Page 2

Kennedy

I left Sebastian feeling like a stunned mess. Being so close to him and almost kissing him had sent me into a freefall of emotion. I grabbed my coat leaving my clothes in the locker, and then headed out in my scrubs. Didn’t want to risk another run-in with Sebastian.

Didn’t trust myself.

Why had I ignored Seb’s texts? His voice could break me, that was why. And why had I refused to see him? The man was barely human, he was so gorgeous. Classically. Tall, broad, strong cheekbones with heart-melting green eyes.

Almost melted this Hart...

Sure, looks weren’t everything. In fact, the stunning Adonis he’d turned into came with age. I met him as a skinny boy at Johns Hopkins ten years ago. Sebastian had been different from other guys there. Sweet, kind, funny. Oh God, he’d cracked me up. I fell in love with him after the first kiss.

I’d been twenty-two and unprepared for how much a man could rock my world. But Seb had fallen hard too. We’d dated all through med school and got married a few months before graduating. He’d proposed the year before.

I would never forget his reasoning for getting married while we were still in school.

“You’re it for me, Kenna. Forever. I want you to practice medicine as Dr. Hart, like me. The two of us, we’re a team.”

And for years we were. The surgeon and the anesthesiologist at Lincoln Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland being my home state.

Moving to New York had been the first nail in the coffin when I’d gone to one hospital and he went to another.

Then came the opportunity to start his own surgery center.

He’d asked me to join him, but I’d made a name for myself at Mercy.

Was this partly my fault?

Sure, he’d offered to make me head of the department at the Center , but that would have been a hollow, unearned victory. I had my pride too. I could never compete with a brilliant surgeon. They were rock stars. Anesthetists were staff. Dispensable.

Still, my own victory had arrived. And all on my own. Right after Savannah’s wedding, I would start my new job as Head of Anesthesiology at Memorial Hospital. My grand achievement and I couldn’t even tell my best friend because that was Sebastian and I was furious with him.

All these thoughts pounded in my head during the cab ride downtown to the apartment I’d been renting since leaving my husband.

Inside my apartment, I closed the door and breathed.

Willed away tears from seeing Seb and almost kissing him.

A few hours in that operating room with him had wrecked me.

A moment near his lips made me dizzy. Being with Seb was one unending rollercoaster ride.

But lately, we’d been riding on separate tracks.

How in the world would I survive an entire weekend with him?

Savannah was arriving next Friday. A weekend wedding blowout at Seb’s cousins’ hotel, The Sterling in the heart of Manhattan.

That reminded me to call Tristan.

Exhaling, I shrugged out of my coat and poured a glass of red wine first.

I’d lied about the date. Mean, I know...

From my pantry, I took out a box of Kraft mac and cheese. With the macaroni cooked and mixed with the cheese and milk, all bubbling up, I grabbed my planner for Savannah’s wedding and called Seb’s cousin Tristan, the COO of The Sterling.

“Hey you,” Tristan answered the FaceTime call. Now, if there was a face that closely rivaled Sebastian’s it was Tristan’s. “I thought you were calling me a few hours ago?”

“I scrubbed in on an emergency surgery.” I sipped my wine. “With Seb.”

“Oh.” He narrowed his amber eyes on me. “Is that red enough? Can I send you down a bottle of Balvenie?”

I snorted in my wine. “No. Even though I’m off tomorrow. Numbing myself with your favorite scotch sounds tempting.”

“How is my jerk cousin?”

“Don’t say that.” There I was defending him. “You’re a workaholic, you know how it is.”

“I’m a workaholic because I don’t have a woman waiting for me at home.” Home was a penthouse apartment at The Sterling. He, Luke, and their younger brother Grayson each had one.

Sebastian’s fortune came from his father’s shares in The Sterling. Not many people knew exactly how many commas Seb had in his bank account. I did and couldn’t care less about his money. He’d shared everything with me. Everything, except his most precious commodity. His time.

“It is what it is. Are we all set for next weekend? As far as the rooms for everyone?”

Not living in New York and wanting a wedding pulled off in three months, Savannah had empowered me to work with a wedding planner and make most of the decisions. Flowers. Music. Favors. How had six months gone by without my husband so fast?

Savannah’s wedding plans, that was how.

“Yeah, my villas are all blocked off.”

I shuddered. Seb and I had to share one of those villas to keep up the ruse we were still happily married. “And they have two bedrooms, right?”

Tristan barked a laugh. “Do you think my cousin would be deterred by a bedroom door?”

“If there were ever a time I wished I had a big dog.”

“We don’t allow pets in the hotel. For family, I’ll make an exception.”

“You’re so sweet.”

“Not really,” Tristan said with a devilish grin. “See you next week.”

“Bye, Tristan.”

I missed the happy hour cocktails at The Sterling with Seb and his Hart cousins.

Going back there would dredge up those happy memories. Despite the hotel’s majestic beauty, The Sterling hotel would be my prison for seventy-two hours.