Love Songs by Barbara Delinsky Page B

Ms. Evans.” Leaning down, he placed a sober kiss on her cheek in a show of defiance before levering himself off the bed, straightening his robe with dignity and stalking barefooted to the door. “And you , Nurse Frazier, had better wipe that smirk off your face. Hmm,” he paused, eyeing her closely as Alanna followed the action from her bed, “what happened to the timidity that gave you such tact earlier?”
    “That timidity, Mr. Knight,” she countered with an utter absence of the quality in question, “vanished with your clothes. As soon as you shed them you became my responsibility. As is Ms. Evans. And I will have no hanky-panky in this sleep lab.”
    Alanna stifled a grin, but Alex was less successful. His head fell back as he chuckled broadly. “Hanky-panky?” He finally caught himself. “This isn’t hanky-panky. I plan to marry that woman.” One steady hand pointed back toward the bed, then shifted to his hip. “What you interrupted was a lovers’ tryst, a meeting of minds and hearts and bodies—”
    “Enough, Mr. Knight!” Sylvia threw her hands up in exasperation, then clamped one on Alex’s arm and ushered him through the door as though he were a recalcitrant child. “Back to bed.”
    Though Alanna had been unable to see his face during the exchange she had clearly heard his humor. Annoyed as she was that he should reveal his bizarre whim to a third person, the situation was suddenly funny. Or was it the fact that it was nearly four in the morning and she was strangely light-headed? Or was she light-headed because of Alex’s lovemaking? Regardless of the possibilities, the roguish glance he had cast over his shoulder at her just before he disappeared had done nothing to bring her down to earth. Sylvia did, however, returning quickly to—of all things—wire her up again.
    “Oh, Sylvia,” Alanna opted for sheer honesty, “my mind is humming, my face is flushed, my pulse is racing—and you’re really going to record that for posterity?”
    The nurse was well aware of the predicament, as her knowing mock-glower suggested. “It may be the only way to keep him away from you for the rest of the night.” The older woman stopped fussing over her equipment as she reran the earlier conversation in her mind. Her expression was suddenly kind. “Are you two really going to be married?”
    Alanna grinned mischievously. “Alex seems to think so. But he’s in for a rude awakening. I have no intention of marrying anyone. Not to mention the fact that I only met him for the first time tonight … in the cafeteria.”
    “Oh, dear,” Sylvia moaned, “I’m afraid that was my doing. I had no idea he’d make a pest of himself. It’s usually the women who pester him!”
    Alanna could only muster a pointed “Oh?” before the nurse rushed on. “Of course, it’s about time he did settle down. I’ve known his family for years now. They spend their share of time here in the hospital, what with donating such large amounts of money and all. They keep track of everything that happens here—”
    “As though they owned the place?” Alanna couldn’t restrain an echo of her earlier statement to Alex, but regretted its sting instantly.
    Sylvia, however, didn’t seem to mind. “They’ve been very generous and they happen to be lovely people, every last one of them.” Absently she began to reconnect the electrodes.
    Alanna saw the opening and she quickly took advantage. “Every last one of them? Just how many Knights are there?” Though the Knight name frequently graced the pages of the local papers Alanna had never followed the family in detail.
    The nurse laughed. “You’d sometimes think there are one thousand and one Knights, what with their presence around this hospital. Let me see,” she rolled her eyes, “there are the senior Knights, the junior Knights, and five Knights of your Alex’s generation, not to mention a handful of grandchildren, most of them born right here in this