The Doctor's In Love (Pathway Series) (4 page)

“Now that’s too bad.”

“Stop that.  I’m
hanging on by a thread here.” Josh sighed.  He leaned in and kissed her again,
this time a little firmer than before.  He moved his other hand down her side
to let it rest on her hip.  He let his fingers stroke the skin between her
shirt and her pants.  Marisol let out a contented sigh.  Josh took the
opportunity to touch his tongue lightly to hers and Marisol opened her mouth
wider to allow him access.  She moved closer to him.  If she moved any closer,
she’d be in his lap.  She was starting to feel things she had never felt
before.  Josh reluctantly pulled back, but didn’t release her.  “We’d better
stop.”  He said regretfully.

“I know.” Marisol rested
her forehead against his and breathed deeply.  He was breathing just as deeply
and it somehow made Marisol feel giddy.  She loved the fact that he was just as
flushed as she felt.

“Alright, so we know we
both have issues that need working on.  Here’s my question:  Can we figure them
out together?” Josh asked. 

“Are you asking me to
go steady?”

“Yes ma’am.” Josh said
smiling widely.  Marisol didn’t think she could resist him if she tried.  Were
they moving too quickly?  Nah, they’d known each other for years and she didn’t
want to waste anymore time. 

“Alright, but you don’t
know what you’re getting yourself into.” Marisol just shook her head and leaned
back on the couch and stretched her legs out.    

“Why don’t you let me
worry about that?  I’m man enough to handle whatever you’re dealing with.  I
think we can maybe help each other out.  You’re not the only one who’s started
questioning God lately.  I just prayed a couple of weeks ago that I didn’t
think that I could handle being by myself anymore and then I just happen to run
into you.  I don’t think that’s a coincidence.  I call that divine
intervention.  So, we’ll take it slow and see where it goes.  Agreed?”  Marisol
nodded her head and smiled at him shyly.  He leaned back and started to tell
her about his day and Marisol closed her eyes and listened to him talk.  She
could listen to him all night.

Josh watched Marisol
with her eyes closed.  She had fallen asleep on him.  He took that as a
compliment.  She wasn’t the type of person to feel comfortable enough to let
her guard down to fall asleep.  He just gazed at her relaxed features.  She was
so beautiful and peaceful laying there.  He looked at the clock and it was a
little after eight.   He needed to wake her up or she’d wind up spending the
night.  He definitely wouldn’t mind that.  He could see her in his bed, with
her hair laid out on his pillow or better yet laying across his chest.  What
was he thinking?  He needed to think Christian thoughts, not worldly thoughts,
but goodness that was hard.  He had his arm on the back of the couch and he had
scooted up so that her legs were hooked over his and he could touch her hair. 
He brushed her hair back and touched the line of her jaw.  She had the clearest
complexion and the cutest button nose.  Maybe he’d let her sleep a little
longer.  She’d had an emotional time telling him about the last couple of years
and he had wanted to tell her that from now on he’d be protecting her from her
ghosts.  He hadn’t meant to kiss her, but he didn’t regret it.  She had made
him feel like a teenager again, but she also made him want to protect her.  He
stroked her cheek and laid his head against his arm and closed his eyes.  He’d
just let her sleep a little longer. 

Marisol slowly opened
her eyes and blinked several times.  She had fallen asleep.  She had a
wonderful man literally in her arms and she’d fallen asleep on him.  She turned
her head and looked at Josh who was out like a light.  His hand was resting
against her cheek and her legs were thrown over his.  He couldn’t be
comfortable stretched out like that.  Marisol looked at the clock over the
mantle and saw that it was almost midnight.  She’d been out 4 hours. 
“Josh, wake up.”  She shook him and swung her legs out of his lap.  His hand
dropped to her breast and she picked it up placed it on his thigh.  She leaned
over and kissed him lightly on the mouth.  “Josh it’s midnight.  I think we
really overslept or rather we slept when we shouldn’t have.”

“Why don’t you just
spend the night?  I’ll put you in the guest room.  You can sleep in my shirt.” He
shifted and groaned.  “I’m getting to old to be sleeping sitting up.”

“Well Doc, you’re not
that old.  I would love to spend the night, but I have to work in the morning
and all my stuff is at home. Plus, even I know it wouldn’t look right.” Marisol
said.

