Ample & Alluring

by Mary E Thompson

  Although I was seriously second guessing that decision as he warmed me up.

  He pulled back and looked at me. His eyes were darker than the night around us. His lips turned up, and he leaned in to kiss me one more time.

  “Thanks, Dr. Peyton,” he said when he finally pulled back.

  “Thank you, Mayor Ramsey.”

  I was dragging ass by noon on Wednesday. I stayed up Tuesday after girls’ night talking to Vicki and did not get enough sleep. I normally functioned on caffeine and sugar for the day, but it was not cutting it. Laura grabbed us lunch while I was seeing patients, giving me a chance to catch up by the time my afternoon appointments started.

  “Are you ready?” Laura asked, meeting me in the hallway.

  “I am. Feeling much better. Thanks for grabbing lunch.”

  “You paid,” she said with a grin. “So I should be thanking you for lunch.”

  “It’s the least I could do since you ran out to pick it up.”

  “How was girls’ night?” Laura asked with a grin.

  She knew my aversion to large groups of people, especially people I didn’t know well. Vicki asked me for months to join her, and Laura would find excuses to keep me at work so I could say no without feeling too guilty.

  “It was good. I’m getting used to all of it.”

  “Even socializing with a patient?”

  I shrugged. “I try not to think about it.”

  “That’s always the best way to handle issues. Stick your head in the sand.”

  I snorted and knocked on the exam room door. “You know I’d rather research something than ignore it.”

  “True. You’ll stick your head in a book, not the sand. Soooo, much better.”

  I rolled my eyes and let myself into the room as Laura continued to the next room. “Good afternoon, Leslie. How are you?”

  She grinned, something I rarely saw from her. “I’m nauseous. That’s good right?”

  I flipped through her chart, double checking the date we did her last IVF. She was one of my patients who’d been a patient for years. Meds didn’t work. Minimally invasive procedures didn’t work. We moved on to in-vitro fertilization three years ago. In that time, she’d gotten pregnant twice, but both times lost one of the embryos and the loss pulled the one that we think implanted out.

  I decided to roll the dice the last time around. We only implanted one. It was either going to work, or going to fail. But it meant we wouldn’t have to go back in and harvest more eggs from her as quickly if we only did one at a time. And the harvesting was the most expensive part.

  “I’m assuming you haven’t gotten your period yet,” I said.

  She shook her head, her smile widening. “I’m late, too. Four days late.”

  “Have you taken a test?”

  “No. I didn’t want to jinx it. I figured I could do that here, right?”

  I nodded. “Of course. I already have your urine sample so I’ll just dip it real quick. And we’ll do a blood test as always just to make sure.”

  I grabbed a pregnancy test from the cabinet and carefully unscrewed the top of the sample cup. I held the stick in for ten seconds then set it on the counter. I barely had the top screwed back on the cup when the unmistakable plus sign appeared.

  “You’re pregnant.”

  Chapter 5

  Leslie squealed. Then cried. Then jumped up and hugged me. I felt the same way.

  Hers was the first one I’d done with a single embryo after multiple failures with more than one. I knew nothing was foolproof when it came to IVF, but it gave me hope that if it worked for Leslie, the same could work for Addi.

  Because she had the same problem.

  A little nausea. A touch of bleeding, like from implantation. Then pain and a rough period. It all fit with a successful attempt eliminated by an unsuccessful one.

  It wasn’t groundbreaking to attempt one at a time. Lots of women did and it still didn’t work. But it was the first time I’d done it in a patient as an experiment like this.

  Leslie cried and held on to me. A knock on the door had us breaking apart. Laura stuck her blonde head inside. “I heard a squeal. Is that a good squeal or a bad one?”

  “Good,” Leslie said with tears running down her cheeks. “I’m pregnant. And late so maybe this one will actually stay.”

  Laura hugged Leslie and told her the things I couldn’t. “It’ll be fine. Stay positive. Go home tonight and celebrate with Jeff. Everything will be fine.”

