She darted past her to empty the water and to hide her embarrassment. Colleen had been watching them from the doorway, and her grin made Kate uncomfortable.
Kate listened to their conversation from the bathroom. She looked at herself in the mirror and saw a flush on her cheeks. Her feelings had become too obvious. She’d become overly protective. Adam was feeling better. She should back off…but she couldn’t.
Kate swished the basin under the water, wiped her hands and stepped back into the room.
Colleen swung around, a look of surprise on her face. “I wondered where you’d gone.”
“Just emptying the basin,” she said, sinking into a chair.
Colleen left the foot of the bed and sat beside Adam on the corner of the mattress. “I just stopped by to see how you’re doing.”
Adam flung his arms to his sides. “Take a look.”
“Not bad. Looks like you have a fresh shave.” She sent Kate a grin.
“He was getting prickly,” Kate said, trying to ease her discomfort.
Adam tousled Colleen’s short spiky hair. “Don’t you need a haircut?”
“Speak for yourself.” She mussed his dark curly locks. “Anyway, I’m also here for Kate. We’re heading for your town house.” She faltered a moment. “Mom told you?”
Adam nodded, and Kate realized his pain had grown noticeably worse than before. “The folks have an extra key.”
Colleen reached into her pocket and dangled it in front of him. “I have your car key, too. She might as well use that sleek silver sports car of yours.”
A look of panic rose in Adam’s eyes, but the pain washed it away, and he sank deeper into the mattress without a comment.
“See,” Colleen said, “he’s in total agreement. Ready?” She rose and took a couple steps toward the door.
Kate lifted a finger. “One minute, okay? I want to go check on a couple things before I leave.”
“Sure. No hurry,” Colleen said. She stepped closer to Adam’s bed. “The longer I’ve been here the more rotten you look. Can I do anything?”
Adam shook his head, wishing everyone would just leave him alone, but that was his pain talking. “No. I’ll be fine once I get my pills.” He closed his eyes, willing away the driving ache that seemed to pulse through his body.
Colleen sank to the edge of the bed again and patted Adam’s shoulder. “From what I saw, I think you’re doing fine right now…if you get my drift.”
“Cut the jokes. I’m miserable.” He opened his eyes and caught a grin glinting in Colleen’s eyes.
“Can’t be miserable with Kate around. You’re not fooling me, you know. How long has this been going on?”
“What?” Adam sorted through her comment, trying to make sense out of it. “What’s going on?”
“I’m your sister, Adam. It’s obvious. Kate’s been sitting here day in and out, worrying about you. You don’t think she’s here to collect your life insurance, do you? She’s crazy about you.”
“You’re out of your mind.” Adam said the words, but the truth hung over him like a beacon. “Get out of here and let me suffer in peace.”
Colleen chuckled and backed away. “I know you’ve had some memory loss, but you’re not blind, brother. You’d better take a good look.”
“Good look at what?” Kate asked, coming into the room. “By the way, they said they’re on the way with your meds. I’ll see you later.”
Colleen linked her arm in Kate’s, gave a wave and steered Kate through the doorway without answering.
Adam heard her chuckle echo from the hallway.
Finally alone, Adam rolled with the pain throbbing in his chest. His mind muddied with his misery, but Colleen’s words tumbled through him and pulsated as deep as the pain.
Kate?
His mind flew back to the days before the shooting. He’d enjoyed Kate from afar, fearing if he let himself admit the growing feelings, he’d be lost.
He admired her nursing skills. She showed wisdom and intelligence working with patients. Her compassion and control amazed him. On long days when his composure had stretched its limit, Kate stayed calm and collected.
She was a beauty, too. Beautiful inside and out. He’d thought so from day one. But she’d always seemed standoffish, and he’d probably encouraged it with his attitude. He’d strutted around the clinic with his self-importance that built a barrier between him and the truth. What was he trying to hide? Why was he afraid to let the real Adam Montgomery be seen?
