“Okay, then I’ll walk you home.”
“You don’t need to do that.”
“I know.” His gaze enveloped her, wrapping her up in some kind of electrically charged force field, protecting her it seemed. And suddenly, a whole lot of things didn’t seem to matter anymore.
How could she
So she dropped any and all objections as she headed for the door with John on her heels.
“Where’s your jacket?” he asked.
“I forgot to bring one.”
“Then take this.” He reached for the coat tree, removed the corduroy jacket he’d been wearing earlier and held it for her while she slipped her arms in the sleeves. Then he opened the door and waited until she walked outside.
It was dark tonight. A few scattered clouds hid most of the stars and the moon, but they were still overhead, twinkling and casting their celestial glow.
It had been a wonderful evening, and Betsy wasn’t ready for it to end.
When her shoulder bumped against him, it took everything she had not to reach for his hand, not to slip her arm through his.
A twig crunched under her foot, and somewhere in the pasture, a horse whinnied.
When they reached the steps to her house, she paused, wanting to prolong their time together. “Thanks for a nice evening.”
“The pleasure was mine.”
Still, neither of them moved.
His gaze zeroed in on hers, and her heart buzzed with anticipation. She was sorely tempted to make a romantic move but didn’t.
Thank goodness she didn’t have to.
John placed his hands on her waist and drew her toward him, touching his lips to hers, offering a kiss she knew she really ought to refuse. But she’d be darned if she would deny herself the opportunity to hold him one more time. To feel his mouth pressed on hers, to taste him. To…
Oh, how that man could kiss! Her heart soared, her pulse raced and her knees nearly gave out on her.
When it finally ended, leaving her breathless, he ran his knuckles along the side of her cheek, blazing a trail of heat to her core. It had been so long… Too long.
As her mind swirled with what-ifs, his words whispered over her, low and husky. “Good night, Betsy. Sleep well.”
She merely nodded, letting him go, even though every cell in her body was demanding that she invite him in for a nightcap-or whatever else might cross his mind.
John had missed out on one hell of an opportunity last night when he let Betsy go with just a kiss. He knew he could have pressed for more, and by the look in her eyes, she probably would have welcomed it. But in his heart, he sensed that she was treading carefully with him.
And he should take things slow, too. He really didn’t know if he was free to pursue her.
Was he married? Engaged? Dating someone special?
Either way, he seemed powerless to stop the growing attraction or the subtle infiltration of her scent and her smile into his thoughts, even when she wasn’t around.
Of course, that didn’t mean he hadn’t been productive. Doc’s truck was running like a charm now, thanks to the new starter. So he’d been able to drive himself to the rescheduled appointment with Dr. Kelso today. Then he’d oiled the hinges on the barn door and repaired the broken latch on the corral. Doc had quite a few fix-it projects, and John had gotten a good number of them done this week.
Now, here he was, as usual, waiting for Betsy to come home.
She’d been working the day shift this past week, but she was still away from the ranch from dawn until dusk.
So after he’d shooed Doc out of the kitchen and washed the dishes, he’d gone out to the front porch and took a seat in one of the rockers to wait for Betsy to come home.
And just as he’d learned to expect, she arrived a little after seven-thirty, parked her car and joined him. She was wearing a white lab coat over a black pantsuit, and her curls had been swept up into an attractive twist-the kind a man might like to unpin and let fall down around her shoulders.
Maybe it was her hairstyle or the clothing she was wearing instead of her usual scrubs, but she seemed to be more dressed up than usual.
“So how did your appointment go today?” she asked, as she took a seat in the empty rocker and set it in motion.
“Physically, I’m doing fine. But I still can’t remember anything other than a few fleeting images here and there.”
Dr. Kelso hadn’t seemed too bothered by that, and following an exam, told John he was doing great otherwise.
“No more limitations?” she asked.
“Well, he doesn’t want me involved in any strenuous activity or contact sports for another week or so. But I can pretty much do anything else.”
For some reason, when the doctor had mentioned activity, the only physical endeavor that came to mind was sex. And the only woman he could imagine taking to bed was Betsy. So he’d specifically asked Dr. Kelso about making love, just in case Betsy had been holding back out of concern for his well-being.
The doctor had given his okay, but that would be John’s ace in the hole. There wasn’t any reason for Betsy to think that he was hoping their next heated kiss would evolve into more.
So they enjoyed the night sounds for a while and made small talk. Still, he couldn’t help deciding that Betsy had been unusually quiet tonight.
“Is something bothering you?” he asked.
Silence enveloped them for a moment. Then Betsy slowed her rocking motion. “There was a hospital board meeting this afternoon, and things got a little tense. I’m afraid the medical center is struggling financially and may not be able to stay afloat another year.”
“What happened? Mismanagement of funds?”
She shook her head. “It’s complicated. But the biggest problem is that the community wasn’t quite large enough to support a medical facility when it was first built.”
“Sounds like a mistake in planning,” he said, thinking someone who got paid very well to avoid that sort of thing had dropped the ball.
“Maybe so, but the population and demographic projections show that it’s just a matter of time when it will be. So the only thing we can do is to wait it out and hope we can stay afloat and hold our own until then.”
John stole a glance at Betsy, saw her brow furrowed, her mind clearly burdened. He didn’t like seeing her worried about something she couldn’t do anything about. As an outsider looking in, it seemed to him that the investors had a lot more to worry about than she did.
“If the hospital has to close its doors,” he said, “you’ll find other work. You’re a skilled doctor and you’ve established a name for yourself in town. You shouldn’t have any problem if you go back to private practice.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
She glanced down at the hands in her lap-gifted hands, talented hands. And when she looked up, worry was still splashed across her face.
The hospital, he realized, was her life. But that was sad. A woman like Betsy deserved to have it all-love, marriage, kids if she wanted them.
Not that she should give up a career to do that. A lot of women managed to juggle both just fine, and he suspected that she could be one of them.
Unless, of course, she didn’t want to be. And she was the only one who held the answer to that. So he decided to bide his time and see what she would reveal.
