“Does he do this kind of thing often?”
“Thank God, no.” Levi sighed. “He knows that in general I refuse to kowtow to his whims.”
“So what’s different about this one?” But even as she asked she realized. “Because he’s doing it in your mother’s memory?”
His lips twisting sardonically, he nodded. “The man does know how to push my buttons.”
Wanting to erase the tension lines furrowing into his for
ehead, Madison leaned close. “I’d like to push your buttons.”
As she’d hoped, his expression lightened and she found herself wondering about his father, his mother, his childhood. She knew so little about him. She barely knew anything except that he liked to fish and was an amazing doctor. Oh, and that he was the world record-holder for “best kisser” category. Wowzars, but the man could kiss.
He rubbed his knuckles across her cheek in a caress so brief she wondered if she’d imagined his touch. “That could be arranged. Pick you up for dinner a little after seven?”
“Dinner would be great.” Learning everything there was to know about the man standing next to her would be pretty darned great too.
He grinned. “You want fish, right?”
She curled her nose up. “Depends.”
“On?”
Had he leaned closer? “Whether or not you’re trying to impress me.”
His smile was lethal. “Tonight’s all about impressing you.”
“Then there won’t be anything fishy.” She flashed a lethal smile of her own, then spun to go check on her next patient, feeling happier than anyone had a right to feel.
CHAPTER NINE
LEVI couldn’t recall the last time he’d felt so light inside. Light because he couldn’t think of another way to describe the feelings inside him. He felt young.
What he should be feeling was ridiculous.
Why had he left the office early and then rushed around, getting together what he wanted to do for Madison? Why hadn’t he just planned to take her to some posh restaurant and be done with it? That would have been a lot simpler than what he’d planned.
But he did want to impress Madison.
Which was why he’d gone to the trouble he had. The smile on her face was worth it.
She was smiling, and they hadn’t even gotten to the fun part.
He’d picked her up from the hospital. They’d met with the Margaret House committee—thank God, his father hadn’t bothered to show tonight as he’d dreaded the introduction between Jonathan and Madison. But he had introduced her to the committee members and they’d immediately put her to work. Before they’d gotten away, she’d been assigned to several subcommittees and had made promises to meet with two subcommittee heads on her next day off work.
“This looks suspiciously like the way we drove when we went fishing,” she mused from the passenger side of his SUV.
A grin spread across his face and his insides. “You think?”
“I know.” She sighed, shaking her head in mock disappointment. “You aren’t taking me fishing again, are you? Because I might not be a happy camper if you tell me I have to catch my dinner.”
Camper. The thought of spending the night with Madison underneath the stars, stripping off her uniform and seeing her body bathed in moonlight, had him suppressing a groan. And gripping the steering-wheel a whole lot tighter. So tight his knuckles had blanched white.
“No fishing tonight.”
She twisted in her seat to stare at him. “But we are going to the lake?”
“You’ll see.”