Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
claire
“Thank God my brother was here to turn off the water and call a plumber the next morning,” Daisy tells me as she lets me into her house, her service dog trailing closely behind.
“Yeah, lucky,” I agree, keeping my expression neutral. Part of me feels guilty for not volunteering my side of that story, but I guess Rowan has his reasons for omitting my role in his recount of the busted pipe fiasco a couple weeks back. “But other than that, the honeymoon was great, right?”
She bites her lip, and her cheeks flush as she plops down onto the couch. “Our cabin was really nice. And the view was amazing.”
“I bet you got a good look at the ceiling,” I say, laughing loudly as I make myself comfortable beside her.
“Sure did,” she confirms, stifling a grin. “Sturdy headboard, too.”
She earns another cackle and a nudge from me with that one. “So, um, speaking of your brother, what’s his deal, anyway?” I begin once our laughter dies down.
Daisy’s brow rises. “Were we talking about Rowan? I must have missed it.”
“We both know you were just waiting for an opportunity to bring him up,” I say, trying to downplay my interest after my transition wasn’t as smooth as I’d hoped.
“So you can explain why you never mentioned the fact that you knew him before?”
Dammit. Withholding the truth has been hard enough, but I’m afraid this is going to require an actual lie.
“I didn’t know he was your brother,” I say with a shrug. “Besides, I was still married when I met him.”
There. That wasn’t technically untrue.
“And what do you want to know now that you’re a single woman?” she asks as she tucks her feet beneath her. Juniper notices her position and takes it as a cue to relax.
“What’s wrong with him? He’s practically a walking green flag, yet he’s still single,” I point out.
She lets out a short laugh. “There’s nothing wrong with him. If anything, it’s probably the other way around,” she mutters the last part to herself.
“Eh, I call bullshit,” I say, pretending I’m not all that invested in her answer. “If he were perfect, he’d be married by now, wouldn’t he?”
“I suppose Rowan isn’t perfect, and maybe I’m a little biased, but he’s pretty darn close,” she muses.
I shake my head, not because I disagree with Daisy, but to rid my mind of the image of Rowan’s nearly flawless body. “It’s not possible,” I tell her after a while. “You don’t just stumble upon a hot doctor who’s still available at his age, much less one that … adorable.”
Daisy grins. “I mean, I did.”
I snort. “Yeah, but Landry was a take-home project. It took a little elbow grease to bring him around.”
“All I did was dust him off and shine him up,” she says with a wave of her hand and a mischievous glint in her eyes. “But I’d like to revisit your previous statement. Do you really think Rowan is adorable?”
Dead freaking sexy would be more accurate, I almost reply. But I figure I should spare her on this one, since it is her brother we’re talking about here.
“Who wouldn’t?” I retort instead. “Which brings me back to my original point—how is he still single?”
Daisy shakes her head and pulls her long hair over her shoulder. “I honestly don’t know, but I imagine it has something to do with the high standards he holds for himself. Women must find it intimidating,” she says thoughtfully as she twists her hair into a braid.
“What kind of standards?” I ask, my stomach clenching at the reminder.
She hesitates before answering. “Morals, I guess.”
My brow furrows, and I think back to our last few conversations. “He’s religious, like you.”
“Yes, and, well, we were raised in a different environment. Our parents made it a point to protect us from the ways of the world, at least until we were mature and firm enough in our beliefs to make good decisions on our own. And even though Rowan acclimated pretty well in college, he’s always been very strict on himself, probably more so than the rest of us. ”
“Oh.” I think about his honesty on the night we met, how refreshing it was to interact with someone so genuine, and now that I consider it, a little naive for his age.
“Most of us assumed he’d become a priest after practically living like one for the past couple decades, but I know he wants a family so badly. It’s a shame he can’t seem to find anyone who appreciates his self-discipline,” she explains wistfully. “I hate seeing him so lonely.”
I blink at her a few times while I process what she’s telling me. But something’s not adding up here. “And when you say he lives like a priest, you mean …”
“He hasn’t taken a legitimate vow of poverty or celibacy as far as I know, but he likes to live more simply so he can give to charities and the less fortunate. And, you know …” She lifts a shoulder in a shrug. But before I can fill in the blanks, the front door flies open.
Daisy immediately jumps to her feet and squeals with delight when Landry waltzes in. Leaving me on the couch, she bounds over to him with Juniper barking at her heels, and his shoulders relax as soon as he wraps her up in a hug.
