Free Forever and a Day by Jill Shalvis Page B

she wasn’t pedigreed. She was mutt. She disconnected, tossed her phone to the booth seat, and thunked her head onto the table.
    “Wow,” Amy said approvingly. “When you embarrass yourself, you go all the way, don’t you?”
    “I’m going to go to hell for that.”
    “Nah,” Amy said, pushing the tray of cupcakes closer to Grace. “I don’t think people go to hell for making an unbelievable ass of themselves. My grandma used to say you go to hell for abusing yourself.”
    Grace thought about how she’d abused herself in the shower just that very morning and sighed.

Chapter 7

     
      
    If not for chocolate, there would be no need for control-top hose. An entire garment industry would be devastated.
      
    T hanks to a crazy ER shift, Josh didn’t get home until 3:00 a.m. He crawled into bed and immediately crashed, dreaming about a certain beautiful, willowy banking-specialist-slash-model-slash-dog-walker in a wet sundress that clung to her curves and made his heart pound.
    And thanks to his own stupidity, he could also dream about kissing said beautiful, willowy blonde.
    He got one glorious hour of sleep before he was woken by a puking Anna. Not the flu, but a hangover. Good times.
    When he finally got to his office, he found he’d been double booked, but that was nothing new either. First up was Mrs. Dawson, who was experiencing hot flashes and other signs of perimenopause. She’d been coming in once a week or so for months, bringing him casseroles along with her list of gripes and symptoms. At the end of each appointment, she asked him out. Each time, he politely turned her down, saying he never mixed business with pleasure. Today when he gave her the standard line, she pulled out her phone and showed him the Facebook pic of him and Grace kissing.
    “Looks like a pretty definite mixing of church and state,” she said.
    Josh stared at the picture, a little surprised to find that his and Grace’s crazy chemistry had absolutely translated to the screen for the world to see. “She’s not my patient.”
    “She’s an employee. You pay her to walk your dog.”
    There was no use in getting annoyed that she knew Grace was his dog walker. Everyone knew it. This was Lucky Harbor, after all. He rose, pulled off his gloves, and tossed them into the trash bin. “See you next week, Mrs. Dawson.”
    “Humph,” Mrs. Dawson said.
    Josh walked to the next patient room and pulled the chart from the door holder. Mr. Saunders was dealing with kidney stones. Josh entered the room and pulled on yet another set of gloves. He’d once wondered how many hours a year he spent pulling on and tearing off gloves and figured he didn’t really want to know. “How are you doing today, Mr. Saunders?”
    “Dying.”
    “Actually, you’re not,” Josh said. “It’s kidney stones. Once you pass them, you’ll feel better.”
    “You sure?” Mr. Saunders asked.
    “Yes.”
    “Sure sure?” Mr. Saunders asked. “Because it doesn’t feel like kidney stones. Last night, I felt like I was having the most painful orgasm of my life. I guess I was probably just passing one of the stones, huh?”
    Josh had to keep his head buried in the file as he nodded because how the hell do you confuse passing a kidney stone and an orgasm?
    And so his day went, leaving him to wonder if everyone was crazy or if it was just him. By noon, his head was going to blow right off his shoulders, and he knew he couldn’t go on like this. He either had to start turning patients away or give up the ER shifts.
    “It’s a no-brainer,” Matt said. He’d brought five-inch-thick deli club sandwiches for lunch. They were spread out in Josh’s office as the men watched ESPN highlights on the computer. “Sell the practice to the hospital. Let them bring in another doc, and all your problems go away. You work the hours you want. Simple.”
    Nothing was ever that simple, but the appeal was growing, and Josh had been thinking about little else for months. It