He wants more than a workplace fling!

But can he persuade her to let him in?

With two jobs, a sick mom and a broken heart, nurse Carly Evans has no time for romance. Until gorgeous surgeon Stone Parker gets right under her skin, and gives Carly a glimpse of a new life. The one Stone would gladly give her—if she can find the courage to take it...

JANICE LYNN has a Masters in Nursing from Vanderbilt University, and works as a nurse practitioner in a family practice. She lives in the southern United States with her husband, their four children, their Jack Russell—appropriately named Trouble—and a lot of unnamed dust bunnies that have moved in since she started her writing career. To find out more about Janice and her writing visit janicelynn.com.

Also by Janice Lynn

The ER’s Newest Dad

After the Christmas Party…

Flirting with the Doc of Her Dreams

New York Doc to Blushing Bride

Winter Wedding in Vegas

Sizzling Nights with Dr Off-Limits

It Started at Christmas…

The Nurse’s Baby Secret

The Doctor’s Secret Son

A Firefighter in Her Stocking

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk.

A Surgeon to Heal Her Heart

Janice Lynn

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-07492-6

A SURGEON TO HEAL HER HEART

© 2018 Janice Lynn

Published in Great Britain 2018

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To all those caring for loved ones with chronic illnesses.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

EPILOGUE

Extract

CHAPTER ONE

“I’M TELLING YOU, that man has the hots for you.”

At her co-worker’s words, the corners of nurse Carly Evans’ lips inched upward. Still, she shrugged as if the comment was no big deal. She needed to fight the excitement Rosalyn’s claim incited, not give her heart free rein to jump up and down with joy.

Jump up and down? Ha. More like her heart was somersaulting worthy of a world-class medal.

The same flip-flopping routine her heart went into any time she thought of the hospital’s newest general surgeon.

Not that she had a right to feel that way. Not when she couldn’t do one thing about her heart’s acrobatics or any hots Dr. Stone Parker might have for her.

Stone.

Just thinking his name, how his eyes, his mouth had immediately crinkled with a smile when they’d met hers on this morning’s rounds, had her blood pounding. The erratic rhythm practically demanded a giddy schoolgirl dance with fists thrust into the air.

Maybe her friend should be saying Carly had the hots for Stone.

She did.

For all the good it would do her.

Which was the problem.

She’d have been better off if she’d never met Stone, never felt the way he made every nerve cell inside her hum with life.

That she wasn’t free hadn’t been a problem, until she’d met him. Now...now, she was torn and hated herself for it.

Closing the medicine cart and nearly dropping the medications she’d just taken out, Carly took a long, steadying breath, and grimaced.

“Uh-huh, I saw that so don’t go pretending you’re immune to the man.” Rosalyn’s dark brown eyes glowed with eagerness at Carly’s tell-tale motion. “I’ve seen you two talking, the sparks that fly back and forth. You like him, too. Admit it.”

Wasn’t that the same as saying she liked to breathe? How could any sane, straight woman not like Stone? The man was gorgeous and the total package.

Just over six feet tall, dark brown hair with the slightest hint of curl, green eyes that twinkled when he smiled, and a face that had inspired numerous fantasies... Yeah, Stone was ‘likable’.

Just a tad.

“He seems to be a great doctor and, of course, he’s a good-looking man.” Understatements of the year. “I can appreciate that, just as most females, including yourself, can,” Carly pointed out, using all her willpower to keep her voice level, cool, and as unaffected as possible. “But that does not mean I ‘like him’ like him.”

Like liking Stone was a waste of emotions she didn’t have to spare.

“Honey, you’re protesting too much.” Chuckling, Rosalyn practically rubbed her hands with glee. “Admit it. He makes you all hot beneath your nursing uniform.”

Carly rolled her eyes at the nurse she’d worked side by side with for the past five years. Rosalyn was a big-hearted African American woman raising four teenagers with her mechanic husband. There was no one Carly would rather work with than the long-time med-surg nurse.

Except maybe for this moment. None of her other co-workers would initiate this particular conversation.

Squaring her shoulders, Carly stared straight into her friend’s dark eyes.

“I’m sure Dr. Parker is a very nice man.” He was. “I enjoy our conversations very much.” She did. “But whether or not he has the hots for me is totally irrelevant.” Sadly, the truth. “I’m not interested in a relationship with him, or anyone else, outside these hallowed walls.” Also, sadly, the truth.

Inside the hospital walls Carly was a very different person from who she was outside them.

Inside these walls she could focus on being a shining light to her patients and cling to the shadows of the Carly she’d once been.

Part of her worried that Carly was shriveling into nothingness to disappear forever. Which might be why she enjoyed time around Stone so much. He gave her glimpses of a younger, carefree version of herself.

Made her insides spark as if trying to relight a fire that used to brightly burn. In her fantasies, it still did.

In the real world, that fire couldn’t be relit. Unfortunately.

“Why is that?”

Carly jumped at the question that came from behind her. Literally and figuratively. What? How?

She’d been expecting Rosalyn to respond, not the familiar masculine voice that had the effect of morphing her insides to melted butter.

When had he walked up behind her?

Why hadn’t Rosalyn told her?

Or at least given some indication he was on the medical floor and within earshot? She had to have seen him behind Carly.

Rosalyn had set her up, playing matchmaker.

Slowly, Carly turned to face the man she’d just been talking about.

Insides quaking, she stared into the most beautiful green eyes she’d ever encountered. So green she could almost be convinced the color was the result of contact lenses. If she’d had any doubts, he was now close enough to put that question to rest. All she could see was gorgeous bright green eyes, the color of spring bringing life back after a long cold spell.

Dark, long lashes fringed his eyes, giving them a surreal look that only added to his already handsome face. No doubt about it. Stone was easy to look at.

She opened her mouth, meaning to tell him something, anything, but not the truth.

The truth was something she kept private. Something she didn’t talk about with her co-workers because she needed to keep her life compartmentalized. At the hospital, she worked hard, was free to laugh with her co-workers and patients, to just feel normal and pretend life was grand.

She wouldn’t let home creep into work.

She couldn’t.

Not if any part of her was to survive.

Compartmentalization was her friend and kept her sane.

“Yeah,” Rosalyn added, her amused gaze bouncing back and forth between Stone and Carly.

Her co-worker was definitely having Cupid inclinations. In another lifetime, Carly would have welcomed her help, would have welcomed a man like Stone being interested. Welcomed and been over the moon. But that wasn’t where she was and probably wouldn’t be for years.

Lord, she hoped it would be years.

The alternative was unthinkable.

Stone’s gaze cut to the grinning nurse who was watching them with the eagerness of a movie-goer. All she needed was a seat and some popcorn.

“Rosalyn, would you mind getting a warm blanket for Room 207?” he asked. “That’s what I stepped out to do, but fortunately I ran into you lovely ladies.”

Carly was one hundred percent sure “fortunately” was not what she’d call him overhearing her and Rosalyn’s conversation.

