Free Harlequin Medical Romance December 2015, Box Set 1 of 2 by Tina Beckett Page A

happen. One, he needed to get laid. Two, Jess needed a whopping dose of self-confidence. Maybe they should both head back to the pub and grab the first available partner to satisfy those needs. Except they’d already tried that and it hadn’t worked. He was actually lucky she’d turned him down, because Dean didn’t date people from work. Ever. Too messy. Too complicated. He preferred things simple and to the point.
    Jess was neither.
    So yeah, his moment of weakness that night at the pub could have turned into a major disaster.
    Digging into his food to take his mind off Jess, he wasn’t surprised at how good it tasted. What did surprise him, though, was how comfortable her father seemed to be in the kitchen. None of this expecting one person to get everything to the table while the other slouched on the sofa doing nothing.
    â€œDelicious. Thank you so much for inviting me.”
    â€œI just wish Jess would have told us about you sooner.” Gloria sent her daughter a look of reproof.
    â€œNothing to tell.” Jess half muttered the words.
    Her mother either didn’t hear her or was ignoring her. “So tell us a little about yourself, Dean.”
    This time it was Dean who stiffened. He’d expected to be asked about the “falling into the lake” story Jess had threatened him with over the phone. Not something about himself personally. “What would you like to know?”
    â€œAre you as fixated on your job as Jess is?”
    â€œMum, please.” Jess sounded miserable.
    Hoping to defuse the situation, he said, “I think most medical professionals are pretty dedicated.”
    Norman covered his wife’s hand with his own. “Of course they are. When did you realize you wanted to be a doctor?”
    When? The day he decided he wanted to help fix people instead of breaking them. But he wasn’t about to say that. “I think it’s every child’s dream at some point. With me, it just seemed to stick.”
    â€œAnd you and Jess met at the hospital?”
    This time it was his daughter who answered. “Yes. We work in different wards, but see each other from time to time.”
    Yes, they did. Except that Jess hadn’t expected Dean to even know who she was. There was something about that that bothered him. Really bothered him.
    He’d joked about her invisibility cloak, but now he wondered. Did she really think she was that invisible? He’d noticed her from the time she’d started working at Cambridge Royal four years ago. The way her blonde ponytail swished from side to side as she walked. The way she had of lifting a hand to wave at colleagues instead of simply nodding to them.
    The way she smiled as she looked down at her patients.
    He’d noticed all of that? When?
    He realized everyone was staring at him. “Sorry?”
    â€œMy dad asked what our most romantic date was.”
    The sardonic tilt of her brow told him he really should have thought this through a little better, or at least planned for the obvious questions. Hmm...well, they wanted romantic? He would give them romantic.
    â€œWell, after the ‘falling in the lake’ bit that Jess mentioned, we seemed to hit it off. I think our most memorable afternoon was when I took her for a nice little hack in the countryside. Just the two of us on horseback. We took a hamper of food. And—”
    â€œYou took her out for a hack?” Her dad interrupted him, and he could have sworn the steady gaze now held a hint of suspicion.
    And Jess. Well, she looked just plain horrified. He had a feeling he was about to find out why.
    Gloria took up where Norm left off. “Jess is afraid of horses. Has been ever since she was thrown from a pony when she was young.”
    â€œI—I got over it. Dean helped me see there’s really nothing to be afraid of.” Except she looked pretty afraid right now.
    Perfect. He had to choose the one thing Jess was