family to know I’ve been suspended.”

I nodded. “I really am sorry.”

He frowned, and that furrow in his brow was back. “Whatever,” he snapped. “Let’s just get this over with.”