  I wanted to give her the same reassurances, but I’d been down the road too many times to trust that it was all going to work out just because we wanted it to. Leslie needed to be positive, but I kept my excitement contained, for a little while.

  “Don’t do anything too active though. You can celebrate, but no swinging from the chandeliers.”

  Leslie laughed. “Okay, Dr. Prescott. Thank you.”

  “Well, I don’t think we have much else to do today. Since you’re pregnant, we’ll get you the next appointment set up where you can listen to the baby’s heartbeat. Do you need a new prescription for your prenatal vitamins?”

  She shook her head. “Nope. I just got a refill last week.”

  “Good. Well, we’ll run your tests and see you in a couple weeks.”

  “Thanks, Dr. Prescott.”

  “You’re welcome. And congratulations Leslie.”

  She grinned and hugged me again, her eyes filling with tears. Laura and I ducked out of the room and heard her on the phone almost immediately.

  “Too bad Jeff couldn’t be here with her,” Laura said.

  “I agree. I bet he would have loved that.”

  “I can’t imagine being a military wife and going through all this. It’s hard enough not having your husband around, but even when he is he can’t leave for a few hours to go to an appointment like this?”

  I shrugged. “As long as he’s around for the baby to be made, I think he’s happy. Hopefully he can make it to the birth.”

  “Oh, I never even thought of that. Shit.”

  I nodded in agreement, hoping things worked out for Jeff to be able to see his baby born. Laura handed me the next file and I knocked on another room.

  At six, all the patients were finally gone and I was able to get some paperwork done. I couldn’t stop thinking about Leslie and her good news, and being able to share it with Addi.

  I never wanted to give my patients false hope, but I also wanted to make sure they had hope. It was a fine line in my work. Keeping them motivated enough to try again, but not so hopeful that they were crushed when something failed. I really did believe that a positive attitude made a huge difference, but I couldn’t tell Addi that she would get pregnant if we tried one embryo because I didn’t know.

  All we could do was try.

  Laura knocked on my office door and sat down. “Are you about ready to get out of here?”

  I glanced around at all the stuff I had left to do and shook my head. “Probably another hour or two. You go ahead though.”

  “I can help.”

  I shook my head. “Nah. You go. See Bill.”

  She screwed up her nose and shrugged. “I don’t mind staying.”

  “Things aren’t going well?”

  “No. Not really.”

  “Why not?”

  “We just want different things,” she said with a sigh.

  “After two years together?”

  “It just feels like he’s bored. What’s worse, I think, is I am, too. I don’t get excited when I think about going home to him, and I don’t even care if we’re together anymore.”

  “That sucks.”

  She nodded. “It really does. But I guess it’ll make it easier to walk away.”

  “Are you going to find a new place?”

  Laura groaned. “I need to. It would be nice to just stay and have him leave. I don’t hate him, I just don’t love him.”

  “Well, I can’t help but feel partially responsible for that.”


  “Why? What did you do?”

  I shrugged. “I’m not real big on love. I think I rubbed off on you. Sorry about that.”

  “Oh, please. You’re ridiculous. Besides, I think love is just something you fight.”

  I snorted. “Not even close. I’m perfectly content to be single.”

  “Really?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Then who’s the sexy guy in the lobby asking to see you?”

  “What sexy guy?” I asked, my interest piqued. It could be any of the guys from girls’ night. “Shit. It better not be Hunter asking if he can marry my sister.”

  “Tall, dark hair. Sexy, smoking eyes. Wears clothes so well he could make a model jealous?”

  Was it wrong that my mind immediately went to Wyatt?

  Laura’s eyebrows dove into her hair. “Shit. You like this guy. Who is he?”

  “He’s a friend. One of the girls on Tuesday works for him and invited him. He and I are friends. That’s it.”

  “Oh, no. You don’t get that look on your face when you think about your friends.”

  “Is he really here?” I asked, hoping to change the subject as I packed up for the night.

