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pediatric wing to care for his niece.
    “You know, she’s 100% better,” Tony told her, inclining his head respectfully toward her. “It was my very good luck that you were her doctor.”
    Ashley smiled at the compliment. “There are a lot of equally skilled doctors at Jackson,” she said. “And Amanda’s case was a very easy one to treat. She’d be feeling better no matter who attended her.”
    Tony shook his head, his bright eyes glinting at her. “Don’t you know how to take a compliment?” he asked her. “It’s my good luck not only because my niece got the best of care, but also because if you hadn’t been her doctor, I would never have gotten the opportunity to convince you that I’m more than just some jerk who yells at nurses.”
    Ashley chuckled. “Well, there are enough people yelling at hospital staff on any given day that I probably would have forgotten you existed before my shift had ended,” she admitted.
    Tony shook his head. “My luck increases with every attempt you make to downplay it—if you had forgotten I existed, we wouldn’t be here.”
    Ashley shrugged. She was pleased at the attention, but at the same time didn’t know quite how to react to it. She had last tried dating as a young adult; she had only been twenty when she’d met Kent. She wasn’t used to the way that grown, mature people interacted on dates. She sipped her coffee and tried to keep up her end of the conversation, even though part of her mind was back at the hospital. She really only felt comfortable there. Some of Kent’s complaints about her dedication to her job were not without merit, Ashley thought absently as she and Tony compared childhoods. Ashley came alive at the hospital, faced with difficult cases that had to be taken care of immediately. She loved working in the ER, and she loved working in Pediatric medicine, as well as basic care. Knowing that people depended on her, that they were looking for answers and that helping them was in her power had fueled Ashley’s interest in becoming a doctor at a young age.
    They finished their coffees and left the café, and Ashley hesitated only briefly when Tony offered her his arm while they walked to the restaurant he had in mind. He hadn’t given Ashley any indication of where he had planned to take her; most of the restaurants on South Beach were pricy anyway. But when he led her up to the front of Barton G, Ashley was shocked; she glanced at him sharply. “You know, this is a first date—you don’t have to go out of your way to impress me,” she said hurriedly, wondering if she wasn’t underdressed for the place.
    “I have a standing reservation here,” Tony said, waving aside her concern. “It’s where I bring a lot of my clients to have dinner. Business expense.” Ashley’s opinion of him wavered between being deeply impressed and almost put off by the slight brag that the comment implied. She wondered just what he did, and realized that he hadn’t mentioned it—he hadn’t brought it up once, instead asking her all about her life, her career. That was strange; usually, with men, it was difficult to get them to shut up about themselves—that had been Ashley’s experience in her dating life before, at least. Tony waited patiently for the hostess to come back to the station, unobtrusively caressing Ashley’s inner arm as they stood there. Her feet were starting to hurt from the heels—she wasn’t used to wearing them. The hostess recognized Tony immediately, saying that his usual table was all ready for him; that meant that his boast was accurate.
    When they sat down, Ashley barely glanced at her menu at first. “You know,” she said, looking at him intently. “It occurs to me that you have not even mentioned anything at all about your career. What do you do for a living?” Tony held her gaze for a moment and then looked away, pressing his lips together and sighing.
    “I’m the CEO of Beaumont Financial,” he said, meeting her gaze