“I’ll be right over.” Mom patted him on the hand, effectively shooing him away.
“Mark, tell her what men want in a woman. She won’t listen to me.”
He raked his gaze down my body. I didn’t miss that look, but mom certainly had. “I don’t think I’m the right person to be telling that to Brooke.”
“Nonsense, of course, you are, you’re a doctor.”
Mom fidgeted with anxiety. She kept looking over her shoulder at Dad. Everything about her body language said she couldn’t be bothered with me at the moment, but she was fully distracted by me, at least until she was certain she had made her point. I wasn’t going to concede. I thought she was wrong.
She harrumphed and flapped her hands at me. “I need you to set her straight. I don’t have time for this.”
I made a shooing motion with my hand. “Doctor Mark will make sure I see the error of my ways.”
“I will?” he chuckled.
“Just say yes so she will stop freaking out and go do the elbow-rubbing with my father.”
He laughed some more. I was glad I could be the night’s entertainment. “I think you mean rubbing shoulders?”
I shrugged, “Whatever, go socialize with the elite.
“Go on Karen, she’ll be fine with me.” He patted Mom on her arm, and she finally left with a flustered nod.
Doctor Mark crossed his arms and looked at me.
I put my hands on my hips and stared back. He was ridiculously hot. I’d always been aware that he was good-looking, but I don’t think I ever realized just how sexy the man was. With his arms crossed that way, his shoulders looked a mile wide. The slight graying at his temples was really the only hint that he was much older than being in his early thirties.
I gave him a once-over assessing look. “Well?”
“Well, what?”
I held out my hand. “I don’t have a drink, and I’m going to need a drink before I can explain what all of that with my mother was about.”
I liked the way he smiled at me. With a tilt of his head, he wordlessly excused himself and stepped in the way of a waiter carrying a tray of wine glasses. Upon his return, he handed me one of the glasses.
I took a sip, never taking my eyes off him.
The way he licked and then bit his lower lip told me he was thinking things he shouldn’t have been thinking about me. But it was fine by me as I was also thinking things about him, I probably shouldn’t have been either.
“So, are you going to fill me in on what that was all about?” he finally asked me.
“Mom doesn’t approve of my choices.”
He cocked a single eyebrow up, and something inside me went giddy.
“And what choices are those?”
“What I eat, what I wear, you know, everything.”
“How exactly does any of that fit into what a man wants?”
I let out a bitter laugh followed by a deep annoyed sigh.
“Doctor Mark,” I started.
He held up a hand stopping me. “Call me Mark.”
“Well, Mark, to put it lightly, my mother doesn’t like the size of my body and thinks I should hide it. You know, in case anyone finds out I’m a plus-sized girl.”