“But what happened?” her mother asked, stunned by her daughter’s vehemence since she rarely lost her temper. “From what Dan said about him, he was nice but reserved. What did he do? You just took him a cake. Why would he be rude about something like that? Most men would have been thrilled to have someone cook for them.”
Janey would have preferred not to discuss it—now or ever. Just thinking about the things Reilly had said to her brought the painful sting of a blush to her cheeks. But she knew her mother and Dan. They were both as protective as mother hens, and they wouldn’t let the subject die until they had some answers.
Left with no choice, she blurted out, “He thinks I had an ulterior motive.”
“Good Lord, how? You just baked him a cake.”
“He accused me of setting my sights on him and told me I was wasting my time. He wasn’t interested.”
For a long moment there was nothing but stunned silence. Embarrassed to death, Janey couldn’t bring herself to look either her mother or Dan in the eye, so she didn’t see the surprise that flared in their eyes—or the sudden smiles they quickly bit back.
“He didn’t want to help with the decorating committee for the Christmas festival, either,” she added stiffly. “When I offered to introduce him around some other time, he made it clear that wasn’t going to happen. He was busy.”
Dan winced at that, feeling responsible. He’d only been trying to help, and instead, he’d messed up everything. “I’m so sorry, Janey,” he said gruffly. “I never meant for you to get your feelings hurt. I know he’s still grieving for his wife, but he can’t take his anger out on other people. I’ll talk to him.”
She should have let him. Every instinct she had urged her to jump at the offer. Then she wouldn’t have to deal with the oh-so-conceited Dr. Jones anymore except on a professional level. She wouldn’t have to speak to him, be nice to him, even acknowledge his existence on a personal level, and that sounded just fine with her. After the way he’d treated her, she wanted nothing to do with him ever again.
But even as she considered letting Dan fight her battles for her, she knew she couldn’t. She wasn’t the helpless female type—she never had been. Her parents had raised her and her sister, Merry, to stand on their own two feet and handle what life threw at them with confidence. She didn’t go running to her brothers or Dan or any other man when something difficult cropped up. She took care of it herself. She’d do the same with Reilly Jones.
The glint of battle lighting her brown eyes, she raised her chin a notch. “I appreciate the offer, Dan,” she replied quietly, “but I can handle Dr. Jones just fine all by myself. Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go up to bed. I run rescue tomorrow night, so it’s going to be a long day. Good night.”
She turned and sailed proudly out of the room and never saw the speculative looks her mother and Dan exchanged. In the quiet left by her leavetaking, Sara arched a brow at Dan. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
He nodded, his lips twitching with wry humor. “I’ve never seen her this way before. Reilly’s definitely stirred her up.”
“And she seems to have done the same to him. But do you think that’s possible, Dan? Maybe we’re reading too much into this. After all, Reilly’s still mourning his wife. And Janey…”
She hesitated, searching for words to describe her oldest daughter. “I’ve prayed that she would meet someone someday and find happiness with a good man she could share her life with. But she never seemed to want that for herself. She’s always been so dedicated to her work. And if she ever took an interest in any of the boys she went to school with, I never knew about it. She just always seemed so content to be alone.”
“Maybe that’s because the right man hadn’t come along yet,” Dan replied.
“And you think Reilly might be that man?”
He shrugged. “It’s too soon to say. But they definitely seem to have struck sparks off each other.”
“But he’s still in love with his dead wife!”
There was, unfortunately, no denying that. “And a part of him will always love her. They obviously had a wonderful relationship, and you and I both know how hard it is to let go of something that was so perfect. But a man can only take so much loneliness before he’s forced to admit that the woman he loved is gone forever. If he doesn’t want to be miserable the rest of his life, he has to let go of the past and find someone else.”
He spoke from experience. After months of heartache and long, empty nights he’d thought would never end, he’d come to accept the fact that Peggy was never coming back. Admitting that had been the hardest thing he’d ever done. It was like losing her all over again. He’d cried for days. But then, when his tears had dried, a peace unlike anything he’d ever known before had settled over him, and he’d gradually begun to heal. He’d found himself looking forward to each new day rather than dreading it. And that’s when he’d looked up and found Sara.
Just thinking about that day he’d noticed her as a woman for the first time still brought a smile to his lips. She’d smiled at him just as she always did, and every nerve ending in his body had sat up and taken notice. It had shocked the hell out of him. Up until then she’d always just been Sara, the widow of his old friend Gus, and one of Peggy’s best friends. For years the four of them had been like family, spending holidays and special occasions together, and that hadn’t stopped with Gus’s death. Sara and the kids had still been a huge part of his and Peggy’s life, and never once had he looked at her as anything other than a friend.
Then she’d smiled at him one day, and everything changed.
He loved her. It still amazed him how much. And she didn’t have a clue. Oh, she knew he loved her as a friend, but that apparently was as far as she thought it went. She didn’t begin to suspect the depth of his feelings for her, and he didn’t know how to tell her. He loved her and needed her in his life, but he wasn’t sure if she would want anything more from him than friendship. So rather than risk losing her completely, he kept his feelings to himself and they went on as they always had.
“There is another possibility,” she said. “I’ve never known Janey not to get along with anyone before, but this could just be a case of a personality clash between the two of them. They might not be attracted to each other at all.”
“That’s true,” he agreed. “Whatever it is, I’m sure they’ll work it out. After all, it’s not like they can avoid each other. Not when they’ll be working together at the nursing home and the hospital.”
Watching Janey and Reilly come to terms with the sparks they rubbed off each other would, in fact, be damned interesting. For now, though, it was his own romance he was concerned about. “But enough about the youngsters,” he said, abruptly changing the subject. “What I want to know is when are you going to go out with me?”
It was an old joke between them, one that went back to that day when he’d first looked at her in a new light and realized that his feelings for her went much deeper than friendship. Caught up in the headiness of his newfound emotions, he’d asked her out, and she’d mistakenly thought he was joking. At the time he couldn’t blame her. She’d been spending a lot of time with him, helping him through Peggy’s death, and the town gossips had begun to wonder if they were dating. He’d suggested they go out to give the busybodies something to talk about, and she’d been joking about it ever since.
And this time was no different. Her blue eyes sparkling with merriment, she laughed gaily. “Why? Are the gossips having a slow day? Shall we give them something to talk about?”
They could give them more to talk about than she suspected, but that wasn’t something she was ready to hear. Grinning, he said easily, “I’m game if you are. There’s nothing I like better than setting the phone lines buzzing.”
He wouldn’t have given a damn about the phone