“Okay, then, I’ll meet you at the bench under our pin oak by the lake at four-thirty. Want anything to go with that coffee? If I’m going to be bribing Erik, I might as well go for broke.”
“Surprise me,” she said, surprising him.
She sounded much more lighthearted than she had on Saturday. Maybe he’d been worrying all weekend for nothing. It could be that she had the situation between Annabelle and Misty in hand by now.
“See you soon, then,” he said just as Debra opened his door and beckoned to him. “Gotta go. My next patient’s here.”
“I don’t suppose that was Laura Reed again,” Debra said as she walked down the hallway to the examination room with him.
“I don’t suppose it would be any of your business if it were,” he said lightly.
Her gaze narrowed. “And if I were to tell you that I was thinking of filling that open spot in the schedule at four o’clock?”
“I’d tell you not to do it,” he said, earning himself a smug look.
“I knew it,” she said triumphantly. “I suppose if I couldn’t fix you up with Jan, Laura’s not a bad substitute. I wouldn’t have pictured you with the quiet, shy type, though.”
“Because you never really knew a thing about my taste in women,” he reminded her. “You were just tossing candidates my way, hoping one would stick.”
“Well, I had to do something,” she countered. “A catch like you simply couldn’t be left swimming around all alone in the dating pool. It would have been a crime.”
“Says who?”
She gave him a wry look. “I think I speak for all the single women in Serenity.”
He laughed. “Stick to nursing, Debra. Go with your strength.”
“As if I asked for your advice.” She nodded toward the examination room door. “Johnny Taylor’s just fine, if you ask me. It’s his single mama who has a hankering for your special touch.” She grinned. “Not that you asked my opinion.”
“Duly appreciated, though,” J.C. said. Christine Taylor wouldn’t be the first single mother to drag a perfectly healthy child in for an unnecessary exam.
Ten minutes later, a beaming Johnny was on his way out with a cherry lollipop, and his disgruntled mother was paying a bill and trying to disguise her disappointment over J.C. showing not one single whit of interest in her.
J.C. grabbed his jacket off the back of his door and slipped out the side of the building. Twenty minutes later, he arrived at the park with coffee and a piece of key lime pie he was hoping he could convince Laura to share with him. He’d brought two forks, just in case.
He found her sitting on the bench along the path near the tree but not under it. She had her face turned up toward the sun, her eyes closed.
“Sneaking in a nap?” he asked quietly as he sat beside her.
“Just enjoying the day,” she said, smiling at him but not opening her eyes. “I love it when the air starts to feel like fall. Saturday still felt like summer, but today I’m finally feeling that crisp bite in the air. Makes the sun feel good.”
“I brought coffee and pie.”
“Ah,” she murmured, opening her eyes and turning to him.
The sleepy look on her face gave him a start. Suddenly he couldn’t stop imagining what it would be like to wake up next to her.
“What kind of pie?” she asked.
“Huh?” he said, then snapped himself back into the moment.
She pointed at the take-out container. “The pie. What kind is it?”
“Key lime.”
“Perfect. It’s a favorite of mine.” She glanced at the small container again. “Only one slice? Where’s yours?”
“I thought you might share at least a bite with me.”
She beckoned for the box. “Let me taste, then we’ll see.”
“Something tells me we need to settle these negotiations now,” he said, holding the pie just out of reach. “Once you get a taste, I’m likely to be out of luck.”
“Could be,” she agreed.
“So, will you commit to sharing?”
She regarded him thoughtfully. “It might be fair since you bought it,” she said.
“True.”
“But it might be really, really good, and you did say you were bringing it for me.”
He smiled as she worked this out in her head. “Also true,” he conceded.
“Okay, one bite,” she allowed grudgingly.
“Three,” he countered.
“Two, and that’s my final offer.”
J.C. chuckled. “Obviously I’ll know better than to get between you and your pie next time.”
“Probably wise.”
“And I think I’ll take my two bites before I hand it over,” he said. “Just to avoid any chance of second thoughts.”
“I made a commitment,” she said indignantly.
“Okay, then, here you go,” he said, handing it over and watching as she took the first bite and allowed the tart-sweet combination of the creamy key lime filling melt in her mouth. Watching her savor it was such a turn-on, he almost hated to see it end as she finished her share and gave him the rest. Still, as a matter of principle, he took it. The pie, good as it was, wasn’t nearly as satisfying as watching her enjoyment of it.
She took a sip of her coffee, then faced him. “So, why did you call, J.C.? I’m sure it wasn’t just so you could feed me pie.”
“I haven’t been able to get Misty out of my head today,” he said, admitting only half of the truth. When she looked skeptical, he shrugged. “Or you. I was worried about you on Saturday. It was clear that you were really taking that nasty incident to heart.”
“If you’d heard Annabelle, you’d have taken it to heart, too.”
“I’m thinking that it affected you more deeply because it reminded you of something that happened to you,” he suggested, seeing the truth in her eyes even as she tried to dismiss the incident.
“Let it go, J.C. It was a long time ago.”
“And you’ve put it behind you?” he asked skeptically. “I’m not getting that impression.”
She sighed. “I thought I had, at least mostly. There are some things I’ll never forget.”
“Such as?” he asked, knowing that the answer probably mattered more than he could possibly imagine.
She kept silent, her gaze staring somewhere off in the distance before she finally faced him with tears in her eyes. “Another time, okay? Please.”
He wiped away the tear that slid down her cheek with the pad of his thumb, then finally nodded
