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“Hothead?”
“I thought if you worked with the mare, and you liked her, I might give her to you. I was not plotting to turn you into slave labor.”
Well, that took the wind right out of Wade’s sails.
“You might say thanks.”
“Yeah, thanks.” Amazing how hard that one word was to push past his teeth. “I don’t need two horses, though.”
“Traveler’s competition days might be over.” Wade’s jaw tensed, and he consciously relaxed it. “He’ll be fine.”
Jonathan shrugged. “This time, maybe. But what about next year?”
“I’ll worry about that when the time comes.” And maybe, just maybe, he wouldn’t have to worry about it.
“So where were you, really?” Jonathan asked. “I was at the barn till eleven-thirty. You weren’t with Traveler.”
“It’s been a lot of years since anybody kept tabs on my activities.”
“Just curious.”
“I was with a woman.”
Jonathan looked his younger brother up and down. “You work fast. You’ve been here, what, three days?”
“We were just talking.”
“Who? Or am I being too nosy?”
“Too nosy.” He wasn’t ready to talk about his Annie to anyone yet. Especially not when she’d just shot him down so thoroughly.
He wasn’t done with her, though. She might not know it yet, but she needed him, and not just for a weekend. Somebody had to put a smile back on that girl’s face—and keep it there.
Chapter Three
“Well, Anne, everything looks great,” Jeff Hardison said, closing the folder that held her chart. “Your weight’s almost back to normal, there’s no sign of infection, and you’ve even smiled at me once or twice.”
She appreciated his vote of confidence. Jeff had seen her at her worst, and it was partly due to his conscientious care that she was looking and feeling so much better. Not back to normal. She’d been broken and glued back together—she probably would never be exactly the same person she was before. But at least she was in one piece and moving forward.
“I’m feeling great,” she confirmed. “So why do we have to do the blood tests?”
“Anne, we’ve been over this.”
“But I’m not sure there’s really a point. I’d like to move forward, not dwell on the past.”
“This is looking forward,” he insisted. “If there’s a problem, it could affect your ability to have children in the future.”
“I don’t plan to have children.”
“You might change your mind. You’re only twenty-five.”
He had a point. For the next five to ten years she would not have the time to devote to raising a family. Her law career would demand 100 percent of her concentration. If she had a husband, kids, they would only end up neglected—and what was the point in that?
But once she was established, once she’d paid her dues, she might want to switch gears. She wasn’t dumb enough to believe a career could answer all of her needs.
“All right. Might as well get it over with.”
“I’ll have Molly draw the blood. She’s so gentle, it’ll feel like a butterfly kiss.”
“Yeah, right.” Anne laughed despite her concerns.
“It’s good to hear you laugh. Keep it up, huh?” In a treatment room a few minutes later, Anne determinedly studied a spot on the wall while Molly, Jeff’s nurse, deftly inserted a needle into Anne’s arm. As long as she didn’t look at the needle or see the blood, she would be okay. At least, that was what she told herself.
She’d put off her follow-up visit to Jeff for several days, until Jeff himself had called the house and reminded her. Even knowing he wanted her blood, she hadn’t been able to come up with a graceful excuse. So here she was, letting Molly torture her.
“They’re having a sale over at Hollywood Lingerie,” Molly said, continuing her nonstop monologue. Anne didn’t know if Molly’s chatter was designed to distract patients from the procedure or if she just liked to talk, but it did help.
“I’ve never been there,” Anne made herself answer. “What kind of stuff do they have? Ouch.”
“Sorry. Well, a lot of real naughty stuff, that’s what. Negligees with cutouts in places you just can’t believe, and panties so sheer you might as well not be wearing any.”
Anne didn’t own any sexy lingerie. She’d been raised in practical white cotton, which her mother insisted was the only sort of underwear a real lady would wear. In college she’d branched out to pastels, but that was as wild as she’d gotten.
She’d never thought much about it until her weekend with Wade. She’d been wearing all those provocative outer clothes, which Wade had taken a great deal of pleasure in removing. But then came her underwear—they were so dull! They didn’t fit the Annie image at all.
“My Tom can be the most boring man in the world,” Molly went on, “but show him a pair of black lace panties and he turns into Casanova.”
“So you actually wear that stuff?”
“Honey, nothing makes you feel sexier. And I’m telling you, men can sense it when you’re wearing a hot-pink teddy, even if you have all your clothes on. Sexy underwear gives you an attitude.”
