Part 7 (1/2)
”I'll pick you up at ten-thirty, if nothing comes up. If I can't make it, I'll ring.”
She searched his lean face with quiet, curious eyes. Things had altered between them. She didn't understand how, but they had.
He sighed, catching her face in his hands to lift it. ”I don't want to leave you,” he whispered, bending to her mouth.
He kissed her softly at first, and then hungrily, deeply, slowly, so that she curled up against him and moaned under his demanding mouth.
He lifted his mouth slowly, reluctantly. His breath was as ragged as her own. ”After church, we'll have a picnic. I'll pack something and we can pick it up after the service.”
”I'll have to change.”
”So will I.” He kissed her eyelids, feeling233.
the wonder of being with her. ”I hope it doesn't rain.”
”Me, too,” she whispered.
He kissed her again, very gently. ”See you in the morning. Lock the door,” he added firmly, glancing back as he left, his eyes dark and warm and possessive.
Kitty didn't sleep. Her heart raced every time she thought about the wonder of the dance. Drew had become entwined with her, so closely that she couldn't bear the thought of losing this magic.
Apparently he couldn't, either, because he was right on time to pick her up for church. They sat close together in the pew, barely aware of watching eyes, and shared a song-book. After the service, they held hands on the way to his Mercedes.
He dropped her off to change clothes and picked her up on his way back from changing his own clothes and retrieving the food he'd already packed for the occasion.
He drove them to a quiet riverbank with a small stone table and benches, and spread a disposable cloth over it to put the picnic basket on.
”This is fun.” Kitty laughed, looking sum-234.235.
mery in her yellow-and-white sundress and sandals.
Drew glanced at her with pure appreciation. She looked young and pretty and very s.e.xy with that low-cut bodice that left tantalizing skin bare.
He was wearing slacks and a green sports s.h.i.+rt. He looked younger, much more relaxed. As he unloaded the food, Kitty noticed his left hand and realized that they still had a very long way to go. He was wearing his wedding band. He never took it off. Of course, it was early days yet, and Kitty was more optimistic than she'd ever had reason to be before.
After they finished the cold lunch, Drew stretched out on the gra.s.s with a sigh.
He opened one eye as Kitty m.u.f.fled a cough. ”Brought your s.p.a.cer, I hope?”
She nodded.
He closed the eye and smiled. ”Good girl.”
She lay down beside him, drinking in the peace and beauty of the secluded spot.
”A free Sunday,” he murmured drowsily. ”I haven't had a free Sunday in years.”
”You haven't wanted one, I'll bet.”
He smiled. ”No. I haven't.” He rolled over and stared at her. He searched her face quietly. ”I want a lot of things lately that I thought I'd learned to live without. Come here, Kitty.”She went to him without protest, sliding into his arms as naturally as if she belonged there. He rolled her over beside him and kissed her.
Long, drowsy minutes went by while she savored his touch on her body, his kisses hard on her mouth. For a while, the world seemed very far away indeed.
Finally, she lay completely against him with her cheek on his rapidly moving chest, catching her breath.
”We should do this every Sunday,” he murmured, his eyes closed. ”I'm only really required to be on call one Sunday a month.” He smiled, contented, and sighed. ”All it needs is a child running around, doesn't it, Eve?”
Eve. Kitty froze in his arms. She felt as if every single hope died in her, right there.
He cursed under his breath. He heard himself say his late wife's name with complete shock, because it was Kitty he was holding, Kitty who was in his mind. Habit, he thought, died hard.
His regret was too little, too late. Kitty was already on her feet, gathering things together.
”I didn't mean to say it,” he said when they were back at the car.
She shrugged. ”I know.” She managed a credible smile. ”It's still too soon, isn't it?”256.237.
He looked at her hungrily, searching for words to repair the damage he'd done.
”It's all right,” she said softly. Her eyes were sad, at variance with her light tone. ”But can we go home? My favorite show is on tonight, and I really don't want to miss it Okay?”
”Okay.” He drove her home, and he still hadn't found the words to apologize when he left her at her door.
She cried herself to sleep. She was so overwrought that she forgot to take her medicine. To compound it, she walked to work, right past a huge lawn that was being mowed. She'd no sooner made it inside the office than she collapsed on the floor, coughing so violently that she thought she was going to choke to death.
At some level she was aware of Drew bending over her and then slinging orders at Nurse Turner as he lifted her.
”Hold on, darling,” he said at her ear. ”Hold on! It's all right. Try not to panic!”
He sounded as if he needed those words spoken to him, Nurse Turner thought as she watched him rush out the door with Kitty in his arms. She phoned right through to the hospital emergency room and told them he wason the way, and gave them his instructions. The way he looked, he wasn't going to be in much condition to give orders when he got there.
Sure enough, Drew was half wild when he slammed on the brakes in front of the emergency room. A nurse and the resident physician rushed out with a gurney and scant minutes later, Kitty was in a cubicle being saturated with bronchodilators.
Drew was cursing steadily, while the staff stood by, wide-eyed, and listened. Probably learning new words, Kitty thought through her discomfort, because he was eloquent. His face was dark with color and his eyes were blazing like black fires. It was flattering that he was so concerned about her, but she wished he was quieter with it. The emergency room staff- the whole hospital staff-would have a gossip feast that would last weeks.
When she was able to draw breath again, she tried to explain. ”They were...mowing gra.s.s, and I didn't have...a mask,” she said before she was stuffed right back into the mask to inhale the rest of the bronchodilator he'd prescribed.
”Why the h.e.l.l were you walking to work in the first place?” he demanded coldly. ”When did you use your preventative?”238.239.
She grimaced. ”I meant to have it refilled...”
”G.o.d deliver us from idiots!” he raged. He paced the room, mussing his hair. He glanced irritably at his watch. ”I'll have patients screaming their heads off!”
”Go back to the office, then,” she growled through the mask, and then coughed at the effort it took to speak.
”I'll go where I d.a.m.ned well please!”