скачать книгу бесплатно
“I don’t think it’s broken.” Krista Sue held up her swollen pinkie finger on her left hand. “But it hurts like the devil.”
“It sure looks like it does,” Jeremy sympathized, noting she’d had to take off the three-carat diamond engagement ring she had been sporting, and move it to her right ring finger instead. “How’d you do it?”
“It was silly, really. I caught it in the bathroom cabinet, between the hinge and the frame.”
Jeremy examined her hand. “You’re right—it’s not broken. But it is sprained.”
Krista Sue’s face turned a blotchy pink and white. Her lower lip trembled. “I don’t know how I’m going to explain this to Brian. We were supposed to check out sites for the wedding reception this afternoon.”
Jeremy put a splint on her finger. “When’s the wedding?”
“July 24th.”
“That doesn’t give you much time.”
“I know. But we really want to get married before I start teaching school in August and we’re not fussy about the details. We just want our friends and family to be there.”
Then why the big deal about missing the excursion this afternoon? Jeremy wondered. He got a couple of sample packs of ibuprofen and an instant ice pack out of the cupboard. “I think you can still keep that appointment. Just keep the cold on your sprain, twenty minutes on, twenty minutes off. And take the ibuprofen three times a day until the swelling and pain subsides. You’ll be good as new in no time.”
“Thanks, Dr. Carrigan.”
“You’re welcome.” Jeremy paused. “Is everything else okay?”
Krista Sue looked at him, perplexed. “Why wouldn’t it be?”
That was just it. He didn’t know.
“How are the stomachaches you were having?” Jeremy asked casually.
“They subsided as soon as I stopped drinking so much caffeine. I don’t even need the calcium carbonate tablets anymore.”
Jeremy consulted the chart. “And the dermatitis on your elbows?”
“Gone, too, thanks to the skin lotion I’ve started using every day.”
“And the migraines?”
“I only had the one. And it went away almost the moment I lay down in a dark room and closed my eyes. I think it was just…well, it’s not easy living at home again with my folks, while I wait for the wedding to take place, after being on my own at college for four years.”
“They pulling rank on you?” Jeremy teased.
Krista Sue rolled her eyes, her exasperation with her family evident. “Let’s just say I haven’t had to account for my whereabouts so much since I was sixteen! Anyway, thanks, doc, I won’t keep you. I imagine Brian is waiting for me, over at the paper. I don’t want to be late. He gets so grumpy when I keep him waiting.”
Jeremy gave her a hand down from the examining table. “You’d tell me if there were anything else going on, wouldn’t you?”
“Of course, but, there’s not.” Krista Sue rushed past him, gaze averted She used her uninjured hand to open the door, rushed out into the hallway, then stopped suddenly. She clapped a hand to her chest and announced excitedly, “Oh my gosh, I think I’m going to faint!”
TAYLOR HAD SEEN this kind of reaction plenty of times in the last two months—to Zoe and Zak, and various other celebrities in L.A. Never herself.
“You’re Taylor O’Quinn!” The young woman dropped the ice pack she was holding and enthusiastically pumped Taylor’s hand. “I’m Krista Sue Wright. You wrote that book! I loved it! Although I have to tell you, I had to go to so much trouble to find a copy. The only place I could find it was online.”
Not surprising, Taylor thought, as Krista Sue finally let go of her hand. Meanwhile Jeremy bent to chivalrously retrieve her ice pack.
“I’m a new writer, so I got a very small print-run from Sassy Woman Press with my debut novel,” Taylor explained, aware Jeremy was still standing there, watching her, a peculiar expres¬ sion on his face. It was almost as if he were seeing her in a new light. She couldn’t help but feel good about that. For reasons that weren’t exactly clear, she had always wanted his respect.
Telling herself that it did not matter what Jeremy Carrigan—or anyone else—thought about her, Taylor turned her attention back to her enthusiastic fan.
Krista Sue looked starstruck. “The moment I read the review in Dallas Women magazine, I knew I had to get my hands on a copy. And I have to tell you—I was not disappointed. Your heroine was so funny and feisty and brave!”
“Thank you.”
“And Rafael! Tell me you modeled him after a real guy!”
Taylor avoided the heat of Jeremy’s gaze. “It’s a work of fiction.”
“But you must have known someone like him to be able to write such steamy…er…ahh.” Krista Sue blushed fiercely, turning back to Jeremy as if suddenly realizing her family doctor was standing there, too, taking this all in.
