by Gina Wilkins
She lay back against the arm of the couch with Seth draped half over her. The hem of her loose top was raised and his hand moved beneath it, carefully avoiding her healing scar, though he dropped a teasing kiss beside it to “make it all better” which made her laugh softly. He toyed with the lacy edge of her bra, then slid his fingers beneath to tease her into hard, aching peaks. Their legs were entangled, and she had no doubt that his body was ready to take these embraces to the ultimate conclusion.
She knew the feeling all too well, she thought, shifting restlessly against him. His lips moved against her throat and she turned her head to give him better access to the tender skin beneath her ear. Her hazy gaze fell on the phone she’d tossed onto the coffee table after her mother’s call.
Her hands stilled on Seth’s shoulders.
Sensing her change of mood, he lifted his head to study her warm face. “Meagan?”
She sighed regretfully. These past three and a half weeks had been idyllic—which was exactly the reason she hesitated now. She understood now why it had made her vaguely uncomfortable to feel that she was getting to know Seth so well. The problem with that was that she wasn’t at all certain the reverse was true.
She had seen Seth in his usual routines. Working every day, dining and playing with his daughter afterward. Networking at a professional social event. Dealing with a family crisis when Nina had fallen. Sometimes rushed or weary but always, apparently, himself.
Seth couldn’t say the same about her. The closest he’d come to seeing her at work was when she’d administered basic first aid to Nina. The only time he’d seen her called away was when her mother had called for her to go check on her grandmother, and that had not called her away from anything in particular. She had been at home almost every day since he’d met her, available to take his daughter shopping or to watch her after school, to interview housekeeper applicants and to prepare dinners for the three of them.
This wasn’t her life. This was so far from her life that she hardly recognized herself during the past month. So how could Seth know her?
Though he couldn’t possibly have followed her thoughts, Seth could see from her expression that their evening was coming to an end. She watched the resigned realization cross his face before he drew back, straightening her blouse with the movement. He gave her a hand to help her sit beside him.
She wasn’t embarrassed, she thought as she watched him shove a hand through his tousled hair and tug at his partially unbuttoned shirt. Nor did she regret anything that had transpired between them that evening. She liked this man very much and would like to think their developing friendship wouldn’t end when she returned to her career. But still it seemed best to proceed a bit more cautiously at this point, considering how many big changes were looming.
Seth drew a long, deep breath, as if steadying his pulse and his thoughts. “I guess it’s getting late.”
She smoothed her hair with a hand still prone to tremble a bit. “It is.”
“I won’t be around much tomorrow. I’m going to clear away some paperwork in my office in the morning, and I’ll be on the road four hours going after Alice and bringing her home.”
She nodded. “I’m spending most of tomorrow with my family, since it’s the last day of my leave. I’ve talked Mom into letting me sit with Meemaw while Mom goes to church and out to lunch with some of her friends from there. I’ll probably stay for dinner, and my brother and sister are going to try to drop by for a while.”
“Nice that you can spend time with them.” He rose as he spoke, tugging at the hem of his shirt but not bothering to refasten the top buttons. He looked quite dashing with his sleeves rolled back and his chest half bared. Meagan was briefly tempted to drag him back down to the couch, but she resisted. She’d had good reason to call a halt, she reminded herself.
She walked him to the door. “So, I’ll see you around?”
He dropped a hand on her shoulder, looking down at her with a quizzical little smile. “You will most definitely see me around. I’ll call you tomorrow evening.”
She nodded. “That would be nice.”
He bent his head to kiss her good night, his lips lingering softly against hers before he moved away. “Good night, Meagan.”
“Good night.”
Closing the door behind him, she rested her cheek against the cool wood for a moment, her knees pleasantly wobbly, her skin deliciously hypersensitive. She suspected she would spend the next few restless hours wondering if she’d been an idiot to send Seth away.
Seth’s house was dark and quiet when he let himself into the kitchen. He frowned as he tossed his keys on the counter, the resulting clatter seeming to echo through the empty rooms. He’d gotten so accustomed to having Alice living with him full time that he hardly knew what to do with himself when he was here alone.
Waldo barked a couple of times on the other side of the kitchen door, probably having heard Seth moving around inside. Though he’d fed the dog and given him fresh water before leaving for the evening, he opened the door to check on him anyway, using his body to block Waldo from dashing in. A brick patio lay off the kitchen and he sat for a few minutes in one of the patio chairs, rubbing the dog’s head and gazing up at the stars. An airplane passed far overhead, lights blinking against the inky sky. In just three short weeks, Alice would be on a plane headed off for a month with her mother.
“We’re both going to miss her then, aren’t we, pal?” he said aloud to the dog, who licked Seth’s fingers and crowded closer.
He supposed he and Jacqui would have to share responsibility for the mutt during that month. He hoped Jacqui had been telling the truth when she said she liked dogs and wouldn’t mind helping with Waldo when Alice was away. He hoped everything Jacqui had said was true, he added with a wry twist to his mouth. He still wondered if he’d let himself be overly influenced by Alice’s wishes when he’d rather impulsively offered Jacqui the job. But he had to admit Jacqui had certainly inspired confidence.
