He sighed. “Forget it. Forget I asked.”
The door opened and nearly hit his sister in the ass. Shirl Cutler came in, bouncing with joy. “Guess who I met today during my volunteer shift at the humane society!”
Levi turned and thunked his head against the steel shelving. “Why?”
“Don’t worry. I didn’t tell her who I was.”
Mateo came in behind Levi’s mom. “What did I miss?”
Levi sighed. “And you’re here why?”
His mom gasped. “What kind of way is that to speak to your oldest, bestest friend?”
Behind her back, Mateo grinned at Levi.
Levi very discreetly gave him the middle finger.
“And I invited him here,” his mom said. “Because we have all that leftover food from today’s birthday lunch for Dusty. Mateo’s just worked a bunch of days in a row and I bet he hasn’t eaten a good home-cooked meal in forever. I’m packing him up leftovers.”
Mateo was one of the best cooks Levi knew. The guy was actually a huge food snob. Even though Levi believed that Mateo had indeed worked a bunch of days in a row and was probably near dead from exhaustion, there was no way he hadn’t eaten.
“Come help me, Tess.” And with that, Levi’s mom and sister were gone.
Mateo plopped into one of the two chairs in the corner and rubbed his hands over his face.
“Long few days?” Levi asked.
“You could say that.”
Levi dropped into the other chair. “Want to tell me what’s going on?”
“No.”
“Okay, glad we could clear that up.”
Mateo swore beneath his breath. “What do you know about your pretend girlfriend’s best friend?”
“How do you know about Jane?”
“I have my ways. Tell me what you know about Charlotte.”
Levi shrugged. “I met her last night. She seems really nice.”
“Nice? That’s it?”
“I know she’s a doctor,” Levi said. “At your hospital. Which means you know way more about her than I do.”
Mateo leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees and his face into his hands.
Mateo was one of the most easygoing, giving guys Levi knew. It was a miracle, really, given his demanding profession and the needs his family put on him. When the Morenos had lost Amy, it’d left Mateo an only child of elderly parents. Elderly parents that he’d become solely responsible for. Between that and the demanding job, Mateo had no personal life outside his family. Levi had been a real dick for vanishing on him, leaving Mateo without emotional support. He wouldn’t make that mistake again. “What’s wrong?”
“She’s smart as hell, sharp as hell, feisty and sassy and . . . hell.” Mateo slid his fingers into his hair. “Gorgeous.”
“Not hearing a problem.”
“She’s outta my league, man. But she’s the One.”
Levi stared at him. “Charlotte?”
“No, jackass, the Easter Bunny. Yeah, Charlotte.”
“And this is a problem?”
“She doesn’t like me.”
Levi laughed.
“I’m serious.”
“Come on. You’ve never had to work for a woman in your life.”
“Until this one,” Mateo said. “When I get home before her, I clear her snow. She yells at me to put it back. Sometimes I leave her snacks in her cubby at work because I don’t think she remembers to eat. She thinks it’s the asshole X-ray tech who always hits on her.”
Levi burst out laughing.
“Not funny. Last week, I put air in her tires because I could tell they were low, and with icy roads . . .” He broke off and sighed. “I’m so screwed.”
“Why not just tell her how you feel?”
“Really?” Mateo asked dryly. “Is that what you’re doing with Jane? Being honest about your feelings?”
“Hey, we both know how not an expert I am on this shit. But what’s so wrong with telling Charlotte how you really feel?”
“I’ll mess it up.”
Mateo had gone right from high school to college to medical school, then to residency and straight onward from there with his medical career. He was brilliant, but when it came to getting serious in a relationship, the guy had as little experience as, well, Levi. “You could just take it slow.”
Mateo laughed mirthlessly. “Our current pace is a tortoise trying to wade through peanut butter. If we go any slower, we’ll be going backwards.”
“What’s the hurry? Neither of you are going anywhere.”
Mateo rolled his eyes. “Tell me you got better advice for me than that.”
“Pretend girlfriend, remember?”
Mateo snorted, then shook his head. “We’re both such dumbasses.”
“No doubt.”
Chapter 14
Charlotte walked out of the hospital. It was the end of a shift, but the beginning of a day. At just past dawn, the sky was alight with an ocean of pinks, reds, and purples. She stood there for a beat, blinking at the bright winter light bouncing off the fresh snow blanketing the parking lot, face turned up to the emerging sun like a lizard.
Just concentrating on inhaling and exhaling.
When she could do so without that sharp stabbing pain of grief in her chest, she made her way to her car.
A young woman had died on her table last night while under her knife. As a horrible reality of her job, it happened. But it never, ever failed to take a little chunk out of her heart and soul.
Cranking on her heater, she turned the vents toward her as she drove home, but all the heat in the world couldn’t warm her up.
Her patient—“Talia,” she said out loud to her car. Talia, a twenty-two-year-old, had been a victim of domestic abuse. Feeling the prickle of tears behind her eyes, she blinked hard and pulled into her driveway. Which had been cleared.
Mateo, of course.
Dammit. Damn him. She was already trembling with the effort to hold back her own internal storm, the one that was playing havoc with her emotions, bringing them far too close to the surface.
Nothing good ever came of her emotions breaking free.
She stared at her house. He’d done the walkway too. How in the world was she supposed to deal with someone doing something nice for her right now? Answer: she couldn’t. Especially from Mateo, for reasons she didn’t quite understand.
Drawing a deep breath, she pulled her visor down to look into the mirror, needing to make sure there were no signs of her turmoil. She didn’t need a knight in shining armor to save her day.
She would save her own damn day.
She got out of the car and lost a portion of her self-righteousness when she didn’t have to wade through a foot of fresh snow as she made her way to his front door and knocked.
Nothing.
She tried again, rapping her fist harder onto the wood.
When the door finally opened, Mateo stood there wearing red knit boxers and . . . nothing else. No shirt. Bed head. Eyes heavy lidded. Bare feet.
He blinked blearily. “What’s up?”
“Put it back.”
“Put what back?”
“The snow,” she said. “Put it all back.”