The door to the reception area opened. A handsome young man, who looked to be in his mid to late twenties, walked in. He made a beeline for Krista Sue. “Are you okay?” He started to hug her, then noticed the ice pack she had pressed to her wrapped left hand. “Your mom said you hurt yourself reorganizing the bathroom shelves?”
“It’s a long story.” Krista Sue waved off the concern. “It was just a stupid household accident. And it’s not important. What is important is…look who is here! It’s the author of that book I love—the one that’s being turned into a movie starring Zoe and Zak Townsend!”
He straightened. “You’re right—it is.” Pleasure lit his face. “I’m Brian Hilliard. I just purchased the Laramie newspaper. We’d love to do an in-depth interview with you.”
“Well, I—” Taylor knew she had a duty to promote her book, whenever possible. She owed her publisher that much. But she had come here to disappear, not step back into the limelight.
Brian Hilliard handed Taylor his business card with all his numbers.
“I’ll need to check my calendar.”
“Whatever works for you.” Brian smiled. “Just let me know.” He took Krista Sue by the elbow, intending to guide her to the checkout desk, where the receptionist was waiting to complete the necessary insurance paperwork.
Krista Sue turned back to Taylor. “I’m dying to know. The hero in your story was so sexy. Is he based on anyone you know? Or is he strictly a fantasy man?”
FROM THE WAY Taylor flushed, Jeremy noted, you’d think it was some big mystery. When it wasn’t. Everyone who knew Taylor personally, had long ago concluded the hero was a thinly disguised portrait of her ex-lover, Baywatch Bart.
Taylor ignored the taunting look Jeremy was giving her and met Krista Sue’s curious gaze. “I get asked that a lot,” Taylor admitted frankly.
“I’ll bet,” Krista Sue said. “It seemed so…real.”
“But that romance began and ended in my imagination,” Taylor concluded with a straightforward smile.
Which didn’t quite answer the question, Jeremy thought. Although the retort seemed to satisfy Krista Sue.
“Did you need an appointment?” Ginny, the receptionist, asked Taylor, after Krista Sue Wright and her fiancé left.
“No. I’m just here to talk to Jeremy a minute,” Taylor replied.
Would wonders never cease, Jeremy thought. Given the way Taylor had stomped off to bed the evening before, he’d figured it would be a long time before she ever gave him the time of day again. On the other hand, they were sharing space, albeit temporarily, at the Chamberlain ranch. Maybe she’d come to apologize to him for being so prickly. If so, that was something he wanted to hear.
“This way.” He led Taylor into his private office and gestured for her to take a seat.
“I won’t take but a minute of your time,” she started, looking less than thrilled to be there.
“Take all the time you want.” Jeremy took off his white lab coat, unbuttoned the first button on his dress shirt, and loosened his tie. Hoping to delay her at least long enough for them to call a truce, he sat, facing her. “I’m done for the day. The only thing I have ahead of me is a couple of hours’ work on my ranch house.”
She avoided his eyes, looking at everything in the office except him. “Paige asked me to be part of the celebrity auction the hospital is having to raise funds for the new wing. I know it won’t be held until next September, but she said you are in charge of gathering the items to be sold, and I should talk to you about what I might donate.”
Jeremy gripped the desk on either side of him and rocked forward slightly. He let his gaze drift over the elegant contours of her face. Aware all over again how much he had missed having her in his life, he said softly, “You could have talked to me about this back at the ranch.”
She directed her attention to him once again. Her defenses were up. Oddly enough, that gave them something in common. He didn’t know how he felt about her, either. Except that he wanted this tension between them to end…
“I was in town, doing errands,” Taylor explained, looking flustered.
“Is that the only reason you came by my office?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” She straightened. “I wanted to stare at your diplomas with envy.”
Annoying her this way was starting to be fun. “No need to be sarcastic.”
The lift of her brows said it all. “Sorry. The nosiness of others brings it out in me.”
Jeremy chuckled. “Is this the way it’s going to be?”
“What?” With an indignant sniff, she shot up out of her chair.
He caught her hand, tugged her toward him. “Us sparring back and forth continuously until you leave?”
She pushed him away, one hand flat against his chest. “I don’t mind.”
He let her go, reluctantly. “I do.”