“Maybe I’ll stop by and take a look.” Her mother would have a conniption if she found hot-pink anything in the laundry. Then again, Deborah didn’t do the laundry—she had a housekeeper for that.
Ordinarily Anne wouldn’t worry so much about upsetting her parents. But the past couple of months had shaken both of them to their foundations. She had promised herself she would make it up to them by being their ideal daughter, at least while she was living under their roof.
“All done,” Molly said, pressing a cotton ball to the inside of Anne’s arm, then folding the arm to hold the cotton tight against her traumatized vein. “That wasn’t so bad.”
“Not for you,” Anne quipped.
“Dr. Jeff wants to see you again before you leave. Let me see if I can catch him between patients, and I’ll send him in. Now, you just drink that orange juice and rest.”
Molly left with a whole trayful of blood-filled test tubes. The sight of all that red made Anne light-headed, so she was happy to sit still for a few minutes and recover from the ordeal. She wondered why Jeff wanted to see her again. Hadn’t they covered all the territory?
Almost immediately someone tapped discreetly on the treatment-room door.
“Come in,” Anne called.
Jeff entered, looking tall and reassuring in his white coat. “I see you survived. A butterfly kiss, was I right?”
“Molly is a charming little vampire. Was there something else?”
“I’m heading next door for coffee. You want to come?”
“Sure, I could use a coffee.”
Jeff took off his white coat, stashed it in his office, then led Anne past the receptionist with a wave. “Back in a few.”
They walked next door to a little take-out café that served coffee and bagels and not much else. With cappuccinos in hand, they settled at a little table in the corner.
“Your mother tells me you haven’t been getting out much,” Jeff mentioned casually.
“Mmm, too busy.” She took a sip of the rich coffee drink. Heaven.
“You know that’s not healthy, right? I’m asking as a friend, not your doctor. Physically you’re recovering nicely, but I’m a little worried about your mood.”
“Oh, Jeff, don’t be silly. I’m okay. You heard me laugh a few minutes ago, remember?”
“I’m serious. I know you’ve been hurt recently, and it takes time to get over that. But I don’t want you to dwell on it.”
Jeff assumed she’d been dumped by the baby’s father, and she hadn’t set him straight. He had no idea she and Wade even knew each other outside their brief, childhood acquaintance—and she wanted to keep it that way.
“The best tonic for a broken heart,” he continued, “is to just get right back out there, you know, come up swinging. It’s like falling off a horse. You want to get right back on before you build the fear up in your head so much that you can never—”
“Jeff, what are you saying?”
“I’m saying, why don’t we go to a movie or something?”
“You’re kidding.” Realizing how rude she sounded, she quickly backpedaled. “I mean, oh, Jeff, that’s really sweet. I’m so flattered, I mean…” What did she mean? This was so weird, so unexpected. Jeff was considered the town catch. Every single woman in town had made a play for him at one time or another. Why would he make a play for her, the town brain? She’d never been anything to him except a little sister—and a patient.
“You can change to being Dad’s patient, if you’re uneasy about dating your doctor,” he said, as if reading her mind. “Dad would welcome you back.”
“I’m not ready to date,” she said, in no uncertain terms. “Anyway, I’m so busy…” Oh, did that sound lame. “In a few weeks I’ll be taking a job in another city. It wouldn’t make sense for us to…start anything.”
He flashed her his most winning smile. “I’m talking about dinner and a movie, not some great love affair.”
At some other time in her life, she might be tempted. Jeff was movie-star handsome, charming and a good friend. But not now. She just couldn’t wrap her mind around dating, even a casual evening.
“Oookay, I get the picture,” he said when she didn’t respond. “How ‘bout them Cowboys, huh?” He drained his coffee in one gulp, then flashed a grin, letting her know she hadn’t wounded him too seriously.
“I appreciate your concern, I really do. And if my parents start driving me crazy, maybe I’ll call you and we can go to a movie.”
He nodded, seeming to understand. “Deal.”
She stood up, grabbed her purse.
“I’ll call when we get the test results back,” he said, as if their previous conversation had never happened. “It could take a while.”
“Okay, no problem.” She headed for the café door, in desperate need of fresh air. “Bye, now.”
But a hasty escape wasn’t in the cards. As she exited, she ran smack into Edward, Jeff and Wade’s father.
