The M.D. Courts His Nurse by Meagan McKinney Page A

You and Rick should still be eating dessert.”
    â€œWe never got to dessert,” Rebecca assured her, placing ironic emphasis on the last word. “In fact, we never even got into the main course. I just now popped some three-day-old quiche Lorraine into the microwave. I’m starving.”
    Hazel’s voice took on a steel edge. “Don’t tell me Rick stood you up, hon? If that—”
    â€œOh, heavens, Hazel, that would’ve been wonderful if he did that. The man’s a walking trivia handbook. Did you know that?”
    â€œNow you mention it,” Hazel replied evasively, “maybe Larry said something about that.”
    â€œMaybe?” Rebecca repeated ironically, still suspecting that she’d been “wrangled” by a master rancher.
    â€œOh, it couldn’t’ve been all that bad. It seems harmless enough, don’t you enjoy a little escapism?”
    â€œHazel, I mean it, say anything and he starts spouting facts. But he’s got no use whatsoever for a conversation, he’s all boring monologue. I thought you said he was a lot of fun?”
    â€œNo, dear, I told you his brother Larry said that. Family loyalty, I guess.”
    â€œI s’pose,” Rebecca agreed, not quite believing her friend but lacking any solid evidence against her. “Well, that’s the last time I take an accountant’s recommendation on romance. Hazel, are you sure this date was on the up-and-up?”
    â€œWhy, what’s got into you?”
    Briefly, Rebecca summed up the fiasco that ended in a flat tire and a ride home with John Saville.
    â€œAnd I’ll just bet,” Hazel said, “that you were snotty with your boss, weren’t you?”
    For a moment Rebecca remembered his strong-jawed profile as he drove, felt his hand brushing her leg, the pulsing throb of the car’s engine. It wasn’t him, she thought crossly—the physical reactions to his nearness were just my body reminding me I’ve been a virgin for way too long now.
    â€œI was rather…crisp with him, yes,” she admitted. “But there’s no other way to deal with him. I tried to be nice, and he jumped all over me. See? He’s more like Brian than I could have imagined. I guess I’m just not upper-crust enough to deserve any respect. He treats me just the way all the other doctors—”
    â€œOh, phooey, Paul Winthrop didn’t treat you that way, and you know it. I’m not one to love doctors, girl, ’cause at my age I go to way too many of ’em, but there’s good in them. You just can’t see it anymore because you got your heart broke.”
    Rebecca sighed. “Once burned—well, you know the phrase, Hazel. But I’m better off for the scars. Now I can see where I’m going to get into trouble, and John Saville is definitely the heartless type. There are way too many women chasing after him. And boy, can he turn on the charm when he wants to. You should have seen the grin he had on his face when Louise Wallant arrived one day. And she wasn’t there for a physical, either. She strolled right into his private office and shut the door. I hear the whole town’s burning up with gossip about the two of them—and they’re a perfect match. She’s just what I would have pictured for the ‘real’ Brian. She looks just right on Dr. Saville’s arm, too.”
    â€œYou’re wrong, Rebecca. Why, even you said he jumped all over you.”
    â€œYou know I didn’t mean that literally.” Rebecca rolled her eyes and smiled. “So I’ll ignore that one. But, look, if he likes me now, I’d hate to get on his bad side.”
    â€œI’m not pushing you at him,” Hazel assured her. “You’re a big girl. You make up your own mind. But I don’t expect a catch like him to be available forever.”
    â€œOh, don’t worry about that. He won’t stay