Wyatt laughed. “Why is that? You don’t like sledding?”
I shook my head. “I’m so clumsy that I’d probably end up with something broken by the time we got to the bottom of the hill.”
“It can’t be that bad,” Wyatt said, eyeing me.
I shook my head. “It is. Which means you’re carrying me back up the hill if I get hurt.”
“You’re gonna do it?” he asked, his brown eyes lighting up.
“That was our deal, right? You show me what’s so great about the holidays and I get to depress the hell out of you?”
He laughed again. “Bring it on.”
I followed Wyatt, and his two plastic neon sleds, to the hill. When we got there, I looked down the hill at the crowd and got nervous. There was no way I was going to make it all the way down without hurting myself. Not to mention I was wearing boots that were more for fashion than sledding.
But I was determined to give it a shot.
“Are you ready?”
“Fuck no. Is it too late to back out?”
“We don’t have to do this,” he said, taking my hands in his and pulling my gaze from the mountain we were standing on top of. “I didn’t realize this would be a problem.”
I shook my head. “Nope. I’m going to do it. Maybe this is part of why I hate this time of year. I don’t take enough risks.”
“Sledding is a risk?” he asked, fighting a smile.
“Just wait until you see me. Then you’ll understand.”
He shook his head. “Together or separate?”
“Oh, no. I’m not going to subject you to my damage. You need your own sled. That way you can still carry me back up the hill.”
He chuckled. “I doubt it’ll be that bad.”
“Don’t expect to hear this often, but I hope you’re right, Mr. Mayor.”
Wyatt threw his head back and laughed, full body barrel laugh. I couldn’t help but join him. We stood there laughing like idiots as kids whipped past us to take off down the hill that terrified me. Wyatt followed my gaze and grinned even wider.
“You know those children are braver than you are.”
“I am perfectly capable of admitting that.”
I took a deep breath and grabbed the electric blue sled. “Okay. Let’s get this over with. I think a friend of mine is on right now in the ER. If we hurry, she can set whatever I break.”
Wyatt laughed as I plopped down into the sled. It went absolutely nowhere.
“Um?”
“Usually I wait until I’m at the edge of the hill to get in the sled. They don’t move well on flat ground.”
“I should have known that.”
“Hold on tight,” Wyatt said, his hands landing on my shoulders. “I’ll push you.”
“No,” I screeched, terrified. I dug my heels into the snow. “I don’t want to go any faster than I have to.”
“I’ll just push you to the edge. You can control your descent from there.”
“Are you going, too?” I asked, my voice bordering panicked.
He nodded. “I can ride with you. Or I’ll be right next to you.”
“I don’t know,” I hedged. “I don’t think it’s safe for you to ride with me.”
“Scoot,” he said, nudging me forward.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to ride with you. Move forward so I can sit behind you.”
“You don’t have to.”
“Peyton? This was my idea. Let me ride with you. Neither of us are dressed to be out here for too long. A couple runs and we’ll go find some hot chocolate inside.”
“Are you sure?”
His eyebrows peaked and he shook his head. “Move woman.”
I inched forward, praying I didn’t shift my weight far enough forward that I went over the edge. Wyatt’s boots landed next to my hips before he lowered himself onto the sled behind me. He tugged me back against him, then tucked his boots under my knees.
“Are you okay?” he asked, his breath on my neck.
I nodded, trying to think of the last time I had a man wrapped around me like he was. He smelled good, fresh and clean with a hint of manliness that teased me. His hands were low on my hips, holding me where he wanted me.
Sledding could be fun if you wanted to get frisky.
Wyatt shifted his weight and propelled us forward inch by inch. I reached down and dug my knuckles into the snow, pushing us closer to the edge. When we were right there, our momentum just barely keeping us flat, Wyatt squeezed my hips with his thighs and said, “Here we go.”
Our momentum tipped and we started to slide. Slowly at first, but we picked up speed quickly. The wind whipped across my skin, stinging my cheeks and making my eyes water. Wyatt held on to me tightly as we raced down the slope toward the bottom.
“Woohoo!” he yelled, tipping his head back.
My fears began to subside, allowing me to laugh with Wyatt. By the time we slowed, we were both laughing like fools.