Heat flooded Carly’s face and she glanced down at her tennis shoes, staring at the neon-green laces. Good work shoes were the one luxury she allowed herself. With the long hours she worked, good shoes mattered.

“Yes, sir.” Rosalyn grinned at him, and then winked at Carly. Chuckling, she took off toward where the blanket warmer was located. “Just you remember what I said, Carly Evans,” she called without turning around. “It would do you some good to think about that.”

Carly was pretty sure her cheeks were as red as her scrubs. Maybe more so as her scrubs were a little faded from too many washings.

When Rosalyn was out of earshot, Stone turned back to Carly. One side of his mouth lifted in a wry smile. “I didn’t intentionally listen in, but will admit that I’m intrigued by what I heard. You mind explaining?”

She minded. “How much did you hear?”

“Enough to know I want to hear more.”

Being careful not to spill Room 204’s medication from the cup, Carly put her hands on her hips. “Which tells me nothing.”

“How much could I have overheard?” His eyes twinkled.

Good grief, he’d heard everything. Was the fact that he was standing behind Carly why Rosalyn had mentioned him in the first place?

“Not a lot.” Carly decided to go for nonchalant. Nonchalant was good and meant she didn’t care what he’d overheard. He didn’t know her private thoughts, nor would he ever. “Rosalyn had a theory about you. I told her that her theory was pointless as I wasn’t interested in anything beyond friendship.”

“Which is where I asked why you weren’t interested.” His lips twitched, his eyes sparkled, and he was enjoying that he’d caught her having a conversation about him.

“Yes,” she said for lack of knowing what else to say, a little flustered by the fact Stone didn’t mind that Rosalyn had said he had the hots for Carly. Which meant what?

That he did have the hots for her?

He’d flirted, but he was such a good-natured person, talking with everyone, so she’d consoled herself that her talking back was harmless, that nothing would come of their shared conversations. He wouldn’t really be interested in her outside of having a little fun at the hospital.

He was a gorgeous doctor. She was just her. An overworked, over-stressed, financially stretched nurse doing all she could to provide care for her seriously ill mother.

“You didn’t answer my question,” he pointed out, his intent gaze warning she’d been fooling herself on thinking their conversations didn’t mean anything.

Her pulse drummed rapidly at her temple.

“I wasn’t having a discussion with you,” she reminded him, knowing she had to get her thoughts, her reaction to him, under control. Better to stay in denial than to acknowledge what she couldn’t have, what she couldn’t let herself have. “You weren’t a part of the conversation you interrupted.”

She wanted to be irritated with him, but how could anyone be upset with him when he had such an all-encompassing smile on his face? A smile that crinkled the corners of his eyes, dug dimples into his cheeks, and made his eyes sparkle?

Good grief. The man was incorrigible. And so gorgeous. And so out of her reach. Still, the way he made her feel was addictive, like a magic spell that gave everything a shiny glow.

A shiny glow she’d like to bask in, but life had other plans for her. Plans that didn’t include time for a dalliance with the most intriguing man she’d ever met.

She arched a brow and shook her head. “Some would say eavesdropping was rude, you know?”

His left dimple dug a little deeper. “I’m part of the conversation now.”

She rolled her eyes upward. “Not by my choice.”

He laughed. “You saying I’m holding you here against your will?”

Carly shrugged. “Obviously not. If you’ll excuse me?” She went to push past him.

“I won’t.”

Eyes wide, Carly stopped, met his for once serious gaze. “Pardon?”

“I won’t excuse you,” he clarified. “Not this time. Eavesdropping was rude. You’re right. But since I was the topic of conversation, surely I’m forgiven for jumping in?”

Her insides shook so that she still might end up spilling those meds she held yet. “There’s no rule that says I have to forgive you for butting into my conversation.”

“Even when the conversation is about me?”

“Especially when the conversation is about you.”

He chuckled. “You should have dinner with me tonight and let me convince you to forgive my so-called rudeness. Plus, we can discuss why my having the hots for you doesn’t matter because it matters a great deal to me.”

Guilt hit Carly. This was her fault. She should have put a stop to whatever sparks Rosalyn said were flying between them but she’d not dared to believe he was really interested in her.

Sure, he’d gone out of his way to start conversations, asking her things he could have asked any hospital employee. He’d sat back in the break room with her a few times while she’d quickly swallowed down whatever she’d packed from home.

His sitting with her while she ate should have made her horribly uncomfortable, but instead she’d found herself regretting how quickly her short lunch break had slipped by while they’d talked. He’d asked about her favorite parts of Memphis and, drawing upon her childhood and college memories, she’d told him. No need to tell him that for five years she’d not been to any of those places. Surely, they hadn’t changed that much in such a short time?

Then again, she’d changed that much.

Aged a hundred years, at least.

But for all that, she’d thought their interactions innocent. She’d figured Stone had svelte, glamorous women lined up in droves out there in the real world. Talking with Carly was just a fun way to pass time when he was at work.

Had she really believed that?

Or had she refused to believe anything else because she enjoyed his attention and hadn’t wanted to give it up?

She didn’t lead on men when she had no intentions of following through. So if he was interested then, yeah, she had to put a halt to it right now.

Carly’s throat tightened as she said, “Our discussing that would be an utter waste of both of our time.”

“I’ve time to spare.”

“That makes one of us.” She seriously doubted he had much time to spare, either.

His dark brow arched. “You’re too busy to go to dinner with me tonight?”

“Absolutely.” She took off toward her patient’s room, but he stayed in step beside her.

“Tomorrow night?”

“Busy.”

Her answer seemed to waylay him for a few seconds, but then, still beside her, he asked, “Surely you make time to eat, Carly? I’ll take you to the restaurant of your choice and promise to have you home at a decent hour.” He waggled his brows and gave another crooked smile. “Unless you want me to keep you out past bedtime, that is.”

Oh, my. Not going to happen... But, oh, my, oh, my, oh, my.

She ate in quick snatches after getting home, usually soup or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich while Joyce filled her in on the day’s events.

Carly liked uneventful days.

Days in which her mother didn’t have any angry outbursts or falls or screams of pain or significant declines in her failing health. It had been so long since Carly had eaten out at a restaurant that she didn’t have a favorite. Money was tight. Eating out was expensive. There would be time for such luxuries later, after her mother’s life succumbed to her illness.

Just as there would be time for relationships. For real relationships and smiles and going to restaurants with handsome men.

The odds of a man as fabulous as Stone ever asking her to dinner again was next to nil, but, even so, dinner dates, or staying out past bedtime, had to wait.

Carly prayed that would be many years down the road. Those snatches of good spells with her mother were worth everything. They were getting further and further in between, but on a day of clarity Carly’s heart filled with enough joy to tide her over until the next brief glimpse.