“Jeremy—”
It was all he could do not to take her in his arms. Aware how well that would go over, he contented himself with speaking what was on his mind. “I’d like us to be friends again.”
Surveying him with exaggerated politeness, she crossed her arms in front of her. “Really?”
“Really.”
“I don’t see how that’s possible, given the fact that you still—even after all this time—think I should have ignored my writing aspirations and gone into medicine.”
Was that still true? Twelve hours ago, it had been. But now…
Jeremy thought about the chapter he had read the night before, Krista Sue Wright’s reaction to Taylor’s work, and the fact Taylor’s very first novel was being turned into a movie. He stood slowly. “I was wrong, okay?” he said, surprised to find how good it felt to let go of the opinion that had torn them apart and kept them estranged for years. He had missed her. So much.
Figuring since he was responsible—at least in part—for driving her away, he should be part of the effort to bring her back, he continued, “It doesn’t matter how good a doctor you would have been. You are obviously doing what you are meant to do.”
Chapter Three
Zoe’s Secret Anguish
Is the marriage of the music industry’s hottest couple over? All of Hollywood seems to think so. Zoe Townsend hit the roof when she found Zak’s lipstick and perfume-stained shirt on their hotel suite floor. Seems the color—and the fragrance—weren’t hers.…
June 3 edition,
International Inquisitor magazine
Before Taylor could respond to Jeremy’s incredulous admission, his secretary buzzed in on his intercom. She wanted to discuss the next day’s appointments prior to leaving for the evening.
Jeremy excused himself and left the office for a few minutes. When he returned, he gave Taylor a quizzical look. “What’s wrong?”
Taylor’s mouth dropped open. She looked like she didn’t know whether to slug him or hug him. “Are you kidding me? How do you expect me to react to that bombshell you just dropped?”
Jeremy shook his head and continued in the same serious tone, “I’m the first to admit it when I am wrong. I was wrong.”
She snorted indignantly. “After seven years of being a stubborn donkey’s rear end, you change your mind,” she snapped her fingers, “just like that.”
Now, it was easy to come to that conclusion. Back then… how was he to know she was such a talented writer? Seven years ago, the only thing he had ever seen her put her energy toward was medical school. From the time she had entered college until the day she dropped out, Taylor had been exclusively focused on becoming a doctor. Just like him. He’d figured her abrupt decision to quit had been a combined reaction to stress, physical exhaustion, and fear. The thing was, they’d all felt that way during their grueling introduction to professional school, all wondered at some point at the start of their careers if they really had what it took to succeed in that field. For nearly all of them those feelings of indecision and insecurity had passed. He had assumed—for Taylor—that would be the case, too. Because he was her friend, he had tried to keep her from making a mistake that would destroy her long-held dream and haunt her the rest of her life.
Instead, from the looks of her—and the track record she had created as a writer—her actions had freed her.
Aware she was still waiting for the explanation behind his abrupt change of heart, he shrugged. “In those days, I hadn’t read anything you’d written.”
She edged closer. Her smile remained in place but he thought he saw it tighten a notch or two. “And now you have?”
Jeremy bit down on a curse. What was it about Taylor that always had him revealing too much? “I might have browsed a chapter of your book,” he allowed.
She went very still. “And?”
“I’m as curious as Krista Sue Wright about the hero of your romance novel.”
She frowned. “It’s chick lit.”
The contempt behind her reproach rankled, but he kept his irritation in check. “I stand corrected.” He paused. “But you’re dodging the question.”
She flashed him a condescending smile. “Which is…?”
“In Chapter One your heroine is really drawn to the hero in a physical sense,” he said.
“So?”
So everything about Taylor, from the silky fall of hair over her shoulders, to the clothes she wore, indicated she was a very sensual woman. He let his gaze rove the green cotton V-neck top that cut in slightly around the arms, leaving her shapely arms and shoulders bare. Her summer print skirt gloved her waist and hips in the same smooth, loving manner before ending just above her knees. Her legs were tan and bare, her delicate feet encased in sandals that looked as comfortable for walking as they were sexy. “So the hero in the book had a lot in common with that guy you were living with, back in Virginia,” he said.
She glided past, in a drift of orange blossom perfume. “How would you know? You never met my ex.”
Nor would he have wanted to. “Paige framed those pictures of you and Baywatch Bart. She’s got them in the living room at her house. I couldn’t help but notice them.”
She turned slowly. “You sound…jealous.”
