Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Dean stood in his office at work, staring at the carpet without seeing it. His brain was spinning, and although he was smiling slightly, his palms were beginning to sweat from nervousness. He wiped them on the pants of his mechanic’s jumpsuit, thinking to himself that he couldn’t remember the last time his palms had sweated that much.
He glanced at the clock, noting that it had been fifteen minutes since he’d had Keith call Noelle. He wondered if she was just going to come by the auto repair shop, or if she might call him first before bringing her car in.
Maybe this was a stupid idea, he thought, scratching the back of his neck. I should have just called her myself instead of having Keith call her. I guess it just seemed more plausible that way.
He started to pace, feeling jittery. The truth was that there was nothing wrong with Noelle’s car, but he’d asked Keith to call her and tell her that there was a minor adjustment that they’d forgotten to do on it and she needed to bring it in.
Dean had concocted the scheme because he wanted to talk to Noelle in person, and he thought it would be a good way to get her to come over to the shop. He knew that he would see her again soon for physical therapy, but what he wanted to talk to her about was something he didn’t feel would be right to bring up in the professional setting of his physical therapy appointments.
He heard the front door of the auto shop jangle, and he hurried over to the door of his office that led to the lobby. He opened it and saw Noelle stepping inside the shop.
“Hey!” She smiled at him, but she looked a little flustered. “Is everything okay?”
“Oh, yeah, definitely. It’s nothing to worry about.” Dean cleared his throat, wondering more than ever if his scheme had been such a good idea after all.
“What needs to be done on my car?” she asked, stepping a few paces toward him. “Keith said it was something minor?”
“Uh, yeah, I’ll have the guys take a look at it,” Dean said awkwardly. “It’s probably nothing.”
Noelle frowned. She seemed to be slightly guarded and his heart sank a little. Making her uncomfortable was not what he had intended to do at all.
“I guess—well, I’m confused.” Noelle exhaled, her expression quizzical. “Why did you just think of this now? It had seemed like you’d done such a thorough job on my car, and I don’t understand why something was missed when you were checking it over. You seem like you’re very professional here, and well—I mean, I don’t mean to be rude, but—I don’t understand.”
Dean cleared his throat again, realizing he’d made a mess of things.
I need to just be honest with her , he thought.
“Noelle, I’m sorry. I didn’t think—well, I came up with kind of a silly plan just now and I see that I should have thought it through better before putting it into action.”
She cocked her head to one side, clearly unsure of what he was talking about. “What kind of a plan?”
“There’s nothing left to do on your car. I invented that as a pretext for asking you to come over here. I—I wanted to talk to you.”
Noelle blinked at him a couple of times and then her eyebrows lifted slowly. “Is everything okay?”
He nodded. “Yeah, everything’s okay. I mean, I hope so.”
Her brow furrowed even more. “You hope so?”
Dean shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair. “There I go, making a mess of things again. Sorry. Yes! Everything is okay.”
“You could have called the office,” she said slowly. “I mean, if you needed to talk to me. I’m assuming this is about your physical therapy?”
“Well, it’s… it’s just that… I wanted to talk to you in person. And I know I could have gone there or waited until our next appointment, but… well, I wanted the conversation to be outside of your office. It’s—well, it’s personal. It’s not something I feel comfortable discussing in a professional setting like that.”
Noelle sat down in one of the lobby chairs. “What’s going on?” She sounded a little breathless and her eyes were wide.
Dean sat down in the chair across from hers. He clasped his hands and then unclasped them again, unsure of where to begin. “Noelle, I… I would like to be switched to another PT.”
She stared at him, and he could tell that she was upset. “I don’t understand,” she stammered. “I thought you enjoyed working with me. And your progress is fantastic. I mean, Chip is also a wonderful PT, but I can assure you he wouldn’t be able to help you along any faster than I’ve been helping you.”
He shook his head. “It’s not that.”
“Well, why then?”
Dean swallowed, feeling his heart race. He took a deep breath. “I want to be switched so that I can ask you out.”
