The smile grew across my face, a strong wave of heat right behind it.

“Especially when I see how much you enjoy it,” he added.

The light turned green, and his focus returned to the windshield.

“Would it be silly if I told you I’m already having fun?”

He reached across the seat, grazing the side of my face before resting his fingers on top of mine. “Get comfortable. We have a little bit of a drive ahead of us.”

“We’re leaving the city?”

He left me to shift and didn’t return, weirdly making me miss him. “I know how hard this must be, seeing the aftermath at the hospital every day, and I thought you could use a little break.”

He was right; it was as emotionally painful as what some of my patients were going through physically, and I just wanted to heal them all. But I couldn’t allow myself to feel guilty over this tiny escape.

I also couldn’t shake the feeling that he was starting to know me very well.

Twenty-One

Caleb moved his fork across the table, holding his other hand beneath it in case anything fell, and said, “Try this.”

I leaned into the edge of the wood, getting as close to him as I could, and opened my mouth. “Oh my God,” I groaned the moment the savory lamb touched my tongue, the flavor slowly unraveling.

“Bon appétit,” the chef said from the cooking station that had been set up next to us. “Let my staff know if we can get you anything.”

Caleb and I thanked him, and suddenly, we were alone in the dining room of the restaurant he had rented for the evening, all the way in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, an hour outside of Boston. During our first course, I’d learned that the chef was Caleb’s client, tonight’s menu something the two men had worked on together. Caleb had wanted to have the whole place to ourselves, so the chef could set up by our table, and we could watch him cook.

An experience unlike anything I’d ever had.

I took a bite of the haddock the chef had prepared with purple potatoes and a mix of greens—fiddleheads that had been sprinkled with lemon zest. “Please forgive me if I moan through this whole meal. It’s outstanding.”

Caleb set his fork down and lifted his wineglass, watching me from the other side of the small table. “I want nothing more than to make you smile.”

“That’s all I’ve been doing since you picked me up.”

He studied my face for several beats before he took a sip. “And it’s been beautiful to watch.”

Heat rushed past my cheeks; I was sure he could see it under the candlelight. I tried to hide it by taking another bite of fish.

“Tell me more about you, Whitney.”