He took her hand and squeezed it, surprising her. Actually, her response surprised her—making her feel all tingly and squooshy and everything she did not want to feel. Physical attraction was such a difficult enemy to battle when one needed to remain detached.
Despite that need, however, Gerard was still so obviously excited about the possibilities of the future that she had an impulse to hug him the way Tess would have, to give him a sisterly hug. But that would have to wait, especially if he was going to be working closely with her for the next few days…weeks… Who knew how long it would take to discover what was happening with Kirstie? Who even knew how bad she would get before they could find the real culprit?
“I’d better go inside and get to work.”
He looked down at their clasped hands and released her. “So I’ll see you tonight?”
“I’m sure you will.”
“I’ll give you a call later.” He glanced toward the downtown area. “Any place around here with good food?”
“I have a feeling you’ll have no lack of invitations from the ladies who’ll want to get to know our latest import a little better.”
“I mean with you. Alone.”
“Our diners in town close before dinnertime.”
“Your place then? Soon as you get off? I’ll bring the food.”
“Kirstie can direct you to the right restaurants in Springfield.”
“I’m going to Springfield?”
Megan sighed. “I told you, talk to Kirstie.”
“It’s going to be okay, Dr. Bradley. It’ll work out.”
“You trying to convince yourself of that?”
“Just you. I have faith it’s going to work out.” He took a step toward her, bent down and kissed her cheek. “You’re not alone in this, Megan. I’m not leaving you alone.”
She held her breath as she watched him walk to his car, and when she finally inhaled, the air smelled sweeter. She stood watching as he got into his car, backed out and drove a brightly waving Kirstie out of the parking lot and toward her home past the bridge on the hillside opposite the grain mill.
Waiting for her heart to retrieve its normal rhythm, Megan sauntered back to the front door of the clinic to find, of course, that everyone there was incapable of minding their own business. She stopped just inside the door. It felt as if all the oxygen had escaped the room.
Alec was in the same spot where he’d been standing when Megan followed Gerard and Kirstie outside. “Megan?” Alec’s deep timbre drew her gaze. “Gerard says he’s still your boss.”
“He was my boss. Big difference.”
“But he said that if you don’t go back to work for him, you could be in trouble with your loan agent. Why would you leave a job like that when you only had three months left to work? You don’t want to get into trouble with the government.”
“Would you relax? A girl has every right to take time off after working for 21 months straight with hardly a day off and very few evenings.”
“It must have been a meat grinder,” Carmen said from the reception window.
More than they could know. “I do have some leeway,” Megan said. “I didn’t want Lynley and Kirstie to have to struggle with the diagnosis alone after Barry turned into a feral tomcat and decided he couldn’t handle his wife’s illness.” She glanced at Lynley, who was pretending to work a few feet from the reception window. “No offense meant, Lynley.”
Her friend joined Carmen in the window. “I think I’m the one who initiated that term in the first place. So you’re taking Mom’s case after all?”
“I told everyone several times that I’m not a neurologist. I’m a friend, and I will be here as a friend. So I’m here, okay? I fixed her feet. Nora, are those cookies I smell? I’m starved, and I haven’t had a minute to eat.”
Nora held up her designer shoulder bag and smiled, her perfect white teeth even, lips touched with just the right shade of deep pink to blend with the glow of her tanned face. Nora Thompson was a strong woman who Megan always believed could move mountains by force of will.
Though Alec had inherited a great deal of her strength, he was his own person, not just a blend of his strong mother and his nonpresent, hotheaded father. Alec held his special set of values that he’d been forced to develop early because of his father’s abandonment. Megan hadn’t been home long enough to judge whether or not his values had seasoned over the years.
Though she’d dated him steadily for two years, his values and hers had never blended well when it came to physical expressions of affection.
Alec fell into step at Megan’s right shoulder as she followed Nora toward the break room. “Are you going to go back and complete your contract?”
“I don’t plan to go back, no. I’ve told you this.” Megan’s stomach growled nearly as loudly as her voice. She was glad that, during the two lunches she and Alec had shared together, they’d spent most of their time catching up on the goings-on in Jolly Mill and talking to the other diners—the majority with whom Megan had spent her childhood and teen years.
When asked about his wife, Alec had made no reference to any divorce proceedings, and she’d let that subject drop. In apparent gratitude, he didn’t ask personal questions about her life either.
Megan joined Nora in the break room to avoid more questions from Alec. Nora knew her way around the break room—Thompson money had built it. She washed her hands and pulled a serving platter from the cabinet to the left of the sink and commenced arranging her cookies.
At fifty-three, Nora had the physique of an athlete twenty years her junior. She swam, practiced martial arts and gardened, which gave her the tan. Of Mediterranean descent, she had the ability to tan without burning or wrinkling, and there had been a long rivalry among Nora, Carmen and Kirstie about who would go completely gray first. Carmen cheated, of course, as did Kirstie, but Nora didn’t have a single streak of white in her thick black hair, not even at the roots.
