The Doctor’s Simple Life (Love Heals All Wounds #3)

14. Sienna

CHAPTER 14

SIENNA

E njoying a weekend with Reece is the last thing I would have ever expected to do. But despite all my reservations, we’ve been spending a little time together this week and he has, shockingly, been quite decent company.

Company in the office is one thing. But if there’s something I don’t think Reece is, it’s a hiker. That’s exactly why I’ve invited him out to the Silver Forest. It’s a bit of a drive away, but it has some of my absolute favorite hiking trails of all time woven through them.

It’s where I come when I need to escape the world a little. It’s my safe place, and I’m about to let Reece into it.

“Where are we going?” he asks again, pouting prettily at me as if that means I might tell him anything at all.

“It’s a surprise,” I say again. “Have some patience.”

He sinks back in the passenger seat, and I clench the steering wheel tightly so that I don’t give myself away. He doesn’t need to know how excited I am to put him in an environment in which he does not belong.

When we pull up into the forest parking lot, his face falls as he realizes this is our final destination.

“Are you kidding?” he asks, staring at me.

“No.”

“Why are we at a forest?”

“Because forests are nice.”

“Okay, but why are we in it?”

“Because we’re going for a hike.”

“A hike!” He sighs dramatically, flopping back into the seat. From his reaction, you would have thought that I’d asked him to do something genuinely unpleasant, like clean out the bathrooms or deal with a patient’s catheter.

“I’m not dressed for a hike.”

“You’re wearing sneakers.”

“Yeah, fashionable ones! If I get these dirty, I’m going to make you pay for a new pair.”

“No, you’re not.” I sniff, getting out of the car and slamming the door behind me. Then I cross round to his door and open it for him. “You’re a doctor. You get paid more in a month than I do in a year.”

“That’s not true.” He frowns, then doubts everything he knows about his salary and frowns even harder.

I raise a hard eyebrow at him. “Get out of the car. We’re going on a hike, and you’re going to like it.”

He decides not to argue with me any further. Instead, he gets up and adopts the sulkiest face I’ve ever seen on a human being. Well, one over the age of five anyway.

We head into the forest, and I take a deep breath. The air here is always so fresh and warm. At the end of spring, when the season is on the verge of summer, the leaves are all lush green before the heat of the sun yellows them a little. This is my favorite time of the year, before the drawn-out, long, hot days of summer but after the damp depths of winter.

“What’s that sound?” Reece asks as we walk along.

I frown at him, not entirely sure what he’s talking about. “What sound?”

“That one.” He points up at the skies as if that’s helping. “That weird kind of chirping.”

“What, the birds? Have you never heard a bird before?” I scoff.

“Of course I know what a bird is,” he says, bristling like I’ve touched a nerve.

“Then why are you questioning what they sound like?”

“No, ugh. I know it’s a bird. I mean, what type of bird is it?”

I roll my eyes. “I don’t know. I’m not a birdwatcher.”

“Great,” he mutters.

We keep going and I look up at where he was pointing, smiling at the birds. I’ve always thought about getting into birdwatching. I’ve just never found the time.

I get about three and a half minutes of blissful peace before Reece bothers me with more questions. “Where are we going?”

“What do you mean?”

He hesitates. “Well, like… where are we going ? We’re on a walk, but where to?”

I fix him with a stare. “Haven’t you ever been on a nature walk?”

“Nope,” he says with utter certainty, and I believe him. I guess for him, a vacation is lying on an exotic beach, and a workout is a session in the gym. I don’t suppose he has a lot of time for appreciating nature.

“Well, there’s the Silver Lake at the end of this trail. If it makes you feel better, we can say we’re going there.”

“Not really.”

I want to say If I’d known you were going to be this miserable, I wouldn’t have brought you , but that’s not true at all. I brought him out here because I knew exactly how much he would hate it. It’s just annoying that him hating it has to come with this running commentary.

He flinches hard, jumping back with a yelp. “Ouch!”

“What is it?” I gasp, jumping too, ready to spring into action if there’s a snake or spider lurking by his ankles.

But I can’t see anything. “Damn bugs,” he mutters. “I hate bugs.”

“You’ll be fine,” I huff. All that fuss for a mosquito!

“But my skin.” He frowns. “I hate getting marks on my skin.”

I glance down at his arms and legs, and to my irritation, his skin is really nice. He has a glowing tan, well-toned muscles, and unblemished hands. His clothes are immaculate too, no doubt designer. He’s wearing green shorts and a pale T-shirt, and they suit him perfectly.

Curse him for always looking so perfect.

“Come here,” I say, rummaging through my bag until my fingers brush against the spray bottle I brought for this exact purpose.

For a change, he doesn’t question me and obeys, coming towards me with a dubious look. I don’t say anything, so he doesn’t have a chance to run before I spray him generously with the bug spray. He flinches like a baby but says nothing.

I’m surprised. I was expecting at least some verbal complaint, but I’m less surprised when I don’t get a thank you.

Whatever. At least I’m in my favorite place on earth. Even if Reece was the most miserable and awful he had ever been, he still wouldn’t be able to ruin this place for me.

And then he does manage to surprise me. It’s maybe five miles max to the lake, and I had been expecting a constant stream of groaning about not being there already and it being such a long way, but instead we get to about halfway, and he says, “This is pretty nice, isn’t it?”

I almost fall over in surprise, turning to look at him. But he’s not looking at me. Instead, his blue eyes are transfixed by the forest, absorbing the calm of being here amongst the trees. There’s this look I’ve never seen before on his face, one that I can only describe as bliss.

“Yeah,” I say, though he isn’t really listening to me. “It is.”