Matched with the Doctor (Lunchtime Romcoms #1)

10. Ben

Ben

I spent the next two days cursing myself for not getting Colleen’s phone number so I could text her. I could have gotten it from her medical intake forms of course, but that seemed wrong. Instead I bided my time, hoping that I’d run into her in town.

Of course I didn’t. I did, however, run into every single one of her siblings, as well as her cousin Tara, who’d given me a knowing look.

After a busy day at the clinic Monday, I had a lighter schedule on Tuesday, allowing me some time for charting and paperwork in the afternoon. I left the clinic as soon as I could, eager to get ready for my date with Colleen. I hadn’t been this excited about something in a while.

I parked my SUV in her driveway a few minutes before six. Before I could go to the door she came out, telling me that she was watching from the window.

Colleen was wearing dark washed jeans tucked into boots that went almost to her knee, a black puffy coat pulled over her long, light pink sweater. Her auburn hair was shining and sleek, and she was wearing something shiny on her lips.

I couldn’t wait to kiss it off.

Jumping out of the car, I pulled her into a hug, then pressed a kiss to her temple. She sighed and relaxed against me.

“Are you ready for dinner?” I asked as we settled in the car.

“Sure. Where are we going?”

“Someone recommended that we got to the Wishing Well in Sandy.”

I didn’t tell her that the someone was Tricia, who was probably telling everyone in town where we were going as we spoke.

“Great,” she said. “I haven’t been there in years.”

I made my way to the highway, and we headed down the mountain towards Sandy, the largest small town in the area. It was situated on the main highway between Portland and the mountain, about twenty minutes away from Cedar Creek. As we drove, Colleen updated me on her siblings.

“Erin is a teacher now,” she started. “She teaches third and fourth grade at Cedar Creek Elementary. Sean is a fire fighter. Patrick has his own contracting company, and he does mostly home remodels. And Kennedy is working in Dad’s shop now.”

I wasn’t surprised. Kennedy had aways been a tomboy, following after her father like a baby duck. She’d spent more time at that garage than she did at school when we were younger.

“Sounds like you’ve all done well for yourselves,” I noted. “Although I’m surprised that you all ended up living in Cedar Creek. It’s pretty unusual. I keep reading about how the younger generations are fleeing small towns.”

“Except for Kennedy, we all left and came back,” she said. “There’s something about growing up in a small town that makes living in the city difficult. When I was in Seattle, I didn’t know any of my neighbors. Here, I know everyone.”

She paused to pull out her phone as it beeped with a text.

“Of course that’s bad too. I already have a text from Erin saying she hopes I have a nice dinner at the Wishing Well.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, and after a second Colleen joined me.

“I guess I should confess that I asked Tricia for a restaurant recommendation.”

“You might as well have put it on the town Facebook group,” she replied.

“The town has a Facebook group?” I asked.

“Yeah it’s the best place to get all the latest gossip without having to talk to anyone. In fact, Tricia is the moderator.”

“Wow, I guess things have really changed since I lived here,” I said.

“Plus, just so you’re aware, anything you say to Tricia goes directly to my mother and my Aunt Bianca,” Colleen said. “Those three have been peas in a pod since they were kids.”

I pulled into the restaurant, and after checking in with the hostess, we were seated at a table in the back. It was a nice restaurant, not super fancy but also not touristy. We both ordered a beer, surprised to learn that we both liked the same local IPA, then we perused the menu.

“What are you having? The calamari?” I asked in a teasing tone.

Colleen got a look of horror on her face. “Ick no!”

She’d always hated squid, saying it was too slimy for her.

“Remember when we were dating and your mother found out that we’d gone to Sandy and eaten bacon cheeseburgers on a Friday during Lent?”

I wasn’t Catholic, so I didn’t understand all their traditions, but that hadn’t stopped Mrs. O’Malley from chastising me for helping Colleen violate her Lenten fasting.

“Oh God yes, she was so mad. She made me go to confession the next day.” Colleen laughed. “We all have a ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ thing with her now. She suspects that we don’t follow all the Catholic traditions we did as kids, but as long as she doesn’t hear about it, we’re all good.”

One thing about the O’Malley kids, they always had each other’s backs, especially when it came to avoiding their mother’s ire.

“Tell me about your other boyfriends.” I asked the question that I’d been curious about ever since I saw her again.

She was saved from answering by the arrival of the server. We ordered food – lasagna for me and some kind of grilled chicken dish for Colleen – and once we were alone again I prompted her to answer my question.

“I think you’re not supposed to talk about your exes on a first date,” she prevaricated.

“Good thing this isn’t our first date then,” I said. “Answer the question.”

I didn’t do it on purpose, but my voice deepened, sounding more commanding, and Colleen shivered. Interesting.

“There’s not much to say,” she finally answered. “I dated one guy for two years in college, but then we graduated and went our separate ways. I’ve had two longer term boyfriends since then, dating each of them for about a year or so, but otherwise I’ve mostly dated casually.”

I felt unaccountably jealous of these other guys who dated my girl. Sure, I’d been the one to decide we needed to break up, but that didn’t mean that it hadn’t killed me as much as it had her. Some dark, jealous part of me wondered how many of those guys she’d slept with – not that it was any of my business.

We’d never gone all the way when we were dating. We’d both wanted to, but she’d only been sixteen and I’d felt strongly about not crossing that line with her. It had killed me to wait, but in the end, I was glad I did. Even though I wished that we’d been each other’s first, breaking up with her would have been even more devastating for both of us if we’d moved to the next level.

“What about you?” Colleen asked, interrupting my brooding about her ex-boyfriends. “What’s your dating story?”

I shrugged. “Pretty similar to yours actually. I dated someone for a year in college, but we broke up when I found out she was cheating on me,” I explained “I only dated casually in med school and during my internship and residency because I was just too busy to be in a relationship.”

“And after you were done with your training?” she asked.

“I dated a woman for two and a half years. We were… well, we got engaged,” I admitted, unsure why I felt uncomfortable telling Colleen about Lisa. “But we broke up about six months ago.”

“Why did you break up?” she asked.

“When we started planning the wedding, we realized that we were really better as friends. There wasn’t really any passion there, you know? We were basically roommates.”

She was also turning into a snobby bridezilla during the wedding planning, making me wonder how much of her real personality she’d hidden from me, but I didn’t mention that. It wasn’t my style to trash my exes.

“You were engaged to and living with a woman until a few months ago?” she asked, looking a little discombobulated. “So this is what, a rebound thing?”

She waved her hand between us, and I grabbed it, wrapping my fingers around hers. I felt a hum of electricity pass between us.

“It’s not a rebound,” I said firmly. “It’s a second chance. A new beginning. And confirmation that the reason that none of my other relationships worked out was because as great as those women were, none of them were you.”