Her Doctor Mate: Seasoned Shifters #3

by Black, Tasha

  “I’m going to go take my nap,” she told him. “You go spend some time with your fiancée.”

  “Sleep well, Grandma Stevenson,” Ryan told her.

  “Don’t worry, boy,” she said. “I have your sweet news to dream about.”

  When she hung up, he slid the phone back into his pocket and ran a hand though his hair.

  He really didn’t like lying to her.

  But what harm could it do? It wasn’t like there was even a small chance of her finding out.

  Besides, maybe it will be true one day…

  He imagined slipping a ring on Addison’s slender finger, a look of wonder in her large, dark eyes.

  She’s too young, he told himself firmly.

  Though Addison was certainly a capable woman in her own right, there was a shyness to her demeanor that told him she wasn’t ready for him yet.

  So he would just have to wait for her.

  Even if it felt like it might kill him.

  3

  Addison

  Addison raised her hands over her head again and stretched for the sky, willing her muscles to relax.

  The branches above were swaying, just like her arms.

  It was unseasonably warm this morning, a fact that had not escaped the volunteer climbing instructor.

  “Guys, I can’t believe this break in the weather,” Barry said for probably the twentieth time. “This is an epic day for a climb.”

  The woman in line before Addison giggled fetchingly.

  Addison supposed Barry was reasonably good-looking, in a collegiate way. He was certainly fit and cheerful, with a head full of blond curls. It wasn’t surprising that he would be the object of a little flirtation. He really wasn’t Addison’s type, though.

  “You’re up, dude,” Barry told the man who was ahead of the giggling woman.

  Only two more and then it’s my turn…

  Addison dropped her arms and shook them out.

  The man had begun his assent already, with Barry cheering him on madly.

  Addison had been psyching herself up for this moment since she’d seen the ad in weekly Tarker’s Hollow paper. There were plenty of free seminars at the college, but most of them were about literature or horticulture. This one was completely different - it seemed perfectly designed to terrify her and distract her from longing for Ryan.

  Just thinking about him gave her that breathless feeling. A tingle went down her spine as if he were standing right there.

  Focus, Addison.

  She dropped and touched her toes, trying hard not to think about his dark gaze, his strong jaw, that deep, raspy voice, the way he said her name…

  “Addison.”

  She stood up so fast that she nearly fell over.

  It couldn’t be Ryan. She couldn’t just conjure him with her thoughts.

  But he was there before her, a tight t-shirt stretched across his muscular chest, sunlight gleaming in his dark hair.

  “So you’re a climber?” He asked, a playful note in his voice.

  “Oh, um, not yet,” Addison said, wishing she could think of one clever thing to say. “What are you doing here?”

  At least she was able to keep talking in coherent sentences. That was better than she usually did when he was around.

  “I was here to run, but this is much more interesting,” he said, arching an eyebrow.

  Addison’s insides melted a little.

  “I don’t think you should watch,” she told him hurriedly.

  “Why not?”

  “Because I’ve never done this before,” she explained.

  “All the more reason to have a friend around to support you,” he said.

  “Okay,” Barry called to the tittering woman as the previous climber unhooked. “You’re up.”

  The woman giggled again as he cinched up her harness and the line moved forward.

  “You’re next,” Ryan pointed out.

  “I see that,” Addison said.

  He grinned at her and for a moment she forgot that she was afraid of the rock, afraid of embarrassing herself, afraid of her own feelings.

  She let herself get just a little bit lost in his eyes, and felt that pull again. It was as if there were an elastic band stretched tight between them, threatening to snap her into his arms if she stopped pulling away.

  “So you’re the athletic type?” he murmured.

  “No,” she replied, hypnotized. “I just wanted to try something new.”

  Something to distract me from you…

  Ryan nodded, looking impressed.

  Addison was instantly embarrassed and broke eye contact.

  Ryan cleared his throat.

