“Well, then, do you want me to put tape over the gauze dressing on your arm?” she asked, a look of bemusement on her beautiful face.
“No. Yeah. Maybe you’d better. I have to get back to work.”
* * *
SHE HAD SEEN the expression on his face as she’d drawn the blood. Rory MacPherson was nervous. A grown man who was afraid of needles. Peggy Anderson had met a few of them before, but none as handsome as this one. His smile surrounded her like a gentle breeze, making her hesitate before taking the blood samples from the tray beside him. His address was one of the few apartment buildings in Eden Harbor, on Salem Street. Most people planning to stay in Eden Harbor bought a house, as houses were easily available with so many people moving away to other parts of the country to find jobs.
He was about to get out of the chair and leave. Eden Harbor didn’t have many young, single and gorgeous men. “Where do you work?” She’d never seen him before, and she knew most of the locals because sooner or later they ended up in here getting blood drawn.
He eased back into the chair and met her inquiring gaze. “I’m a carpenter. I work for myself. I hurt my arm running a saw. Just a nick, though, so that’s good.”
His eyes were fascinating, and very, very blue; his smile intrigued her. He didn’t wear a wedding ring, but that was no guarantee that he was unattached. She’d made that mistake once before and had paid the price in total embarrassment tokens, her measure of yet another unsuccessful attempt at meeting a man.
“How long have you been in Eden Harbor?” she asked as she took his blood samples to the counter behind her, placing each in their appropriate slots on the tray.
“Not long. In fact, I’m just getting my business under way. I’ve met some pretty wonderful people here.”
She turned around to find his gaze openly moving over her. She’d grown accustomed to that look and ignored it. Men were shoppers, and window-shopping was their entry point in getting to know the merchandise, or so one of her ex-boyfriends had said.
“I...I’d better get back to work,” he said, getting to his feet. “Thanks for being so gentle. I’m not good at getting my blood taken.” He stood up, hugging his injured arm to his chest. She had to admit he was truly tall, truly handsome and almost certainly unavailable.
Yet his gaze held hers in a way that made her feel so totally connected, as if she was the only thought on his mind. In her experience, most men didn’t spend a lot of time looking at her face in favor of some other part of her anatomy. “Being gentle is part of my job.”
“I’m afraid of needles. That’s the very first time I didn’t feel like I was going to faint. Like a tree falling over.” He swung his uninjured arm in a wide arc. “I usually sit for a while. To cover my embarrassment I make conversation with the tech taking my blood.”
“Is that what you were doing with me?”
“No! No. I wanted to talk with you. I mean really talk.”
“About what?”
“About maybe you and I going out somewhere. Nothing serious. Just coffee. I don’t know many people in Eden Harbor, and you could introduce me around,” he said, his smile totally disarming.
“To somebody more interesting, you mean?” Well, at least he didn’t pretend he wanted to date her.
He rubbed his face with his free hand. “I didn’t mean that the way it came out. I...I’d like you and I to get to know each other, maybe be friends.”
She couldn’t help but smile at his discomfort. It was so endearing. “Are you this smooth with all the women you meet?”
“Didn’t know I was being smooth. Thought I was just being honest.”
The last man pretending to be honest had talked her into paying his bill for fixing his car. Not one penny of which she’d gotten back.
He hugged his injured arm to his chest as he stared down into her face, his smile so exciting it made her wish she wasn’t so distrustful of men.
“Okay, so I’ll take your silence as a no,” he said as he moved toward the door. “Thank you.”
The way his jeans hugged his butt made her rethink her position. Eden Harbor was hardly crawling with eligible men. Her nightlife consisted of going to the pub with friends once a week and playing volleyball with the local women every Wednesday night. And what harm could there be in having coffee with this man whose fear of needles warmed her heart, whose blue eyes were so engaging? “Wait. Sure. Coffee would be great.”
“Where?”
“The Big Mug on Market Street?” She glanced at her watch. “Meet me around four?”
His blue eyes seemed bluer. The quick frown creasing his brow turned into a grin. “Today?”
“Yes.”
“I know the place. I did a reno there a couple of weeks ago. See you at four. Your name tag says Peggy. What’s your last name?” he asked, his voice eager, his eyes on her.
She wanted to laugh at the way he seemed almost inept around her. Most men were busy trying to put the moves on her, but Rory was...sweet. She touched her name tag. “Anderson. Peggy Anderson.”
“Great! Good name!”
* * *
RORY DROVE TO his worksite, a deck he was putting on the back of a house outside town, where he had his accident. He hoped that having to protect his hand wouldn’t slow him down. He had a list of clients waiting for his services. Thankfully, it was his left arm that was injured and not his right, but even so, it might make working difficult.
He reached Ned Tompkins’s yard and got back to work. As he hammered the nails into the deck, his thoughts were solely on Peggy and what an idiot he’d made of himself. He’d practically bolted from the room. It wasn’t really a date, he reminded himself, but still it was as close as he’d come to one since he moved to Eden Harbor two months ago. He’d gone to the local pub downtown a couple of times, but the only women there were either with men or clustered in groups, whispering and giggling among themselves.
Blame it on Haiti, but what he was looking for in a woman had changed after living there. He wasn’t interested in frivolous women, in dates consisting of expensive dinners and empty conversation or worse—online dating. He wanted to really connect with a woman who loved her work and who believed she made a difference in people’s lives. Because of Haiti, he wanted to make a difference no matter where he ended up living. Maybe he wouldn’t stay in Eden Harbor. Maybe he’d go back to Haiti for another two years. Whatever lay ahead for him, he wanted to be open to it. Life was about living in the here and now.
He had no idea what Peggy wanted out of life, but he sure would like to get to know her better. He checked to make sure he had his cell phone on him. He’d have to keep track of the time so as not to be late for his coffee break with her.
In Haiti he’d grown accustomed to working until the labor and the heat exhausted him and then eating with his friends and falling into bed.
He continued to work on the deck, skipping lunch in order to get the first parts completed. Ned Tompkins had had the concrete posts poured to support the deck, and all that was left was to build the wooden structure over the posts. Ned wasn’t home, so there weren’t any interruptions, allowing Rory to settle into an enjoyable rhythm. The feel of wood in his hands, the smell of it, the sun’s heat on his shoulders reminded him of Haiti.
But he was done with Haiti, at least for now. He had to be. He’d been completely stressed-out by his life there; the memories were painful. It was a life he’d once loved, and might love again once he had time to gain perspective on his experience in that country. He never walked past a child on the sidewalk in Eden Harbor that didn’t remind him of the two children whose lives he’d seen destroyed by the collapse of their home in Haiti.
He