He’d been flawed from childhood with his preoccupation with things. He’d made his microscopes and lab equipment his friends and had avoided people. Sure, he’d had competition. A good-looking brother and a feisty sister who’d made life wonderfully difficult. His father had expected the best, and he’d worked hard to be the best. He had reached his goal. He was a respected plastic surgeon, but he’d lost something in the process. His humanity…or at least, his sociality.
Still he and Kate had enjoyed some good times together. He remembered how lovely she’d been the evening they’d watched the sunset together—the orange sun sinking to coral and spreading on the horizon; the canopy of color spewing warm highlights in her blond hair.
And the lagoon. They’d laughed that day when he’d been frightened by an animal in the brush. He’d jumped back and tripped over himself trying to get away. They’d joked about the mangroves that appeared to be taking a walk through the swamp on their long gangling roots. Silly things filled his mind.
But he’d held back. He’d called her Katherine while everyone called her Kate—a stupid way to try to control his feelings.
He pictured her sitting in the chair by the window the day he’d wakened. He’d thought her an angel…and maybe she was. She’d watched over him day and night according to everyone. But why was she there? Did she revel in seeing him humbled and defenseless? Was this only another example of Kate’s compassion and kindness?
Or could Colleen be right?
Chapter Eight
Colleen’s SUV flew along Union Boulevard past Colorado Springs Country Club and Palmer Park. Kate saw the town houses from the highway with Austin Bluffs in the background. Colleen turned off the highway and wound the vehicle through the streets until she slowed and pulled along the curb.
Kate got out and gazed at the three-story gray buildings with wide windows to offer a view of the surrounding mountains and the lush green of the park. The view filled her with a sense of freedom. When Kate shut the passenger door, Colleen rounded the car and tossed her the house keys.
Kate clutched them as they headed up the walk, her heart fluttering at the thought of living—albeit temporarily—in Adam’s home. She turned the key and pushed open the door.
Inside, Kate faltered, gazing at the expansive rooms. She could have put her old apartment inside the living room. “It’s great,” she said to Colleen.
“Mom and I decorated it. If we’d left it to Adam, he would have lived with the white walls and hand-me-down furniture. Sometimes I think Adam has no class.”
Kate felt her jaw sag at Colleen’s comment. Adam was pure class in Kate’s opinion. She let her gaze travel over the neutral walls with a rich navy sofa and burgundy draperies. The wide window in front offered a wonderful view of the park, and when Kate turned, she saw the foothills from the back window.
She thought of her own small apartment, which looked onto a parking lot and the side of another building. So much for scenery. Her shoulders rose as Kate envisioned the two different lifestyles. She was longing for the impossible.
“Let me show you around,” Colleen said, motioning her to follow.
Kate walked behind her through an attractive dining room and into the kitchen.
“Adam never entertains,” Colleen said. “He uses the kitchen to make coffee. Instant probably.” She flashed Kate a smile.
“Follow me.” She hurried on ahead, and Kate tagged behind up the stairs.
Colleen led her to a bedroom and chuckled when she
saw Kate’s reaction.
“I love it,” Kate said, walking into a room with a tulip border and ruffled toss pillows. “How did you manage this?”
Colleen grinned. “We tricked him.”
Kate wandered to the window and admired the same lovely view of the park.
“This is yours. The bathroom’s in the hall. The room next door is Adam’s office. You can snoop around there when you need something to put you to sleep. The walls are white.”
Kate loved Colleen’s feisty sense of humor. With all the comments, Kate could see the love in her eyes for Adam.
When they returned downstairs, Colleen showed her Adam’s gym in the walkout basement and the below-ground-level garage housing the sports car.
“It’s a stick shift,” Colleen said.
“I can handle it.” Kate added, “I think,” to herself. She hadn’t driven a stick in years.
“I have your bags from my folks’ house in the trunk. I’ll bring them in. Then I have to run. I have an interview for that feature I told you about.”