“You should eat some protein first.” Nora’s voice was warm and buttery-sweet. “But since there are eggs in the cookies, and I could hear your stomach from down the hallway, you should fill it with something before you get dizzy and pass out.”
Alec stood at the entrance and braced himself against the door frame. “If this morning’s appointments are anything to judge by, you’re in for a long day.”
“Busy morning, light afternoon,” Nora said. “Megan, your…former boss is good-looking.” She spared a glance for her son, whose gaze slid over Megan’s face.
Alec had eyes as dark as his mother’s, but his strong chin and light brown hair were those of his father. He had the face, physique and charisma that could make a girl forget herself…and her inhibitions…and her own dreams, if she let her guard down. Megan had not, even as an impressionable girl. She had her mother to thank for that, at least, though not for the right reasons.
Megan bit into the crunchy dream of one of Nora’s most recent entrepreneurial accomplishments. Her saucer-size gourmet cookies had become a stock item in coffee shops throughout the four-state area. This black walnut–butterscotch was Megan’s favorite.
Nora turned and leaned against the counter edge, and for a moment two sets of exotic eyes beheld Megan—Alec studying her with as much curious intensity as his mother was.
“What are we going to do about this situation?” Nora asked softly, glancing past her son toward the hallway. There was no sound of approaching footsteps.
Megan didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “I think Lynley will change tactics before long. This morning’s incident got her attention.”
“It should have,” Nora said. “She’s like a kid trying to prove she’s all grown up.”
“She is grown up.”
“She isn’t behaving like it right now. She’s your best friend, h
on. Can’t you convince her she’s endangering her mother?”
“Gerard’s with Kirstie now. He’ll keep a close watch over her.”
“Oh, yes, that man is definitely an enigma, isn’t he?” Nora studied Megan for a few seconds before glancing at her son. “Quite the charmer. No wonder you were so taken with him, and I can’t believe you left with only three months left on your contract.”
Megan suppressed a sigh. “Gerard told you that, did he?” She was going to kick him in the—
“You know we’d take care of Kirstie. You didn’t have to come running immediately.”
“I know.”
Nora crossed her arms. “So what brought you here at such a run?”
“Didn’t Gerard tell you that too?”
Alec entered the room at last and reached for one of the cookies. “I don’t think we’ve heard the whole truth yet.”
“You try working in a mission clinic and see if you can last two years.”
“Try fighting in a war while your wife’s playing single back home,” Alec snapped.
“Well, why don’t we have a big ol’ knock-down-drag-out right here close to medical aid?” Nora said. “Mind your manners, kids. Kirstie does need help until we can get this thing worked out. I’ve promised her that if she would just move in with me for a few weeks I’d hire a housekeeper/bodyguard for daytime and chain her to me at night, but would she do it?” Nora shook her head. “Stubborn woman. Have you convinced her to see a neurologist, Megan?”
“Not yet.”
“Why on Earth won’t she go? I tell you, sometimes I want to smack her silly she’s so stinking bullheaded.”
Megan took another huge bite of the cookie and stepped to the window that overlooked the mill and the pond. She loved this view. She also loved having a full mouth so she couldn’t be expected to answer any more questions for a moment.
“Kirstie could afford to hire someone to watch over her at night so Lynley can at least get some sleep,” Nora said. “Alec wants to keep her and Lynley here at the clinic as long as they can stay. All the patients are comfortable with them, everyone knows them, and that means a lot, having a hometown entity caring for your medical needs. Besides, Kirstie’s my best friend, and I want to get to the bottom of this so she can get on with her life.”
“Do you think those two stubborn women would agree to accept some help?” Alec asked.
Megan swallowed and shrugged as she turned back to them. “They’ve both been knocked sideways by Barry’s abandonment. I think she’s more concerned about Lynley’s feelings than her own safety.”
“Then talk to Lynley,” Nora said.
“Gerard’s going to be around for a few days, and he’s already been offered the private guest suite upstairs at Kirstie’s.”
“Drat that woman,” Nora said with a grin. “I knew she’d snatch him right out from under my nose. When did she talk to him?”
“I believe they’ve been in contact by phone and email.”
“How did they meet?” Alec asked.
Megan squeezed her tongue between her teeth. What was this, an interrogation room? It was supposed to be a break room. She shot Alec a crooked scowl.
“Right,” he said. “I’ll ask Kirstie.”
“Thank you. I believe Gerard will watch over her while he’s in town, so maybe you could make him feel a little more welcome.”
“Excellent idea.” Nora picked up the platter, left some cookies behind and carried the rest from the room.
EIGHT
By the time Gerard pulled into Kirstie’s driveway she had given him a succinct rundown of this morning’s episode, her talk with Megan and her desire that only Gerard was to know anything about her suspicions.
He glanced at the interesting cat decorations in her three front windows. One of them moved and jumped to the ground. Feline voyeurs.
