Page 8 of When You Blush

“What do you do when you aren’t at the hospital?” she asks.

“I spend a lot of time with my family,” I reply, thinking it over. “I like to hike in the summer.”

That has her pretty gray eyes sparking with interest. “Yeah? Do you have favorite trails?”

“I take it you hike?”

“I love anything outside.” She decides to whip her hoodie over her head, leaving her in a little T-shirt. She hooks the hoodie on the back of her chair. “I spend somuch time in hospitals that I can’t wait to be outside. So yeah, I hike and bike and ski. Swim. All that stuff. It was pretty cool to travel so much because I’d be out finding local trails on my off days. I’ve hiked the Appalachian Trail, all through the Redwoods, Olympic National Park, which isunbelievable.”

“I’ve done Kilimanjaro,” I inform her, watching her jaw drop and her eyes widen.

“Holy shit, Blake. That’s incredible. Did you love it?”

“It was an interesting experience.”

Honestly, it was fucking lonely.

“Your cool factor just increased,” she admits, and I laugh as I take one last bite of salad, then push the plate away.

“Good to know. I should have led with that.”

Chapter Two

HARPER

Whydoes he have to be so damn handsome, funny,andhe likes to hike? Not just little hikes, either.

The man has done Kilimanjaro.

When he said that, my core tightened, and I’m pretty sure my vagina cried out with joy.

Down, girl.

I have avoided men like the plague for the past two years. No sex. No dates. No talking to men at all unless they were at work.

No. Men.

I’ll be the fun aunt once Ava or one of her brothers decides to settle down and pop out kids. I take care of babies every day at work.

I donotneed a man in my life.

In fact, life’s been pretty decent the past couple of years without one.

And then I had to get on thatflight.

I noticed Blake sitting in first class when I boarded. He was watching me. There was …somethingthere. A little tingle. A little hint of awareness.

And then I ignored it.

Until the passenger next to me started having what I was sure were heart attack symptoms, and I asked the flight attendant to find me a doctor.

Dr. First Class came to save the day.

And then, after we landed and got the patient safely loaded into an ambulance, he simply held his hand out for mine as if it was the easiest, most normal thing in the world,and I took it.

Without a second thought, I slipped my palm against his, and we stayed that way for, like, an hour.

At least, it felt like an hour.