One Hot Doctor by Sarah J. Brooks

Chapter 3

Lexi

I happen to glance up from the glass I'm polishing when I see him. As in, Him. Silky jet-black hair, a face that belongs in a billboard, and shoulders barely contained in a white t-shirt.

My jaw drops and I watch in disbelief as he saunters toward the bar. I gaze around desperately. He cannot see me. I cannot face him ever again. I never want to see him ever again. I drop to my knees and hope that he'll pass by the bar and go to the tables. Every part of me trembles as I strain my ears to listen for fading footsteps.

"Excuse me, ma'am." His voice is low and husky, and it makes the hairs at the back of my neck stand up. “Are you all right down there?"

He can see me. I inhale deeply and scramble to my feet trying but failing to look dignified. I hastily make a plan. A plan of survival. I'll feign amnesia. It's not the brightest plan but I'm livid. I stare at his gorgeous face and I want to punch him. I bite my lower lip to keep myself from hurling insults at him. Bastard! I mutter under my breath.

He smiles and my stupid heart flips. I stare at him blankly. He’s a stranger. A customer like any other. "Welcome to The Alma," I recite automatically. "What can I get you?"

My heart beats so hard I worry it will leave my chest. So much has happened since that night. I’ve thought of him so often. Practiced what I would say to him when I saw him. Now that he’s standing in front of me, it feels unreal.

He cocks his head in a painfully familiar gesture. All his mannerisms are seared in my memory. He’s more than a stranger that I slept with. He’s my daughter’s father, even though he doesn’t know it.

"Are you going to pretend that you don’t remember me?" he says, and the corners of his lips lift as he smiles.

I stare into his eyes and I'm startled. There's no mistaking the look in his eyes. Sadness. Immense sadness that tugs at my heartstrings. I know it because I've seen the same look in my sister’s eyes and she in mine as we were growing up. I wonder what has put it there and despite everything I drop my plan.

I sigh deeply. "Hello, Ace. Nice to see you after two years."

His face lights up. "That's better and it's nice to see you too. You look even more beautiful than the last time I saw you."

I raise an eyebrow. "So you’ve regained the power of speech?"

"What do you mean?" he says. His eyes are doing the thing again. The thing that made me sleep with him on the first date. Raking my body. Fucking me with his eyes.

My body reacts. After all, I’m human but my mind remains crystal clear. I’m not the girl he took home, fucked all night, and then disappeared without a goodbye or an explanation. Bitterness swirls in my mouth. He gave me a crash course on thoughtless actions and consequences. The image of Luna floats to my mind but I shove it away. I cannot think of my sweet beautiful daughter right now. My defenses will shatter if I think about her.

"You hardly got two sentences out of your mouth that night," I tell him.

"I'm surprised you noticed," he says with a lazy grin. "You were busy bringing the house down with your sexy moans."

My face heats up as memories of that night come over me. The way he worked my body as if he was intimately familiar with it, knowing where to lick, how much pressure to apply, and when to ease off. No woman can forget the hottest night of her life even if the months that followed were pure hell.

I inhale deeply to dispel the feelings of resentment gathering in my chest. "Bourbon on the rocks?"

He shrugs as if it doesn’t matter either way. "Sure."

I'm relieved to have something to do. I turn away and take my time pouring his drink. I remember the days spent curled up on my couch after I found out that I was pregnant. In the weeks that followed where I scoured the internet to search for anyone called Ace Carter.

The rising desperation and panic at the realization that I could not afford a baby with my bartending job alone. I'd doubled my efforts to find Ace Carter. It was Vanessa who had been successful. She'd found a Carter all right but not Ace. She found his brother Declan. He had been a Godsend.

The ice in the glass clinks as I hand Ace his drink. Our fingers brush and I almost spill the drink as I snatch my hand away.

"Any chance of a drink after work?' he says, a twinkle in his eye.

I stare at him dumbfounded and then it hits me. Ace is here for another booty call. He wants a repeat of what happened two years ago. Who does that? What kind of cruel person fucks a woman, disappears for two years, and then returns for the same?

As I stare at him, my anger dissipates, and I see Luna. She’s a spitting image of her father. I'd vowed that Ace would never know his daughter. Never be part of her life.

She deserves to know her father.

The voice is as clear as it is mysterious. I want to rage at it. Where was he when I needed him? Luna is a year and two months old. We've survived without him and we will continue to survive.

"What do you say, beautiful?" Ace says.

I've been reading body language for as long as I’ve been a bartender. Something is off about the way Ace calls me beautiful. When we were together, he had called me Lexi. Then it hits me. Not only is he back for another fuck, but he doesn’t remember my name.

"What is my name?"

"What kind of question is that?" Ace says in mock indignance but not before I see the panic that flits across his eyes.

"It's a question," I say. "What is my name?"

He stares at me blankly.

"Are you always this charming to women?" I ask him.

"I'm sorry," he says, and a light goes out of his eyes.

My ego is bruised but I'll survive. I liked to think that I’d made a big impression on him as he had on me. That wherever he was, he laid awake at night remembering our night together. I swallow my hurt feelings. I’m an adult now, I remind myself. I’ve handled a lot of things since he left. Besides, I don’t really want to push him away. I make a decision fast.

"It’s Lexi and yes, we can have a drink after work," I tell him, and he grins.

I have no intention of going for a drink with Ace but something in me wants him to see his daughter. I don’t know what I'm hoping for. I wish I were strong enough to just ignore him until he goes away. I know that I’m just setting myself up for disappointment. Ace doesn’t do relationships, let alone fatherhood. It doesn’t matter what I tell myself.

