by Natalie Ann
Grey’s Blind Date Discovery
Natalie Ann
Grey’s Blind Date Discovery
Hot Hunks Steamy Romance Collection
Copyright 2020 Natalie Ann
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without a written consent.
Created with Vellum
Contents
Author’s Note
Also by Natalie Ann
Where to find Natalie Ann
Blurb
Prologue
1. Social Life
2. Too Cocky
3. Just Played
4. Accidental Lunch
5. An Introduction
6. Twilight Zone
7. A Weak Moment
8. Serious Trouble
9. Imaginary Girlfriend
10. Step Off
11. Full of Stress
12. Stand By You
13. Action or Suspense
14. Real Deal
15. In Their Place
16. Time Was Limited
17. Back to Town
18. Wear Her Down
19. Piece of Meat
20. Dark and Broody
21. Talk Shop
22. Avoided The Drama
23. In The Middle
24. Cool His Jets
25. Words of Love
Epilogue
More by Natalie Ann
Where to find Natalie Ann
Author’s Note
Author’s Note
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Also by Natalie Ann
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Mac and Beth’s Story- Road to Reality
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The All Series
William and Isabel’s Story — All for Love
Ben and Presley’s Story – All or Nothing
Phil and Sophia’s Story – All of Me
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Drew and Jordyn’s Story— All My Love
Finn and Olivia’s Story—All About You
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The Lake Placid Series
Nick Buchanan and Mallory Denning – Second Chance
Max Hamilton and Quinn Baker – Give Me A Chance
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Trevor Miles and Riley Hamilton – Last Chance
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The Fierce Five Series
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Brody Fierce and Aimee Reed - Brody
Aiden Fierce and Nic Moretti- Aiden
Mason Fierce and Jessica Corning- Mason
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Fierce Family
Sam Fierce and Dani Rhodes- Sam
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Drake Fierce and Kara Winslow – Drake
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Love Collection
Vin Steele and Piper Fielding – Secret Love
Jared Hawk and Shelby McDonald – True Love
Erik McMann and Sheldon Case – Finding Love
Connor Landers and Melissa Mahoney- Beach Love
Ian Price and Cam Mason- Intense Love
Liam Sullivan and Ali Rogers - Autumn Love
Owen Taylor and Jill Duncan - Holiday Love
Chase Martin and Noelle Bennett - Christmas Love
Zeke Collins and Kendall Hendricks - Winter Love
Troy Walker and Meena Dawson – Chasing Love
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Gabe Richards and Leah Morrison - Forever Love
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Where to find Natalie Ann
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Blurb
Dr. Grey Baxter put his career above everything else in his life, including love. When his college girlfriend had enough, she left him heartbroken. Years later no one seems to measure up to what he thought he wanted and, worse yet, everyone is trying to set him up on blind dates like he’s some kind of a loser rather than a successful surgeon who is hit on left and right.
Sierra Stone thought her life was pretty great. She had a career she loved and lived in her hometown surrounded by family and friends. But morals, ethics, and a conscience made her speak up, causing her to lose it all. Now she’s in a new city and her closest friend is determined to set her up with the worst type of man possible...a doctor!
Prologue
Dr. Grey Baxter walked away from the patient on the operating table at Albany Med and pulled his mask off as he got to the door. He removed his gloves and gown and put it all in the red biohazard bin, then went to the locker room.
It was his last surgery of the day and he needed to clean up. He’d shower after each surgery if he could, but there was never time.
After his shower he was walking to his locker with a towel around his waist, rubbing his hands over his short hair. The old white hospital towel had already made a few passes over his dark brown hair which was more than enough to get the excess water out.
“What are your plans tonight?”
He turned to see Dr. Ed Clover, the anesthesiologist that was in the last surgery with him, standing there having come out of another shower. Too bad Ed didn’t care to put a towel around the waist of his bulging belly. Maybe it didn’t fit. Didn’t matter, but common courtesy was to cover up. At least in Grey’s mind.
“I’m going back to the office to finish up some paperwork and then I’ll probably go home and relax. It’s been a long day.”