Thoughts of her mother, of the fact she wasn’t free to date, that to pretend otherwise with Stone was wrong, made a new wave of guilt hit her. She’d been wrong to ever let things get to this point, but it was too late to undo that now. Other than to put an abrupt stop to his interest.

As difficult as it was going to be, she had to cut all ties with Stone.

“I eat,” she admitted, not that that was in question. She stopped mid-hallway to glare in as much annoyance at him as she could muster. “But not with strangers.”

“I’m not a stranger,” he clarified, not seeming fazed by her glare.

No wonder. It wasn’t easy to glare at a gorgeous man smiling and trying to convince you to go to dinner. Maybe he could see right through her, could see that everything female inside her responded to him. Maybe he saw how much she longed for a different set of life circumstances that would mean she could have her mother and a relationship. No matter. That wasn’t the life she’d been given and she wouldn’t bemoan things she had no control over.

“And, we have eaten together,” he reminded her, his grin full of charm. “In the break room at lunch when I’m lucky enough to catch you there. Plus, we’ve been working together for almost a month. We are not strangers.”

He made a valid argument, but none of which made any impact on why she couldn’t go to dinner.

“A whole month since you came to work at Memphis Memorial? Time does fly.” To make her point, she glanced at her watch, then gave him the sternest expression she could muster. “My patient is due his medication and I am going to administer it now. Thank you for the invitation, but my answer is no and won’t change.” She met his gaze. “I’m sorry if I ever gave you reason to think otherwise.”

He looked ready to say something more, but didn’t attempt to stop her when she moved past him to hightail her way down the hospital-floor hallway.

No matter. She could feel his gaze as she hurried to escape into her patient’s room and away from the most disconcerting man she’d ever met.

Tony had sure never gotten her worked up the way Stone had in the month she’d known him.

One month, four days. That was how long Stone had been at Memphis Memorial.

Not that she was counting.

She shouldn’t be aware the man existed outside that he was a doctor at the hospital where she worked.

But she was aware.

Too aware.

With that thought she bit the inside of her lower lip and fought the urge to cry a little. A lot. No matter.

She had a good life, had her mother, anything beyond that would have to wait for a day she prayed never came.

* * *

Stone Parker wasn’t sure how he’d misread what was happening between him and Carly Evans.

He’d thought they shared a connection, that she felt the spark he felt when he looked at her.

Today was the most direct conversation they’d had about what was happening, but he’d never tried to hide his interest, and he’d thought it was reciprocated. From the moment he’d met her, he’d gone out of his way to bump into her. She’d been pleasant. Cheerful. Smiling a lot. Had often had a sassy rebuttal to things he’d say. Had she just been being friendly? Polite?

After hearing her comment today, he had to wonder.

With her soulful brown eyes that held so much emotion, her silky chestnut hair she kept pulled up in a ponytail, pouty full lips, and almost fragile features, she’d caught his attention his first day at the hospital.

And held it.

He enjoyed their conversations, enjoyed sitting with her in the break room while she grabbed a quick lunch.

Although he’d yet to ask her out due to finishing up his move, settling into his new job and home, working three of the four weekends he’d been in Memphis and having to go home the previous weekend for his parents’ anniversary, he’d planned to see if she was free for the upcoming weekend.

Not once had he questioned whether or not she’d say yes. He’d swear she was interested, that she enjoyed their light, fun conversations as much as he did.

Just the previous day, he’d asked her friend Rosalyn about her. Surprisingly, Rosalyn hadn’t been able to tell him much about Carly’s personal life. They’d worked together for five years, Carly didn’t attend any of the hospital’s social functions, rarely talked about family and never about anyone special.

None of their other co-workers had been able to tell him anything more.

He was a young healthy man who’d been used to an active social life since his divorce. Staying busy, active, was how he’d kept sane after Stephanie had left him. The fact his social life had been on hiatus from the move and job change was probably why he got so twisted up inside when he looked at Carly.

Although thinner than his usual taste, she was a beautiful woman, had a great sense of humor, and a quick smile.

When she smiled, his breath caught.

Rosalyn was right.

He had the hots for Carly.

Although he’d been in several relationships since his divorce, they’d all been light, fun, about mutual pleasure. From the moment he’d met her, Carly had tugged at something deep that made him question the meaningless relationships he moved in and out of with the ease of a broken heart that didn’t allow anything more.

Memories of the past hit him, freezing him in place and making him question his interest in Carly.

Was she playing hard to get? Had he misread her? Or was there something more going on?

CHAPTER TWO

“SORRY I TOOK so long to bring your medicine,” Carly apologized to the elderly man lying in the hospital bed.

Although partially dozed off, he wore a thick pair of glasses, along with oxygen tubing and a nasal cannula. He opened his eyes and stared in her direction, blankly at first, then with vague recognition.

Carly was used to that reaction. Wasn’t it one she saw with increasing frequency from her mother?

Just as she did at home, Carly pasted on her brightest smile.

“I don’t need medicine anyway,” the man muttered grumpily and without making eye contact.

“Your medicine helps keep your heart in rhythm and will help get you out of this place and back home soon.”

The man snorted. “I don’t have a home.”

Carly had been taking care of Mr. Taylor for three days, knew his personal history, and understood his frustrations that his family felt he could no longer live alone. With forgetting to eat and frequent falls, he couldn’t.

“That’s not what your daughter told me when she was visiting yesterday,” Carly reminded him.

“She lied.”

Carly handed him the plastic cup that held his pills. “You don’t live with her?”

He thought a moment, then shook his head. He didn’t say more, just took the medications.

“Is there anything else I can get you, Mr. Taylor?”

“A new body.”

Carly smiled. She’d heard that many times over the five years she’d been a nurse.

“I wish I could,” she admitted. She wished she could do a lot of things when it came to making someone well.

Especially with her mother’s Parkinson’s and dementia.

What she wouldn’t do for there to be a cure to such horrific diseases that robbed one of their mind and body.

She checked his vitals, made sure his nurse-call button was within his reach, and left his room to check on another patient.

Mrs. Kim. A lovely little lady who’d had a surgically excised abscess on her chest. Due to the amount of infection and her weakened system, she’d been admitted for a few days for intravenous antibiotics to make sure the infection was knocked and to build up her strength.

Mrs. Kim’s family had been taking turns staying during the evenings and night, but during the daytime her family worked and the woman was usually in her room alone.

Carly popped in frequently to check on her.

Most of the time the pleasant woman would be enthralled in whichever game show she was currently watching, but the vision that met Carly’s eyes had her pausing in the doorway.

Looking distraught, Mrs. Kim was crying. Stone was at her bedside, holding her hand, offering comfort. Carly couldn’t make out his exact words, but she could feel their soothing balm.

Could feel her own eyes watering in empathy at Mrs. Kim’s distress.

Mrs. Kim grasped his hand in hers and was voicing her frustration over the wound that refused to heal in her chest, over how it was keeping her from her very busy life, and how she missed her two cats.

