Kirsten nodded. “Yes, I was. It started with flulike symptoms that I couldn’t seem to shake. I kept on working until one day I could hardly crawl out of bed, and then I went to the doctor. By that time it had gone into pneumonia, complicated by attacks of asthma. I was in and out of the hospital for more than a month.”
Concern and impatience warred in Sam as she talked. “Good Lord, woman,” he growled. “You’re a nurse. You must have known better than to ignore an illness that severe.”
He saw an answering impatience in her snapping brown eyes. “You’re right, Doctor, but tell me something. How long does it take you to seek medical advice when you’re sick?”
She had him there. “It doesn’t apply to me. I’m a physician,” he said evasively. “I can diagnose my own illnesses. Besides, I’m never sick.”
“Neither am I,” she drawled, “and as a nurse I recognized the symptoms of viral influenza, but in the beginning they are also symptoms of a bad cold, and that’s what I thought I had. By the time I realized it was more serious, I had pneumonia along with it.”
He frowned. “And the asthma? Is it chronic?”
She shook her head. “I never had it before in my life. At least, not that I know of. My doctor says I probably did, but like this time always thought it was a cold. Anyway, I had to take two courses of antibiotics to clear up the pneumonia, and steroids for the asthma.”
He wished she wouldn’t bait him to anger and then make him feel like a brute when he responded. “And did they clear up the pneumonia and the asthma? Are you well now?”
She nodded, but still kept her eyes downcast. “Yes.”
He had an overwhelming desire to put his fingers under her chin and lift her face so she would have to look at him, but he didn’t trust himself to touch her. “Then your doctor has given you a clean bill of health?”
Apparently she was going to make him pull the information out of her a word or sentence at a time.
“Not quite.” She spoke in little more than a whisper. “My immune system has been weakened, and he won’t give me an okay to go back to work until next month.”
Relief washed through Sam, and he tried for a lighter tone. “You have a smart physician. No doubt he told you to get plenty of rest and not to exert yourself?”
She did look up at him then and smiled. “Well, not exactly. What he said was to absorb plenty of sunshine and fresh air, but Eureka is on the ocean and the climate is damp and chilly most of the time—even in the summer. Coralie and Jim offered me the use of Jim’s dad’s house while he’s gone, so I’m looking forward to breaking some horses and plowing the back forty.”
She laughed and everyone laughed with her, but Sam wasn’t altogether sure she was teasing.
Although the company was great and the conversation stimulating, by ten o’clock Sam was bone weary. It had been a long, busy, emotion-filled day, and if by some miracle he wasn’t wakened during the night by a phone call he still had early appointments in the morning.
Besides, he could see that Kirsten was as exhausted as he. She’d only arrived this morning from California, which meant that she must have been on the road for the better part of three days. He would bet his practice her doctor hadn’t approved that trip!
At the next break in the conversation he stifled a yawn and stood up. “I hate to break up the evening,” he said with real regret, “but if you’ll excuse me I’m going home to try for a couple of hours’ sleep before someone else’s cow has an obstetrical emergency.”
They all laughed and stood up, too. “It’s past my bedtime, also,” Kirsten said. She was standing next to him, so close that the back of his hand brushed her skirt and sent tingles up his spine. “I’ll help you with the dishes,” she said to Coralie, “and then I’m going to the cottage.”
“You’ll do no such thing,” Coralie admonished. “The girls have already cleared the table. All I have to do is stack the dishwasher, but since you left your car at Buck’s and walked over, I’ll drive you back to his house first. You do look tired.”
“I’ll drop her off,” Sam offered. After all, it was the polite thing to do, so why did his instinct warn him to shut up and leave? Let someone else take this cuddly kitten to her bedroom. He didn’t want her sharp, little claws digging into him.
“That’s not necessary,” Kirsten protested. “It’s only about a block away. I can walk—”
“No you can’t, city girl,” Sam said, totally ignoring his better sense. “You’re not in town now. There are no street-lights, and you can’t wander around a strange rural area in the dark.” He eyed her feet. “Especially not in those high heels.”
She knew he was right and didn’t resist when he took her arm and turned them toward the door. “I’ll deliver you to your house. I don’t want to be called out in the middle of the night to set your broken bones after a fall on this rough terrain.”
After friendly good-nights and thank-yous, Sam put Kirsten in his damaged car and within seconds they arrived at her destination. He shut off the motor and escorted her up to the house in the dark.
Kirsten was having second thoughts about her earlier attitude toward him. They’d both been rattled by the collision and had lashed out at each other in anger, without either giving the other the benefit of the doubt.
Since Sam and Jim were almost as close as brothers, she knew it would cause a lot of tension and dissension if she and Sam spent the next month sniping at each other. It was time for them to have a private talk and try to banish their animosity toward one another.
“Would you like to come in for a cup of coffee?” she asked as she inserted her key in the lock.
Sam was surprised by the invitation. Her voice was low and husky, and the wave of heat he’d felt earlier returned in force.
Would he? Damn right he would! And so would any other hot-blooded man she issued the invitation to. Was she coming on to him? Had she decided to play along with Coralie’s matchmaking scheme for them after all?
No, he couldn’t believe that. She seemed rather naive. She probably didn’t realize what a late-night invitation like that so often implied. “Thank you, but may I take a rain check? You need your rest, and so do I.”
That was a laugh. She’d just blown any thoughts of sleep out of the water for him.
The moon was bright enough that he could see her expression. She looked neither surprised nor disappointed as she opened the door. Instead she cleared her throat and said, “I noticed that Mr. Buckley’s well-stocked cupboards include coffee, tea and cookies,” she said flirtatiously.
Damn it, she was coming on to him. His stomach muscles clenched in a combination of interest and anger. He hadn’t been so wrong about her this morning after all. Apparently she was going to play Coralie’s game and look for a husband while she was here.
Well, he wasn’t going to be titillated into marriage by any woman. “Kirsten, we have to talk.” He tried to keep the anger out of his tone, but he wasn’t succeeding.
He could see that she looked pleased. “All right, but let’s go inside. We’d be more comfortable in the house than standing out here on the doorstep.”
He sighed. She obviously wasn’t going to make this easy for him. She must know that she had the power to convince him she was innocent of any wrongdoing even as she seduced him, and apparently she intended to use it. Fortunately, he wasn’t as gullible as she thought.
“I’m sure we would be,” he grated. “It