Tooth and Nail Read Online Free PDF Page A

could do really well, by the way. “Dentists’ offices generally aren’t known for their hip and original interior design. It’s usually minimalist. Chair, sink, tray of terrifying sterilized weaponry.”
    “Yeah, well, I have no idea what he’s doing in there, and I don’t want to know. I just come in, clean teeth, and leave.” She unclipped my bib and scrunched it up before tossing it in the trash can. “You’re good to go.”
    “I can’t tell you how much I enjoy our time together,” I told her, standing and sliding my tongue over my smoother teeth and sorer gums.
    “Me too,” Denise said. “I know! Let’s do it again in six months.”
    “Great idea!” Corny as I could be, I still loved it when people went along with humor. It gave me a nice we’re-all-in-this-together feeling about humanity. “Thanks for omitting the flossing lecture.”
    “Please. Everyone’s negligence keeps me off the unemployment line.” She laughed again. “I guess I shouldn’t say that. See you, Gemma.”
    After I tore out a check for the receptionist and booked my next appointment, I stepped out into the D.C. sun. My overwhelmed eyes immediately teared up, since I’d spent the last hour with my eyes shut so as to avoid staring into the scare-tactic poster of a gaping, rotting grimace on the exam room wall in front of me. I dropped my gym bag at my feet and kneeled down next to it, shoving aside my black sports bra and sweat socks to unearth my sunglasses. Mall shoppers passed me, paper shopping bags bumping against their legs. I watched the 54 bus rumble by, and the rush of dust in its wake kicked up into my face.
    Before I could put the glasses on, I saw him.
    He was across the street. Just standing there, lazy, leaning against a lamppost as if time was nothing to consider. He was casual blond, and long-legged in beat-up jeans. I’d never seen him before in my life.
    And he was watching me.
    Not only was he watching me, he wasn’t bothering to be covert. But he wasn’t flirty or cute, and he wasn’t at all creepy. He looked at me like he recognized me.
    No, he looked at me like he recognized something in me, something that was also in him.
    I couldn’t break our mutual gaze. I felt like I was drowning in it, my insides turning faster and faster until I was lightheaded. He seemed to exist in his own dimension, one that only I could see, and the cars and buses and people around me faded into silence and stillness.
    I wondered how many steps it was between him and myself, and envisioned darting across the street and pressing into his chest.
    “Oh!” I exclaimed, as a suited man barged into my left side. I tripped over my gym bag, still on the ground, and put out a forearm, landing flat but uninjured. The man who had crashed into me stepped over me and kept walking without looking back, but rather switching his cell phone to his other ear.
    I snapped my head up and waited for a taxi to pass across my vision, and when it did, the lamppost stood alone.
    Hoisting myself to my feet, I shook my head—not from my crash-landing but from the sparkly fog that had enveloped me for who-knew-how-long. What was that? Who was that? Who was I?
    My still-sore mouth twinged and I put a hand to my jaw before widening my eyes. Teeth. The dream. Oh, this could not be it, could it? A warning not to cheat on Avery? No. Ridiculous. I didn’t even know that guy.
    But he knew me .
    No, he didn’t. Of course he didn’t. I was obviously delirious from pain. Or the contractors knocked some laughing gas loose in the dentist’s office, causing me to visualize a hot man across the street, as well as fantasize about having him.
    Much more logical. Because I hadn’t even glanced at another man since Avery. Well, sure I had, but only to come to the conclusion that not one would measure up to my man.
    I zipped up my duffel, snatched it up in one hand, and walked resolutely down K Street. I would keep walking until I arrived at my haven, my second