A woman passes by his table, her svelte figure in a bright red business suit catching his attention because he is a man after all, but his focus remains on the blond hair twisted neatly on the back of her head.
Damn, he misses Everleigh. For the past three days, he has worked his damnedest to keep her from his mind, but nothing has worked. Not gym sessions in the early light or drinks late into the evening. Nothing. He had hoped to hear from her about the present he had delivered to her house today, but his phone has been silent.
Maybe she’ll thank me when I get home. Naked. In my bed, he muses, groaning slightly at the mental image portraying in his mind, startling the older woman sitting next to him.
He shifts just a tad, hoping to mask his growing erection and explains that he is tired of the topic presented. The woman doesn’t look like she’s convinced 100%, but she nods and turns her attention back to the stage.
Finally, the morning conference dismisses and Brooks opts to head to a local sports bar for lunch instead of corralling with the rest of the crowd at the luncheon. He rests against a wall in the hallway, pulls out his phone and searches for the closest bar when the woman he noticed before slithers up beside him.
“Dr. McCafferty?” she asks. “I was told I could find you here.”
Brooks peeks up from his phone and gazes at the gorgeous woman before him. A woman that normally he would immediately try to lure into his bed, but with Everleigh having cast her spell on him he simply looks at her in confusion.
“That’s me. Can I help you?”
“I’m Charleston Rae Vaughn and I have a proposition for you,” she says nonsensically.
A few other practitioners gather closer to them, whether trying to be nosy or simply intrigued by the woman before him, and Brooks offers that they move their conversation to lunch.
They enter the crowded sports bar across the street and opt for a high-top table in the corner of the room. A waitress immediately comes over to take their order and returns with their beers moments later. This woman sitting across from him is an enigma and he wants to try to figure her out as she takes a large gulp of her beer. He admires her sleek neck as her head tilts back knowing that many of the men in the bar would be honored to press their lips against her soft skin, but not him. He can’t help but notice that she doesn’t have the small freckle on her neck, right below her ear, which he loved to press his lips against. She isn’t his wife.
“Ms. Vaughn, excuse me for being rude. I have no clue who you are, but you seem to know who I am. How is that?”
She takes her napkin and presses it against her mouth, gently wiping away the residue from her beer and then drops it on her lap as she leans into the table, crossing her arms against the darkened wood. The waitress returns with their ordered burgers and Charleston leaves hers untouched.
“You treated my sister’s son in Atlanta and she spoke very highly of you, said that you had a perfect bedside manner.”
“Well, I’ve always strived to be the best.”
“Great, because today I come to you with a proposal I don’t think you can turn down.”
“I’m listening,” he assures as he takes a bite of his heaping pound of beef.
“I’m a producer of one of the largest morning shows in the country and we are looking for a physician to take over the medical segments. These segments are targeted to the stay-at-home mothers with children, but you may also be asked to pass along useful medical tips to all viewers. You’re a good-looking guy; the mothers will eat you up.”
“Thank you for the compliment, but what’s the catch? I have a practice I need to run.”
“The segments are once a week and are filmed live out of New York City. We would need to do a few test segments, but I believe you’ll ace those. If you pull in enough draw we can renegotiate to filming your segments at your own facility and have a crew on site. This is what I am offering you, Dr. McCafferty.”
“I won’t lie, Ms. Vaughn, I am intrigued,” he confesses as he leans back against his chair, resting his hands on his abdomen.
Brooks thinks back to the few times he was on camera during his time with the MLB and remembers how much he loved it. This is an opportunity he doesn’t think he’ll be able to pass up.
“I did research on you, you know. Do you miss it?” she asks as she finally takes a bite of her food quickly cooling on the table.
Did he miss baseball? Or did he miss the notoriety that came with it? Medicine has always been his calling, but baseball ensured that he would be able to take care of his grandmother. Too bad that his plans never seemed to go the way he wanted,he muses.
“Do I miss baseball? Sure, it was all I had known for most of my life, it was all I was good at. It’s crazy to think how quickly our plans can change. I had loved science in school and lucked out to major in pre-med when I had gone to college. The rest is history.”
“Well, our fans will surely be interested to know that you’re an ex-baseball player. Our sports network is one of the top cable networks, five years running.”
“Congratulations.”
“Thank you. I strive to choose the best people for our teams and I want you to join us. So, what do you think?” she queries as she takes the final bite of the burger.
“I’ll need you to send a contract to my lawyer to review and then I need to go over everything with someone.”
“Who? Your grandmother?” she asks with a bit of alarm swirling in her eyes, fear that he is going to back out.
