Sweet On Peggy. Stella MacLean

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ a printer groaned to life, disgorging a narrow strip of paper. She tore it off and stood up. “Please follow me,” she said with a backward glance over her shoulder, that smile making him feel like a fifth grader.

      Rory followed her, all the while his mind going over the possibilities. She wasn’t wearing a wedding band, and her name tag said her first name was Peggy. He sat down in the chair she pointed to, resting his injured arm on the armrest while he watched her efficient movements. So efficient, in fact, that she was suddenly standing beside him with a bunch of tubes and a needle.

      “Hold out your right arm, please,” she said, whipping a tourniquet from her pocket as she laid the other supplies on a steel tray next to his chair.

      The scent of her hair, the gentleness of her touch distracted him so much he nearly missed what she’d said. Hastily, he straightened out his arm. She swabbed the bend in his elbow. She pressed her fingers into the space she’d swabbed, holding her needle angled toward his arm. “Make a fist.”

      Oh, no. His stomach rolled. He gasped.

      She stopped, the needle poised over his arm. “Are you all right?”

      He sucked in a chest full of air. When was he going to outgrow this childish fear of needles?

      It’s now or never unless you want this gorgeous woman to know you’re a complete wimp. “Yes. Of course.” He made a fist.

      She bent her head in concentration. Her presence filled his senses. He wanted to reach out with his injured arm and stroke her short-cropped brown hair, run his fingers along her neck...

      “Just a little pinprick.” The needle entered his arm.

      He watched in nervous fascination as she put each of the tubes into the sleeve attached to the needle, watching in horror as the blood flowed in.

      “Open your fist,” she said as she continued to withdraw his blood.

      Hell, what had the doc ordered? He gritted his teeth to keep from asking what all the blood was for. He didn’t want to know. All he wanted right now was to be done with it.

      “There. You can release your grip on the arm of the chair. Wouldn’t want you destroying hospital property, would we?” she asked, a quirky grin on her face as she pulled the needle out of his arm and put pressure on the spot. “Keep your arm up for ten minutes. Do you want me to put tape on it?”

      He couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her—her hair, the skin at her neck, her scent, all flowery...warm... He met her questioning look.

      “Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked.

      “Me? Yeah, sure,” he said.

      “Well, then, do you want me to put tape over the gauze dressing on your arm?” she asked, a look of bemusement on her beautiful face.

      “No. Yeah. Maybe you’d better. I have to get back to work.”

      * * *

      SHE HAD SEEN the expression on his face as she’d drawn the blood. Rory MacPherson was nervous. A grown man who was afraid of needles. Peggy Anderson had met a few of them before, but none as handsome as this one. His smile surrounded her like a gentle breeze, making her hesitate before taking the blood samples from the tray beside him. His address was one of the few apartment buildings in Eden Harbor, on Salem Street. Most people planning to stay in Eden Harbor bought a house, as houses were easily available with so many people moving away to other parts of the country to find jobs.

      He was about to get out of the chair and leave. Eden Harbor didn’t have many young, single and gorgeous men. “Where do you work?” She’d never seen him before, and she knew most of the locals because sooner or later they ended up in here getting blood drawn.

      He eased back into the chair and met her inquiring gaze. “I’m a carpenter. I work for myself. I hurt my arm running a saw. Just a nick, though, so that’s good.”

      His eyes were fascinating, and very, very blue; his smile intrigued her. He didn’t wear a wedding ring, but that was no guarantee that he was unattached. She’d made that mistake once before and had paid the price in total embarrassment tokens, her measure of yet another unsuccessful attempt at meeting a man.

      “How long have you been in Eden Harbor?” she asked as she took his blood samples to the counter behind her, placing each in their appropriate slots on the tray.

      “Not long. In fact, I’m just getting my business under way. I’ve met some pretty wonderful people here.”

      She turned around to find his gaze openly moving over her. She’d grown accustomed to that look and ignored it. Men were shoppers, and window-shopping was their entry point in getting to know the merchandise, or so one of her ex-boyfriends had said.

      “I...I’d better get back to work,” he said, getting to his feet. “Thanks for being so gentle. I’m not good at getting my blood taken.” He stood up, hugging his injured arm to his chest. She had to admit he was truly tall, truly handsome and almost certainly unavailable.

      Yet his gaze held hers in a way that made her feel so totally connected, as if she was the only thought on his mind. In her experience, most men didn’t spend a lot of time looking at her face in favor of some other part of her anatomy. “Being gentle is part of my job.”

      “I’m afraid of needles. That’s the very first time I didn’t feel like I was going to faint. Like a tree falling over.” He swung his uninjured arm in a wide arc. “I usually sit for a while. To cover my embarrassment I make conversation with the tech taking my blood.”

      “Is that what you were doing with me?”

      “No! No. I wanted to talk with you. I mean really talk.”

      “About what?”

      “About maybe you and I going out somewhere. Nothing serious. Just coffee. I don’t know many people in Eden Harbor, and you could introduce me around,” he said, his smile totally disarming.

      “To somebody more interesting, you mean?” Well, at least he didn’t pretend he wanted to date her.

      He rubbed his face with his free hand. “I didn’t mean that the way it came out. I...I’d like you and I to get to know each other, maybe be friends.”

      She couldn’t help but smile at his discomfort. It was so endearing. “Are you this smooth with all the women you meet?”

      “Didn’t know I was being smooth. Thought I was just being honest.”

      The last man pretending to be honest had talked her into paying his bill for fixing his car. Not one penny of which she’d gotten back.

      He hugged his injured arm to his chest as he stared down into her face, his smile so exciting it made her wish she wasn’t so distrustful of men.

      “Okay, so I’ll take your silence as a no,” he said as he moved toward the door. “Thank you.”

      The way his jeans hugged his butt made her rethink her position. Eden Harbor was hardly crawling with eligible men. Her nightlife consisted of going to the pub with friends once a week and playing volleyball with the local women every Wednesday night. And what harm could СКАЧАТЬ