  “So, what are you and your friends up to this weekend?” he asked. “Are you going home for Thanksgiving?”

  “No,” Addison replied. “It’s not really worth the trip. My family is kind of freaking out, but we’ll have plenty more Thanksgivings together.”

  Ryan frowned and nodded.

  “What about you?” she asked, wondering if she had said something wrong.

  “Oh, I’m staying in town,” he said. “The hospital needs me.”

  There was something that looked like pain in his dark eyes. Addison wanted to wrap her arms around him, find out why he was hurting, and how she could help.

  She took half a step toward him.

  “Okay,” Barry yelled. “Next up.”

  Addison shook her head, the spell broken. “I, uh, guess I need to go,” she said.

  “Good luck up there, kid,” Ryan replied with a friendly smile.

  Kid.

  The truth of the matter hit her - no matter how she felt about him, he saw her as a child.

  Addison blinked back the tears that suddenly stung her eyes, and marched up to Barry, holding her arms out so he could adjust the harness over her rib cage.

  She didn’t turn to see if Ryan was gone, but she felt his absence.

  There was nothing but the rock face in front of her and Barry’s unnaturally large smile.

  “Are you ready?” he asked her excitedly. “This is going to be epic.”

  Somehow she wasn’t as frightened as she had expected to be. Maybe she was going to turn out to be a good climber.

  Or maybe she was just feeling fatalistic after the disheartening conversation with Ryan.

  In any case, there was no point dwelling on it. She had to concentrate.

  Addison took a deep breath and grabbed onto the rock face, determined to end the day with at least one mark in her win column.

  4

  Ryan

  Ryan jogged down Yale until he passed the Inn, and then crossed over to Tarker’s Hollow’s little downtown area.

  He knew MacGregor was waiting for him at the coffee shop, but he didn’t feel like cooling down and eating breakfast today. The encounter with Addison had him revved up, nerves tingling, heart pumping as if he were about to go onstage.

  He pictured her again, that sea of dark braids shimmering in the sunlight, the ever-serious expression in her eyes.

  She had been stretching and preparing for that rock climb and he’d caught sight of her before she noticed he was there.

  In that moment he’d seen her in a way he hadn’t before. She was relaxed, confident, excited. The self-consciousness that seemed to freeze her was gone.

  He only wished he’d had the discipline to keep going, instead of ruining her climb by running up to her, demanding her attention.

  And then, oh, the way she had responded to his nearness…

  Being a shifter wasn’t always a good thing, but he was grateful now that he could hear the race of her heart and scent the light hint of desire that drifted from her whenever he came close.

  She didn’t acknowledge it though. It was as if she didn’t recognize it, or didn’t want to. In spite of his flirting, she never took the bait.

  Which was for the best. She was so young…

  “Ryan,” Mac called to him.

  He had already reached the
café and hadn’t even realized it.

  Mac sat at an outdoor table, the weekly paper in his hands. There was already an empty coffee cup in front of him.

  “Planning to run right by?” Mac asked, raising an eyebrow.

  J.D. MacGregor was a good friend. Ryan was grateful to have him. He tried to remember that as he prepared for the series of jabs he was about to endure.

  “Sorry, Mac,” he replied, jogging in place a bit to slow his heart rate.

  “Dreaming again, huh?” Mac asked knowingly. He picked up his coffee cup as if to take a sip, then realized it was empty. “Damn.”

  “I’ll get you more,” Ryan offered.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Mac said. “Cool down and I’ll be right back with your breakfast. What do you want?”

  “The usual,” Ryan said.

  “Jesus,” Mac rolled his eyes. “That’s no kind of food for our kind.”

  “I like it,” Ryan said with a smile.

  “Be right back,” Mac said, getting up from the table with unexpectedly lupine grace and heading into the café.

  Ryan finished stretching and took a seat.