Two hours later, we walk out of The Alma together. Ace assumes that we'll have a drink together at my place. I don't correct him.

"Shall we take my car or yours?" he says.

"Follow me," I tell him.

I can easily leave my car in the parking lot and ride with Ace. It'll be safe, but I need time to think. I've made so many mistakes in my life, but I've never made one mistake where Luna is concerned. I love that little girl with all of my being, and I can’t afford to make any mistakes.

Ace follows me closely as we drive home. Vanessa is a nurse and usually works the night shift and during the day, she babysits Luna. She's awesome and I couldn’t have done it without her. We still live in the same semidetached house we grew up in.

It's old and dilapidated but it’s ours and it’s home.

I park the car outside the house and hurry to Ace's car before he gets out. I don't want him to meet Vanessa before I have a chance to tell her my plans. If you call them that.

I lean into his window and inhale his woodsy scent. "Give me a minute, will you," I tell him sweetly. "I want to see if my sister and my niece are at home." I stammer as talk.

It’s not exactly a lie. Vanessa helps out so much, it’s almost as if Luna has two moms. He frowns as his plans dissolve before his very eyes.

“I help raise my niece.” I’m not a good liar.

"You raise your sister's child?" he says.

I shrug. "Yes." I lean in to whisper into his ear. "She has problems." If Vanessa heard me, she would clobber me. My sister is one of the most stable people I know.

"Oh," he says.

"I'll be back in a bit."

I sprint up to the front door and push it open. I find Luna and my sister in the kitchen. They are perched on kitchen stools drawing. I go straight to my girl and gather her in my arms. She automatically wraps her hands around me and I hold her tightly.

"Everything okay?" Vanessa says, tuned to my moods as always.

"Not really," I tell her and kiss Luna’s forehead. "How was your day, sweetheart?"

"Draw," she says and smiles sweetly before going back to her coloring.

"What happened?" Vanessa asks, a note of panic in her voice.

"Nothing bad," I reassure her quickly. "At least not that bad." I inhale and search for the right words. "Guess who is outside?"

Her eyes widen. If I wasn’t distressed, I’d giggle. Vanessa is dramatic.

"Who?" she whispers, staring toward the window. “Mom?”

“No.” I should have known she would guess Mom. Mom left with a boyfriend years ago. Nothing new there. She’d done the same thing when Vanessa was in high school.

Vanessa never stopped hoping that Mom would come home any day. She’d called once and left a drunken message saying she and her boyfriend were on a road trip. After that call, I refused to think about her at all. She didn’t deserve my time or thoughts.

I gesture at Luna. "Dad."

She clamps her mouth. "You're kidding!"

“No, but I haven’t told him," I tell her quickly. "And I don’t intend to. Not just yet.”

I’ll give Ace a chance to know Luna but first, he has to prove himself. He has to show me that he won’t take off when the mood strikes him. I don’t have a lot of hope that he’ll stick around long enough for me to see what kind of a dad he is.

“I told him she’s yours," I whisper the last sentence. I hesitate before telling her the next bit." I sort of implied that you may have issues...”

I brace myself for Vanessa’s anger. My sister was born an old soul. We probably both were or maybe it was our mother’s irresponsible nature that forced us to grow up quickly. Whatever it was, I know the last thing Vanessa would want, is to be painted as irresponsible.

She cocks her head and her honey-blonde curls fall to the side of her cheeks. To my surprise, she grins. “I’ve always wanted to be wild. What sort of issues do I have that I can’t take care of my sweet child?”

I shrug. “We didn’t get that far.”

She grows solemn. “He deserves to know.”

I expected that. Vanessa is big on fairness and the right thing to do. Even if it hurts like hell. Like when our mother last came home. Vanesa had been in college and I had been bartending. Mom had been a dirty and sick thing desperate for somewhere to stay.

I had long hardened my heart to her and had been ready to escort her to a homeless shelter. As the oldest, I had borne the brunt of our mother’s alcoholism. I had ridden the yoyo of false promises. Promises to change and then she would start drinking again a week later.

We had let her in and took care of her until she added weight and a healthy glow came to her face. It didn’t take long before she reverted to her old ways. She started bringing men home and before long her breath reeked of alcohol though she denied it.

Then she took off and Vanessa had been heartbroken. I fought the pain and shoved it to the back of my mind. I had needed to concentrate on what mattered. Like making sure my sister finished nursing school.

“Deserves?” I say to Vanessa. “No one deserves anything in this life, except children. The rest of us have to work for it, even Ace. Donating sperm makes you a father, not a daddy.”

“Lexi, I know you’re a better person than this. I know you’ll do the right thing,” Vanessa says.

“I’ll do the right thing by her,” I say and gesture at Luna. “That’s who matters. I don’t owe Ace anything.” I inhale deeply. “You’ve changed your tune. When you spoke to Declan, you were not so sweet.”

She shrugs. “That was then, this is now. I’m older and wiser.”

“So am I.”

“Do you ever wonder who our father was?” Vanessa says.

“Many times,” I tell her. “I don’t know why Mom kept it a secret. Sometimes I think he might have been a married man.” That’s the only reason I can think of for the secrecy.

What I know is that he and our mother were never married. This wondering about our past is exactly what I don’t want for Luna. I want her to know her family. Look at Vanessa and me. We’re in our mid-twenties and we’re still talking about the dad we never knew.

 

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