“How’s it going?”
Colleen nodded. “I wasn’t getting anywhere at first, but then I found a couple of women willing to open up. It’s turning out to be more than I expected. I think Sam and my editor will be happy.”
“Good for you,” Kate said.
Kate joined Colleen outside, and in moments her bags were upstairs. As she looked around the tulip-bordered room, reality settled over her. She was in Adam’s home and faced with a kind of intimacy that rocked her.
After Colleen said goodbye, Kate sank into the plush sofa and gazed through the window at the rugged park with cactus and piñon pines lining the trail. The blue sky feathered with clouds rested against the rolling landscape, sending her heart on a wavering journey. Being in Adam’s home, she inhaled a musky scent she’d come to recognize as his.
Kate pushed her hand against her heart, realizing how foolish she was to allow herself to imagine a relationship with him. She had nothing to offer. He had everything.
As Kate surveyed the masculine luxury, truth hit home again harder than before. Adam was not only a self-made man, but stemmed from a family with status and expectations. She’d become a lowly nurse who worked her way through college and who inherited nothing from her past except memories. Sad memories.
Shame filled Kate as her thoughts probed the past. Her mother had done the best she could. Kate knew she should be grateful for her Christian upbringing. That was one thing that held her fast and it was a gift no one could take away from her.
Pride. Vanity. They had no place in her life. She’d done the best she could with what she had and wasn’t going to let Adam Montgomery and his privileged background make her feel any different.
“I am worthy,” she said aloud, but her mind told her it wasn’t so.
Adam opened his eyes and saw the angel. Kate sat in the chair by the window, the light shining through her hair as it had the day he’d first awakened from his injury, but this time she wore a bright red top that warmed her fair skin and sent color to her cheeks. The color licked his senses like flames in the hearth, warming him and taunting him with dangerous thoughts.
He watched her in silence, her head lowered, her fingers turning the pages of a paperback. How many hours had she made a vigil at his bedside? His own personal angel. The thought made him grin.
He turned on his side, forgetting his IV, and pain jabbed his arm while another throb rolled through his stomach. He couldn’t contain the moan that bellowed from his throat.
Kate flew to his side like an arrow. Bull’s-eye. She had her hand on his arm, helping him to settle back against the mattress and the irritating sheets that kept him mummified.
Adam wanted freedom. He wanted to escape this sterilized beige-walled prison that had once been his safe haven when he was well and caring for his own patients. Now he was one, too.
And it had been too long. About the time he’d begun to make headway with the bullet wound, the infection took over.
“I hate this place.” His head bounced back against the pillow, jarring him again. “I don’t even know what day it is.”
“It’s still Saturday. All day.”
He gave her a fiery look. “I need to do something. Walk. I don’t care about pain or IV needles. I’ll never get my strength back if I don’t move.”
Kate shook her head and shrugged. “Great idea. I’ll help you. Just let me check with the nurse.”
He swallowed his demand as she left, realizing he’d just initiated his own torture.
In a moment, Kate returned with a walker and slid it toward him. “I think this is the right height for you.”
“Forget it. I’m not using a walker.” His pride soared, but Kate didn’t flinch.
“Yes, you are. And they have orders to get you up today anyway, so you’d be doing it whether you wanted to or not.”
Adam witnessed color rising in her cheeks and the spirited way she flitted around him…as if she were in charge. No one controlled Adam Montgomery. The words smacked against his head like a mallet. His shoulders sagged, and Adam faced the truth.
He had no control over his life at this moment. The hospital…and the good Lord were in charge. He whispered a thankful prayer that God had been on his side or he’d be walking with real angels and not the one tempting him with her tight red top and smug smile.
Kate helped him ease to the edge of the bed and slid a robe up one arm, then draped the other side over the shoulder of the arm that had the IV. He had no desire to prance around the hospital corridors with his backside on display.