Ed snorted. “You had what, three surgeries today? You’re young. That’s nothing.”
“That’s easy for you to say. You just sit there monitoring vitals and oxygen. I’m bent over a body cutting and snipping, drilling and hammering.”
These were common words and jokes they used often with each other. Grey wouldn’t want the responsibility of putting someone out for surgery and waking them up.
“I’ve been in four today,” Ed said. “I’ve got you beat. Come have a drink with me later. Be my wingman.”
“Wingman?” Grey said. “I’ll pass.”
Ed was forty-five or thereabouts, balding, a good fifty pounds overweight, and had scars on his face from acne as a kid. The only re
ason Ed dated as much as he did was because he was fast to tell women in the bar he was a doctor.
“Then just have a drink with me. You don’t need to pick anyone up, though it might lighten your mood a bit if you did. When was the last time you got laid?”
Grey moved away from Ed and went to his locker to get dressed. As luck—or not—would have it, Ed followed along, having the locker two down from him.
“I don’t share that information with people,” he said.
Because he was embarrassed to say how long it’d been. He hadn’t been on a date in over six months, sex had been longer. Not that he wasn’t fielding offers left and right, but he had standards.
Half the time he just wasn’t interested in going out and meeting women. The other times he was too tired.
He’d been there and done that. He had a woman and asked her to wait for him and she didn’t. She moved on and left him heartbroken. He’d never been able to find another woman to fit what he was looking for and was pretty sick of trying at this point.
“I bet it’s because you’ve got a secret life that you keep hidden.”
“Yeah, that’s it,” Grey said. Was this guy for real?
“All the women want the surgeons. You’re the ‘don’t kiss and tell type,’ aren’t you?”
“That’s me,” he said, getting dressed faster than normal. He didn’t have the patience for this conversation.
“If you change your mind I’ll be at City Line for happy hour.”
Grey nodded his head, slipped his shoes on, and then left. He wasn’t changing his mind.
When he got back to his office he almost ran into Cori Reynolds. She was running in front of him in a hurry like she always was, trying to see her husband, Jack, a fellow orthopedic surgeon in the office.
“Sorry, Grey,” Cori said, the ponytail holding her red hair swinging around her head. Normally she was dressed in her nurse’s scrubs with wild prints and colors, but she looked somewhat normal today in black pants and a purple and black top. Just her bright purple shoes were the only thing out of place.
“No problem,” he said.
“You know what it’s like when you want to see your man,” she said, giggling. She was always smiling and giggling. “Well, not a man for you. At least I don’t think so. I mean a woman. But if it is a man, well, same thing.”
He laughed, he had no choice. “I like women just fine, but don’t have one to rush to like you do.”
“We need to change that for you,” she said. She was almost running to keep up with his long stride. She was probably used to it since Jack was six foot five and Cori was probably barely five foot.
“I’m happy the way I am.”
“Aw, now I know you’re lying. You’re not happy because you don’t smile.”
“Not everyone smiles when they’re happy,” he said back and put a smile on his face for her.
“Yes, they do. Just ask Jack. He never smiled until he met me.”
She spoke the truth. Jack had been a loner in the department when he relocated here over six years ago. The guy barely spoke, let alone smiled. But now that he’d been married for years and had a four-year-old little girl, he smiled more often than not.
“He got lucky with you,” Grey said, speaking the truth. Cori was great. A little out there but had a heart of gold.
“Yes, he did,” she agreed. “You could get just as lucky. I could help with that.”
“No,” he said fast and moved to the door of his office. “I’m good. Have a nice visit with Jack.”
He went in and shut the door and let out a breath. Good grief, what the hell? What was everyone’s obsession with his dating life and trying to get him to go out?
Picking up chicks and getting set up on blind dates were for losers. He’d done it enough and was over it. It was almost as bad as dating apps.
No, nothing was as bad as them.
The truth was, he just had a hard time connecting with women because he was determined to not get his heart broken again.
1
Social Life
A few weeks later, Grey was in his office when his phone went off. “Yes,” he said, knowing it was one of the nurses or the front desk calling him. He never gave his direct line out to anyone.
