He let his mouth linger on hers for a minute, then he backed away slowly, satisfied as he took in her flushed cheeks and dazed eyes. The night-duty nurse clattered down the hall with the medicine tray, rolling along in between them, but even that didn’t break the spell.
“Just something for you to think about, in case you decide I might be your type after all.”
Travis winked and turned to walk down the hall. Penny ground her teeth, berating herself mentally for melting from one hot kiss. She would just have to make sure that that never happened again.
FOR A MOMENT Miranda stood by the door watching Colin sleep. He looked so different from the vibrant man whom she had tried to seduce a few hours earlier. Embarrassment flowed though her as she recalled the disaster that had been. Well, Travis said Colin had lost his memory, so she could only hope and pray he didn’t remember.
She took another step forward, and then another, swallowing visibly as she saw how pale he was. Her heart constricted as she surveyed the purple bruises on his face and arms. Tears threatened again. Biting her lip hard, she reminded herself that he was fine. Travis said he was fine.
She didn’t want to wake him though she wanted to know what his response to her would be. Free to stare, to observe the angles of his face, the texture of his skin, she watched him, thankful that he was still here with her. What had happened between them almost didn’t matter, compared to this. Nothing mattered as long as he was all right.
Sighing, she figured she should leave. Tomorrow would come soon enough, and she would help in whatever ways she could. There was no reason for Ed and Joyce to miss their anniversary trip. Her work schedule was flexible, and she could reschedule appointments if need be to help out Colin.
Reaching forward, she smiled slightly and ran the back of her finger over Colin’s cheek.
“I’ll be back to see you tomorrow, big guy.”
When she turned to go, she heard a grunt and a croaking noise. Glancing back, she saw Colin’s eyes flutter open and her heart leaped. He focused in on her, his eyes heavy from the sedation, and she returned to the bedside.
“Hey there.”
“Randi?” His voice was a grating whisper, but it was enough to make her heart pound with relief.
“You remember me.”
His chuckle came out as a rasp. She smiled and touched his forehead but drew her hand back almost as quickly as she had extended it.
“Let me get you some water.” She poured water from the pitcher on the stand and leaned forward, cradling his head while tipping the cup slightly forward with the other.
“Better?”
He nodded and winced as she removed her hand.
“Listen, I’ll come by tomorrow morning. You rest now.”
Bleary hazel eyes blinked again and watched her closely.
“I can’t remember…what happened. The last thing I remember was getting an e-mail from you earlier today…do you know what I was doing out there tonight? Was I with you?”
Unsure of what to say, she smiled brightly and patted his hand, anxious to leave.
“Don’t worry about it. We can talk tomorrow.”
“But—”
She cut him off in a playfully stern voice. “You need to sleep, or Travis will have both our heads. See you tomorrow.”
She walked away from the bed and sighed in relief, but it was only momentary. Who knew what the morning would bring?
TWO BOTTLES OF WINE and several hours later, Penny and Miranda were sprawled across Miranda’s couch, exhausted and depressed from the events of the day. Miranda told the story of her failed seduction, and Penny squirmed as she told the tale of Travis’s kiss—both were at their wit’s end about how to handle their respective situations.
Miranda lolled her head over against a pillow and sighed. Penny’s problems were solved for the moment, and she was snoring like a lumberjack. No wonder. They had finished the champagne she had put out for Colin and then opened a good merlot and drunk that.
She looked at her watch. Two in the morning. Great. Definitely time for bed, or she would not make it to the hospital at all in the morning. Standing on wobbly knees, she leaned over and grabbed Penny’s ankles, stretching her out on the sofa and ignoring the nonsensical mumblings Penny was making. Then Miranda grabbed a blanket and threw it over her, face and all.
Satisfied that Penny was well tucked in, she glanced at the two empty bottles on the table and shrugged. Staring harder, she cocked her head sideways, noticing that the bottles were on top of the magazine that had given her the idea for that stupid seduction in the first place. While picking it up, one of the empty bottles rolled to the floor. She stuck her tongue out at the magazine and then winged it clear across the room with a few choice words flung after it.
Stumbling forward, she hit her toe on the edge of the coffee table. Damn, this just wasn’t her night. Hobbling, she headed toward the stairs and her room. She would have to set her alarm to wake up Penny in time for work. Only five hours from now. That sucked.
Everything sucked. She was crazy about Colin, and he wasn’t in the least interested in her. How the heck had he ended up falling into the harbor after he left her? Now he had amnesia and, with her luck, he would remember everything by morning, and she would resume her full-fledged-idiot status. And her toe hurt, which probably was going to match what her head would feel like in the morning. Just great. She wished she could forget all this. Colin was lucky.
She walked to the back door and whistled. Lucy and Chuck came bounding around the corner and ran outside for their nightly business. Lucy was a medium sized pit bull/Lab mix she had rescued from the shelter when she moved here. Miranda had found Chuck, an indolent basset hound with irresistible ears and woeful brown eyes, in Denver. Miranda loved them both, and would get more pets if she had the room. Calling them back in, she pointed up the stairs, and they ran to their beds in the corner of her room.
Turning on the landing and following the dogs upstairs, she yawned and wondered if Colin really would remember. As much as she wanted him to be okay, it would be nice if her little snafu never made it to the light of his consciousness again. Really, in the scope of things, what was a few lost hours?
What if he didn’t ever remember? Travis said sometimes it was permanent, right?
A bad plan started forming at the edges of her thoughts. She knew it was bad because, well, she just had that feeling, the same feeling she’d had when she tried the old I’m-gonna-seduce-Colin routine. Peeling off her clothes, she didn’t even bother putting on pajamas. She just crawled under the covers, forgetting the alarm clock altogether.
Instead of passing out as Penny had been so fortunate to do, her mind kept spinning, trying to work out that vague idea forming on the alcohol-fuzzed horizon.
If Colin never remembered what had happened last night, could she tell him whatever she wished had happened? Could she rewrite history a little—well, okay, a lot—just for those few hours? Then she could finally make him see that they belonged together as more than friends.
It would be wrong…but only a little, right?
After all, it was clear that he had wanted her as much as she wanted him. He was held back by some misguided idea that she was replacing Derek with him. What if this little amnesia thing was her opportunity to remove that roadblock? Practically humming with possibility, and in spite of her better judgment, her mind continued to spin out a plan until the wine finally took its toll and she