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But she couldn’t find the words, so she hurried away, dodging into a patient room to avoid both the man she could feel watching her and her two co-workers anxiously waiting to question her.
She didn’t think of herself as a woman who ran from her problems. But, at the moment, running from temptation, and the questioning thereof, seemed the best course of action.
CHAPTER THREE (#u8c791de1-0a01-5d21-a209-100977a3f194)
“CAN I HELP you with that?”
Carly peeped at Stone from over the top of the box she carried through the hospital corridor. He’d changed out of his navy scrubs into his own clothes, black trousers and a green polo shirt that perfectly matched the color of his eyes. She fought sighing in appreciation. The man should be in movies, not a hospital operating room.
“I’ve got it,” she assured him. “Thanks anyway.”
Ignore him and maybe he’ll go away. Not likely, but maybe.
“That box is bigger than you are.”
The sturdy box was more bulky than heavy. Inside were expired medical supplies the hospital couldn’t use. Carly had gotten clearance from upper management to take the expired supplies home with her. No one at the hospital knew about her mother, but they did know she sat with someone on her days off work.
There might not be a thing she could use. But Carly would go through the box, pull out what she could use, and take the rest to a free health clinic for the uninsured that could hopefully make use of the items.
“You look like it’s all you can do to keep steady. Quit being stubborn and let me help you, Carly,” Stone insisted, his voice sounding off a little.
He had a point. Plus, Carly’s fingers ached from gripping the box so hard and she was curious why his voice wavered. “Fine.”
He took the box from her with an ease indicating it weighed no more than a feather, then beamed as if he’d done something amazingly chivalrous. Whatever had caused the waver, he was all smiles now.
“Lead the way.”
As in to her car.
She didn’t want Stone to see her reliable, but old sedan. Whereas most people didn’t notice the little details in Carly’s life that hinted things might not be fairy tales and roses, that sharp mind of his would question things she didn’t want questioned.
She didn’t want him making her question things.
Pushing the hospital door open and holding it for him, she sighed. “Of all the people who offered to help, it would have to be you.”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you didn’t like me.”
“I don’t know you well enough to like or dislike you,” she said as she made sure the hospital door completely closed. “I only know you from the hospital and what little interaction we’ve had here.”
“I keep trying to correct that.”
“You want me to know you well enough to dislike you?” She pretended to misunderstand in hopes of redirecting the conversation. Besides, he deserved a little taking down.
Rather than look offended, he laughed. “I’m hoping you’ll swing the other way and like me.”
Fighting a smile, she narrowed her gaze at him. “But you’re admitting there is a distinct possibility I won’t?”
“It’s not been a big problem, but you wouldn’t be the first.” He cut his eyes toward her. “For the record, I’d prefer you like me.”
“Noted,” she said, keeping a step ahead of him as they crossed the employee parking lot.
“Go to dinner with me, Carly.”
He was asking her again. How could something be so unbelievably dreamy and such a nightmare at the same time?
“I can’t.” Part of her wanted to. Part of her wanted to grab her box and run.
Despite how she’d hightailed it from him earlier, she didn’t run from her problems. She dealt with them head on and chin up.
Just as she had with Rosalyn and the nurse’s aide’s teasing questions about Stone.
“Because?” he prompted.
Because she had to relieve Joyce. The retired nurse was wonderful, never complained if Carly worked overtime, but, otherwise, Carly always came straight home.
“Are you involved with a married man?”
Almost tripping, eyes wide, Carly spun toward Stone. “What? Are you crazy? Of course not. What would make you think that?”
His gaze, not so twinkly at the moment, stared into her eyes. “No one knows anything about your private life, yet you say you’re busy.”
She glared for real. “Because I’m not interested in you that means I must be sneaking around with a married man?” She rolled her eyes. “Get over yourself, Dr. Parker.”
He winced. “That’s not what I meant.”
“It’s what you implied and I don’t appreciate it.” Was that what he’d taken away from the short bits of time they’d spent together? That she was a woman who would mess around with a man who’d vowed himself to another woman?
“I’m sorry. That’s not what I meant to imply.”
Hanging onto her anger proved difficult when his apology was full of sincerity. Frustrated with herself, she put her hands on her hips. “Then say what you mean.”
He shifted the box. “Regardless of what I say, I upset you.”
“You should take the hint and not say anything, then.”
“What’s the fun in that?”
“What’s the fun in upsetting me?” she tossed back and took off toward her car in a fast walk.
“You’re right,” Stone said from right behind her. “I take no pleasure in upsetting you. The truth is I want to do the opposite.”
“You want to take pleasure in upsetting me?” She pretended to misunderstand, again. She felt contrary and purposely misunderstanding gave her a little reprieve. Asking if she was seeing a married man! The nerve. “Thanks, but no, thanks.”
Okay, she might be latching onto that to throw a wall between them. She needed whatever shield she could find to protect her from the charm he exuded.
Digging her key out of her pocket, Carly unlocked her old economy sedan, then hit the button on the car-door panel to unlock the back doors. She opened the backseat door, tugging a little extra hard where the door often stuck, then stepped back for Stone to put the box onto the seat.
