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“Probably Shelby and Jon fighting over the remote.”
“Oh, that’s right. Today’s Saturday. I forgot about the kids being here.”
Her sister gave her a long, sad look. “Do you realize how pathetic that is? To forget about kids? To forget about the man you once loved? But to want to leave the profession that you gave all that up for?”
“Don’t start in, Susan. If I’d wanted kids or a husband I would have stayed here in Wilson’s Cove instead of fighting my way into medical school.”
But she had wanted those things. Seth. Children. Susan didn’t know nearly as much as she thought she did. Regardless of the feminist movement and all the other hype, Kathryn had found out the hard way that a woman couldn’t have everything.
“What are you going to do if you don’t go back to medicine?”
Kat shrugged as she reached into the fridge for the big round pitcher filled with lemonade. Freshly sliced lemons bobbed like tiny yellow lifejackets.
She thunked the pitcher onto the scarred pedestal table. Gnaw marks along one edge served as permanent souvenirs from one of the kids’ teething episodes. Knowing Susan, Kat figured she’d never let this table go because of those teeth marks.
“I have investments,” she said in answer to Susan’s question. “Maybe I’ll open a business.”
“Here?” Susan snorted. She took out a bowl and tossed in a half-dozen fat potatoes. “Like what? A bait shop? A snow-cone stand?”
Kat stared at the Colonial-blue corner cabinet, pretending to give the suggestions serious thought. “I haven’t had a snow cone in a long time. I use to love those things.”
“Business is lousy in winter.” They both laughed and Susan said, “The convenience store on Main is up for sale.
“Hmm. No. Too inconvenient.”
They laughed again, feeling silly. She and Susan hadn’t kidded around this way in forever. No wonder she was depressed and burned out. She had no life.
“Here.” Susan shoved the bowl of potatoes at her. “If you’re such a hotshot with a scalpel you should be able to peel these for dinner while I put together the chicken casserole.”
Kat groaned for effect before setting to work. Actually, she didn’t mind helping in the kitchen as long as Susan didn’t ask her to fry chicken or make gravy. Her idea of a home-cooked meal was microwavable Lean Cuisine. The rest of the time she lived on machine sandwiches, and doughnuts left in the doctor’s lounge by drug reps looking to make brownie points.
Other than knowing medicine, Dr. Thatcher was pretty much useless, a grim reality considering her decision to leave the field behind.
Susan, on the other hand, was Miss Susie Homemaker in the flesh. She loved to cook, sew and constantly tried out new ideas for renovating the old farmhouse or the rental cabins. Last year she’d gone into Colonial mode and painted all the cabinets blue. Currently, she was trying her hand at faux finishes. The woman never stopped creating and beautifying the world. It was who she was, a fact that kept Kat from complaining about Susan’s attempts to “fix up” her life in the same way she fixed up houses.
Kathryn took a fat potato from the bowl, challenging herself to peel the spud in one long curly piece.
“I’m moving over to the cabin tomorrow,” she said.
“Did you ask Danny?” Susan’s husband was in real estate and handled most of the rental property around the lake.
“It’s my house.” She lifted a shoulder to scratch her itchy nose. “Why would I have to ask Danny?”
“Because you told him to rent it out. You’re never here.”
“I’m here now.” Kat caught her bottom lip under her top teeth and stilled the flow of irritation. She had told Danny to rent the place. No use getting huffy now. “Is my cabin rented out?”
“Yes, it is.” Slowly wrapping an onion in plastic wrap, Susan turned to look at her. “Is staying with us so bad?”
“You have three kids, Suz. This place is Grand Central Station.”
“But the house is big and roomy. And you could use some TLC from the people who love you and can put up with your arrogant moods.”
“I am neither arrogant nor moody.”
“Ho-ho! And wet dogs don’t stink. This is your big sister you’re talking to. I know all your secrets.”
The thought grabbed Kat right in the center of her chest and squeezed. No, Susan didn’t know one of her secrets. But Seth Washington did.
Kat loved her sister and the noisy bunch of nieces and nephew, but she also needed her own space. After dinner she made excuses and went for a walk to clear her head.
The family home rested more than two hundred yards back from Wilson’s Lake, but the water sounds and smells carried on the breeze. A familiar trail led through the trees and underbrush to the shoreline. Still another meandered to the east toward Kat’s cabin. Without conscious decision, she headed in that direction, curious to see who resided there in her absence. After all the effort she’d put into making the cabin a lovely retreat, Kat didn’t want to live anywhere else. Maybe she could convince the renter to find another place now that she was home.
