Chapter 6 #3
“I’m not here as my dad’s daughter,” she reminded me.
I pissed her off, and Max was grinning from ear to ear.
“Sorry, truly, I am,” I said. I felt terrible. I had to get my shit together.
Max suddenly became very interested in my reaction.
Catherine blinked, like she hadn’t expected me to agree so fast. Her eyes held mine for a second.
“Okay,” she said softly.
That should’ve been the end of it. It wasn’t.
Because I could see why it mattered. She was standing there in scrubs, laptop open, doing the work, trying to earn respect in a room that would already question whether her last name got her through the door.
And I had basically announced her father’s job title because some rookie smiled at her too long and I forgot how to act like a normal person.
Dr. Patel called Catherine over. “Catherine, can you pull up Leo’s previous injury history from the intake file?”
“Of course,” she said.
She looked at me once more before she rolled the laptop cart toward Dr. Patel and Leo.
Max waited until she was out of earshot. “Well.”
“Don’t.”
“That went well. Way to piss her off.”
“I know.”
Max’s mouth twitched, but he didn’t push. For once.
We stood off to the side while Leo sat on the exam table and answered questions.
Catherine stayed beside the laptop, typing notes when Dr. Patel asked her to, pulling up information, and keeping her eyes on the screen unless she was spoken to.
She wasn’t trying to take over. She wasn’t trying to show off.
She was learning and doing her job. And I couldn’t stop watching her.
At one point, Leo said something that made her smile.
Not a big smile. Just a small one, quick and warm.
It bothered me. Which made me an asshole.
Max leaned his shoulder against the wall beside me. “She’s good at this.”
“Yeah,” I said before I could think better of it. “She is.”
Max looked at me then. “She wants people to take her seriously.”
“I know.”
“Then help her with that,” he said. He was more like her big brother than a cousin so I understood why he was so protective of her.
I nodded, my jaw tight. “I will.”
Across the room, Catherine glanced up like she felt us talking about her.
Her eyes met mine for half a second before she looked back at the laptop.
Half a second was enough. I felt it everywhere.
Leo finished with Dr. Patel a few minutes later and hopped down from the table. Catherine handed him a printed sheet.
“Next station is baseline testing,” she said. “Down the hall, second room on the left. Don’t guess on the questions. They’ll know.”
Leo gave her a look. “That sounds ominous.”
“It is.” She grinned, messing with him.
Max pushed off the wall. “We’ll come with you.”
“Not necessary,” Leo countered.
“I’m bored.” Max shrugged.
“And I promised Aunt Sierra I’d show you around,” I said.
“My mom still thinks I’m a little boy,” he shook his head.
“Don’t feel bad. I’m thirty-three and my mother is always up in my business,” I assured.
Max laughed.
“As if your mom is any different,” I called him out.
“Solid point,” Max agreed.
Leo took the paper from Catherine. “Thank you.”
“No problem.”
His gaze moved between me and Max. “You can both watch me fail a memory test.”
“It’s not a memory test,” Catherine sighed. “It’s a concussion baseline.”
Max nodded. “Fancy memory test. My cousin is smart. We have good genes in the family.”
She shook her head, but she was smiling again.
I walked with Max and Leo, but before we left the room, I looked back.
Catherine had already turned to the next player, her laptop open, pen in hand, professional smile in place.
Luca was eyeing her like a puppy with a fresh contract. I told myself it didn’t matter.
“Are you and CC fighting?” Max suddenly asked.
“No. Why would you say that?” I asked him.
“No reason. Things just felt tense between you two,” he noted.
Fighting wasn’t the problem. Or maybe it was, because we were both fighting attraction, and that made things tense between us to the point that Max picked up on our sexual tension.
Now Catherine was here, in my building, in my arena, in my world, looking like she had every right to belong in all of it.
Which she did. That was the problem. I could handle wanting a woman I couldn’t have.
I had discipline. I had years of practice not taking what I wanted just because it was in front of me.
But watching Catherine earn her place, watching her stand there in scrubs with her laptop and her calm voice and her sharp eyes, watching her push back when I accidentally reduced her to her father’s name?
That hit deeper than lust. And lust was already killing me.
Catherine Davis was off-limits. If I was smart, I would accept that fact.
It didn’t matter that she stirred things inside me I hadn’t felt in over a decade, or maybe ever.
None of it mattered. I was a father with a daughter who depended on me.
I couldn’t upend my life for a simple crush.