He made sure the box wasn’t going anywhere if she slammed on her brakes or took a curve a little fast, then faced her. “Is it me, then, or men in general?”
“Is your ego so big that you just can’t fathom I’m not interested?”
He closed the car door and moved to where he stood right in Carly’s personal space. “My ego isn’t that big and if it had been, you’d have corrected that.”
Ouch.
“What I’d like,” he continued, “is to know why you say you aren’t interested when I’d put money on the fact you are.”
Hands digging into her hips, she glared. “You’d lose your money.”
“Would I?” His question was gentle rather than mocking. “I’m not sure what changed yesterday, Carly. I’m not blind. I’ve seen how you look at me. It’s the same way I look at you. With interest. If my delay in asking you out is the problem, know it wasn’t from lack of interest. On the days I haven’t worked, I’ve been traveling back and forth from Atlanta to settle up everything with my move.”
Any spunk Carly had left her like a deflating balloon.
Any woman would be flattered at Stone’s attention. If his ego had been huge, it would be with good reason.
And she was flattered by his attention.
But his attention was a distraction she didn’t need because she had to stay focused. Losing focus could mean everything falling apart and she couldn’t allow that to happen.
Plus, how could she in good conscience involve any man in her crazy life? Just look at how Tony had balked and her mother hadn’t been nearly as needful at that time.
She closed her eyes. “It would be simpler if you’d move on and forget whatever interest you have in me.”
“Do you remember when we first met?”
Stone’s question caught her off guard. Her eyes popped open and she stared at him.
“You were coming out of the medical supply room and bumped into me,” he continued, his gaze searching hers. “You almost fell over yourself apologizing.” A soft smile played on his lips. “I thought you were the prettiest thing I’d seen in a long time.”
Vanities were not something Carly had the time or money to indulge in. She kept her hair in a no-maintenance style of long and natural to where she could pull it up and not bother with highlights or salons. She hadn’t worn make-up since college. Money was too tight for such frivolities. His calling her the prettiest thing stirred up a thousand butterflies in her belly.
“I think that right now.”
His words set every butterfly into fluttery flight. Oh, my. Carly gulped.
“You must have had your eyes closed a long time, then.” She fought to keep from putting her hand over her stomach.
Studying her, he shook his head. “You were in these same blue scrubs, but had on different shoes. Your laces were bright orange rather than neon green.”
He remembered what she’d been wearing when they first met? That her shoe laces had been a different color?
“You are a lovely woman, Carly.”
To which she could only say, “Thank you.”
Embarrassed, feeling a little shaky at the knees, Carly glanced around the employee parking lot and caught sight of a co-worker curiously looking her way, the nurse’s aide who’d been with Rosalyn earlier.
The woman called out, “Goodnight.”
Carly waved and wished her a good evening as well, then frowned at the man still standing too close.
“She’s a wonderful person, but does tend to gossip. No doubt, everyone will know you were at my car with me.”
“Then we should give them something to talk about.” The eye-twinkle was back.
Horrified, Carly shook her head. “No, we shouldn’t.”
She needed her job, couldn’t risk anything creating waves at her place of employment. Not even the temptation in Stone’s eyes.
He sighed and raked his fingers through his hair. “You’re right. Sorry. I seem to have a one-track mind where you’re concerned. Give me your address. I’ll follow you home and carry the box inside.”
“Not going to happen.” No way would she be able to explain to Joyce why a handsome doctor had followed her home. Carrying a heavy box in wouldn’t begin to satisfy the protective older woman’s curiosity.
As for Stone’s one-track mind, why was her body heating up at the possibilities of what he’d meant?
“Are you capable of saying yes to anything I suggest?”
Yeah, she was being ornery. For her own safety and sanity. His, too.
“Probably not,” she admitted, giving a wry smile.
“I’m a pretty straightforward guy. I’d like to date you, Carly. I’ve been trying to get to know you and thought we were until yesterday. If my overhearing your conversation with Rosalyn upset you that much, I truly am sorry.” His tone was appropriately repentant. “I want to take you out, talk with you, dine with you away from the hospital, and eventually kiss those lips of yours that I find myself thinking about way too often.”
Insides shaking, heart pulled into a tug-of-war between need and want and guilt, Carly closed her eyes. “I can’t do this.”
“You can’t talk to me?”
“I can’t hear you say those things,” she clarified, not opening her eyes. In a tug-of-war of its own, her mind raced between logic and emotion and loyalty to her mother.
Stone wanted to date her. Stone wanted to kiss her. She’d not been kissed in so long. Not since Tony.
Suddenly the need to be kissed, to feel like a woman, to feel alive and wanted and young, burst free and filled every cell of her being to overflowing.
Which was what made Stone so very dangerous to all she held dear.
He could make a total disaster of her life.
“Because?”
Had his voice been closer? She thought so, but she didn’t open her eyes to check. She couldn’t look, couldn’t see whatever was in his magnificent green eyes.
Stone tempted. Tempted her to want things she shouldn’t want.
Couldn’t want.
Couldn’t have.
Which didn’t seem to matter because she was a woman with normal urges and he made all those urges come on full force whether she wanted them to or not.