As she traversed the woods, a thousand other thoughts plagued her. She worried about the effect her abrupt departure from the medical center would have on the other staff members, about the patients she’d turned over to other physicians, but most of all she wondered about the future. As clichéed as it sounded, today was the first day of the rest of her life, and she didn’t know what to do with it. She’d worked too long and too hard to remain idle for any extended period of time.
The old trail hadn’t been used in a while and the blackberry thickets were taking over. Thorny vines, sprinkled with tiny white flowers, reached out and grabbed her exposed legs. She slowed long enough to direct the growth elsewhere, mentally marking the spot for later in the summer when black, juicy berries could become a cobbler. In Susan’s capable hands, of course. Certainly not hers.
As she rounded into the clearing at the side of Kat’s Cabin, as the family had dubbed the two-bedroom cottage, her spirits lifted. Though she spent little time here, she felt better knowing the small A-frame was available when she needed a break. And boy, did she need the familiar comfort of home right now.
The air was alive with spring smells and sounds, but her house was quiet. A bright-red riding mower was parked beneath a drooping mimosa tree in the front yard. Someone had recently cut the grass, but that someone was nowhere to be seen.
Kat craned her head toward the backyard where the fishing dock extended far into the lake. No one there, either.
She knocked and the action felt odd given this was her house. When no one answered, she reached under the top porch step. When her fingers touched the plastic holder, she grinned. The key was right where she’d left it.
Telling herself that she only wanted to check the place out, to make sure the renter was taking care of her property, Kat opened the door and stepped inside.
Nothing much had changed. Her living room furniture, a comfortable mix of favorite pieces, had been moved around to accommodate a big-screen TV. A basket of folded laundry rested on the couch and several magazines were stacked neatly on her maple end table.
Out of curiosity she moved closer, saw the laundry was mostly men’s shirts and socks, and the top magazine was a recent edition of True Crime. So, a guy had rented her cabin. At least he was fairly neat.
She wandered into the kitchen, found the room tidy and clean except for a peanut butter jar on the counter and a butter knife and a glass in the sink. Though she’d had no qualms about entering the cabin, she opted against climbing the steps to the loft bedrooms. A bedroom was personal and private.
Crossing to the rounded row of windows that looked from the country kitchen toward the lake, she peered out. The lake was serene; the fading sun glowed orange and gold across the glassy surface. In the distance a pair of boat fishermen stood silhouetted against the sky, fishing rods arched into the shimmering water. Kat breathed in slowly, deeply, refreshed just to be here. There was something so serene and calming about Wilson’s Lake.
Susan was right. Kathryn needed time to rest and unwind. And there was no place better on earth than her own private, isolated cabin. Whoever lived here would simply have to move. Maybe she could make him a deal. She was willing to help him find a better place and pay the difference in rents. Her mental and emotional health was worth the expense. Money wasn’t a problem. She had plenty of that. As a kid, she’d dreamed of the day she could say those words. But now that she had money, she never had time.
Well, she was taking the time.
Suddenly her tranquility was shattered. The front door banged opened, slammed against the wall and reverberated on its hinges.
Kat’s heart behaved in much the same way. It slammed hard against her rib cage.
A powerful voice yelled, “Put your hands in the air! Do it now!”
Kat spun around to explain, but the words froze on her lips. The biggest gun she’d ever seen pointed straight at her. Her mouth went dry and her knees began to tremble. She slowly raised both hands.
“Don’t shoot,” she squeaked, afraid to move, afraid to take her eyes off that deadly weapon. Had Danny rented her cottage to a serial killer? She started babbling. “I’m sorry. I should have waited for you to get home. I just…”
“Kat?” That quick, the man lowered the gun and stepped from the shadowed living room into the kitchen sunlight.
Kat’s wobbly knees almost gave way.
Standing before her, looking fierce and manly and more ruggedly handsome than she remembered was Seth Washington.
Chapter Two
“What do you think you’re doing?” Grim-faced, Seth slid the Glock into his back waistband. “I could have shot you.”
He stood glaring at her, stance wide, shoulders tense as if he still might.
How did she respond to that?
Blood pounded in her ears, and the metallic taste of fear burned in the back of her throat. Over the years she’d treated any number of gunshot wounds, and she knew the damage a weapon of that caliber could do to the human body. But she’d never had one pointed in her direction. A shudder passed over her.
Seth must have noticed her distress. He stalked across the room, gripped her upper arm with incredibly strong fingers and led her to a chair. She slid gratefully onto the cane-bottom seat. Seth moved away, ran some water and came back with a glass.
“Drink this.”
She obeyed, gulping down the fresh well water in a vain attempt to cool the fire of adrenaline pumping through her blood at Mach-2 force. Fingers trembling against the glass humiliated and annoyed her. She was a confident woman, unflappable in an emergency. At the moment she was a mess.
