“Really?”
He nodded. “We traveled too much for me to attend regular school so my mother provided my education. It was interesting, to say the least.”
Taylor lifted one shoulder. “You went to med school so she must have done something right.”
“She did a lot right and got lucky that I liked to learn and was a good student.”
“I wasn’t.”
“Wasn’t what?” he asked.
“A good student,” she admitted, a little embarrassed that she felt compelled to do so.
“I find that difficult to believe.”
“Oh, don’t misunderstand. I made good grades,” she clarified. “I just had to work really hard for them. Amy could party all night, go to class the next morning and ace a test. Not me. I had to put my nose to the books and learn the material inside out.”
“Everyone learns differently.”
“Yeah, some of us do things the hard way over and over.” Glancing around the emergency room bay, which was rather quiet at the moment, restlessness overtook Taylor. “Guess I should see if Amy needs help.”
“She’s going to say she doesn’t because she prefers you to be doing exactly what you are doing right this moment.”
“What’s that?”
“Talking with me.”
Taylor sucked in a deep breath. “Jack.”
He grinned. “I like it when you say my name.”
“Yeah, well, I should say Dr. Morgan.”
He shook his head. “No matter what happens, I’m always Jack to you. Always.”
* * *
Amy left on Friday morning and Taylor’s phone buzzed before ten a.m. with a text from Jack. She’d been up for a while, working on catching up on her laundry.
Staring at her phone, she sighed. Oh, Jack. What am I going to do about you?
She’d been clinging to what she’d overheard as an excuse to put distance between them. She recognized that just as she recognized the truth in what he’d said. She and Jack had no future together. Spending time with him set her up for heartache, but not spending time with him seemed impossible.
At least for as long as she was paired with Amy for orientation she’d be on the same work schedule as Jack. And, for at least as long as Amy had breath in her body, her friend seemed determined to push them together.
Jack’s position at the hospital would be ending before long. Then she wouldn’t see him. At all.
Just the thought of that made her heart squeeze.
Maybe she was only hurting herself by refusing him when she could be having sex with Jack. He missed her and wanted her. He’d told her so. Spending the next few weeks with Jack wouldn’t derail her goals. She wouldn’t depend on him or expect anything from him.
He was leaving. She knew he was leaving. She didn’t want him to stay.
She’d be fine.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
TAYLOR’S HAIR WAS blowing about her face crazily as she and Jack rode in ‘Jessica’, his nickname for his Jeep. The sun beat down on top of her head. The radio was cranked up and could be heard over the wind noise.