Heart Surgeon to Single Dad

“There was no need to exchange numbers.” There hadn’t been. “We agreed to only three days and said our goodbyes just outside baggage claims.”

They’d kept things simple. Three perfect days and nights.

She had no regrets. Other than that she wondered if she’d made a mistake in telling her best friends about Matthew. They’d obviously seen more than there was, and she needed to set the record straight.

“We’re much better to have ended things today than to ruin such a perfect memory.”

Both her friends shook their heads.

“At least tell me h

e kissed you goodbye at the airport,” Monica insisted, taking a sip of her drink. “One of those long, sappy goodbye kisses that makes a girl kick her leg up and everyone else stare in envy.”

“Come on,” Suzie urged. “You can’t not tell us if he kissed you goodbye. He didn’t shake your hand or something else just as lame, did he? Tell all. Best friends want to know.”

Recalling how Matthew had kissed her, Natalie smiled. “He kissed me goodbye better than any heroine has ever been kissed goodbye in any romantic movie. Way better.”

He had. A kiss that had been full of so much more than just passion. There had been emotion. Gratitude, she assured herself. They’d both been thankful for a fun weekend. A very fun weekend. Without meaning to, Natalie added with a sigh, “A goodbye kiss for the ages.”

Monica and Suzie exchanged looks, then Monica leaned across the table, wide-eyed, and gasped, “I can’t believe it. You fell for this guy.”

“No, I didn’t,” Natalie immediately denied. “He was just...” How could she describe Matthew and how he’d made her feel? “Good, that’s all.”

“Right. I never saw you all flush-cheeked and starry-eyed when talking about he whose name we don’t say.”

Which was how her friends referred to her ex.

“There’s a reason for that. Jonathan,” she stressed his name, “never did the things to my body that Matthew did. Not even close.”

Her friends exchanged looks again, making Natalie feel defensive.

“I had a great weekend, something the two of you encouraged me to do,” she reminded. “Why are you acting as if it’s a big deal?”

“Why are you?” Suzie pointed out at the same time as Monica said,

“Because it is a big deal. You shouldn’t have let him go.”

Natalie rolled her eyes. When she’d called her friends, this wasn’t what she’d had in mind.

“You both told me to have a holiday fling and I did. An amazing one with a man whose brain is pure genius and whose body should be on a pin-up calendar.” She could fan her face just at the memory of his hotness. “I thought you would be proud that I’d done something so out of character.”

Her friends just stared.

“Be happy for me,” she ordered, getting frustrated with how they kept looking at her.

“We are happy for you,” Suzie insisted, her big green eyes cutting to Monica for back-up. “Only...”

“Only what?”

“What if this guy was the one?”

Natalie laughed at the absurdity of her friend’s question. “He wasn’t. It’s unlikely I’ll ever see him again.”

Why did that thought make her insides ache?

“Unlikely?” Suzie piped up. “Does that mean it’s possible?”

“Anything is possible. His mother lives in West Memphis and he and I are both pediatric heart surgeons interested in innovative in-utero surgical techniques.” Natalie shrugged. “But I don’t have plans to intentionally see him again, if that’s what you mean.”