  Sitting outside in November was the edge of acceptable for shifters. Their metabolism adjusted for comfort in nearly any weather, but it wasn’t the kind of thing you flaunted.

  Today was just warm enough that they could get away with it, he hoped.

  “For the record, I wouldn’t feed this to a hamster,” Mac said as he came back out.

  Ryan laughed and took the shake from Mac’s hands.

  Say what you would about Edible Complex’s goofy name, they knew how to mix a good protein blend. They even used local produce from the farmer’s market in their smoothies.

  “What’s new?” Mac asked as Ryan took a long pull from his shake.

  Ryan shook his head, unsure where to begin. Nothing was new, everything was new.

  “Oh-ho,” Mac said, leaning forward. “There’s a woman.”

  “More like a girl,” Ryan corrected him.

  “A girl?” Mac looked horrified.

  “She’s of age,” Ryan said quickly. “She’s just… young.”

  MacGregor sat back in his seat. “Who is she?”

  “You know the girls who are in town staying with Helen?” Ryan asked.

  “The tall one?” Mac asked.

  It was a reasonable assumption, after all, the other two women were spoken for.

  But Ryan felt a surge of joy anyway at having been mentally paired with her by his friend.

  “Yes, Addison,” he said, loving the way her name felt in his mouth.

  Mac smiled, looking pleased that his friend was happy.

  “But I don’t know what to do,” Ryan admitted. “I don’t think she’s ready.”

  “Why not?” Mac teased waggling his eyebrows. “She’s definitely tall enough to ride the rides.”

  “Jesus, Mac,” Ryan said.

  “You know I’m only kidding,” Mac said at once. “She seems like a mature person to me though - studious, thoughtful. She’s quiet but she participates in a conversation.”

  Ryan smiled. His friend had been a high school teacher for years before he started teaching at the college. It made a certain amount of sense that his compliments sounded like they belonged on a report card.

  “There’s an innocence about her, Mac,” Ryan said, wishing he could articulate it better. “I don’t want to hurt her.”

  “Does she like you?” Mac asked, taking a sip of coffee and looking away, allowing Ryan room to speak unselfconsciously.

  “She does,” he said slowly. “But I know that from my senses, not because she hints at it with her actions.”

  “Ah,” Mac nodded.

  “It’s another reason I think she’s not ready,” Ryan added. “Most women let you know if they’re interested. But she just seems… embarrassed. Maybe she doesn’t want to be into me.”

  “That’s highly unlikely,” Mac said. “You’re good-looking, good natured, and a hard worker. Add the great job to the mix and you’re a catch, Ryan. She’d be blind not to think so.”

  “You see me through rose-colored glasses, my friend,” Ryan said with a smile. “Not every woman wants to marry an emergency room doctor.”

  “Well, they certainly don’t want to marry a teacher,” Mac huffed.

  “Good thing you’re a professor now,” Ryan said and winked.

  Mac grinned at him.

  “Have you asked her out yet?” Ryan asked, shifting the subject back to his friend.

  “I don’t have to,” Mac said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I won a date with her,” Mac said. “That is to say, I bought it.”

  “The charity auction,” Ryan breathed, remembering. He’d been so relieved that Addison wasn’t up for bid he’d forgotten the fiasco over the auction for Parker Everly.

  “Yes, it was quite the romantic gesture I made,” Mac said, looking a little worried.

  “Afraid you can’t follow it up?” Ryan asked.

  “I already messed things up with her once,” Mac admitted. “Possibly beyond repair.”

  “That thing at Helen’s party?” Ryan asked.

  “You make it sound so innocuous,” Mac moaned.

  “You were the alpha of the pack,” Ryan said. “Your libido was bananas. You had no idea what was going on.”

  “Temporary alpha,” Mac corrected him. “And I’m still human. The wolf shouldn’t have been able to make me think Parker was a thief. Or that I should sleep with Ava.”

  “I still can’t believe you slept with Ava Gray,” Ryan said, shaking his head in wonder.