“Alright, let me wake
up and I’ll take you to pick up your car.” He leaned over and kissed her on the
forehead and then her nose and then her mouth.  “Now that’s the way I like to
wake up.”

“Come on lazy bones.  You
can kiss me all you like tomorrow and the next day.”  Marisol climbed off the
couch and stretched out her hands and pulled him upwards towards her. 

“Promise?”

“I promise.” Marisol
said.  He wrapped his arms around her and rocked her backwards towards the
door.  She loved being around him.  She had always enjoyed his company and now
she didn’t have to feel guilty about it.

“Let’s go.”

The drive back to town
was quiet.  Marisol glanced over at Josh occasionally and watched him fiddle
with the radio. 

“So what are you doing
tomorrow?” Josh asked.

“You mean today?” Marisol
asked smiling. “Well today I’m going to work and tonight I’m going to church
with Summer.  She wants me to go with her and I can only say ‘no’ so many
times.”

“She wore you down? 
I’ll have to meet her if she can take you on.” Josh said laughing.  He pulled
into the parking lot and pulled next to Marisol’s Infiniti.  He put the car in
park and let it idle. 

“She’s been my only
friend, so I gave in.  It’s not even her church that she wants me to go to. 
She’s been pestering me for months to go to Pathway Church and I keep saying I
will, but I haven’t, so finally she cornered me.  I take that back, she didn’t
corner me.  She waited until she had my head full of shampoo in a sink and then
she asked me to go.  She wouldn’t wash it out until I said ‘I promise’.” Marisol
said smiling.

“Beautician?” Josh
asked.

“Shut your mouth. 
She’s a hair stylist or hair artist.  Call her a beautician only if you want to
lose all your hair.” Marisol said.

“I won’t make that
mistake.  I need to keep what I have.”

“Anyhow, I told her I
would go and check it out.  I mean, what can it hurt?  They have services on
Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.” Marisol pulled her keys out.

“I think it’s great
that you’re going to go.  It will be good for you.  It doesn’t sound like
you’ve gotten out a lot in the last couple of years.” Josh said.

“I haven’t, but it’s
just as well.  You just get hurt when you put yourself out there anyway.  I try
and stay to myself as much as possible.”

“Since when?  That’s
not the Marisol that I knew.  When I knew you, you were outgoing and fun.  What
happened, other than your surgery to make you turn into a recluse?” Josh asked.

“People happened.  The
ones who you think are your friends and then they’re not.  You know all the
women I work with would stab me in the back in a second and they have at one
time just to get in the boss’s good graces?  My best friend is a partner in the
practice and she has my back, but I can’t call her by her first name because
she’s a doctor.  We don’t hang out like best friends because she’s a doctor and
that’s okay, but sometimes I just wish things were different.  It will be that
way with you.  We might date, but if I see you in the office it will be Dr.
this and Dr. that.  I know I sound really jaded to you, but maybe it’s better
that you see I’m not who I was, so that you can move on.” Marisol said and
hopped out of the truck.

“Oh no you don’t, no
running.  We all have problems and you’ll see that I have my own.  I’m just as
imperfect as the next person but I like the person that you are, not the person
that you were.  The person you were was a little too happy and perky for my
taste and this person is a little more realistic and damaged, like the rest of
us.” Josh stated emphatically.

“Damaged?” Marisol
asked.

“Would you rather I
used bitter, unyielding, caustic and cranky?”

“No thanks, I own a
thesaurus.  I wasn’t always perky, that was an act.  Fake it till you make it. 
I was miserable, but I just didn’t want anyone else to know.  Actually, I’m
happier now, even though you can’t tell it.” Marisol unlocked her car door and
threw her purse in the car. 

“I can tell how happy
you are.  It radiates from you just like sunshine.” Josh said sarcastically.

“Oh ye of great sarcasm
and I really did forget how great you are at that.  Anyhow, it’s good to know
some things haven’t changed.” Marisol smiled at Josh and shook her head.  Josh
laughed and leaned against the car.

“Yeah, I’m still
sarcastic but if you were a dwarf, you sure wouldn’t be Happy.” He deadpanned.

“No.  I think I’d be
Sleepy right about now.”

