Free Road to Redemption by Natalie Ann Page B

didn’t understand why no one believed him. And he had to stop referring to himself as lonely, because he wasn’t. He liked being alone and that was totally different than being lonely.
    Absently he sent a chip flying in the air to Roxy, who had been patiently waiting for him to share.  He shook his head as he watched her nip it out of the air and swallow it whole. He really was going to have to pay more attention to the size of the food he shared with her.
    “I’m not alone, am I Roxy?” he asked her, even though she really didn’t have a clue as to what he was saying. “And neither are you, because you’ve got me. We’ve got each other.”
    She continued to stare at the hand that was reaching into the bag for another chip. “Who am I kidding? You don’t care who you have as long as they feed you,” he said with another toss of the chip.
    She snagged it out of the air, crunched this one once and swallowed. When she was done she came over and placed her head on his thigh, her big brown eyes searching his as if she could read his thoughts.  He reached out and absently rubbed his palm over the top of her fawn-colored head, then scratched behind her ears, causing her jowls to widen into what he considered her doggie grin.
    Roxy stepped back when he reached his hand in the bag for another chip and he noticed she left a big wet spot on his jeans from her drool.  And were those crumbs mixed in with the spit?
    “It’s a good thing you have me,” he chided her. “You’re a slob. No one else would want you. But I don’t mind,” he said, smiling back at her and tossing another chip in the air.
    When he realized he was smiling, thoughts of Cori popped back into his head.  He really hoped he didn’t regret requesting her to fill in for the rest of year.  She had made his office run smoothly. More smoothly than it had ever run before. His patients even seemed happier to see him.  But after last night he started to worry she would think more of it than it was.
    He was going to have to find a way to stay away from her, which he admitted, was going to be next to impossible.  So he would have to work harder at discouraging her. Because he was right when he told her last night he can’t give her want she wants.  Or what she deserves.

Supply Closet
     
     
    Progression with Jack was going at a snail’s pace. Cori had been so excited when she found out that she’d been assigned to the Orthopedic Department until the end of the year.
    That gave her three weeks to reach him.  Three weeks in his presence to get him to smile. To get him to be happier. To get him to kiss her if she was lucky. Because that was her new goal. 
    She had seen the way he looked at her at Brooke’s party, and now she knew he was as attracted to her as she was to him.
    But halfway through the second week of her three-week extension she was nowhere closer to her goals.  Matter of fact, she was pretty sure she was further behind than when she had started.
    If she had seen him a total of two hours that first week that would have been a lot. And she’d talked to him maybe five minutes tops when added all up.  Those one-word responses didn’t take up much time at all.
    Short of turning around and running in the opposite direction when he saw her, he most likely wouldn’t have talked to her at all if given the choice.
    And she knew exactly what he was doing. He was avoiding her. 
    She had been so positive he was the one who had requested the three-week extension. After the drive home in the snow she had thought she was getting to him. He’d smiled at her. He’d let her hold his hand, sort of.
    But now she was having doubts.  She highly doubted he put in for her extension after all, and most likely was annoyed when he saw her in his office last Monday morning.  Hence the reason he was avoiding her.
    She closed the door behind Mrs. Gutler, yet again. Cori was right. The older woman was definitely lonely.
    See, Cori thought, she didn’t