Before he stood, a nurse came through the doorway. “Here’s your pain meds. You’ll want them before you walk.”
He longed to knock them out of her hand to prove he didn’t need anything or anyone, but reality struck him. As his father always said, cockiness in this situation would be cutting off his nose to spite his face.
Adam took the pills and accepted the paper cup of water. He swilled it down and watched the nurse leave the room.
Kate hovered nearby, steadying the walker. Her amber eyes taunted him as she watched him lean forward to lift his weight.
Adam gripped the walker, frustrated with the whole situation. He felt helpless and vulnerable for the first time in his life. He hated the feeling. Weakness overcame him, and he stood a moment to catch his breath.
“I can’t take another minute of this. I’m tired of being helpless and—”
“God doesn’t promise us a life without pain or suffering,” Kate said, her face so close to his as she clung to the other side of the walker. “The Lord promises to be there when we need Him.” Her eyes filled with sadness, and the look confused him. “Have you asked God for help?”
Shame poured over Adam like a rainstorm. He’d been so busy feeling sorry for himself, he’d forgotten about God’s mercy.
Kate put her cool palm against his hand. “You don’t have to count on yourself or on anyone. Only the Lord. My favorite verses from Second Corinthians say, ‘Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.’ I’ve tried to live by those words, Adam.”
Her words startled him. “You remembered all of that?”
A faint smile curved her mouth. “Do you remember your address? Your telephone number?”
He nodded, wondering if she’d flipped out. What did that have to do with anything?
“The scripture is more important than either of those. It guides our feet down a different path. One that’s lasting. Those verses have saved my life…at least, my sanity.”
He thought a moment, his curiosity aroused by her last statement, but also, the deeper meaning of what she’d said. Adam didn’t ask questions. He sensed she would resent his prying. Instead, he leaned forward, hoping to raise himself with her help.
Kate stood back, giving him s
pace to get accustomed to the walker. When he felt confident, he slid his feet forward, weakness buckling his knees. He clung to the support with a death grip and eased his way to the door with Kate beside him pushing his IV stand.
As they moved, Kate’s body brushed against his when he swayed. He could smell her sweet aroma—flowers and sun, a fragrance that drew him back to Santa Maria de Flores. Her heels tapped against the tile, matching the rhythm of his heart. Awareness ran down his arms. So close, yet so distant in many ways. He barely knew her.
He crept down the corridor a few doorways, then stopped to catch his breath. “I feel like a child learning to walk.”
“It takes time. Don’t be discouraged.” She squeezed his good arm. “You’ve been through so much.”
“I think I’ll go back,” he said.
She didn’t argue, and he inched around and shuffled back, angered with each step. Anger or fear?
He paused to calm his irritation and a thought struck him. “Did I tell you the FBI showed up before you got here?”
She shook her head. “Was it awful?”
“No, but they weren’t thrilled I couldn’t remember any details. I had to explain it to them six times.”
“Persistence solves crime, I suppose.”
He managed to move his body forward again. “I have to admit they were thorough.”
When they’d reached his room, he crumpled onto the bed. Kate helped him remove the robe, and he sank backward.
“A little each day, Adam. It’ll become easier.”
He noted her concerned expression. His guardian angel. She’d even reminded him to pray, which he hadn’t even thought of. It was time he asked for the Lord’s help.
Unbidden, he grasped her hand and pulled her closer. “You’re a beautiful woman inside and out, Kate Darling.”
She drew back, her surprised expression shifting to a frown.
Her reaction startled him.
“You’re delirious,” she said, and stepped away.
He was. Deliriously falling for Kate.
His skin prickled as he passed Montgomery’s room. He’d seen him shuffling down the corridor with a walker, and it made his heart feel good to see the man miserable. Seeing Montgomery’s confidence as shaky as his weakened legs filled his heart with triumph. The only element that spoiled the picture was his very private nurse who seemed glued to his side.
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