He chuckled quietly when he remembered the way she had made it very clear that there would be no “funny business” between her and an employer. He had assured her gravely that she need have no concerns in that respect. He hadn’t added that while he thought she was attractive, in a gamine sort of way, she wasn’t really his type.
His thoughts drifted across the street, to the woman who was very much his type, apparently, since he could not seem to stop obsessing about her.
What had made her call such an abrupt halt to their kisses this evening? He had no doubt that she’d been enjoying their embraces as much as he was, and she’d certainly been an eager participant. But then he’d sensed a sudden change in her mood. She hadn’t had to say anything, not even to push lightly against him—he’d simply known it was over.
He sighed, both sorry and somewhat relieved the evening had ended when it had. His disappointed body still ached with needs he hadn’t satisfied in quite a while. Yet he reminded himself that he needed to be careful about getting involved in a relationship that could turn out to be a disaster on several levels. He had to think first of Alice.
Had Meagan thought of Alice at just that crucial moment? Or had some other reservation caused her to draw away? Whatever the reason, it probably was best that he’d be spending tonight in his own otherwise empty bed.
Not that he was sleepy yet. Absently tugging at one of Waldo’s droopy ears, he felt the adrenaline still pumping through his veins, though his pulse was gradually returning to normal as he relaxed with the blissful dog. It had been a long time since he’d indulged in a “make-out session” on a couch. And damn, it had been fun. He suspected he’d have to pay for the pleasure with a long, restless night ahead—but all in all, he decided it had been worth the price.
Meagan sat in her mother’s living room, rocking and reading—or trying to read. The house was peaceful. Her grandmother was napping in her bedroom, and her mother hadn’t yet returned home from her outing with her church friends. The book was a goo
d one, with interesting characters and an intriguing mystery but Meagan’s attention kept wandering.
As hard as she tried to think about anything but Seth, she wasn’t having a great deal of success.
Noise from the kitchen made her close the book, thinking her mother was home a little early. She shook her head in exasperation, hoping her mom hadn’t called the outing short because she felt guilty about being away from home for a few hours. Meagan had assured her she would be fine here with Meemaw for several hours, and that her mom should take advantage of the chance to get out. It wasn’t often Meagan was free to donate time during the day, even when her mom would allow her to do so.
Prepared to fuss, she sank bank into the chair when her sister dragged into the room. Madison gave her a little wave of greeting, then walked to the couch and made a production of falling face down upon it.
Meagan chuckled. “Rough day?”
Without lifting her head from an embroidered throw pillow, Madison groaned. “Thirty-hour call. Six admissions. One little jerk medical student with a chip on his shoulder.”
“Been home yet?”
“No. Wanted to see you and Mom.” Madison’s voice was muffled and drowsy. Two minutes later, her even breathing told Meagan her sister was asleep.
“Nice to see you, too,” Meagan murmured, settling back into the rocker with her book.
Twenty minutes later, Meagan’s reading was disturbed again.
“Got your mind on someone…er, something else?”
Lowering the book, Meagan frowned at her sister who had flopped over on the couch and was now watching her with a grin. “What?”
“You’ve read that same page about three times now, and I bet you still couldn’t tell me what it says. Obviously, your attention is wandering.”
Meagan closed the book and set it aside. “I guess it is. Just not in the mood to read today.”
“So? What are you in the mood for today?”
“What are you talking about, Maddie?”
Sitting up, Madison fluffed her work-and-nap-flattened blond hair, looking oddly refreshed from the very short nap. “I heard you had a date with Alice’s cute dad last night.”
Meagan frowned. She had not mentioned to anyone that she was going out with Seth last night. “How did you find out about that?”
“Julie Castor said she saw you at Joaquina’s last night dancing with an attractive man. She said you looked like you were having a very good time, if you know what I mean.”
Meagan had not caught even a glimpse of her sister’s friend last night, which only served to illustrate just how preoccupied she had been with Seth. Of course, the club had been crowded, she added quickly in her own defense. It was no surprise she hadn’t seen every other patron in the room.
“What made you think I was with Alice’s dad?” she asked rather lamely. “I do know other men, you know.”
“Uh-huh.” Madison looked at her.
Meagan sighed. “It was Seth.”
“And you’re still thinking of him today.”
“Maybe.”
“Getting serious, sis?”
“I’ve only known him a little more than three weeks.”
“Dad and Mom said it took them only as long as a Klingon saber dance to know they’d found the one.”
“Well, I need a little more time than that,” Meagan replied dryly. “I’m not actually looking for ‘the one.’”
“Everyone’s looking for ‘the one,’ Meg. We just hope we’ll know him when we see him—or her, in the guy’s case.”
“Or that we’ll have time to do anything about it when we find him?”
Madison smiled wearily. “There is that. Why did we go to medical school again?”
Before Meagan could answer, she heard her grandmother’s quivery voice coming from the back of the house. “LaDonna?”
Madison started to rise. “Want me to check on her?”
“No, just rest. I’ll go.”
It turned out her grandmother just wanted to know if it was time to take her meds. “You’ve got another hour, Meemaw,” Meagan assured her. “Mom will be home by then to give them to you.”
