Quite the Catch Read Free Page B

a few minutes but
now, his brief burst of energy ebbed away, as awareness of his many pains
returned with vengeance. “I don’t feel very good.”
    “I
didn’t think you would. Let me check how your temp’s doing.”
    Tina
thrust the digital device into his ear and this time when it beeped, she
grinned.
    “You’re
back to normal,” she told him. “Ninety-eight point six. In the morning, after you’ve rested, we’ll see if you’re up to taking a shower
and I’ll clean your wound again. It’s gonna ’ take a
few days at least, of taking it easy, to recuperate.”
    His
sense of time, like everything else, seemed skewed. “Morning? What time is it now?”
    “It’s
after dark,” she told him. “It’s around eight thirty.”
    “How
long have I been here?”
    She
titled her head to the right. “About six hours, I think. Go to sleep if you
can. It’ll help more than anything.”
    Joshua
shut his eyes and willed the pain to stop. It didn’t but a wave of fatigue
threatened to swamp him. He yielded to it as the powerful pain reliever spread
through his body. A stray thought struck him and he opened one eye. “Is this
your bed? I don’t want to take your bed. I can sleep on a couch or something.”
    “It’s
not,” Tina said. “My room is upstairs but I’ll be looking in on you a lot, so
if you wake up, I’ll probably be here.”
    He
would rather she sleep and told her so. Tina laughed. “I worked night shift for
years and I’ve never quite adjusted to sleeping at night. I wander a lot
anyway.”
    Drowsiness
clouded his mind but he managed to ask another question. “You told me the
truth, right? About seeing me jump and all? You’re not really my girlfriend or
something, playing some elaborate joke on me?”
    “Yes,
I told the truth,” Tina said with quiet dignity. “And no, I’m not your
girlfriend. I never laid eyes on you until today. I’m just a good Samaritan type
trying to help someone in need.”
    “Okay,”
he said. As he drifted off to sleep, he mumbled, “That’s too bad. I could do a
lot worse.”
    Once
he realized what he’d said, Joshua wanted to take it back and erase it from her
memory. He couldn’t believe he’d said such a bone-headed thing, even though he
meant it. Tina possessed a lot of what he liked in a woman, a quiet beauty,
charm, and capable hands. She nurtured, and although a lot of guys didn’t care
for that, Joshua appreciated it. On some deep level, down somewhere he couldn’t
remember, he thought he needed some tender care. He’d meant the statement as a
compliment but women could be tricky. She might take it wrong and be insulted. Maybe she’ll take it the way I meant it, in
a good way. Or maybe she didn’t even
hear it. That’d be best.
    He
gave up that hope when she sighed, soft and low. Joshua kept still, eyes shut,
and pretended to be asleep. Tina tucked the blankets around him and brushed
back his hair from his face. “So could I,” she said aloud. “So could I,
Joshua.”
    Then
her lips touched his forehead in a light kiss. Yeah, it was the kind of kiss
you’d give a little kid or an old man, but he liked it anyway, probably too
much. He wouldn’t have read anything into the gesture if she hadn’t spoken but
because she had, he did.

Chapter Three
     
    Tina
kissed Joshua—something she would never have dared to do if he’d been awake. She
shouldn’t have yielded to the temptation but a warm rush of caring prompted the
action, a chaste kiss on the forehead. Although she tried hard to chalk up her
feelings for being a nurse, she knew better. This man with no memory and
trouble on his tail appealed to her. Her last relationship with one of the
doctors at the hospital ended when his fiancée from Connecticut arrived, and since
then she hadn’t bothered. Her long shifts and tense duties in the ER hadn’t
been open to much of a relationship and once Gramps
became ill, her focus had been on his health.
    Get a grip, Barlow. Don’t