  Ava Gray was an off-limits beauty in her mid-twenties who had been Helen Thayer’s ward, practically her adopted daughter.

  “Neither can I,” Mac said, looking positively miserable. “I didn’t know at the time that Parker was my true mate. When the dust settled it was abundantly clear. And I have no clue what to do now. How am I supposed to tell her that I’m not some mindless rake who goes around sleeping with random women at parties?”

  “Character references?” Ryan offered with a smile.

  “Very funny,” Mac said.

  “Just spend time with her,” Ryan said more seriously. “She’ll see.”

  “We have spent time together,” Mac said. “Before I was temporary alpha.”

  “She was your student teacher, right?” Ryan asked.

  “Yes,” Mac said. “Seeing me act normal won’t help.”

  “You can’t tell her,” Ryan said. It wasn’t a question. Unless they were mated, shifters weren’t supposed to reveal themselves to humans.

  “What if she says no?” Mac agreed. “It could put the whole pack in danger.”

  Ryan’s cell phone began to ring.

  He pulled it out of his waistband.

  Springton Hospital

  “Crap,” he said. “I’m on call.”

  “Go on, take it,” Mac said. “I’ll clean this up. Good to see you.”

  “You too, man,” Ryan said to his friend.

  Mac gave a little wave, but Ryan was already jogging off in the direction of home as he answered the phone.

  5

  Addison

  Addison lay on the grass at the foot of the rock face, feeling absolutely mortified.

  “I’m so sorry,” Barry said again. “No one has ever gotten hurt on this course before. I don’t know how it happened, with the harness and all.”

  “It’s fine,” Addison said. “If you would just let me get up…”

  “Oh no, no, no,” Barry scolded. “An injury can be worsened if you try to move. We’ll wait for help to come. I texted my supervisor.”

  The crowd of interested climbers stared at Addison and she had to look back down at her hands to stave off her anxiety.

  Nice work, Addison, now they all have to wait because you’re a terrible climber. So much for one in the win column.

  At least she didn’t feel like anything was broken. It
was probably just a twisted ankle.

  “Addison?” Bianca’s worried voice carried across the crowd.

  “That’s my friend,” Addison said quickly. “I’m here,” she called back.

  Barry mercifully backed off and the crowd parted for Bianca and Mei.

  “Good lord,” Mei exclaimed. “What happened?”

  “I slipped and twisted my ankle,” Addison said. “It’s nothing.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Bianca said, kneeling to look at the ankle in question. “It’s swelling.”

  “We’ll take you to the hospital,” Mei said firmly.

  “I don’t need the hospital,” Addison protested.

  “It can’t hurt to have them check it out,” Mei said, turning to the flustered instructor. “Can you help us get her to the car?”

  “My pleasure,” Barry said, looking relieved to be back at the center of the action. “I’m glad you’re taking her to the hospital. It’s the right call. Safety first.”

  Addison held her breath as he scooped her up in his arms. She was an average build, but she was tall enough that her weight packed a punch.

  Barry huffed and puffed a bit, but he lifted her up and walked to the car without threatening to drop her.

  “What were you thinking?” Bianca asked. “You’re afraid of heights.”

  “She’s trying to distract herself from Ryan,” Mei said wisely.

  “No, I’m not,” Addison argued, but her heart wasn’t in it. Besides, these were her friends. And Barry.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Bianca said kindly. “We’ve all been there. You just need to spend a little time with him and everything will sort itself out.”

  Something suddenly occurred to Addison.

  “Is that why you’re taking me to the hospital? So I’ll run into Ryan?”

  “No,” Mei said quickly.

  “No, no, definitely not,” Bianca added.

  They were. It was clear from their slightly ashamed expressions.

  Well, her ankle hurt, and she happened to know he wasn’t there - she’d just seen him out running not ten minutes ago. She definitely wasn’t going to bump into him at the hospital.