Riley reluctantly forced his attention from Abby to his friend. “Admitting what?”
“That you’re in love with her.”
Riley shot him a look of disgust. “How did you ever get anywhere in your career by jumping to conclusions like that? I thought all of you scientific fellows were deliberately slow and methodical.”
“We also learn to take some evidence at face value. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, et cetera.”
“What the hell do ducks have to do with anything?”
Jared grinned. Obviously he’d grown accustomed to Riley’s testiness and wasn’t the least bit intimidated by it. “In reference to archeological ruins or in reference to you and your lady friend?” he asked.
“Abby is not my lady friend,” Riley repeated slowly, hoping he could get the message to sink in, but doubting the likelihood of it. “She is not my anything. Remember old Martin?”
“The fianc;aae who is not sitting here by her bedside?” Jared said scathingly. “What does that tell you?”
Riley sighed. “It tells me the man is an idiot.”
“Besides that,” Jared prodded.
“Make your point and shut up.”
“She left him at home to be with you. You left a fortune in Mayan ruins buried somewhere in the rain forest to be with her. Adds up to commitment in my book. Strikes me as downright romantic, in fact.”
“Don’t be absurd. I couldn’t very well let her stay in this hospital all alone, could I?” Even as he said it, Riley realized he was hip-deep in denial.
“That depends.”
“On?”
“How committed to her you are.”
Riley groaned. “Go away, Jared. Your circuitous logic is making me crazy. Don’t you have bones to dig up somewhere or something?”
“Not until you find them for me,” he responded cheerfully.
To emphasize the point, he pulled up a chair and settled comfortably into it. Obviously he intended to stay.
“I thought I’d just stick close by and keep you company,” he said, as if his intentions weren’t all too clear.
“Plague me is more like it,” Riley grumbled. “Why are you so fascinated with my love life? Don’t you have one of your own?”
Jared’s expression turned smug again. “Yes, indeed, but it’s all nice and tidy. Lizbeth and I have the perfect understanding. No pressures. No commitment. Great...well, you get the picture. At any rate, it’s not nearly as fascinating as yours. I’m viewing your behavior as research.”
He sounded too damned serious about it. Riley shot him a wary look. “Research? What kind of research?”
“Sort of an anthropological study of the customs of the male in denial. You’re a classic case. You refuse to admit what’s right under your nose. I can hardly wait to see what it takes to make you wake up and smell the roses. Frankly I thought this would do it, but you’re a stubborn son of a bitch, I’ll give you that.”
“Aren’t you mixing metaphors or something? For that matter, don’t you have a prior engagement someplace?” Riley inquired hopefully. “Maybe with that lady friend you claim to have?”
“Nope, my calendar’s clean as a slate. Lizbeth’s back in the States. She doesn’t even expect a call from me for weeks.”
“Some relationship,” Riley commented dryly.
“It works for us. Now, about you and Abby...”
Riley groaned. He could see he wasn’t going to shake Jared today no matter what. He dreaded the prospect of trying to ward off Jared’s well-intentioned insights into his psyche. He did not want to confront his feelings about Abby. It was as if some part of him knew that once he’d spoken them aloud, he wouldn’t be able to retreat. He would have to start examining the possibility of a future in which she played a very big part.
And then he would have to make plans for how he would cope when he lost her. The prospect had him sighing heavily.
“Riley?”
He looked over into Jared’s concerned eyes.
“All kidding aside, are you okay?” Jared asked.
“I’d be a lot better if Abby would just wake up.” He glared at his friend. “And you’d feel better then, too, so don’t go making a big deal out of what I just said.”
“Right. We’re just talking about friendly concern here, isn’t that what you’ve been telling me?”
“Over and over,” Riley confirmed.
“And I have a pig that’s taking off in flight any second now,” Jared shot back. His expression turned serious. “Look, it’s been days now. You haven’t left here. You need a break. I’ll stay with Abby. I’ll call you the second there’s any change. Go and get some real sleep, a decent meal, a shave and a long, hot shower.” He looked him over from head to toe. “Clean clothes would help, too. No wonder the woman doesn’t want to wake up. When she does, you’re likely to scare her to death.”
Riley shook his head. “I can’t do it. She’s been restless. I think that could be a good sign. I want to be here when she wakes up. I don’t want her to think I wasn’t here when she needed me.”
Jared nodded in satisfaction. “Told you so,” he said as he got to his feet. He squeezed Riley’s shoulder. “Don’t wait too long before you admit to yourself that you are well and truly hooked. Life’s too precious to go wasting a minute of it. You should already know that better than anyone.”
He gestured toward Abby. “You could have lost her this time. Just think how you would have felt if you’d never had the chance to tell her you love her.”
“I do not—” He didn’t get to finish the denial, because Jared interrupted.
“Liar,” his friend accused. “You called old Martin an idiot earlier for not treasuring what he and Abby had. Don’t you be one, too.”
Before Riley could reply to that, Jared was gone. Riley gazed down at Abby. “Is that what I’m doing? Am I being a fool for trying to protect you from myself, Abby? Nobody knows better than I do what a treasure you are. There were a lot of times in my