Seth crouched in front of her chair, bringing with him the woodsy scent of outdoors. Head cocked to one side, he raked her face with hawklike scrutiny. His strong jaw flexed a couple of times and his nostrils flared. She wasn’t sure if he was furious or worried.
A few times over the years, she’d fantasized about seeing him again, but this was one scenario that hadn’t occurred to her. Not even close.
“You okay?” His voice had matured into a gravelly baritone, the gravel probably the result of yelling at people to get down or get their hands in the air. “I’m sorry if I scared you.”
If he’d scared her? Who was he kidding?
With a deep cleansing breath, she set the glass onto the tabletop and stiffened her spine. “If this is the way you say hello to old friends, I’d hate to be your enemy.”
The slightest glint of amusement lit his grass-green eyes. “Who said we were friends?”
His dark hair was cut short, but the springy waves that had given him fits in high school were still apparent. Here and there she spotted a single strand of silver amidst the black. She’d always liked his thick, wavy hair though he’d considered it too girly. She wondered if he still did and then inwardly laughed at herself. From wide, powerful shoulders to five-o’clock shadow, there was nothing girly about this new and mature Seth.
Off balance at noticing him at all, Kathryn fired back, “Too bad you never came into the E.R. when I was on duty. I would have stapled your smart mouth shut.”
He laughed then, a bark of sound that bounced off the tiny kitchen walls and straight into Kat’s memory. Seth had grown up tough, but in spite of his troubled home life, he’d been full of fun and laughter. Now she realized the behavior had probably been a coping mechanism. She hoped his adult life had given him real reasons for joy.
“Still the same snooty girl,” he said, which made her grin. She’d been focused, shy and studious, three qualities that some had mistaken for snobbery, including Seth at first.
He pushed to a stand, his six-foot frame towering above her, though she was not petite by any means. “So, how’ve you been, Kat?”
She didn’t want to tell him the truth. That the dreams she’d chased had turned to nightmares. “I was about to ask you the same thing.”
He scrubbed a hand over his face, and Kat caught the scratchy sound of day-old beard. “I’m okay. I like the ranger job. The offer came at a time when I was ready for a change.”
Though curious, she didn’t ask if the move had anything to do with his broken marriage. Too many years and tears had flowed by to ask such personal questions. “So you moved back home. I never would have expected that.”
He lifted a uniform-clad shoulder. “Seemed like a good idea after—” He hesitated, and then smooth as a swan on water, redirected the conversation. Regardless, Kat caught his drift. A divorce would have been doubly hard on a steadfast man like Seth.
“Is there a legitimate reason why you decided to break into my house today?” he asked. “Or can I assume the medical field doesn’t pay as well as rumored and you’ve taken to a life of crime.”
She raised both hands to shoulder height. “Am I being interrogated, Officer?”
One corner of Seth’s mouth kicked up, and Kat gave up trying not to notice how attractive he still was. Maybe even more so now. Where he’d been all planes and angles as a teenager, today he was muscular, fit and sturdy with not an ounce of fat on him.
“No interrogation necessary. I caught you red-handed.”
“Would you really have shot me?”
His dark eyes went flat and cold as all the frivolity left him. A shiver danced up Kat’s spine. Criminals must tremble at the sound of his name.
“Probably not, but we have been experiencing some break-ins lately.”
“Susan didn’t mention that.”
“I’ve tried to keep things low-key for the time being. They mostly break in, mess the place up, help themselves to the food and booze, if there is any. A couple of places lost some cash and prescription drugs.”
“That explains your jumpiness.”
“I wasn’t jumpy. If I had been, we would be having this conversation in an ambulance.”
“Ouch. You’re scaring me.”
“Someone needs to. Even if your brother-in-law handles most of the property on the lake, you shouldn’t be going into someone else’s house when they aren’t there.”
“I admit that was pretty stupid. But actually, this is my house and I came over to talk you out of it.”
“This is your cabin?” When she nodded, he pulled a chair around and straddled it, facing her. “Danny didn’t tell me.”
Danny knew the history between Kat and Seth. Maybe he’d thought to let sleeping dogs lie. “Would it have mattered?”
“Nah.” He shook his head. “Should it?”
“Nah,” she said imitating him. “But the lake ranger’s house is down near the public entrance. Why aren’t you living there?”
“The place needed renovations. The last ranger kind of let things go. After living there for a while, I made a deal with the town to have some work done. I pay for this one while they fix that one. And in my spare time I do as much of the work myself as I can.”
“Ahh. Well, since you only need a temporary place, I’m sure Danny can find you something suitable.”
He gave her a funny look. “This place suits me fine.”
“But I’m back and I want my house.”
“I have a lease.”
“For how long?”