“Miss me, Blondie?” he pulls back and asks with a smirk before he lifts her up onto his hips and kisses her, and my heart melts just a little.
Landry notices me after a while and leans around Daisy to shoot me a polite smile. “Hey, Claire,” he greets me with much less enthusiasm.
“Hey,” I return. “Long day, Doc?”
He sighs and sets Daisy back down onto her bare feet.
“No, but I was looking forward to some alone time with my wife.” She gasps and reaches up to swat at his chest, and he frowns, presumably because he didn’t intend to sound so rude.
I’m not offended, though. I’d probably be the same way if I found someone I liked coming home to.
“No worries. I’m on my way out,” I say as I stand, freezing in place once I realize it wasn’t my presence Landry was grumbling about.
“Hi,” Rowan greets me from the open door, his expression unreadable. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”
“My car is in the driveway,” I point out dumbly as Daisy and Landry exchange a look.
“The blue Bronco, right?”
I narrow my eyes at him. “Yeah. That’s the one.”
Rowan nods. “I’m seeing patients at the clinic in the morning,” he explains, as if I wouldn’t be able to surmise his reasons for being here. But the silence stretches after that, and it suddenly feels like I’ve worn out my welcome.
“Well, I was just leaving,” I announce, scanning the floor for my boots. Of course, they’re behind Rowan, so I gesture politely for him to move over. He stands firmly, though, his eyes running over me in a way that makes me feel warm and lightheaded.
“Is this your, ah, work uniform?” he asks carefully.
“Yeah,” I say with a forced smile. “Just missing the steeled toes.”
“Oh, sorry.” Understanding finally dawns on him, and he shifts a duffle bag over his shoulder as he steps to the side.
“Wait, Claire, don’t rush off,” Daisy begins when I grab the first boot. “Why don’t you stay for dinner?”
“What are we going to make her, an egg sandwich?” I hear Landry whisper harshly, then he grunts when Daisy presumably elbows him in the ribs. “I mean, don’t go. We’re, um, getting takeout … since Rowan’s staying over.”
My eyes dance around the room as I measure the sincerity of their invitation. Daisy looks as though she’s bursting with excitement and plotting some kind of set up. Landry seems resolved but less than thrilled with the idea. And Rowan’s expression is still uncharacteristically blank.
I panic and reach for my boot again. “Thanks, but I don’t want to impose,” I tell them before Rowan reaches out to stop me with a firm hand on my arm.
“Stay,” he says levelly. “I’ll make dinner for everyone.”
I glance up to find him smiling softly. “Are you sure?” I ask hesitantly.
“Of course. I can’t make any promises about what I can whip up with the ingredients they’ll have, but I’m sure I’ll think of something.”
“Since when do you cook?” Landry crosses his arms and studies his friend carefully.
Rowan straightens his posture and shrugs. “Mom’s been teaching me a few things. And I recently learned to make marinara sauce from scratch, which I’ve found useful for a lot of other recipes.”
I roll my eyes, and I feel my face heating when everyone turns to look at me. I might have accidentally scoffed out loud.
“Sorry, ignore me,” I say awkwardly.
“What, you don’t think I can cook?” Rowan asks, his lips already curving up into a smile.
“If anything, I’m shocked you aren’t a Michelin Star chef,” I retort sarcastically.
He chuckles. “It’s on my bucket list, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet.”
“Right,” I confirm with a nod, trying to stifle my own smile. “You’ve still got to get your plumber’s license and your CDL first.”
His head lolls back as he groans playfully, and one of my obnoxious cackles breaks free before I can stop myself. These little inside jokes are becoming dangerous.
“And how do you two know each other again?” Landry chimes in.
“Oh, we both …”
“Well, there was …”
“He works with that doctor …”
“And some mutual acquaintances …”
Rowan and I talk over one another as we fumble through another purposefully ambiguous explanation of our chance meetings, though my mind insists on an inconvenient callback to lying in bed with him that first night, our legs tangled together and his chest vibrating beneath my cheek each time he laughs, him calling me his soulmate before he pulls me in for a slow, heated kiss—
“Yeah, because that makes sense,” Landry says with a grunt. Daisy bites her lip from her place beside him, just itching to bring up our conversation from before.
I cross my arms over my middle and shift my weight to one foot, still trying to disguise my body’s reaction to Rowan’s current proximity.
But it’s impossible to keep my cool around him, mostly because he’s so damned cute.
And it’s frankly a little annoying that he doesn’t seem to be as bothered with our clandestine situationship as I am today.