He studied her. “Are you thinking it would be dull as dirt after living in New York?”
Samantha grinned. “Something like that.”
“Hey, life is what you make it, wherever you are. You can be alone and bored in a big city or invigorated and busy in a small town. It’s up to you.”
“I actually think Gabi’s come to realize that,” she said. “My sister was the ultimate workaholic in Raleigh, but she had no personal life. Here she’s not only found the balance her life was missing, she’s started a whole new demanding career that suits her need to be challenged professionally.”
“There you go,” Ethan said. “Proof positive that it can be done.”
But while the examples set by Ethan and even her sister were inspirational, Samantha couldn’t quite envision what sort of satisfying niche she could carve out for herself.
Since she had no answers, she announced, “I’m ready for food. How about you? I don’t have Grandmother’s skill in the kitchen, but I am capable of whipping up omelets and toast. Do you have time, or do you need to get to the clinic?”
“Sounds good, and I have time. Greg opens today. I go in around eleven and stay to cover the evening hours.”
She lifted a brow. “Was that a deliberate choice?”
“What do you mean?”
“A noble way to avoid dating on a Friday night?”
Ethan chuckled. “I honestly hadn’t considered that particular benefit. Besides, we rotate, so I’m not always there on Friday nights. Sometimes I cover Saturdays instead.”
“Sounds like a win-win for a man who openly declares he doesn’t want to date.”
“Or I can just be straightforward and say no when people try to set me up on a blind date,” he suggested. “That’s worked reasonably well, too, at least until your family got involved.”
Samantha thought about that as she led the way into the house. As she pulled eggs, cheese and ham from the refrigerator, she wondered what might have happened had she and Ethan crossed paths under different circumstances, without all the pressures of being participants in a wedding, without all the well-meant matchmaking.
As she whisked the eggs, she glanced his way. “Ethan, do you think things might have been different if all these people hadn’t been meddling in our relationship?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you have to admit with everyone caught up in wedding fever, it adds an element of stress to the situation.”
“You mean because it’s so clear that some people would like to see us be the next couple to walk down the aisle?”
“Exactly, though I do think they’re counting on Wade and Gabi being next. But you get the idea.”
“Possibly,” he conceded, “but the truth is our paths might not even have crossed if it weren’t for the wedding. You might not have been pulled back to Sand Castle Bay. You could be packing your bags for Los Angeles or fighting tooth and nail for some Broadway role. The wedding has brought you here and given you a time-out to think about the future. It’s all good, Samantha.”
He took a deep breath, then met her gaze. “Despite the meddling, I don’t regret that we’re getting to know each other.”
“I don’t, either,” she said softly, hoping that her heart wasn’t in her eyes. Because the better she got to know Ethan, the stronger her infatuation became. And given his adverse reaction to any kind of involvement, that was a surefire path to heartbreak.
* * *
Ethan might have told Samantha that he didn’t believe in regrets, but right this second he was deeply regretting that he didn’t have time for another run to drive all thoughts of the tantalizing woman straight out of his head.
Discovering that she had hidden depths and her own share of uncertainties tapped into a long-buried desire to be somebody’s knight in shining armor. He’d thought that working with his group of special-needs kids would satisfy that urge, but apparently that couldn’t compensate for the far more personal role he wanted to play in a woman’s life. At least this woman’s.
“This is bad, Cole,” he lectured himself as he drove home, showered and changed clothes. Since he wanted to stop by the high school en route to the clinic, he wore khakis and a dress shirt, rather than the scrubs he often wore to work.
At the high school, he went to the office and asked to speak to Regina Gentry. “I’m Ethan Cole,” he added.
The teen working at the desk regarded him with awe. “There are pictures of you on the wall outside the gym,” she said, giving him an adoring look. “And you’re, like, a real war hero. Hold on a sec. I’ll page Mrs. Gentry.”
When she’d made the call to the drama teacher, she came back and stared at him as if she were absorbing every detail. Ethan squirmed under the intense scrutiny.
“I’m Sue Ellen, by the way,” she said. “I’m a senior. I just work in here during my study period. My grades are great. I don’t need the extra study time.”
“Good for you,” Ethan said, wondering if this happened to be Sue Ellen the twit, who’d gotten the part in the play over Cass. She certainly had the eye-batting thing down pat.
Thankfully, Mrs. Gentry arrived within minutes, looking flustered. “Ethan, I couldn’t believe it when Sue Ellen told me you were here. It’s been a long time.”
“A very long time,” he agreed, recalling the English class that had nearly destroyed his grade average. He’d never quite grasped all the fuss over Shakespeare, which had deeply offended the woman whose passion was not only for the written word, but for drama.
“What brings you by?” she asked.
“Could we speak privately?” he suggested, noticing Sue Ellen’s avid interest in their exchange.
“Of course,” she said, leading the way into the hall. “I’m afraid there are students in my classroom, so it will have to be right here.”
“This