We rolled out of the sled together, our legs tangled together. The icy snow pressed against my cheek and chilled me through my leggings, but I didn’t care.
“That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
I shook my head. “It was fun.”
“Good. Again?”
I nodded. “I think I can handle it again.”
Wyatt grabbed the string on the front of the sled and reached for my hand. I slid mine into his without a thought, and we started the long walk back up to the top.
I huffed and puffed up the hill. “Shit, this is a lot longer to walk up.”
“Yeah, it is. This was easier when I was half my age.”
“Then you could be here with that waitress. Oh, wait. She’d be an infant.”
“Or not even born,” Wyatt said with a shudder. “What’s the biggest age difference between someone you’ve dated and you?”
“A few years, probably. I can’t think of anyone I’ve dated that was more than a couple years older than me.”
“Or younger?”
I shook my head. “Younger men are too immature for me.”
“Even a year or two?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I have a low tolerance for bullshit. If you don’t treat me right, we’re done. If you treat me like a trophy to show off to your friends, we’re done.”
“I don’t blame you. The only thing that waitress wants me for is to show off to her friends. I’m too old for that shit.”
“Exactly. Games weren’t fun when I was her age. I didn’t have time for it.”
“Neither did I. Sledding though? Sledding I had time for.”
“You’re just a grown-up child, aren’t you?”
“Oh, yeah,” he said, climbing onto the sled again. He helped me position in front of him and wrapped himself around me again.
And we were off.
Over and over we slid down the hill tangled together, then dragged ourselves back up. When my feet were frozen and my hands were numb, we carried the sleds to Wyatt’s SUV then went inside to warm up with some hot chocolate.
We settled at a small table in front of the oversized stone fireplace. The snow started to fall outside, making the fireplace and the stone room with windows overlooking the hill even more cozy.
“How was our first date?” Wyatt asked.
I shrugged. “Okay, I guess.”
He fought a grin and nodded. “I’ll try harder next time. Hopefully I can satisfy you.”
I laughed. “I had more fun than I expected,” I admitted. “Dinner was amazing, and sledding was fun. Even better, I’m not in the hospital with a brand new cast.”
“I’d have signed it for you.”
“Aw, how sweet.”
“You break it, you buy it, right?”
“So this would be you break it, you sign it?”
“Yeah, we can go with that.”
“I have to say, Mayor Ramsey, my favorite part of tonight has definitely been the company.”
He looked surprised and pleased with my statement. “Thank you, Dr. Peyton. I have to say I agree.”
We shared a smile that said more than words could and sipped our hot chocolate. When we were done, Wyatt reached for my hand again and led me outside. He opened my door and held my hand on the drive back to my house. Neither of us mentioned the shift in things between us, but I knew he was feeling it, too. We talked about our friends and he shared a few of the plans for the winter festival.
When he pulled into my driveway, I was definitely not ready for the night to be over. Wyatt walked me to my door, leaving his SUV running.
“I had a great night,” I admitted with a grin. “If all our dates are as much fun as this one, you’ve got yourself a date for Valentine’s Day.”
“I’m glad I could entertain you. I have a feeling I need to step up my game for the next date though.”
“Why is that?”
He shook his head. “You’re not a woman who is easily pleased. The same thing over and over again will only make you dislike winter even more.”
“You’re more perceptive than I gave you credit for.”
He stepped closer to me. “I’ve been paying attention, Dr. Peyton.”
He swept the hair from my shoulders and wrapped his hand around my neck. He leaned in, giving me a chance to back away, but I didn’t want to.
His lips were warm when they met mine. Soft. A casual brush, nothing more than a peck. But I instantly wanted more from him. He eased back, his eyes catching mine. His lips tilted up in a grin, then he leaned in again, pressing his lips back to mine.
He shifted closer, not crowding me, but not letting me forget exactly who was kissing me. He was a perfect gentleman, with a burn simmering just beneath the surface.
I wanted to trace his lips with my tongue, to have him devour me, but he was Wyatt. My friend. The guy who was trying to convince me winter wasn’t the worst season of the year. We weren’t getting involved.
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.”
