Page 78 of Faking the Goal

I lift a hand.

She continues, already smiling again. "So she finally gets there, finds him, confesses almost immediately... and discovers that the sweet, wonderful doctor she's spent years romanticizing is actually a complete asshole."

That gets my attention.

"The entire hospital calls him the Devil because he's cold, brutally demanding, and scares the shit out of everyone. He has zero patience when people screw up, and poor Nanase is standing there realizing she built her entire career around finding Prince Charming only to discover Prince Charming apparently sold his soul sometime during medical school."

Taylor pauses.

Her eyes narrow slightly as they settle on me, slowly moving over my face with an assessing look that immediately makes me suspicious.

"What?"

"You know..." She tilts her head. "Come to think of it, you and Tendo are actually kind of similar."

"How?"

"Cold. Grumpy. Intimidating. Permanently looks like someone pissed in your coffee. Horribly demanding when you're on the ice." She starts counting them off on her fingers. "You both scare people without even trying, neither of you has much patience for incompetence, and getting either of you to express a normal human emotion is apparently a full-time job."

I give her a flat look.

She grins. "Tendo's way hotter, though."

A smirk pulls at my mouth before I can stop it.

I don't know why hearing it interests me as much as it does. I already know women find me attractive. I've heard it enough times that it stopped meaning much years ago. But the possibility that Taylor does makes something distinctly pleased settle in my chest.

Her cheeks turn pink as she realizes the hole she just dug for herself.

"Oh, don't flatter yourself, Sunshine." She waves me off. "I said Tendo is hotter. Besides, I find hockey players hot. You're hardly special."

My smirk disappears.

Something tightens unpleasantly in my jaw at the thought of her looking at the rest of the guys the same way she apparently looks at me.

I don't like that.

Which is fucking stupid.

"Anyway," she says, already turning back to the manga before I can examine that reaction too closely, "Nanase doesn't give up. And that's what I love about her. At first, yeah, she followed him there because she was hopelessly in love with him, but she starts taking nursing seriously for herself. She works her ass off. She screws up, learns, gets better, and actually becomes someone the other nurses and doctors can depend on. She's still ridiculous and embarrassingly obvious about loving Tendo, but she grows up."

Taylor hugs the manga loosely against her chest, that dreamy look creeping right back onto her face.

"And Tendo starts noticing. He sees how hard she works and how much she genuinely cares about her patients. She keeps charging straight at everything even when she's terrified, and eventually she starts getting through all those layers of grumpy asshole."

I give her a look.

She ignores it.

"And then he starts falling for her." Her voice rises with excitement. "Except he's emotionally constipated, so obviously he takes forever to admit it. But that's what makes it so good because everyone thinks he's this cold, impossible Devil, and then you start seeing all these little ways he's different with Nanase. He worries about her. Gets jealous. Protects her. Starts doing all these sweet things while still acting like she annoys the hell out of him."

She sighs dreamily.

"God, I love them."

I grunt. "Sounds cheesy as hell."

Her eyes narrow.