The Doctor's Perfect Match. Arlene James

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СКАЧАТЬ guard, female, slid out from behind the steering wheel and walked around to take the chair after Eva vacated it. Leland opened the passenger door for Eva, kissed the security guard on the cheek, reducing the hefty woman to giggles, and rushed around the front of the car to the driver’s side, his overcoat flapping with the force of his strides.

      Eva was buckling up when he dropped down behind the steering wheel. He followed suit, tossed a wave at the still-tittering security guard and put the car in gear. Eva shook her head.

      “You have no shame, do you?”

      “What on earth are you talking about?”

      “You kissed the security guard! It’s not enough the nurses are all in love with you? You must have the security guard, too?”

      He rolled his eyes. “For your information, she’s family.”

      Eva blinked at that. “Oh. Well, in my defense, everyone’s wrong sometimes.”

      Starting the engine, he shook his head. “She’s my late wife’s cousin, actually, and she’s married. And she has two grown children. And her husband is disabled.”

      Those two words, late wife, rang inside Eva’s skull like a bell, reverberating repeatedly. Late wife, late wife, late wife...

      “All right already,” Eva cried melodramatically. “I was wrong. So shoot me.”

      “I’m just saying.” He hunched his shoulders.

      Eva trained her gaze on the scenery passing by her window. Okay, she conceded silently, so he really was rather likable, when he wasn’t being all handsome and knowing and authoritative.

      Several minutes passed before he spoke again. “And the nurses are not all in love with me. Actually, none of them are in love with me.”

      She chanced a glance at him and found him scowling. “How do you know?”

      “I just do.”

      “O-kay.” A smile almost surprised her. She had to work at keeping it away. She got very interested in the scenery again.

      A few minutes later he said, “You’ll need to have those stitches removed in about a week.”

      “Will do.”

      He pulled an envelope from inside his coat and tossed it into her lap. “Give that to the doctor who does it.”

      She looked at the envelope but not at him. “All righty.”

      Shifting in his seat, he added, “I suggest you get a good night’s sleep before you drive.”

      Turning back to the window, she gave him a noncommittal answer. “Very well.”

      After a few more blocks, he said, “Don’t throw that envelope away.”

      “I won’t.”

      “I mean it.”

      She finally looked at him again. “I said I wouldn’t. What’s with you?”

      “I tucked a few bucks in there, if that’s all right with you,” he snapped. Then, more mildly, he added, “You said you were broke.”

      “Oh.” Surprised and truly chastened, she looked down at the envelope. “That’s very kind. Thank you.”

      “No problem,” he muttered, staring straight ahead.

      A few seconds later the comfortable car turned into the grocery store parking lot and stopped.

      Eva looked around. So did Leland. Then they looked at each other.

      “Uh-oh,” he said.

      She chose a more colorful word. “Crud.”

      Her van was gone.

       Chapter Two

      “There were only four payments left!” Eva Belle Russell squawked. “And I just had it repaired.”

      Brooks dropped the small cell phone into his coat pocket, sighing deeply. “According to the police, you were four payments behind. They had no choice but to impound the vehicle.”

      What a mess. At least he had learned her name and that the vehicle had been financed through a bank in the Kansas City area, though what good that information did him, he wasn’t sure, especially if she continued to refuse treatment.

      “Well,” she drawled, employing that broad wit of hers, “my aunt always said I’d wind up a streetwalker. Looks like she was right. Literally.”

      She reached for the door handle, but of course he couldn’t let her just get out and walk away, not in her condition. Objecting would undoubtedly cost him, though; in fact, he had to make himself do it. She actually got the door open and one foot out before he could speak.

      “Eva, wait.”

      She looked around at him. “Got my name, did you?”

      “Eva Belle Russell.”

      She wilted, sinking back into the seat as if defeated by the simple fact of being known. “What are you going to do?” she asked warily.

      “Depends. How much trouble are you in?”

      Some of her spunk returned. “My head’s cracked. I’m broke. I’m stranded. My car’s been repossessed! Is that enough for you?”

      “Are you in legal trouble?” he demanded.

      “No!” She folded her arms, muttering, “Other than the repossession thing. And I guess that’s taken care of now.”

      “I mean, criminal trouble,” he clarified.

      She gaped at him. “You think I’d be going without meals if I didn’t have scruples?”

      That made a certain sense. A criminal would have simply shoplifted her next meal or walked out on an unpaid bill. He supposed the threat of repossession could be reason enough to want to keep her identity a secret, though with the original license plate hanging out there for all the world to see, such secrecy felt pointless. On the other hand, given her physical condition, who was to say that she was even thinking clearly? He wished she’d let him take the EEG. That, however, was not the immediate problem.

      “Is there anyone you can call?” He knew she had a cell phone on her and that it contained no preprogrammed numbers and not one iota of personal information.

      “No.”

      “Where are you headed? Maybe I can take you there.”

      She pulled in a deep breath. “Um, what’s the next town of any size down the road? Waco?”

      Obviously she had no real destination in mind. The СКАЧАТЬ