Whatever he said, Mrs. Kim weepily smiled, pulled his hand to her lips and smacked a kiss there.

“Thank you.”

She said more, but Carly couldn’t make out the words, just saw the woman’s lips move and then Stone throw his head back and laugh.

A real laugh. One that reverberated through Carly. Made her long to share such a laugh with him.

How long had it been since she’d laughed like that? Carefree through and through? With all her worries set aside in the joy of the moment?

Since she’d felt any real, all-the-way-to-her-soul sense of joy?

No, that wasn’t fair. She was happy, appreciative that she had her mother to go home to every day. It was what she wanted, what she’d choose given the choice. Every day was a blessing and to be cherished.

She did cherish life. She was not just going through the motions.

Thinking she’d come back later to check on Mrs. Kim, she turned to go, but the movement caught Stone’s eye.

“Carly?”

Pasting a smile on her face, she stepped into the hospital room.

Ignoring Stone, she met her patient’s gaze. “Hello, Mrs. Kim. I wanted to make sure you didn’t need anything. I see you’re in good hands.”

Mrs. Kim’s hand was locked between Stone’s and the woman smiled. “Very.”

“Is there anything you need?” She checked the woman’s IV settings and vitals. Feeling Stone’s gaze, she did her best to breathe normally, to function normally, and not make some total klutz move.

“Just to get better so I can go home.”

“We’re working on it,” she promised, then wondered if she should have deferred to Stone.

She’d never gotten the impression he was one of those high-ego docs, but she’d only known him a month.

One month, four days.

Okay, so she was counting.

He didn’t seem to mind her having answered for him. Possibly because he was too busy watching Carly’s every move. As a doctor concerned about what his patient’s nurse was doing? Maybe, but his expression was more inquisitive, as if he was trying to figure out what made her tick.

Good luck with that, she thought.

Actually, she was pretty dull. She worked and she took care of her mother. There wasn’t time for anything more.

Just ask her ex-boyfriend.

“I’ll be back in a little while to check on you,” Carly promised, heading out the door.

When she reached for the handle, she couldn’t resist glancing back. Her gaze collided with brilliant green.

His gaze holding hers, Stone smiled.

Something kicked in her chest.

Hard.

It might have been her heart skipping a beat or giving the strongest one in its twenty-seven-year history. Either way, she felt a little dizzy.

Carly’s lips parted, because she should say something, right? The man moved her in ways she’d forgotten she could be moved.

Or had never known she could be moved.

But nothing came out of her mouth and she scurried out of the room, before she did something crazy.

Like admit that the problem with Stone was that he made her long to explore all the emotions sparking to life inside her.

But she wasn’t free.

She needed to forget Stone.

Which was easier said than done since she saw the hospital’s prized new surgeon every day she worked and every time she closed her eyes.

* * *

Stone wasn’t wrong. He wasn’t sure why Carly had said no to going to dinner with him, but she was as interested in him as he was her.

Desire had flashed in those eyes of hers.

Desire, longing, and so much more.

Which left him in a quandary.

He’d been rejected before, didn’t have any desire to set himself up for another woman to walk away from him. But he needed to know why she’d said no when her eyes were begging him to sweep her off her feet.

* * *

“Hello,” Carly called as she walked into her quiet house. The same house she’d grown up in. The same house she’d probably live in the rest of her life. “I’m home!”

She was. The small once white, but now faded, house was home, was where her heart and lots of wonderful memories were. Memories of better times when her mother had been well, full of spunk and energy, sharp-witted and capable of doing anything she wanted.

But those days were long gone.

For once Carly had gotten off work on time so hopefully her mother would still be awake, would hopefully be clear-minded, and not in the fog her memory often got enveloped by.

Joyce, her mother’s nurse, came around the hallway corner and into the living room. “Busy day?”

Carly smiled at the sixty-something woman with gray hair she kept cut short and in loose, no-nonsense curls. A pair of thin gold-rimmed glasses sat on the bridge of her nose. She wore a Rolling Stones T-shirt with a big tongue on it and baggy, faded, rolled-up jeans that exposed slim ankles and flat white sandals.

Carly smiled. She and Joyce had an agreement the nurse wouldn’t wear a uniform. She wanted her mother to feel she had a friend, not a medical professional. Joyce appreciated not having to don scrubs any more, too, as she’d done so for almost forty years prior to “retiring”.

“They all are,” Carly said, putting her handbag on the small dining table in one corner of the room. “But that’s okay. I like to be busy.”

“Which is a good thing because goodness knows you have enough on your plate for three people.” Joyce tsked, shaking her head. “You need to slow down a little, and enjoy life before it passes you by.”

“I’m fine.” She was. Really, she was. So why did Stone’s face pop into her mind and doubt fill her heart? She. Was. Fine. “There will be time for slowing down long before I’m ready.” Which squeezed her insides and put things into proper perspective. “Speaking of which, how was Mom today?”

Joyce’s expression tightened. “Not great. Getting her to eat is a major ordeal these days.”

Carly winced. She knew from her own attempts to get her mother to eat. She seemed to have lost the will to live. “But she did eat?”

“She got her feeding tube meals, but by mouth.” Joyce shook her head. “She just doesn’t want anything.”

Carly nodded, knowing the nurse would have done all she could to get as many nutrients into Carly’s mother as possible.

“She struggled to communicate today,” Joyce continued. “Not that she tried saying much, but, when she did, understanding her was more difficult than normal. And most of the day she called me Margaret.”

Carly’s grandmother, who’d passed away years ago.

Taking a deep breath, Carly nodded again.

“But in other news,” the older woman began on a false hopeful note, “Gerald texted to say he picked up ten lottery tickets and one was sure to be a winner this time.”

Rubbing the back of her neck, massaging a knotted muscle, Carly smiled. Joyce’s husband struggled with a lifelong gambling problem. These days, he limited himself to no more than ten tickets in each week’s Powerball lotto.

“He says when he wins we’re gonna put your momma somewhere real fine and move you out of this place.”

Carly shook her head. “First off, I’d never let you do that and, second, I don’t want to move. You know this is where Momma wants to be. I’ll keep her here as long as I am physically and financially able.”

Always. She’d always keep her mother at home. She hoped and prayed.

Joyce waved her hand. “You know what I meant.”

She did. Joyce wanted to help, as did Gerald, to lighten Carly’s burden. But Carly had this. Precariously, but she was making ends meet. She’d worry about sorting out all the tangles and knots later...hopefully, much later.

“Thank you for all you do. Nothing more is needed.” She hoped it never was. “Just you taking care of Momma.”

Joyce made another loud tsking sound. “I don’t do nearly enough.”

“You’re here and that frees me to work without worrying about what kind of care Momma is getting. That’s huge.” As she thought about how different life would be without someone she trusted to care for her mother, Carly’s eyes misted. “If I don’t say thank you often enough, please know how grateful I am that I met you while doing my clinical rotation at the nursing home where you worked.”