“Your brother Jake is up front and wanted to know if you had a minute.”
“Sure, send him back.”
He finished typing the last of his notes from yesterday. He made a habit of coming in early to close up any file he couldn’t the day before. When he looked up, his youngest brother, Jake, was standing in the doorway in jeans and a flannel shirt. “Coming into work or leaving?”
“Getting off of shift now. I stopped to see Rachel first and then figured I’d swing by here.”
Jake had only been employed a little over a month as a medevac pilot and his girlfriend, Rachel, was a headhunter for Albany Med. That was how the two of them met. Rachel had been looking to fill the position and a member of her family had mentioned that Jake was home from the Army where he’d been a Nightstalker.
“How’s it going?”
“Good. We had one call last night; otherwise I’m just kind of sitting around. I get the need to have me here, but...”
“So write,” he told his brother. Jake came home around the holidays trying to figure out where his life was going. He swore he’d never get in a chopper again and wanted to start a new career as a mystery writer. He had one book with an agent shopping it around now, and was well on his way to finishing his second.
“I’m thinking of it. Or asking if I can bring my laptop in. Otherwise once I’m done with paperwork I’m just chatting with people or watching TV in the breakroom. Days are a little easier as there are more people around.” He covered his yawn. “The nights I’m just going to sleep, which we can do if we want.”
“And you can’t stand to be doing nothing, least of all sleeping.”
He knew Jake still had nightmares from losing his best friend in combat. “It’s just a waste. It’s not like it’s even a comfortable bed.”
“Been there and done that,” he said. But when you’re tired enough you don’t care where your body falls for some shut eye. He was sure Jake could relate to it too.
“Anyway, I know you’re busy. Rachel wants me to go to this mixer on Saturday night that the hospital is having. Please tell me you’ll be there.”
“I’d rather pull my toenails out and put a hot match to the open wound.”
He hated those social events and activities the hospital put on. It was mainly for the doctors and executives. A way for people to catch up and get together, or be introduced to new faces.
“Dude, do a man a favor. I’m your brother.”
Grey started to laugh. “I can’t tell you how funny it is to see you standing there begging me for this. What do I get out of it?”
His big Special Forces brother was whining over having to mingle. Guess even though they were night and day in so many ways, this wasn’t one of them.
“The next time you’re called up in the chopper I’ll give you a softer ride.”
He snorted. “I hope to not get back in it. I’ve been here for seven years and never had to go in that chopper. Your first solo flight and I get saddled with you.”
“Some might call that fate that would give us both the confidence we’d need to get through.”
He wasn’t sure how his brother wasn’t laughing his ass off and keeping a straight face, but his eyes gave it away. “I smell that bullshit way over here.”
“It was worth a shot. Seriously. I hate these things. You know Rachel is going to leave me by myself. If you’re there we can both sneak out together away from everyone. You could use me as an excuse that you were introducing me to people.”
“I’ll be introducing you to people in the hallway where I’m running for my life.”
“See, you get me.”
He let out a sigh. “I’ll let you know.”
“That’s better than a no.”
>
Jake left his office and before Grey could pull up another chart, Jack Reynolds’s imposing frame was standing there. “Did I hear you’re going on Saturday?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “Why? You aren’t, are you?” Jack wasn’t one for socializing.
“Cori makes me go to at least one a year. She says it lightens me up.”
“And you fall for that?” he asked.
“She has my number and the truth is we don’t get to go out and do much. She likes these things but isn’t invited. She knows more people than I do and it’s a social outing for her. I suck it up, she runs around chatting with people, and all is good in my world that night.”
He laughed. “I never figured you as a sucker before.”
“Sometimes the right woman makes you someone you never thought you’d be. So I’ll be like your brother and ask that you go. The three of us can slip out if we need to. I think Lucas and Brooke Mathews might be there. That’s why Cori is really on my case for this one.”
Lucas was the head of the legal department for Albany Med and his wife, Brooke, ran up corporate compliance. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Brooke and Cori are best friends. They live on Saratoga Lake though, so Cori feels she doesn’t get to spend as much time with Brooke because of that. If they go to any event at night, I find myself there too.”