Her grandmother pulled her sheet to her frail chin. “Okay, then. Maybe I’ll sleep a little longer.”
“All right.” Meagan brushed a kiss against her grandmother’s cool, paper-thin skin. “Call me when you want to get up and I’ll come help you.”
Her grandmother’s eyes were already closed. “Thank you, honey.”
Meagan half expected to find her sister sleeping again in the living room, but Madison was in the kitchen, making a pot of coffee.
“Shouldn’t you go home and get some sleep?”
Madison shrugged. “I will after I’ve seen Mom. That nap helped.”
“Twenty minutes?”
Chuckling, Madison drew cups out of a cabinet. “You know how it goes. We sleep when we can.”
“Did you manage to get any sleep last night?”
“An hour. Maybe two.”
Meagan leaned against the fridge, studying her sister’s always pretty, but pale face. “You aren’t dating anyone now, are you?”
Madison’s laugh was incredulous. “Like I’d have time to date. But you’d know if I were seeing someone important. Mom would tell you.”
“Or your friend Julie would,” Meagan murmured wryly.
Madison laughed again. “Julie does have a way of finding out all the latest gossip. She had all kinds of news when she called me this morning. Even a juicy tidbit about one of your partners.”
Meagan tried to resist. On principle, she disapproved of gossip and made a habit of not spreading it. As a physician, privacy laws and discretion had been drilled into her from the first day of medical school. But like any workplace, hospitals were rife with coworker gossip and it was hard to resist sampling the occasional morsel. “Um…one of my partners?” she asked casually.
Her expression a little too knowing, Madison nodded. “Stephen Easton. He and Danielle broke up last week.”
Meagan almost felt her jaw drop. “They broke up? Seriously?”
“Yeah. Julie said he moved out of the loft Friday.”
A year behind her in medical school, Stephen had been engaged to Danielle Carpenter for almost as long as Meagan had known him. Both busy surgeons on a fast track to local prominence, Stephen and Danielle had appeared to be the ideal couple. They both understood the demands of their jobs, they both came from privileged backgrounds, they seemed to have similar goals and ambitions. “The wedding was going to be in August, wasn’t it?”
“That’s what Julie said. But it’s off. Rumor has it that Danielle is taking a position in another state.”
Meagan was somewhat surprised she hadn’t already heard this news—but then again, if it had only happened on Friday maybe it wasn’t so surprising. She hadn’t talked to anyone from work yesterday. It was odd, though, that Julie, a nutritionist in the hospital, had heard the scuttlebutt before one of Stephen’s partners.
She sighed. So many of her fellow surgeons were single, divorced or in bad relationships. She supposed that was true of many professions—and of course she knew a few happily married surgeons—but it had to be difficult to combine that all-encompassing career with the demands of a long-term commitment.
“If even Stephen and Danielle couldn’t make it work, you have to wonder if anyone could,” she murmured, thinking aloud.
Her sister shrugged. “I always wondered if a couple who’s engaged for four or five years really wants to get married in the first place.”
“Still…”
“It’s no harder for doctors to sustain a relationship than it is for anyone else,” Madison declared firmly. “I’ve never heard anybody say it’s easy, it just takes a lot of work and a determination to beat the odds.”
Meagan lifted an eyebrow. “You make it all sound pretty grim.”
“There’s nothing grim about making a marriage work.”
Their mother’s voice
made both sisters turn in surprise. Meagan hadn’t heard her come in and neither had Madison, apparently. Meagan didn’t know how long she’d been standing in the doorway leading from the kitchen into the hall, but she’d been there long enough to have heard at least part of their conversation.
“Yes, marriages take work and determination,” their mother continued, “but that’s true of anything that matters to you. A career, a hobby, a home. You put in the effort because of the joy you get back in return. And my marriage to your father brought me a great deal of joy—even if it wasn’t always easy being married to a man whose brilliant and eccentric mind often wandered to other planets.”
For just a moment the ghost of the late Timothy Baker seemed to hover in the kitchen, leaving both humor and sadness behind when he drifted away again. Meagan thought she would always remember her wonderfully idiosyncratic father with just that mix of emotions.
“How was your morning out, Mom?”
Accepting a glass of iced tea from Madison, their moth er patted Meagan’s arm. “It was lovely. Thank you again for sitting with your grandmother. Did you have any problems?”
“No. She had an early lunch of soup and crackers and a small slice of cheesecake, and then she wanted to take her nap.”
Madison spoke teasingly to lighten their mom’s suddenly grave expression. “Okay, Mom. Tell us all about church and lunch today. I know you’ve come home with lots of juicy gossip and you know how I love a good gossip session. Meagan never dishes about anyone—including herself,” she added pointedly.
Meagan suspected Madison was a little put out that she hadn’t heard any more details about last night’s date. But while they occasionally talked about their romantic adventures—what few there had been for either of them in the past busy years—she wasn’t quite ready to talk about Seth.
Which was only another reason for Meagan to worry that this thing with Seth—whatever it was—was more significant than she wanted to admit to her sister. Maybe even to herself.