Joyce’s eyes filled with love. “You say thank you about every other breath, and you know the feeling is mutual. Gerald and I love you and Audrey.” The woman hugged Carly in a big bear hug, gathered her belongings, and got ready to leave. “Don’t work too late into the night. You have to rest, too, you know.”

Carly nodded. She worked a side job for an insurance company going through medical claims. The more claims she processed, the better her extra pay. While sitting next to her mother’s bed, she’d work late tonight, processing as many claims as she accurately could.

“See you bright and early in the morning,” she told the woman she truly didn’t know what she’d do without.

Carly peeked in at her mother, saw she was resting, and went to the bathroom to grab a quick shower. When she’d finished and was dressed in old gray sweats and a baggy T-shirt, she checked her mother again, then went to make herself a sandwich before logging into the insurance company’s website.

Work waited. It always did.

But when she went back into her mother’s room, Audrey was awake.

“Hi, Mom. How was your day?” Some days her mother would answer. Some days her mother just stared blankly.

“S-same a-as a-always-s.” Although slurred, her mother answered, which made Carly’s heart swell. Did she know who Carly was today?

“Mine, too. Busy, busy, busy. Some of my patients are the same ones I mentioned to you last night, but I did have a couple of new ones.” Carly never gave names or identifying information, but chatted about her patients. She tried to make her stories interesting, to give her mother a link to the outside world as often as she could.

Audrey rarely left the house these days. When she did it was usually to go to a doctor’s appointment.

Before Carly knew it she was telling her mother about walking in on the new surgeon and how he’d been holding his patient’s hand, comforting her.

“I-i-is h-he h-h-handsome?”

“Gorgeous,” she admitted. “He’s also very kind and funny. The man makes me smile.”

Realizing she was going on too much about Stone, she glanced at her mother.

Her mother who was staring oddly at her. “Y-you l-like h-him?”

Oops. Not the first time today she’d been asked that.

But, unlike at the hospital, to her mother, she nodded. “He seems like a great guy.”

“Y-you sh-should g-go out with h-him.”

Her mother knew her. If she thought Carly was Margaret, she’d be scolding rather than encouraging her mother to cheat on her father.

“Mom, he’s a doctor. I’m a nurse. How cliché can you get?” She tried to keep her voice teasing and fun and similar to conversations they might have had during Carly’s teenaged and college years when Carly had dated, when she’d been wrapped up in Tony and thought he was her forever person. “Besides, Stone’s way out of my league.”

“Wh-why?”

“Because he’s such a great catch.”

“S-so a-are y-you.”

“You, my dearest mother, are the tiniest bit biased.” Carly stood, bent over and kissed her mother’s cheek. While her mother was with her, really with her, Carly wanted to milk the moment for every precious second. “Truly, he’s out of my league. Even if he wasn’t, it would never work.”

“Be-because of m-me?”

“Of course not,” Carly gasped. Never would she want her mother to think such a thing, never would she want her feeling guilt over Carly taking care of her to the exclusion of everything else. It was a privilege to take care of her mother. One Carly treasured and had never thought twice about...until Stone.

Darn him. That he made her discontent with the status quo was enough that she should dislike him.

“To-Tony,” her mother began.

Despite the slight thrill that her mother’s memory was working at the moment, Carly stopped her. “Tony was an idiot and I was lucky to be rid of him.”

She was. Any man who couldn’t understand that Carly had to take care of her mother, that her mother came first, well, he needed to hit the road. She’d needed Tony’s support; instead, he’d resented everything about Audrey.

“Tony has nothing to do with why Stone and I would never work. He and I are just not physically or economically compatible. That’s all.”

“I-if h-he th-thinks that then y-you are b-better off wi-without h-him.”

“Exactly.” Before her mother could talk more about Tony or Stone—why on earth had Carly mentioned him?—Carly launched into a tale about another patient, exaggerating to make the recounting more entertaining.

Because tonight her mother looked at her and saw her daughter. Sometimes that wasn’t the case.

Sometimes it was all Carly could do not to cry.

Sometimes she did cry.

But not tonight. Tonight she smiled and enjoyed talking to the weak woman lying in the hospital bed that took up a good portion of the bedroom.

Tonight her mother was mentally her mother.

* * *

“Any regrets?”

Having just stepped out of a patient room, Carly spun toward the sound of Stone’s voice near her ear and almost collided with him.

“About what?” she asked, stepping back because of his close proximity. He wore dark navy scrubs that made his green eyes pop.

She glanced up and down the empty hospital hallway. Although the nurses’ station was within view, no one was paying them the slightest attention.

“Not going to dinner with me last night.” His voice teased, but his eyes asked real questions.

“Not a single one.” The truth. She prized the evening she’d spent with her mother until she’d dozed off and Carly had worked on insurance claims late into the early morning hours.

Stone’s sigh was so dramatic someone should give him an award. “Pity.”

Despite knowing the best thing was to walk away, to not encourage him in any shape, form, or fashion, she couldn’t resist asking, “Why’s that?”

His gaze locked with hers, sparkled like an emerald sea. “We’d have had a good time.”

She rolled her eyes. “Spoken like a true man.”

“Meaning?”

“Men automatically think you getting to spend time with them means you’ll have a good time.” Tony had thought that. “That’s not always the case, you know.”

His grin was quick. “We should test that theory.”

Step away, Carly. Don’t get pulled in by his charm.

“By?” she asked, unable to follow her own advice, and wondering how long they could linger in the hallway prior to someone taking notice.

“Going to dinner with me tonight.”

Her gaze met his. “I’ve already told you no to going to dinner tonight.”

“That was yesterday. Today’s a new day.”

“My answer hasn’t changed.”

“It should.”

Rosalyn stepped out of a patient room, glanced toward Carly and Stone, and stopped to stare.

“That’s a matter of opinion,” Carly quipped.

Obviously, Rosalyn’s opinion ran more along the lines of Stone’s. Grinning big, she gave a thumb up.

“Your opinion is that you should deprive yourself of dinner with me?”

“Deprive myself?” Carly snorted, then shook her head at Rosalyn. “I’ll survive just fine if we never go to dinner.”

Turning, Stone shot a grin at Rosalyn, who smiled back, then headed toward the nurses’ station.

“You won’t know what you’re missing.”

Shifting her weight, Carly squinted at him. “Is that supposed to bother me?”

His eyes flashed somewhere between serious and teasing. “It should.”

“Why?”

“Because there’s something between you and I.”

Her breath caught. She felt it. He felt it. Thoughts of her mother were all that kept her from throwing herself at the mercy of whatever he wanted. She had no time for a relationship, no energy for a relationship. Everything she had, and more, was already claimed.

“You’re wrong.” She smiled tightly. “There’s nothing I want from you.”

“Why don’t I believe you?”

Because I’m a horrible liar and usually pride myself on being a person who tells the truth, but with you...

She didn’t want his pity. Or his rejection if he felt the same as Tony had.