“Whoa, there, what’s your hurry?” he said with a laugh, steadying Anne.
She’d always adored Edward Hardison, or Dr. Ed, as most people called him. With his silver hair and his round, jovial face, he’d always seemed very safe to her, a safe person to take care of her health. But when she’d realized she was pregnant, she’d deliberately made an appointment with Jeff, not his father. The idea of kindly Dr. Ed knowing such a dark secret about her hadn’t seemed right. It would have been like telling her father all over again.
Of course, in the end, Edward had found out. As luck would have it, he was taking calls for Jeff when Anne had lost the baby. He’d been just as kind and sympathetic as Jeff, in no way judgmental.
She murmured a greeting, then something about having an appointment, and got out of there, Jeff’s invitation still burning in her brain.
She felt badly that she hadn’t handled things better. Fending off handsome men wasn’t exactly her forte. In fact, she’d seldom had to fend off men at all, handsome or not. Now, in the span of just a few days, she’d turned down two.
She wasn’t terribly pretty. She’d learned that lesson well in her teenage years. Skinny, freckled redheads weren’t the stuff of any man’s dreams. She’d compensated by being the class brain, the one with the quick wit and the acid tongue. She’d played down her femininity, believing her intelligence would take her a lot further than batting her eyelashes and showing cleavage.
That was before Annie. When she’d adopted her alter ego, she’d tapped into a well of femininity she hadn’t known existed. And though after her weekend with Wade she’d gone back to her conservative clothes and no-nonsense manner, maybe, just maybe, some essence of Annie remained.
Why else would Jeff suddenly take an interest, even a casual one, in her?
The idea that Annie might be peeking through Anne’s hard-fought control both thrilled and frightened her.
She didn’t feel like going home, even though she had a stack of applications to fill out and a list of follow-up phone calls to make. Her father had helped her put together an exhaustive list of every large, prestigious law firm in the country. A few of them had already approached her, but Milton had insisted she leave no stone unturned. He didn’t want her to miss her golden opportunity simply because she hadn’t been thorough enough.
He’d also encouraged her not to jump to any decisions.
Anne had followed his advice to the letter. Right after graduating, she’d gone on several interviews with the firms who had courted her. Despite a few very attractive offers, she’d put them all on ice while she explored other possible options.
Then she’d found out she was pregnant, and all bets were off.
Predictably, her mother had cried and her father had ranted and raved. Anne had simply become paralyzed. The life of an associate in a huge law firm was not compatible with single motherhood. She would end up shortchanging both her employer and her child—and there was never any question about her keeping the child. She’d put all her career plans on hold and focused on preparing for a baby.
She had tried halfheartedly to locate Wade, figuring he had a right to know. But at that time he’d been moving around so much he was impossible to pin down. She’d left a message here and there, but if he’d gotten them, he hadn’t responded.
Then she’d lost the baby, and her whole world had turned inside out—again. She hadn’t thought it possible to love a child so much when she hadn’t even met it. Having the baby ripped from her so cruelly had left her crushed and aching, physically and emotionally.
She’d seen no point in sharing that pain with Wade. She still didn’t.
Now, one month after the miscarriage, she was pouring herself into the job search once again. Milton was smiling again. Her world felt a bit more sane. And she knew that soon she would regain the sense of anticipation she’d always had about carving out her own name in the big bad world of lawyers.
Still, the prospect of job hunting seemed decidedly unattractive on a beautiful, Indian Summer day like today. Instead she drove to Hollywood Lingerie and bought two bra-and-panty sets, a black silk camisole and tap pants, and a slinky, midnight-blue nightgown.
A huge garden center was just down the way from Hollywood Lingerie, which inspired Anne to think about a fall garden. Her mother had been talking about pansies and impatiens, and the store beckoned with flats and flats of those very flowers.
Anne took her time picking out the colors, mentally designing the flower beds in front of the house.
“If I’d known all it took was some flowers to make you smile, I’d have got you a truckload.”
“Wade?” Oh, for heaven’s sake, what was Wade Hardison doing at a garden center? But here he was, big as life, standing in front of her, smiling in that lazy, easy way of his, as if they ran into each other on the street every day.
Even more surprising were Wade’s companions, a little boy about seven and a girl, maybe four or five. She recognized them as Sam and Kristin, Jonathan Hardison’s two kids.
