And because her romantic nature was decidedly perverse, of course, she found Leonard incredibly attractive. Normally, she was a bit intimidated by men who were so much taller than her. But Leonard had the kindest eyes, with all the warmth and sweetness of melted chocolate. She found herself wondering what it would feel like to have those long, lean arms wrapped around her. In the middle of her workdays, she would picture his large hands spanning across her back. And then she would start thinking about height-anatomical proportionality and–

No, no. She wouldn’t date a man who didn’t like her. She’d tried that. It didn’t work. Well, honestly, she didn’t date much, but somehow, she always managed to choose men who were decidedly unavailable emotionally. It wasn’t all that bad in the long run. She was an admitted workaholic, and her schedule was often filled with surprises and emergencies. She didn’t have the time for someone looking for long-term commitment.

Deep down, she wanted what her parents had, but she just hadn’t found someone she thought she could tolerate forever and ever. Hank and Lizzie McBee had fallen in love at first sight–or at least, “intense like.” At twenty, Hank had taken one look at Lizzie and knew that she was it for him. Lizzie had been a little harder to convince, unsure of how perfectly human Hank McBee would respond to her fae nature. (The answer was “enthusiastically.”) They’d gotten married as soon as Lizzie’s mother would allow it, after she finished her midwife training. And they never regretted settling down so young. They didn’t see the point in dating other people when they found what they wanted on the first try.

So maybe subconsciously, Charlotte picked men she could hold at a distance without regret. Somehow, she didn’t think she could do that with Leonard O’Donnell. So she distracted herself with patients. Jillian was coming in for an exam that morning. Analah Agarwal was expecting her exceedingly healthy tiger-slash-lion shifter baby any day now. Fortunately, it didn’t involve complex magics fighting it out with each other, just a lot of muscle and teeth. And she was sure Dani Teel was pregnant, but didn’t realize it yet.

Charlotte had come home from the grocery the day before to find Zed and Dani standing outside of the Silver Stork.

“Hi, Charlotte,” he said, sheepishly taking her groceries out of her hands. “We, uh, weren’t trying to look in your windows or anything.”