Matched with the Doctor (Lunchtime Romcoms #1)

7. Colleen

Colleen

S omething weird was going on here, and I was pretty sure my mother was at the root of it. She looked way too happy about Ben’s “surprise” visit, which I was pretty sure wasn’t a surprise at all.

Without looking back, I headed into the kitchen, Ben behind me. For some reason, I had the impression that he was looking at my ass. I resisted the urge to add a little wiggle to my steps. When I got into the kitchen, I turned to face him.

“Did you just pop by?” I asked.

He shook his head, looking a little confused. “Your mom invited me the other day. I hope that’s okay?”

“It’s her house, she can invite who she wants.”

I knew I sounded snippy, but I couldn’t help it. I did not appreciate my mother blindsiding me like this. If I’d known I was going to see my ex-boyfriend again I could have been mentally prepared. And I would have worn something a little more flattering than the plain navy blue wrap dress and ballet flats I’d worn to church.

Stalking over to the cabinet next to the fridge, I reached for the shelf that held the vases. I popped up on my tiptoes, but I couldn’t quite reach. Before I could get a step stool I felt a warm body come up behind me.

“Let me.”

Instead of letting me move away, Ben crowded me against the counter, surrounding me as he reached above my head. He smelled good, kind of like citrus, and I wondered if it was his body wash.

“This one okay?”

Ben’s voice was husky as he brought down a vase to my eye level.

“Yeah.”

For some reason we both stayed where we were, my belly pressed against the counter, Ben’s body a scant inch away from mine. He was putting off heat like a furnace, and I resisted the urge to fan myself.

When I stepped back, he followed suit. I looked up at him and suddenly I had the oddest realization. I’d never gotten over him. Sure I’d dated several guys over the last twenty years, some of them seriously, but none of them had made me feel this giddy sense of exhilaration.

And that really made me irritated.

How dare Ben come back to Cedar Creek and make me start mooning over him? We hadn’t even had a proper conversation yet. I grabbed the vase and stalked over to the sink, filling it with water, then dumped the daisies in, arranging them in the center.

“Have I done something to offend you?” Ben asked, watching me carefully.

“Besides breaking my heart?” I snapped.

“Come on Colleen, that was twenty years ago. We were just kids. Surely you know as an adult that I made the right choice going to school?”

He was right, but that didn’t mean I had to be happy about it. It’s not like we would have had a happily ever after if he’d stayed here in Cedar Creek. We’d been teenagers, with our whole lives ahead of us. Our break-up was just the first heartbreak of many.

But that didn’t mean I wanted to rekindle our relationship, no matter how much my traitorous body was humming in excitement.

“You know what’s happening here, don’t you?” I asked. “My mother’s got some scheme to get us back together again.”

“Would that be so bad?” he asked. “We’re both single, right? And unless I’m mistaken, you’re feeling the same attraction that I am.”

“No I’m not,” I denied.

“Liar.”

He reached up to push a lock of my hair back behind my ear, and I froze, staring into his eyes. I was a liar. Despite my overwhelming sense of embarrassment I’d felt the heat between us in the clinic, and I felt it now.

I just didn’t know what to do with it. It was different from when we were younger. Stronger. More intense.

“Colleen, don’t just stand there gaping at the man like a fish, set the table.”

I resisted rolling my eyes as my mother hustled into the kitchen. I was a thirty-six year old woman and my mother still acted like I was a bratty teen.

Once the table was set, Mom brought out the food, Ben helping her carry everything. We gathered around the large wooden table, sitting in the same seats as we’d done since we were kids. It didn’t matter how old we were, if we were in Cedar Creek we were expected to show up at eleven a.m. mass and then come for family dinner after church. None of us dared argue with her.

Mom and Dad sat at either end of the table, with me, Erin, and Kennedy sitting on one side, Sean and Patrick on the other. Mom had seated Ben directly across from me and next to the boys, just like she used to do when we were dating.

We all paused while Mom said the blessing, then dug into the food. Just like she did every Sunday, my mother had prepared an enormous amount of food. Today we had a ham, as well as buttered green beans, scalloped potatoes, biscuits, and a huge salad with a variety of vegetables.

Ham had always been Ben’s favorite dish, and I did not think it was a coincidence that Mom had chosen that as our entrée today.

As we ate Mom quizzed Ben on what he’d been doing since he left Cedar Creek. I already knew that he’d gone to Colorado State for undergraduate, but I’d never heard what happened to him after that. He shared that he’d gone to medical school in Indianapolis, then done his medical internship and residency in Seattle before joining a family medicine practice in Portland. Although he’d worked there for several years, it wasn’t the right fit for him.

“The problem with practicing medicine now is it’s like an assembly line,” Ben explained. “It’s very corporate. I was penalized if I spent more than seven to ten minutes with a patient. I was always rushing from room to room, updating the electronic medical records, and hoping that I hadn’t missed anything. But that’s not the medicine I want to practice.”

“How did you decide to come back here to Cedar Greek though?” I couldn’t help but ask.

As far as I knew, he hadn’t stepped foot in town since he left for college. His mother had moved away soon after he left.

“My father died and left me a sizable insurance policy. I decided I wanted to use that money to buy a small practice somewhere that needed medical care since there are so many areas of the country where there are no local doctors anymore. When my broker told me about the opportunity in Cedar Creek, well, it felt like fate was bringing me back here.”

“God works in mysterious ways,” Mom replied. She’d never been one to believe in fate, but she definitely believed that God had a hand in anything good that happened.

Her eyes bounced between me and Ben a few times, and it was obvious enough that my siblings were noticing. My baby sister Kennedy kicked me with her foot then gave me a mischievous smile that just got bigger when my mother spoke again.

“Ben dear, do me a favor and walk Colleen home, would you?”