Never Too Late by RaeAnne Thayne

Author:RaeAnne Thayne [Thayne, RaeAnne]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Suspense
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2005-05-27T05:00:00+00:00

Hunter leaned back in the uncomfortable chair in the E.R. waiting room of the Tupelo hospital and surveyed Kate in the chair across from him.

She had bloodstains on her shirt, her hair had slipped free of the casual ponytail she’d pulled it into that morning and her makeup had washed away in the drizzle that had descended on them while they were trying to get Mr. Monroe into the ambulance.

She looked bedraggled and tired and worried, and he had to just about sit on his hands to keep from reaching for her.

How was it that she seemed to grow more beautiful with every moment they spent together? Physically, yes, he had always thought her attractive. Even without makeup her features were elegant, soft and lovely like a woman in an old-world painting.

But more than that, she was beautiful, deep inside where the rest of the world couldn’t see. She had faced down two little dumb-ass punks to protect an elderly blind man with nothing more than her own courage—and now she refused to leave the hospital until they made sure she found the man’s treatment acceptable.

“It took three layers of stitches but everything’s closed up tight now. They’re just bandaging him up but I thought I’d better come find you to give you a status report,” she said.

“I appreciate that. You know, I didn’t realize part of our trip itinerary was a tour of hospitals across the country,” he couldn’t resist adding.

She made a face. “I’m sorry. I had to come along. I don’t suppose it makes sense to you but in a way Mr. Monroe feels like a patient of mine. I couldn’t just leave him alone in a strange city.”

As someone who used to have the same level of caring about his own job, he had to admire her dedication to her chosen profession; at the same time, part of him seethed with envy. How long had it been since he’d cared about anything that passionately? He couldn’t remember—and he wasn’t sure he ever would again.

“Are they keeping him overnight, then?”

“The attending physician is pushing hard for it. He seems like a bit of a jerk. But Mr. Monroe is a stubborn one—he insists he’s got to leave. The Nutcracker is waiting.”

Hunter studied her. “You want to take him to Memphis, don’t you?”

A hint of color dusted her cheekbones and she gave him a sheepish look. “The thought had occurred to me,” she admitted. “I just don’t feel good about sending him off alone on a Greyhound with his injury. If I really were his doctor, I would order him to bed for a few days but I don’t think he would take that advice.”

“You do realize Memphis is more than two hundred miles out of our way round trip, right?”

She fretted with a loose thread on her sweater. “Yes. And you’ve already done so much for me, I know I can’t ask this of you, too. I don’t know, maybe I could call the daughter and have her come get him.

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