Personally, Reece thought Sara was far too trusting-of everyone. The way she wandered all over the world, crashing wherever someone offered her a bed, sharing meals at the homes of people she barely knew, anyone could take advantage of her.
But she would never believe him. Something bad would have to happen before she would become suspicious and skeptical like him.
He frowned at the thought. He liked her innocence. It was part of what made Sara, Sara.
“So can I borrow your car?” she asked.
“You don’t have a car?” Come to think of it, he’d never seen her drive. He’d seen her ride off on a battered bicycle, but he hadn’t imagined that was her only transportation.
“Mine broke down when I was driving back from Santa Fe, and I couldn’t afford the repair bill, so I sold it and rode the bus the rest of the way home.”
“How do you survive without one?”
“Port Clara’s not that big. I walk or ride my bike, and now that the streetcar is running again, I ride that. But the hospital is all the way in Corpus Christi. So can I borrow your car?”
The thought pained him. He’d just bought that car-a cream puff of a Mercedes, barely used. He’d been thinking about buying a car anyway, and he’d intended to purchase something conservative and practical. But the little blue Mercedes had caught his eye.
He seldom succumbed to impulse purchases, and the car was unlike anything he’d ever owned, but he hadn’t been able to walk away from it.
He hadn’t even let his cousin Max drive it.
“All right, I’ll go to the hospital with you,” he said to Sara. Miss Greer would probably appreciate someone there to handle the paperwork, he reasoned.
When they were settled into the Mercedes’s leather bucket seats, Reece entered their destination in his satellite navigation system and they were off. The GPS routed them over the causeway that linked their little barrier island with the mainland, which was a relief. He always felt nauseous on the ferry, which was the other way off the island.
“I’ve been dying to ride in this car,” Sara confessed. “Do you like it?”
“So far.” It was the most sinfully decadent car he’d ever bought.
“Why didn’t you hire someone to drive your car down from New York, like Cooper did?”
“I didn’t own a car. With the cost of parking and maintenance in Manhattan, using public transportation or taxis makes more fiscal sense. I’ll probably end up selling this one.”
“But what if you want to take a Sunday drive? Or a road trip?”
“It’s easy to lease a car if you really need one.” But he hadn’t taken a road trip since college, and even back then he hadn’t seen the point in it.
“I miss my car,” she said wistfully. “It had over two hundred thousand miles, and I logged every one of them.”
“Maybe time to get a new one then. Old cars aren’t as safe as the new ones, and not as economical or environmentally friendly, either.”
“Yeah, well, if I could buy a new one I would. I’ll have to settle for a used one, once I save enough money.”
At least she understood the concept of saving money. A lot of people didn’t-they wanted to buy everything on credit.
He wondered how people like Sara made it in the world. She was obviously not stupid. She was pretty-more than pretty, actually-and personable. He knew not everyone had been born with the advantages he had, and maybe her parents hadn’t sent her to college, but there were lots of careers that didn’t require a degree.
She could have gone into sales, or gotten an entry-level job at a company and worked her way up. But instead she’d chosen to drift aimlessly-at least, that was the way it appeared to him. He doubted she had any savings or property. “Have you made any plans for retirement?” he asked suddenly.
She stared at him as if he’d just sprouted an extra nose. “Excuse me? I’m twenty-nine. I haven’t planned for next month.”
“Now is the perfect time to start thinking about it. If you saved just a hundred dollars a month-”
“What is this? You’re not going to try to sell me swampland in Florida, are you?”
Obviously he’d made a conversational gaffe. “I just worry about you.”
“Oh.” She backed down a bit. “Well, that’s sweet, but
“Exactly.”
His answer seemed to flummox her. “You hardly know me.”
“We’ve lived under the same roof for almost three weeks now. I know you better than you think.”
She smiled and cocked her head flirtatiously. “And here I thought you didn’t know I was alive. You hardly ever say anything to me.”
That was because she often made him tongue-tied. It certainly wasn’t because he didn’t notice her. With her swirly, bright-colored skirts and tie-dyed shirts and big, dangly earrings, how could anyone miss her? Not to mention that mountain of curly brown hair and those big, soft hazel eyes.
She was watching him carefully with those incredible eyes, and his mind went blank. Talking about finances, he was in safe territory. Anything else, and it was hit or miss.
“I didn’t mean to shut you down,” she said. “If you really want to tell me about how I should save for retirement, I’ll listen.”
He shook his head. “Never mind. I overstepped. I apologize.”
Neither of them said a word the rest of the way to Corpus Christi.
Chapter Two
Sara knew she’d blown it. She’d finally engaged Reece in a conversation-a real conversation, not just
But she’d gotten her back up because he’d asked her about her future, and she had a reflexive defense mechanism built in about that. Every time she visited her parents, they hammered her about how she chose to live her life.
Reece obviously disapproved of her, too. When he’d said he worried about her she’d softened, but it was too late-her reaction had sent him right back into strong-and-silent mode.
She wondered what to do next. She’d never been timid where men were concerned, and if she saw one she liked, she let him know, and she persisted until she found out whether there was any interest in her.
The jury was still out with Reece. She hadn’t flirted openly with him, since Miss Greer would not have approved of her hitting on guests. Yet she felt a certain chemistry at work whenever they were in the same room.
Once they reached the hospital, Sara sat in Miss Greer’s treatment room while Reece took care of the paperwork. He stuck his head in the door once to see how their patient was doing, but then he disappeared again.
Maybe he didn’t like being around sick people. But when he returned a short time later with a doctor in tow, insisting that he take a look at Miss Greer
“We need to get some X-rays,” the young doctor declared. “You two can wait out front.”
Reece wasn’t good at waiting, she soon discovered. He spent a lot of time outside the hospital’s glass doors, pacing and talking on his cell phone. He looked at his watch a lot.
Sara didn’t even wear a watch. If she needed to know the time, she could look at her cell phone-if it was charged.
At one point Reece disappeared, but when he came back he brought her an apple and a cup of coffee from the
