Dave was still sitting on the floor in front of the fire, staring at the flames.
“Hey,” she said, putting the tray down on a small coffee table. “You don’t have to sit on the floor, you know.”
He looked over at her and smiled, some of the tension gone from his face. “Just watching the fire. You’ve got a nice place here, Charlie. It suits you.”
She liked the light colors—white, with bits of creamy beige and blue and greens. It reminded her of the ocean and sand, very soothing and relaxing. “Thanks. It’s the first place I’ve ever decorated myself, for myself.” She’d liked the cottage so much that after her first six months of renting, she’d bought it from the owner.
He laughed. “I’m not much of a decorator. Then again, I didn’t need to be. The Navy had it covered. And now I’m renting, which suits me fine.”
“Have some coffee while it’s hot,” she suggested. She nearly sat on the sofa but decided the rug in front of the fire was fine for her too. She sat, cross-legged, handed Dave his mug, and grabbed her own, then put the plate of pastries between them.
“This is good,” he complimented, taking a sip. “Damn. Really good.”
“Fresh beans and a press. Makes all the difference,” she replied, taking a sip of her own. She reached for a pain au chocolat and a paper napkin. The flaky pastry sent wisps of crumbs flying at her first bite, but she didn’t care. Butter and chocolate together was heavenly.
Dave snagged a sugared doughnut from the assortment and bit into it. For a few minutes they munched happily, in comfortable silence. What was amazing was that they didn’t feel the need to make small talk or break the stillness.
Her coffee was half gone when Dave finally restarted the conversation. “So,” he said, wiping his sugary fingers on a napkin, “you know a bit about me. How about you? Where did you grow up? Why did you become a doctor?”
The buttery croissant went papery in her mouth. She didn’t like talking about herself much. “Oh, my story’s pretty boring.”
“I doubt that. Especially since you’re avoiding the topic.” He leaned back on his hands. It made his shoulders look incredibly muscled, she noticed.
“Okay, so here’s the short version. I grew up in Boston. My mother teaches at the Berklee College of Music and my father works in clinical research for a pharmaceutical company. My dad is second-generation Chinese, and my mom’s family probably came over on the Mayflower.” She rolled her eyes at him and continued on. “They have very busy careers and very high expectations of their one and only child.”
“So you became a doctor.”
“Sure. After several years of violin and piano lessons, courtesy of my mother, and a lot of pressure to major in biochem.” She let out a breath. “There were good points to that too, though. They were so busy with their own careers and social lives that I stayed under the radar quite often. And I did want to become a doctor.” Eventually, anyway. Lucky for her. She couldn’t imagine what might have happened if she’d hated medicine.
He looked at her steadily. “It sounds lonely.”
Her heart gave a little thump. “It was, actually. And I know they’re disappointed that I’m a family doctor in a small town and not doing important research like my dad or being a top trauma doctor like my best friend, Lizzie. But I’m happy with my choices. I like my job and I like it here.”
And maybe she was still lonely at times. But she’d work on it. After all, she’d taken the step of volunteering for the church Christmas decorating, and look what had come from that. Sunday morning coffee and sweets in front of a fire with a gorgeous man. Progress.
She smiled to herself.
“What’s so funny?”
“If I told you, you’d get a big fat head, so never mind.” She pushed away the plate, her sweet tooth finally satisfied. “You make me laugh, Dave, and that’s kind of nice.”
He put down his coffee cup, then took hers and put it down too, on the brick hearth in front of the fireplace. Her pulse hammered frantically, beating at the base of her wrists. It was the kind of move she expected a person made before they made a bigger move. When he turned back to her, she swallowed thickly, nervous and excited all at once.
He put his hands on the sides of her thighs and pulled her forward, so she was sitting beside him but facing him, close enough that she could see gold-and-chocolate flecks in his dark eyes. Her breath shortened, her chest cramped as he lifted his hand and cupped her jaw. His thumb grazed the corner of her mouth and her breath stopped altogether. He removed his hand and put his thumb to his lips, tasting the buttery crumb he’d taken from her mouth.
Oh my.