Finn.
She hadn’t come across that name for a long, long time.
Not since she was sixteen.
Finn was the name of the second guy she ever kissed. Not long after she kissed Conor, his identical twin.
The two guys who had stolen her heart all those years ago. Stolen it, and then trampled all over it by abandoning her without even saying goodbye.
Tammy was going to have to be careful here. She hadn’t studied psychotherapy in much depth at medical school, but shedidknow about transference. In this case, she had to make sure that she didn’t treat this new Finn any differently because of her prejudices about old Finn.
New Finn was probably a ten-year-old boy. Or an eighty-year-old man. Or maybe she was even a woman. Finn… short for… Finella? That was a name, right?
Just then, the door burst open, and a huge figure stood in the doorway. He was tall, blond, and very muchnota ten-year-old boy. He was a muscular, grown-up, sexy-as-hell version of the Finn she used to know.
Oh… shark bite.
It washim, wasn’t it?
Finn Healy. The man of her dreams. The man of her nightmares.
She balled up her fists inside of her pockets and gritted her teeth.
I can do this. I’m a doctor now. It’s only Finn, it’s OK. It’s not like all the Healy brothers are here, ready to rake up old memories.
‘Good morning,’ Tammy said, voice quavering slightly. The best thing to do, she figured, was try to act normal. It was so unlikely that Finn remembered her, and even if he did, she was nothing to him. Just a girl he once knew. A teenager he kissed a couple times. No big deal.
Finn strode into the surgery, confident and scowling. He wore glasses now — thick, black-rimmed, showing off his blue eyes and square jaw. God, he was handsome. He was good-looking back when he was eighteen, but he’d grown into such aman.
‘Hullo there, Doc,’ said Finn, his voice deep and resonant, his Irish accent as strong as it was back then.
Instantly, Tammy was transported back to her youth.
Hello there, Doc.
Exactly what Finn used to say to her dad.
Hearing those words said tohernow made her feel flutters in parts of her body that she shouldn’t have been thinking about right now.
‘Um… Hello, patient,’ she said.
Hello, patient?
What a dork. Seriously, who’d want a chump like her as their doctor? She should just quit now. She wasn’t built for this.
Finn surprised her by throwing back his head and laughing. ‘You haven’t changed a bit, Tamster.’
Hearing that nickname made her heart leap up into her throat. It was a ridiculous name. Finn had given it to her because of the cute way he said she ate peanuts. Holding them in her fingers and nibbling them like a little rodent. Tamster the hamster. If anyone else had called her that it would’ve been bullying. Not Finn. Finn was always the kind, sensitive one.
Was he still like that now?
‘I’m sorry, I’m just a little…’ Tammy tried to talk, but words were evading her.
Finn smiled. ‘Then you’re in the right place. This town is swarming with Littles.’
Flipping joker. Always larking about, the Healy boys. At least she only had to deal with Finn on his own. The two twins together always meant Double Trouble.
At least, she had to assume that Finn had just made a joke. She didn’t want him knowing she actuallywasa Little. That was just embarrassing.