“I know something’s going on with that girl,” Kirstie continued in that mellow, soothing voice that, despite her circumstances, tended to make one think all would be well. “Listen to me, calling her a girl. She’s a grown woman.”
“I know, but she’s like a daughter to you.”
“And to you?” Kirstie asked, looking up at him. “What is she to you?”
He felt a smile grow across his face. “A dream come true.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear.” Kirstie unbuckled her seat belt. “She’d have already told me if not for these wicked blackouts.”
Gerard jerked when a white blur of cat jumped onto the hood of his car, then he looked at Kirstie in confusion. “Told you what?”
“Why she really left you. I’ll warn you right now, I’m an eavesdropper. I didn’t even have to try to overhear your conversation in the parking lot because you both have voices that carry well. She had good reason to leave that mission, and she hasn’t breathed a word to anyone about the reason. She seems to think she’s protecting me from the truth. She has a tendency to place her own needs last.”
“She seems to be following your example.”
“Care to tell me what’s up with her?”
“I’m sure when Megan is ready to tell you, she will. Until then I’ll respect her privacy.”
Kirstie’s gaze rested on two more cats as they jumped down from their perches on the windowsills and ambled toward the car. “Spoken like true husband material.”
Gerard battled opposing emotions of apprehension and elation. He trusted Kirstie’s insight. And that was all the reason in the world to feel joyful and apprehensive. “Poison, huh?”
She reached into the right front pocket of her blue-green scrubs and pulled out a package. “My blood. You won’t mind taking me to Springfield today to have it tested? Especially if I promise to speak to my uncle about the resort property?”
“Forget the property. If you think there’s a chance we can find out what’s really going on with you, that comes before anything else right now.”
Kirstie opened her car door. “In that case, would you keep Prissy, Poppy and Data company while I clean up?”
“Data?”
“The white one with black splotches.” She gestured to the inquisitive cat with yellow eyes who was making dust tracks on the hood of the car.
“You like Star Trek: The Next Generation.” Gerard nodded toward the cat.
“You’re a fan of the show?”
“I even attended a convention.” Gerard rushed from his seat and around the car to help Kirstie to the house.
She took his arm and allowed him to help her. “You know, I’ve been opening my own doors for a lot of years, and I don’t intend to stop now, but I do appreciate an attentive man. I have to admit my feet are killing me.” They waded through cats to the front porch.
“I’m not really a cat person,” Kirstie said as she stepped aside to keep the prettiest calico female from tripping her. “I rescued Data from the top of a truck tire at a truck stop out on the interstate. Couldn’t find a home for him despite the cuteness factor. Prissy and Poppy haunted my windows and doorstep for a month before I gave up and took them in. No one would take them.”
Gerard grinned. “How hard did you try?”
Kirstie chuckled. “Not hard enough obviously. They’re my buddies. It’s strange that sometimes the cats all gather around me, as if they’re afraid I may be getting ready for another blackout.”
“I’ve heard of animals doing that.”
“They’ll all jump onto my recliner and perch on my lap, my chair arms, touching me and purring, despite the fact that they’re typically so jealous of each other they won’t stay on the same chair all together.”
“You’ve charmed them.”
“No. As Dean Koontz once wrote in one of his Christopher Snow novels, cats kno
w things.”
No doubt they did. Gerard gestured at the broad covered porch. “This is where you were last night before you blacked out?”
“It was my last clear memory. Data was, as usual, on my lap. Poppy was chasing ants on the concrete and Prissy was curled up in the other chair.”
Gerard studied the two beautiful calicos as they danced around Kirstie’s feet. “And Lynley?”
“She was inside studying at the desk. I think she had fallen asleep before I wandered off into the night. I’m so worried about her.”
“But there’s hope that you can be helped. That’s a good thing.”
“True. But what if it’s too late? Or what if I’m wrong?”
He looked down at her and frowned. “That doesn’t sound like the Kirstie I’ve come to know.”
“Wait until you’re a mother.”
He grinned and opened his mouth for a flippant reply and then closed it again. She was right, he couldn’t identify with her motherhood. He knew she agonized about her daughter as he agonized about his family, those people who depended on him…and Megan.
Kirstie didn’t know what Megan had endured, but she understood it was something bad. The four people he’d spoken with in that waiting room also understood it now. He’d made sure they did. He only hoped they would be insightful enough to understand that Megan needed her space right now. Anyone who knew Megan well would realize something catastrophic must have happened to force her from the mission and the people she loved.
And he hoped she would be insightful enough to realize he could help her through this and that she really did love those people.
But first, they had to get to the bottom of Kirstie’s blackouts. As he stared down the hillside at the mill pond, it suddenly seemed urgent that they get to Springfield and place Kirstie’s blood into the right hands as soon as possible.
Alec reached down and chose one of the remaining cookies on the platter his mother had placed on the break room table, then glanced at Megan. “Mom’s good at what she does, which is controlling people.” He held the cookie up to the light, as if studying it for ingredients.
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