“I don’t know,” she replied, not meeting his eyes. “Why don’t you?”

“Because you’re not telling the truth.”

She hadn’t expected him to call her bluff, and her gaze shot to his. “How dare you say such a thing?”

“Because it’s true.”

She lifted her chin in indignation, partly feigned, partly real, at his arrogance. “So your word gets taken as the truth, but not mine?”

“In this case, yes.”

“What an ego you have, Dr. Parker.”

“Stating facts doesn’t make me egotistical.”

Carly put her hands on her hips and glared at him with the sternest look she could muster. Not an easy thing to do when he was grinning at her with his brilliant smile and twinkling eyes.

“Is there a point to this conversation?”

“Just enjoying your company.” His tone was teasing, but the glint in his eyes said he told the truth.

If she were honest, she’d admit she was enjoying his company, too. Which was ridiculous considering what their actual words were. Was she really that desperate for any scrap of his attention?

“I’ve work to do.” She glanced down the hallway and caught Rosalyn and a nurse’s aide watching them.

“Am I interfering with your work, Carly?”

“Yes.” Carly’s head hurt. Or maybe it was her heart.

“How so?”

“You’re distracting me.”

His eyes danced. “You’re admitting you find me distracting? Finally, we’re getting somewhere.”

She bit the inside of her lower lip, then shook her head. “Dr. Parker, I shouldn’t be having lengthy personal conversations while on the clock.”

“Which is why you should go to dinner with me tonight. We could have lengthy personal conversations to our hearts’ content.”

She wanted to. She wanted to say yes, go to dinner with him, and stare into his eyes all evening. Longer.

But, even if she could, how unfair would that be to him? Very. To lead him, or anyone, on was wrong.

She should tell him, should apologize for smiling when he sat with her at break, for laughing at his corny jokes, for looking at him and longing for things outside her grasp.

But she couldn’t find the words, so she hurried away, dodging into a patient room to avoid both the man she could feel watching her and her two co-workers anxiously waiting to question her.

She didn’t think of herself as a woman who ran from her problems. But, at the moment, running from temptation, and the questioning thereof, seemed the best course of action.

CHAPTER THREE

“CAN I HELP you with that?”

Carly peeped at Stone from over the top of the box she carried through the hospital corridor. He’d changed out of his navy scrubs into his own clothes, black trousers and a green polo shirt that perfectly matched the color of his eyes. She fought sighing in appreciation. The man should be in movies, not a hospital operating room.

“I’ve got it,” she assured him. “Thanks anyway.”

Ignore him and maybe he’ll go away. Not likely, but maybe.

“That box is bigger than you are.”

The sturdy box was more bulky than heavy. Inside were expired medical supplies the hospital couldn’t use. Carly had gotten clearance from upper management to take the expired supplies home with her. No one at the hospital knew about her mother, but they did know she sat with someone on her days off work.

There might not be a thing she could use. But Carly would go through the box, pull out what she could use, and take the rest to a free health clinic for the uninsured that could hopefully make use of the items.

“You look like it’s all you can do to keep steady. Quit being stubborn and let me help you, Carly,” Stone insisted, his voice sounding off a little.

He had a point. Plus, Carly’s fingers ached from gripping the box so hard and she was curious why his voice wavered. “Fine.”

He took the box from her with an ease indicating it weighed no more than a feather, then beamed as if he’d done something amazingly chivalrous. Whatever had caused the waver, he was all smiles now.

“Lead the way.”

As in to her car.

She didn’t want Stone to see her reliable, but old sedan. Whereas most people didn’t notice the little details in Carly’s life that hinted things might not be fairy tales and roses, that sharp mind of his would question things she didn’t want questioned.

She didn’t want him making her question things.

Pushing the hospital door open and holding it for him, she sighed. “Of all the people who offered to help, it would have to be you.”

“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you didn’t like me.”

“I don’t know you well enough to like or dislike you,” she said as she made sure the hospital door completely closed. “I only know you from the hospital and what little interaction we’ve had here.”

“I keep trying to correct that.”

“You want me to know you well enough to dislike you?” She pretended to misunderstand in hopes of redirecting the conversation. Besides, he deserved a little taking down.

Rather than look offended, he laughed. “I’m hoping you’ll swing the other way and like me.”

Fighting a smile, she narrowed her gaze at him. “But you’re admitting there is a distinct possibility I won’t?”

“It’s not been a big problem, but you wouldn’t be the first.” He cut his eyes toward her. “For the record, I’d prefer you like me.”

“Noted,” she said, keeping a step ahead of him as they crossed the employee parking lot.

“Go to dinner with me, Carly.”

He was asking her again. How could something be so unbelievably dreamy and such a nightmare at the same time?

“I can’t.” Part of her wanted to. Part of her wanted to grab her box and run.

Despite how she’d hightailed it from him earlier, she didn’t run from her problems. She dealt with them head on and chin up.

Just as she had with Rosalyn and the nurse’s aide’s teasing questions about Stone.

“Because?” he prompted.

Because she had to relieve Joyce. The retired nurse was wonderful, never complained if Carly worked overtime, but, otherwise, Carly always came straight home.

“Are you involved with a married man?”

Almost tripping, eyes wide, Carly spun toward Stone. “What? Are you crazy? Of course not. What would make you think that?”

His gaze, not so twinkly at the moment, stared into her eyes. “No one knows anything about your private life, yet you say you’re busy.”

She glared for real. “Because I’m not interested in you that means I must be sneaking around with a married man?” She rolled her eyes. “Get over yourself, Dr. Parker.”

He winced. “That’s not what I meant.”

“It’s what you implied and I don’t appreciate it.” Was that what he’d taken away from the short bits of time they’d spent together? That she was a woman who would mess around with a man who’d vowed himself to another woman?

“I’m sorry. That’s not what I meant to imply.”

Hanging onto her anger proved difficult when his apology was full of sincerity. Frustrated with herself, she put her hands on her hips. “Then say what you mean.”

He shifted the box. “Regardless of what I say, I upset you.”

“You should take the hint and not say anything, then.”

“What’s the fun in that?”

“What’s the fun in upsetting me?” she tossed back and took off toward her car in a fast walk.

“You’re right,” Stone said from right behind her. “I take no pleasure in upsetting you. The truth is I want to do the opposite.”

“You want to take pleasure in upsetting me?” She pretended to misunderstand, again. She felt contrary and purposely misunderstanding gave her a little reprieve. Asking if she was seeing a married man! The nerve. “Thanks, but no, thanks.”

Okay, she might be latching onto that to throw a wall between them. She needed whatever shield she could find to protect her from the charm he exuded.

Digging her key out of her pocket, Carly unlocked her old economy sedan, then hit the button on the car-door panel to unlock the back doors. She opened the backseat door, tugging a little extra hard where the door often stuck, then stepped back for Stone to put the box onto the seat.

