Love Is More Than Skin Deep (A Hidden Hearts Novel Book 4) by Mary Crawford Page B

quirky, complicated, frustrating, sometimes brooding, often amusing man. I’ve never met anyone like him. It would be so easy to write him off as the quintessential rugged man-candy who is too good-looking for his own good, except that he’s such a great dad and deeply spiritual in an offbeat way. In my years as a teacher’s aide through college and a student teacher, I’ve met a lot of guys with kids, but I’ve never met anyone who is as close with their child as he is. It’s remarkable to me that he juggles all of this by himself.
    It would be easy for me to claim that I’m not actually searching for a relationship. Yet if I’m honest with myself, I know that that’s not quite true. Deep down, I think everybody hopes that they’re going to miraculously stumble upon the love of their life when they go to the grocery store, the post office, or out for a jog. It’s supposed to happen like some grand romantic movie that you would see in black and white. At least that’s what I always thought when I made up stories in my head to pass the time. I would dream up elaborate scenarios about how I would grow up and meet someone when I was grocery shopping or doing the laundry in the laundromat and that person would take me away from the lifestyle that I grew up in.  
    Of course, that was before my brother died and everything changed, but I used to dream of how someone would see me from across the room and instantly fall in love and our chemistry would be so strong that nothing and no one could dissuade my potential beau from pursuing me. Back then I thought that the potential foes might be dragons, wizards or monsters. I never dreamed that the barriers that I faced would be both more insidious and more mundane, like chronic poverty and cancer. Surprisingly, aside from being incredibly worried about me, Mark does not seem to believe that the cancer and the fact that I might die from it is any sort of deal breaker in a relationship between us. In fact, he seems pretty intent on flirting with me and pursuing a relationship.  
    It’s the oddest thing about us, to the extent that there is an us. One moment he seems to be openly pursuing me like any regular guy would do. The next moment, he seems to be putting on the brakes as hard as he possibly can. Yet, I’m not really in a position to be calling him out on his behavior, because I’m doing the same thing.  
    It would be so easy for me to settle right into a relationship, but is it really the best thing for everyone, or am I merely taking the easy road because Mark has made it so comfortable for me to stay?
    It would be easier if I could just ignore him, but Mark is just about everything I hoped to find in a guy. He is a man of extreme moral character; Mark isn’t easily persuaded by the whims of others. If he believes something is right, he is going to stand up for it regardless of what anyone else thinks. That’s really important to me, for a man to have principles and be willing to stand up for them. I love the fact that he’s made huge sacrifices for his daughter and is not willing to make compromises in her education or medical care. He’s her biggest advocate and I love that he’s always in her corner, even when it’s not convenient to be.  
    Mark shows that same kind of loyalty everywhere. The most astonishing thing to me is that before he even really got to know me, he extended that same dedication to me. After it became clear that the first plastic surgeon that I met with was subpar, Mark went out of his way to find me Dr. Charleston. It’s becoming increasingly difficult for me to separate my feelings of gratitude toward Mark from something much deeper. I don’t know where gratitude ends and something else begins.  
    What do we even call the “something else”? We are not really dating except we spend a remarkable amount of time together like a family. After the first procedure that took me by surprise, I practically moved in with Ketki and Mark.