“Good segue.” Josh
said.

“I thought so.  I
better go or we could do this all night.” Marisol opened the driver side door
and Josh waited for her to get in before he leaned down.

“Hey, green-eyed girl
there’s one last thing that I have to tell you.”

“What’s that?” Marisol
asked.

“It was really, really
good seeing you.” Josh leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.  “Can I get
your number?”

Marisol reached out her
hand and asked “Do you have your phone?” Josh took it off his belt and handed
it to her.  He had the same phone as she did and so she swiped the face of it to
turn it on and saw that he didn’t lock his phone, she smiled.

“What are you smiling
at?” Josh asked.

“Not a thing.” Marisol
wasn’t about to tell him that it was said that a man that didn’t lock his phone
had nothing to hide.  She put her name in his contacts and then put herself in
speed dial #2 since no one else was there.  “There you go, I’m in and I also
put myself as speed dial number 2.  Just press and hold.”

“Are you going to tell
me why you were smiling?” Josh asked.  Standing up, he clipped the phone back
into his holster.

“Maybe one day I will. 
Goodnight Josh.” Marisol said and closed the door.  She rolled down her window
and waved at him.

“Goodnight Marisol
drive careful.  Call me when you get home.” Josh said softly.  Marisol only
registered what he said when she saw his headlights in her rearview mirror. 
Call him when she got home.  He had her number, but she didn’t have his.  Marisol
looked in her rearview mirror again and didn’t see his headlights anymore.  It
figures, she would forget to get his number.  She banged her head against the
steering wheel at the stoplight.

Marisol woke up that
morning with little more than 4 hours of sleep in her system.  She yawned and
stretched and looked at the clock.  She reached for her phone and looked at the
message from earlier.  Josh had texted her when she hadn’t called him and she
had texted him back that while she had given him her number, she hadn’t gotten
his.  He had thought that was hilarious.  She was so glad she had given him
something to laugh at.  She got up and looked in the mirror and cringed.  She
had circles under her eyes and her hair was standing up on end but at least she
didn’t have to wash it.  She looked at the scrubs she had laid out yesterday
morning.  She always wore the same thing on the same days.  She needed to be
spontaneous sometimes, but that just wasn’t in her.  Of course, going out last
night had been spontaneous so score one for her!  Marisol laughed out loud and
her dog looked at her funny. 

“I know baby girl, you
have to go out.” Marisol went and got the leash and clipped it on.  Scruffy
just laid there and refused to move.  It was like a morning ritual.  Scruffy
never did what Marisol wanted her to do.  Molly came running in and slid to a stop
at Marisol’s feet.  “You’re next good girl.” Marisol pulled Scruffy towards the
door.  “Who’s got to go do a good girl?  Who’s got to go pee pee?” Scruffy
slunk through the front door and through the carport, all the while Marisol
chanting “Go do a good girl?” in the freezing cold.  Scruffy the second was
nothing like Scruffy the first.  This Scruffy didn’t love Marisol the way the original
Scruffy had.  Marisol had been eight when they had gotten Scruffy the first and
everywhere Marisol had gone Scruffy had gone.  It didn’t matter if it was 2
steps away, Scruffy would follow.  She had loved that dog more than anything in
the world, but she had passed away when Marisol had turned 23.  She’d had a
good long life and in the end Marisol had lain beside her and told her that it
was okay to go, that she’d be okay without her and that night she had passed
away. 

After 12 years, Marisol
still missed her girl and this Scruffy reminded her of her all the time until she
would wake up.  As long as she slept she looked like her, and then when she was
awake she was aware of the differences, like the fact that she had an attitude. 
Scruffy stalked towards Marisol and she had this look on her little doggy face
as if to say “you pull me out of bed in 35 degree weather to pee in wet grass
and you look gleeful?  I should pee on your feet.”  Marisol opened the door and
got Molly hooked up and took her out and was amazed at the differences in the 2
dogs.  Molly was happy, all the time and just all around stupid bless her
heart.  She loped around and never acted as if she had a problem with
anything.  Marisol loved cocker spaniels and couldn’t see owning any other dog,
but they really could get an attitude.  After bringing Molly in and getting
them settled, Marisol started getting ready for work.