He made sure the box wasn’t going anywhere if she slammed on her brakes or took a curve a little fast, then faced her. “Is it me, then, or men in general?”

“Is your ego so big that you just can’t fathom I’m not interested?”

He closed the car door and moved to where he stood right in Carly’s personal space. “My ego isn’t that big and if it had been, you’d have corrected that.”

Ouch.

“What I’d like,” he continued, “is to know why you say you aren’t interested when I’d put money on the fact you are.”

Hands digging into her hips, she glared. “You’d lose your money.”

“Would I?” His question was gentle rather than mocking. “I’m not sure what changed yesterday, Carly. I’m not blind. I’ve seen how you look at me. It’s the same way I look at you. With interest. If my delay in asking you out is the problem, know it wasn’t from lack of interest. On the days I haven’t worked, I’ve been traveling back and forth from Atlanta to settle up everything with my move.”

Any spunk Carly had left her like a deflating balloon.

Any woman would be flattered at Stone’s attention. If his ego had been huge, it would be with good reason.

And she was flattered by his attention.

But his attention was a distraction she didn’t need because she had to stay focused. Losing focus could mean everything falling apart and she couldn’t allow that to happen.

Plus, how could she in good conscience involve any man in her crazy life? Just look at how Tony had balked and her mother hadn’t been nearly as needful at that time.

She closed her eyes. “It would be simpler if you’d move on and forget whatever interest you have in me.”

“Do you remember when we first met?”

Stone’s question caught her off guard. Her eyes popped open and she stared at him.

“You were coming out of the medical supply room and bumped into me,” he continued, his gaze searching hers. “You almost fell over yourself apologizing.” A soft smile played on his lips. “I thought you were the prettiest thing I’d seen in a long time.”

Vanities were not something Carly had the time or money to indulge in. She kept her hair in a no-maintenance style of long and natural to where she could pull it up and not bother with highlights or salons. She hadn’t worn make-up since college. Money was too tight for such frivolities. His calling her the prettiest thing stirred up a thousand butterflies in her belly.

“I think that right now.”

His words set every butterfly into fluttery flight. Oh, my. Carly gulped.

“You must have had your eyes closed a long time, then.” She fought to keep from putting her hand over her stomach.

Studying her, he shook his head. “You were in these same blue scrubs, but had on different shoes. Your laces were bright orange rather than neon green.”

He remembered what she’d been wearing when they first met? That her shoe laces had been a different color?

“You are a lovely woman, Carly.”

To which she could only say, “Thank you.”

Embarrassed, feeling a little shaky at the knees, Carly glanced around the employee parking lot and caught sight of a co-worker curiously looking her way, the nurse’s aide who’d been with Rosalyn earlier.

The woman called out, “Goodnight.”

Carly waved and wished her a good evening as well, then frowned at the man still standing too close.

“She’s a wonderful person, but does tend to gossip. No doubt, everyone will know you were at my car with me.”

“Then we should give them something to talk about.” The eye-twinkle was back.

Horrified, Carly shook her head. “No, we shouldn’t.”

She needed her job, couldn’t risk anything creating waves at her place of employment. Not even the temptation in Stone’s eyes.

He sighed and raked his fingers through his hair. “You’re right. Sorry. I seem to have a one-track mind where you’re concerned. Give me your address. I’ll follow you home and carry the box inside.”

“Not going to happen.” No way would she be able to explain to Joyce why a handsome doctor had followed her home. Carrying a heavy box in wouldn’t begin to satisfy the protective older woman’s curiosity.

As for Stone’s one-track mind, why was her body heating up at the possibilities of what he’d meant?

“Are you capable of saying yes to anything I suggest?”

Yeah, she was being ornery. For her own safety and sanity. His, too.

“Probably not,” she admitted, giving a wry smile.

“I’m a pretty straightforward guy. I’d like to date you, Carly. I’ve been trying to get to know you and thought we were until yesterday. If my overhearing your conversation with Rosalyn upset you that much, I truly am sorry.” His tone was appropriately repentant. “I want to take you out, talk with you, dine with you away from the hospital, and eventually kiss those lips of yours that I find myself thinking about way too often.”

Insides shaking, heart pulled into a tug-of-war between need and want and guilt, Carly closed her eyes. “I can’t do this.”

“You can’t talk to me?”

“I can’t hear you say those things,” she clarified, not opening her eyes. In a tug-of-war of its own, her mind raced between logic and emotion and loyalty to her mother.

Stone wanted to date her. Stone wanted to kiss her. She’d not been kissed in so long. Not since Tony.

Suddenly the need to be kissed, to feel like a woman, to feel alive and wanted and young, burst free and filled every cell of her being to overflowing.

Which was what made Stone so very dangerous to all she held dear.

He could make a total disaster of her life.

“Because?”

Had his voice been closer? She thought so, but she didn’t open her eyes to check. She couldn’t look, couldn’t see whatever was in his magnificent green eyes.

Stone tempted. Tempted her to want things she shouldn’t want.

Couldn’t want.

Couldn’t have.

Which didn’t seem to matter because she was a woman with normal urges and he made all those urges come on full force whether she wanted them to or not.

Probably the rest of her life she’d look back and wish circumstances had presented her with the option to throw caution to the wind with Stone Parker.

To forget the pain of Tony turning his back on her.

To embrace all the warmth and urges Stone stirred.

Because she’d like him to kiss her. Had not been able to stop the late-night thoughts about what it would feel like to be kissed by him.

Now, he’d said he wanted to kiss her.

How was she ever supposed to get him out of her head when he’d verbalized things she’d fantasized?

“Carly?”

His voice was so close, her name whispered against her cheek.

“Hmm?”

“Open your eyes.”

She bit the inside of her lower lip. “I can’t.”

“There’s a lot of things you say you can’t do, lady.”

“Exactly. You should run.”

“I don’t believe there’s anything you can’t do.”

He was definitely closer. She’d swear she just felt his breath tickle her ear.

“For the record,” he continued, “I’m not going anywhere.”

The brevity of his words dug in deep, breaking through barriers that were best left alone.

“Not unless you tell me to,” he clarified. “Then I will leave you alone, because I’m not some psycho stalker, just a man wanting to date a beautiful woman.”

Tell him to go away.

Tell him sticking around is futile.

Tell him...

Stone’s lips brushed against her hairline, near her ear. Soft, gentle, tentative. Not a sexual kiss, but one full of longing and question and space. Space that gave her control of what happened next.

Carly’s eyes shot open, stared into his eyes, and she wondered at what she saw there.

Desire, confusion, so much she couldn’t label.

“Tell me you aren’t curious, Carly. Tell me I’m crazy when I look in your eyes and see a kindred desire. Tell me to put you in your car, watch you drive away, never think of you again, and I’ll try to do just that.”

Tell him.

Not to do so would be selfish.

Self-destructive.

But her lips refused to cooperate so she said nothing.

“Tell me what you want, Carly.”