  “He is. And you’re not getting out of this conversation. I want details!”

  “Okay, I promise. I’ll share everything. But not now. Let me go see what he’s doing here.”

  Laura followed me to the front where Wyatt was standing on the other side of the reception desk. He grinned when he saw me but waited for me to go to him.

  “Hey,” he said, leaning down to give me a quick kiss.

  “Hey. I didn’t realize we were getting together tonight.”

  His smile broadened. “We weren’t. I decided to kidnap you. I need your help with something.”

  “Oh, really?”

  “I’ll buy dinner?”

  I laughed. “You bought dinner last time. I think it’s my turn.”

  “Well, as the mayor, I think I’ll make it a decree that if a guy kidnaps a woman, he’s required to pay for dinner.”

  “Mayor?” Laura whispered, not too quietly.

  Wyatt’s eyes went to her, and he took a step forward. “Sorry. I should have introduced myself. I’m Wyatt Ramsey. And yes, I’m the mayor of Winterville.”

  Laura shook his hand with stars in her eyes. She blinked them away after a minute and shot me a glare that said she expected every detail, in detail, about my relationship with Wyatt.

  “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Mayor. I apologize for not recognizing you. I didn’t realize you were friends with Peyton.”

  “Oh, yeah. We go way back. What has it been, three months?”

  I laughed. “About that, yeah. Of course, it’s only been about two weeks since we started getting to know each other.”

  “Getting to know each other?” Laura parroted, telling me it was time to get out from under her microscope.

  “Let me grab my stuff and we can go,” I said to Wyatt.

  “Perfect. Should I wait here?”

  Laura shot me a look that demanded I leave him there so she could grill me for a few minutes. I really wanted to tell Wyatt he was welcome to walk back to my office, but I knew Laura would kill me if I did that.

  “Yeah, thanks. I’ll only be a minute.”

  Laura grabbed my arm and dragged me back toward my office. She shut the door and finally released me.

  “You’re dating the mayor?”

  “No,” I immediately protested, locking my cherry desk and ignoring the stack of paperwork piled up on the corner. “We’re not dating. Just hanging out. Friends.”

  “No. Uh uh. Don’t even give me that. Bill hasn’t kissed me like your ‘friend’ just kissed you in months. Hell, maybe ever.”

  “It was just a friendly kiss.”

  Laura snorted. “Um, no. Not even close. It was hot.”

  “It was like two seconds.”

  “It doesn’t matter. He wants you. And you want him.”

  “I do not want him.”

  “Then can I have him?”

  “No!” I blurted before I had a chance to realize she trapped me. “Dammit.”

  Her lips curled up in a grin that said she knew exactly what just happened. “I knew you wanted him. Shit, Pey. The mayor! When you go, you go big.”

  “I don’t know how big he is. We’ve only kissed.”

  Laura paused for a beat, then broke out laughing. I joined her after a second, unable to stop myself. We collapsed into chairs, hysterical.

  “You need to find out. Soon. He’s seriously hot,” Laura finally said.

  “I know. But really, we’re trying to just be friends. Neither of us wants to get involved with anyone. We’re both happy to be single. Our jobs are too important.”

  “Oh, please. You can do your job and do him. You don’t have to just pick one.”

  I huffed a laugh and shook my head. “You know what I mean.”

  “I do. I just don’t want you to miss out on something because you’re scared.”

  “Who said I’m scared.”

  “I know you, Peyton. You are scared, but you shouldn’t be. Now go out there and give that sexy man a kiss like he deserves. One like you deserve. Have some fun.”

  I smiled. “I will.”

  Laura walked out with us, locking the door when we were all outside. She said goodnight and went to her car, leaving Wyatt and I alone.

  “Do you want me to follow you home so you can drop off your car?” he asked.

  I glanced around the lot. I knew the building was in a safe part of town, but there really wasn’t a good reason to leave my car there.