Noelle froze, and her mouth popped open into a perfect little “O” of surprise. For a few moments, neither of them said anything. Dean rolled his shoulders back, worrying that she was about to turn him down. His palms were sweating fiercely again, and he wiped them off on his pants legs.
“Like on a date?” she said finally.
“Yes. I really enjoyed showing you around town,” he said, his voice steady despite how nervous he felt. “You’re wonderful company. You’re kind and fun to be around, and I realized that I wanted to be more than just friends with you. And you’re really a wonderful physical therapist. My admiration for you has grown with every session, not only because of your knowledge but also because of what an encouraging, uplifting person you are. And I’ve been happy being single—I mean, for years. My sisters have been trying to get me to go out with people, and I just haven’t felt any kind of a real tug in that direction. Not until you.”
Noelle was sitting there staring at him, looking shocked. He didn’t know what she was thinking so he nervously continued talking.
“I know it’s tricky, since we met in a professional capacity. I’m sure you’re not allowed to date your clients, and I wouldn’t want to ask you to anyway—I think that would be wrong. But that’s why I wanted to switch physical therapists. So that I could ask you out. And I don’t want to make you uncomfortable or anything, but I’m wondering if you felt what I felt the other day. When we shared that moment in your office. I felt so attracted to you then, and I still do. Did you feel any of that too? Some measure of attraction toward me?”
Three heart-pounding seconds passed, and then Noelle nodded. Slowly, a smile spread across her face.
“Sorry,” she said, pressing a hand to her cheek, which was slightly flushed. “I’m just in such a total daze. Yeah, I did. I definitely am attracted to you too.”
“Oh.” Dean found himself smiling, and he realized his heart was beating faster than ever. Now, however, instead of nervous he felt absolutely wonderful. “You are?”
“Yeah, I—well, like you were saying. I’ve been realizing that I’d like to be more than friends with you too. You’re great company, and I admire the way you handle your business here.”
“Yeah? And for the record, we’ve never actually forgotten to check something in someone’s car and asked them to come back in.”
“I didn’t think so.” She laughed, the sound light and musical. “I was like, ‘What on earth is going on? That doesn’t seem like him at all.’”
“You should have seen Keith’s face when I asked him to call you and tell you that.” Dean chuckled too, joining in her laughter. “I think he thought I was pranking him for a second.”
“Well, you’ll have to tell him that it was all a ruse to try to get me to come here so we could talk in person.” Her eyes twinkled at him.
“He’ll never let me live it down.” He grinned. “Sorry I had you drive over here. And that I made you nervous. It was a silly plan.”
She shrugged. “Well, it worked, didn’t it?”
“So you’ll go out with me? We don’t need to be officially dating or anything, but I’d like to switch to Chip so that I can take you out.”
“That sounds great. I accept your asking me out.”
“Amazing. Do we need to do any kind of fancy paperwork first?”
“Nope.” She tapped the side of her head. “Got all the confirmation that you’d like to
switch therapists stored away in here.” She smiled at him, and the expression on her face was so sweet that his heart did a somersault. “What’s a good day for you?”
“Hm, how about Saturday? In the evening?”
“Sounds perfect.” She was grinning just as broadly as he was, and he felt a surge of happiness at the fact that she was clearly excited too. “Saturday it is.”
He stood up, knowing that he needed to get back to work and that he shouldn’t keep her. Still, he felt reluctant to be parted from her. “You want me to take a look at your car, now that you’ve brought it all the way down here?”
“No, that’s okay.” She laughed, standing up as well. “I trust your initial analysis.”
For a moment, they stood there smiling at each other. Dean felt excitement coursing through his body, and he felt more energetic than he had in years.
“I guess I’d better let you get back to work,” she said, starting toward the door. “I’ll see you on Saturday. Text me the details?”
“I will.”
They exchanged one more grin and then she slipped out of the shop. Dean stood in the lobby watching her go for a moment. Then he turned around and headed back to his office, eagerness bubbling inside of him.