She didn’t know what she wanted.

Not true. She wanted him to do exactly what he’d said he wanted to do. She wanted him to kiss her.

Crazy.

She wasn’t free to have a relationship. To pull some unsuspecting man into her chaotic life wouldn’t be fair.

Plus, with two jobs and her mother, she barely slept as it was. Where would she fit in a relationship?

She opened her mouth, determined to tell him she only wanted a professional relationship, that he needed to forget about her and whatever it was he thought he’d seen when she looked at him.

So why did she hear her address spill from her lips?

She was crazy. She couldn’t let him into her house, couldn’t let Joyce or her mother hear his voice.

Surprise lit in his eyes, then, with a smile, he nodded. “I’ll follow you home and carry in the box.”

What had she done?

And why?

Because she wanted to know what it felt like to kiss Stone?

It wasn’t as if she were actually going to kiss him.

Only in her deepest darkest late-night fantasies and even then she barely gave her mind license to imagine Stone’s lips against hers.

She’d made a horrible mistake by giving him her address. Just what did he think it had meant? If he was thinking he was staying the night, he was going to be in for a rude awakening when he realized an invalid woman also lived at Carly’s address.

Carly got into her car, leaned forward, and rested her forehead against the steering wheel.

Clearly, she’d lost her mind.

Or maybe, because she hadn’t been able to verbalize the reasons why they could never be, her subconscious had taken control, and was going to confront Stone with the harsh reality of why he needed to forget her.

That harsh reality had certainly scared off the last man Carly had brought home.

* * *

Had Carly given Stone a bogus address?

If she had, Stone couldn’t say he’d be surprised.

He hoped she hadn’t, but had to wonder. She’d thrown it out at a point where the last thing he’d expected was an invitation to her home.

She hadn’t technically invited him to her house, but hadn’t that been what giving her address to him had essentially been?

As he’d only moved to Memphis a month before and was still learning the city, he programmed the details into his GPS and noted she only lived six minutes from the hospital and about fifteen from him as he lived over the bridge on Mud Island.

At least, he’d know pretty quickly if she’d told him the truth. And if she hadn’t?

Well, that should tell him that she wanted him to leave her alone.

Only she didn’t want that. He knew she didn’t.

She hadn’t even been able to say the words.

He’d flirted with her at the hospital on more than one occasion. She’d flirted back. Not overtly, but her smiles and sassy eye flashes and little laughs at his jokes had all been leading up to something. What had happened yesterday that had her scurrying back?

No matter how many times he replayed the conversation, he couldn’t fathom what had put her on the defensive.

Not quite liking the looks of the run-down neighborhood and having been warned not to go wandering around parts of Memphis he was unfamiliar with, Stone questioned again if Carly had given him a made-up address. He turned onto her street, and, best as he could tell, the houses on the street were small, older, but decently cared for.

His GPS told him he’d arrived at his destination and he pulled up his SUV outside a small once-white frame house that even in the dark he could tell needed some major TLC. Much more so than the surrounding homes.

That surprised him.

Carly was meticulous in her care of patients and all that she did at her job. To ignore upkeep on her home didn’t fit what he believed about her. He could be wrong, but he struggled to wrap his mind around the neglect that registered.

He wouldn’t have guessed her to live in the house of obvious worst repair on her street.

Then again, maybe she rented the place and her landlord was the slacker.

As a nurse, she made a decent salary to where she could afford to move if she was renting and things weren’t up to par. If she had some long-term lease that had her trapped in the run-down house, maybe he could call on a lawyer friend to get her into something better maintained.

He would help her find another place.

A place closer to his on Mud Island.

There was another car, a much newer sedan, parked in the drive beside hers. Did she have a roommate?

She must have just pulled into the short gravel driveway right before him as when he turned off the SUV’s engine and opened his door, Carly got out of her car.

“You really didn’t need to do this,” she said immediately, before he could ask about the other car. “Yes, it’s bulky, but I would have gotten the box inside without any problems. I was doing just fine before you came to my rescue.”

“No need to risk hurting your back when you have me.”

Whether she wanted him or not, he planned to help Carly because he suspected more was going on than met the eye with the woman who’d captured his imagination.

CHAPTER FOUR

STONE WAS AT Carly’s house.

Now that he was there, what was Carly supposed to do with him?

Let him carry the box to her porch and send him away?

It was what she wanted to do, what she was tempted to do.

Somehow she didn’t think he would agree to it though. He had that “let me be your knight in shining armor” look that she’d seen in the movies her mother enjoyed watching, but that Carly had never seen in real life.

Until now.

If Stone went inside, it was quite possible her mother would be asleep and Carly could avoid that explanation. But Joyce would be there and ready to head to her home to spend the evening with her husband.

Joyce seeing Stone would raise questions. From Joyce, but perhaps more so from Stone.

Maybe she could have him set the box just inside the doorway and get him back outside prior to Joyce realizing they were there. Before Stone realized there was someone else in the house.

Unlikely, but she could try.

Or she could just tell Stone everything.

Which made her stomach hurt.

She didn’t want him to feel sorry for her or feel obligated to offer help. The past had taught her people might think they wanted to help, but most only offered idle words.

She had this. She could take care of her mother.

She could, she was, and she would.

Or was it that she was afraid he’d pull a Tony?

Wasn’t that what she actually needed him to do? What would be best for her and Stone?

So, why was she hesitating?

“It’s no problem,” Stone assured her, pulling Carly back to their conversation as he lifted the box out of her backseat.

“Thank you.” She shut the car door then moved ahead of him to unlock her front door.

She turned, wondering if Stone would be agreeable to drop the box in the foyer and leave.

Maybe she was a runner after all, because if she could escape this moment, her tennis shoes would be getting a desperately needed workout.

Stone carried the box, stopped just inside the doorway and asked, “Where would you like me to put this?”

She pointed to a small wooden bench that had once upon a time belonged to her long-gone grandparents. “Right there is fine.”

He set the box down. “What’s in this thing, anyway?”

“Stolen goods from the hospital.”

His eyes narrowed.

Nerves still shaking up her insides, Carly grinned. “Gotcha.”

His lips twitched. “Maybe a little.”

“It’s expired hospital supplies that were going to be tossed,” she admitted, wondering if she was strong enough to toss him out the front door before Joyce saw him. The nurse must have been tied up with Audrey or she’d have already greeted Carly.

Stone glanced toward the box. “What do you do with the supplies?”

She shrugged. Best to stick with the truth. “Use what I can and donate the rest. Let’s go back outside.” Please. “I think I left something in the car.”

“Oh.” He turned toward the front door, but they were too late.

“I thought I heard voices in here,” Joyce said, entering the room, then stopping when she spotted Stone.

Carly’s stomach dropped.

Startled, Stone glanced toward Carly, then back at the woman who was gawking at him as if she didn’t believe her eyes. She must not have because she was adjusting her glasses as if they’d stopped working.

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