  “If we’re not in a hurry to be anywhere, then yeah. That’ll be great. Or I can follow you to your place and leave your car?”

  Wyatt shook his head. “I’m kidnapping you. I think it’s only fair that I drive.”

  “You have to drive and pay?”

  “Mayoral decree,” he teased.

  “Hmm,” I said, tapping my chin. “I wonder what else I can get as a mayoral decree?”

  Wyatt laughed and leaned in to kiss me again. Quickly, just a peck. “I’ll follow you home.”

  I got in my car and wondered what was going on between us. We barely spoke at girls’ night, but that was fairly normal. He didn’t text me or call me, but he kissed me. A lot.

  And Laura was right. I didn’t have other male friends who kissed me like Wyatt did.

  I shook my head at myself and laughed. It didn’t matter. If anything was going to happen with Wyatt, it would be casual and short-lived. Which meant it would be perfect for me.

  I sent Vicki a text as I walked to Wyatt’s SUV letting her know I was going out so she wouldn’t get nervous if she noticed my car in the driveway. I tucked my phone away and buckled my seatbelt then smiled at Wyatt.

  “Dinner first?”

  My stomach rumbled loudly, answering for me. “I guess so.”

  He chuckled and backed out of the driveway. “I’m starving. What kind of food do you like?”

  “Besides steak?”

  “Yeah, besides steak. I guess I should have asked before we went there last weekend.”

  I shook my head. “No, it was great. I like pretty much everything. I can go for a sandwich or a burger just as easily as I can go for a steak.”

  “Why can’t all women be as agreeable as you are? The last one I dated insisted on eating only salads. She said she was trying to lose weight.”

  “Yuck. Dieting sucks.”

  “It also limits the great food in this town. I’m worried we’re going to be short on time. Do you mind something quick tonight?”

  “Why, Mayor Ramsey,” I exclaimed in my best fake southern accent, “how could you take a woman out and not wine and dine her?”

  He glanced at me for a second before nodded. “You’re right. I should.”

  I laughed. “Please. I so do not need to be wined or dined. Something quick sounds great. Besides, I’m not that high maintenance.”

>   “No, you don’t seem high maintenance at all. It amazes me, too.”

  I shrugged. “I have more interest in my patients and the things around me than my appearance or what I put in my mouth.”

  He paused for a moment. “You know that sounded dirty, right?”

  I thought back over what I said and laughed. “You’re bad, Mayor Ramsey.”

  “Being bad is fun, isn’t it?”

  I nodded. “Definitely.”

  Chapter 6

  After chicken sandwiches and a bucket of fries, Wyatt told me he wanted to take me shopping.

  “You’re joking, right?”

  He shook his head. “No. This is one of those things I do every year. It’s part of my tradition. The town has the big Christmas tree in the center, but at my condo I have a tree also. It’s obviously much smaller, but every year I buy a new snowflake ornament. I need your help finding one.”

  “You’re joking, right?”

  “Nope.”

  “Okay, why am I going on this shopping trip?”

  “I just told you, it’s something I love about the holidays. I want you to experience it with me.”

  I sighed and huffed a laugh. “Okay. I will help you find the one unique snowflake of the year.”

  He beamed and parked his SUV in front of the mall. Good God, the mall. Right before Christmas.

  “Well, the good thing is we get to do something on my list tonight, too.”

  “Oh yeah?” he asked, tugging the collar up on his jacket. The wind whipped around us, stinging my skin and stealing my breath.

  “Yeah. One of the things I hate about this time of year is shopping. In person. At a mall.”

  Wyatt laughed. “Yeah, it can get pretty crazy.”

  I nodded. Malls were a form of torture on a good day. All the days from Black Friday to Christmas Eve, the mall was insanity. I had no idea why anyone would want to step foot in a mall.

  Yet there I was, doing exactly that.

  “Where to first?” he asked, like I would have any idea.

  “Uh, I’m not a shopper. I don’t know my way around the mall. You’re going to need to direct this one.”