Doctor For Hire

“Brody, I have something to tell you,” I say suddenly. I don’t mean to tell him like this and I probably shouldn’t, but all at once it just seems wrong not to tell him how I feel about him.

“Hey, what’s the tears for, gorgeous? You should never cry,” he murmurs, and being the sweet man that I’ve come to know, he leans up and kisses my eyes gently.

“People cry, that’s just life, Brody—but, these are happy tears,” I confess.

“Then, those are allowed,” he says grudgingly. “What is it you have to tell me, sweetheart?”

“May I talk with Tabitha? I have something to ask her about the wedding.”

I don’t get a chance to tell Brody I love him because before I can form any words, Robbie is standing in front of me, smiling. My stomach turns. I don’t want to talk with Robbie. I can’t even say I like him anymore. After today he’s going to be my brother-in-law, and I’m not thrilled with that either. I’ve tried to talk to my sister about things, but she’s adamant she’s getting married. She even told me she doesn’t love him, but that love is not important in a marriage. I didn’t know what to say—especially once my mother agreed with her.

Sometimes I think I’m adopted.

“Shouldn’t you be off getting ready to marry your bride or something, Rodney?” Brody asks and I hold my head down to keep from showing my smile. It’s all I can do to keep from laughing.

“My name is Robbie.”

“Whatever,” Brody says and I can’t stop a small giggle—which really kind of turns into a snort.

“I need to ask Tabby a private question about the wedding.”

“So ask it.”

“I said it was private,” Robbie says and I roll my eyes. I had forgotten this side of Robbie. He can be a little bit of a drama hound. I suddenly want to thank him for breaking my heart. I would have been miserable with this man. Apparently, I was stupid when I was younger. Now I’m just anxious to get this over with. I came outside because Hilary wanted me to make sure the tables were set properly and her centerpieces looked good. She said she couldn’t do it, because she didn’t want to risk Robbie seeing her before the wedding. I snapped some pictures with my cellphone. They look huge and way too formal for me, but then my sister and I have completely different tastes.

“Brody, it’s okay, the sooner I talk to him, the quicker I can get back to my sister.” It’s clear that Brody doesn’t like my decision because he doesn’t answer, instead he growls at me and for some reason that too makes me smile. “I’ll make it up to you later,” I promise him, stepping in close to kiss him.

“You said you had something to tell me,” he reminds me and I try not to panic when I remember that I was just about to blurt out the fact that I’m in love with him. It’s happened so quickly, how will he react? Will he think I’m insane?

Maybe I am crazy…

“We can talk about it after the wedding. It wasn’t anything important really,” I lie. I was momentarily insane. No man wants to hear a woman tell him she loves him when you barely know each other. Especially, if you’re not really dating. He’s helping me out of a jam with my family. That’s it. I mean okay, we’ve slept together and we get along really—really—well. Still, it would be insane to tell Brody I love him. It’d probably send him running. I take a breath. Robbie showing up probably saved me.

“I’ll hold you to that, gorgeous.”

I smile at him, unsure of what to say. When he calls me gorgeous, I feel warm all over. He leans in and kisses my nose of all things. It makes me grin even more than I was already.

“Rodney,” he mutters as he walks away.

“It’s Robbie,” Robbie calls after him, but Brody just keeps walking away and seriously if I smile any bigger it’s going to hurt. “He’s kind of arrogant, Tabby.”

I look at Robbie, the smile completely gone now and just annoyance in its place.

“What do you want, Robbie?”

“I wanted to talk to you. We’ve not done that and I think we need to, especially before the wedding.”

“I don’t know why. I can’t really think of anything we have to say to each other.”

“Come on, Tabby. I’m marrying your sister. You have to have feelings about that.”

“I admit it took me by surprise,” I answer, starting to feel uncomfortable with him.

“I never meant to hurt you, Tabby. I never wanted to hurt you, not even when we broke up.”

“I know that. We were young, Robbie. You were right to end our relationship,” I tell him suddenly wanting to get away and wishing I hadn’t told Brody to leave me alone with him.